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------------------------------------------------------ -------------------------------------------------------------- ARENA OF THE ANCIENTS...(c) Ross Wigdor -------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------ email: wigdor@andrew.cmu.edu OBJECT OF THE GAME: The object of the game is to remain the most powerful character in the game, superior to all the other players. You are also supposed to keep your dominion running and ahead of the other players, so you should not spread one area too thin, or else the other suffers. BACKGROUND: You are a warrior. A lowly, lowly warrior. All you have is a skill and blind faith in your deity. And a bit of money (a bit). You have heard of the Ancients of the Arena. You have heard the fables, the tales, the legends. You want to be a legend. You want it bad (real bad). You want to be heard of as a one of a kind warrior. Someone who was never defeated. Someone to be remembered. The Ancients were the best. Unstoppable. The warriors of the past will live forever in the minds of those in the present. You want the glory, but you also have heard a rumor, that the attainment of grand power can lead a warrior beyond the limits of time, and bring him to face the Ancients. You want to know who they were. You want to know...if you can beat them. And the prize. You have heard stories. Many stories. Of how defeating the Ancients gives wealth, power, status, and the like. You have heard defeating the Ancients gives you the world on a plate, god-like powers, and immortality. But you do not even know if any of this is true. On blind faith you believe that becoming all-powerful will lead you to the Ancients. Once there, you know not what lies beyond........ Some basics: Hit Points is life. You have 0, you are dead. You use weapons to attack, armor to defend (it would look rather silly to attack someone with a helmet). Attributes affect different aspects in the game (I.E. Strength affects damage done) You have a certain amount of turns per day, and you can use them however you want (i.e. you can spend some as your character and some ruling your dominion, or use them all in one place) This is a daily game. You have a certain number of turns for nearly all things in the game, and every day that number resets back to normal. So after completing a day, even if you died, when you come back the next day to play, you are alive and well and can do everything all over again (i.e. die again) 1) Starting for the first time If you are starting for the first time, you are asked your name. Enter your real name. You are then asked for your alias. This will be your 'game name' and the name you will use to log into the game the next time. Character Creation: This is a simple process. You are given several choices in different deities. The deity you choose has both an alignment (Good, Evil, and None) next to it, as well as a character class that you will be (i.e. fighter, mage, thief, etc.) Now you will see that you have no news (This is your first time playing) and you will get to the main menu (MAIN STREET) 2) Main Street Main street is the main menu in the RPG part of ARENA OF THE ANCIENTS. From Main Street you can access all the major RPG areas in the game. The menu lets you access these options: Caverns of Despair Adventurer's Guild Market Street Jail Audience with the King Temple Healing Center Suicide Town Crier Write Message Dominion 3) Caverns of Despair The Caverns of Despair are where characters can go to kill monsters and gain experience and money (Platinum). Attacking monsters takes turns, so you have a limited number of attacks. In the Caverns, the player can: Look for Monsters Change Cavern Level Display Stats Heal Buy Holy Water When you choose to look for a monster, depending upon your current cavern level (the higher, the more dangerous), the computer picks a suitable opponent for you. Then you go into battle. All characters have the same fighting menu except for magic users, who can also cast spells. You may "attack", "run", "heal", or "fight to death". If you attack, it is the equivalent of trying to hit the monster, while the monster also gets to attack you. "Run" means your character flees from the battle. "Heal" lets your character drink Holy Water, which regains lost Hit Points. "Fight To Death" is a convenient feature, controlling the battle for you automatically. It is the equivalent of continuously choosing "attack" until either the character or the monster is dead, unless the character is injured, in which case the character automatically heals himself (if you have Holy Water) before attacking. If you are a mage, you can also "cast a spell". Mages can cast a spell every other round. You can do this forever, with no limit to how much you can cast it. The trick is drain. When you cast a spell, you are also taking damage due to drain from the spell. After casting a spell, you can ALSO ATTACK (giving you two ways of doing damage every other turn), making casting spells a definite advantage. If the player selects "Change Cavern Level", you can select a Cavern level not lower than the character's level, but not greater than the Character's level + 5. This enables characters to fight only monsters that are of equal ability to them, and thereby give more experience and money, though they are harder to beat. "Heal" does exactly what it sounds like. The character heals himself to full health (if you have enough Holy Water) or else he heals himself as much as he can. "Display Stats" also is self explanatory. It gives you a detailed view of your character. 4) Adventurer's Guild The Adventurer's Guild is essentially a hotel/bar/hangout for the characters. In the Guild, the characters may: Get a room See Scores See An Assassin Converse with patrons Visit the pub Challenge patrons to arm wresting Commit Thievery Go to the bank "Get a Room" only entails paying for one. Getting a room means that your character is going to sleep, and it ends the game for the day for you. The advantage to purchasing a room rather than quitting the game from Main Street is that your character cannot be challenged in the Arena, and therefore cannot be killed while you are not playing. "See Scores" shows you a list of all the other characters, their deity, their experience, and their level. "See An Assassin" gives the character other options. Any character can attempt to "Hire an Assassin". This enables the characters to either "Kill the King" or "Kill a High Priest". If a character has enough charisma and platinum, the assassin will do the deed selected. Telling what "Kill the King" does would spoil the fun. "Killing a High Priest" is a powerful deed, because depending upon the Priest you choose, characters with the same deity may not advance levels that day. But the other deities frown on this, and you may be punished for this action. Only characters of the class assassin may purchase poison. This is a cheap and effective way of bettering your character's weapon. But only one poison of any kind may be on a weapon at any time, so unless you get another weapon, your stuck with the poison you put on it. "Converse with the patrons" lets the characters in the game keep up a conversation with each other. If you choose to speak, your message is recorded so others can look at it. You may also read the messages other characters have left, but most usually include messages like "I rule" or "I'm going to kill you all" so try to be original. "Visit the pub" enables your character to buy a drink. Sometimes your character cannot hold his liquor, but other times the drink you purchase can have an unknown effect on you (This can't hurt you like real life, so party down!) "Arm Wrestling" is an option only for Dark Knights and Fighters. This is when you match your strength up against other patrons in the Guild. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, because winning helps you, but losing just angers your deity. So be wise, and don't do it too often. "Commit Thievery" is an option only for thieves. This is for when your character is feeling 'frisky'. If you attempt to steal from people, you may make money, but you also run the risk of being caught and sent to jail, and you cannot post bail for yourself, but you sometimes do not need it, if the sheriff is on the take (ha-ha). So unless you have a friend to bail you out every day for you to play again, you cannot play again until the next day. "Go to the Bank" lets your character deposit his money, which earns 8% interest every day it sits in the bank (not too shabby). 5) Market Street Going to Market Street is essential. At many points in the game, you will need to buy better weapons and better armor so you can inflict more damage and take more damage. Mages also need to better their spells. At the market street you may: Go to the Weapon Shoppe (Yes, that's right: SHOPPE) Go to the Armory Go to the Armor Shack Go to the Magic Shoppe (Again, yes: SHOPPE) All characters may go to the weapon shoppe. There they, get this, purchase weapons! All the weapons available in the game you can get in the weapon shoppe. The Armor Shack only has 3/4 of all the armors available. These are the weakest of all the armors (though they do get pretty powerful as you get closer to the end of the list). They are also the cheapest and the only ones that a character will be able to afford for a VERY LONG TIME. All characters may visit the Armor Shack. The Armory has the other 1/4 of the armors available. These are the most powerful armors in the game. They are also the most expensive. The catch is that all characters EXCEPT FOR THE MAGES may visit this store. Mages will be turned away (hey, stop complaining: you can cast magic!) The Magic Shoppe, can, obviously, only be visited by mages. All others will be turned away. Mages can only have 1 spell at a time. If a mage buys a costly spell, and then buys a cheap spell, only the cheap one remains. The more expensive the spell, the more powerful it is, but the more drain damage you take when casting it! 6) Jail Jail is essentially for thieves, but everyone can go there. In the jail you can: See the inmates Talk to the sheriff Break out inmates Attack the sheriff Post bail for an inmate Loot the bail safe By choosing "see inmates" you get a listing of all the inmates currently in Jail. "Talk to the sheriff" lets the character see his standing with the law. If you are a thief though, it also lets you 'soften the sheriff' up to your wily ways (i.e. the sheriff can be "PERSUADED" not to mess with you) "Break out inmates" is exactly like what it sounds. By killing the sheriff (who is no wimp), you can set all the prisoners free. "Attacking the sheriff" means you want to kill him, but just laugh at the prisoners rather than releasing them. Be careful: The sheriff is a tough guy, and he won't stand for this! "Post bail" lets you give the sheriff money for the release of one of the inmates. The person controlling that character may then play again the same day. "Loot the bail safe" is for thieves only. If you want, you can attempt to crack the safe. If you are caught, which is very likely unless you are a master thief, the sheriff will deal with you...in his own special way (i.e. death). 7) ARENA This is the ARENA OF THE ANCIENTS. This is where the fabled Ancients of the Arena fought grand battles long ago. They are legendary...In the Arena you may: List Warriors Challenge Warriors By choosing "List Warriors" you can see all the characters available to fight you in the ARENA. By choosing "Challenge Warrior", you can select a person to fight in the Arena. You have 3 fights a day. You battle other characters exactly like you battle a monster, only you also get pride and satisfaction out of killing another character. Not to mention a lot of experience and ALL of their money on hand. 8) Audience with the King By choosing this option, you appear before the castle gates, in front of two burly looking Royal Guards. From here you may: Talk to Guards Siege the Castle (ha) Sneak into the Castle Bribe the Guards Go to the Princess's window "Talk to Guards" is a very good thing to do every time that you advance a level. Sometimes the king likes to see his subjects as they rise to power. Usually accompanying this trip to see the king is a 'gift', so getting an audience IS A VERY GOOD THING. Unfortunately for you EVIL characters, the king will see you less than GOOD or NEUTRAL characters due to the fact that, well, you're EVIL. But he still will see you sometimes (try once)... "Siege the Castle" is a feature that goes along with DOMINION, and as that is not quite complete at this time, this feature is DISABLED. "Sneak into the Castle" is really for thieves and assassins. If a thief is successful in sneaking into the castle, who knows? There is some very expensive stuff in the castle just SCREAMING, "pawn me! pawn me!" But if he is not careful...well, it's back to jail. Try to become a little skilled as a thief before you attempt this. Assassins who are successful face the possibility of doing their thing in killing the king! Again, if they fail, they suffer the same fate as the thieves. "Bribe the Guards" is useful if you are a Dark Knight. This maneuver can get you into the palace as well. But wait! What can you do there? I guess for the right ENORMOUS price, you can find out... "Window of the Princess" is useful for those characters of GOOD alignment. The princess is said to have magical abilities that she uses to aid her suitors. This is a good thing! Except if you are EVIL, in which case you are more likely to get spit in your face than receive magical help...Jeez, those EVIL characters just don't get any advantages, or do they? 9) Temple The temple is a place of worship. Here you can: See the High Priest Pray Loot Coffers Light A Candle Get a Blessing Visit the Fountain of the Orb "See the High Priest" enables a character to see what the priest thinks of him. This is just a crude comment toward the beginning, but as you gain in power and advance levels, the High Priest can give you tips and support. "Pray" is only for CLERICS. Praying lets a cleric gain special magical aid from their deity, Arshanon. This is the only option a cleric can access that no other class may. "Loot Coffers" is only for thieves. This allows a thief to attempt to steal the money in the coffers. Will you guys stop at nothing to make a fortune??? "Lighting a Candle" is a strange option. You may only light one candle per day. It is neither a good thing, nor a bad thing, but it does do something to your character...you just do not know what. Remember: It is neither good, nor bad, though it does affect you. This means that if you figure out what happens after long term candle lighting, you may decide, "That SUCKS! I don't want to do that!" or "That's not bad, I guess, but so what?" or "Whoa, I think that's a great thing!" I am saying I consider it to be neither good nor bad. It really does not affect you much, unless you continually light a candle every day. "Get Blessing" advances your character level if and only if they have enough experience to get to the next level. This gives you: More money Better attributes 1 higher level More hit points The ability to go one Cavern level higher in the Caverns of Despair (you now also start 1 level higher) "Fountain of the Orb" is also a mystery. Only CLERICS and PALADINS may visit the Orb. The Orb is said to be a magical stone from which the Ancients made their weapons and armor. That may just be rumor, though. Many people toss money into the fountain, but do not think it helps them. Others toss in money, and feel as though the Orb has done something wonderful for them. But no one knows if the Orb really has any magical properties at all. Maybe it relates to the money thrown in the well...hint hint. I mean, ahem, maybe it does nothing! 10) Healing Center The Healing Center is the place where characters go to get Holy Water, the only proven ailment to every cut, scrape, wound, gash, disease, ailment, or sickness. Holy Water works wonders. Buy it. Trust me: I wrote the game. I know what I'm talking about. If you were decapitated, your arms and legs torn from your body, and then you were incinerated, so long as you had 1 hit point of life left in your body, Holy Water would work wonders. "Fill Bottle" lets you fill your bottle up with Holy Water, of which you can only hold 300 drops at a time. 11) Suicide I can't believe you are reading this. You shouldn't even think of such things. Well, if you do, there are two options: Contemplate Death Suicide Do not take this lightly. "Contemplate Death" makes your character think about life, and he may be visited by his deity, who will persuade him one way or the other (hey, deities don't have to be nice). "Suicide" wipes your character out completely. No Holy Water can save him. You character becomes ERASED permanently, but you can still start over again with a new character... 12) Town Crier The Town Crier tells about everything that happened in the city the entire day. You get to hear all the gossip, from 'rumors of an assassin' to 'AxeMan killed Lord Wimp in the ARENA!'. 13) Write Message Here you can write a message to any player in the game. It's just a one-liner, so be brief. And if you are feeling lonely, not getting any mail, send mail to yourself! 14) Dominion Dominion. Sweet, sweet Dominion. It isn't often that you are given land to rule over, and subjects that depend upon you for support. It isn't often that you command Knights, Cavalry, and maybe even Wizards or Berserkers. But with Dominion, you can: AND MORE (Can you feel the excitement???). Getting started: Once you reach a certain level, the king will want to audience with you (trust me, I know: I made the game). At this point, you are given your dominion. Rule wisely. When given a dominion, you have to choose some very important things: LandType Government Dominion Name LandType: This is the terrain of your Dominion. Do not take this lightly. This choice determines how much more or less effectively your army fights. For instance, if you choose swamp, the menu explains that with swamp, your defense is higher, yet your offense is lower. This means that if you attack another dominion, your army will be less effective due to their trudging through that muck. But, if you are attacked, the muck actually helps you because your opponent must go through it. So, your defense is higher (ya gotta love the muck). The reasoning behind some of my choices can be a bit faulty depending upon how I am viewing the terrain, so I did not include my reasoning behind the other choices (hey, no arguments, alright?). Government: This is also a very important choice. Your choice is permanent, so be careful. Depending upon your character class, you get certain choices. If you are Wizard or Cleric, you have the option to be a Magocracy or a Theocracy (respectively) as the other classes do not. Depending upon your choice, the production of your workers will differ. Their needs will differ as well. Events that occur in your dominion may alter due to this selection as well. For example, the menu explains all about being a Dictatorship. It says that their are high wages, medium production, and threats of insurgencies, coups. This means that your people demand higher wages than normal, making it more difficult to pay them. However, they produce a medium amount of goods, which is much better than, say, the little amount of goods the communist government makes. But those annoying coups and insurgencies are a pain. It means that every so often (how often can it be??) some loyal, trusted general of yours, well, tries to kill you and take the throne. Don't worry! It won't happen...you'll kill him all right, but at what cost??? What the government menu fails to tell you is that every dominion has a similar thorn in it's side (except Magocracy and Theocracy, another advantage for them), but not as severe. Another reason type of government is important is military units. Democracy gets no extra units. Dictatorship has access to the Berserker, Monarchy to the Wolf Rider, Magocracy to the Wizard, Theocracy to the Warrior of God, and Communist to the Hydra. These units are helpful in military combat. The Berserker is all brute attacking force. They have virtually no defense. Did I mention the berserker has no defense yet? Did I mention no defense? All offense. The Wolf Rider is almost evened out, good at both offense and defense. The Wizard and Warrior of God are strange, and their is no way of truly knowing how well they will perform in combat. Their stats depend how well the magic is flowing through the land and how much the Warriors of God have been attending to their daily prayers (it varies, understand?) The Hydra is similar to the Wolf rider in stats (but better offensively), but it is better offensively than most units. When entering your dominion, you see your dominion menu, which has the following options to access: Take Turn View Dominion Work Force Military Forces Castle Improvements Invade Another Dominion Lead Troops into Battle See Dominion Mages Dominion Subterfuge Change Tax Rate Get Siege Equipment Get Defensive Equipment Increase Morale Buy Land See Scores The basics first: 1) When you take a turn, based upon the amount of land you have versus your population and your popular support, you will either gain or lose peasants. Now, the thing is, some of those peasants just want to live on your land, while others want to work for you. Those that live on the land you must feed, but you also get to tax. Those that want to work for you you also have to feed, and you also have to pay, but they produce different things for your dominion. 2) Peasants like lower taxes. Who doesn't? 3) You can hire those who want to work for you, but be careful what you hire them to do. They may not like it if you suddenly want to change their profession, and some may become peasants again, rather than workers. View Dominion: View Dominion lets you see the state of your fief. You can see how much the people like you/ hate you, and you can check out your goods surplus, your military, work force, improvements, and the like. Work Force: When accessing this option, you are shown your unemployed workers available and are given a menu with the following choices: Farmers Bladesmiths Mages Clerics Tax Collectors Stone Masons Fire Workers What the workers do is fairly obvious. Farmers make food, while Bladesmiths make weapons and armor. Mages make runes for casting spells, while clerics heal the sick who will die from certain spells. Tax Collectors, get this, collect taxes. Without them, you make no money, even if you have the tax rate at 20%! Stone masons make stone blocks used to improve your castle. If you choose Fire Workers, then you are switched into another similar looking menu. In this menu, you choose what workers (and how many) you want to be available to hire into other positions. Some workers will take offense to this and go back to becoming peasants. Others will not care, and will readily accept any position you give them... Military Forces: As explained earlier, certain governments have access to certain military units, but ALL governments have access to: Knights (8/4) Cavalry (5/3) Crossbowmen (3/6) Archers (1/4) Shieldbearers (0/3) Knights are good offensive units. They have 8 power and 4 defense, which means that they are much better attacking than defending. Cavalry are also better at attacking than defending, as they enter a battle after the knights have already begun. Crossbowmen are much better defending than attacking due to longer range than archers, and they are much better than archers at attacking for the same reason. Archers are much more defensive (in large quantities) than crossbowmen. Shieldbearers are defensive, but are more effective defending your forces when they are ATTACKING. Castle Improvements: Castle Improvements are just that! By upgrading your castle, you improve it for defensive purposes. You can construct: Barbican Battlement Keep Moat Bastion Towers Castle Walls Portcullis Dungeon (available, but does nothing yet) By upgrading the barbican, the keep, the moat, and the portcullis, you are adding to the defensive capabilities of your castle. Those improvements aid your crossbowmen and archers a little as well. The Battlement REALLY helps your crossbowmen and archers defend your castle. Right now, dungeon is available to improve, but it does not do anything. Eventually, you will be able to take wounded enemy soldiers prisoner, and one attack option will be to attack to free prisoners (and add them to your army). Invade Another Dominion: You only have a certain amount of attacks in a given day. Right now, I have the number set to a max of 3. This means, of course, that you may send your massive military into another Dominion to plunder and destroy, and in the end, winning land or coming back in defeat... What happens first is simple. A menu pops up with your military. You select the units you want to send, and do nothing to the units you want to stay home for R & R, or at least the ones you don't want in the battle. If you try to select more units of a certain type than you have, all the units of that type become selected to fight. The menu choice is 'A' for abort and 'S' for send. By pressing 'A', the attack is aborted, and nothing happens. 'S' sends your military to the enemy Dominion, where they engage in battle. BATTLE: Combat is handled exactly like it should be... Your troops mass outside the enemy castle. Their archers chime in with a friendly rain of arrows and guess what? You get hit by them! Your shieldbearers attempt to block the arrows, and the more you have, the fewer troops you lose. Then your troops begin the attack on the castle... Unfortunately as you approach the castle, two things happen: 1) The very friendly moat monsters decide they want to play 2) The boiling pitch being thrown off the castle lands on your head. First your shieldbearers attempt to block the pitch being dropped conveniently on your head. The more you have the fewer casualties you take... Then your troops and the moat monsters go at it. While that skirmish goes on, your archers and crossbowmen attempt to thin out the number of moat monsters you have to deal with (usually by pummeling them full of arrows, rather then inviting them out for coffee). Then, assuming siege equipment is working (I don't know if this works yet), you're catapults, rams, bores, and towers begin to act. If you have a good number of towers, you can get more troops onto the walls of the castle, and thereby kill many archers and crossbowmen, who have very little armor and not much in terms of short range weapons. The catapults bombard the city with large boulders, and you can burst through the gate with rams and bores. Whether or not you do damage to the portcullis (gate), enemy troops will either use your towers to come down out of the castle, their own ladders to climb down the walls, or lower the drawbridge and come rushing out of the castle (they usually do this anyway). They charge, and your troops and their troops engage in a fierce battle. If you have a massive military, as compared with your enemy, you will do much more damage to the enemy's soldiers before they retreat into the castle. If you are evenly matched, both armies take similar casualties. If you are sending a minor force up against an army the size of all Eastern Europe, you will take greater casualties then they will. At this point, all those around can tell who is going to be the victor in the outcome. If you are wiping them out, the opposing ruler surrenders, and you graciously take a portion of that dominion's land. If you are evenly matched, the general consensus is that if you leave, they will not rain arrows down upon those that are not quite dead yet. If you are badly losing, your army takes to the hills. They run and run, and then run some more, and wind up back home where it's safe in your castle, behind good old walls. Lead your Troops into Battle: Another option that is not available at this time. Once available, your character, at the expense of more than one turn, will be able to participate, in person, in the battle. Not only does this raise your army's morale (which increases combat effectiveness), but you actually fight an opponents army first hand (at least part of it) and gain experience for your character. It's like a two for one deal. See Dominion Mages: Magic is kind of, I repeat kind of, ok, well an essential part of the dominion experience. There are A LOT of spells. 18 in fact. Here is a list, with a brief explanation.... Blessing Dispel Magic Drought Earthquake Flood Hurricane Inferno Increase Approval Insect Swarm Mask Power Pestilence Plague Stir Populace Tornado Winter Chill Volcanic Disturbance Land Erosion Some of the spells have an effect like you would expect. Most of the effects are negative, so it would be unwise to cast them on yourself (with one exception I will soon get to). Spells last a given number to turns. They cost runes, which are produced by Mages. After the turns end, the spell dissipates. But, spells are cumulative. So if you cast, say, Blessing, on yourself, and it lasts 10 turns, and then you cast it 3 more times, your dominion will be affected by Blessing for 40 turns. Here is the catch: While spells can be both positive and negative, some cancel each other out. For instance, if someone were to cast Inferno on your dominion, obviously a Flood would wash the inferno away. But the trick is that Inferno and Flood have different turns associated with them. This may seem confusing, so I will elaborate: Inferno is currently affecting your dominion for 15 turns. So you cast Flood on your dominion, which lasts 10 turns normally. The Flood would cancel out 10 turns of the Inferno, leaving you with 5 turns of Inferno left. If you would rather have a Flood affecting your dominion than Inferno, another cast of Flood would cancel out the 5 turns left of Inferno, leaving your dominion affected by 5 turns of Flood. Understand? Each spell has an opposite, with one exception: Dispel Magic does not have turns associated with it. It simply decreases the number of turns left on ALL the spells affecting your dominion. Right now, I doubt you really want to see the list (*grin*) of the opposites of each spell and the exact description of each effect, because you would just LOVE to find them out for yourself, so I would not want to ruin the surprise...(*grin*) Dominion Subterfuge: Dominion subterfuge is a way to sabotage another dominion. It makes perfect sense...The menu shows that you have several options: Send Spy Send Assassin Demoralize Army Demoralize Peasants Hire Thieves for Underground Agency Spread Thieves around Dominion Essentially, this is your Secret Service / FBI / CIA. You hire 'thieves', who can blend into the city, and are therefore able to spot other agents sent by other dominions. Send Spy: If successful, he brings back a detailed report of the target dominion. Send Assassin: Sort of demoralizes both peasants and army by killing a high ranking official (if not caught and executed first, that is) Demoralize: Both demoralizes work the same. If they succeed, the target group's morale drops. Hire Thieves: Lets you hire agents into your Underground network. Spread Thieves: Lets you send your undercover thieves into your dominion, where they are able to combat agents sent by other dominions. Change Tax Rate: This is fairly simple to understand. The higher the taxes, the more money that your tax collectors bring back, but the less happy the peasants are. The lower the taxes, the less money your peasants pay, the less money you gain, but the happier they are. I.e. lower taxes mean happy people, high taxes mean grumbling, tax-paying, annoyed peasants who would like to see their DICTATOR hung as soon as possible (ok, that may be a slight exaggeration) Get Siege Equipment: Not available at this time. Will eventually give you access to siege towers, battering rams, and catapults. Make Defensive Equipment: Nothing REAL important here. Just purchasing pitch (you know, that really hot, boiling stuff you throw from the battlements onto invading armies) and moat monsters. Not TOO important. This is all the fun happy stuff invading armies must go through to get at your castle. The more you have, the more damage you do. Increase Morale: Walk among the peasants: By seeing their ruler, peasants become so excited, that they begin to love and adore you. You are a people person! They like that in a ruler, and as a result, morale increases, as does popular support. Speak to military: Same a peasants, the military likes to see their ruler once and a while. It inspires them! The too begin to love and adore you, and their morale increases. Buy Land: I think this one you can pretty much figure out. You can increase the size of your dominion by getting land, which costs more if you already own more. The cost of land proportionately increases as the size of your dominion increases. See Scores: Do you really need an explanation??? OK, well the screen looks like this: # DOMINION RULER LAND NET SCORE num name name number number Under the number sign, you can see the number of each dominion, so you know what number to enter when you need a target dominion. Under DOMINION is the name of the dominion. Under RULER is the name of the ruler of that dominion (hey, if you can't defeat their castle, at least you can slaughter them in the ARENA) Under LAND is the size of the dominion, and NET SCORE is how formidable your opponent is. If the score is higher, the more you will have to go through to defeat that dominion. Note on Dominion: You may not get it at first, but it is easy to understand, and you will get a knack at it eventually. Battle SEEMS to be ok now, but I have not tested as much as I liked, so if your 3 shieldbearers are able to defeat 5 thousand berserkers and a thousand crossbowmen, I'd sure like to know... 15) Hints Buy Holy Water. Buy Holy Water. Buy Holy Water. (If you haven't noticed yet, Holy Water is important, get it?) Everything in the game DOES SOMETHING, even if it does not appear to. Some things tell you specifically that you do not know what has happened, and these things can be good OR bad, so be careful about doing them again (was that vague enough?) If you are a thief, it is easiest to steal in the Guild, then the temple, then the jail, and then finally the castle (it may take awhile). Character classes determine more than class. It gives alignment and also affects greatly attribute changes. It also affect the kind of dominion government you can get... Remember the GOLDEN RULE: Do unto others as you would like done unto yourself. Then again, this is a fighting game, and people are trying to kill you, so do whatever... Magic is powerful, but watch the drain. Fighters and Dark Knights tend to be very strong as characters, but they do not have the option of getting certain dominions. Though being able to easily crush the other characters is kind of fun. Magic users tend to be weak as characters in the beginning. As your power in magic grows, you are able to defeat many of the other characters though, because the spells get very damaging. They also get the Magocracy choice for a dominion, which is a distinct advantage. Do not always advance a level when you have the ability to do so. The monsters get a lot harder as you advance levels, and unless you have the weapons and armor to compensate, you are TOAST. Try and audience with the king every time you advance a level. CLOSING NOTE: My email address is wigdor@andrew.cmu.edu I would love to hear your comments, suggestions, ideas, and anything else you would like to share with me, so long as you aren't just bashing my game for no good reason (hey, I spent a long time making this thing, so try and remember that) If this game is UNREGISTERED, please encourage your sysop to register. I have to eat you know (*grin*).