Cream of the Crop 25/Cream of the Crop 25.iso/bbs/hunt103.zip/HUNT.ZIP/HTEXTS/HINSTRUC.TXT

Text File | 1996-01-11 | 17KB | 336 lines

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THE HUNT:  Instructions

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Welcome to The HUNT!

   When I began designing The HUNT, I wanted it to be intuitive and easy to
follow.  I didn't want a huge learning curve just to play the game.  Really,
instructions aren't neccessary if you want to jump right into the action.
This isn't a cop-out though.  Following are thorough instructions for those
of you that want to know all the little details.  Just wanted to let you know
there's nothing integral in here that's going to stop you from having fun and
finishing the game.  Good luck!                                       -Brent.


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IN THE BEGINNING...

   You start with 30 medkits and some money.  30 medkits should last you for
a turn or two, so you won't need to worry about them too much for now.
   Use the money you begin with to buy weapons and armour.  DON'T ATTACK
ANYONE YET, don't even talk to anyone (occasionally when you try talking with
someone, they'll just suddenly attack if they don't like your looks or your
actions).  Until you get a weapon and some armour, just [L]eave everyone alone.
The first armoury is right next to the Healing Center you start at.  You should
be able to get to it without running into many people (if anyone).
   Stick to the Easy Street (South-side) section of the city to start.  After
you make some kills and go up a couple of levels, try the medium and then hard
sections.  If you jump right into the Downtown Expert section right away with
little or no experience, you will die.  You can be certain of that.

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DAILY TURNS

   Each day you get a turn in which to move/hunt around, fight, etc.
After a day (after midnight more specifically) you will be refreshed and
ready to play another turn.  At the end of a turn, after doing a great deal
of fighting, you'll be warned your fighting skills are tired and slowing up.
This is a good time to call it a day, before you get too slow and wind up
getting yourself killed.

   Make sure you play every few days.  You'll notice people that don't play
for an extended period are nuked to make room for new players.

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END OF THE DAY

   You can quit out of the game at any time you like (well, not in the middle
of combat), but wherever you are when you quit is where you'll continue
standing until the next time you play.  If you're standing right outside
the Healing Center when you quit, everyone will bump into you and there's a
good chance someone will attack and kill you.  This is bad as you lose
experience and any money you have on hand when you die.  Ideally, at the end
of your turn you want to leave yourself in a good, out-of-the-way spot where
it's less likely you'll get attacked.  Some hard-to-get-at building, a secret
room, or a rented Inn room would be best.  Unfortunately, there is NOWHERE you
can go that is impossible for others to find you.  There's always a way.  You
just have to make the "way" hard to find or expensive to follow.

---- ---  --   -

WEAPONS

   It's best to have one melee (hand-to-hand) weapon and one range (distance)
weapon.  This way you can fight on either terms.  If you have no range weapon,
you'll have to run all the way up to your opponent (who, in the meantime, is
sawing you off at the knees with his UZI) just to hit him.  And if you don't
have a melee weapon, once your opponent is in your face, you'll have to keep
backing up, missing all kinds of shots.  There are a few weapons, like pistols,
that can me used both in melee and at range.  Their dual-purpose makes them
useful, but they're never as good as an equivalently priced single-purpose
melee or range weapon.
   Unlike some other games, weapons automatically "equip" themselves once
you've bought them, saving you the needless hassle of doing it yourself.

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ARMOUR

   You can only wear one set of armour at a time.  Usually, the higher the
price, the better the armour.  Armour, like the weapons it protects you from,
is fairly specialized.  General bullet-proof armour is a good all-purpose
armour since most of the weapons you'll be up against are bullet weapons.
However, it is not very good protection against Laser or TK weaponry.  To
protect yourself from lasers, wear reflective armour; against TK weapons, use
Anti-TK armour.  These more specialized types of armour are very effective
against what they're made for, and you pay for it in price, but are not very
good against other weapons.  For example, reflective armour is great against
lasers, but not very good against TK-weapons or bullet-weapons.  It works the
same way for Anti-TK armour.
   This way no one is unbeatable.  Everyone has a weakness, you just have to
learn what it is, and take advantage of it.

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MEDKITS

   Medkits heal 1 to 10 Stamina points for each one used.  So if you need only
2 Stamina points to be at your maximum, you might want to wait until you need
more to get better usage from a medkit.
   Usually it works welll to have your "Auto Use Medkits" option ON, especially
when you're just getting used to the game.  Whenever you're going into combat
and need healing, you'll automatically heal yourself with some of the medkits
you're carrying (so make sure you're carrying some!).  Unfortunately, the
same problem I just mentioned above applies here.  If you need 1 Stamina point
to be at your maximum, it'll "Auto Use Medkits" and waste an entire Medkit to
get it.  You can't have the best of all worlds!
   As a final note, healing yourself with medkits is more expensive than
walking to a Healing/Medical Center and healing yourself there.  However,
there isn't a Healing Center on every corner, but if you're nearby you might
as well heal yourself to the max and stock up on medkits.  Also, costs are
not the same at all Healing Centers.  Because of risks, treatments and
medicines can be quite costly at locations deep in the city.

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CAT

   The Computer Assisted Tracking (CAT) unit is a city-wide computer assisting
you in hunting down criminals.  Every exterminator is jacked into it 24 hrs
a day via a surgical implant.  CAT will communicate with you by speaking
directly into your brain (almost like a kind of telepathy) so no one else will
hear.
   The voice used by CAT is a sexy, female one.  This helps keep the
exterminators calm under pressure, but rumor has it that the voice is actually
the digitized voice of CAT's creator and still active administrator.  This
can't be substantiated though since no one exterminator has ever met CAT's
creator.

   CAT is invaluable in your hunt.  Check CAT often to see which major
criminals are at large; it is these major criminals that pay the most and are
the most difficult.  You'll want to know them by name and look them up in
CAT's profiles database.  The more you know about the criminals, the easier
it is to hunt them down.

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DEATH

   Exterminators never really die.  CAT monitors every action of every
Exterminator.  If one is ever about to die, CAT teleports them to a city
medical facility, where their life is saved in capable hands.  The player's
turn is always over for the day, but next day they can play again when they're
released from the Healing Center.  CAT teleports the Exterminator, their
weapons, and their armour, but not any cash they might be carrying.

   An important thing to realize about defeat is the loss of experience you
take.  When you are "killed", the ordeal causes tremendous physical shock.
This shock results in losing approximately 10% of your experience.  Thus almost
an entire days work and experience is thrown away when you die.  Hunting more
carefully and being less cavalier, although possibly less fun, can help keep
you ahead.

   Why is this teleporting technology not used more often?  It is still very
new and not as solid as it one day will be.  Human bodies naturally resist
being torn apart and having their atoms hurled across space.  They literally
grip their bonds tightly together making teleportation is impossible, even if
the subject willingly wants to be 'ported.  Only when a body is massively
wounded and close to death does this netural bond relax, allowing
teleportation.

   The city would love to simply locate criminals and teleport them back to
prison, but this, unfortunately, is currently not possibile.  However, when
an Exterminator defeats one of the major criminals, leaving them on the verge
of death, CAT can take the opportunity to teleport and incarcerate their
weakened body then.

   Teleportation is costly and not used lightly.  Only exterminators and the
major criminals are saved at the moment of death.  The lesser, more common,
and nameless criminals are not saved.  They die where they drop, and
Exterminators are encouraged to decapitate the body to claim their due bounty.

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MUTANT POWERS

    There are quite a few different mutant powers.  Not everyone has one and
not everyone uses theirs though.  Below is a description of each.

NO POWER       - The person has no mutant powers.
CHAMELEON      - The person's skin and clothes change color to fit their area.
                 This is useful in avoiding attacks and surprising opponents.
ELASTICITY     - The ability to elongate limbs and use melee weapons at range.
HEALING FACTOR - Slow but continuous healing when hurt.
HEALING HANDS  - The ability to heal self and others twice per day.
LUCK           - Random luck.
STRENGTH       - Increased strength, extra damage in melee combat.
SPEED          - Increased speed for attacks, better defense, etc.
THICK SKIN     - Medium resistance to all forms of damage.
HARD SKIN       - Major resistance to range damage, minor for melee damage.
TK-BLAST       - Telekenetic range attack, good damage, infinite use.
TK-FIELD       - Imunity to TK attacks and slight resistance to all damage.
TK-KNIFE       - Telekenetic melee attack, great damage, infinite use.
TK-LOCATE      - Telekentic power to locate anyone in city twice per day.

    There's rumored to be a drink brewed in one of the city's taverns that has
the ability to change your mutant power, if it doesn't remove it completely.

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BANK MONEY

   When you find you're carrying a lot of cash on you, it's probably a good
idea to head to the city Bank and deposit it.  Any money you're carrying is
gone if you are defeated, but money in the bank is always safely under your
name.

   Money in the bank also gains interest every night at midnight.  It's not a
lot, but extra cash is always useful.  So, if you have the opportunity, it's a
good idea to put your daily earnings in the bank before you finish your turn.

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BOUNTY MONEY

   When you take down a criminal, the city rewards you with a bounty based on
how difficult it was estimated to have been.  This bounty amount is kept track
of by the city and waits to be picked up at the city Bounty Office.  Some
"physical evidence" of defeating the criminal must be brought, except for the
major criminals who are not killed, but transported and imprisoned by the city.
Keeping some kind of token of the kill, typically the head, is automatically
done for you.  It's grizzly and messy, but you do want the money coming to you.
The money, waiting to be picked up, doesn't gain interest like a bank, but
there is no chance of anyone else claiming your bounty.

   Sometimes you may be carrying a grudge and desire to make someone else's
life a little harder.  Players can also visit the city Bounty office to put
their own additonal bounty on someone's head.  Bring as much money as you care
to add to someone, and you can have every other person in the city gunning for
them.  However, remember others can anonymously add bountys to your head also.
You'll find that occasionally when you take out one of the major criminals,
an "acquaintance" of that criminal might put a bounty on your head, just as a
small payback to make things a little more difficult for you.

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TRAINING

   Exterminators all start in the city relatively weak and inexperienced.
In order to be successful, get stronger and more skillful, you need combat
experience.  After a dozen or so fights, new Exterminators can visit one of
the city Training Centers.  A computer will test the current status of the
Exterminator and if enough experience has been acquired, promotion to Class 2
will be given.  With the increase in level and experince comes some extra
stat points which can be assigned to various statistics.
   Higher Class Levels require more and more experience but deliver
increasingly more stat points to assign.  It's impossible to venture deep in,
hunt down, and exterminate top criminals without constantly trying to better
yourself by taking down lesser criminals for the valuable practice and
experience.

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GAMBLING

   Gambling is available at some of the Inns located in the city.  It is
completely fair.  If any Inn was found cheating, the Inn's owner would be
hunted, killed, and the Inn burned to the ground.  Clearly, then, it's not
worth the few extra dollars to try and cheat customers.

   There are three types of gambling.  Each Inn is different though, and offer
a different selection of games.  Below is a description of the known games.

PULL-TABS       - The common game of pull-tabs.  Three chances to match three
                  symbols and win money.  Chances are low, and it's an easy
                  way to waste money.  But there's always a chance, and if it's
                  only a little money that's needed, this might be the game
                  for you.

BLACKJACK       - The ever-popular game of Blackjack.  Closest to 21 wins.
                  Dealer stays at 17.  Casino rules.

RUSSIAN ROULETTE- This "game" is frowned upon by city officials, but,
                  surprisingly, still found at one of the city Inns.
                  One cartridge is loaded into a chamber of a six-shot
                  revolver and the trigger is pulled until the "gambler"
                  chickens out or the bullet creates a messy new orifice.

   Gambling is an easy way to throw away a lot of money.  Be careful.  Very
few are lucky.  Inns wouldn't offer the games if they often lost money.

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DRINKS

   Also available at the city Inns are a variety of wild drinks.  These drinks,
developed in laborators, have all been thoroughly tested.  They are safe to
drink, but some of them have peculiar side-effects.  It's just these side-
effects, though, making them so popular.
   Patrons say some drinks make them feel faster, stronger, or just generally
sharper.  The more expensive the drink, the greater effect it will more likely
carry.

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PROSTITUTES

   There is a small "red-light" district in the city, where prostitution is
tolerated.  These brothels are very rare and quite costly.  The "employees"
are typically men and women genetically altered to be more attractive,
desirable, and satisfying.  They are supposedly checked daily for diseases,
but this is only loosely enforced.  Many "Johns" have wound up in a gutter
somewhere, dead or worse from these alluring temptations.
   However, like drinks at the Inns, people say being with one of these
altered "dates" may have a variety of exciting side-effects; even more powerful
than the drink effects.  Reports of increased health, stamina, and skills are
not uncommon.

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THE END

   The main goal in the game is to hunt down and defeat the city's main
Crimelord.  Who this person is occasionally changes as power changes hands.
Examining CAT's criminals list will quickly reveal who the current Crimelord
is:  it will be the criminal with the highest class level and largest bounty
hanging over their head.

   Hunting down the Crimelord is only half the challenge.  Once you determine
where he or she hides out, you have to make it by their defenses; the best
defenses money can buy.  However, if you can defeat the Crimelord, you can go
down in the city's history books as one of the greatest Exterminators ever.

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                                  Good luck!

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These instructions were completed by Brent "Cowboy" Kyle on January 11, 1996.
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