The Best of Game Classics

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ The Best of Game Classics / cd2.bin / STRAT / COS / README.TXT < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1997-07-25 | 22KB | 453 lines

CLASH OF SPEARS v1.5: Program Documentation ▄ (Sorcerer Productions 1994) INSTALLATION │ Installation of Clash of Spears is fairly simple. Simply unzip the original file, !COSV15.ZIP, to some sort of disk (either 5.25" or 1.44"). If all goes well, the following files should unpack: √ COS_001.EXE Clash Of Spears Data File √ INSTALL.EXE Installation Program √ COS.DOC Documentation (what you're looking at now!) Next, simply run the INSTALL program by logging to the drive that you unpacked the archive onto (A: or B:). The screen should scroll upwards and an installation menu should appear, asking you if you have the hardware requirements to play the game (Clash of Spears Requires about 1.3 megabytes of your hard drive). Next, a window should pop up asking you where you would like to install Clash Of Spears. Type the FULL Path, including the drive (i.e. "C:\CLASH" or "D:\GAMES\SHAREWARE\CLASH"). Now the game will begin to install itself, and you should see lots of messages that say "inflating" or "extracting." Installation should take about 2 minutes, and a message will appear when it's done telling you to type RUNME to play the game. ***NOTE FOR NETWORK USE: Clash Of Spears will work fine on a net, provided that only one person is using it at one given time. The registered version will be able to handle a network properly, with no limit on the number of people who are using the game. GAME PLAY AND SIMULATION │ Clash of Spears is a battle simulation. It is not a "shoot everything that moves" game; rather, you use cunning and military logic to outwit your opponent. As such, it is important that you understand the basics of game play. The game is made up of what are known as "turns." Each turn is a length of time (about 1 month). Players alternate turns so as to give the illusion of everything happening at the same time. In your turn you have total control of your armies. You can move your armies, recruit new members, invest in town commodities, change some tax rates, etc.. Your turn can last as long as you like. The game continues like this, with each player taking turns, until only one player is left alive (still has a castle). Obviously, the object of the game is to take over the other player's castles, while defending your own at all costs. THE TITLE SCREEN │ The first thing you will see when you run the game (besides the company logo and opening demo) will be the title screen. This is where you can start a new game, look at the credits, or change the game options. It's pretty straightforward, so I won't spend time talking about it. However, I will explain the options, below: VIEWSCREEN JUMP: If this option is on, then the computer will "jump" the map window to your castle at the beginning of your turn. UNITS STARVE: This controls the food rules throughout the game. If this option is on, you must supply your units with food, or they will starve and die. DIFFICULTY LEVEL: All this really controls is the amount of gold your country starts with. SISSY: 700 gp EASY: 500 gp MEDIUM:300 gp HARD: 100 gp NATURAL DISASTERS: This button specifies whether or not natural disasters can happen in the game (things like flood & famine). By leaving this on, the simulation is a lot more realistic. FAST BATTLES: Believe me, this WAS important in the older version, but is pretty useless now. Sorry. FOOD PRICE FLUX: This option states whether or not the food prices remain set throughout the game, or if they change according to natural disasters (drought and the like). TROOP PRICE FLUX: This is the same principle as food price flux. If it is on, the price of troops will change depending on your morale (and some luck). STARTING A NEW GAME │ Starting a game in Clash of Spears is relatively easy. Just follow the on screen instructions and you'll do fine. First you must choose a battlefield you would like to play on. In the shareware version, there is only one choice, but in the registered version, there are 8 different maps you can choose. Use the "NEXT" and "PREVIOUS" buttons. If for some reason you don't want to start a new game, click on CANCEL and you'll be taken back to the title screen. Next you'll be asked for the number of players. Again, use the buttons to select the appropriate number. Clash Of Spears supports 2, 3, or 4 players. Now each player will take turns choosing a color, a castle, a castle name, and an alignment. Clash of Spears can handle players who have the same color - it just makes it impossible to tell the empires apart on the main map. THE GAME ITSELF │ Play control in Clash of Spears is done primarily through the mouse, and keyboard input is kept at a minimum (but you CAN use the keyboard to speed up play - the red letters of the buttons are the keys you press on the keyboard.) A player's turn follows this basic flow: 1) PROFIT/EXPENSES WINDOW: This window tells you how much gold you gained (or lost.. oops!) this turn. 2) CLICK WHEN READY window, followed by news updates (like natural disasters and bargains on food). (if your units have found a monster, they will tell you now.) 3) TOWN PRODUCTION window, which shows all the towns you own and how much gold they're producing for you. 4) MAIN UNIT CONTROL - where players move their "units" (defined later) around the screen and attack others. 5) END TURN WINDOW - accessable by clicking on the title icon in the upper right corner of the screen. Players take turns in this order, with player #1 going first, followed by player #2, etc. Play continues until only one player's castle remains standing. Now, some definitions. UNIT: A grouping of troops. You recruit units by paying them gold through the "Commands" button. Here are the different types: INFANTRY: The basic foot solider. He is the weakest of the bunch, but costs the least and is great for scouting around and taking towns. CAVALRY: Horse mounted soliders. More powerful in combat than the infantry, but costs more & is a little slower. ARCHERS: Soliders with bows and arrows. More powerful than calvalry, and great for attacking castles. WHEELED: Soliders with carts and wagons. The most powerful of all the units, but also the most expensive. Also, there are monster units, which can be found by having another unit scout for them. Be warned though: a scouting unit spends ALL its time scouting, and thus you cannot move them until you tell them to stop scouting. FORTIFICATION LEVEL: This number describes how well you castle is defended. It is a value from 1 to 10, with 1 being fairly weak and 10 being almost invincible. You can upgrade your fortification level though the "Commands" button. X PERCENT DAMAGE: If your castle is damaged, this will appear when you click on your castle in the big view. You can repair your castle through the "Commands" button. MOVEMENT POINTS: Each unit can only move a certain distance. These points, which are shown in the center of the directional compass in the lower-right hand corner of the screen, determine just how far that distance is. Each terrain type (listed below) takes a certain amount of points to walk over it - thus a unit can move, say 10 spaces in open plains but only 3 in a dense forest. Different unit types have different movement rates, to help in the simulation of the game. Also, be aware that any movement points you don't use in your turn are gone - so it's best to move a unit as far as possible in one turn. NOTE: Even through your movement points are less than the amount needed to walk onto a space, you can still attack units/castles or take over towns on that space (i.e, if you are next to a unit that is on a desert terrain type, you don't need to move into the desert to attack). SOME BASIC RULES │ Basically, there are 4 different things you need to be thinking of when you're playing the game. First, Terrain Types. These are the different types of terrain you walk over (duh). They are explained below. NOTE: I'm not going to give you the movement points required because it's more fun to discover them as you play. LOW PLAINS: Basic flatlands. MEDIUM PLAINS: Flatlands with some little hills. HIGH PLAINS: Elevated plains (sorta like stepps). HILLS: Steep sets of hills (duh). MOUNTAINS: Mountainous regious - progress for ALL units is very slow here. FORESTS: Like it says, forest spaces. Here too, movement is impaired. DESERTS: These are almost as rough as mountains. ROAD: The easiest terrain type to move on: a paved road. SWAMPS: Sorta hard for the calvary to drudge through. WATER: No unit can "walk on water." So basically all you do in the entire game is move your units around (and attack things). Next, towns. Towns are important in Clash of Spears because they produce gold for you, although how much is determined by the population of the town. To see how much a town is producing, simply click on it in the main window. Towns also produce different items, such as cloth or medicine. The main window tells you how much of each item a town has produced that turn. You can alter this by clicking with the right mouse button on the town, then selecting "INFO" and changing the percent of tradesmen allocated to that particular trade. Closely related to towns are castles, the third thing I'm going to ramble about. Castles are your "main base"; if these go down, you go down (naturally, that's what the other palyers are aiming at). However, to prevent this rather nasty circumstance from happening, castles are provided with a "fortification level." You can upgrade your fortification level from "Commands" button. And the last thing I want to talk about is units. These are the simplist things to understand, so I'm just going to talk about how to attack. It really is simple: just click on the little sword button. Each unit can only attack so far out (the unit's RANGE), so the dithered (dark) spaces represent spaces outside your attack range. Just for fun, the units of YOUR army blink on the little map when it's your turn, so you can see them easier. To attack someone, click on the unit icon. Assuming it's in range, your main window will tell you what kind of damage was sustained by both sides. Keep in mind that enemy units can COUNTERATTACK, provided they are within range to do so. Also keep in mind that a unit can only attack ONCE per TURN, so make sure that what you're attacking is what you want to mangle. (Units that have already attacked this turn have a small "A" on their icons.) GUARDING: Units can also be set up to attack any enemy unit that comes withing their attack range (guarding). To set a unit on guard mode, simply click with the right mouse button on the unit, then select "GUARD". A small G will appear, telling you that the unit is guarding. To take off guard mode, do the same thing. THE SUPPLEMENTARY OPTIONS MENU: │ So, now that you know how to do the basics, let me explain some other nifty features, namly the secondary options menu. This menu is accessed by clicking with the RIGHT mouse button on a unit. A popup window will appear with lots of buttons. Cancel is pretty self - explainatory. As for the others: TRADE: Brings up the TRADE subwindow, where you can buy/sell weapons and armor. The layout of this window is pretty easy: just click the button you want! RENAME: Duh. Renames that unit. SCOUT: Instructs the unit to scout for monsters. Remember, units cannot move while scouting. If scouting is already on, this button will turn it off. (Units who are scouting have a small "S" on their icon). GUARD: Another toggle button. This instructs the unit to attack anything within range (see the section on ATTACKING.) SEPERATE: This lets you split the unit you clicked on into two smaller ones (useful for defending a castle). When you click this button, a window will appear asking you to tell the percentage you want to split. Use the buttons +20%, +10%, +5%, etc.. to select a percentage, then click OK when you're done. Next, name the NEW UNIT; the old one will still have the name you gave it earlier. SUPPLEMENTARY OPTIONS FOR TOWNS: │ This menu is also accessed by clicking the right mouse button, this time on the town you want to look at. Here's what the buttons do: RECRUIT: Allows you to draft citizens from the town, in case you're desperate for units. Be warned, though, that people don't like drafting - and your morale changes accordingly. INFO: Allows you to change the production percentages for the various commodities of the town, as well as the tax rate. Be careful: higher taxes mean more gold but lower morale, whereas lower taxes mean less gold and more morale. A good town morale means that people will be anxious to live there, and the population will rise; conversely, a low morale causes the population to decrease. TRADE: Allows you to buy or sell the items of that town. The buy and sell prices for each item will change depending on the supply / demand ratio of that item. ADVANCED FEATURES: │ ■ Units can be moved INTO towns and castles for protection - simply move the unit onto the town or castle. ■ Units, if they are of the same type and have the same weapons and armor, can be merged by moving them on top of one another. ■ Units will get mad and disband if you run out of gold to equip them with. ■ Some monster units cannot buy new weapons or armor - they're stuck with what they've got. ■ The type of monsters you find depends on your alignment and the alignment of the monster. Players with neutral alignments can use both good and evil monsters, but cannot make use of some of the more "pure" monsters - paladins and lichs (pure good and pure evil, respectively). HINTS, TIPS, WARRANTY, LICENSE, ETC. │ First, a couple of pointers: ■ Buy a unit with ONE member to walk around and claim towns. This saves money. ■ Keep a couple of units near your castle, in case something happens. ■ If you buy a HUGE unit, you can sell the surplus food and get a little money. Be careful, though: the amount of food required for a unit is equal to the amount of troops in it; a 200 troop unit will need 200 lbs. of food! ■ If you're careful, you can run a unit without ANY food, by selling all of it - just be sure it has food when all the units eat, so that it doesn't die! (This is useful if you need some "fast cash.") ■ Be sure to keep an eye on the other player's units - this will prevent surprises from happening when you attack a unit that you thought was armed with clubs, but is actually armed with Broadswords! And now, some boring legal stuff: WARRANTY: ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ SORCERER PRODUCTIONS MAKES NO WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. ALSO, SORCERER PRODUCTIONS TAKES NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED BY EITHER A DIRECT OR INDIRECT RESULT OF USING THIS PROGRAM. BY INSTALLING THE PROGRAM ON YOUR HARD DRIVE, YOU HEREBY AGREE TO THIS. (Basically, all this says is that if Clash of Spears blows up your monitor, tough! [ It won't though! ] ) LICENSE AGREEMENT: ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ BY INSTALLING CLASH OF SPEARS ONTO YOUR HARD DRIVE, YOU AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING: CLASH OF SPEARS CANNOT BE DISTRIBUTED IN ANY WAY IF IT IS THE REGISTERED VERSION. NO PIRATES! CLASH OF SPEARS REGISTERED MAY BE USED BY MORE THAN ONE PERSON AT THE SAME TIME ONLY IF IT IS ON A LOCAL AREA NETWORK AND THE SYSOP OF THAT NETWORK HAS PAID THE NETWORK REGISTRATION FEE. CLASH OF SPEARS, THE SHAREWARE VERSION, CAN BE DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS NO ENHANCEMENTS ARE MADE TO IT, AND ALL FILES ARE INCLUDED IN THE ARCHIVE. SHAREWARE VENDORS CAN SELL THE SHAREWARE VERSION OF THIS PROGRAM, PROVIDED THEY DO NOT CHARGE OVER $5 FOR IT, AND THEY MAKE SURE THAT: 1) THE BUYER HAS A FULL UNDERSTANDING OF THE SHAREWARE CONCEPT. 2) THEY RECOGNIZE SORCERER PRODUCTIONS AS THE AUTHOR / CREATOR OF THE PRODUCT. YOU WILL NOT DISASSEMBLE OR REVERSE ENGINEER ANY FILES IN CLASH OF SPEARS. YOU WILL NOT HEX EDIT ANY FILES. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- YOU WILL NOT TAKE THY NAME OF THY SORCERER IN VAIN. YOU WILL NOT INSERT THE WORD "NOT" INTO ANY SENTENCE WHERE IT DOES NOT GRAMMATICLY BELONG (EG: "THIS IS COOL... NOT!"). YOU WILL NOT LISTEN TO ANY MUSIC COMPOSED OR SUNG BY ANYONE WITH A TEN-GALLON HAT. YOU WILL NOT READ PAST THE LINE FOLLOWING THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT. ░░░░░░░░░░░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓██████▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░░░░░░░░░░░░ Boo! This is what you are not supposed to be reading. If you are reading this, you are in violation of the license agreement. Just kidding. Have fun, and remember: "I'm in the middle of nowhere, near the end of the line, but there's a border to somewhere waiting, and there's a tankful of time. Oh, give me just another moment to see the light of the day, and take me to another land where I don't have to stay... Open up the sky, let the planet that I love shine through!!!" █ -Meat Loaf █ (from the song, "For Crying Out Loud") ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ And just one last thing: Please don't take offense if I have mispelled anything in this document... It's hard to concentrate at 5 in the morning.