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- Mech Factory Documentation
-
- The Factory program is easy to use in the Amiga
- tradition. The design of your BattleMech is entirely up to you.
- Its design should be a compromise between weight, speed, armor
- and weapons. I wouldn't dream of telling you how to built your
- BattleMech, as long as you realize that 'mine' can beat 'yours'.
-
- There are three menus, the Project Menu, the Equipment
- Menu and the Weapons Menu. The Project Menu is similar to
- Project Menus on other Amiga programs. You can Load, Save or
- Delete your BattleMech. The Save option does some checking for
- you to keep you from saving a mech that can't be used in the
- Battle program.
-
- The Equipment menu is where you start your BattleMech.
- The first thing to do is decide on a frame weight. This is not
- fixed. Anything can be changed at any time and the factory will
- recalculate. In fact if your actual weight goes more than five
- tons over your frame weight, your frame weight will be
- automatically increased by five tons. You can have a mech with a
- little extra weight. These tend to be a little unstable in
- combat with a better piloting needed to control them.
-
- Once you have your weight the next thing you should get
- is the engine. There are only certain engines available. The
- engine power determines the speed of your mech. A speed of 4/6
- indicates that your mech can walk 4 hexes or run 6 hexes in 100
- seconds.
-
- Jump Jets allow your mech to jump into the air. This is
- a BIG advantage in combat at close range. If you add jet fuel
- the weight of the jets is automatically added. If you change the
- fuel to zero the jets are removed. Each unit of fuel gives 50
- seconds of jump.
-
- Heat Sinks get rid of the heat your mech generates. Heat
- is your worst enemy. All mechs have 10 heat sinks and you can
- add more.
-
- Armor is critical to your mech. It protects your
- delicate weapons and other internal components from damage. The
- armor menu item will bring up a large window with 11 slider
- gadgets, one for each armor location. Play with them as much as
- you like. Click done when finished. There is a maximum amount
- of armor allowed for the head.
-
- The Weapons Menu allows you to arm your BattleMech. The
- add weapon menu will bring up a list of all weapons available
- along with their weight, damage, heat generated and ammo/ton. Add
- a weapon by clicking on the weapon. Click done when finished.
-
- Once you have selected your weapons you need to Mount
- them in the BattleMech. Pull the Weapons Menu down to Mount.
- You will get a sub-menu of all the weapons you selected. Pick
- and weapon you want to mount. A picture of a BattleMech will
- appear on the screen with the name of the weapon. There are
- seven circles on the mech, one for each of the internal
- locations. If the circle is green, the weapon you want to mount
- will fit in that location. If it is yellow, the weaponis too big
- to fit. Click on any green circle. It will turn red to indicate
- the one you have chosen. In the upper-left corner is a gadget
- marked 'Front'. If you want your weapon to fire backward click
- this gadget and it will change to 'Back'. Now click the 'Mount'
- gadget. When a weapon is mounted the location is shown on the
- main weapon list before the name. An asterick '*' indicates that
- the weapon is pointed backward.
-
- If ammo is required for your weapon the title will change
- to 'Ammo'. Again select a green location and click the 'Mount'
- or 'Ammo' gadget.
-
- The 'Cancel' gadget will get you out of the Mount window
- at any time. The 'UnMount' gadget will unmount a weapon that has
- been mounted in case you want to change its location.
-
- The Remove Weapon menu will remove a weapon from your
- weapons list and unmount it if necessary. The Ammo menu will
- allow you to change the amount of ammo for any weapon.
-
- That's all there is too it. Make sure you give your
- BattleMech a name before you save it. It will be save with that
- name plus the weight. You will be given a warning if you have
- forgotten to mount any of your weapons.
-