PC Format Collection 13/PCFORMAT.bin/esdemo/install/readme

Text File | 1994-12-12 | 19KB | 457 lines

METALTECH: EARTHSIEGE DEMO TUTORIAL

This tutorial lets you jump right into this EarthSiege
"active" demo and learn the basics by playing. Note: the
tutorial and accompanying quick reference contain a lot
of information. You may want to print out this document
so you can refer to it while playing. If you experience
any problems, please refer to the section below titled
'Troubleshooting'.

OVERVIEW
2544 A.D. Sentient Cybrid robots have rebelled against
their human creators and taken over the Earth. Determined
to exterminate all humans, the Cybrids hunt us
relentlessly.  In a stroke of luck, we discovered
powerful war machines, called HERCs, in a hidden base. By
using hit-and-run guerrilla tactics and scavenging
weapons and technology from defeated Cybrids, the human
Resistance has endured and even grown in strength.

But now the outlook is grim. The Cybrids have established
numerous replication factories, bases, and supply lines.
They have more resources to spare for new HERC design and
production. They want a war of attrition--they can lose
several Cybrids for each human and still be assured of
eventual victory.

The humans need new HERC pilots desperately, pilots with
skill, luck, and bravado to overcome the superior Cybrid
forces. Pilots who can learn fast, think fast, move fast,
and shoot fast--who can carry out their missions and
bring their squads back alive with enemy technology and
salvage.  If you volunteer for pilot duty, you know the
odds are bad. You know the alternative is far, far worse.

Good luck.


TUTORIAL
In this sample mission, you and a squad member will be
defending your base against a Cybrid raid. Destroy the
attackers and protect friendly HERCs and structures. This
demo provides all the combat functions of the full
simulation. Since the Cybrids will be attacking as you
learn the controls, you will probably want to play
through the demo a few times. You are INVULNERABLE and
have UNLIMITED AMMUNITION.

JOYSTICK SETUP
When the mission starts, you will be looking out of your
HERC's cockpit over the grim, desolate landscape of the
future.  Cybrid raiders are on the way. Before they
arrive, you'll need to calibrate your joystick (if you
have one). Press [F12]. (The demo Preferences are
tailored to your system, but you can adjust them.) Open
the Controls window. Select your joystick type, what you
want it to control primarily (HERC or Turret), and then
Calibrate it. Click DONE to return to the cockpit.

HERC CONTROL
You are piloting a Samson heavy attack HERC.   It's a
good HERC for this mission, heavily armored and boasting
massive firepower. The following sections will help
familiarize yourself with the Samson controls and
displays.

To maneuver the HERC, use the joystick or your cursor (or
"arrow") keys. To switch between HERC and Turret control
for the joystick, press [Enter] or Joystick Button 2.

HEADS UP DISPLAY (HUD) and TURRET CONTROL
The front window shows the HERC Heading Indicator and
Waypoint Indicators. Beneath the Heading Indicator is a
gray slide with a yellow bar, matched by the vertical
slide at the left. These indicate the Rotation and
Elevation of your turret, which you can move
independently of your HERC's main body heading using your
joystick or the following keys: turret rotation [J] and
[K]; turret elevation [I] and [M]. To re-align the
turret, press [Backspace].

WEAPONS CONTROL
For this mission, your HERC has been armed with a 35 mm
ATC autocannon, two 50 mm ATCs, two particle beam weapons
(PBW), an electron flux generator (ELF), and two missile
launchers (SAR10). Weapons will activate automatically
when a selected target is within that weapon's range or
locked (for missiles). To manually activate a weapon,
just click its button or press its corresponding number
key: fire with the trigger button or [Space]. You can
press LINK to synchronize matching weapons, or select the
I, II, or III buttons to select a predefined "firing
chain."

MULTI-FUNCTION DISPLAY (MFD)
Directly under the cockpit window is the Multi-Function
Display, currently showing your HERC's status.   To cycle
through its other available displays, click on the STATUS
button, the console's F1-F6 buttons, or your [F1]-[F6]
keys, as follows:  [F1] STATUS, [F2] FLASHCOM, [F3] NAV
MAP, [F4] RADAR,  [F5] TARGET STATUS and [F6] MISSILE
VIEW.

ATTACK
Press [F4] for Radar, and press [R] to activate it. The
MFD will show yellow dots for enemy flyers and red dots
for enemy HERCs. Feel free to blast away (you are
invulnerable), but remember that your primary objective
is to protect the base.

To select a target, click on it using the mouse, or press
the [Tab] key.  When the target you want is bracketed in
red on your HUD, press [F5] to change the MFD to Target
Status. Now activate a weapon (press [1]-[4]), aim at the
target with the Aiming Reticle (the crosshairs) on your
HUD, and open fire.  You can aim by moving the whole HERC
or just your turret. Switch between HERC and turret
control by pressing [Insert] or Joystick Button 2. You
can also aim by pressing the TRACK button or [Alt]+[T]--
this turns auto tracking (aiming) on or off for any
selected target.

Note: The ELF is a very powerful but very short-range
weapon. Get close, aim, and fire in a long continuous
stream--the lightning-bolt effect is enough to completely
gut most targets where they stand.

Destroy your selected target. When you are done, pivot
the HERC and press [Tab] to select another target.
Experiment with the other MFD displays as you roam--for
example, monitor a target on [F5] Target Status as you
beat it to pieces.  Don't get too smug--this gets much
tougher when you can be damaged or run out of missiles.
But for now, make some mayhem and enjoy.

SQUAD COMMANDS
You can command your squad mate in the other friendly
HERC using the MFD Flashcomm commands [F2]. Press the
highlighted message hot key, and then XMIT or [X] to send
it. You can also send messages using the Command Display
[F7]: select the pilot number [1], select the message hot
key, and then send the message with [X] or XMIT.

MISSILE LOCK
Go back to the MFD Radar display [F4]. Notice that any
target you select is surrounded by a yellow box on your
radar screen. After a couple of seconds on Active radar
(ACT), the red HUD target box acquires thick red corners.
This means you have missile radar-lock: missiles you fire
now will track the target. Note: Use Active radar
sparingly--enemy missiles can home in on your scanner
emissions.

RETURN TO BASE
Once you have beaten off the attackers, the Mission Alert
panel will appear. Click the RETURN TO BASE option to end
the mission. General Gierling will then evaluate your
performance, and the Debriefing panel will appear to
detail your kills, losses, and salvage.

ALL DAY REPLAY
You know the basics now. Once you master controlling your
HERC, you'll want to replay the demo to explore all the
cockpit controls and displays. (You can find out a lot
more mission options and cockpit controls on the
following quick reference.)
--Check out the Heads Down Displays [F7] and [F8] for
squad communications, tactical map, and system status.
--Experiment with firing chains, shield and weapon power,
missile lock, and missile view.
--Try the External View [V] to watch the action from a
"bird's-eye" view.

OBLIGATORY PROMOTIONAL BLURB
In the full EarthSiege simulation, you and your squad
prowl a target-rich wasteland to deliver some heavily
mechanized payback and win back the Earth. Choose from
many HERCs, choose your weapon configurations, repair
battle damage and even build HERCs from scratch (if you
gather enough salvage). In Career mode, you will enlist
in eight extended campaigns made up of 45 different
missions with widely varying terrain, objectives, and
increasing Cybrid opposition.  The CD-ROM version adds
digital speech and sizzling cinematic sequences to the
experience.

EarthSiege Options:
Speech Pack: If you get EarthSiege on floppy disk, the
Speech Pack upgrade brings you the same full digitized
speech as the CD-ROM version!

Expansion Disc: CD-ROM version users can add new
cinematics, new weaponry, and three new campaigns with
the Expansion Disc. Yes--the Cybrids are back: meaner,
smarter, and stronger.

Have Fun!


EARTHSIEGE DEMO QUICK REFERENCE

COCKPIT
Insert or Joy But. 2 Movement/Turret Control
Up/Dn Arrow          Forward/Reverse
L/R Arrow            Steer
I                    Turret up
M                    Turret down
J                    Turret left
K                    Turret right
Backspace            Turret centered
F9                   Pan View Left
F10                  Pan View Right
F11                  Mission Objectives
Esc                  Return to Cockpit

EXTERNAL VIEW
V                    External View On/Off
Tab or Joy Button 2  View/HERC Control
N                    View next squad HERC

WEAPONS
Space                Fire current weapon
Tab or T             Select target
Alt+T                Auto Target Tracking On/Off
1 ... 9              Select corresponding weapon
Alt+1...9            Add/Remove weapon in firing chain
~   or Alt+~         Select next/previous chain
W or Alt+W           Select next/previous weapon
L                    Link selected weapon (if possible)
+                    Increase setpoint
-                    Decrease setpoint
R                    Switch Radar Mode
Alt+R                Set Scan Range
[                    Increase rear shield
]                    Increase front shield

DISPLAYS
F1                   MFD-HERC Status
F2                   MFD-Flashcomm Commands
F3                   MFD-Terrain Map
F4                   MFD-Radar
F5                   MFD-Target Status
F6                   MFD-Missile View
F7                   HDD-Command Display/Map
F8                   HDD-Detailed Status Display

FLASHCOMM
Alt+Hot Key          Transmit Selected Message
< or >               Select Previous/Next Message
A                    Attack My Target
G                    Ignore my Target
H                    Help Me Out
O                    Join On Me
C/E                  Scan For Hostiles/Emcon
F                    Fire At Will/Hold Your Fire
X                    XMIT Send Selected Message

F7 COMMAND DISPLAY (HDD)
Arrows               Scroll Map
+ or -               Zoom Map In/Out
1 ... 3              Select Pilot
< or >               Select Previous/Next Message
Tab                  Select Unit
D                    Disengage
A                    Attack the Enemy
F                    Defend Position
T                    Patrol Gridpoint
G                    Go To Gridpoint
O                    Join on Me
C                    Scan for Hostiles
E                    Emcon
X                    XMIT (Send Message)
Backspace            Cancel

F8 DAMAGE DETAIL (HDD)
L/R Arrow            Select HERC
S                    Structural
I                    Internal
W                    Weapons
P                    Pause game
Q                    Quit mission
Alt+P or F12         Preferences
Ctrl+Q/Ctrl+Esc      Quit to DOS


TROUBLESHOOTING

TSR VIRUS DETECTION PROGRAMS AND "UNDELETE" UTILITIES:
When installing or operating Metaltech: Earthsiege, we recommend
that you disable any "undelete" utilities including Norton
Smartcan or Mirror.  You will also want to disable any TSR Virus
Detection programs as each of these utilities might cause install
problems or random lockups during game play.  An easy and effective
way to accomplish this is to create a boot disk using the install
program's boot disk creator.

MEMORY MANAGEMENT:
Metaltech: Earthsiege runs in 32-bit protected mode and may
suffer from incompatibilities with older memory managers including
QEMM 6.02 and early versions of EMM386.  If you experience lockups
or other problems when running the simulation, try the following
suggestions:

   a)  Make a boot disk using the boot disk creator option in the
   install program.  This option will create a custom boot-up
   configuration on a floppy disk and allow ES's own
   memory manager to better utilize all of your computer's
   available memory.  Once the ES install routine has
   successfully created the boot disk, restart your computer
   with this disk in your A drive.

   b)  Try an updated or newer memory manager.  Many of the updated
   memory managers work more effectively with 32-bit protected mode
   applications.  Check with your memory manager manufacturer for
   upgrade information.

CD-ROM INTRODUCTION WITH NO SOUND CARD
You will need a Sound Card with DAC in order to view the fully
animated introduction sequence at proper speed.  Without a sound
card, this animated sequence will play at a faster rate.

MOUSE DRIVERS
In order to insure complete mouse compatibility within ES, we
recommend that you use one of the following mouse drivers:

 - Microsoft Mouse driver version 8.20a or above
 - Logitech Mouse driver version 6.23 or above

The above mentioned mouse drivers have been tested and found to work
effectively within this simulation.  Other drivers may cause program
lock-ups, video distortion (in the form of white lines on the screen),
or mouse control problems.

SOUND BLASTER 16 AND BOOT DISK CREATOR:
On occasion, the boot disk creator might not copy the SBCONFIG.EXE
line onto the AUTOEXEC.BAT file of the boot disk.  This may result
in the introduction and the game running without any sound or music.
If this occurs, you will need to manually insert the SBCONFIG.EXE
line from your standard boot-up configuration into the AUTOEXEC.BAT
file on the boot disk.  Below is an example of how the line should
look:

C:\SB16\SBCONFIG.EXE /S

NOTE - the above line should appear immediately after all other
Sound Blaster statements within the AUTOEXEC.BAT file of your
boot disk.  For assistance or more information about completing
this step, please refer to your sound card documentation or call
Creative Labs Technical Support.

SOUND CARD PROBLEMS
While we have made every effort to support as many sound cards as
possible, there are a few sound cards that are not supported
directly within Earthsiege.  You may have to configure your card
for Sound Blaster emulation if you have a card that is  not
directly supported by the game drivers.  Some Sound Blaster
emulation utilities might not work properly with Earthsiege.
NOTE - not all sound cards are compatible with the Sound Blaster
card.  Check your hardware documentation to determine if your
card is compatible.

SCSI DRIVERS
If your system is equipped with a SCSI hard drive, you will need to
make sure that you are loading the appropriate SCSI driver in your
CONFIG.SYS file.  For additional information or instructions on
how to accomplish this task, please refer to your hard drive or
SCSI controller documentation or manufacturer.

MEMORY REQUIREMENTS
Memory requirements for the game are as follows:

*  3,550 kilobytes (3,640,000 bytes) of free total memory

To run ES on a 4 Meg machine, you will most likely need to
make a boot disk or remove your high memory driver from your
config.sys file.  ES doesn't require a high memory driver, and
such drivers can take up enough memory to cause ES not to run.

If you don't have at least 4,900 kilobytes of memory free, there
won't be enough memory for the best version of ES to run.  If this
is the case, you won't be able to select the highest detail setting
and there will be more hard drive accesses.

CD-ROM PROBLEMS
If you have the CD version of MetalTech: EarthSiege and you are
experiencing "CDR-101 Read errors" or are experiencing random
lock-ups, then make sure you are using the latest CD-ROM
drivers and the correct version of MSCDEX.EXE for your revision
of MS-DOS.

To verify that you are using the correct device drivers in your
CONFIG.SYS file, contact your CD-ROM manufacturer for
verification.  To verify that you are using the latest version
of MSCDEX.EXE, please examine the chart below:

 MS-DOS 5.0 Users....................Use MSCDEX 2.21 or above
 MS-DOS 6.0 Users....................Use MSCDEX 2.22 or above
 MS-DOS 6.20-6.22 Users..............Use MSCDEX 2.23 or above

NOTE - MSCDEX 2.22 is included with MS-DOS 6.0, and MSCDEX 2.23
is included with MS-DOS 6.20-6.22.  To update from an older
version of MSCDEX, simply copy the updated file from the DOS
directory into the path where you are loading MSCDEX.  For more
information, please refer to your CD-ROM hardware manual or
contact your CD-ROM manufacturer.


CONTROL DEVICES

THRUSTMASTER DEVICE SUPPORT
ES.ADV
This is a default WCS driver for use with the Thrustmaster
Mark II Weapons Control System.  You can find it in the
directory you installed ES into, and you should see your WCS
owner's manual for instructions on how to download it into
your WCS.  The red Base mode switch should be set to digital,
and the black Hat mode switch should be set to analog.

ES.B50 and ES.M50
ES.B50 is a default configuration for the new Thrustmaster
F-16 FLCS. See the ES.M50 file for a description of the hat
and button assignments. Consult your owners manual for downloading
instructions.

You can reach Thrustmaster technical support at [phone]
9-5 Pacific time weekdays if you have questions about the WCS MK II
or the F-16 FLCS.

GRAVIS GAME PAD
We have found that ES works well with the Gravis Game Pad.  To
use this device, select and calibrate the pad as 1 Standard
Joystick.  Make sure you set the game pad to ANALOG rather than
DIGITAL.  Check your game pad documentation for instructions on
how to accomplish this.

KEYJOY.CFG
This file exists in the DATA directory, off of the directory
you installed ES into.  It allows you to set some preferences
for how certain keys are handled by the game.  You may find it
more natural to steer your Herc or turret by setting one of the
options to REVERSE.  To change one of these selections from the
default setting, edit the keyjoy.cfg file in a text editor and
replace "DEFAULT" with "REVERSE" where desired.


CONTACTING SIERRA:

 Sierra On-Line Direct Sales
 P.O. Box 3404
 Salinas, CA  93912

 Phone: [phone]
 Fax:   [phone]


Thanks for playing EarthSiege!