PC Guide 18

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Text File | 1996-02-14 | 12KB | 295 lines

CYLINDRIX DEMO README.TXT ------------------------------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cylindrix is a combat strategy game that takes place in a true 3-D world. You fight to stay alive as you maneuver your ship along the surface and in the air. You need to charge your shields, tag pylons, and protect your radar base all while trying to direct your wingmen. To make combat increasingly more difficult and challenging each arena, or Cylindrix, has many variables such as light quality, physics, arena set up, and the competence of your opponents. One of the most unique features of Cylindrix is the 3-D AI, an advanced artificial intelligence that not only reacts to circumstances, but maneuvers in three dimensional space and takes directions from you, the team leader. This demo can be played as a Custom Game, in a Practice Arena, or as a Null Modem Game. The final product will have a large Tournament Game and a full IPX Network Game. FIRST THINGS FIRST ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Be sure and read the TROUBLE.TXT file on the program disk. It contains the most current up-to-date and detailed information. Be aware that the programmers wrote that file! Minimum System Requirements for this demo: - 486/66 DX (SX chips will NOT work; math coprocessor is mandatory) - 8 MEG of RAM - 5 MEG hard drive space - 100% Sound Blaster compatible sound card. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE ------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you experience difficulties the following will get you the best and quickest results: 1. Go to our web page at http://www.goldtree.com. Here you will find a list of bugs and problems. Any patches, fixes, or files 'o' fun will also be here. 2. E-mail us at Goldtree@communique.net with your problem and we will reply promptly. KEEP IN TOUCH ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Check out our really cool Web site! http://www.goldtree.com Email us! Goldtree@communique.net Snail Mail : (or communication for the technically challenged) Goldtree Enterprises 3525 Hessmer Ave. Suite 204 Metairie LA 70002 STARTING THE DEMO AND MENU OPTIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Custom Game In Custom Game, you can select from all of the races for your wingmen, select from all of the ships, and select various arenas for fighting freeform. The AI of the races all vary, some harder to beat than others. Training You may want to start on the bunny slopes before you face the full rigors of the Cylindrix. Null-Modem Game A null modem is a cable between two computer's serial ports. MENU OPTIONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sound - Adjust CD ROM, voices, and sound FX levels. Detail Options - Adjust the detail levels of the world Keyboard - Configure your keys to liking. Joystick - Select, calibrate, and configure your joystick. View Statistics of a Player - Select Pilot and view his battle statistics. LEARNING TO KICK ASS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE PLAYING FIELD THE CYLINDRIX. This is the playing field in which the game takes place. Your vehicle can either skim along its surface or detach from the surface and fly freely within the Cylindrix. Each end of the Cylindrix is capped with a force shield preventing you from escaping combat. All of the cylinders are the same size, but the various lighting conditions will make some feel smaller or larger than others. Each square on the surface of the cylinder is 40' x 40'. A cylinder's measurements are: Height: 382 feet high, or approximately 27 stories high Length: 1200 feet, or 87 stories long Square foot area: 1,440,000 Total cubic feet: 137,000,000 Pylon: Average height, 7 stories Radar Base: 45 feet high PYLONS. Towers of energy called pylons jut from the surface of the Cylindrix. When your vehicle collides with a pylon, the pylon becomes charged to the polarity of your team, turning it whatever color your vehicles are. As a result, your teams weapons will do more damage. Capturing pylons is of extreme importance. RADAR BASES. Each team has a radar base somewhere on the surface of the Cylindrix. The radar bases will fire relentlessly at any enemy vehicles in range. The radar bases control the homing of energy missiles, and update each vehicle's radar display. If your radar base is destroyed you lose both of these. ENERGY SQUARE. Each Cylindrix has on its surface an energy square. If you move your vehicle over the square its shields will be recharged. HEADS UP DISPLAYS Each of the eight ships has a uniquely designed Heads Up Display, but they all display the same information. ON SCREEN RADAR DISPLAY. This is an actual 3D display of the cylinder and always moves in relation to your view of the cylinder. Your ship is represented by the white square that is at the bottom of the cylinder when you are on the ground and when you are in the air the white dot will move in relation to the cylinder. The blue squares represent the blue team, the red squares represent the red team. Any time your radar locks onto a ship, the square representing that ship will have a yellow box around it. If your radar base is destroyed, your radar disappears. CROSS HAIRS AND RADAR LOCKING. These cross hairs allow for the aiming of lasers by eye or missiles when your radar is inoperable. When you lock radar on an opponent, a diamond shape will appear between the radar lock box, and your ship. When the cross hairs, the radar lock box, and the diamond are all lined up, then you are facing the enemy directly. SHIELD STRENGTH DISPLAY. The shield strength level is indicated by the bar on the screen with the 'S' on it. Every time your force shield is hit with a laser or a missile it is weakened. If your vehicle is shot after your energy shield has been depleted, it will be destroyed. There is a brightly colored square on the cylinder's surface, called the Energy Square. If you move your vehicle on top of it while on the surface, your shield's strength will recharge. MISSILE DISPLAY. The number of missiles you hold is displayed here. Missiles regenerate automatically. ** Using special weapons often depletes missile energy. See Reference on how each ship handles its missile depletion. WEAPON DAMAGE DISPLAY. The relative amount of damage you are able to do, the number energized pylons you have tagged on the Cylindrix surface (see "The Playing Field" above) is indicated on the bar on the screen with the "D" next to it. WINGMAN 1 And WINGMAN 2 - COMMAND DISPLAY. Every time you give a command to your wingman, it is displayed here. WINGMAN 1 And WINGMAN 2 - SHIELD STRENGTH DISPLAY. The shield strength of your two wingman is displayed here. KEY CONTROLS: MOVEMENT, WEAPONS, AND WINGMAN COMMANDS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: Cylindrix allows the reassigning of keys, but the default settings are as follows. AERIAL AND SURFACE CONTROL "s" Take Off and Land "v" Change viewpoint, in or out of ship. "Esc" Pauses game and brings up an options menu. SURFACE ONLY CONTROLS Up arrow Move forward Down arrow Move backwards Right arrow Rotate right Left arrow Rotate left "Alt" Sidestep Right or Left using arrow key (Strafe). AERIAL ONLY CONTROLS "a" Throttle Faster "z" Throttle Slower Up arrow Nose down Down arrow Nose up Right arrow Rotate right (Clockwise). Left arrow Rotate left (Counterclockwise). "Alt" + arrow key Step Up, Down, Right, or Left (Strafe). WEAPONS CONTROLS "Ctrl" Fire laser Space Fire energy missile "x" Engage Special Weapon COMMANDS TO WINGMEN KEYS W 1 W 2 F1 F7 Get Pylons F2 F8 Attack F3 F9 Attack Enemy Radar Base F4 F10 Defend Home Radar Base F5 F11 Group - Surround and Defend F6 F12 Orders Canceled GENERAL WEAPONS, LASERS AND MISSILES ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Each vehicle has three weapons: lasers, missiles, and a special weapon. The reference section below defines special weapons for each ship. On the surface your lasers and missiles take on the same magnetic properties that your ship does and skims along the surface of the cylinder. In the air they move in a straight line since they have no attraction to the surface. Your missiles are radar controlled, and once they lock onto an enemy they follow the enemy until they explode. REFERENCE: SHIPS, RATINGS, AND SPECIAL WEAPONS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- DRAGON FLY Special Weapon: Cloaking The dragonfly is a satisfactory ground and air vehicle with low shields and low firepower. Its main asset is its ability to cloak, becoming invisible to both radar and the naked eye. Unfortunately, it becomes visible if it fires when cloaked. It uses its missile energy to cloak, and is only able to stay cloaked as long as this energy lasts. Missile energy is unable to recharge while cloaked, so it is necessary to periodically uncloak to recharge missile energy. LOCUST Special Weapon: Hologram Projections The locust is a fair ground and slightly below average air vehicle with medium shields and medium firepower. It has the ability to use missile energy to spawn decoys of itself to fool enemy radar and opponents. These three decoys mirror the ships own movements, making it very difficult to tell the difference between the decoy, and the real ship. WASP Special Weapon: Ramming The Wasp is a below average air and ground vehicle with very powerful shields and good firepower. The Wasp is constantly charged with explosive energy that will damage any vehicle that collides with it, including other team members. BEETLE Special Weapon: Control Scrambler Missile The Beetle is a below average ground vehicle and good air vehicle with medium shields and low firepower. It has special energy missiles that scramble the computer systems of any vehicle it hits, causing that vehicle to be virtually uncontrollable by the pilot. CREDITS AND SPECIAL THANKS ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Production, marketing, co-development Luke Ahearn (Cool Hand). GOLDTREE Enterprises Goldtree@communique.net Programmer: 3-d engine, hyper-logic, math, physics Tony Thibault (gfx_god). Hotwarez LLC Hacker: graphics primitives, hardware (yuck) interrupts (yuck), artificial intelligence John R. McCawley III (Cap'n Hardgeus). Hotwarez LLC Art direction, web page, bald guy jokes Mike Whalen (BL!TZ). Blitz Design Chris Bankston Character Artist Richard Mouton CAD Engineer Ann Carruthers, Ed.D Documentation Editor VOICES Ava Beaudoin Gerald Comeaux John Conner Ken Cummins Jessica Daigle Cherie Ducote Major Flowers Jeena LaBella Jenny LaBella Matt Lagrange and a cast of extras SOUND FX BY GOON Thanks to: DJ Delorie Writer, DJGPP gnu C for the PC. Charles Sandmann, Eli Zaretsky DJGPP guys Joel H. Hunter Soundblaster Library Dan Stocker AI help Special Thanks to: Skor Bars, pizza, Caffeine, Prozac, and that special GIF file. This game was written using DJGPP V2 which is a DOS port of the gnu C compiler. DJGPP is available at oak.oakland.edu (or any Simtel mirror) in vendors/ DJGPP. DJGPP Newsgroup: comp.os.msdos.djgpp. Please read the DJGPP faq before posting questions.