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Annotation of mstools/samples/mazelord/readme.txt, revision 1.1.1.1

1.1       root        1: Mazelords is a 3-d maze game. The objective is to get as high a score as
                      2: possible by zapping other players, and by destroying automated drones which
                      3: wander around the maze. When there are no other players, zapping drones still
                      4: makes an interesting game in itself.
                      5: 
                      6: Mazelords is a networked or non-networked game, depending upon how it is
                      7: invoked. In both versions, the player is placed in a room of sanctuary in a
                      8: palace. In this room, players may not shoot, and drones cannot hurt players.
                      9: Once outside of its 3x3 confines, however, anything goes. Your task is to hunt
                     10: down drones and other players and 'zap' them. Players will be teleported back
                     11: to sanctuary, and drones will be teleported to a random location in the maze.
                     12: 
                     13: Drones appear as grey robots, and the number and speed of drones is
                     14: configurable under the Options.  20 drones, speed 2 is a playable setting.
                     15: 
                     16: The controls to maze lords are simple:
                     17: 
                     18:   UpArrow:    Move one square forward
                     19:   LeftArrow:  Turn left, stay in same square
                     20:   RightArrow: Turn right, stay in same square
                     21:   DownArrow:  Move one square backwards
                     22:   Space:      Zap whatever is in line of sight
                     23:   X: exit the game.
                     24:   W: Whisper something. Anyone within the specified # of squares of you will
                     25:      hear your message
                     26:   S: Shout something. Same as whisper, except the default distance people
                     27:      will be able to hear you at is different.
                     28: 
                     29: To play, ideally you should be running on a 486 or MIPS with lots of memory
                     30: and sound enabled (ie a soundblaster or jazzsnd). The game should work on
                     31: other systems. Note that if you don't have sound, you can still play, as
                     32: the important sounds will be changed to speaker beeps.
                     33: 
                     34: 
                     35: Upon invoking Maze, you have several options:
                     36:     FILE->NewGame: Starts a new game. Make sure you have configured the game
                     37:                    under the OPTIONS menu unless you want the defaults and want
                     38:                    to play Locally rather than over the network.
                     39:     FILE->PauseGame: This pauses the movement of all drones, but you will
                     40:                      still be a sitting duck if someone shoots at you. This will
                     41:                      eventually be changed.
                     42:     FILE->StopGame:  Resets the game completely.
                     43:     FILE->Exit: exits you from the game.
                     44: 
                     45:     OPTIONS->Networked/Local:  This determines whether you will be playing
                     46:              against other people on your network domain or not. It's fine to
                     47:              run NETWORK'd when there is noone else playing. Default is LOCAL.
                     48:     OPTIONS->PlayerSettings: This brings up a dialog with two list boxes. The
                     49:                              first shows a list of bitmaps you can choose from
                     50:                              to be your character. Currently there is a fish
                     51:                              and a smiley face, but the number of choices will
                     52:                              be growing.  You can also choose a home maze.
                     53:                              this isn't used right now, but soon your home maze
                     54:                              will be add to a random part of the existing maze,
                     55:                              and you will be able to teleport there at will.
                     56:     OPTIONS->Drones: This brings up the drones configuration dialog. Select
                     57:                      the number of drones you want and the speed you want them
                     58:                      to go, ie # of moves per second. Move algorithm is
                     59:                      currently ignored, as all drones use the same semi-random
                     60:                      algorithm.
                     61: 
                     62: 
                     63: The display consists of the following
                     64: 
                     65: o   A 3-d view of the maze. This has a few drawing bugs in terms of correctness,
                     66:     but unless you're watching for them they generally don't make a difference.
                     67:     If you have doubts about a wall, you can verify its existing on the
                     68: 
                     69: o   Overhead view: this is a view of two squares to each direction from
                     70:     where you are at. You can't see other players on the overhead map, but
                     71:     you can see a small triangle in the center, which indicates which way
                     72:     you are facing.  This window is an ABSOLUTE view, ie up is ALWAYS north on
                     73:     the window, regardless of which direction you're facing in the maze.
                     74: 
                     75: o   Text window: This gives information about what is happening in the game,
                     76:     such as who you have zapped or who zaps you, and notification when
                     77:     players enter or leave the game. You will also see messages whispered or
                     78:     shouted by other players if they are close enough.
                     79: 
                     80: o   Score window.  This shows all players active in your domain if you're
                     81:     networked. The display includes the bitmap being used by the player, their
                     82:     score, and a directional indicator to show the ABSOLUTE direction you need
                     83:     to go to reach the square that player is in. These are updated every
                     84:     time they change.
                     85: 
                     86: Have fun with the game! Any comments or suggestions should be sent to
                     87: [email protected].
                     88: 
                     89: Note that MazeLords is still in progress. It is cross-compilable for Windows 3.1,
                     90: but won't run under Windows 3.1 yet.  Also, there are miscellaneous glitches
                     91: which will be ironed out for the retail release of the SDK.