ULTIMATE DOMINATION - USER GUIDE Alternative Realities Installation Installing and Running BackGround The Story of UD Objectives Game Objectives Starting Off Getting started In Depth In Depth explanation Initial Items What you get to start Espionage Spying on your neighbours Combat Fighting to win Colonisation Stretching your hand Game Depth The level of Gameplay Sightings Aliens? Credits Who did what, using what? Requirements What you need to run UD Notes On Shareware What you dont get - Registering INSTALLATION Floppy Disk Users Insert disk one into DF0: (internal drive) and reset your computer, the game will run automatically; Disk two MUST be write enabled. Hard Drive Users Once workbench has loaded, insert disk one in any drive and double click the disk icon, locate and run the INSTALL program. Follow the on screen prompts and the game will install to your hard drive. Once installed simply locate the directory and double click on the game icon to start. The Game requires approximately 3Mb of Hard Drive space. BACKGROUND The Earth was in trouble; not from outside help, but from the endless attacks on its life by the inhabitants. By the Earth year 3259, the once luscious blue-green planet had become a cold looking brown, radiation had made the atmosphere itself completely unbreathable and with a lack of vegetation natural oxygen became but an occasional drift trailing behind a wind of dense smog. It was time for mankind to leave. Each surviving country began constructing the largest interstellar shuttles ever conceived. The plan was for each ark to transport an entire nation to a new planet in a new solar system with similar characteristics with that of Sol. Packed on board were enough minerals to set up a colony on one of the system's planets and the DNA of all vegetation left on Earth in order to create a stable eco-system. And so on January 1st 3260 the Earth became free of mankind. The American shuttle 'Independence' housing the last 15,000 of the American public all in deep sleep units drifted into a new solar system and, as predicted, a lifeless but fertile planet was found. The sleep units began to wake the population, and a power station and housing facilities were started on its surface; oxygen was low, but the eco-system could support vegetation. This time the planet must be looked after. The year is 3260NC, mankind has a new struggle The fight for Ultimate Domination OBJECTIVES In order to achieve Ultimate Domination each player must fight to claim all the planets in the system and over throw all opponents. The game is designed for one to four players and is turn based, although it is advisable for players to turn away from the screen when they are not playing. It does not harm the game play. However if you plan to play a serious conquest then you do not want your enemies to know where your home world is. --STARTING OFF-- QUICK START QUICK START In this brief section you will learn how to start a game and control your home world's eco system. At the title screen change the number of players from 2 to 1, this is achieved by clicking on the menu option until it reflects ONE PLAYER; and then start the game by clicking on START CONQUEST The screen will display the information panel which informs each player about their colonies and signifies the start of that players turn. At the bottom of there are 4 buttons: BEGIN Starts your turn SKIP Misses out your current go and moves to the next player LOAD Allows you to load a saved position SAVE Stores all of the current games information so that it can be continued later. There can be a maximum of 10 positions QUIT Quits the current game and returns you to the main menu Click BEGIN and you will be taken to a view of your primary planet,its name is displayed in the panel at the bottom of the screen, and at the moment the only button available is SURFACE, clicking the END button ends you turn. SURFACE Clicking on SURFACE will take you to an isometric map of the planet surface which will contain several structures. Click the SURFACE Button TIME Clicking on TIME brings up an overhead map which allows you to find out what buildings you have and if there are any under construction how many days until they are complete. To test this feature move the mouse over the yellow square on the map, the name RESOURCE TRANSPORTER will be displayed When you are finished press the right mouse button (RMB) to return to the isometric map. CONSTRUCT Click on CONSTRUCT and once again the overhead map will be displayed and also an inventory of the materials available to you. To the right of the overhead map a menu is shown that displays the various categories that the construction plans are under, clicking on MINING AND STORAGE will display the buildings: MINERAL MINE LIQUID MINE MATERIAL CONTAINER It is necessary to mine for more materials so that you can keep building so we will build a mine, click on MINERAL MINE, the mouse pointer will change to a pointer that is the same size as the building, simply find a suitable location for the mine and click the left mouse button (LMB). The square will change to show that there is a mine there. We do not require another just yet, so RMB will take you back to the sub-menu. Build a LIQUID MINE on a coastline, this will give it a chance to collect water and oil, and finally RMB back to the main menu and go into SCIENCE and build a SCIENCE LAB. Also because Then go back to the main menu and click RMB to return to the isometric map, which will now display the construction grids for the new buildings. Move the mouse to the bottom of the screen and click END. Once the information screen is displayed click SKIP to speed time up, when the information screen appears again click on SKIP once more, when the display appears the 3rd time begin the round and proceed to the planets surface, once there you will notice 2 new options. RESEARCH This is where you can develop new projects to aide in your conquest. INFOPEDIA Accesses the Infopedia, which allows you to read about all the inventions that can or have been developed And that's it, the only other thing that you'll need to do is build some trees, but you'll need to do some research for that. PATIENCE Although Ultimate Domination is essentially a multi-player game it is possible to play solo, however a great deal of patience is required - there may be times when you can't proceed because you're waiting for your scientists to finish developing a certain project. However UD is an enormous game and most of it is meant to be discovered over time and for this reason many features are not documented in this manual, we wanted to make the game as realistic as possible that's why most of the features are not meantioned, we don't want to spoil it for you. IN DEPTH BEGINNING This section will take you take you through the various aspects of the game and explain how they work. The first thing that each player will see is the information screen. It is used to signify the start of your turn and to warn the player about key events that happened after his/her previous go. At the base of the screen are five buttons: BEGIN Used to start the round SKIP Allows the player to miss his/her go LOAD/SAVE Lets you load and save a game position (only available at the start of Player One's turn) QUIT Quits the game and returns to the main menu In most cases the next display is that of the planetary view, at the start of the game there will only be 2 options here: SURFACE Takes you to the planet's surface END Allows you to end your turn The surface view is the main control area, it's where you can build new facilities, research new projects and construct your war machines. On the first visit to this screen you will be presented with a 3D map of the planet, 3 options will be immediately visible: CONSTRUCT Gives you the ability to assign construction workers to build new facilities TIME Which allows you to check on a construction project to see how long it's going to take, and POWER Although mainly used to tell you how much electricity is available, but by clicking on this button the program displays how much power is being consumed by each installation The other buttons at the bottom of the screen allow you to go to other sections of the game and END your turn. CONSTRUCTION From the surface view it is possible to build a new installation by clicking on CONSTRUCT, this displays 2 new panels: At the top of the screen is the materials inventory which also displays the number of unemployed people. The main panel at the bottom displays an overhead map along with an index for the construction plans, there are as follows: RESOURCES Has the building that produce or cleanse raw minerals MINING & Holds the different mines available and the storage STORAGE facilities SCIENCE Contains the buildings that lead to development of new projects ATTACK & Has the espionage and planetary defence structures DEFENCE ECOLOGICAL Plant life that can aid survival, for food and polution levels At the start of the game not all of these menus will be displayed, they will appear as you progress. Once you have located a building you want to build and have clicked on it the main panel will inform you of how much material is needed and the mouse pointer will reflect the number of plots of land needed for the construction, if for some reason it is not possible for you to build that item the reason will be displayed. The number of men needed for each project is equal to the number of plots of land needed. If all is ok, to build the facility simply find a suitable place on the map and click the left mouse button. Once this is done the map will display the new building and the game will allow you (if you have the resources) to build another, if you do not want another simply press the right mouse button to go back to the menu, right mouse button again will go back to the index and from there the RMB will take you to the 3D map. TIMES Once you have built a building it is represented on the main map with a construction grid, if you wish to know how long it will be before it is completed simply click the TIME button, which will bring up the overhead map, then simply move the cursor over to the building, the time left will be displayed to the right. RMB takes you back to the 3D map. FORESEE When you are considering building it is important to be aware of a few things: -Have you sufficient power to sustain it -Have you enough men for the job -If you build it are you going to be left with insufficient materials -Will it increase the polution levels for the planet INFOPEDIA The infopedia can be accessed from the surface map by clicking the INFO button. The infopedia screen is split in to several sections, the main part displays an index for each section, and the panel at the bottom gives immediate access to the other functions: INDEX Takes you straight back to the main menu, > Moves to the next project, EXIT Takes you out of the infopedia By clicking on one of the section names displays the first available project under that heading to move to the next project click on the Arrow, once you reached the end it will take you back to the start. If you enter a section that has no completed projects 'NO SIGNAL' will flash in the middle of the screen. RESEARCH The research and development section uses the same computer interface as the infopedia, however there are additional buttons on the panel: INDEX Returns you to the index Clock Face Displays the time in days, for the projects Info Sign Takes you to the infopedia EXIT Leaves the research department To access the available projects simply click on one of the sections. A new list will be displayed (if any projects are available) this will contain the names of the projects that your science crew can work on, next to each name is a number, this number reflects the number of men you have assigned to that project: The amount of men can be increased by clicking the left mouse button whilst over the project name, decreasing can be performed in the same way by using the right mouse button. Each science lab can hold up to 5 scientists. Once a project has been set it is worth noting that on leaving the research section the project stats (that is the number of men) can no longer be changed for that project. The right mouse button will now cancel the project. SYSTEM VIEW Once you can view the surrounding solar system you will notice you can only see a certain amount of space around the planets you own (depending on the strength of your scanners), also as you build up your technology you will be able to detect space debre and other objects. Without any major scanner all objects detected will be displayed as a white blip, however when you develop a more powerful detecting system the white blip will be replaced with more distinguishable items: Missile Missile or projectile Ship Ship or fleet of ships - man made Green blip Unknown object White Blip Probe It is also possible to see neighbouring planets and what sort of planet they are: SUN Impossible to land on and/or colonise FERTILE Old Earth type planet with a prosperous eco-system GASEOUS Almost no land, contains unkown gases ROCK Unfertile land, excelent for colonisation DEVESTATED Unfertile land with hardly any useable plots MARSH High levels of water, Small amounts of land However it is impossible to tell if the planet is habited or profitable for colonisation without sending a probe there first. INITIAL ITEMS Vegetable From the DNA of Earth made vegetable gardens this plots Garden of land combines the growth of food with release of valuable oxygen which helps keep polution down Material A small self-contained facility capable of storing up to Container 20 units of each basic material Power Uses state of the art turbines to generate a constant flow Generator of clean energy which can power most facilities of today's standard Science A high quality laboratory that can take on any number lab projects at a time and can house up to 5 scientists per building Mineral Using the finest titanium drill this mine can extract any Mine of the available minerals from within the planet Liquid Draws oil and water from below the surface, ideal for Mine supplying water for your settlers. For the best possible use we suggest that it is built on a shore line. ESPIONAGE WARNING In order to play the game it is not necessary to read this section as it may spoil the gameplay. In order to avoid spoiling the game some of the information herein is vague. If you have any difficulties in understanding any of the screens, simply press HELP and a concise guide to the current sect`on will be displayed. After clicking the SYSTEM MAP button on the planet view screen you will be presented with a view of the solar system simply click on PROBE and select a probe bay, then click on the source planet and then the planet that you wish to have a satellite orbit and it will be launched. The planet's control centre can only sustain five satellites at a time, however once a satellite has reached the planet another can be launched. To view a planet's surface when you do not not own it, simply go to the system view, click PLANET and select a planet that that you have a satellite orbiting. All planets that you can view have a white rectangle under. COMBAT WARNING: In order to play the game it is not necessary to read this section as it reveals information on latter aspects of the game. If at any point you have difficulties understanding the display simply press HELP and a concise guide to the current screen will be displayed. From the surface view enter FLEET DESIGN and add some craft to the list, then go to the system view and click SEND FLEET, choose your fleet and select a destination or target. If it is a target then a battle will commence when the fleet intercepts it. ATTACK: When a battle situation has arrived the attacking player gets to select a ship within the fleet to break off and attack. Then the defending player selects a ship to block the attacker. After the combat has been resolved, the attacking player may choose to fight again or retreat. This continues until one of the fleets has been destroyed or the attacker has retreated. COLONISATION Before colonisation of neighbouring worlds can be performed there are a few constructions and advancements required. To ensure the gameplay these constructions are not meantioned below. Once you have located a possible planet for colonisation you will need to have built a colonisation shuttle and have ampel resources for a new colony. When you are certain that you want to colonise a new planet then simply send a shuttle towards the desired planet, when it arrives there are two situations that can occur once one of your colonisation shuttles has arrived at a new planet. The target planet can either be uninhabited or inhabited. Uninhabited Planet: On arriving at an uninhabited planet a new button will appear on the system map screen CLAIM PLANET. On clicking this button a list of resources needed will be displayed, if you meet the necessary requirements you can click on CLAIM to take control of the planet. A colonisation plant will be transported to the surface. You can now build on this new planet. Inhabited Planet: If you send a shuttle to an inhabited planet you will first need to send fighter craft in order to take out any defences that the planet might have. Once your shuttle can get passed all the defences a new button will appear on the system map view ATTACK PLANET. You will then be asked to nominate a certain number of your men that you want to beam down to the surface to attack. If they are successful you will gain control of the planet and all the remaining facilities. However, if your men fail then you will lose them and probably the shuttle as well. GAME DEPTH Ultimate Domination is huge. Even though by reading this manual it may not seem so, most of the game involves technological advancements that are not available at the start of the game and because we do not want to spoil the game none of the advancements are discussed in this manual, for all of these aspects the game has been made as user-friendly as possible. SIGHTINGS Alien Threat: During a recent struggle in the Barnard Star region between the UK colony and the Russion colony an unknown craft made a devestating blow to both sides settlements, this report has neither been confirmed, nor disproved. It is suggested that all parties keep an eye out. CREDITS Initial Work Paul Huckstepp Game Design and Background Work Paul Huckstepp Coding Paul Huckstepp Graphics Paul Huckstepp Video - 3D raytracing Paul Huckstepp Playtesting Paul Huckstepp Stuart Gentry David Baldwin Ultimate Domination is produced by Alternative Realities 1997 All events and people meantioned are fictitious and any simularities to events and/or people living or dead are truly coincidental. This product was created using: Amos Pro, Imagine 4 (PC), Text Engine 5, Personal Paint 6, Rend 24, Image Studio On: A1200, 6Mb Ram, CD ROM drive REQUIREMENTS Minimum system requirements are: Any Amiga, WB2.0+, 2Mb Ram Recommended system requirements are: Any 68020 Amiga, WB2.0+, 4Mb RAM, Hard Drive NOTES ON SHAREWARE Naturally it would be suicidal to release a game as freeware if it took you over a year to produce, and so UD is Shareware. This version is unregistered and is on 2 disks is limited to 1 or 2 players and has only a few animations out of the 18 in the full product, there is no intro storyline either, and you have only 50 cycles of play time although a lot can happen in 50 turns. The load and Save facilities have also been disabled, this way you cannot hack into the code and change the variables. The full product is available directly from me for a mere 5 pounds. For this you get the three disk upgradeble version of Ultimate Domination, which features: ·1 to 4 players ·Intro animation with speech ·Load and Save up to 10 games ·18 raytraced cut scenes ·Unlimited game time ·Piece of mind that you are influencing me to continue programming Please make any cheques payable to: P. Huckstepp and send them to: Alternative Realities 19 Lilac Rd Strood Kent ME2 2LE VERSIONS Checking the version number of UD couldn't be easier simply load the game from WORKBENCH and when the title screen appears press LEFT-AMIGA+CTRL+A this will return you to the workbench. A small text file will have been created in RAM called version, simply load this into a text viewer.