######################################################### ## # # ## ## # This is Obbe Vermeij's game # ## ## # # ## ## # The Shepherd # ## ## # # ## ######################################################### THE SHEPHERD IS A SHAREWARE GAME ! If you like this game and play it a lot please send some money to the author. This will enable him to support other shareware stuff that HE likes. 30 US$ , 50 DM or any equivalent amount of money in any other currency will make you a registered Shepherd-player. You will receive a manual including a very handy who-eats- who guide. You will also be informed on any changes/updates in the game. Author of 'the Shepherd' is Obbe Vermeij ; O.Vermeij Brasserskade 69 2612 CA Delft Holland (015) 138059 email : obbe@ph.tn.tudelft.nl to start the game, double click on the 'the_shepherd' icon. disk in df0: ! - the Shepherd; the Story. It was a zillion years ago that the gods got bored. They were floating around in the big black void they called home with nothing to do and not even a snack-bar around. At that moment the gods did what entities do as they get bored; they started to play games. First a god created an enormous firecracker and lighted the thing. This of course was great fun. At the explosion a lot of balls of mud were created and the gods soon figured out a lot of great things to do with these spheres. They played snooker, tennis, golf, cricket and bowling. After a while they were so good at predicting the course of the mud- balls that they had to come up with some sort of new game and that is what they did. One of the gods took one of the mud-balls and created some extremely simple, extremely unintelligent and extremely ugly artificial lifeforms on it. This mud- ball was the arena of the new game. In this game (the gods simply called it 'the Shepherd') two gods had to compete. Each of them would try to make his artificial lifeforms (the gods called them animals) in larger quantities than the other. The player that could destroy all the animals of the enemy was declared winner. Of course knowledge on behaviour of the life-forms was the key element to the game. The gods were really having a great time when one of the artificial life-forms (this is where you come in) wanted to compete. It was a member of the group of lifeforms that was the 3rd most intelligent on the mud-ball. Some gods called them apes V2.0 but others called them humans. Of course most of the gods wouldn't play against a human but some thought he ought to have a chance. It was decided that the human-player should play against the best 'the Shepherd'-players. If the human should beat them all (this was considered highly un- likely) the gods would promise him not only to save the mud-ball, the human lived on, from being used in a game of space-snooker after they finished playing 'the Shepherd', (This was their original plan with the mud-ball) but they would also tell the human the meaning of life, the universe and everything. Every time the human would beat a god, a small piece of knowledge would be revealed to the human. Now, human, it is time to start the challenge. Most of the rules of 'the Shepherd' are described here but tactics and strategies are for you to learn yourself. - the Shepherd; the rules. The Shepherd will run on an Amiga with at least 512k chip and a total memory of 1 Megabyte. Unfortunately the game doesn't work on a 4000 (yet). The idea of the game is to buy animals and to move them over the map so that they multiply as fast as possible. The player controls the red animals (red animals wear a red band around the neck or tail) and the Amiga controls the blue ones. Animals are grouped in flocks and an individual animal will always stay in the neighborhood of the flock-center. The flock-center is indicated by a golden pricker with a statue of the specific kind of animal on top of it. A player cannot control the individual animals but only the flock-prickers. When a pricker is moved the animals be- longing to that specific flock will start to move in the direction of the pricker until they are once again close enough. When left alone the animals will search for food and water. Well fed animals will produce young. Of course there is only a limited supply of food. The trees and bushes on the map grow and produce more bushes but as the animals get more numerous the vegetation usually gets scarce. The idea is to keep the computers' flock away from the best forests. Players can also start new forests by buying trees and placing them at the right height. (firs high, birches low) Buying animals and trees as well as unchaining natural phenomena like lightning and vulcanoes costs energy. A player gets energy for every animal he owns but of course an elephant makes more energy than a young deer. When the player gets more energy, more options will come available for him. - the Shepherd; the buttons. There are 3 ways to move the map: - By using the buttons with the arrows. - By moving the small square over the small map. - By pressing the right mouse button and moving the mouse. Buttons: O This button moves a flock. O + Press this button and move the pointer to a flock on + -> | the map.(a picture of the flock-pricker will appear | between the 8 direction arrows) Press the left mouse button. (The picture will become stable) Scroll to the desired location and press the left mouse button again. O This button splits a flock. O + O Press this button. Click on the flock-pricker and two + -> | + prickers will come into being, both containing half the | | number of animals. This will be usefull when a flock became to large for a certain food source. O This button merges two flocks. + O O Click on the first flock-pricker and then on the second. | + -> + The two flocks will become one. This only works with | | flocks of the same species. ## Purchase animal. # Animals and plants can be bought using this button. -> #### Animals can only be placed near the large golden statue # # of the Shepherd. (the computer also has such a begin- point).Plants can be placed everywhere but it is wise to place them at the right height. (In the first level the large golden shepherd statue is positioned in the middle of the field) There are many other buttons (like start rain, raise water, lower water, raise land locally, lower land locally, release virus, start lightning, scare animals(NI), earthquake, vulcano, erode mountains, carnivorous plants) but you will discover them as you play the game. -the Shepherd; level goals. Note that there are different goals in different levels. The goal for a specific level is mentioned as you start the level. There may or may not be a time limit. When the goal is to fill your manna-meter (cumulative) the manna-meter no longer reflects the amount of animals you have at that moment but the amount of animals you have ever had multiplied by the time you have had them. (Having had 1 elephant for 2 minutes is just as good as having had 2 elephants for 1 minute). -the Shepherd; Passwords. Every time you complete a level you will get a level-password. (something like 'kldoa') This password enables you to start at that level the next time you play the game. A password only works for a specific shepherd-name. The default name is 'nobody'. If you want to use another name (like 'oliebol') you'd better change the name before you begin level 1. There is no way to change the name when you are on level 2 or higher without having to start all over. On the other hand, there is nothing wrong with playing with 'nobody' as a name. -the Shepherd; Manna-meters. At any stage in a game the computer has a certain amount of manna (representing its bio-mass) and the player has a certain amount of manna. These amounts are displayed in the manna-meters of the computer and the player. These manna-meters are displayed to the left of the turn-map buttons. For the computer the manna shows up blue and for the player red/orange. The manna-meters look like a bunch of tubes with 2 sections. A section to the left spiralling upwards and a small section to the right. The left section is a fine scale and the right section is the part you will usually be looking at. This may sound very complicated and unfortunately it is. It may help however to take a look at the manna-meter while buying animals. The 2 manna-meters (computer and player) will be replaced by one manna-meter on levels where there is a time limit. Just click on the manna-meter to toggle between computer/player manna-meter. -the Shepherd; Getting started. Some people may find it useful to follow this example to get the general idea of the game and to get used to the important buttons. It may be a good idea to print this section out on paper for use while playing. (You could also memorize it) Make sure you read the explanation with the 4 buttons described above. They are very important and will be used frequently. Here we go: Start the game by pressing the icon with the Shepherd. Enjoy the 2 intro screens. When signs appear press a button to go to the selection screen. (the 'h' key will do quite nicely) You can use the 'F3' key to change the name of the shepherd. Start the game by pressing 'F1'. This will take about 20 secs. You will now see a part of the game-world in the center of the screen and a small map of the total game-world in the upper left part of the screen. Now move the small square in the upper left window to the red dot on the map. Click the left mouse button when pointing on the upper left window to move the small square. When the small square in the upper left window covers the red dot you will see a red statue of a shepherd on the large view on the center of the screen. This shepherd-statue is your begin point. Newly bought animals can only be placed near this statue. Newly bought trees can be placed all over the map. Now we are going to buy an animal. Press the 6th button from the left (the buy animal button, under the small bird). A row of animals and trees will be displayed. Choose the animal you want to buy. (Sheep would be a good idea (3rd from the left)) The next thing you have to do is to place the sheep on the map. (large map) You have to place the sheep close to the Shepherd- statue. If you try to place them too far away, nothing will happen but if everything goes well a small golden pricker with a golden sheep on top of it will appear. The 2 real sheep you just bought will stay close to their gol- den flock-pricker. Your sheep will need food so it's a good idea to move the flock- pricker to a place where there is food. Somewhat to the right of the large shepherd-statue there is a group of bushes. Use the left most button to move the sheep flock-pricker to the bushes. When you have done that, your sheep will follow their flock-pricker. They will eat from the bushes and when spring comes they will probably produce young. This might take a few miutes but you can use the >> button to speed-up time and skip a minute or so forward in the game. (This might take a second or two)