This document is not finished. Please bear with it. Last updated: September 2nd, 2005. Introduction You guide a team of hardcore soldiers on missions to rid the universe of the big, nasty, evil aliens. Sometimes the missions involve killing everything hostile that moves. Sometimes they need you to rescue something valuable. Sometimes you need to blow something up. If you have seen movies like Aliens or Starship Troopers, this should be very familiar to you. If you haven't, go watch them already. Requirements The Game is written in Java™ 2 version 1.4, which means you have to have a proper virtual machine installed on your computer. Starting up The way to start the Game varies slightly with each platform. It is easiest on Mac OS X: just double click The Game icon in the Finder. In other operating systems, navigate into TheGame.app -directory, and launch the appropriate command file. Or, if you know how to run JAR files, run the one located at TheGame.app/Contents/Resources/Java/. It's called TheGame.jar. When the Game starts up, it first shows you the team entry window. There you can select the mission, assign soldiers to the mission, recruit new soldiers and discharge old ones you don't like. Click to enlarge On the top left of the team entry window is a panel with all your soldiers. You can click a soldier's picture to get information about him. With the soldier visible in the information panel, click "Add to team" button to add the soldier to the mission team. Alternatively you can double click the picture in the soldier selection panel to quickly add the soldier to the team. At the bottom left is the mission team. You can remove soldiers from it by selecting them and pressing the "Remove from team" button or double clicking the soldier's picture. You can choose weapons for the soldiers by clicking the weapon's icon below the picture. This brings up a pop-up menu with available weapons. Your team has a limit on how much equipment is available, based on the rank of the team leader. Some weapons and equipment will only be available to higher-ranking teams. Below the soldier information panel are three buttons, called "Recruit", "Create" and "Discharge". With these you can recruit new soldiers to your team, create custom soldiers that are more suited to your liking, or permanently remove a soldier from the team. You will be asked for confirmation before a soldier is shown the door. On the bottom right is the mission information area. Click "Select" button to choose a mission. If you are playing the Game for the first time, it will show you a file dialog asking for a mission file. Navigate to the directory that contains the missions and select a mission file. This only needs to be done the once. Click to enlarge The mission dialog has two parts. On the left are the available missions, on the right the mission briefing area. When you select a mission, its briefing will be shown. You can also click on the "Random" button to play a random mission. Press the OK button in the mission selection dialog to return to the team manager window. When you have selected a mission and your team, click "Start mission" button, and wait while the Game loads up the map and the graphics, and sets up the main window. When you see it, you're ready to go kill stuff. Controlling the soldiers On the bottom left of the Game window are the mode keys. One of these is always selected. The modes are, left to right, Walk, Run, Use and Attack. To the right of the mode keys are the soldier buttons. You can use these to select the soldiers. The main area of the game window holds the actual game view. Clicking on the game view will make your currently active soldier try to perform the appropriate task. For example, if you have Walk mode selected, and click on the game view, your soldier will try to walk to the spot you clicked on. Likewise, if the current mode is Attack, and you click a monster, the soldier will try to shoot at it. On the right is the overview map, and below it, soldier information area. It shows the soldier's name, face, current action points, health level, and selected weapon, with the currently active firing mode. You can click on the overview map to quickly view that area in the game view, and you can set the weapon firing mode from the drop-down list. In the lower right corner of the game window is the end turn button. Clicking this will end your turn, and let the monsters do whatever they are up to. After that, you will be back on the commander's seat for another turn. Different actions cost different amount of action points. If you try to do something, and the soldier doesn't seem to do anything, he or she may not have the sufficient action points for the task, or it may simply be that the task is impossible. The amount of action points available for the soldiers varies based on several factors. An important factor is the skill level of the soldier and the leader he or she is following. More experienced soldiers will have more action points, as will soldiers who follow a motivational and experienced leader. The soldiers can operate on their own for a short while, but if they lose sight of their leader, they will have to think more for themselves, and consequently will have less action points. Wounded soldiers suffer a severe reduction to available action points. Finally, heavy equipment costs action points to carry. You can also use the keyboard to quickly control the soldiers. You can move the selected soldier with the keyboard despite the current game mode. Probably the fastest way to get around is let the game always be set on Attack mode, and use the keypad to move around. If you are standing next to a door, the soldier will open the door if you try to move on it. After you have finished your mission objectives and need to return to the base, or of you otherwise want to regroup a team that has been spread out, you can press Control-G (or Command-G on a Mac). This will cause your soldiers to try to move towards their leader, as far as they can. Just watch out for those pesky airlock doors. Key(s) Function Keypad 7, q Move North-west Keypad 8, w Move North Keypad 9, e Move North-east Keypad 4, a Move West Keypad 6, d Move East Keypad 1, z Move South-west Keypad 2, x Move South Keypad 3, c Move South-east Home Center the view on the active soldier Page up Previous soldier Page down Next soldier Help, Insert, Delete, h Redisplay the mission information p, n Redisplay previous messages f Shoot selected target (See full keyboard control below) u Use selected target (See full keyboard control below) F1 Primary weapon firing mode F2 Secondary weapon firing mode Control-G Command-G Regroup Full keyboard control Full keyboard access uses shift and control as modifiers. If you keep shift down and press a movement key, the soldier will try to Use the target in the appropriate direction. See "Using objects" for more information. If you press the control key, you will be shown the target reticle. The target reticle appears over the nearest enemy, or in front of the currently active character if there are no enemies visible. The reticle can be moved by the movement keys or arrow keys while keeping control pressed. Move the target reticle over the desired target, and then press the f key to fire, or u to use the target. You can also keep the meta (Command on a Macintosh computer) to temporarily switch to the secondary firing mode when shooting. Moving Set the Walk or Run mode on. Click on the game view where you want to soldier to move. The soldiers will open any doors on their way, if possible. The soldiers can not move through walls. Alternatively, press the appropriate key on the keyboard. Using objects You can try to Use doors and various mission-related items. Doors can be opened and closed by selecting the Use mode and clicking on them. If nothing happens, the object isn't usable, or the soldier is standing too far away from it to use it. You can quickly Use objects by clicking on them with the middle mouse button (or Option-clicking on a Mac), regardless of the current game mode. You can move some furniture items around by walking against them. This will cost more action points than normal. Moving objects will cause damage to characters behind them. Note that some objects are too heavy or otherwise impossible to move. Objects that do not block movement can be pushed by Using them, or keeping the shift down while moving with keyboard. Mines Sometimes there are mines spread throughout the levels. In some missions the objective is to disarm or destroy them. However, the mines will start out as hidden, and you will have to spot them first. This happens automatically. If the soldier is near a mine, he may see it if his Awareness attribute is high enough. Basic Military Training will also aid in this, but it is less effective. Once you find a mine, you can try to disarm it by walking next to it and Using it. This requires Explosives attribute. The light in the mine turns from red to yellow when you successfully disarm it. Beware: sometimes the mines go off when you try to walk near them. This can also be avoided with Explosives, or plain good Luck. It is also possible to arm disarmed mines into your own use. You can do this by Using a disarmed mine. The light in the mine will turn green if you are successful. The mine will now be safe for your soldiers to step on, but will explode if any enemy treads on it. Note that a mine armed this way will still count as armed for missions that require you to disarm or destroy them. If none of your soldiers are good with explosives, you can detonate the mines by shooting at them. This may require a few attempts, and suitably powerful weapons. Automatic sentry guns In some missions you may have automatic sentry guns somewhere on the level. These automatically shoot the nearest monster. It is possible to push the sentry guns around. Just move up against a sentry gun, and it will be pushed in the direction of the movement. If you try to push it into a wall or a closed door, it will switch places with the soldier who is pushing it. The sentry guns can be destroyed by shooting or attacking them, and they will also have limited ammunition. Note that you can block doorways with sentry guns and still fire over them yourself, except with flame throwers. First aid You can heal wounded soldiers by clicking on them with the Use mode selected. First aid requires two action points, and the more damage the character has suffered, the more difficult it will be to heal. Also, first aid can only restore a character up to 70% of his or her maximum health. Finally, if the character performing first aid isn't skilled enough, it is possible to even hurt the one being healed. You can see the how the healing attempt succeeded by the icon that comes up when you Use the soldier. A first aid pack means the soldier was healed. A green exclamation mark means the soldier cannot be healed further. A yellow exclamation mark means a failed healing attempt, and a red one means the attempt failed disastrously, possibly causing further damage. Shooting Select the Attack mode, and click at the enemy. Weapons with area effect, such as grenades, can also be fired on the ground. When firing mode is active, you will see red and yellow boxes around the monsters. These will tell you if the soldier can see the monster. Red box indicates that the currently active soldier can not see the monster, but his buddies can. Yellow box indicates that the monster can be fired at. The soldiers may not always hit their targets properly. If you hear a ricochet sound, the shot missed the target. Also beware that larger monsters, including other soldiers, can block the line of fire, and you can hit them instead of the intended target. It is even possible that you soldiers may die from friendly fire. You can quickly access the secondary firing mode of the weapon with the right mouse key (or Command-clicking on a Mac). The weapon fires using the secondary function, and reverts back to the previously selected firing mode. Close combat You can attack enemies in close combat by moving up to them. Close combat is potentially more rewarding than shooting, but it can also be more risky, as the enemies can try to defend themselves. Try to sneak up behind them for maximal effect. Close combat requires action points just as shooting. However, there is a way to preserve your strenghts by being prepared. If your soldiers have action points left when the enemies try to attack them, they will fight back with no extra cost. The soldiers' close combat ability is represented by their Melee attribute. The higher the attribute, the better they are at fighting, and the more damage they can inflict on the enemies. Experience As your soldiers complete more missions, they will become more experienced. You can see their attributes by clicking on their face in the game window. This opens up a soldier information window, which shows the soldier's rank, attributes, mission kills, total kills, the number of missions the soldier has participated in, and free experience. Each attribute has a level, and experience set to it. Once the attribute gets enough experience, its level will raise at the end of the mission. Higher level means higher capability on the attribute. You can move free experience points to the attribute by clicking its name. Promotions Your soldiers have ranks. After they have finished enough missions and gained enough experience, it is possible to get promotions. A higher ranking leader can gain access to better equipment. Generally, a team should have at least a sergeant as its leader. Lieutenants and captains have access to a much wider array of equipment, and a major can requisition pretty much any equipment he deems necessary for the mission. To get promoted, you will generally have to succeed in a mission, have certain levels in certain attributes, and a number of free attribute points that are not assigned to any particular attribute (Up to 20 points, depending on the rank). Also, the soldier will need some Luck, as promotions are not automatic. Leadership, Morale, and Basic Military Training are the most important attributes for promotions, but other skills can be useful, too. A soldier who is very good with a particular weapon may gain the attention of his or her superiors, and a very good medic or engineer may gain a honorary rank of lieutenant. Ending the mission When you have completed all your primary objectives, the mission will end. At this point, the game checks whether any of the soldiers advance in their attributes. Living soldiers will be saved, and you will be returned to the team manager window. Aborting mission If you want to abort a mission, you must return all your living soldiers to a safe starting point. When they are there, and you end a turn, you will eventually be offered a choice to abort the mission. This may take a few turns. If you do not want to immediately abort, you will have to wait another five turns until you are offered the chance to abort again. Copyright © 2002-2005 Virtu Halttunen. All rights reserved. The author takes no responsibility for any damages, material or psychological, caused by reading this document or playing the Game. Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc.