=========================== Dark Oberon - Quick Guide =========================== http://dark-oberon.sourceforge.net/ About ----- Dark Oberon is an open source real-time strategy game released under the GPL. It plays like other RTS games, like the more familiar Warcraft II. Right now Dark Oberon only supports multiplayer games. It is possible to play the game in single player mode, but you won't have any enemies to defeat. Running the game ---------------- To try the game without enemies select "Quick Play" in main menu. A random map and race will be chosen for you. To play multiplayer, one player must create the game. The game is created by selecting "Play > Create > Create" in menu. Other players must connect to the player that has created the game by selecting "Play > Connect" and entering his IP address or computer name in the IP text field. The game is then started by clicking on "Play" on the first player's computer. The game screen --------------- While the game is running, you'll see a right panel and a bottom panel. On the bottom panel you can see amounts of gold, wood, and coal, as well as your used/maximum amount of food and energy. The right panels shows a minimap or radar, which is an overview of the whole map. If a unit is selected, information about the units are shown under the radar. Underneath the description there are icons for all actions a unit or building can do: Stay, Move, Attack, Mine, Repair, and Build. At the right-bottom corner is an icon indicating which field layers are shown. In Dark Oberon there can be 3 layers in the map, usually air, ground and underground. Game control ------------ The game is controlled by mouse and optionally with a keyboard. Controlling with the mouse is easy. Select a unit by left-clicking on it and perform an action by right-clicking on another unit, building or place on a map. To move a unit, select it by left-clicking on it and then right-click on the map where you want to send it. To send a Peasant to a Gold Mine, select it and right-click on a Gold Mine. Selecting a group ----------------- To select more units at once, press and hold the left mouse button and drag the mouse. Your mouse will draw a green box on the field. All your units in this box will be selected. You can add or remove units from the selection by left-clicking on a unit while holding either CTRL key. You can also combine CTRL with the multi-select to add a group to selection at once. Remembering selections ---------------------- You can save and restore selections! Select some units and press CTRL and '1'. This will store your selection under key '1'. Whenever you will want to restore the selection, press '1' and the saved group will be selected. Pressing '1' twice will not only restore the sellection but also move the map to show the units of the selection in the center of the screen. The same can be accomplished by pressing ALT and '1'. You can save up to 9 selections under keys '1', '2'... to '9'. Moving a map ------------ There are several ways to move the field map around. If you leave your mouse cursor at one of the edges of the screen, the map will follow in that direction. Just put your mouse on the right edge of the screen, and the map will scroll to the east. You can also move the map by pressing ALT and then moving the mouse around. The map can be moved also with cursor keys UP, RIGHT, DOWN and LEFT. It's a little slow, but it's precise. What about moving the map with the minimap? Sure, just click or drag anywhere on the minimap with the left mouse button! There's one more way to move the map: with the center mouse button. Hold the center mouse button down, then move the cursor around and the map will scroll in the direction you move the mouse! It's like you would brush a paper across a desk in real life. Zooming the map --------------- You can zoom the map by rolling your mouse wheel (the vertical wheel, if you happen to have two), or with the '+' (zoom in) and '-' (zoom out) keys on either the number pad or above the letter keys. The key '=' acts the same as '+' - it's there for those of us who are too lazy to press SHIFT. You can reset the zoom level back to default by pressing '/'. Creating new buildings ---------------------- Peasants actually have a purpose--hard labor! They'll build you any building you can afford, it's easy! Select a Peasant, the build dialog will appear on the right panel. Choose a building from the list with a left click, and then right-click on the field where you want to build it. Careful, if you click the left mouse button, nothing will happen because the left button is used for selections and the right button is used for actions! New buildings can only be built on a the map where you've already cleared the Fog of War. Of course, you need to have enough material for building. If the building can not be built when you right-click on the map, you'll get a message like "Not enough gold for building". You can find how much material you need in the tooltips - hold your mouse cursor over a building icon in the right panel while in the build dialog to see it. You can build faster when you use more Peasants--the more, the merrier! Just select more Peasants when you are going to build the building. You can add more Peasants to help by sending them repair that building. Just select a Peasant with a left click, and select the target building a quick right click. Building will stop if one of the materials runs out--an icon of the missing material will appear on the half-built structure, and you'll see a message singing the same song. Creating new units ------------------ Some buildings can make units! Barracks can create Footmen, and Town Halls can make more Peasants. Build a Barracks, and select it. In the build dialog (which will be preselected when you click on Barracks) select the unit you want build. Barracks can build only Footmen, so there will not be many choices. :-) If you want to build several units in a row, one at a time. Just can click more than once on the unit's icon. Creation of the second unit will start immediately after the first unit will be ready. If you run out of supplies before a unit is finished, an icon of the lacking material will appear on top of the building making the unit, and you'll get a message telling you anyway since you might not be able to see it. You can pause unit creation by left-clicking on actualy created unit in the build panel, near the bottom. You can cancel the creation by right-clicking it. Gathering materials ------------------- Peasants do more than build--they can go get materials! Just select a Peasant or a group of them, and right-click their destination. As long as there's a nearby place to store the material (Shed for Wood, Town Hall for Wood and Gold, Fortress for Wood, Gold, and Coal), the little guys will get your supplies and walk it back to the building it's intended. If they can't find one close by, they'll just freeze in place holding your lumber or ores. Forests provide Wood, Mines yield Gold, and Underground Mines yield Coal. Peasants can't mine Coal; that's up to Molemen. You'll need to expand your Town Hall to be able to make Molemen. If you should catch a Peasant or Moleman standing in place holding a load of material, but he can't seem to find his way home, select him and right-click on any building that will store his load--he'll do his best to walk over there. When he's finished, your Peasant or Moleman will wait patiently outside the building. If a Mine or Forest is depleted, after the last dropoff the Peasant will see that the spot is empty, so he'll just wait outside the building he was just inside, and you'll get a message from him saying "Cannot find source." Just select him and send him elsewhere. When a mine is depleted of its source, it will be closed down, and you'll have to find a new one. When a forest is emptied, it will take some time to regrow. You can came back later to harvesting Wood from it again. Attacking --------- Right click on the unit or building you want to attack, after selecting the unit(s) you plan to attack with, or course. It's that simple! If you want to attack your own unit for some reason, select the Attack action in right panel or press 'A'. All buildings, and even forests and mines can be destroyed. Once totally destroyed, a forest will not regenerate at all.