battle.txt v1.0 11/27/98



Launching the battle module
_______________________________________________________________________________


The executable is located in the progs directory where all modules
have their home.

Please start the game under DOS. If you have installed Win95/98 you
could restart in DOS mode, reboot hitting F8 during boot up or use a
DOS box ( Look at the troubleshooting section ).

After you have launched battle.exe from a DOS shell you are presented 
with the game selection screen. 
Without a valid network card and a valid IPX stack the only availabe
selection should be  "HOT SEAT GAME".
"LOAD GAME", "LOAD AUTOSAVE" will be available if you already played 
and saved a game.
The battle module automagically saves a game evey 20 game seconds. 

If there is a ethernet card installed "NET HOST" or "NET CLIENT" may
be available if battle.exe was launched with the correct netgame
command line parameters ( -n and -t ).

battle -h displays all valid parameters which are :

-s     Disable all sound
-m     Disable music

-n X   Total number of players in a NETGAME [X = 2 - 4]
-t X   Team number of player in a NETGAME [X = 1 - 4, 1 for host]

Choose "HOTSEAT GAME" to play with up to four players on one computer.
Players 1 and 3 are automatically allied as well as players 2 and 4.
A normal hot seat game with all features enabled therefore is launched
by just typing 'battle.exe'.


If you have a LAN and launched battle with -t 1, you can choose "NET
HOST" to host a network game cause the host is always team 1.

!!! Attention !!!
The SLOWEST machine should host the game !!!

Start the game with "battle -t 1 -n 4" to init a 4 player game as host.

The other players have to launch with
battle.exe -t 2 -n 4
battle.exe -t 3 -n 4
battle.exe -t 4 -n 4 respectivly as clients.

Teams 1 (blue) and 3 (green) are allied against teams 2 (yellow) and 
4 (red).

After you have either selected "HOTSEAT GAME" or "NET HOST" you
have to choose the map size and allocate titans to the individual 
teams (players). Each player can control up to 8 titans.

!!! Attention !!!
You can select the Jock AND enable the AI by right clicking on his
name instead of left clicking !

You can either select jocks and titans from a team file created by
the HQ module OR choose 'Random Player Team' or 'Random AI Team'.
In this case the titans are randomly choosen from all available
designs in the database.
They are crewed with random generated jocks. You have to select the
quality of the random team which will influence the total team weight
as well as the skill of the jocks.

If you have initiated a netgame and choosen "NET CLIENT" you then have
to wait for the host to select the teams and transfer unit and map data.
The host is selecting the titans for all teams by clicking on the jocks
names, activating "NEXT TEAM" if he is satisfied with his selection
until all teams are complete and "START GAME" can be pressed.

If you have a valid saved game you can also choose "LOAD GAME" here.

[Excuse the clumsy net start, it will be improved for v2.0 !
Look in the troubleshooting section for a more detailed example of
a net start.]

After all selection is done the games starts. In a netgame there is a
short delay when the host transfers data to the clients.
If a client hangs at this stage, please read the troubleshooting
section.

If all teams were randomized you should now select the maximum weight
for one team.  

If all went well so far the game loads and you are warped to the ->



Battle Game Screen
_______________________________________________________________________________

If you don't like what you see press 'Q' ( Shift-q ).
Thats the only way to quit the game besides killing the process.

If you decided to go on, you are presented with the main screen.
The map takes about 4/5 of the screen. It is scrollable with the arrow
keys or mouse clicks on the frame borders. Left clicks do scroll by one
hex, right clicks by 2 hexes.


The map is divided into hexes, each representing a special terrain type
(plain, three types of hill, ditch ...) and different types of vegetation.
These terrains directly affect movement (speed, skill checks) and combat.
If more than one titans are in a hex, the total number is displayed in the
upper left hex corner. 


One hex represents 333 m in diameter. Up to 9 ToS can populate one hex
at a time. A jumping ToS is either 30 m or 60 m above ground (jump levels
1 or 2) regardless of the vegetation height.
This means that a ToS jumping over plain on level 2 is 60m above
ground whereas a ToS jumping over a 53m hill with 21m forest at jump level
1 is 30m above ground.
Game time is represented in seconds.

You can left click on a hex to get some informations about terrain and
titans, if available. The popup window can be moved with drag & drop 
(right mouse buttton) and closed by left clicking into the bordered square 
which displays a copy of the hex on the popup window.
If there are titans in the hex it is possible to get some stats by
clicking on the popup windows left arrows and to cycle back with the right
arrows. The titan will be displayed with a white/black HEX border if 
locked with the battle computer and a green SQUARE border if successfully 
scanned. Light green displays an even better scan than normal green.
If the scanner is switched off, the amount of available data is reduced.

The screen border features little fancy non functional decoration and some
more interesting areas. Most obvious are the buttons on the bottom border
which are for selecting your actions and are described in detail later on.
On the right bottom is another area which shows the following :

1. Game time in seconds
2. Heading of selected titan.
3. Remaining/total jump time. The small arrow is coloured red if
   the titan is unable to jump, green if its jump ports are fully
   loaded, yellow when recycling and blue if its actually jumping.
4. The remaining time of protection as well as the ammunition of flares.
   The small arrow is red when unable to launch flares, green when
   ready and blue when flares are launched and active.
5. The current selected jock and its mode. ( 'move', 'attack' or 
   'wait' in netgames ). The active mode is displayed in green.
   The jocks name is coloured according to his special health status.
   white    :  OK
   yellow   :  Dizzy
   lightred :  Bleeding
   red      :  Unconscious
   The remaining time for the opposite mode is also displayed.

On the lower right border are graphical displays for the titans
temperature and the jocks health status. 
The three health bubbles are filled and will empty in proportion to
the hit points the jock looses. Their color is corresponding to the
negative skill modifiers the jock receives if wounded. 

Above you can see a small titan icon which is surrounded by a green sphere 
if the shield is up and ready, a small red sphere if the shield is
depleted and reloading and no sphere if there is no shield enabled.
Enabled scanner and E.C.M are displayed green above this small titan,
active jump is displayed below in green as well.

On the right border are double rows of LEDs.
These show the status of all weapon and miscallenous systems for the
selected titan. 

The top fifteen LEDs are reserved for the weapon systems. If there are few
than 15 weapons installed the LED stay blue.

The left LED shows the weapons damage level :
green   : ok
yellow  : damaged
red     : destroyed

The right LED shows the weapons readiness :
green   : ready
violett : reloading
red     : out of ammo


The next four LEDs in the middle display the status of punch/kick.

The ten lower LEDS display the status of the internal systems.
Here the second LED is green if the system is toggable and on.

The last LED displayes the status of the gyro system.

You can left click the LEDs to get additional informations which pops
up in a small window. It can be closed by left clicking into it.
Additionally you can right click and drag the mouse to switch between
all LEDs more quickly.

If not powered by energy the weapons available ammunition is also displayed
[ A: XX ] as well as the time to reload [ R: XX ].

The equipment name is diplayed in a colour corresponding to its 
damage level :
light green : ok
yellow      : light damage
lightred    : medium damage
red         : heavy damage
black       : destroyed


On the left side of the lower border is a small scanner circle which
displays the locked target and its status. If the target is activly
scanned the background will green (good) or lightgreen (better). 
If the targets torso locations are displayed yellow, it has less than
10 armor points left. If its red, it has no external armor left.
If its black, the location is ripped off or disabled.
To the right is a square which display the same information for the 
current selected titan.



Action Modes

You start the game either as an active or inactive player.
The active player has control over either move or attack mode of
one titan. The game internally manages a queue in which each titan is
listed with his move and attack and the time in which the respective
action will be finished.
When no titans action is done during a given second (starting at second 0)
time is incremented till the next titan in the queue will be ready and
becomes the active titan. Jocks reaction attribute will decide who is
first if two or more titans are ready in the same second.

Inactive players either have to wait and twiddle thumbs ( hotseat game ) 
or he/they can gather infos (netgame only). In wait mode (netgames) the
inactive player can switch between his titans with keys '1-8' or by
right clicking the respective hex on the map. If he is under attack he
can also switch to the titan under attack with the '0' key

The selected titan is displayed with a yellow/red hex boundary together with
a green arrow arrow showing his heading and a blue arrow for his torso
direction on the map.


The active player can perform certain actions in move or attack
mode.
Think of these two modes as the only things a Jock can manage
simultanously during combat.

Buttons on the lower border of the screen relate to these actions.
If the mouse is static for a second a small popup help text will be
displayed.


Attack Modes :
_______________________________________________________________________________

1.  Lock Target

Your battle computers needs to lock a target before you can fire or 
charge ( run into the same hex).
Duration is affected by the computer quality and the jocks electronic
warfare skill.

After this time the jock can choose between all scanned enemy titans.
These are displayed in a popup window sorted by their range.
The window is closed after selection of a target or by clicking on
its OK button.
It is moveable with holding the right mouse button (drag & drop). 

If a range is displayed red the target is too far away for any weapon
system.
If the range is displayed dark green the target can only be affected
by indirect fire (ballistic shooting).
If the range is displayed light green the target can be affected by
direct and indirect weapon systems.

If the targets name is displayed yellow it was not scanned actively,
otherwise its displayed in green.

There are some indicators of the targets actions displayed behind the range.

W : target walks
D : target dodges 
R : target runs
J : target jumps
S : target stands up
P : target is prone
C : target is crouched
F : target had launched flares

T-: target titan is disabled !
C-: target titan is crippled !
-J: target jock is killed  !

Crippled titans are those who have one leg ripped off and/or the gyro
disabled, are prone and have at least lost one arm.
Consider them nearly helpless.

Locked targets are displayed with a small white/black hex boundary 
on the map.
By selecting HEX a jock can lock hexes and fire on dense woods with
missile racks to reduce them to light woods.
It is also possible to set fire to woods with energy weapons. These hexes
will produce heat and obscure vision.


2. Fire Weapon

When pressing this button the jock can choose which weapon to fire on
a locked target or hex. This action may be delayed if the jock fails his
reaction attribute skill check.
If the target titan is not valid (not in arc-of-fire or out of range)
the action is wasted.
If the target ToS is valid the Jock can choose between his weapon systems.
These are displayed in a popup window. The window can be closed with a
click on the 'BACK' field or on the OK button and be moved with 
drag & drop (right mouse button).
The targets name is displayed red if its disabled or yellow if crippled.
The scan status is displayed color coded in displaying 
"LOCK ON TITAN :" either lightgreen, green or yellow.
Weapons valid for firing are displayed green together with their
remaining ammo and 'to hit' probability.
Weapons which are out of range are displayed red whereas reloading
weapons are displayed white.
If a titan is in the same hex as his opponent he can use his arms/legs
for punches and kicks if he remains stationary during the attack.

Attention !
If a cannons or energy weapons 'to hit' chance does exceed 75% a small
cross hair is turned green at the left border of the popup window.
The jock now is capable of called hits with the applicable weapon.
Clicking on the green cross hair with the left button does open a 
location selection screen where you can go for the targets body part.
After selection click again an the crosshair and you can fire at the
location with the valid weapons at a reduced to hit probability.



3. Toggle Shield 

With this button a shield can be toggled on/off. Shields give protection
from energy weapons. If hit they do negate damage but do feedback the
damage as heat to the protected titan. Shields can overload and shut
down for some time.
Shield protect fully against heat generated by burning forest and
half against damage AND heat from exploding titans !
Shields do produce heat and consume power by just being switched on.


3. Toggle E.C.M 

With this button the electronic counter measure device can be toggled
on/off. This does give some protection against guided missiles and hampers
enemies active scan on the protected titan.
E.C.M devices consume on power unit just being enabled.


4. Toggle Scanner

With this button the passive scanner can be toggled on/off. Scanners do
allow to gather information on the enemy and use one power unit.


5. Scan target active

Depending on the scanner quality and the jocks scanner skill it will
take some time to activly scan a locked target.
It is possible to get informations about the targets armor and general
status.
Furthermore informations about interior systems and weapons can be
obtained.
There are 3 pages of information which can be switched by clicking the
arrows at the lower border of the popup window.

Accuracy depends on the jocks skill and the scanner and can be
determined roughly by the background color of the small titan image on
the popup window :
Red   : Failed scan, very inaccurate data.
White : Normal success.
Green : Critical success, very accurate data.

If the scan was successful the battle computer will give small 
offensive modifiers against that specific target. 


7. Link Scanner

You can link a titans scanner with a team member to see what he does.
The team member must be in line of sight and ready to be linked to.
Each titan can only handle a limited number of links, this number is
displayed in the status window.
Both must have their scanners ready. The link can be lost by chance or
when special events do happen.
A link allows indirect fire on otherwise unseen targets and/or missile
fire at a better range ( counted from link to target rather then from
launcher to target ) but no active scans. 


8. Launch Flare

Eject small heat generating projectiles which slowly drift to the ground.
These do nicely protect against guided missiles but slightly hamper
the computers targeting system. Flares only protect one titan and will
become obsolete when he moves to a different hex.


9. Repair System

Press this button if you have a damage control system and any damage
level between light and heavy on some systems. It will take time
depending on the jocks repair skill and the damage control system.
There is no guaranteed success.


8. Swivel Left

Move the torso one hexside to the left. This will change your arc of
fire. Movement is still performed in the old direction. A titan can only
deviate one hexside from his center position so the torso is either left,
right or center positioned.


9. Swivel Right

See above, move torso to the right.


10. Eject Jock

This will eject your jock from his titan. He might get hurt during this
action but he can't be killed afterwards. Use this as a last chance to
save a valuable jock from a crippled titan.


11. Wait on XXX

This offers a selection of triggers which will set the attack mode to be
triggered again only under special circumstances.
These are :

 On Call    : Wait till attack is called manually from the move mode 
              or after 1000 secs.
 On Time    : Set a time between 1 and 999 seconds.
 On Units   : Wait on movement of a specific unit or on appareance of new
              titans ( select between friend or foe as trigger ).
 On Heat    : Wait until your titan has reduced heat to a certain heat level.
 On Recycle : Wait until certain weapons or other devices have recyled
              and are again ready for operation.
[On Repair  : Wait until repair period is finished.]
[On Attack  : Wait till attack mode is valid.]
 On Move	: Wait till move mode is valid.

Modes in brackets [ ] are disabled in attack mode. They are only valid
for Wait on XXX in move mode.

Make good use of these waits to speed up game (don't check your weapon
reload status every second if you can use wait on recycle) and improve
your strategy (check wait on unit [new foe] to be ready as soon as a
new enemy titan is detected). 


12. Call Attack

Since you are already in attack mode this is one disabled.


13. Call Move

Calls move mode. This cancels the current move mode and allows you to set
a new mode.
Note: If your move takes 25 secs, and you Call Move in second 24 of your
move sequence, that move sequence is cancelled and void.


14. Show Map

Displays an overall map of the combat arena. Close it by pressing the
button again.


15. Show Status

Bring up a popup window which displays 7 pages of valuable
informations.
You can switch pages by clicking on the lower arrow keys on the
window and close it by clicking OK on the window or by pressing the
button again.


a. General Status

Besides obvious data there are some informations which might need an
explanation.

BMT :
The base movement time of the titan. This is the time a titan needs
to cover the distance of one hex in walk mode over normal terrain. 

JMT :
The Jump Movement Time. Its the time for a Jump Forward (see below)
regardless of terrain.

JUMP TIME :
This is the status of the jump ports (xxx/yyy).
xxx are the seconds left for jumping, yyy is the maximum jump time
before the titan must recycle. The jump ports are automatically reloaded
at a slow rate (1 unit/3 sec) when the titan is grounded.

CLIMB :
The maximum height difference a titan can cover between two adjacent
hexes (walk forward move mode).
The rate is worse for  run (-5m), dodge (-10m) and walk backward
(-15m) move modes.  

SPEED :
The actual speed in kilometers per hour.

SCAN HEIGHT :
The sum of titan height, terrain and scanner bonus.
This is the height from which Line of Sight for the titan is calculated.

LOCK ON :
A target lock is displayed here. The name is marked with >Name< if it
was scan activly with normal success and with >>Name<< if scanned with
critical success.

LINKED TO :
If you have linked your scanner to a team member, he is displayed here.

LINKED BY :
If team members have established a link to you, the number is displayed
as well as the maximum number you can handle.

SCAN, E.C.M, SHIELD :
The three possible status for these three devices are displayed as enabled,
disabled or not available (N/A).

HEAT : 
Your current heat and the decrease/increase calculated the last second.

POWER :
Your available/maximum energy units calculated the last second.


b. Weapon Status 1

Here are your weapons with their respective damage and recycle status. 
Recycle of projectile weapons is in seconds whereas recycle of energy
weapons is in power units (PU) and discussed in later in this file.


c. Weapon Status 2

Again the weapons with their ammunition, maximum ranges and location.
Ranges are dislayed yellow if no target was locked, green if
the target is in weapon maximum range or red otherwise.


d. Armor Status

This is an important display which shows the external armor (left
column) and the internal structure (right column) together with
actuators [A] and the gyro system [G].

When the external armor is gone, damage is applied to the internal
structure.
When the internal structure is reduced to zero the respective body part is
disabled or ripped off (head,arms or legs).

The actuators/gyros letter [A,G] is displayed in a colour representing
its damage level :
light green : ok
yellow      : light damage
lightred    : medium damage
red         : heavy damage
black       : destroyed

The leg actuators are displayed from left to right : hip, knee, foot
The arm actuators are displayed from left to right : elbow, hand
The left and right torso include the shoulder actuators and the lower
torso the swivel actuator.
 

e. Equipment Status

Here is the display for the internal systems status with their damage
level coded in colours as described above. Offensive and defensive
devices (shield/flares/computer) are displayed together with their
to hit modifiers.


f. Jocks Status 1

Here the jock is listed with his attributes, rank and hit points.
A jock who lost half of his hit points is considered wounded, with
only 1/4 left he is considered seriously wounded and with 0 hit points
he is considered seriously dead :-).
The jocks name is displayed in different colours, dependant on special
effects.
white    : Jock ok
yellow   : Jock is dizzy (he receives negative skill modifier)
lightred : Jock is bleeding (jocks looses hp for some time) 
red      : Jock is unconscious
black    : Jock is dead

The total experience points are displayed as well as the accumulated 
experience points for this in the categories 
combat skills ( CS ), move skills ( MS ) and other skills ( OS ).
These will be automatically converted to development points after
battle.
The jocks kills and total battles fought are shown here also.


g. Jocks Status 2

All skills are listed here. The two move skills which are not needed
for the current titan are displayed red.
The color coding from red to green just gives a quick hint on his 
strength/weaknesses.




Move Modes
_______________________________________________________________________________

1. Walk Forward

The titans walks at his base speed (100%BMT) towards the hex he is facing.
Normal skill checks are valid if entering difficult terrain.
If this button is disabled it is likely that the terrain in front is
too steep to be climbed for the titan (See Climb under General Status
Display above).
Walk uses 2 PUs and produces 0.7 C heat/second. 


2. Walk Backward

Same as walk forward with the exception of reduced speed, climb rate
and harder skill checks if applicable.
Walk backward uses 2 PUs and produces 0.7 C heat/second.

3. Run

The titan tries to enter the next hex at increased speed (60% BMT).
If the hex houses a locked target a charge can be declared after entering
the hex.
If the enemy is facing the charging titan and is also running he performs
a countercharge, both titans will then receive an equal portion of the
resulting damage.
The climb rate of run is better than in dodge or walk backwards but worse
than in walk forward.
Run uses 3 PUs and produces 1.3 C heat/second.


4. Dodge

The titan zig-zags to the next hex. He is hard to hit but his firing is
also reduced. This mode is faster than walk but slower than run (80% BMT).
A skill check is needed regardless of the terrain !
Climb rate is better than in walk backward but worse than in the
other modes. 
Dodge uses 3 PUs and produces 1.5 C heat/second.

5. Turn Left

The titan turns one hexside to the left. This changes the arc of fire
and direction for further movements. Turns take only 20% of BMT.
Turn uses 2 PUs and produces 0.7 C heat/second.


6. Turn Right

see above, substitute left with right.


7. Crouch

A titan can crouch, reducing his height by 50%. He will be harder to
detect and hit but can't use weapons in his legs, lower torso
or fight in hand to hand combat. A titan can crouch from lying, the
resulting skill check is easier to master than to stand up directly.
Crouch uses 1 PU and generates 0.7 C heat/second.


8. Stand

The titan can stand up if lying or crouching. Stand from lying takes 50%
BMT (from lying) or 20% BMT from crouch. 
Stand uses 2 PUs and generates 0.7 heat/second.


9. Swivel Left

See mode 8 under attack modes. 
If a titan is already swiveled in attack mode this option is disabled.
Sviwels only take 10% BMT.
Swivel uses 1 PU and produces 0.3 C heat/second.


10. Swivel Right

See mode 9 under attack modes.
If a titan is already swiveled in attack mode this option is disabled.


11. Jump Forward

If a titan has jump ports he can jump forward one hex after lift off
( see 12. Jump Up ). This takes a fixed amount of time depending on
his jump ports regardless of terrain (JMT). A titan which jumps forward
will stay a fixed distance above ground (see below).
Jump Forward uses 0 PU and produces 2.0 C heat/second.


12. Jump Up

A ToS with jump ports can jump up. This is either a lift off if he is
grounded or a height level change if he already jumps. There are two
available height levels which are 30m and 60m above ground.
A titan which lifts off from difficult terrain must pass a skill check
or crash to ground.
Time requirement for jump up is only a small fraction of the normal
jump (30% JMT).


13. Jump Down

This is either landing with a skill check or switching height level
from 60m to 30m.
Time required for jump down is only a small fraction of the normal
jump (20% JMT).


14. Wait on XXX

Same as 10. under attack modes. Wait on Move is disabled of course.


15. Call Attack

Call attack mode. This cancels the current attack mode ( for example
wait ) and allows to immediatly switch to attack mode for a new selection.


16. Call Move

Calls move mode. Since you are already in move mode this is disabled.


17. Display Map

Same as 12. under attack modes.


18. Display Status

Same as 13. under attack modes.



Wait Mode ( !netgames only !)

1. Show Map

Same as the other Show Map buttons above.


2. Show Status

Dito


3. Break Move

If you don't like what you did last move mode you can cancel the move
and be active in move mode soon.


4. Break Attack

If you don't like what you did last attack mode you can cancel the attack
and be active in attack mode soon.




The guts of combat
_______________________________________________________________________________



Heat

Overheating is one thing a jock fears the most (besides a critical hit
into the cockpit). Heat is generated by weapons as well as movement
and some miscellaneous effects like shield hits or explosions. 

At 150 degree celsius a titan is automatically shut down, leaving him 
helpless on the battlefield. 
Heat is divided into categories which are possible triggers for 'wait
on heat' actions and which do effect skill checks.
The hotter the titan, the worse are the penalties, so you better
monitor your temperature closely.
The levels are from cold to hot : light green, black, dark green,
yellow and red. 
Heat levels <= black allow safe operations of all systems.

Heat is reduced by a regulating system which is a closed circuit. This
means that a heavy damage critical hit into the arm component does
heavily damage the WHOLE system !



Energy

The engine is generating power units which are used to maintain shields,
scanners, movement or to reload energy weapons and jump ports.
Devices are satisfied by the engine in the following order :

                Requirement
Heat Regulators    1 PU
Move Actuators   1-3 PU, depending on move mode
Shield           1-4 PU, depending on shield type
Scanner            1 PU
E.C.M              1 PU
Weapons          See below
Punch/Kick         1 PU  for each arm/leg  
Jump Ports         1 PU  for reloading

Energy weapons need power units to recharge completly.
(Exp : 20 PU for a Plasma Gun or 9 PU for a Medium Laser).
There is a restriction on how much PUs a weapon can reload per second :

more than 12 PU needed -> reload max 3 PU per second
more than  5 PU needed -> reload max 2 PU per second
more than  0 PU needed -> reload max 1 PU per second

A Plasma Gun will reload in 11 seconds, recharging
3,3,3,2,2,2,1,1,1,1,1 PUs. 

A Medium Laser will reload in 7 seconds, recharging 
2,2,1,1,1,1,1 PUs

If the engine can not generate enough power to recharge each weapon,
it will give priority to those which will be ready next. 


Fog of War

The main goal in combat is to wreck your opponents before they do
the same to you. A titan is disabled if his engine is destroyed,
his head is ripped off, he is shut down and his heat regulator is 
destroyed  or the jock is killed.
Sometimes it is enough to cripple him (destroy the gyro, rip off some
legs) and to concentrate on the next enemy.

To damage a titan you must first lock him with your battle computer.
To lock him you must have him in direct sight or scanner range. The
game makes great use of visibility and computes the visibilty for all
titans to recreate fog of war. 
Hexes which can not be scanned are either black if never seen before
or become shadowed if they once were within scan range. As the jocks
memory of these hexes fades they are shadowed more and more.
There are a total of 4 levels of display for any given hex :

normal         : Current visible hexes.
lightly shaded : Hexes which were visible recently. 
deeply shaded  : Hexes which were visible some minutes ago (game time).
black          : Unknown hexes, either never scanned or a long time ago. 

Titans which once were scanned but left scanner range are displayed as
shrinking dots (red for enemies, yellow for allies) as time goes
by.
 
Titans which are only scanned but are not in direct line of fire are
either marked with a small 'X' or 'L' in the left top corner of their hex.
They can be only affected by ballistic firing weapons (missiles) at a
reduced 'to hit' probability.
'L' is displayed if a target can only be scanned due to a scanner link.


Skill Checks

Whenever you have to pass a skill check manually, please press the
right mouse button.

There are several modifiers which are calculated for a final chance of
success.

Weapon skill checks

1. The base chance is the jocks skill with the respective weapon.
2. Add the weapons basic modifier if applicable.
2. Modify this by the jocks damage status as well as the weapons.
3. Add the battle computers to hit modifier, taking into account its 
   damage status.
4. Subtract the titans heat modifier.
5. Calculate the titans and targets move modifier.
5. Calculate the targets defensive hex modifier as well as the firing
   titans offensive hex modifier.
6. Add the targets size and speed modifier.
7. Calculate range modifiers.
8. Check for indirect fire.
9. Subtract defensive modifiers for shield,ECM and flares if
   applicable.


Move skill checks

1. Jocks piloting skill
2. Actuator or gyro damage mods
3. Movement mode mods
4. Terrain modifier 
5. Heat modifier
6. Jock status mods ( wounded, dizzy ... )
7. Handling class of titan
8. More I forgot to list ...


Damage

If damage occurs the game engine checks for the body part which is
affected checking line of fire and other aspects.

Damage ranges from 1 to 25 for one hit and is normally substracted from
the armor of the respective body part.
If the armor is reduced to zero the damage is applied to the internal
structure and critical equipment damage is likely to happen.

Equipment can be damaged light, medium, heavy or it can be destroyed.
Light damage caused by heavy shells is also possible even if the armor
is not yet penetrated due to disruption.

When the internal structure is gone, the body part and its equipment 
is either disabled (torso) or ripped off (arms, legs, head).




Trouble shooting 
_______________________________________________________________________________


There are two major sources which can cause trouble starting/playing
Titans of Steel besides those numerous little bugs we have implemented :-)

1. Sound

The sound library only supports Soundblaster compatible cards.
If you have no Soundblaster compatible card you have to start the game with 
battle -s and miss a lot.

If you have and still the sound won't play or the game locks try
battle -m to disable music or battle -s if this does not help you.

Ensure that the BLASTER environment variable is set in your
autoexec.bat.
It should look something like that :
set BLASTER=I7 A220 D1 T4

I : interrupt level
A : I/O port adress
D : DMA channel
T : something I don't know exactly but which is often set to 4 for
    soundblaster compatible cards.

The sound library does only support interrupts 2,3,5,7 and 10 !


2. Network games

If the clients are waiting for host data even after the host started
the game something is wrong. If a client hangs you can quit him with
a right mouse click without rebooting your computer !

Avoid mixing pure DOS and Win95 IPX stacks cause they maybe use
different frame types.
Try playing ToS in a DOS box under Win95, start Win95 in DOS mode
(F8) and look if this improves network reliability.
You can load the IPX stack with DOS7.0 typing 

net start
net logon

Always remember that Titans of Steel network games work more stable if
the slowest computer hosts the game !

Here is a summary how to start LAN games. The procedure will be more 
convenient in v2.0 if ever finished.

One computer has to host the game. It is necessary that the host has
all team files in hist data directory. If you want to use your own
team you have to copy teamX into the hosts data directory.
X stands for your team number which is used at startup with the -t
command line option. The host is always team 1.

Lets say players A, B and C want to start a LAN game with B hosting.
Since B must be team 1, A decides to ally with him against C.
Since teams 1 and 3 are automatically allied as well as teams 2 and 4
A has to be team 3 and C has to be team 2.
It is not allowed to skip a team number !

A will start with battle -t 3 -n 3
B will start with battle -t 1 -n 3
C will start with battle -t 2 -n 3

A and C have to copy their team files as team3 and team2 into the hosts
data directory if they want to use teams they created with the hq module
on their computers.


3. Other tripwires 

The game is a protected mode application. This means that it does NOT
need any himem or emm386 support.
What it does need is a so-called DPMI host.
Win95 has a native DPMI support whereas DOS needs the help of
csdpmi.exe which is provided with the archive. You need csdpmi.exe
either in your PATH or in the progs directory which include the executables.
Please do not use QEMM with Titans of Steel cause it features a broken
DPMI host in some versions !

Ensure that your graphics card as well as your monitor supports 800x600
with 256 colours.
Use Scitech Display Doctor 5.1 or better  if your cards Bios does not support
at least Vesa 1.2.

There was a problem with Matrox Millenium and Diamond Stealth boards.
Both displayed distorted, smeared grafix.

We hope the Matrox bug is fixed with Titans od Steel v1.0.
There might be a workaround to the Diamond problem if you did use the
s3vbe20 driver to get Vesa 2.0 functionality.
Unload this driver before playing ToS or use the Scitech Display
Doctor instead.

Note that there are rare occasions when the game might hang. These 
lockups can occur after reloading a saved game or during netgames.
You can recover these hangs 95% of the time pressing 'R' ( Shift-r) !




Appendix A : Keys
_______________________________________________________________________________

The cursor keys are for scrolling the map if the size of the map
exceeds the game screen.

'F1'  : Display all available Keys !
'Q'   : Quit game, thats Shift-q !
'm'   : Toggle music On/Off
'a'   : Toggle arc of fire display on/off for selected ToS
'c'   : Center map on selected Tos
't'   : Center map on locked target if available
's'   : Save game
'l'   : Load Game
'L'   : Load autosave game [saved every 20 games seconds]
'O'   : Set Options [Toggle AI, Break Moves and/or Attacks]
'T'   : Display status screen for your team.
'A'   : Toggle AI control for active titan on/off
'M'   : Create new map in hotseat game
'P'   : Print screen dump as battle.pcx file in the data directory.
'1-8' : Select titan as inactive player in netgame
'0'   : Select titan under attack as inactive player in netgame.

The following keys are for emergency situations only :

'R'   : Recover queue if game is out of sync !
'D'   : Dump queue into a file called error.log into the data directory.



