                      =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
                        Legend of Saladir V0.25

                             Update release

                      (C) Erno Tuomainen 1997/1998
                      =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-


*********
INTROITUS
*********

Notice: I must apologize for my bad english. I've received a couple of
messages with a great concern about my bad english language. These
messages came from FINLAND from finnish people. :-)

Here is a new version of the Legend of Saladir. This is only a small
update release to fix those nasty regeneration bugs in the last version.
It also brings some new food items and couple of new monsters. I've also
been messing with the shop and town code, this version has ONE town and
ONE shop in that town. The shop is NOT working, sorry, you can steal
everything from the shop because the shopkeeper code can just greet and
ungreet you at the moment. Please, don't hack'n'slash me because of
this. I hope to have better working shops/towns in the next version.

Check the history part at the end of this document to see more about
changes and bugfixes. The most major update was done with the monster
stuff. They now have the same hitpoint system as the player does.

Until that, mess with this version.

        -Erno


Comments can forwarded to me via email: ernomat@evitech.fi


P.S. This document will eventually evolve into Legend of Saladir Manual.
Hopefully.



*****************
STARTING THE GAME
*****************

Requirements:

This version of the game needs atlest a 80386 processor equipped with a
math co-processor.

Starting:

Start the game from the same directory where files SALADIR.EXE and
OUTWORLD.MAP are located.

When starting, Saladir will make a temporary directory called TEMPDATA
under the same directory where SALADIR.EXE is located. The game will use
this directory to store some temporary data it needs. Do not delete
files inside this directory when playing the game, Saladir will
eventually delete all files it has created.

After the game has loaded, you will be prompted for a name. If you have
difficulties thinking names for your character, like I do, you can just
press enter and let it create a unique name for you. Try my
"Name-o-Matic". :)



*********************
ABOUT GAME PLOT/GOALS
*********************

There isn't any, YET! This is under development. The plan is to make
this game very much QUEST based. In the future there will be many types
of guilds where you can get quests and missions. But before that, I have
too much to do with the main game engine and RPG-system. Spells and
skills are another major thing to concentrate first.

Please join my mailinglist (check below) and we can discuss everything
closely.


********************
FIGHTING AND BATTLES
********************

During your adventures you will be faced with angry and hostile beings
whose only aim is to chop that ugly head off your shoulders. So you must
either fight them or try to run and flee away. Sadly life is not so
easy, some monsters are faster than you so most probably you're forced
to fight.

To fight, you move towards the position of the creature you want to
attack. You will get a message telling if you succeeded or not.

In this version all creatures have a fighting skill of 50 (out of 100).
So you are equal. But in later versions you and (hopefully) other beings
have a list of real skills.

When you fight, you will attack the different bodyparts of the target.
This game uses a system of five bodyparts, all these bodyparts have
their own hitpoints. It's natural that the smaller bodyparts are harder
to hit, this is the case in this game.

Decision of hitting or missing is made out of these two values, your
weapon skill (50) and the probability to hit certain bodypart. These
added together sum to a number between 0...100. An example:

If the monster has legs probability of 30 and you have a weapon skill of
20, then this will be calculated as follows:

        (20+30)/2 = 25 out of 100

If your roll (1d100) is below this calculated value then you hit. If
your roll is in maximum 5% of that calculated value then you get a hit
bonus. If you roll exactly the same value as calculated you get a
critical hit which doubles the damage rolled afterwards.

(If someone knows a better system, then tell me).

In this version you can't yet select a tactic to target some specific
bodyparts. I hope to have that feature soon in the game.




********************
STATS AND ATTRIBUTES
********************

Your character has several attributes and stats.

Stats in Legend of Saladir are:

STR     Strength
TGH     Toughness
DEX     Dexterity
CON     Constitution
WIS     Wisdom
INT     Intelligence
CHA     Charisma
SPD     Speed           
LUC     Luck


I'll add the stats section here later.



*************************
ABOUT HITPOINTS AND ARMOR
*************************

Legend of Saladir has a "specialized" way to handle hitpoints. Player
has five slots where these hitpoints are located. These slots are, Head,
Left hand, Right hand, Body (chest) and legs (both legs in one slot).

From V0.25 on, ALL creatures in Salmorria will use this hitpoint system.
So it may be a bit more fair game now since you are equal to other
beings.

Of course, there're some creatures which have less bodyparts. Some of
them might not have legs for example. Ie. spiders don't have hands and
worms and snakes have only body and head.

Creature will die if the Head or Body hitpoints go below (or to) zero.
Also he/she will die if the total hitpoints, all slots calculated
together, fall below (or to) zero. So DON'T get confuzed if your
adventurer dies when the HP-value on the left side of the screen
displays value above 0.

Beware in combat, it's good to watch your slot hitpoints (ehm,
slotpoints?) because if your hand hitpoints fall to zero you will not be
able to fight anymore. Also walking is impossible with broken feet.
Protect your head and body properly, they are the most vital parts of
your body.

Armor will aid you in this. Some armor slots will protect many parts of
the body. For example, if you're wearing a magical cloak it will protect
your whole body and gloves with other hand armor will protect your hands
and arms.

This system is really in experimental phase, let's see if it works and
what modifications it will need.

Press 'A' during game to get your armor status. Press 'H' to get your
hitpoint status, detailed

Hitpoint regeneration happens when enough time has passed. Regeneration
happens randomly on the damaged bodyparts.

You can set a hitpoints alarm from the configuration menu. There you can
set a percentage value between 0 and 100. The game will alert you when
the hitpoints on some of your bodyparts fall below that percentage of
the maximum hitpoints. It has been preset to 50%, and you can disable it
by configuring a value of 0.



********************************
ABOUT TIME AND CALENDAR AND FOOD
********************************

This version has a time and calendar built in. The calendar measures the
time passed in the world of Salmorria (The land where Saladir takes
place).

Every move your character makes takes a certain amount of time. If you
are adventuring in the wilderness then time goes faster when moving
around the map. This is because one dungeon/town grid is much smaller
than one grid in the wilderness map. So, beware also that food will be
consumed faster when you're hunting wolfes in the wilderness.

You can access the calendar and passed time with 'T' and 't'. Food usage
can be watched with 'f'.

In Saladir, your food usage is measured in remaining time counter. When
you eat, you will get some more time to the counter. When the counter
reaches zero you will die. Simple.

When you are absolutely full and can't eat anything, you are BLOATED and
then you have 12 hours until you starve to death. OKAY, I know that in
real world almost everyone can last MUCH longer, but there has to be
some considerations on the game balance. This is something I need your
comments on. Please, how does it feel in game play?


*******
WEAPONS
*******

If you have equipped two weapons, a one handed weapon in both of your
hands, remember that the RIGHT hand will attack first and the LEFT hand
weapon will be used if there is enough time left for your turn.

This might be changed in the next versions by introducing a feature
"left handed" or "right handed" person. At the moment you are right
handed.

If you equip a two handed weapon you will not be able to use your other
hand because the weapon reserves it.

If your hands gets enough damage during the combat, your weapons will
drop and you can't use your hand until it has healed.




*********
MATERIALS
*********

In the Salmorrian Mountains there are many caves and dungeons, and those
are filled with many types of items. Every item has been made out of
some material (well almost every item). Some of the materials are
better, some are worse. Some materials are more valuable than the others
and some materials are better in combat, lasting longer and giving more
protection and damage, maybe even speed.

Naturally, most valuable materials are found less often. So when you
find something special, take it away even you don't need it right away,
it might not be there next time you pass by and you could earn a few
gold pieces by selling the item at the nearest general store.




*****************
TORCHES AND LIGHT
*****************

Some areas in the world are dark and unlit. You must bring the light
with you because unlit rooms can be very dangerous places for careless
adventurers. (I can say that with experience)

Using light items:

You must be wielding a light for it to work. The lantern or torch must
be in your left or right hand.

In this version you don't have to light the lantern on, it will be done
for you. And another gimmick of this version, light doesn't burn out.



********
MONSTERS
********

This version doesn't have too many types of monsters, but I hope they
give you a good fight.

All current monster races have a description. You can see that by looking
at the monsters with 'l'-command.

Monsters can't currently use any items. All creatures in the game have
a similar inventory as the player has. In future this allows some nice
behaviour, but currently they can only pick items up. Except animals which
are not that smart. Some animals can (in future) use some items as their aid.

You can get some information by looking at the monster with 'l'-key.



*****************
CLASSES AND RACES
*****************

In this version you can select a class, but it doesn't have ANY effect
other than the name of the class is displayed in the bottom of the
screen. Class modifiers are yet to be done.

You always play human race for now.



*****************
KEYBOARD COMMANDS
*****************

The action keys are:
  c     Close a door
  d     Drop item from your backpack
  e     Eat something from the ground or from backpack
  i     Inventory of items in backpack
  l     Look around the visible area
  o     Open a door
  p     Show the last displayed message
  w     Walk mode, press direction to start moving
  q     Equip items, also equipped item list
  t     Show current Salmorrian time.
  z     Cast a spell (is not working properly for now)
  A     Show armor class for body parts (hitpoint absorb)
  C     Chat with monster
  E     Show experience needed to raise a level
  H     Show hitpoints for body parts
  Q     Quit game
  R     Redraw screen
  T     Show playtime
  V     Show version
  ,     Get
  ?     Online command help
  \     Configuration options (Also ALT+O)
        use ? or LIST to get configuration info
  :m    Show all messages in the buffer
  <     Go upstairs
  >     Go downstairs
  5     wait/stand still
  .     wait/stand still

Direction keys (cursors) and the keypad numbers can be used for movement




******************************
LEGEND OF SALADIR MAILING LIST
******************************

My brother has kindly put up a mailinglist for my game. If you are
interested in the development of this game, want to give some feedback
or just chat with others playing The Legend of Saladir then please sign
in.

Write message to saladir-request@japeteus.keltti.jyu.fi

And in the message body use this sentence with your email-address of
course.

subscribe saladir <Your email>

Include 'digest' if you want to get one days messages in one single package.




**********************************************
WHERE CAN I FIND LATEST VERSIONS OF THIS GAME?
**********************************************

Check the public (anon) ftp at:

        japeteus.keltti.jyu.fi /saladir

or go to my homepage, downloads section at

        www.evitech.fi/~ernomat/index.html


******************
THANKS AND CREDITS
******************

 This part is to be a place for thank yous and credits for this game.
 Currently it's not very big but here are the persons I owe much.

 More personal thanks to the following persons (and cats):

 o Thomas "The very corrupted adventurer" Biskup

        Yes, dude, it's you who helped me when I was starting this game.
        Remember those awfull questions about some particular coding
        stuff. It really helped a lot.

        Also, I think it's VERY noticeable that my game looks similar to
        ADOM in many parts. I've tried NOT TO COPY anything but I really
        like ADOM very much and I play it very much too. I want to make
        some things like ADOM does. Thanks for making such a great game
        like Ancient Domains of Mystery is.

 o William Tanksley

        For providing a really great random number generator for my
        roguelike game. Life would be a pain without your routine.
 
 o Darren Hebden, the roguenews guy.

        Thank you for posting announcements of my game to your news
        page! Also thanks for many nice ideas you posted on the
        mailinglist.

 o Jarno "da lil'bro" Tuomainen

        For being my wictim in the test process. Countless times I've
        sent him new versions of Saladir and countless times has he
        tested them with his NT-machine. Thanks, and please be my victim
        in the future too.

 o Suvi

        My girlfriend who doesn't get mad even I stay up almost the
        whole night with my computer.

 o Inka and Natasha

        My two female cats who have accompanied my lonely coding nights
        by sitting on my lap. Meoww..

 Thanks for nice ideas and other suggestions for Saladir: (in
 alphabetical order):

	Chris Allcock.
	Douglas Goodall, 
	Rune Jarns,
        Michael R. Taylor,
        Jarno Tuomainen.

	(list hopefully growing...)


***********************
HISTORY - Is there any?
***********************

   Update release V0.25  26.01.1998
   --------------------------------
   Changes include:
   - Some levels look better, generates some corridor types better.
   - Monsters have an ability to get past of player/other monsters
     in some situations.
   - Monsters are in the same 5-slot hitpoint system as the player!
     Not all monsters have all bodyparts! (ie. spiders doesn't have hands)
   - Attacking is handled (hopefully) a bit more nicely.
   - Some animals can open doors.
   - Food items added.
   - Towns, however they are pretty empty currently
   - Basic shop and shopkeeper code.
   - Flying creatures now have wings/vanes instead of hands and for now.
     They can't move if hitpoints in wings are fallen to zero.
   - Special plot/quest character can be created to predefined places
     or dungeons.

   - Few optimizations done with the line of sight routine!

   Bug fixes:
   - Doors cause walk mode to end (You can set that in options)
   - Stair generation bug fixed, generated WEIRD connections when a
     lair was generated to the level.
   - Monster regeneration bug fixed.
   - One bug causing random crashes (pagefaults) debugged out.

   Noticed bugs not corrected:
   - Shops do not work! Shopkeepers don't have eyes. :)
   - Town levels get up staircase generated (you can get to the wilderness
     from that)
   - Towns look dull and empty


  Urgent bugfix version V0.24  22.01.1998
  ---------------------------------------

  These SHOULD be fixed now:
  - You can now fight when your legs are in bad condition.
  - Hp regeneration now generates damaged parts semi randomly.
  - Hp regeneration restores the damage condition of damaged
    bodyparts to OK when hitpoints raise above 0.
  - Configuration variable HEALTHALARM now acts as a percentage
    value for EACH bodypart which has hitpoints. When hp goes
    below this percentage of the maximum hitpoints of that part you
    will get a warning.
  - There were several output leaks in Equip screen when bodypart
    was damaged.
  - Items should be dropped correctly when hand damages.
  - Monsters should not be generated to players location.
  - Tempfiles should now be deleted when game exits.


  Version 0.23  22.01.1998
  ------------------------
  This version has a lot of new stuff and bugfixes.

  - Currently pretty limited, but working Monster inventories
    similar to the player inventory system.
    Currently they only pick the items up, and they can sense
    the level for items, think something about items value etc.
  - Level memory, already visited levels are remembered!
    including monsters, items and level for now
  - New speed system with SPEED attribute for each being!
  - Separate materials for armor and other stuff.
  - Terrain effects, like how terrain slows your movement down etc.
    Some terrain can even make your movement faster (like road)
  - Weapons get older in use, different behaviour with materials.
  - Levels are no more so populated with rare items.
  - New dungeon level types and room templates (ie Lairs/Zoos)
  - Random name generator.
  - 2 weapon combat (player only for now)
  - Armor now works see the next place
  - New hitpoints system, eventually this will be for all monsters
    also, but for now only player has this:
    Hitpoints are "divided" into five slots, Head, Left/Light hand,
    Body and Legs, body has always the greatest hitpoints.
    Player will die if the total hitpoints (all five slots calculated
    together) or HEAD or BODY will fall below or to zero.
    It's not very good at the moment but I will try to make it better.
    Regeneration is a bit dumb for now, but I will think of something.
  - Light items added, they can be used too.
  - Line-of-sight got some bugs bashed while I was making the darkness
  - effect.
  - New improved LOOK command (l).
  - Level advancing works somehow, currently it uses the experience
    system, but I will try to think something extra for that.
    (only hitpoints get upgraded from level advance for now)
  - Monster race descriptions for all races currently in the game.
  - Output has been tidyed up a bit again
  - Some new items and monsters
  - Dark rooms and darkness generally
  - More configuration options and other minor tidbits.
  - And finally, the save-feature is nearing completion :-)


  Version 0.20 - 16.01.1998
  -------------------------
  - Some of the new features added to this version are:

  - Online help
  - Female or male players and monsters
  - Equipping items
  - Gold, silver and copper coins
  - World time and calendar (including timers:)
  - Player and monster regeneration (hitpoints)
  - Piled items can be taken and dropped one by one
  - Game configuration options (not saved yet)
  - Food usage, starvation
  - Equipped weapons are used in battle now...
  - Dragonscale weapons are not possible anymore :-)

    + many bugfixes

Version 0.17
  - This was the first public release.
  - Nothing much to say, it's prehistoric



****************
IMPORTANT NOTICE
****************

Although this program is NOT developed to be harmfull, I must state that
I am not responsible for any damages caused by this program. If you
execute this program, you take all the responsibility.



******************
AUTHOR INFORMATION
******************

Legend of Saladir is being programmed by Erno Tuomainen and I can be
contacted at the following addresses:

Homepage:       www.evitech.fi/~ernomat/index.html
my email:       ernomat@evitech.fi

snail mail:     Erno Tuomainen
                Serkustentie 1 G 62
                00430 HELSINKI
                FINLAND

        --------------------------------------------------------
                  END OF LEGEND OF SALADIR PRE-MANUAL
