The Numbervold 1.0, 11-10-04
By: Ryan Szrama, a.k.a. "Ryan"
szrrya@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/szrrya/

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Table of Contents:
 I. Introductory Notes
    A. Introduction
    B. Story
    C. Goal
    D. Keys
    E. Starting/Loading
    F. Game Screen
 II. Gameplay
    A. Health
    B. Movement
    C. Encounters
    D. Lairs
    E. The Village
    F. Magic
    G. Artificacts
    H. Quests
    I. Retiring
    J. Saving
 III. Hints/Tips
    A. Recall
    B. Level Completion
    C. Survival
 IV. Closing Notes
    A. Development
    B. Yet to Come
    C. Bug Reporting/Balance Issues
    D. Thanks

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I. Introductory Notes

 A. Introduction-

   The Numbervold is a game made for the competition in Issue #3 of QB
 Express.  I stumbled across the issue a couple weeks before the deadline
 and got to work, much to the detriment of sleep and classes.  That's the
 price you pay to program, I suppose!


 B. Story-

   The Numbervold is a wild, harsh frontier area inhabited by only a few
 people and many monsters.  Even the land itself is known for its mirages
 and illusions that have led travellers off course for days at a time.
 It's almost always impossible to tell just how for you travel across the
 deceiving terrain.
   A single village sits in the Numbervold, inhabited by adventurers, a few
 shopkeepers, and more than a few loonies.  The village is constantly plagued
 by monsters springing up out of lairs that just seem to appear in the
 Numbervold.  As such, the Elder is always looking for some brave young bravo
 to purge the countryside of the foul monsters and their dens.  Work is never
 scarce in the Numbervold, as you adventure as one such bravo.  Gain glory,
 prestige, and most important of all, gold, as you fight for bounties and for
 your life in the Numbervold!


 C. Goal-

   Your goal is to achieve the highest level possible to forever be remembered
 as the hero who conquered the Numbervold.


 D. Keys-

   In menus, letters in parentheses are pressed to choose options.  So, to
 (B)uy food at the Inn, you just press the 'B' key.  After most messages, the
 game will pause until you hit the Space Bar to make sure you don't miss what
 it's trying to tell you.  Other keys include:

     Arrow Keys- Movement
     S- Search
     C- Cast Spell
     P- Drink Potion
     Q- Quest Info (Not implemented)
     U (In Combat)- Auto Battle
     /- Recall (See below)
     H- Show History
     L- Load Game
     ESC- Save and Quit


 E. Starting/Loading
   When starting a new game, you will be prompted for a name.  If you just hit
 enter without entering a name, one of five preset names will be chosen for you.
 To continue a game you have saved and quit, enter the game just like you would
 a new character and hit the load key.  You'll be prompted for the name of the
 save file to load.  A loaded saved file is unable to be loaded from again until
 you quit again and save.


 F. Game Screen-

   Most of the screen is taken up by the game map.  The placement of the lake,
 village, trees, bushes, and rocks will remain the same throughout the game.
 The numbered squares will change as you move and advance through levels, all
 explained below.  Underneath the game map block are two rows used for the
 player's status and game messages.  The status bar always contains your
 health, gold, magic, potions, attack, defense, and level in that order.  In
 an encounter, the enemy's health will also be visible in the status bar.
 Some messages will temporarily replace the status bar.  When walking around
 on the map, the row below the status bar will display how many spaces you
 may move from that spot.

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II. Gameplay

 A. Health

   Adventuring is tough work, especially when navigating the Numbervold.  For
 every time you move or search outside of the village you will lose 1 health.
 Getting low?  There are several ways to restore health.  You can visit the
 Inn for a quick meal (or long meal if you prefer), drink a potion bought from
 the Apothecary, or cast a spell if you have learned any.  It is rumored that
 a pair of boots exist that make walking around the Numbervold a breeze so
 that no health is lost when exploring.


 B. Movement

   Moving around in the village is simple.  Just use the arrow keys to walk
 for no health loss while on a green village square or on a house.  Walking
 over a house in the village will enter into it.
   Moving around the Numbervold is a different story.  The countryside is
 deceiving such that you can hardly tell how for you've gone when walking in
 it.  So, movement is never direct in the Numbervold.  Instead, you will be
 able to move a number of spaces in any direction equal to the number on the
 space you stand on.  After walking past a place once, the number will be
 removed, and next time you come you will roll a random number to see how
 far you can move.


 C. Encounters

   Many monsters roam the Numbervold, and they are out there in increasing
 numbers as you advance levels.  However, the very land itself seems to work
 in their favor, hiding their presence until you're practically upon them.
 So, without the help of magic, you will never know where the monsters are
 until they pounce on you!  Walking onto a square that has a monster or is
 adjacent to a monster will result in an encounter.  The monsters never rest,
 though, but move whenever you move.
   Encounters are played out like so:  The first party to attack is chosen at
 random.  If it is the monster, you will see their attack message.  If it is
 you, you will be prompted to make a choice.  When you have made your choice,
 a round of combat will take place.  Attacks in Numbervold are very straight-
 forward.  When you attack, you roll Xd10 attack dice, where X is your
 Attack Power.  So, with an Attack Power of 3, your roll will be anywhere from
 3 to 30.  The enemy will roll Xd8 defense dice, where X is the enemy's Defense
 Power.  If your attack roll is higher than the enemy's defense roll, you are
 successful, and do the difference in damage to the enemy.  An attack roll that
 is equal to or up to 5 less than the defense roll will result in a blocked
 attacked.  An attack roll that is more than 5 less than the defense roll will
 result in a total miss.  Attacks against you are worked out the same way
 except you roll Xd10 defense dice, where X is your Defense Power, and the
 enemy rolls Xd8 attack dice, where X is the enemy's Attack Power.  There is a
 damage cap of 15 + attack power * 2 for any non-magical attack.
   Encounters are over when either your health or the enemy's health is
 reduced to 0.  If more than one monster comes at you at once, the encounters
 will be worked out consecutively.  Every monster killed will have some gold
 on its corpse for you to gather, since adventurers seem to be into looting
 dead things.
   Magic used in combat works much the same as a normal attack.  Instead of
 rolling attack dice, though, you roll Xd10+Y spell dice where X is the spell's
 power and Y is the spell's damage bonus.  Furthermore, defense rolls against
 magic suffer are modified by (-7 + the enemy's level) * 3.  So, a level 3
 monster defending against a spell will suffer a -12 penalty to its defense roll.
 However, a level 13 monster will have a +18 bonus to its defense roll.
   It is possible to run from an encounter, though not certain.  Your chance of
 running is determined at random based on the level difference between you and
 your enemy.  If you are:

     Same Level- 15% chance
     +1 Level-  25% chance
     +2 Levels-  35% chance

 It is not possible to run from planned encounters, such as entering a monster
 lair to fight a Lair Beast, fighting a duel to train, or as part of a quest.
   Lastly, there is an option that will not show up on the combat menu.  At any
 round of combat, you may hit 'U' to turn on Autobattle.  This will make it so
 all you do till the end of the encounter is attack.  Be careful, though, as
 this option is irreversible!  Once you throw caution to the wind and hack
 about blindly, there's no turning back.


 D. Lairs

   Each level contains 1 or more lairs (determined by the equation 1 + (level/2)).
 In order to advance levels, you must destroy all the lairs on the map and go talk
 to the elder.  A lair is destroyed by landing on it exactly and choosing to enter
 it.  Upon entering the lair, you must defeat the Lair Beast in combat which will
 always be a monster whose level is one greater than the level you're on.  When a
 lair is destroyed, it would be wise to search it for any gold that might be left
 from the Lair Beast's hoard.


 E. The Village

   The small village in the frontier of the Numbervold can be a crazy place.  A
 fair bit of the peasants inhabiting it are a little less than sane, driven mad by
 the harsh land.  It is governed by an elder in the southernmost house who is in
 charge of giving adventurers quests and making sure the people do their chores.
 A local apothecary in the westernmost house deals in magics and potions, some
 slightly less than legal, that will aid you greatly in your travels.  He sells
 potions for 5 gold each that restore 20 health up to 250.  Magic doesn't just
 grow on trees in the Numbervold but must be received from a wielder of magic arts
 who can transfer it to you.  From the village apothecary, it will cost you 5 gold
 to buy 1 magic.  Furthermore, the apothecary can teach you spells:

     Teleport- Transports you to a random spot on the map. (1 magic) Lv. 1
     Town Gate- Transports you to a random spot in the town. (3 magic) Lv. 2
     Midas Sense- Shows all gold cache locations on the map. (2 magic) Lv. 4
     Clairvoyance- Shows all monster and artificer locations on the map. (3 magic) Lv. 6
     Rejuvinate- Restores a minor amount of health. (1 magic) Lv. 3
     Invigorate- Restores a greater amount of health. (2 magic) Lv. 6
     Fireball- Casts a fireball at an opponent. (2 magic) Lv. 3
     Ball Lightning- Shoots a large ball of lightning at an opponent. (3 magic) Lv. 6
     Summon Dragon- Summons a dragon to rip into your opponent. (5 magic) Lv. 10

 The village inn is the northernmost building, where you can go to restore health
 by dining on the innkeep's fine cuisine.  The price for food is 1 gold, and it
 restores 5 health.  You may also take some time to gossip with fellow low lifes
 slinking about in the commons.  If you're looking for good gossip concerning a
 quest, it's going to cost you.  Lastly, the training camp sits in the easternmost
 part of the village.  It is here that your attack and defense may be trained.
 Attack costs 25 + (current attack * (level + 1)) gold to train.  So, a level 4
 player with an attack rating of 2 would require 35 gold to train. Defense costs 20 +
 (current defense * (level + 1)) gold to train.  Attack and defense may never be
 trained to a value greater than your level + 1.  Furthermore, to train to a value
 past your current level, you will have to duel the resident level champion.
   When walking around in the village, there is also the random chance of meeting
 a peasant on the road.  He or she may or may not have something good to say, but
 at the least they can be entertaining.  If you get annoyed with their messages
 popping up, you can press the.. well, never mind.  You're just out of luck.  But
 take heart!  The messages change each level and may relate to your quest.


 F. Magic

   In order to cast spells in the Numbervold, you must first learn the spell from
 the Apothecary and then get him to transfer some magic to you.  All this is not
 cheap but should prove to be well worth it.  The spells have already been listed
 above, and their gold costs to learn may be seen in the Apothecary.  Spells do
 have a limit for what level you have to be in order to learn them, and you may
 only learn a spell once per level.  When casting, certain spells may be used in
 the field that can't be used in an encounter and vice versa (the first 4 and the
 last 3).  The damage amounts for the three attack spells are as follows:

     Fireball- Rolls 2d10 + 10, with a bare minimum of 15 damage.
     Ball Lightning- Rolls 4d10 + 20, with a bare minimum of 30 damage.
     Summon Dragon- Rolls 6d10 + 30, with a bare minimum of 45 damage.

   The healing spells have the special quality of being able to raise your health
 above the 250 mark attained by eating at the inn.  Rejuvinate can raise it up to
 but not over 300, and invigorate can take it all the way to 500.  There are ways
 to go higher, but those secrets are for you to find out!


G. Artifacts

   Unfortunately, these aren't implemented yet.  (See below)


H. Quests

   Unfortunately, these aren't implemented yet.  (See below)


I. Retiring

   If you get tired of playing a character or just messed up and want to quit,
 just go to the elder and tell him you're retiring.  Your final player history
 will show up and you'll be free to go!  A retired player will not be saved and
 therefore cannot be loaded.  He's already turned in his sword and resigned to
 fishing on the lake.


K. Saving

   It is not possible to save progress in the game.  If you die, that's it!
 However, if you need to take a break, you can press escape while in town to
 save and quit.  The game will prompt you for a save file name and then write
 it out.  Adding an extension is not necessary, as the game does it itself.
 Let's not have any cheating, now..
   (Note: Be careful not to save over another character.  There will be no
 prompt to save over it.)

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III. Hints and Tips

 A. Recall

   Programmed into the game is a recall function on the off chance that you get
 yourself into a square that you just cannot leave in any direction.  If this
 occurs, pressing the recall key will cast the town gate spell on yourself.


 B. Level Completion

   Remember, Lair Beasts are one level higher than you and have potential to be
 very tough cookies to crack.  I recommend at least training your attack and
 defense to your level before taking them on.  Also, it'd be a good idea to max
 out your health or at least carry a few potions with you into the lair.  At
 later levels, make sure to have magic ready for healing.  If you can get by,
 it might be worth the little bit of extra gold training is going to cost to
 save gold up and train as soon as you advance levels.  After you destroy the
 lairs, you can hold off in a level as long as you wish as long as you don't
 talk to the Elder.  Gold caches aren't replaced, but there are plenty in the
 level to find if you think it's worth the potential cost in healing from
 walking around.  Midas Sense could come in awful handy here.


 C. Survival

   In the early levels, returning to the inn at town often is your best bet.
 Since gold is a little harder to come by at first, hold off on the magic
 until later levels unless you're really just itching to get it.  Health from
 the inn is the cheapest per point (1 per 5), but obviously can't be taken with
 you like a potion or a spell can.  Early on, the inn is your best bet, though
 it's good to keep potions in case you get some bad rolls in a Lair Beast fight
 or Training Camp duel.  For the easiest gameplay, don't advance levels until
 you're absolutely ready!

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IV. Closing Notes

 A. Development

   So far, development has been restricted to the last week and a half or so.
 Since I found out about the competition late, I had to rush to complete the
 game, the whole time telling myself not to get too complicated.  Already, the
 Numbervold is more complex than I originally planned, as I was just going to
 deliver a simple number maze game where the whole point would be to get to a
 point on the map (like a lair) from the start.  Well, as you can see, it
 became much more and will hopefully continue to grow.  Below I've included
 notes about things I originally planned to include but had to strike from
 development in the interest of my sanity.  Anything in the game menus that is
 greyed out is an item I just didn't have time to program before the deadline.
   All releases include:

     Nov. 10, 2004- v1.0 released for QB Express Issue #3 Competition


 B. Yet to Come

  -Gossips at the inn!  They may just say gibberish, or the may say something
   useful if the price is right!
  -Quests from the elder.  These will be item retrieval quests (for items
   hidden on the map randomly that don't show up with Midas Sense) or monster
   killing quests.  Maybe more if I can think of them.  Limit will be 1 per level.
  -The Artificer.  I was really looking forward to having this guy.  Basically,
   he shows up randomly on a map and wanders around (visible with clairvoyance and
   what really makes the spell worth the price).  If you come across him, he'll
   have a random artifact to sell to you for a pretty penny.  Artifacts are meant
   to be very powerful, such that there will be some that make movement cost no
   health, halve damage taken, gain gold as you walk, make magic more powerful,
   and more.  But alas, they are yet to be implemented.
  -Actual summoned dragons.  I wanted to make summon dragon bring an actual
   dragon to fight in your stead rather than just a single hit.  That'll have to
   wait for now.
  -As it is, monsters that are killed are replaced somewhere else on the map.  I'm
   seriously considering making it so when all the lairs on a level are destroyed
   this doesn't happen.  (So you can't sit on level 1 till you have 999 gold.)
  -The game tracks how many of each monster you kill but has no way of displaying
   that information.  I want to implement it in the history report but don't want
   to mess with screen scrolling right now.
  -I didn't have enough time to get all the peasant speeches in, so more will come.
  -High score table.  This hasn't been implemented but certainly will be.
  -Fishing by the lake.  It would cost health like searching but have a chance of
   yielding a fish for you to eat.  Of course, there's the chance you drag up a
   lake monster instead.. or maybe an artifact.  We'll see.
  -Have the player gain points at level up to be spent on raising the max health
   (would lower the 250 level for eating to 150 and use points to go from there,
   though for spells it would be the same), giving attack and defense bonuses, and
   maybe for special attacks, skills, or other spells.
  -Record and display play time in the player history.
  -A web page.  Maybe I'll just tap Jocke the Beast and have him host it.  ;)


 C. Bug Reporting/Balance Issues

   While I wish I could say the program is bug free, I'm not that naive.  It has
 been tested as best as I could in the short time I had, but that can't beat many
 people doing whatever they can to break the game.  If you find a bug, please
 report it to szrrya@yahoo.com.  I'd be much obliged!
   (One thing to look for is any saving/loading error.  Those routines were giving
 me problems, so let me know if anything wrong happens.  The problem is related to
 dragging and dropping files on the exe to start it.. it changes the directory.)
   Furthermore, I'd love to get feedback regarding game balance.  As time was
 limited, I wasn't able to really test the game for balance.  This means I need
 feedback regarding anything like monster occurrence, monster toughness, costs and
 strengths of spells, price of training, etc.  Anything you can think of, even if
 you just want to say it's all good, email me at szrrya@yahoo.com.
   If you don't feel like emailing me, find the Numbervold thread at QBasicNews.com
 in the projects section of the forum to give me feedback.  That'd be great, too!
 (Oh, and I'll gladly accept any ideas for funny food names as long as they are 15
 characters long or less.  Any funny ideas for peasant speech lines 40 characters
 and less would be cool, too.)


 D. Thanks

   Well, thanks for reading this hefty manual.  I hope it was helpful (if not too
 informative).  Just think, this section could include your name if you email me
 feedback or bug reports.  ;)

 Special Thanks to:
  -Aaron R.- my roomie and only beta tester as of yet!


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The Numbervold 1.0, 11-10-04
Ryan Szrama
szrrya@yahoo.com
http://www.geocities.com/szrrya  (Not really updated...)