Author: Ulf Lorenz
Version: 0.3.2
Date: 07-19-2002

updated by Ulf Lorenz 12-14-2003
updated by Ulf Lorenz 05-02-2004
updated by Andrea Paternesi 07-03-2004


This document wants to give a brief overview about how to play freelords. As
the current version is still a bit unstable and in more or less heavy
development the information here can be partly wrong or obsolete, but
should be a good start if you just want to have a short look. If you find 
something which isn't written in this document, but would be helpful to know,
send a mail to the developer list freelords-devel@lists.sf.net



Contents:
1. The Splash Screen
2. The Main Screen
    2.1. Menu items
3. Using the interface
4. Misc information
5. Army abilities
    5.1. Experience and levels
    5.2. Fighting



1. The splash screen

There are currently five buttons working here: "New Campaign", "New Game", 
"New Multiplayer Game", "Load Game" and "Quit".
The "New Campaign" and "New Multiplayer Game" buttons still don't work.
"Load Game" opens a file dialog where you have to select a game to be loaded;
"Quit" quits the game.
If you click on "New Game", another dialog pops up with a lot of buttons and
combo boxes etc. There, you can set the parameters for the game. If you want to
load a map, click on "Load Map" and then on the now visible "Browse" button.
You may select a map file and start the game. If you want to create a new
random map, you can specify players and map parameters.
The map parameters you can choose are the size, the distribution of the terrain
and the tileset. The currently available sizes are "Normal" (100x100 tiles),
"Small"(70x70) and "Tiny"(50x50). The distribution is done with the sliders at
the right side of the dialog. The numbers are merely the relative percentages,
so the sum may exceed 100%, in which case the single percentages will be
adjusted correspondingly.
For each player you can choose the player type, the player name and the
armyset. As player type you can currently select only human or a (stupid) AI.
Furthermore, you can select if new armies are produced and the existing armies
healed at the beginning of the corresponding player's turn, or if all armies
of all players are produced/healed simultanously at the beginning of a new round.
When you are ready, push the large OK button at the bottom.


2. The Main Screen

Most part of the screen is self-explaining. The menu is explained in section
(2.1). To the top right you can click on the minimap to change the displayed
portion of the map. On the right you have information about your gold, the
current round and several control buttons. The meaning of the buttons is:

legs            - continue movement of the selected stack
arrow           - select next unit which is not defending
shield          - mark the unit as defending; the unit will be ignored when
                  searching for the next unit
arrow + shield  - set the unit to defending and go to the next unit
question mark   - search a ruin or visit a temple (there has to be a hero in
                  the stack to do this)
sand glass      - finish your turn
arrows          - center the map on the currently active unit

If the buttons are grey, their function is currently unavailable (e.g. because
there isn't anything to be searched).

If you have selected a stack, the single armies in the stack appear on the
bottom of the screen. Right-clicking on one of the pictures will display a
dialog with more information about the army.


2.1. The menu

There are four menus, "File", "Reports", "Options" and "Help". The submenus in
the "Help" menu are currently unimplemented.

In the "Game" menu you can load a game, save a game and quit the current game.
The difference between "Save As" and "Save" is that "Save" will overwrite the
save game which your game is either loaded from or has been saved to last time.

The reports menu contains reports about the gold of all players, the armies,
the cities and the pending quests your heroes have so far.

Under "Options" you can open an option dialog. There you can switch smooth
scrolling on or off and decide if the next player should be announced or not.
If smooth scrolling is switched on, the map will not move in one step whenever
the view changes, but go through several transitions (try it out to see the
effect).


3. Using the interface

Click on a unit to select it. To deselect it, either click on the defend
button or select another unit (this is propably something to get used to, but I
have been said and found out this is original Warlords behaviour). Click on a
destination to move there, a city to attack it, an enemy unit to attack it etc.

Right-clicking on a city opens a dialog. It shows you the current units you
can produce, the tax income of the city, the defense level and some buttons,
whose use is the following:

Upgrade -   upgrades the city walls by one level (up to level 3). Costs
            (current level)*1000 gold. Each level gives a defense bonus of
            20% to all defending units when the city is attacked.

Buy production  -   another dialog appears which shows you which
                    production you can buy. A city can hold a maximum of 4
                    different productions.


For the following informations, it would be good to distinguish the terms stack
and army. An army is a single unit, like a dragon, a fighter etc. Up to 8 armies
can be combined, joined etc. in a stack.

If one of your stacks stands on a ruin or a temple and has a hero (!!!),
you can search it. If you search a temple, you may then choose to either get
a quest (if your hero currently has none) or bless your armies. Blessing gives
all participating armies a once and for all bonus of one strength (unless they
have already been blessed, of course). Quests can be given to a hero, who
receives (or will receive in the future :) ) some reward upon completion.
A quest may be "search this ruin" or "kill this hero". If you search a ruin,
you will certainly first have to defeat the monsters lurking there. If you do
this, you will get some reward (currently a random amount of gold).

You can also split stacks and join them, if the joining stacks together have not
more than 8 armies. To join two stacks, simply move one at the top of the other.
To split a stack, select one and click on the army icons on the bottom of the
screen which you want to deselect. You can now move the selected armies and
therefore split the stack.


4. Misc Information

This is some unsorted information about freelords.

- Each unit costs money every turn. This is the "upkeep" data.
  Heroes don't cost any upkeep.

- Sometimes, heroes will offer to work for you. Hiring them will cost you money
  , however, they are quite powerful, allowing you to search temples/ruins and
  giving other units a +1 strength bonus in combat.

- Although ships can move and fight on water, embarking/disembarking does not
work yet.

- Units regain one fifth of their hitpoints every turn.

- The vitality value of an army has currently no purpose.

- Negative gold amounts won't make your units run away, but you can neither buy
  additional productions nor upgrade cities. Armies will still be produced.

- When fighting a city, you have to face _all_ defenders at once. Currently, you
  can only attack with one stack.

- You have won when you have defeated all other players. If you play on
  your own, you can't currently win.

- You can earn money by searching ruins, having many cities, finishing quests or
  pillaging cities.


5. Army abilities

Besides the obvious abilities of armies (hitpoints, strength etc.), each army
has two special boni, the move bonus and the army bonus.

The move bonus reduces the number of movement points required to cross a certain
terrain to two. Therefore, while a mountain usually needs 6 movement points for
crossing, the mountain move bonus reduces this cost to two points. If a unit has
the water move bonus, it may also cross water, which is usually prohibited.

Furthermore, an army can have one of several army boni. They give this army some
additional special abilities, which are 

Ship        -   the unit may only move on water or within cities
Hero        -   gives all other units  +1 strength bonus in combat; may search
                temples and ruins
Cavalry     -   If the unit is on the attacker side and the defender is located
                on open terrain (grass, not within cities), the unit gets +1
                strength.
Anticavalry -   The unit doubles its strength against cavalry
Healfast    -   not implemented yet
Evade       -   not implemented yet
Assassin    -   The unit has a chance of 1% of scoring an instant kill on a
                succesful hit during combat


5.1. Experience and Levels

If two stacks battle each other and some armies are killed, their XP values
(= how much XP they are worth) are added to a pool and evenly distributed
among all surviving enemy armies. When a unit has gained enough
experience, it can advance a level. You need ten experience points
multiplied with the current level to advance one level, i.e. a level 5
unit needs 50 experience to advance. Whenever a unit has collected enough
experience, a dialog will pop up and ask which stat to raise permanently.


5.2 Fighting

If two stacks of different players meet, a fight starts. A fight always ends
after 30 rounds. If none of the stacks has been destroyed up to then, it is
interrupted. A round consists of each participating army having one chance to
score a hit. First, all armies of the attacker have a chance, then the surviving
defenders. Each army selects a random adversary. Then the difference between the
attacking army's strength and the attacked army's defense is calculated.
Depending on this value, it is checked whether the attacker has landed a hit or
not. In the first case, the attacked army loses a hitpoint, else the attack has
missed.
