\@0\c1Welcome to the world of Excalibur! \c5Program and Documentation by Chris Cowan (c) 1990,1991 Outlaw Technology \c2The Danger Zone (a C-Net Amiga Support BBS) --- (502)/448-1155 \c7 INTRO ----- This game takes place in the Dark Ages, a time of myth and legend, the time of Arthur and Camelot, the time of... Excalibur! You are one of many nobles roaming around the countryside on a quest for adventure, fame and riches. You will command knights, go jousting, and capture cities in your pursuit of the ultimate goal---seizing control of the throne and becoming King of Excalibur! COMMANDS (AND WHAT THEY DO) --------------------------- FROM WITHIN CAMELOT -- (S)COUT THY STATUS .... Shows all of your statistics so far in the game. (R)OYAL PECKING ORDER .... A list of all the adventurers currently playing the game, ranked in order of wealthiest to poorest. (Q)UEST .... Leave Camelot on a Quest. Brings up secondary menu. (M)AP .... A map of the country as you know it. (K)NIGHT .... Knight store. Here you can Hire or Sell Knights. (V)AULTS .... Visit the Royal Vaults. Deposit or Withdraw. Your gold is totally safe in the vaults. It is unwise to carry large amounts of gold in your purse whilst travelling around the countryside! (J)OUST .... Joust for gold pieces. You are allowed 12 jousts per day, or 5 losses in succession, whichever comes first. (W)AR! .... Challenge for the throne of Camelot. Attempt to become King of Excalibur. The King collects 10% of every other adventurers gold every day. (D)ISPATCH .... a message to another player. You will receive 5 lines to enter text. A carrier pigeon will make sure your parchment arrives safely in the correct adventurer's hands (let's hope that the scroll is the ONLY thing that the pigeon drops on him!) (A)SK .... the wise men for advice. Since you are reading this file, you already know what this command does. (X) .... Exit the game for now. All stats will be saved for your next journey into Excalibur. (?) .... Toggle Expert mode on/off. Menus will not be shown while this mode is on. FROM THE QUESTING MENU -- (M)AP .... Same as Camelot Menu command... Show map. (T)RAVEL .... March your troops to another fief (location) on the map. Possible terrains include Plains, Mountains, Swamps, Forests and Deserts. All of these except Plains are potentially hazardous for your knights. Avoid them when possible. (S)COUT .... Send a lone scout off in a specified direction. This is much less dangerous than (T)ravelling there with your whole entourage. (X) .... Exit the game for now. All stats are saved. (D)ISPATCH .... a message to a player (watch out for those pigeons!) (A) .... This doc file. (?) .... Toggle expert mode. When in any city other than Camelot, you will be presented with the option to try to (C)apture the Fief. If your knights manage to take control of a city from another player or from the townsfolk, you will then begin collected taxes from the occupants of your city. You will be allowed to leave some of your knights at the gates to protect your fief from attack from another player. Gold collected in a city will not just magically appear in your purse every day. You must go around and collect the bounty from all your cities. An important note about KNIGHT MANAGEMENT: You cannot just draft Knights willfully into your army---you must hire them. Aside from the initial fee (20 gp/knight), they will also charge you 10 gp/day they are in your employ. Note however, that this only applies to knights accompanying YOU. If you have 0 knights with you, but 100 knights guarding your fiefs, you will not have to pay their wages. They will, however, dip into the cities tax collection and attempt to take their daily stipend, so if you capture a fief that generates 200 gold every day, posting 20 guards in the city will totally negate all profits---you would end up receiving 0 gold every day. If you post 10 guards on the same city, you will collect 100 gp every day. It is up to you to draw the fine line between having too many knights to get any gold and having not enough knights to fend off the attacks of other players.