************************************************************************** Copyright and Disclamier notice -------------------------------------------------------------------------- MECHFORCE ©1989 By Ralph H. Reed This software is very similar to the BattleTech system which is copyright 1985-1989 © FASA Corporation. However it not exactly the same. Some ideas have been used without permission of FASA Corporation. Some areas and ideas have been changed to protect the rights of FASA Corporation and others. The Mechforce program, its code, ideas, pictures and documentation within are Copyright © 1989 by Ralph H. Reed. MechForce is a utility system which allows people to test "mechs" in a "game arena" for the purpose of seeing how they would do against other mechs. Previous version of BattleFort and BattleForce are no longer supported. *************************************************************************** Warrior Documentation The Warrior program allows you to make Warrior and Technician characters, and to join several characters together into a unit. Warriors are a combination of a character and a mech. There are two types of characters and units. Player characters and units and Non-Player Characters (NPC) and units. Player Characters Player characters, Warriors and Technicians, roll for their starting character points and start off as zero level, or green characters. Use the pulldown menu to select "Warrior-New" or "Technician-New". The first thing you wil get is a small window asking you to roll for the starting Character Points for your new character. Character Points are used to 'buy' abilities and skills for your character. Later, you will be able to exchange experience for more character points to further improve your character. The number of character points will vary randomly from 125 to 225 points. You can try as often as you want, but if you are playing in a group you should establish ground rules. Around here we allow a person two chances at a character. Once you have your starting character points you will get the character creation selector that lets you use your initial character points to buy character attributes, skills and mech. There are eight possible selections, including the name for your new character. "Buy Character Attributes" brings up a window listing the four character attributes for your character. They are: Body, Dexterity, Learn and Charisma. "Body" is the amount of damage your character can take. You character hit points is ten times your Body. Body affects your physical skills such as Brawling and Survival. "Dexterity" is how well you move, yours sense of balance and your eye hand coordination. It affects your weapons abilities and piloting abilities. "Learn" is how easily you can pick up technical skills, such as piloting, leadership and mech repair. Learn also determines how many skills your character can 'learn'. You are allowed one skill for each point of Learn and you allowed four skill levels for each point of Learn. "Charisma" is how other people see you, physically and personality. This attribute affects your ability to deal with other people, such as leadership. For a pilot Dexterity and Learn are the most important since they determine you piloting skill and gunnery skill. For a technician Learn is the most important since in determines your ability to repair mechs. The Attributes window shows your current attributes with a left and right set of arrows. To increase an attribute, click on the right arrow for that attribute. To decrease an attribute, click on the left arrow. The number beside each arrow is the cost, in character points, to increase or decrease the attribute by one. Reducing an attribute below the starting level of six will give you more character points. However, before you drop your Charisma to 2, bear in mind that you will probably want to put this character into a unit and what unit is going to want an ugly, obnoxious character? Your remaining character points is also displayed. "Buy Initial Skills" opens a large window listing all of the possible skills for a character. To change a skill, click on the desired skill. That skill will then appear at the top along with its current level and your base roll for that skill. Again, you will have left and right arrows to decrease or increase the skill along with the cost. You can not decrease a skill below its starting level. If you have already selected the Academy or University package you will find that several of the skills are ghosted. You are not allowed to increase skills from one of those packages during the initial character generation. Later, you can Update a character and increase skill and attributes, but of course it cost a lot more. For Warrior characters, "Buy/Roll for Combat Mech" is where you get your mech. This selector brings up another window showing your current character points with a left and right arrow. You will roll for your mech assignment by clicking on the "Roll" gadget. Before you roll, you can increase or decrease your chance for a larger mech. Every point you add to your roll cost 20 character points. Likewise, every point you subtract from your roll gives you 20 character points. When you are ready, click on "Roll" to find out what size mech you are assigned. A 15 ton mech is the computers way of telling you that your character doesn't get a mech. Finally, click on "Done". The window will close and a window will open and display a selection all of the Combat Mechs available to you. To select a mech click with the LEFT mouse button. Clicking with the RIGHT mouse button will display a quick preview of the mech. The mech you select will be added to your character. The "Academy Package" offers a collection of six good skills for a mech warrior or technician at a bargan price of 75 character points. You save 35 character points. The next selector allows you to specify a "Personal Affiliation". If you do not select a personal affiliation you will be considered to be a mercenary. Being a mercenary is not bad and there are a number of advantages. Affiliation will affect your acceptance roll for some units. All MechForce programs will look for a file called "AffilNames" in the "S:" directory of the boot disk. If found, it will try to load a list of names from this file for the affiliated houses. This allows you to create your own personal house. The last selector gives you a chance to "Join Mech Unit". If there is already a unit available that you want to join, here is the place to do it. If you don't want to join a unit the "Done/Save" gadget will save your character to disk as a Warrior or Technician file. The "Reset" gadget will reset your character to its starting condition, except for one time rolls. "Quit" is a way out of the Creating Selector if you want to try again. Don't forget to name your character buy clicking in the name gadget and typing the name into the requestor. Be sure to hit before your click on "Done" in the name requestor. NPC Characters NPC characters are just like Player characters except you can make them any level you want. You can also pick whatever mech you want for them. On the other hand they are FIXED characters. They do not go up in level and can never be changed after they are created. To make an NPC character use the pulldown menus to select "Warrior-Create" or "Technician-Create". Instead of a roll for the starting character points you will get a window asking you to select the starting level of your NPC. The Creation Selector for NPC characters is similar to the Creation Selector for Player characters. The main difference is the lack of an Academy or University package (all NPCs get the Academy package) and the addition of a selector to "Buy a Title" for your character. Updating Characters The "Update" option for both Warriors and Technicians allows you to check your character advancement, convert earned experience points to character points and increase your attribute and skill levels. When you do earn a new level, you are given one point to put on any attribute and two skill levels. Level advancement occures a 3,000, 15,000 and 100,000 experience points. The only Update available for NPC characters is to change Units or, if he has lost a mech, to get a new mech. The first thing you will see when you update a character is a window displaying the current status of the character. Click in the window to continue. After the status display the computer checks to see if your character is available to update. If you are Dead, held Hostage or out in a combat somewhere the computer will tell you. If your character is out you will be asked if you want to bring him home. It cost money to bring a character back and you should be careful doing it. If your character is in a Saved Game somewhere and you bring him back, later, when you finish the game, your old character will overwrite anything you do to the one that you brought back. The idea is not to have two copies of your character running around. The next thing the computer will do is check to see if you qualify to be promoted to the next level. If you do, it will tell you and ask you what attribute and skills you want to increase. The Update Selector itself is just like the NPC selector. The major difference is that the Update Selector allows you to change mechs. If you are an individual warrior you can trade in you old mech any time you have to money for a new mech. If you are part of a Unit you can change to any unused mech in the unit. It is up to the players to set rules for who can get into what mech. Clicking with the LEFT button selects the mech. Clicking with the RIGHT button will bring up a quick preview of the mech. Mech Units Units also come in different flavors. There are Player Units which can only have Player characters in them, and NPC Units which can have both Player and NPC characters. NPC Units have a fixed number of Warriors, either 4, 8 or 12. Player Units can have up to 50 Warrior, Technician and Mech files. NPC units don't change. The best way to play the game is to start in a good NPC unit until you gain a little experience. Then you can branch out and form your own player unit. In addition to player vs NPC Unit, there are also Mercenary vs House Units. A Mercenary Unit sells it services to a House, under a contract. It must fulfill its contract before it changes employer or lose reputation. A Mercenary Unit that does not have a contract has no way to get more money from repairs other than through combat. The contract will specify how much the Unit will be paid per Combat Point, how many Combat Points the unit must earn to complete it contract, what percentage of the combat damage the House will pay and what percentage of the Salvage the Unit may keep. Mercenary Units must find their own replacements for lost mechs. A House Unit is given everything, all repairs, replacement mechs, etc. In exchange a House Unit can never change employer, warriors are paid a straight salary, and they do not collect salvage. To form a Unit, use the pulldown menus to select "Unit-New" or "Unit-Create". You will be asked to select a Warrior to act as the leader of the Unit. You will then be asked to select all of the new characters that will form the starting unit. Once the Unit is formed new characters must 'Join' the unit, and a roll is required for acceptance. Make sure to setup the contracts for the unit and its individual warriors before you start adding members. Make sure you name your Unit before you try to get a contract. NPC Units will be allowed to set the starting size of the Unit and its reputation. Player Units rolls for the starting number of warriors that form the Unit and can have any number up to 50 Join after the Unit if formed. The Update Unit option allows you to maintain your Unit. The main Warrior window will show the first warrior in the upper half of the screen and a list of all warriors, mechs and technicians in the lower half of the screen. If there are more than twelve a pair of scrolling arrows will become active in the Update Selector. Whenever you load a Unit all injured members of the Unit will be healed and all Dead warriors or Destroyed mechs will be removed. The Update Unit Selector allows you to work on your Unit. You can change the Unit Name by clicking in the name gadget. You can change your Units Affiliation or Contract, but if you are a House Unit or have not completed your original contract you will lower your reputation. Your reputation affects the kind of contract you can get. Your unit reputation is based on you win/loss ratio. It is check every 10 combats and can only go up or down one point at a time. "Add Warrior" and "Add Technician" allows you to add members to your Unit to replace lost characters. "Remove Member" allows you to remove a member of the Unit. The person removed will be saved to disk as an individual character and can be used somewhere else or deleted. "Update Member" is used to call the Update Character selector. When you choose this option the Unit Selector will disappear and you will be asked to select the member to update. Click on the name of the character you want to update and they will be loaded and the Update Character routine called. This is how you change individual characters inside a Unit. The "Unit Status" option will open a window and display the status of the Unit, its contract, and how many missions and patrols remain before your contract is completed. Make sure you "Done/Save" when you finish. "Quit" will exit without saving any changes you might have made.