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\title{Chaos User Manual\\V1.3}
\author{Sean A. Irvine}

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\begin{document}
\maketitle

\section {Introduction}

Chaos is a strategy game for up to eight human players. The computer also partakes in the game and controls independent creatures. Each player starts the game with a wizard and a repertoire of spells. The idea is to be last wizard alive and to amass the greatest score.

The game is played entirely with the mouse and is icon driven. All the entities in the game have graphical representations. A text bar at the bottom of the screen is used to display other information. It is not necessary to real all of this manual in order to play the game. Just load the game (see Section~4) and follow your nose.

A game is organized a series of rounds. Each round consists of several stages, and each living wizard may partake in each stage of each round. The major stages are: spell selection, spell casting, and movement. Each of the stages is described in detail below. As well as these main stages there are also a number of auxiliary stages performed solely by the computer.

The game is played on a rectangular board of square cells. Each cell can contain one entity.\footnote{Well actually cells can sometimes contain more than one entity. But only one entity is ever visible in a particular cell. Cases where there could be more than one entity are when living creatures and standing on dead creatures, etc.} You move your pieces around the board using the mouse. The cost of a move depends on the Euclidean distance between the initial cell and the final cell. Put simply, it costs more to move diagonally, than it does to go vertically or horizontally.

It is important to understand there is a distinction between the gaming environment supplied by the computer and the computer controlled entities. When the computer moves its creations it does not get access to any information that you cannot get, in fact, the computer bases it moves on less information than a human player.

The remainder of this section describes in detail the various stages of a round. Section~2 discusses the different types of entities in a game. Section~3 is a comprehensive list of the spells and their effects. Section~4 covers legal and installation issues. Section~5 mentions future developments.

\subsection {Spell Selection}

For each human wizard in turn, the right of the screen is filled with the currently available spells for that wizard. Information can be obtained about the spells by reading about the spells in this manual or by selecting the `?' gadget and then clicking on the spell you wish to know about. A wizard can decide not to choose a spell by clicking the return gadget, whence control will pass to the next wizard.

Assuming you wish to pick a spell, simply click on the desired spell. During the casting stage you will attempt to use your selected spell. Care should be taken in spell selection. Consider such things as the range of the spell, the situation of the wizard, your position on the board, and whether you require line of sight for the spell. Once selected a spell must be attempted, if you abort the spell, it will still be considered used and will not appear on your spell list in the next round.

\subsection {Spell Casting}

During spell casting each player who selected a spell during the spell selection stage will in turn get a chance to actuate the spell. In addition each generator on the screen might produce a creature.

For each player the spell selected is shown on the bottom line of the screen, together with the range for the spell; for example,

\centerline {\tt Gray Elf [2]}

means we are casting a gray elf, and the elf can be cast either immediately adjacent to the wizard or one cell removed from the wizard. A range of zero means the spell can be cast simply by pressing the left mouse button and there is no need to select a cell. Such spells are usually special things such as magic wings or a sword for the wizard. The computer automatically applies the spell to the correct wizard or creature. Other spells have a range of 255 (such as cloak), these spells can be cast on any appropriate cell on the screen and do not require line of sight.

Most spells have a fixed range, measured in a straight line from the casting wizard. For instance, nearly all creatures have a range of one and so can only be cast immediately adjacent to the wizard. All these spells require line of sight. The line of sight is measured from the centre of the wizards cell to the centre of the destination cell. You can see over blank space, dead creatures, and fires. Sometimes line of sight can be obtained by waiting to an appropriate time in the animation sequence.\footnote{To experienced players this is known as {\bf forcing.}}

Spells can be aborted by pressing the right mouse button. Aborted spells still get used up, so you should try to avoid having to abort spells. If you find yourself aborting spells often, you are probably not choosing spells appropriate to your situation.

Most spells can only be cast on certain types of cell (the program will notify you of any errors you make in selecting the cell). If you make an error you are free to choose a new cell. For instance, creatures can be cast on empty cells or cells containing dead creatures, but cannot be cast on other creatures or inanimate objects.

Generators may produce creatures on any cell adjacent to the generator which is empty or contains a dead creature. Adjacent cells occupied by creatures, or inanimate objects will never be generated upon. Computer controlled wizards will attempt to cast a spell at their position in the sequence.

\subsection {Board Update}

The board update is handled entirely by the computer. The update carries out activities which are not directly under any players control. During the update any or all of the following things might happen:
\begin{itemize}
\item The growths (fire, flood, fungi, orange jelly, gooey blob, and green ooze) are permitted to grow. Each cell containing a growth may or may not grow. If a cell is going to grow it will do so in only one direction in any particular turn. The direction of growth is chosen at random. Some of the growths grow faster than others, orange jelly is particularly voracious while floods tend to be sluggish. If a cell doesn't grow it might die instead. You may have some of your creatures buried, killed, or revealed in this growth process. Should your wizard be buried or killed you are considered dead and your game ends.

\item Any tempests on the board will move. A creature in the path of the tempest will be thrown to a new random location. On very rare occasions a creature will be killed as a result of the throw.

\item Any roper might randomly teleport to a new location.

\item There is a chance that each magic castle and dark citadel on the board might collapse. If a wizard is inside the castle or citadel when the collapse occurs the wizard will be granted a new spell.

\item Any magic wood occupied by a wizard might collapse, resulting in a new spell for the wizard.

\item Each sleeping entity is examined and has a chance of dying or collapsing. The weaker things are more likely to be destroyed than the stronger things. The destruction will be complete and no trace of the entity will remain.

\item (When impurities are turned on) With a small probability an object might decide to change sides. This may work to your advantage or disadvantage. It is even possible that a generator will decide to emit creatures for you.
\end{itemize}

\subsection {Movement}

The movement stage is the most complex stage since normally there is a large number of creatures to be moved and each creatures has a number of possible moves. Each player is given a chance to move in turn. The strategies you employ during the movement stage will have the greatest effect on your survival in the game. Movement involves not only the shifting of creature positions but also combat.

Dead creatures, sleeping creatures, and growths cannot be moved. No inanimates can be moved, although any shadow wood trees may be used to attack enemy creatures\footnote{Unlike creatures, trees cannot attack other inanimate objects, or growths} in adjacent cells. Special creatures like ropers and wasp nests are controlled by the computer.

A player is able to move each creation once in each turn. To end your turn click on the arrow gadget and control will pass to the next player.

A creature is said to be {\bf engaged\/} if it is adjacent to an enemy creature and is unable to retreat. Engaged creature cannot be moved but may still be able to fight. How likely a creature is to be engaged is dependent of the creature's maneourability.

To move a creature simply click on the creature using the left mouse button. Normally the distance the creature may be moved will be displayed in the text bar. Depending on the creature we may be doing flying movement or walking movement.

\subsubsection {Flying Movement}

For flying creatures you can pick any cell within the given range except cells occupied by your own creations. If the cell is empty or contains a dead creature the creature will move to the selected cell, otherwise an aerial attack will be made on the selected cell.

\subsubsection {Aerial Attacks}

An aerial attacks results when a flying creature is moved onto a cell occupied by an opponent. The flier will attack the current occupant. If unsuccessful the attacker will remain at its current location. If successful the current occupant will die and the flying creature will be moved into the cell.

\subsubsection {Walking Movement}

A ground ridden creature can only move one cell at a time and you must show the computer exactly how to move multiple cells by clicking in each cell in turn. Many walking creatures can only move one cell anyway. For those which can move more than one cell you should select a sequence of adjacent cells---you can abort the move at any time by pressing the right mouse button. During the course of a move a creature may become engaged in which case it will move no further.

\subsubsection {Combat}

Engaged creatures can take part in combat. You cannot attack your own creatures (but see ranged combat). Living creatures cannot attack undead creatures, otherwise anything goes. Once engaged an attack is induced by clicking on the cell containing the creature you wish to attack. If successful the defendant will be killed and the attacker will move onto the corpse.

It is possible to attack inanimate objects and growths, although you cannot get engaged to them. Be wary of killing growths with buried creatures beneath, the buried creature could be revealed.

\subsubsection {Ranged Combat}

Some creatures such as elves, dragons, and wizards carrying bows, have additional attacks. Such an attack is indicated by the {\bf sights pointer}. Line of sight is required for all these weapons. It is possible to shoot your own creations, so choose your targets carefully. Occasionally it might be desirable to kill you own creatures (especially if you are playing for points).

\subsubsection {Wizard Movement}

Under normal circumstances the wizard can be moved like any other creature. Wizards are capable of special movements. Firstly, wizards can climb magic trees, enter castles, and ride certain creatures. For conenience these activities are collectively called {\bf mounting}. You cannot mount if you are engaged, otherwise mounting is effected by simply moving the wizard onto the cell occupied by the entity you wish to mount. There is a bug in the program which currently prevents you from mounting undead creatures.

Dismounting is somewhat more complicated as the computer needs to distinguish which of the two entities is to be moved. For trees and castles the computer will assume the wizard. For ridden creatures the default is the creature, to dismount from a creature the following sequence should occur:

\begin{enumerate}
\item Select the creature the wizard is riding.
\item Select the ``D'' gadget (which will now be unghosted).
\item Move the wizard to a cell adjacent to the creature.
\end{enumerate}

Mounting is generally a good idea, as it hides your wizard from view and gives the wizard additional protection.

\subsubsection {Ending Your Turn}

Once you have moved all your creatures that you wish to, select the end of turn gadget. Computer controlled wizards will move their creations at the appropriate point in the sequence. After all wizards have moved the independent creatures will be moved by the computer according to the same rules. Finally any wasp nests, ropers, and fungi on the screen will attack adjacent opponents.

The round is now effectively over and the game returns to the spell selection stage for the next round.

\subsection {Scoring}

The computer keeps track of a score for each player and this is indicated by the computer displaying a ranking of all wizards and the independents at the end of the game. There is a score and a life column. The life column is the sum of the life force of a wizards creations excepting walls and castles. The current scores can be examined during the spell selection stage using the menus.

Points are awarded for killing enemy creatures and wizards. The stronger the creatures you kill the more points you get. Bonus spells are awarded for killing particularly strong creatures.

\subsection {Information}

The `?' gadget can be used to get information about objects on the board (at any time) and about spells (during spell selection). For an object on the screen a window is displayed showing various characteristics of the object chosen. The `?' gadget will not reveal any useful information when applied to a cloaked creature, even if you own it.

\subsection {Menus}

The menus can only be used during the spell selection stage. They are primarily concerned with loading and saving games, but it is also possible to turn the speech on and off. The sound option is used to switch of the sound while the independents move. Turn it off if you want the game to go faster but be warned it is hard to follow what is happening. There is also a menu to view the current scores.

\section {Entities}

This section describes in general terms all the types of entities which can occur in the world. A distinction is made between the type of an object and the status of an object. Type is used in reference to the kind of object some entity is, that is, whether it is a creature, inanimate object, growth, etc. Status is used to specify further division within an object, for example, most creatures have both a living state and a dead state. Indeed the status concept is generally only relevant to creatures as most other entities can only exist in a single state.

\subsection {Object Types}

There are many different types that an object may be classed as. Often an object will fit into more than one type simultaneously, other times only one type will apply. For example it is possible to have an undead, mountable, flying creature that shoots. Entities can be broadly classified as creatures and inanimates, although there are some entities which do not fall clearly into either of these categories. Creatures can be of a wide variety of types.

\subsubsection {Inanimate Objects}

Inanimate objects include all objects without consciousness. The classification, however, is a bit fuzzy and entities such as trees and gooey blobs are considered inanimate. Most inanimate objects can be further classified in one of the following categories: castles, growths, meditations, trees, and walls. Other inanimate objects are unique such as generators and tempests.

{\em Castles:\/} There are two objects in this subclass, namely the dark citadel and the magic castle. Both of these are also meditations. Magic castles and dark citadels exhibit identical behaviour, for more details about their use consult the spells section.

{\em Growths:\/} Growths are objects which if left to themselves and given sufficient time would expand to occupy all available space in the world. Gooey blob and fire are examples of growths. After spell casting each cell occupied by a growth might decide to grow. The cell can only expand in one direction at any particular time, but the direction of expansion is chosen at random. If players don't quickly take action to control the expansion of these growths then the growths will occupy large portions of the screen by the end of the game. Gooey blob will not cover other inanimate objects, but fire will eventually burn most objects. Clever players can use growths to their advantage (even when they don't own them).

{\em Meditations:\/} Meditations are used by wizards for meditation. Meditation is a process whereby a wizard can gain new spells. Some spells can only be obtained by meditation. To meditate a wizard simply climbs into a meditation object and waits for the object to collapse upon which a new spell will be granted. There are three objects in this subclass, namely, the magic castle, the magic wood, and the dark citadel.

{\em Trees:\/} The trees you find in this game are not like your average trees. The shadow wood has the ability to attack creatures that wander too close, whereas the magic wood may be used by a wizard for meditation. Apple trees boost the magical resistance of nearby creatures.

{\em Walls:\/} There are three grades of wall: weak, standard, and strong. Each type of wall in a useful obstruction. Wall is particularly useful for checking the progress of growths or for blocking generators. As a subsidiary use wall is useful for building fortifications. Be aware that wall is not an obstruction to flying creatures. The bolter is a special piece of wall fitted with an arrow launcher. For the characteristics of the particular wall types consult the spells section.

\subsubsection {Creatures}

Creature is a wide ranging term in chaos and is used to refer to any animate object. A creature may be a familiar animal like a lion, bear, or horse, it might be a humanoid race, like goblins, orcs, and elves, it might be a spirit, like ghosts and wraiths, it might be a wizard, or it might be a monster like a hydra. Creatures can be broadly classified into a number of overlapping classes. A creature may be living, undead, flying, ground-ridden, or mountable. For particular aspects of any individual creature see Creature Status below.

{\em Undead Creatures:\/} Undead creatures come from the spirit world or are animated corpses of the dead. Some creatures are naturally undead, all others can be made undead by using a raise dead spell on their corpses. The naturally undead creatures are: demons, ghasts, ghosts, ghouls, imps, shadows, skeletons, spectres, vampires, wights, wraiths, and zombies. These natural undeads do not result in corpses when they are killed, instead they simple vanish. Undead creatures (except for the (w)imp) cannot be attacked by living creatures (except in special cases where a wizard may be able to attack undead creatures), but undead creatures can attack both other undead creatures and living creatures.

{\em Living Creatures:\/} Any creature which is not undead is by definition a living creature (of course, creatures may also be dead, but this is considered as a status rather than a type).

{\em Flying Creatures:\/} A flying creature is able to take to the air. These creatures have the ability  to fly over their enemies, over wall, and to mount aerial attacks from a distance. When a flying creature becomes engaged it cannot fly and fights like other creatures. The flying creatures include: bats, bird lords, eagles, falcons, ghosts, gryphons, harpies, manticores, pegasii, vampires, vultures, and all the various kinds of dragon. The range of flight goes from two cells in the case of the ghost to fifteen in the case of the aerial servant. With the addition of magic wings a wizard can be made to fly.

{\em Ground-ridden Creatures:\/} Any creature which is not a flying creature is necessarily ground-ridden. Ground-ridden creatures have to walk around obstacles like wall and fire.

{\em Mountable Creatures:\/} A mountable creature is a creature which may be ridden by the wizard. The horse, camel, centaur, and unicorn are ground-ridden mountable creatures, and the gryphon, pegasus, and manticore are flying mountable creatures. Dragons cannot be mounted.

\subsection {Creature Status}

Every creature on the board can be in any of a number of states at any particular time. Creature status should not be confused with creature type (see previous section). Creature status refers to such things as whether the creature is awake, sleeping, or dead. For convenience cloaking is considered to be part of a creature's status.

\subsubsection {Dead Creatures}

A dead creature is rendered on the board as a corpse and should easily be recognizable as dead. Creatures are normally killed by combat, but can occasionally die by other means. Not all creatures turn into corpses when they are killed, in particular, all the creatures which by their nature are undead, such as skeletons and zombies, do not become corpses when they are killed. Often use of magic will leave no corpse, for example, if a giant beetle is destroyed by a magic bolt, no corpse will result.

Corpses can be brought back to life by the raise dead spell. Corpses can be destroyed by various magical weapons and by fire. It is usually a good idea to try and cover up or destroy the corpses of powerful creatures (such as dragons) so as to prevent an opponent from using a raise dead spell on the corpse.

A corpse cannot be cloaked or asleep.

\subsubsection {Sleeping Creatures}

Sleeping creatures result from the use of the sleep spell or from the death of a wizard. If a sleeping creature is not awakened within a certain time it will decay and disappear (leaving no corpse). A sleeping creature appears just like its living counterparts on the board. If you have a wake spell, a sleeping creature can be awakened, and will then swear allegiance to your wizard. A sleeping creature can be cloaked.

Sleeping creatures cannot move or partake in combat, but can be attacked by other creatures. Note though, that you can never get engaged to a sleeping creature. The shadow wood will not attack sleeping creatures.

Other objects such as fire, gooey blob, and walls can also go into a sleeping state. In this state fire and gooey blob stop growing and other objects stop repairing themselves. The sleep spell, however, can only be used on creatures.

\subsubsection {Cloaked Creatures}

A cloaked creature can only be obtained by use of the cloak spell. For the advantages of cloaking creatures see Cloak in the spells section. Cloaked creatures appear on the board as near invisible squares. The information panel will be unsuccessful in trying to determine what the creature actually is.

\subsubsection {Normal Creatures}

All other creatures are termed normal. Most normal creatures appear as animated renditions of themselves on the board. Some creatures can be distinguished by colour alone, for example the bat, falcon, and vulture. Other creatures cannot be distinguished by their appearance, for example, the hydra and pyrohydra.

\section {Spells}

To find out about spells when playing the game the `?' gadget can be used. Not all spells are equally likely to occur and some can only be obtained as bonus spells or by meditation.

\input {spells.tex}

\section {Regulations and Installations}

\subsection {Legalities}

The executable of Chaos (V1.3) is in the public domain and may be freely distributed. The source code, documentation, and levels are copyright \copyright Sean A. Irvine and may not be modified without the author's permission.

Future releases of Chaos will only be made available to registered users. By paying a registration fee of \$15 US (or the equivalent in some other useful currency) or \$15 NZ (for a New Zealand address) you will receive access to the latest version of the game (and any subsequent releases), well documented source code, and a level generator. Those who pay the registration will have a partial waiver of the source code copyright and will be permitted to alter the source code for their own use. Please make cheques payable to Sean Irvine. My address is given at the end of the instructions. Do to french nuclear testing in the Pacific I will not accept registrations from French addresses.

Chaos was written using SAS~C on an Amiga~500 with 1MB of memory and later on an Amiga~3000.

\subsection {Installation}

Chaos will work under at least Workbench 1.3 and Workbench 2.0 and should work on anything subsequent. It will, however, only work correctly on PAL systems.\footnote{There is a NTSC version with a slightly smaller screen. Where possible the PAL version should be used.} Chaos makes used of {\tt narrator.device} and {\tt reqtools.library}.\footnote{ReqTools is copyright Nico Fran\c cois and is available on aminet.} The only other files required are the executable {\tt chaos} and the data file {\tt pool.ssc} both of which must reside in the current directory when Chaos is started. The program cannot be started from the Workbench. Get a CLI and change to the directory containing chaos and just type {\tt chaos -t}.

The {\tt -t} option forces translation of player names for the speech. A few other options are supported, to find out about these use {\tt chaos -t} and then press $\langle$ AMIGA-M$\rangle$ to return to the CLI screen.

\section {Future Additions}

Here is a list of features that may be added in the future:

\begin{itemize}
\item More spells (send me you favourite ideas, and pictures of wanted creatures).

\item More flexibility in game options, such as, number of spells at the start of the game, allowing players' to buy spells, and so on.

\item Larger playing areas and proper NTSC support.
\end{itemize}

\section {Known Bugs}

Chaos has been extensively tested with enforcer and in my experience does nothing nasty. However, there are a few less series bugs within the game which will be fixed in the future.

\begin{itemize}
\item The computer controlled wizards spell selection leaves a lot to be desired.
\item Human wizards cannot mount undead creatures.
\item There is no proper dead image for the stone golem.
\item Several other bugs I haven't found yet.
\end{itemize}

\section {Address}

If you have any queries, spell wish lists, or would like to register I can be contacted at the following address.

{\obeylines
Sean A. Irvine
F10/5 Tralee Place
Hamilton
New Zealand}

{\tt sirvine@cs.waikato.ac.nz}

\end {document}