KINGDOMS GAME PLAYER DOCUMENTATION Version 2.18 Programming & Design : Dave Chapman : The Web BBS Copyright c 1993, 94, 95, 96 - Dave Chapman All Rights Reserved 3:712/523@FidoNet 61:9600/350@WorldNet 69:1171/200@AdultNet 169:3005/2@BattleNet 151:6121/823@EzyNet InterNet - dave.chapman@ibm.net - Kingdoms Support Page - http://www.magna.com.au/~davec/kingdom.htm KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ TABLE OF CONTENTS SECTION 1 - INTRODUCTION 5 SECTION 2 - THE GAME 5 2.1. In General 5 SECTION 3 - OVERVIEW OF PLAY 6 SECTION 4 - LOGGING ON 9 4.1. Your `Handle' 9 4.2. Using Colors 9 4.3. Male/Female 9 4.4. Your Password 10 SECTION 5 - YOUR CHARACTER 11 5.1. Level 11 5.2. Hit Points 11 5.3. Strength 11 5.4. Agility 11 5.5. Intelligence 11 5.6. Gold 12 5.7. Your Castle 12 5.8. Your Vault 13 5.9. Weaponry 13 5.10. Armor 13 5.11. Making Money 14 SECTION 6 - MAIN OPTIONS 15 6.1. ight a Monster 15 6.2.

roving Grounds 16 __________________________________________________________ 1 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 6.3. ealers 16 6.3.1. eal Yourself 16 6.3.2. uy a Potion 16 6.3.3. bsent Healing 16 6.3.4. rink a Potion 17 6.4. aid a Castle 17 6.5. isit Your Vault 17 6.6. cores 17 6.7. dit your castle 17 6.8. evelopment and Games 18 6.8.1. The Gymnasium 18 6.8.2. The Library 18 6.8.3. The Weights Room 18 6.8.4. The Casino 18 6.9. evels 18 6.10. ouriers Guild 19 6.10.1. General 19 6.10.2. Delivering Notes 19 6.11. our Statistics 20 6.12. ews 20 6.13. ingdom Realms 20 6.14. utfitters 20 6.14.1. General 20 6.14.2. Outfitting Local Soldiers 20 6.14.3. Outfit Soldiers - Agent Menu 21 6.15. isc 22 6.15.1. Full menus 22 6.15.2. ANSI Graphics 22 6.15.3. Page Length 22 6.15.4. What's New vx.xx 22 6.15.5. Game Documentation 22 6.16. raveyard 22 6.17. uit 23 SECTION 7 - REALM OPTIONS 24 7.1. econoitre 24 7.2. hoose Default Realm 25 7.3. uild a Remote Castle 25 7.4. nvasion Orders 26 __________________________________________________________ 2 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 7.4.1. Overview 26 7.4.2. Who to attack 27 7.4.3. What to attack? 27 7.4.4. How many & when to send them 27 7.4.5. Synchronous Attacks 28 7.4.6. How it works 28 7.5.

urchase Barracks 29 7.6. ire Soldiers 29 7.7. eploy Soldiers 30 7.8. gent Development 30 7.9. et Statistics 30 SECTION 8 - AGENT OPTIONS 32 8.1. uery Agent Status 32 8.2. rm Agent 32 8.3. utfit Soldiers 32 8.4. ortify Castle 33 8.4.1. Send arracks to your Remote 33 8.4.2. Send oldiers to your Remote 33 8.4.3. Send Mnsters to your Remote 33 8.5. end Gold to, ake Gold from Remote 33 8.6. xperience Transfer 33 8.7. evelop Agent 34 8.8. ndercover Operations 34 8.9. rowse Agents 34 SECTION 9 - MISSIVES 35 9.1. Reading Missives 35 9.2. Replying to Messages 36 9.2.1. From other players in Kingdoms, either on your Realm or on Remte Realms. 36 9.2.2. From your Agent 37 9.2.3. From the Kingdoms Net Manager 37 9.2.4. From Others! 38 9.3. Marked Missives 38 SECTION 10 - LAND & FOOD PRODUCTION 39 __________________________________________________________ 3 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 10.1. General 39 10.2. Food Distribution 39 SECTION 11 - SOLDIERS 41 11.1. Soldier Morale 41 11.2. Soldier Deployment 41 SECTION 12 - SUMMARY 41 APPENDIX A - CONTACT INFORMATION 43 __________________________________________________________ 4 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Section 1 - Introduction The concept of Kingdoms is taken originally from a game called the Gameroom, the Author of which is unknown to me, but to whom I would like to give credit for a really great game concept. It was one of the first games I ever played on a BBS and though I have played many many games since of ever increasing complexity, it still stands out in my mind as one of the best, if not THE best, online game I ever played. Most certainly, I have added considerably to the original game, and will be adding a great deal more in the near future, but the basic aims of the original Gameroom remain! Section 2 - The Game 2.1. In General The aim of Kingdoms is, not to be too harsh about it, total domination and suppression of everyone else playing the game by yourself and the Agents you control. You are not there to be nice - you're not there to make friends. Sure, you may make the odd alliance in mutually beneficial circumstances but ultimately you'll stick it to the people you're allied with using everything you've got. :) Kingdoms offers a multitude of ways in which you may do this and it must be said it isn't easy, but given time and sufficient application, it is most certainly possible! When you first play Kingdoms, you are given a Castle containing 10 empty rooms, 200 credits, some healing potions and not much else, except the dubious title of `Leper'. It is your task to build yourself up by training to increase your abilities, fighting other users and monsters for experience and raiding the Castles of others for the chance of extra Gold. There is a very well stocked armory which, as long as you have the Gold, can provide equipment enough to make you a walking fortress and arsenal in one. Of course, there is a casino for those who wish to gamble their hard earned gold and try for some quick gp to add to it. Much, much more awaits, so read on! __________________________________________________________ 5 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Section 3 - Overview of Play Kingdoms fully supports network capability. It is quite likely that you're familiar with other games that purport to be InterBBS games, but they are pretty limited in what they can do and what they offer in these terms. They allow you to send attacks out to players on other BBS's, or send messages to and from them if you wish, but that's about it. Kingdoms suffers from no such restriction. Under Kingdoms InterBBS, you can most certainly send attacks out, trade messages with users on other boards and the like, but with Kingdoms, the concept of InterBBS gaming takes another step and you can also establish complete bases for yourself on other BBSs in your net!!! An example will give you a good idea of what this means to you, the Kingdoms player. Lets say your Sysop is running Kingdoms in a network with 5 other BBSes. That is, a total of six BBSes are participating in your Kingdoms Net. Each BBS in the net is known as a Realm, inclding your own BBS, and each players' castle on each Realm is known as a Kingdom. Assume you play Kingdoms on The Web BBS, then the Web is known as your Home BBS. You will, in normal play, spend some (probably considerable) time building up your first Kingdom on the Web until you are at the stage of being able to begin spreading your holdings across the Net. From your Home on the Web, you can purchase a new castle and have it built on any other Realm in the Net. When you do so, you will hire an Agent of your preferred sex to run the Castle for you. An important point to make here is that the Agent you hire appears as a normal Kingdoms player on the Realm on which you've built your new castle. You give the Agent a name of your choice (which WON'T generally be the same name as you use on your home BBS!) but that Agent knows he or she is an Agent and to whom his or her allegence belongs! You may trade with that Agent, store money in your Agents Vault, fortify your Remote castle and many more things. You can even, if you wish, logon to the Realm where your Remote castle is. You will be recognised as a visiting Lord (or Lady) and will have complete control of a fully fortified and (hopefully) financially stable Kingdom even though you may never physically have logged onto Kingdoms on that Realm before. As mentioned, Agents are, to all intents and purposes, real players to others in that Realm and the Net as a whole. They have all the normal statistics and facilities at their disposal as those of a real player, all of which you can increase and improve just as you can your own, by orders dispatched from your Home Realm. They can have (and probably will have) messages sent to them just as normal players can. __________________________________________________________ 6 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Of course, it would be pretty pointless to do so considering you will often never log directly onto a Realm where you have an Agent in residence (consider the Remote operation you have in Perth when your Home Realm is in Sydney!) and will therefore never get the message. Agents are smart enough therefore to recognise messages that are coming in addressed to them and will forward any and all such messages to the Home BBS where you will recieve them in due course. You can then reply to them on behalf of your Agent and send them back to be forwarded again to the original sender under the name of your Agent . It matters not where the sender, where the Agent and where the Home realm resides. Kingdoms handles all the required routing with ease. You can therefore converse with any other player(s) in your Net through your Agent(s) and they will never know it is really you, who may have your Home in a completely different locaion, who is answering their replies and participating in any plans they may have ... I will leave you to ponder the intricacies and strategies that can be utilised under Kingdoms InterBBS. Suffice to say, they are many and numerous. The final point I'd like to make in this general discussion of Agents and Inter-Realm operation is that they can, amongst many other things as yet unmentioned, be given orders to Invade another player on another Realm. Further, you can instruct your Agent(s) to being Invasion action only on a certain date. If you own several Remotes therefore, a synchronised attack can be formed up to thirty days in advance on any given player on any other Realm you have taken a dislike to for any reason. This high degree of InterBBS functionality solves one of the major complaints I have often come across in other InterBBS games. That problem is that, in other games, there is really little you can do if several other players (or BBSs) decide that you have to go and all attack you at once. Such concentrated offensive action can leave a patiently constructed players game in shambles and, though many say it's all part of the game, it is not at all enjoyable if you happen to be the focal point of the joint attack. Under Kingdoms, you are no longer required to `put all your eggs in one basket'. Indeed, if you get wind of an attack that is coming your way (possibly by use of a Remote Agent who has been playing a spy for you on the enemy camp? ... Hey ... they're not going to know about it are they? :)), you can transfer the majority of your assets out temporarily to an Agent you have on a safe haven on another Realm, let the attack do it's work, then recall your assets back from your Remote Agent when the heat is off. You'll certainly take damage from such an attack, but you will no longer be ruined by any means and will have the ability to not only bounce back quickly, but take revenge on those who planned your demise! __________________________________________________________ 7 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ I hope the above has given you a good idea of the sort of play and intrigue you can expect to enjoy as a Kingdoms player. Following are more specific descriptions of the various componenets of Kingdoms covering your character and what the many menu options do. __________________________________________________________ 8 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Section 4 - Logging On The first time you logon to Kingdoms, you'll be asked to give a little information about the character you want to play. Once given, this information is saved for you and you don't need to give it again. Subsequent logons to the game will recognise you and drop you into the game immediately. The information required includes : 4.1. Your `Handle' Your handle is your call-sign, alias, whatever you want to call it. It is the name by which you are known to others in the game. When scoreboards are displayed, messages are sent to and fro, etc, this is the name which is used. Your real name is never referred to in the game. Make it something interesting! You CANNOT change your name once you've started playing, so get it right first time!!! 4.2. Using Colors Kingdoms supports the use of color codes in all displayable text. This includes character names, ie, Handles, message text, etc. Colors are simple to insert in any text by use of the `^' (carat) character, followed by the desired color code. The codes available to players for use include : : Select High Intensity ^H : Select Low Intensity ^L : Red text ^R ^Y : Yellow text (with high intensity), Brown text (with low intensity) : Black text (pretty pointless really ... :-)) ^K : Blue text ^B ^C : Cyan text : Green text ^G : Magenta text ^M ^x : sets background color, where `x' is the corresponding lower case letter of the color desired, eg, ^r sets a red background. Please note : When entering the color codes, the `^' character will be accepted, but not displayed as Kingdoms treats it as a control character and as such, not displayable. If you wish to actually put a ^ in your text, just put two `^'s. 4.3. Male/Female Kingdoms makes no distinction as far as statistics and character development go in relation to the sex of the character given. This is simply a means of personalising your character depending on your choice. Kingdoms will display __________________________________________________________ 9 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ him/her, he/she, Lord/Lady at times when appropriate, giving the game a nicer and more realistic feel. 4.4. Your Password This is a VERY important aspect of logging onto the game. The password you enter here (and in other places in the game) is the password that can be used to control your character from a remote realm. As discussed in the section titled `Overview of Play', Kingdoms fully provides the ability for you to have a character and/or Agent you control on one Realm (BBS) entirely from another Realm. The password you enter here is the password that MUST be provided to manage your character (the one you're now starting up by logging on) remotely. Likewise, if you build a castle on another realm from the one you're presently logging onto, then you need to specify a password for that Agent to use to validate incoming orders. If you forget this password, YOU WILL LOSE ALL REMOTE CONTROL ABILITY for the Realm you're trying to talk to!!! The main message here is : DON'T FORGET IT!!! __________________________________________________________ 10 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Section 5 - Your Character Your character has the following statistics and abilities at his or her disposal. Each is important in it's own right and care must be taken when considering how you plan to develop your character. It is up to the player to decide on the best course of action to make your character, eventually, unassailable. 5.1. Level The current level of your character, based on experience. Levels in the game can be displayed with associated title names and experience points from the Kingdoms menu, option `L'. 5.2. Hit Points Your Hit Poins are the amount of damage your character can take before death. The only way to increase your HP is to go up a level. You do this by gaining experience, which can only be achieved by fighting other users or monsters. The higher the person fought (and defeated, of course!) or the higher monster level fought, the greater the experience gained. The number of hit points you gain when you go up a level is NOT set by the game. It is a function solely of the Intelligence of your character. Your HP when you first start the game are 20. 5.3. Strength Strength is one of the factors which determine your ability to successfully strike an opponent. The other factor is the Weapon your character is using. Strength at the start of the game is set to 10. Increasing your Strength can be done, for a price depending on your level, in the Development Centre. 5.4. Agility Agility is one of the factors which determine your ability to successfully evade an opponents blow. The other factor is the Armor your character is using. Agility at the start of the game is set to 10. Increasing your Agility can be done, for a price depending on your level, in the Development Centre. 5.5. Intelligence Intelligence, as described above, is used to determine the amount of Hit Points you increase when your character reaches a new Level. Unfortunately, because the benefits provided by __________________________________________________________ 11 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ keeping a good intelligence score are not immediately apparent, many players tend to overlook this ability in favour of Strength and Agility. An intelligent player will not ignore this ability. A low intelligence is a guarentee of a long term disadvantage in the game. You will find that when you start the game, your levels will rise quite quickly, compared to when you've been playing for some time. Therefore, it is at lower levels that your hit points rise most quickly. A decent intelligence can make a big difference in the long run in terms of the hit point increases you gain at lower levels! Increasing your Intelligence can be done, for a price depending on your level, in the Development Centre. 5.6. Gold All important. Without it, you're not going anywhere. It costs money to train, to buy equipment, gamble, and just about everything else. You can have Gold in two places, in your hand, ie, on your person somewhere, or in your Vault. The 10th room in every Castle contains your Vault. Should someone defeat you in a personal attack in the Proving Grounds, any gold on hand will be lost to the victor. Monsters who defeat you will also take your Gold on hand. Gold you place in your Vault cannot be taken from you unless someone raids your Castle and wins through to the Vault Room. 5.7. Your Castle Your castle contains 10 rooms. Rooms 1 to 9 are empty at the start of play and Room 10 houses your Vault and you, when you are not actually playing. Your Vault, obviously, can be used to store Gold you wish to keep from unfriendly (ie, all other) players. As you live in Room 10, you are all that exists at first between the outside world and your Vault. You can, when you get some Gold, purchase monsters of a level you desire and can afford (monsters are the level, times 10gp, squared, to purchase) and place them in any of the 9 first rooms of your Castle. In order for an opponent to enter your Vault Room, they must first pass through Rooms 1 to 9. Monsters placed in those rooms will defend that room to the death for you, hopefully stopping anyone Raiding before they even get to you and your gold in your Vault Room. Believe me, if you manage to get 9 level 10 monsters in rooms 1 to 9 (that will set you back 500 (gp per monster level) * 10 (monster levels) * 9 (rooms) = 45,000gp!), then your Vault can be considered secure except from the most powerful enemies ... Should someone Invade your Castle and kill a monster you've placed in an intervening room, that monster departs and is replaced by one of a level one lower than the previous monster occupant. If a level one monster is killed in one of your Rooms, then the room becomes unattended and undefended. Your own prowess and the monsters you can purchase are there to protect you from those on your own realm who choose to __________________________________________________________ 12 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ raid your Castle. When players from other realms invade, it is quite possible there will be a force of several thousand Soldiers decending on your Castle in force to rid you of your assets. While you and your monsters are tough, sheer weight of numbers means a couple of thousand Soldiers will overrun you in short order. For this reason, you may purchase additional protection against attacks from other realms in the form of your own Soldiers. Soldier purchase and use is discussed below in the Inter-Realm section so it will suffice to say here that they can be used for either attack or defence purposes, though not both at once! 5.8. Your Vault While a good bit of discussion has gone on about the Vault you own, one further point is pertinent. It is possible to take out more money from your Vault than you have placed in it. In fact, you can `overdraw' your Vault to the tune of 200gp per level of your character. A level 5 character can withdraw up to 1000gp more than is actually available in the Vault. While this IS handy at times, a negative balance in you Vault incurs a 5% interest charge daily. You have been warned! 5.9. Weaponry Weapons can be purchased from the Outfitter at a set price. As long as you have the money, you can purchase any weapon. That is, the Outfitter stocks never run out. Only melee weapons are available at the Outfitter at present. Range weapons are not yet a part of this game. The better the weapon, the better the chance you'll hit an opponent, taking into account the strength of your character as well. 5.10. Armor Seven Armor types are available - Body Armor Headwear Rings/Bracers Robes/Cloaks Footwear General Armor General Magic While in the Outfitter, you can list Armor types you want to purchase by Category (shown above) or list the lot. A player character (either your Home BBS character or an Agent) can wear any type of armor. Soldiers, discussed later in this document, are restricted to wearing armor of Body Armor type only. __________________________________________________________ 13 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 5.11. Making Money An important consideration! There are a lot of ways to make money in Kingdoms. Below they're listed in brief, but getting the most out of them is up to the player : The Casino. You can gamble in here and, if you're good enough, make plenty of gold! The Colloseum. Here you can fight monsters and, if victorious, pick up both Gold and Experience. The Proving Grounds. Here you can fight other players in the game. If you defeat them, any money they have on hand is yours. Raiding Castles. This can be very rewarding if you pick the right castle to raid. If you enter and can defeat the owner, then the contents of their Vault, plus any gold they have on hand, is yours. Also, you have the time before leaving to search the body and swap any item of equipmentyou have for one of theirs. On a less positive note, a danger here is that if you happen to raid someone who is in debt, you'll also pick up their debts. Invading Castles. Probably the attack form that has the most liklihood of a good return is Castle Invasions. You get any gold the person has if the invasion is successful, plus your Soldiers will steal the most valuable item the defeated person owns and return it to you for sale or use. It will be sold if the player already has an item of this type (eg, if a `General Magic' armor item is stolen and the player already has one or equal or greater value) or equipped automatically if the player doesn't. This CAN be worth a lot, particularly if the person invaded has good equipment! Also, as Soldiers steal, not swap items, it is a more effective way of damaging opponenets. Soldiers do NOT bring debts back to the player. __________________________________________________________ 14 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Section 6 - Main Options The first menu you are presented with when you logon to Kingdoms will look like : ight a Monster

roving Grounds ealers aid a Castle isit your Vault cores dit your Castle evelopment & Games evels ouriers Guild our Statistics ews ingdom Realms utfitters isc raveyard uit 6.1. ight a Monster What game is complete without the nasties around to make life difficult? With 200 separate monsters, divided into 20 monsters for each of the 10 monster levels you can encounter, this game does not lack for such diversions! Monsters have much the same statistics as Characters do. They have a certain ability to defend themselves and a general level at which they can strike an opponent. The higher the monster level you're facing, the stronger and better protected they will be. Some monsters of higher levels also have the ability to employ `Special Attacks'. Those with such ability have a certain percentage chance, depending on the monster, of utilising such an attack form. The chance they will use their ability is entirely random. If you're unlucky, they could use this ability very frequently. Then again, Asmodeus has been known to refrain from Special Attack for whole battles, sometimes .... :) Experience only will tell you what monsters have what abilities. Choosing to ight a Monster is the best means, particularly when you first start playing Kingdoms, to pick up Gold and Experience. Fights take place in the Colloseum. When you enter, you are asked what level monster you want to challenge from level one to ten, ten being the strongest and hardest to beat. With the Gold you make from challenges, you may train in the Development Centre, buy better Armor and/or Weapons or engage in InterBBS operations. It's not recommend to undertake the latter until you have consolidated yourself on your Home BBS (see Kingdoms InterBBS), but the choice is, of course, yours! Should you lose a challenge against a monster, it will happily strip you of any gold you're carrying on you at the time. __________________________________________________________ 15 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 6.2.

roving Grounds In the Proving Grounds, you have the option to challenge other players on your Realm to a one-on-one combat. You can choose who you wish to fight and will, should you defeat them, acquire any gold they have on hand plus experience points based on the level and strength (both offensive and defensive) of the player you defeat. Of course, should you lose, the same applies in reverse! In general, it is more profitable in terms of Gold, except perhaps at higher monster levels, to combat players than monsters. In contrast, defeating monsters will generally reward you with greater experience than Proving Ground combat. 6.3. ealers The temple is a quiet and serene place run by Priests who, rumor has it, are more crotchety old men than disciplined Clerics! Still .. they know their job and will do it well, for a fee, of course. The Priests bow to the God Lathander, whose dominion is that of Healing, Vitality and Light. Through Lathander's grace, they are able to provide healing on the spot or potions that you can use at a later stage. It is here also that you can choose your preference for when you want to drink potions if attacked while you're away. 6.3.1. eal Yourself As the name says, the Priests will offer immediate healing if you choose this option. A tithe of 10gp per hp healed is payable, in advance, for the service. 6.3.2. uy a Potion Again, pretty obvious! Potions you purchase cost 150gp and will heal 10hp each. 6.3.3. bsent Healing Your healing option is used when enemies raid (locally) or invade (remotely) you. Using it, you can instruct your character to drink any potions he or she may have when his or her current hit points drop below a certain percentage of the maximum hit points. For example, if you have your healing option set to 60% and you have a maximum of 100hp normally, then on your turn in the combat, once your hit points drop below 60, your character will drink one potion. Your character does not lose the chance to hit if a potion is consumed, it is an additional thing your character can do in that combat round. As long as your hit points remain below 60, your character will keep drinking a potion each round until there are no more (assuming you had some to start with!) to consume. __________________________________________________________ 16 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 6.3.4. rink a Potion You may, if you wish, drink potions you own within the temple itself. This is the only place, except for when fighting, that you can drink a potion that you own. It is more cost effective to purchase healing directly rather than use potions. Then again ... sometimes you need the hit points and don't have any gold on hand! 6.4. aid a Castle This options allows you to attempt to enter another players castle and raid his or her Vault in room 10. To get there, you must make your way through rooms one to nine and defeat any monsters placed there to guard the castle. Once through, you must also defeat the owner of the Castle. Having achieved that, the contents of their Vault are yours, for better or worse. If a player is in debt and you raid their castle successfully, you will receive their debts as well as any gold they may have. Rumor has it that players in debt have been known to provoke stronger players in an attempt to get them annoyed enought to go raiding ... Raiding takes a great deal of effort and because of the considerable resources involved, characters can only raid castles three times a day. 6.5. isit Your Vault The Vault options give you the facility to deposit or withdraw money from your vault and to check your balance. Just about all transactions you undertake within Kingdoms requires money in your hand to complete. While here you can also, if you wish, transfer money to any other player on your Realm. 6.6. cores The Rankings list is a list, in order of strength, of the players in your Local Realm. 6.7. dit your castle This option allows you to purchase monsters to place in rooms 1 to 9 of your castle. As discussed in the section above on `Your Castle', monsters may be placed in a room of your choice and may be of any level (1 to 10) that you desire, dependant on cost. __________________________________________________________ 17 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 6.8. evelopment and Games By choosing Development and Games, the character may visit any one of the following facilities in the local Realm. To train one point in any attribute costs 5pg per point of that attribute the player already has. Thus, if a player has 10 Strength, 25 Agility and 50 Intelligence, it will cost him or her 50, 100 and 250gp respectively to increase another point in any of those abilities. 6.8.1. The Gymnasium An instructress will take you through exercises designed to promote and increase your Agility. Each time you visit, your Agility will rise one point. 6.8.2. The Library Here you may study and learn, increasing your Intelligence by one point again for each session attended. 6.8.3. The Weights Room Designed to increase muscle tone and power, attendance will increase your Strength permanently by one point. 6.8.4. The Casino Here fortunes are made or lost! While in the casino, the following games are available to you : 6.8.4.1. High-Low A simple game where the House deals a card and you place your bet based on whether you think the next card will be higher or lower than the one just dealt. 6.8.4.2. Acey-Ducey Two cards are dealt by the house in this game and a bet can be placed on the next card being equal to or between the two just dealt. You can play each game 20 times each day. The casino is not rigged. Cards are drawn from a full pack of 52 playing cards (excluding cards already drawn from the deck), the random selection being performed after the random number generator has been seeded with the computer hundreth second timer. The result is therefore left completely to chance! 6.9. evels This option displays a list of the levels characters may aspire to while playing Kingdoms. __________________________________________________________ 18 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 6.10. ouriers Guild 6.10.1. General The Couriers Guild is the organisation in the Realms with which you can lodge missives (messages) for other players in the game, or read missives others have left for you. When you logon to Kingdoms, any new missives will automatically be displayed for you so you don't have to remember to go in and read them every time. If you have any Agents, you can also send messages on their behalf to anyone else playing Kingdoms as though the Agent character actually sent the missive him or her self. A seperate section of this document describes sending and recieving missives within Kingdoms. 6.10.2. Delivering Notes In addition to sending missives, you can also send a `note' to another player. Unlike missives, which are stored until such time as the recipient picks them up and reads them, delivering a note is a real-time action that happens between two (or more) players logged into the game. Obviously, this is only a useful function in a multinode environment! If you see someone playing the game (indicated on the Scoreboard list as an `Active' player) and wish to deliver them a note, simply go to the Courier's Guild and select eliver Note. If there is only one other player online, Kingdoms will assume you want to send a note to that player and, after confirmation, allow you to enter as many lines of text as you wish. Each time you press enter to start a new line, the line you've just typed will be sent to the other person immediately. Pressing enter on a blank line will drop you back to the Courier Guild menu. If the player you're delivering a note to is in the game somewhere, the note(s) will be displayed to them as soon as they get to any menu in the game. You can expect, therefore, that they will receive it fairly quickly. If they're in the middle of typing a missive or something similar, it may take a minute or two to get to them. If the other player enters the Courier Guild, Deliver Note option, you and he/she effectively enter a private chat session where you can talk for as long as you wish, or until your time in Kingdoms expires. While in the Deliver Notes option, a `~' (tilde) character as the first character of a line constitutes a special command. Any line starting with a tilde is NOT sent to another user. The following facilities are available using tilde : ~w - Shows who's currently playing Kingdoms and allows selection of a user for chat. ~t - Shows how much time you have remaining in your session. Case is not sensitive for the character following the tilde character. __________________________________________________________ 19 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 6.11. our Statistics This option allows you to select one of three status screens you wish to view. They are Personal Statistics, Protection Statistics and Castle stuff. 6.12. ews Allows you to read Today's or Yesterday's news on the Realm. 6.13. ingdom Realms Choosing this option takes you to the Realms option menu. See the following section titled KINGDOMS REALM OPTIONS for a full explanation of the options and functions available to you here. 6.14. utfitters 6.14.1. General The Outfitters is the place where you can purchase armor and weaponry. You can purchase it for yourself, for your soldiers, for an Agent (the equipment must be sent to him/her, and he/she must have enough money to pay for it!), or for an Agent's soldiers. Purchasing equipment for yourself or for an Agent are effectively the same thing. An Agent can wear/use any armor/weapon you can, the only difference is, of course, that you must send the armor/weapon to the Agent if ordered for a remote, whereas you immediately get to use it if you purchase it for yourself. Some items are cheaper than others when compared to their efficiency, particularly when you get to using magical armor items. It's suggested you look carefully at how powerful an item is compared to cost for the various classes before purchasing or you may be wasting valuable gold! Purchasing armor/weapons for Soldiers has a few differences to the straightforward activity of purchasing for yourself or an Agent. These differences will now be covered. Note also that in the gent options in the ingdom Realms options, there is also an utfit Soldiers option. That option is the same as this one, the utfitters option on the main Kingdoms menu ... it is just in the Agent's menu as well to save the player the time taken to go back to the main menu if he/she wishes to purchase an item. 6.14.2. Outfitting Local Soldiers Getting a good local soldiers force built up is not an easy task. You will want a lot of them and you'll want them to have good armor and weapons. A great deal of gold will change hands to ultimately achieve this! Properly outfitting soldiers, though costly, is most definately worth it however as they are __________________________________________________________ 20 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ your first (and possibly strongest) line of defence for incoming invasions from other Realms. They are also the offensive forces which you use when you want to raid Castles on other realms! When you purchase new armor or weapons for your Soldiers, the Outfitter will take away their old armor/weapons for you and will give you half their purchase value in return. There is no need to specifically sell Soldier armor/weapons as there is with purchases of Character Armor/Weapons. Also note that soldiers, be they on your Home realm or on a Remote, can only wear armor in the `Body Armor' category. You can purchase any type of weapon for them. 6.14.3. Outfit Soldiers - Agent Menu This option is used to send an order to one of your Agents to equip his or her local Soldier force with certain types of Armor and/or Weapons. It is the same as choosing the Outfitters on the main Kingdoms menu, and choosing to outfit Soldiers on an gent's Realm `` '' - it just saves you the trouble of going back to the main menu if you're working with an Agent at the time. When you select this option, as normal, you'll be asked whether you're interested in Armor or Weapons. Once you select that and choose the uy option from the following choices (Buy, Sell or Leave) you'll be asked what realm you're sending your orders to. When selected, you'll see a message that looks like : Arming remote Soldiers on Please note : If your Soldiers already have Armor on , then the old will be sold to outfit the new. As mentioned previously, soldiers, unlike your character and Agent(s), can only wear one type (category) of armor - Body Armor. If you instruct you Agent to outfit his or her Soldiers with an armor or a weapon item when they already own one, the Agent will automatically sell the old armor/weapon before buying the new. The message shown above is there just to remind you of that when you go to buy new armor. You can ell armor if you wish through this option but there will generally be no need for that unless you want to remove all armor from Soldiers belonging to a remote Agent without replacing it with another. uying does this automatically and there is no cost penalty incurred for using this method. In line with the fact that Soldiers can only wear body armor, this is the only armor type displayed to you for selection when you're outfitting Soldiers. __________________________________________________________ 21 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 6.15. isc Miscellaneous game settings including : 6.15.1. Full menus Players who are very familiar with the game may not necessarily want to see menus displayed all the time for the sake of speed, particularly if you have and/or are connected to a slow modem. Choosing this option will toggle between Kingdoms displaying full menus and abbreviated menus during play. 6.15.2. ANSI Graphics This option toggles between ANSI and non-ANSI (ie, no color codes being sent) display modes. 6.15.3. Page Length Controls the number of lines for certain displays in the game that will be shown before a `More (Y/n)' prompt is provided. 6.15.4. What's New vx.xx Changes and new features for the release of Kingdoms you are playing can be viewed by the player using this option. 6.15.5. Game Documentation Player documentation is available online, fully indexed, from this option. 6.16. raveyard This option is only for the truly desperate! Generally you'll only need it if you've gotten yourself so far into debt to the bank that it is impossible to recover as the interest repayments exceed the amount of gold you can make up each day playing the game. The Graveyard option will completely reset your character to starting defaults. Weapons, armor, defences, statistics and everything else that belongs to your character is reset and you are effectively starting out with a `new' life. In addition to your Local character, ALL Agents you have will be deactivated (deleted) on ALL realms. You are asked to confirm this is really what you want to do when using this option because, once done, you cannot reverse the regeneration of your character or Agents. __________________________________________________________ 22 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 6.17. uit This option returns you to the BBS on which you're playing Kingdoms. __________________________________________________________ 23 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Section 7 - Realm Options By choosing ingdoms Realms from the Kingdoms primary menu, you'll be placed in the Realm Options. These options are those which pertain to Inter-BBS functions in Kingdoms. The menu will look something like : *KINGDOMS InterBBS Ops* econoitre hoose Default Realm uild a Remote Castle nvasion Orders

urchase Barracks ire Soldiers isit your Vault our Statistics eploy Soldiers gent Development ood Production et Statistics cores by Realm eave Current Realm : 2 - Way Out West (Last Recon : 6-2-1996) When you first enter this menu, you will be prompted for your Default Realm. This is the Realm which Kingdoms will use as the destination Realm for any InterBBS commands you use directly related to a Realm. Your Default (current) Realm is always displayed for you after the menu and before your prompt along with the most recent recon date from that Realm. The Courier Guild, Vault, Your stats and Leave options are discussed under the Kingdoms Standard Options section earlier and will not be covered again here. The others warrant further explanation. 7.1. econoitre In order to perform any InterBBS functions, a Recon (Reconoiture) must first have arrived from the Realm you wish to communicate/deal with. If you choose this option and no Recon has ever been recieved for the Kingdom you're interested in, then a Recon will be requested immediately by Kingdoms. If a Recon already exists, you'll be given the option of displaying the current Recon information or requesting another Recon. Generally, you'll only want to request another Recon if information on the Realm is out of date. Recon information is basically a rankings list (ie, scoreboard) of players on remote realms. Kingdoms itself examines the dates of Recons for all Realms in the net each night. It will automatically send a request for a recon `refresh' to any Realm with Recons which are older than 7 days, keeping the Recon data reasonably current. If no __________________________________________________________ 24 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Recon is on file for a Realm, then a recon will be requested each and every night until one is returned. 7.2. hoose Default Realm The Realm options are, by definition, those that you use when doing things associated with a Realm other than your Local one. Generally when you're doing this, you'll be working with one Realm in particular, such as one you have an Agent established on. To save you having to select the Realm you want to work with every time you choose one of these options, Kingdoms supports a `Default' Realm. When ever you do something in the Realms options, it will assume that the Default Realm is the one you're targetting/working with. If you enter the Realm options without a Default Realm specified, Kingdoms will ask you to select it. This option allows you to choose whichever one you want. 7.3. uild a Remote Castle Once a recon is available, you can build a Castle on a Remote realm assuming you can afford it. To build a Castle elsewhere requires the purchase of land and materials, labour and construction crews, transport costs and more. At a cost of 10,000gp this does not all come cheap. You will find it essential however as you progress in the game if you want to spread your risks and engage in the strategic subleties which ownership of remote Castles and Agents allows. Once purchased, this Castle is your base of operations on the Realm on which you choose to build it. The concept of a Castle and, more importantly, the Agent that runs it is discussed at some length in the Overview to this document. It suffices to say here that a castle on another Realm is basically the same as the castle you own on your Home Realm. The other options on the Realms menu allows you to fortify your Agent, buy and arm soldiers, send invasion forces and so on. All this activity, of course, is performed via remote command. There are several points to note here : 1. Kingdoms does not currently support more than 100 players per Realm. If you attempt to create a Castle on a realm that is full, Kingdoms will notify you that the Realm is full and to try another time. 2. When you create a Castle, you must give a name for your Agent who will run it for you in your absence. If you'd like to stay anonomyous, you should choose a name for your Agent other than the name (handle) you use on your Home BBS. 3. As with local options, an Agent cannot be commanded to Invade (as distinct from a local Raid of a Castle by the Agent him or herself!) another Castle on the Agent's Realm using soldier forces. 4. Many commands to Agents require a password for authorisation of the command. When you create your remote Castle you will be asked to give a password for the Agent. __________________________________________________________ 25 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ MAKE SURE YOU REMEMBER THIS PASSWORD. If you forget it, there is NO way you will be able to command your Agent any longer. He or she will simply reject your commands if the correct password is not supplied. The Sysops of each Realm have facilities available to find out the password of an agent on their Realm if absolutely necessary. 5. You can logon to your Remote Castle locally by dialling into the BBS on which your remote castle resides. When you logon, you MUST be using the same name (REAL name that is) as you use on the Home BBS from which you originally created the remote Castle. For example, assume my name is Dave Chapman (which it is!) and I play on The Web. I create a remote Castle on Restless BBS, giving a password as per normal when I create the Castle. I can then logon to Restless and enter Kingdoms, but I MUST be logged onto Restless as Dave Chapman as well. If I'm not, Kingdoms won't recognise me as the owner of an Agent on Restless and will assume I'm just another new player entering Kingdoms. Assuming I have logged on correctly, my Agent will stop me at the door and ask me for the password for my Agent. Assuming I give the correct one (the one I specified when I created this Remote Castle in the first place), then my Agent will turn over complete control of the Castle to me for the duration of my call! 6. You can only create only one Remote castle on each Realm in your net. There is no limit (except physically the number of Realms in the network) on the total number of Agents you can control. 7. Agents cannot be corrupted. They will stay loyal to their Home Realm unto death. 7.4. nvasion Orders 7.4.1. Overview This option is the one chosen to initiate attacks on other Realms. You can create an invasion force yourself or order an Agent to begin offensive action on a particular day if you wish. When you choose to initiate an invasion, you are asked if you'd like to send an Invasion force from your Local Realm or from a Remote (Agent). Note that if you are visiting an Agent (ie, are logged onto a BBS where you have set up an Agent) then the Agent does NOT have the authority to order the Home BBS to start an attack. You MUST be logged onto the Home BBS in order to send invations from there. While on the subject of invasions sent from a Local Realm, you should note that Realm Law strictly prohibits invastion attacks (as distinct from Castle Raids, which are no problem) on local users. An internal Realm war is no good for anyone on that Realm in the long run, therefore Realm Authorities for the Maintenance of Peace (RAMP) have legislated against it and endure this does not occur. If you select to send your invasion from the Local Realm, you must have Soldiers in your barracks as invasion forces consist solely (at present) of soldiers you've hired. If you choose to send an invasion from a Remote Realm, then you __________________________________________________________ 26 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ will be asked where you want the invasion to be initiated. This Realm must, of course, be one on which you have an Agent! 7.4.2. Who to attack Having selected where you want to attack from, you choose who your invasion force is going to attack. Select what Realm and who on that Realm you want to attack (as in most places in Kingdoms, a `?' will give you a list) remembering the restriction on Locally initiated attacks. 7.4.3. What to attack? Having chosen WHO you want to attack, you must next decide WHAT you want to attack. There are 3 options available : 1. The Castle itself. Attacking the Castle is the hardest, but also the most potentially rewarding type of invasion. Soldiers you send have to get through opposing soldier forces (numbers based on the defender soldier deployment percentages), then through any monsters defending the castle, then kill the player him/her self on the Remote Realm before the Vault can be plundered. 2. Warehouses & Stores Attacking these areas of a players' holdings will destroy portions (or all) of the food stores owned by the player you're attacking. This has a immediate detrimental effect on the morale of the enemy realm if the destruction is sufficient to impact the feeding of local troops. A flow on from that is reduced fighting effectivness of the enemy's soldier forces. 3. Land & Crops. This sort of invasion can be fairly damaging in the long term to a player's Realm as a whole. Buying land and getting production going is an expensive task and this invasion method attacks just these things. With the amount of damage being relative to the number of soldiers who make it past defences, a successful invasion will lower future (long-term) production amounts putting a financial burden on the one attacked to get their land productive again. Of course, this must be done before their stores run out, or their soldiers will start losing morale, etc ... 7.4.4. How many & when to send them Next you will be asked how many soldiers you'd like to send. Note that Soldier numbers are NOT checked for invasions initiated from a Remote (ie, Invasions that you're ordering an Agent to send), simply because at the time you're setting up your invasion, you cannot know for sure how many Soldiers your Agent actually has to send. Due to a recent attack, the Agent could have signigicantly less than you think! When the invasion is due to leave, an Agent will simply send out as __________________________________________________________ 27 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ many Soldiers as it can, up to the number you specify here. In any case, your Agent will send you a message when he or she sends out the Invasion force letting you know the date of departure and the strength of the force sent. Lastly, you are asked to provide a date you want the invasion to start. By using this judiciously, invasions can be synchronised with several Agents (should you have several!), and your Home Realm if you wish, to leave at the same time and cause appropriately increased damage on an opponent Realm. 7.4.5. Synchronous Attacks Please note that to synchronise attacks requires good luck as well as good timing. Kingdoms is reliant on the Kingdoms net operating as it should and unfortunately sometimes a mail call is missed by a BBS or other things happen to cause an invasion to either be delayed or not to arrive when you expect. In such cases, just consider it bad weather over the Relam which meant your attack couldn't go out and don't hassle the Sysop overly ... remember he or she is putting in a lot of effort for you to get the game up and running in the first place! 7.4.6. How it works When an invasion force comes in, any Soldiers of the defending Realm will turn out in force to repel the invaders, according to the defence deployment percentages on the Kingdom being attacked. The defenders will engage in one-on-one fighting unto the death with your incoming force - no quarter given. Of course, the better equipped and larger the invasion force, the better chance they stand of success. When a Soldier of either force dies, the survivor will continue to fight the next opposing Soldier until one of them is defeated, and so on. Soldiers have 30hp each and damage is carried over in each fight for the survivor. For example, assume a defender takes 10 damage in a fight before killing the opposing soldier. When it goes on to fight the next opposing soldier, the new one will start the fight with 30hp and the other with 20hp. This is he most equitable form of mass fighting and ensures no side is given advantage over the other through luck alone. With a defending Soldier force defeated, whatever is left of the invaders then has to make it through the castle. Any monsters guarding rooms in the Castle will, of course, take offence to a batallion of unfriendly Soldiers traipsing through their abode and will react accordingly. One soldier has statistics for fighting equal to that of about a level 2 or 3 character. Normally, a level 3 character wouldn't have a hope of defeating a level 10 monster (should there be one) standing in its way however weight of numbers __________________________________________________________ 28 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ are on the side of the Soldiers in this case. By the odds calculated, it takes about 1000 Soldiers with basic equipment to overwhelm a level 10 monster. Note this is indicative only - it may in reality take between 100 and 5000 soldiers depending on how well equipped the attacking soldiers are. Should there be any remaining soldiers after all monsters have been disposed of, there is only the occupant of the Castle that stands between your force and the Castle Vault. Obviously, defeating him or her is again a function of the owner's fighting ability and the sheer numbers of soldiers which assail him or her. No baseline is possible here to give ideas of the odds required to defeat a character as a character has so many attributes (# of potions in possession, strength, agility, hit points, weapons, etc) which vary the odds and will mean the difference between victory or death of an invading force. Several thousand well equipped soldiers against a fairly strong character will generally do it though ... :-) In either case, whether the invasion force is successful or not, a message will be returned to you via the Courier Guild telling you of the results. If taken, any money and/or equipement stolen from the defeated Kingdom will also be returned, to be given to you or sold if you already own a better item than the one taken. 7.5.

urchase Barracks You'll need to purchase Barracks for two reasons. Firstly, Barracks house your soldier forces which help defend you against incoming Invasions by other Realms. 100 Soldiers can reside in each Barrack. Purchasing soldiers is discussed later in the section ire Soldiers. Secondly, to send Barracks to an Agent, you must first own one (or more) to send. 7.6. ire Soldiers This option is a bit of a misnomer being on this menu (the Realms menu) as it allows you to actually purchase Soldiers which will reside in your local barracks. The reason it's on this menu rather than the local functions menu is that firstly, the Soldiers are there for protection and use against and for Inter-Realm invasions and secondly, when you send Soldiers to a Remote Agent, you send those that are in your barracks, ie, the ones you purchase here. Therefore, it makes sense, in a roundabout way, to put the option here! Simply then, this option allows you to hire Soldiers to stay in your Barracks to be used as you see fit. You can either leave them there to guard against incoming attacks or send __________________________________________________________ 29 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ them out on invasions of their own. You must, of course, have sufficient Barracks to hold any Soldiers you hire. 7.7. eploy Soldiers To defend your land, stores and castle, defence options are also included in the game. The player must distribute his or her forces across holdings by percentage, according to the value each player places on each, Land, Stores or their Castle itself. If the player considers food stores most valuable for example, he or she might allocate 50% of available soldiers to defence of the stores, 25% to defending crops and 25% to the castle itself. It is not necessary to allocate the full 100% of soldiers to defence activities. It could be a tactical advantage to keep some percentage of soldiers in reserve (by allocating perhaps 80% of soldiers to defence) and keeping the rest in the barracks. If a very strong invasion force comes against them then, all will not be lost and the remaining 20% of your forces will redeploy immediately according to your standing deployment orders. Again, the use of such percentages is a tactical decision to be made by the player. 7.8. gent Development This is where the primary commands for developing an Agent and his or her castle are available. The section below titled `Agent Options' discusses what Agents are and what options are available to you in here. 7.9. et Statistics This option displays information which Kingdoms keeps track of regarding the other Realms on your Kingdoms network. It lists, for each Realm, the average time, in days, it takes to get mail to and from each Realm. Kingdoms polls remote Realms for this information automatically at regular intervals defined by the Sysop of each Realm. You do not need to do anything to get this information. The display provided will resemble : -*Kingdoms Net xx Statistics*- Mail to Mail From No. Kingdom Realm Average Average ------------------------------------------------------- 1 - The Web N/A N/A 2 - Blue Marlin 2 days 3 days 3 - Way Out West 3 days 4 days ------------------------------------------------------- __________________________________________________________ 30 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ There will be one Realm listed for each node in your Kingdoms network. For informational purposes, the Network Id of the Kingdoms network you're playing is displayed in the title of this display. The N/A next to the Web above indicates Not Applicable. The Web in this case, is the home realm and, of course, there are no mail statistics to report! In the above example, it takes two days (on average) for mail to get from The Web (the local Realm) to Blue Marlin. It takes three days for mail on Blue Marlin to get to The Web. If any of the of the times are listed as `No Stats', that means that your Realm has never had mail sent to and/or from that Realm. This could indicate a Realm that is so new that Kingdoms has not yet had time to gather statistics or that there is a problem somewhere in the network and mail is not getting through or back from that Realm to your own local Realm. If this situation persists, please inform your Sysop who can look into the problem and get it rectified. __________________________________________________________ 31 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Section 8 - Agent Options When you choose the Agent Development option from the Kingdoms Realms menu, you are presented with the following options : uery Agent Status rm Agent utfit Soldiers astle Fortification end Gold ake Gold xperience Transfer mprove Agent eploy Soldiers ood Prod/Dist ndercover Ops rowse Agents eave These options are described separately below. 8.1. uery Agent Status Doubtless once you own a Castle, you will want to check on your Agent occasionally to get a status report. By choosing this option and selecting the Realm on which (one of) your Agent resides, a request is sent to that Agent for a report on current status and holdings. The status information will be returned in a formatted report to you from your agent, by way of the Courier Guild in Kingdoms. 8.2. rm Agent With a Castle created you will doubtless want to arm and protect the Agent who looks after it. This option allows you to do just that by sending him or her Armor and Weaponry. Note that is is the Agent that actually pays for any armor and/or weapons you send to him or her. If the Agent already has a weapon, or the type (category) of armor you're sending, the existing weapon/armor will be sold at half price to the local Outfitter before paying for and equipping the new items. There is no need to tell an Agent to do this first when you send new equipment, it will be done automatically. 8.3. utfit Soldiers This section is the same as section 6.14 - Outfitters. It is just here to save you moving back in the Kingdoms menus while you are working with Agents. Please see the Outfitters section for more information. __________________________________________________________ 32 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ 8.4. ortify Castle As with your own Castle, you may place monsters in the rooms of your Remote Castles, add barracks to your Castle for protection against inter-realm attacks, etc. Your Default Realm is used to determine which Realm you're operating with. You must, of course, have and Agent of yours on the Realm with which you're dealing or the orders will be returned to you with an appropriate message from the Kingdoms Net Manager. 8.4.1. Send arracks to your Remote You must first have purchased barracks at your Home realm before you can send them. Barracks will be added to you Agent's Castle as Barracks are to your own. 8.4.2. Send oldiers to your Remote The Realm you're sending to must (as well as being a Realm on which you own a Castle!) have room for your soldier force to reside. Soldiers live in Barracks and only 100 Soldiers can fit in each Barrack. If you send more Soldiers than can fit on the Remote, then the remaining ones (those for which there was no room) will revolt and leave your Agent, never to return. Again, you have to have purchased Soldiers on your Local Realm before you can send them. 8.4.3. Send Mnsters to your Remote This option allows you to send monsters to a Remote to occupy (protect) castle rooms in the same way as they do on your Local Realm. Monsters cost 250gp per level you buy. In addition, the stronger the monster, the greater the transportation cost (cages/ward spells etc) so there is an additional charge of 150gp per monster level. Eg, a level 10 montser for a Remote will set the home BBS back 4000gp. 8.5. end Gold to, ake Gold from Remote As the option says, this allows you to send Gold you have to an Agent, or order the Agent to send you Gold. You will be asked for the Realm on which your Agent resides and the password for that Agent as transferring gold is a protected function. 8.6. xperience Transfer Kingdoms allows you to transfer experience from your character to Remote Agents. Any experience you send will, of course, be taken from your own character's experience. When receiving experience, the Remote Agent will gain levels and hit points based on his or her current statistics of Strength, Agility and Intelligence as does your character on the local Realm. __________________________________________________________ 33 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ A couple of restrictions exist here ... 1. An Agent will never gain more than one level at a time no matter how much experience you send. Any additional experience sent will be wasted as the Agent must have time to get used to a new level before embarking upon another one! 2. You cannot reduce (ie, you cannot send) your own experience to the point where the remainder of your experience would place you on a level below the one you currently occupy. 8.7. evelop Agent This is pretty self-explanatory. You can send training to an Agent to increase his or her statistics (Str, Agi, Int) in the same way as your own local character. This will obviously be desirable if you want your Agent to be strong enough to repell attacks from the Realm on which he or she resides. 8.8. ndercover Operations Spies and undercover agents are in plentiful supply in Kingdoms and, for a fee, will gladly attempt to infiltrate an opponent's castle and return to you vital data of the player infiltrated. The level of operative you employ has a direct bearing on the chance the operative has of successfully. Of course, the strength of the defences of the player being infiltrated also play a part in how easily an operative can get to the Vault room of his/her castle and make off without being taken and executed as a spy! Undercover operatives who make it out of their target's castle and back to you with the information leave no trace whatsoever of their being there. Should an operative be caught however, the owner of the Castle will be informed of the attempt and who initiated it. 8.9. rowse Agents Lists all Agents, with summary status information, that you have on Remote Realms. Should you wish for full detail for any reason, the uery Agent status should be used. __________________________________________________________ 34 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Section 9 - Missives If you're playing Kingdoms, then you know what a BBS is. There's a pretty good chance therefore, that you already understand the concept of sending messages between users. I will not therefore go into the details of message posting (ie, why you'd post messages and what you might put in them) except to say that, under Kingdoms, sending mail to any user (both on your local BBS or on a remote BBS) is a simple matter. 9.1. Reading Missives There are two times in Kingdoms where you may read missives (messages). They are at logon, when new messages for you are displayed, and in the Courier's Guild itself. When you are reading messages, you will generally see the following information and prompts : Check from ast read or tart of missives? (L/s) If you choose as a response, you will be displayed any messages that are waiting for you that you have not yet read. Note this displays from last read, not from the date you last logged onto Kingdoms. Messages you read will be displayed something like : ----------------------------------------------------- Message From : Sender Name (Location1) Message To : Addressee (Location2) Posted On : Message Date ----------------------------------------------------- Sender Name is the name of the person who originally posted the message. Addressee is the person to whom the message is addressed. If Addressee is a name, the message can't be seen by anyone but that person. If Addressee is `All Realm Users', the message is seen by all on your Realm. If Addressee is `All Kingdom Users', the message is seen by all on all Realms. Location1 indicates the origin of the message. If Location1 is a number, then the message has been posted from a user on this realm, the number being the user number of that person. If not a number, the message was posted from a Remote Realm to this Realm. Location1 in this case will be the name of the remote Realm from which this message was posted. Location2 is the user number of the user to whom the message is addressed, most often, you! __________________________________________________________ 35 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ The message date is the date the message was originally created. If a message is created on one realm and routed through another via an Agent, then the message date is the date the message was rerouted by the Agent, not the original posting date. In addition to the above standard message information presented above, you could also see the following when reading messages : This message was forwarded to your Home Realm on (date) `` '' You will only ever see this message if you're logged onto a Remote Realm as one of your Agents. New mail will be displayed to you as per normal however it's likely that your Agent has already forwarded it to your Home Realm for you to take action on. This message simply lets you know that your Agent HAS forwarded it and lets you know when this was done. `` NB: This message was posted to your agent on (Realm Name)'' Your Agent has forwarded it onto you for your attention! `` '' When your Agent sends on messages, you will receive them on your Home Realm as you would a normal message. This tag is attached to let you know which Realm it came from (if you have Agents on more than one Remote) and as an extra eye- catcher so you know it's from one of your Agents. The sender name in this case is the person who originally posted the message to your Agent, NOT the name of your Agent. This is so that you have the opportunity to respond to whoever originally posted it, either back through your Agent so it looks like it's the Agent responding or direct from yourself to the originator. 9.2. Replying to Messages This section covers the various choices you have when responding to the different types of incoming messages you'll receive. You can receive messages from three basic sources : 9.2.1. From other players in Kingdoms, either on your Realm or on Remte Realms. When you read messages from other players, you have the following options available once the message is displayed : `` Reply to this message? ([N]o/[y]es/[s]top) `` [N]o will mark the message as read and continue on to display any more messages you might have waiting. [S]top will stop your message reading immediately. [Y]es will reply to the message. If the message was posted from a local user, ie, there's a number next to the sender name, not a Realm Name, __________________________________________________________ 36 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ then you'll be dropped into the editor immediately to construct your reply. If from a remote user ..... 9.2.2. From your Agent If a message has been posted to your Agent and your Agent has routed it to you, then you will be asked an additional question once you choose [Y]es to reply to the message. This message came to you from one of your Agents. `` '' Do you want to reply back through that Agent? (Y/n) `` '' If you answer [Y]es to this additional question, the message will be sent first back to your Agent who will, assuming you've given the correct password for that Agent (message forwarding is protected by the Agent's password you specify when you constructed your Castle), forward it on under his or her name to the appropriate players on the appropriate Realm. If you say [N]o, then the reply will go direct from you to the destination player/realm, sent from YOU!. A warning : if you don't want people to know what Agent's belong to you, then always reply back through your Agent. If someone sends a message to an Agent you own and you yourself reply, it will be pretty obvious who is running whom! Another form of message you can get from your Agent is a reply to a request you've made, a status report or other such things which are answers/information provided initiated at your request. For messages the Agent is sending to you such as these, no response is required and Kingdoms recognises this. For such messages, you do not get the Yes/No/Stop prompt after the message is displayed, the prompt you have is : No Reply Required. Continue Reading? (Y/n) `` '' Just hit `Y' if you want to keep reading your messages or N to stop. By using this method, you won't make mistakes by replying to things you shouldn't reply to, wasting your time and the efficiency of the Kingdoms network sending meaningless messages. After all, if you replied to an Agent's status report, the Agent would only route your reply back to you anyway!!! :) 9.2.3. From the Kingdoms Net Manager You may, on occasion, receive messages from a user called the `Kingdoms Net Manager . This effectively represents the '' Kingdoms software telling you that something unexpected has happened. For example, you might send a message to `Freddo' on Realm 2 from Realm 1. In the time it takes to get there however, the maintenance programs on Realm 2 might have deleted Freddo as he or she hasn't logged on for a while (30 days default, alterable by your Sysop). So, your message arrives and the person who whom it is addressed does not __________________________________________________________ 37 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ exist. Rather than just consigning your message to the ether, the Kingdoms Net Manager will kick in and send you a message letting you know what has happened. It will also, in certain instances, suggest reasons for what occured and things you might be able to do to rectify the problems. Eg, if a user isn't found, it will suggest you request another Recon from that realm so your Recon file is up-to-date. If you get a message from the Net Manager, you will find that Kingdoms will inform you that `No Reply is Required' to the message. You do not, in fact, get the option to reply at all. This is simply because there is no one, technically, to reply to ... the message is simply a system message and as such does not need a response. 9.2.4. From Others! There are numerous other people in the Realms who will from time to time send you messages. For the most part, these are informative messages left to you by someone who has seen things happen, or who might have some news for you. In the AD&D genre, such people in Kingdoms are Non-Player Characters, or NPC's. Generally, like messages from the Net Manager, you cannot reply to messages from NPC's. 9.3. Marked Missives Missives may be marked by the user to whom they are addressed. Marking is ONLY available on missives that are to the player personally, not, for example, on missives addressed to All. The main use for marked messages is to easily find agent reports you want to re-read after first receiving them though it can, of course, be used for any message addressed to you that you desire. The ark missive option is displayed as available on appropriate missives when you're reading through them. There is no need to do anything special other than select ark on the missive. Marked missives are never `unmarked' automatically, meaning you can keep track of these messages as long as you wish. When reading a message that's Marked, you can, of course, nmark it if you no longer want to keep track of it. __________________________________________________________ 38 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Section 10 - Land & Food Production 10.1. General Players in Kingdoms can purchase Land, which is capable of producing food. Food is required to feed Soldiers and keep their morale at optimum level. When Land Titles are first purchased, land is assumed to be producing at 100% capacity. Over time however, production will decline as it would in the real world if the land is left untended. Capital investment is required at judicious intervals to repair and replace production equipment that wears out, to purchase grain, build silos and so on. Given sufficient investment, it is quite possible to have Land produce food at greater than 100% capacity. The intelligent player might discover a point at which is it more cost effective to run existing Land at greater than 100% rather than to just buy more of it. No land can produce greater than 150% it's capacity nor less than 20% capacity however. At 100% production, each unit of land owned will produce 300 units of food per day. In regognition of the fact that land production does not just `jump' when capital is invested (eg, it takes time for a newly purchased & planted seed to have an impact on total production), there are two percentages that relate to land production. The first is the `current production', which is what the land is now producing. The second is the `destination production', which is the percentage to which current production is heading. Capital investment will increase the destination production. A disaster, such as an incoming invasion with an objective to sabotage/destroy crops and production, will reduce the destination production. Food that is produced by Land owned by the player is stored in Warehouses. The player must ensure that sufficient food is maintained in stores to feed any soldiers owned. The player may specify how much food each soldier is allocated (from their Warehouses, NOT from Production) each day. The player should note that feeding soldiers too much is almost as bad as feeding them too little. The section below on Morale covers this aspect of the game. 10.2. Food Distribution Food stored in warehouses can be distributed in two ways ... to the Soldiers in your Barracks on the local Realm, or to Agents you have on other Realms. Agents also, of course, can be ordered to distribute certain quantities of food for the local realm and to other Realms, including the Home BBS. __________________________________________________________ 39 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Other than the actual amount of food in your Warehouses, there is virtually no limit on the amount of food that may be distributed from one Realm to another on which you own castles. This applies equally to your Home and Agent Realms. You can supply Soldiers on your Local Realm up to 10 packs of food each per evening. The amount of food being supplied to Soldiers directly affects their morale. The player also has the ability to send specified amounts of food to an Agent Realm each day. The player can specify any amount of food, as long as it is available in stores, to send to any BBS on which the player has a remote castle established. That BBS can send food on from there and so on. Each night, when your Realm does nightly maintenance, food production and shipments take place in the following order : 1. Processing of any production from land owned and storage of that produced amount in stores. 2. Feeding local soldiers according to player specification in Kingdoms. 3. Distribution of food to remote sites. Kingdoms will continue to give food to those specified as long as stores are available. If stores reach zero, food issue/distribution will not take place. Food stores cannot hold a negative amount of food. __________________________________________________________ 40 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Section 11 - Soldiers 11.1. Soldier Morale Your Soldiers are there to fight for you and, as such, expect to be treated well. This means keeping them healthy and happy with the lodgings and food they require. To have Soldiers, you must already have purchased barracks to house them, Feeding Soldiers however, requires more than a one off purchase of barracks for them. They need to be fed a reasonable amount each day or their morale will suffer. In the Realms menu, you can specify how much food you want given to EACH Soldier each day. The figure you specify is NOT the total food you will provide your troops. For example, if you have 100 soldiers and allocate 10 food packs per day, then each day 1000 food packs from stores will be consumed. The phrase `an army lives on it's stomach' is one the player will come to know and love as morale is determined solely by how much the troops are fed. It is important to note that morale is ultimately a measure of fighting ability and that the optimum for troops is a morale of between 95 and 105%. Any less than 95%, and they're not getting fed enough to fight properly. Any more than 105% and they're getting fat, slow and lazy on all the food you've been feeding them! 11.2. Soldier Deployment To defend your land, stores and castle, defence options are also included in the game. The player must distribute his or her forces across holdings by percentage, according to the value each player places on each, Land, Stores or their Castle itself. If the player considers food stores most valuable for example, he or she might allocate 50% of available soldiers to defence of the stores, 25% to defending crops and 25% to the castle itself. It is not necessary to allocate the full 100% of soldiers to defence activities. It could be a tactical advantage to keep some percentage of soldiers in reserve (by allocating perhaps 80% of soldiers to defence) and keeping the rest in the barracks. If a very strong invasion force comes against them then, all will not be lost and the remaining 20% of your forces will redeploy immediately according to your standing orders. Again, the use of such percentages is a tactical decision to be made by the player. Section 12 - Summary __________________________________________________________ 41 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ That covers the major aspects of the game. There is more, but I'll leave you to discover the finer points as you play! Developing really good characters, not only on the local Realm, but across several Realms with the use of Agents takes a careful balance of a lot of things in this game. I leave it to you to find that `perfect' balance! I trust you'll enjoy the game. Any feedback, bug reports, etc, will be most appreciated! __________________________________________________________ 42 KINGDOMS v2.18 Game Player Documentation ___________________________________________________________ Appendix A - Contact Information You can contact me and/or pick up the latest version of Kingdoms using the following means : On our Web Page : http://www.magna.com.au/~davec/kingdom.htm Or on my BBS : The Web Line 1 : (02) 9528-5941 - to 28800, 24hrs Mail, FREQ The Web Line 2 : (02) 9528-2235 - to 14400, 24hrs The Web Line 3 : (02) 9528-4250 - to 9600, 24hrs Sysops can FREQ Magic Name `KINGOMS' for the latest version on line 1. I can also be contacted by netmail (to Dave Chapman or Sysop) at : 3:712/523@FidoNet 61:9600/350@WorldNet 69:1171/200@AdultNet 169:3005/2@BattleNet 151:6121/823@EzyNet or InterNet - dave.chapman@ibm.net Regards, Dave Chapman. Sysop : The Web BBS * End of Player Documentation * __________________________________________________________ 43