Land Of Devastation News Volume 1 Number 2 Editor: Scott M. Baker Contents 1) Welcome to Issue Number Two!......Scott Baker 2) Version 3.30: Team Support........Scott Baker 3) Some Tips for Advanced Players....Art Rainy 4) Special Questing..................Gurlock The Almighty 5) Crippleware/Bonusware/Delayware...Scott Baker 6) The Death of Nuke Man.............Pit Bull (James Cox) 7) Salvation of the Puritron I.......Pit Bull (James Cox) 8) People I wish to thank............Scott Baker 9) Letters to the Editor.............n/a Welcome to Issue Number Two! By Scott M. Baker Welcome to the second issue of LODNEWS. If everything goes as planned, then this issue will be released on the same date as Land of Devastation version 3.30 which has some nice new features. (See the section about version 3.30 below) We're still running a bit low on user submissions. I know there are many of you out there playing Land Of Devastation, so how about sharing your knowledge and strategies with the rest of us? Or why not personalize your character by sending in a short story describing his history? We'd really like to hear from you! ------------ Version 3.30: Team Support! By Scott M. Baker I'm very excited about version 3.30 and I hope some of you are too. This is the first version of LOD that has team support built in! You can now band together with your comrades! For you lower players out there, teaming up will allow you to make some progress against those higher above you. So what can a team of lower players do to fight someone immensely larger than them? How about laying siege to your enemy's fortresses? Although a fortress's defenses may be great and powerful, a band of determined players can exhaust the fortress's energy supply, effectively neutralizing it's defenses. Then you just walk in and take inventory of your new home! Or perhaps you sell out it's defenses and self destruct the fortress! That ought to get your adversary more than just slightly upset. A prime advantage for team play is a pooling of resources. Sharing fortresses can be a great advantage. For example, you may have more Warper/5's then you know what to do with, but your friends may be in desperate need for a warper. So, leave it in your fortress and your teammate [assuming he has your fortress's password] can pick it up when he needs it. Those are all things that you could previously do on your own. So, what does the new built in team support grant you? First of all, if you buy a smart mine and set it somewhere, it is smart enough not only to spare your life if you re-enter the area, but your teammates as well. The nice thing about mines is that an adventurer never knows how many are there. This element of uncertainty can allow you to build up a decent defense around an important area (such as your favorite fortress!) Secondly, your teammates can view the location of your fortresses (with the fortlist ROM and with the fortress teleporter command) and teleport to/from them for free. This allows you to set up a "transportation network". One of you could build and maintain a fortress by Sacre Base, another by Freedom City, and another by the Death Warrior camp. Instantly, you have the capability to travel between three of the main cities! ------------ Some Tips for Advanced LOD Players By Art Rainy Warpers--The EM-Warp program always uses the highest numbered warper in your inventory. Free up inventory slots by always placing your lowest numbered warper highest in your inventory. That should eliminate the problem of two or three warpers with only one warp left on them. [Editors note: Making the EM-Warp program a bit smarter about which Warper is used is on my list of things to do, so the above may or may not be valid at the time you read this] Stealth fields and Inviroblurs--These units operate cumulatively. The use of multiple units can double your chances of increasing those valuable experience points or of surviving as you sneak away from dangerous territory. Kill Objects--Most players quickly learn the advantage of leaving items where they fall if they need neither its cash value or its advantage in conflict. Thus they exchange items of value and bypass Sacre Base. However, when most players have advanced into levels two and higher, no player is interested in picking up daggers and cloth armor. It is to your advantage to kill those useless objects and benefit from the janitorial fee. Sysops might consider raising that fee to more than $5 per unit to further temp players to clean up the board. Map the Board--LOD's intrepid designer has included editing capabilities that allow sysop's to modify the design of the map. Just because the Clone Center was at a certain location in the last game does not imply that it will remain there after a reset. To avoid confusion about locations prepare a 125 by 125 grid and map the locations of obstructions as well as those of cities and camps. You can eliminate trips into cul-de-sacs and excessive danger zones -------------- Special Questing By Gurlock The Almighty [Editors note: The following gives information on solving 2 of LOD's special quests. Players who don't want the secret "given away" may wish to skip this secion] Ok now, the best way that a starting player can get going quickly is to use the quests. Land Of Devastation has many special quests. There's hard ones and there's easy ones. I'll describe an easy one or two for you new guys out there! The first thing that you should do is perform the steaks special quest. Do this when you are like level 2 or 3 (other wise you might get wasted). Ok - here's what you do: Follow the road that leaves sacre base and keep going east. If you come to any "T" intersections, then choose the upper path. At some point you'll enter zone #2, so start running from all of monsters (otherwise they'll waste you). Eventually, you'll come to another city. This city is freedom camp. Now, follow the mountains south of Freedom Camp. You'll first see a pylon (ignore it) and the as you continue, you'll run into the horticulture center (HS). Enter the HS, talk to the manager, and pick up Troy's Steaks. Then go back the way you came - back to sacre base. When you will return, you will have won the first special quest!!!!!!!! The next quest is also pretty easy. First you'll need to buy a pylonkey. Do this at either Sacre Base or Freedom City. Remember that pylon you passed in the above quest? Well, go back there. Now, try all the code combinations at the pylon. Write down where you end up with one. Important-- if you run into Xeboc, RUN FROM HIM! or he'll waste you!!! Eventually, you'll find the T.A.D.S.U. When you find it, you've won another special quest!!!! (Now, you just gots to remember the right pylon code [You wrote them down, right?] to get back to where you cam from!] If I remember, you got like 5,000 experience for each of those quests! Wow! For a beginner, that's a level or two!!! Plus you also get to talk to the tadsu and learn a bunch of information! And theres more! Once you buy a laptop, you can go to the computer store and pickup Troy's Rom and get a whole lot of info!!! ------------ Crippleware/Bonusware/Delayware By Scott M. Baker As most of you notice, LOD is distributed in a manner similar to shareware. The fully functional working version is distributed to everyone. Those who like the program, use it a lot, etc are supposed to send in a registration fee (aka donation) to support it. Once a donation is received, I enter their information into the Reglook door on my bbs where they can call and pick up a code. The code then enables the message "This copy is registered to xxxx. Please thank your sysop for registering." I have had several sysops who have told me that this is not enough incentive for them to register. They say they would only register if they receive something above the current version. They want their registered copy to be something better than John Doe's unregistered copy across town. They want users to appreciate the fact that they have registered. Before I continue, let me explain a few terms: Crippleware: In this method, the game is distributed to the public with many of it's features disabled. Limits on the number of players are imposed, etc. When the sysop sends in the donation, he receives a "key" which enables the full features. Bonusware: Very similar to crippleware, but the philosophy is slightly different. The full version is distributed, but sending in a donation will get the sysop some sort of "bonus". Something like an external player editor. The problem is, there is a fine line between bonusware and crippleware. Is removing the editor considered "crippling" a program or is the editor a "bonus" for registered users? Delayware: This is where you put a delay in the unregistered version. Something similar to "This copy is unregistered. Please wait 10 seconds." Annoyware: Here we find other ways to annoy the sysop into registering. We could throw up a long message on the screen every time a user enters the door. We could put in a message attacking the sysop for not registering, etc. As I said before, I don't currently use any of the above methods. You get the full version whether you register or not. Sysops who send in registrations simply have the piece of mind of knowing they have paid for the software, and of course, a message saying "Please thank your sysop for registering." As more and more people keep telling me they think I should do something more, I am starting to consider it. After all, LOD is no small project - it does require a lot of my time and I wouldn't mind an increase in donations. So what I would like is comments, what would people think? Here is what I would do under each of the above ideas: Crippleware: (Out of the question - I hate crippled programs) Bonusware: Only give registered sysops the editor package (LODxxxE.ARJ) Delayware: Add in a 5 or 10 second delay after the "encourage your sysop to register" message. Annoyware: Make the user read a screen at the end of the game (i.e. when the user quits or camps out) about how his sysop should register, how important registering shareware is, etc. My question is, if I was to instate one of the above policies, which one would people prefer? Right now, I like the delay idea. 5 seconds isn't too long to turn people off and it is long enough to make the "please register" message stick in peoples' minds. If you have a response, you can send it to me at the bbs number listed at the end of this document. ------------ The Death of Nuke Man By Pit Bull I woke up to an alarming situation. I was no longer within the safe confines of my fortress - I was laying on the bare wasteland. It is pure luck that I am alive. A single Biomutant could have done me in while I slept unprotected. But what had happened to my fortress? My protection against this hellish land? I could just see it's smoldering ruins a few meters to the east. The cause was clear: Another warrior, one who should have been my companion in this struggle for freedom, had ruthlessly desecrated my base. He must pay. I bootup up my laptop which had luckily been spared from the attack. I typed in the commands to retrieve the previous few days log. And I waited.... waited... for the name of the one who had done this. The name of the person who would suffer my vengeance. And then it appeared: Nuke Man. Why had he done this to me? Perhaps I shall never know. I had never met Nuke Man personally. From the rankings posted in the troop quarters, I could tell that he was nearly as good as myself. Perhaps he was in need of some quick cash and my glorious fortress caught his eye. Or perhaps he wanted the glory of capturing the puritron parts himself. Something else caught my eye in the log. Those two words would burn in my mind for the next two days: "Fortress Constructed". After Nuke Man had destroyed my own home, he had constructed himself a fortress. This would be my vengeance. I will find his fortress and show him that what goes around comes around. For two days I searched. Across the plains surrounding Sacre Base, within the mountains around Freedom City. Even as far as the EEEE center and then I found it. Hidden around the bend amongst some impassable mountains. I leveled my phaser-3 at the base's defense field and fired. Electric fire shot up when the two energy fields met. By now, Nuke Man would be panicking with the sounds of sirens and alarms. I entered the moat surrounding his fortress and I saw it - the alligator ... It was approaching fast. I tried to swim faster, but it was no use - MY right leg was nearly town apart by it's jaws. Luckily I managed to reach the bank of the moat with my life still intact. I slashed several times with my electrolance, burning into Nuke Man's defense fields. I took a few slugs from his robopistol. But I was more powerful then his measly defense. The fortress's defense field fell. Then it was just me and Nuke Man. He had an electroblade. He must have thought that he would be able to handle me in my weakened condition - but he was wrong for my dexterity and agility were much greater than his. He lunged forward, hoping to stab me with his electroblade. One quick swing with my electrolance and the electroblade, along with the majority of Nuke Man's hand and lower arm was now lying across the room. He cried in pain and begged for his life. I was not without mercy. I let him live. After all, I had gained a new fortress - and I would not self destruct this one as the foolish Nuke Man did when he conquered mine. I figured that would be the last of Nuke Man - that he had learned his lesson. But sadly, it was not so. The very next day the log showed an attempted attack on my new fortress - by none other than Nuke Man. The log simply said that he had perished. But I knew what had happened. That alligator in the moat - the one that Nuke Man had bought - had a very full belly that day. I hope this sad tale will convince those out there that I, Pit Bull, am not to be toyed with. I have shown mercy and let one evil one live, only to have him attack my fortress the very next day. The next time someone attacks one of my fortresses I may not show any mercy. After all, the alligators do need to eat. ------------ Salvation of The Puritron Part I by Pit Bull It was a lonely day in the wastelands. When I awoke, I had no special feeling of greatness - no idea of the glory that would come later in the afternoon. No idea that I would earn my place in the great plaque of the puritron room. I set out to do my usual exploring. First on my list was the pylons. I had already mapped out two of the locations and I was going to find the rest. These pylons are of a powerful nature. Able to teleport matter all around the wasteland. I wondered where the codes I would try today would lead me. The first one took me out into Zone four somewhere. Not a very pleasant place. I was nearly killed by a Black Widow before I was able to escape back into the pylon and get back to Zone two. The next one took me into some computer. The feeling of disorientation was incredible. I think that I was actually inside of the computer itself. The information and insight I gained was incredible. Knowledge that would help the fight for peace and the salvation of the wasteland was in my grasp. I had also completed one of the special quests. This day was shaping up tp be pretty good. Then I tried another pylon code. This one brought me to a strange room. The walls were made of a metal that I had never seen before - something from beyond this world. I walked ahead. A lone humanoid stood before me. I yelled "I am Pit Bull ... Of Sacre Base ... I come in search of the lost Puritron Parts". The response I received was not very pleasant. "I am Xeboc the almighty... Xeboc the all powerful... I will destroy you!". I raised my weapons in preparation for a fight. I sighted him in with my Comp Blaster. A stream of electric death shot forward from my weapon... and right into the wall next to Xeboc. Damn! I had missed. We clashed into hand to hand combat. I hit and he hit. Then I missed. He missed. I hit and I hit again. Finally he fell. I had succeeded! Or at least I thought. I was tricked. The image before me vanished. I was fighting a hologram. Xebocs voice came across the speaker, mocking me. I would have to search elsewhere for this villain. I prepared to leave. But something caught my eye - it was one of the puritron parts. I reached for it. I ran all the way back to Sacre Base with my treasure. Defs Sacre and Troy Hadley were waiting for me. They eagerly installed the part into the puritron room. "Well, Pit Bull, you only have four more left to find" Defs Sacre grinned. And then I rested, knowing that I had accomplished something great that day.... and preparing for what would lie ahead. I was sure I would have to face Xeboc again. And it would not be a pleasant experience. ------------ People I Wish to Thank Scott M. Baker In this section, I'm going to start listing a little about the people who help me support LOD, who submit information that isn't presented here. Anthony Malone: Anthony wrote up the nice history text file that is used in the HISTORY ROM / special quest in LOD. His story fit nicely into the game and is much appreciated. Joseph Johnson: Joseph submitted me a very extensive listing of combat strings for use in LOD. His board [place bbs name here] at 212-893-2318 [Note: This is a correction from the original LODNEWS2 where the incorrect area code was specified], is running a highly customized copy of LOD. I haven't seen it myself, but I hear it's quite a thing to see. Jonas Saunders: The infamous Xenon in my LOD game here on the bbs. He's as skilled a bug-finder and playtested as he is a LOD warrior! Jonas also happens to be the very first winner of a LOD game! ------------ Letters to the Editor Well, every newsletter/magazine has a letters to the editor section, right? So here is ours! I've posted a few messages out of my comments area on the bbs and a few of the national echos to get things started, but in the future, anyone who wants to, just mark that you would like your letter to appear here and I'll post it up! Scott, Let me start off by saying that I don't usually post messages, or write letters. Today I Installed LOD321 (from Wildcats(MSI) BBS). I have never been a fan of Role playing games at all. But, somehow your is different, you dont get sucked into it (although i played for 12 hours, thats besides the point), anyway I am thoroughly impressed, I have never seen such graphics/details (Pixels and or ansi) in a door game, not to mention the plot of the game. At any rate keep you the EXCELLENT work. You can rest-assured that come pay day you will get whatever it takes (I believe $20 or so) to get the game registered. Craig Salmond SYSOP of Craig's DATA Exchange (904) 483-2498 14.4k FREE! PS, You need to hold a conference on how you got you modem to answer flawlessly at 14.4k with a non-usr modem. Most people I connect to I get a measly 9600, but not on your BBS. keep on BBSing -=- Thanks for the kind words, Craig. I try my best to keep LOD at the leading edge of technology and from the comments I get, I see that I am being successful! As for the modem, I don't know of anything particular that I've done, but I'm glad it works! Scott Baker -=====- Hey Scott, I really like LOD, and am grateful that you got my registration up so quickly... I run a bbs here, and want to get Galactic Warzone for it as well. Also I want to be a Registered user on your BBS, so if ya could validate me, I would Appreciate it. And thanks for the great game... Wish I was able to Write games myself... Thanks.... Wayne Gay -=- I'm glad to hear you like LOD, Wayne. With my current registration system, I usually get registrations up on the bbs either the same day they arrive or shortly later. As for Galwars, I have sold the rights to Jim Kiersey who will be continuing support for it. Expect a new release from him very soon! Scott Baker -=====- [From Joel Boutros to Jeff Hanson in Area Ooii. Subject: L.O.D.] JH -=>writing a door yourself. Ah, but is it the next best thing to copying a door? Or Copying 5 or 6 doors? Let's see...OOII, TW1000, Never got SZModem working and when I mailed the wanna-be he never replied, MechWars never worked right... Gee, Jeff, you seem to be a brown-noser to this guy...What else did he make that wasn't worth 30 seconds to download? Oh, tell the little bag of toejam that I _still_ can't get SZ working after 1 year and a half. --- GEcho/beta * Origin: Cosmix Station (913) 422-7345 (1:280/2) -=- Joel, I'm sad to see that you feel this way about me and my software. Such negative comments are the mark of an immature mind and an eyesore to the entire bbs community. Let's start at the top. LOD is not a copy of OOII. Galactic Warzone was written with Al Davenport's (author of TW1000) support and encouragement. I'm sorry you couldn't get SZModem to work - you might wish to try the latest version which has new Async routines. I don't recall ever receiving a letter from you. MechWars is written by Shane Chambers, not myself, and it seems to work fine on my system and many more across the country. In addition to LOD, GW, and SZMODEM, I have written NEWGAL (GWII), Door Driver, CMENU, CDRDoor, Locread, and the initial Echodor mail reader. (All of which have an established registered user base) Jeff Hanson is a friend that I had mind the system for a week while I was gone. And I must admit, he did a good job here, possibly even better than when I'm operating the bbs myself. You seem to be quite full of criticism. Tell me, where is some of the software that YOU have written that I may download and evaluate? I'll be sure to send my comments your way. Scott Baker ------------ You can download copies of this newsletter, upload submissions, or whatever from the following bulletin board system: The Not-Yet-Named bbs Node #1: (602) 577-3650 (v.32) FIDO: 1:300/9 Node #2: (602) 577-3419 (USR Dual) FIDO: 1:300/29