Necromania: Trap of Darkness Game manual 1. HW requirements a) Minimal: - CPU: 350 Mhz - RAM: 128 MB - OpenGL compatible graphic card, 16 MB video RAM (TNT2) - DirectSound compatible sound card - OS: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP - DirectX 8 - Keyboard, mouse - 370 MB free space on HDD b) Recommended: - CPU: 700 Mhz - RAM: 192 MB - OpenGL compatible graphic card, 16 MB video RAM (GeForce 2 MX) - DirectSound compatible sound card (surround, quadraphonic) - OS: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP - DirectX 8 - Keyboard, mouse - 370 MB free space on HDD 2. Game installation a) Installation: Prior to the installation, insert the Necromania CD into the CD-ROM drive. The installation programme, which will guide you through the installation process, will start. If your CD auto-run feature is off, run the NECROMANIA.EXE file on the CD manually. If software drivers DirectX 8 (or newer version of DirectX) are not installed in your PC, install them with the help of Installation guide and restart the system. b) Un-installation: If you want to un-install the game, insert the Necromania CD into the CD-ROM drive. The installation programme, which will guide you through the un-installation process, will start. If your CD auto-run feature is off, run the NECROMANIA.EXE file on the CD manually. 3. Special skills of Necromania characters a) Stone Golem – the strongest character, his movement speed is, however, the lowest. His special skill is throwing stones accurately at a selected target (preferably enemy). Recommendation: Since it is the slowest character, hiding keys pays off only in the most urgent cases (e.g. a critical shortage of the manna). b) Knight – possesses the second biggest striking power. He is only a bit faster than Golem. His special skill is the ability to conjure a magic circle that considerably reduces the manna of enemies. Recommendation: alike Golem, hiding keys pays off only in a state of emergency. c) Orc the Sleuth – he’s the fastest runner with the ability to trace enemies. Recommendation: he’s excellent in tracing hidden keys d) Beast Master – his speed and striking power are well balanced. With the help of a special magic technique he can encircle himself with vermin that helps him to fight enemies. Recommendation: the conjured vermin is a powerful helpmate in fighting enemies e) Magician – a bit slower and weaker than the previous characters, yet, it’s hard to defeat him. His special skill is invisibility. During invisibility he cannot use other spells nor lay traps. Moreover, he leaves traces. Recommendation: invisibility is highly effective, especially when the character has got keys f) Fog Woman – like Magician, her striking power is weaker than that of the previous characters. This is, however, compensated with the ability to transform herself into fog. She’s invulnerable in such a state. Recommendation: being transformed into fog, she doesn’t leave traces, and a lava bomb or enemy strikes cannot hurt her. g) Skeleton Warrior – his striking power is the weakest, however, fast run - his special skill – gives him a great advantage. Recommendation: if the player has not collected any keys so far, the fast run is very helpful because he/she can search many hideouts in a short period of time. In combination with the movement acceleration, he/she can reach very high speed but it costs a lot of valuable manna. 4. Traps and spells a) Speed – accelerates the speed of a character for a short time Recommendation: it is not advisable to accelerate too often since it uses up a lot of the player’s manna. It serves above all as an escape spell or when a quick transfer to a selected spot is necessary. b) Bomb – when thrown away, the bomb explodes and bursts into hundreds flaming pieces that take a lot of the enemy’s manna. Recommendation: outstanding when used while being chased by an opponent, or during mass battles. c) Fire – having stepped on this trap, the player faces destructive power of flames. Recommendation: highly efficient when used in narrow spaces through which an opponent is supposed to pass d) Manna sucker – this powerful and felonious trap can be laid only in hideouts, such as barrels or chests. The trap sucks manna from the careless opponent and adds it to the player who has laid it. Recommendation: it is very useful to secure hidden keys with a big portion of this spell e) Magnet – holds an opponent for a limited period of time Recommendation: outstanding in dangerous places such as fire or guillotine f) Teleport – designed to transfer an opponent from one place to another. The author of the spell locates the target spot at first, and then the initial position. Recommendation: very useful to transfer an opponent to a dangerous place, especially in combination with the magnet! Using of all the spells (traps) costs a player a specific amount of manna. However, when used correctly, the player will gain more manna in the end. The best way of obtaining manna is to use the Manna Sucker and Teleport together with Magnet for transferring opponents to dangerous places (killing an enemy adds 50 % of manna to the player). 5. Boosts a) Manna Bottle - adds 25 % of manna b) Shield – increases the resistance of a character against all traps and enemies. One character can pick up maximally three shields – in that moment it becomes twice more resistant c) Sword – increases the striking power of a character. One character can pick up maximally three swords – in that moment it becomes twice as strong. d) Boots – increase the speed of a character for 30 seconds. e) Vision – enables a character to see the traps laid by enemies for 30 seconds. (The enemies’ traps are blinking and thus cognisable from the player’s own) 6. Keys a) Key – opens doors, it has various shapes. b)SkullKey – a key consisting of three parts. Only after having assembled the SkullKey, a player can pass through a magic gate. c) Key Bag – a sack with keys. It remains lying on the ground after death of a character until the quickest opponent picks it up. 7. Cursors a) Walk – a cursor for character movement. b) Open – a cursor for opening hideouts and hiding keys c) Switch – a cursor for reverting switches 8. Game strategy The principle of NTOD is simple – the player has to search a level, find keys to the gates preventing him/her from proceeding to the next part of a level and discover, obtain and assemble a sacred key – Skullkey, which opens a magic gate into the next level. It’s not an easy task at all because various numbers of opponents strive for the same goal. Moreover, when a player dies, he/she looses all the collected items – and that can increase his/her opponent’s chances to win the level. The energy of each character is limited and decreases with the length of its life. The environment of individual levels is aggressive, attacks of omnipresent vermin and enemies speed up the decrease of the energy. Laying traps and combining them feloniously with the natural pit-falls of the environment is one of the basic fighting tactics. That all uses up a lot of each character’s energy (trap layer and his/her victim) – the fight is thus transferred to magic places – Manna Pools, where the manna can be refilled. The energy can be also recharged outside the Manna Pools - by killing an enemy. Each game environment contains numerous lethal traps, which can be used for elimination of enemies, or, in case of carelessness or inability, even for self-destruction. 9. Single Player Mode In the single player mode, a player walks through a dungeon, magic forest, viscid caves bellow the Black mountains, and finally through the mountain range itself and dangerous rock spires. After having successful finished each level, the player can upgrade one of the main basic skills of each character – strength or speed. The number of points available for a character’s parameter upgrade depends on the difficulty of a particular level (the more difficult level, the more points). After having walked through each level, the player’s current position is saved automatically and the entry into another level is enabled. Obviously, it is possible to walk through previously accomplished levels again with no further points added. 10. Multiplayer Mode In the multiplayer mode, it is possible to play via local network (LAN) or via Internet. Maximally seven players can take part in the network game. Fewer players can add artificial opponents (AI) to the game and set the required difficulty (easy, normal, hard). a) Game creation - Click the Multi Player option in the main menu - Click the Create Game - Enter the name and click Ok - Select a character with which you want to play - Click the Map Browser and select maps - levels, click Back - Add desired number and type of artificial warriors (AI) into the list of players - When the other players join you (they will appear in the list), click the Start Game! b) Joining a created game - Click the Multi Player option in the main menu - Click the Join Game - Click a created game that is found - Select a character with which you want to play - Click the I’m ready c) Joining a created game via Internet - Click the Multi Player in the main menu - Click the Join Game - Click the IP address enter - Enter the IP address of the player who created the game (this IP address displays in the game menu of the player who created the game) - Enter the port – default port is 2350 - Enter the name of the player who created the game (the data will be recorded into IP address book under this name) - Select a character with which you want to play - Click the I’m ready 11. Game History After having finished each level, Game History appears. It is an exact record on history of the combat. Description of individual icons at the time axis in the Game History. a) The player found a key b) The played unlocked a door c) The player hid a key d) The player killed him/herself e) The player was killed by the Player No. 3 f) The player was killed by vermin from the level given g) The player assembled the Skull Key h) The player entered the magic gate and won 12. Technical recommendations a) The original installation of Windows XP does not contain the full hardware OpenGL support, therefore it is necessary to install graphic card drivers provided by the manufacturer. b) If you start the game on a PC with hardware configuration near the recommended minimum and the game is not running smoothly, we recommend selecting the 16bit colour mode in the Options menu, and switch off the vertical synchronisation in the Windows setting, provided that the graphic card drivers support it. c) When fighting an enemy, the enemy can sometimes throw you away, push you against a rock or knock you off the rock (in the Rocks world). You can do the same in combat by holding left and right mouse button in the same time (in the standard mouse operation setting of the game). Current recommendations, patches, downloads, player discussions and FAQ can be found at www.trapofdarkness.com. 13. HAVE FUN!