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-------         Battleground v1       Metso Games (c) 1999       --------
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	Index:
	------
          
	1. Introduction 

	2. Playing the game

	3. Requirements

	4. Troubleshooting

	5. Registration


1. INTRODUCTION

Metso Games is a game programming group of two programmers and one graphics
man. We all live in Kauhava(near Seinajoki) in Finland and so on... 
Battleground is our first game and we have been doing it for a while now. 
The first playable version is now ready but the game needs much more
improvements. There may also be some bugs, indeed. So we hope that you
could send some good ideas to us and report for any bugs you find. 
	The next version of the game contains at least some new units with
special abilities and more facilities in cities.

	METSO GAMES:       Taro Morimoto..............coding and graphics
	                   Tomi Myllyla...............coding
	                   Manu Alakarhu..............graphics
	
	Send your bug reports or tips improving the game:

          Taro Morimoto                     Tomi Myllyla

          taro.morimoto@kauhava.fi          tomim@smek.fi
          Opettajankuja 6 as 11             Kirkkotie 7
          62200 Kauhava                     62200 Kauhava
          FINLAND                           FINLAND


2. PLAYING THE GAME

At the beginning there is two nations with one city and one region.
Player 1 controls the red nation and player 2 controls the blue nation.
Your goal is to destroy your opponent.

MAIN SCREEN:

Armies: You can move your armies by dragging them with left mouse button in
        the main map. By clicking the right mouse button above your army you
        get information about units and other functions. You can place units
        into movable armies by dragging the units to the First and the Second
        Defender Groups in cities. On the main map, the First Defender Group
        is positioned to the upper left corner of the region and the Second
        group is in the right corner.

Mines:  You can build mines to produce minerals. Minerals are the so called
        money in this game. One mine usually produces 3 mineral. If you
        control AREA MASTERY your mineral output is doubled in the regions
        of AREA MASTERY <term AREA MASTERY is defined later>

Area mastery:   You may have noticed the mystical brown two-headed arrows
                on the map. They are not just garbage but they have the most
                valuable meaning when planning your strategies. When you
                control all the regions connected with the arrows you then
                gain area mastery in those sectors. The effect is defined
                above.

City:   You enter the city screen of the chosen region.

Help:   Here you can find this help text.

Quit:   Erases your hard drive...No, just kidding...but better not to
        touch anyway.
        

CITY SCREEN:

Units:      Here you can build new units. Note that you must have free
            factories to produce new units.

Facilities: In this first version of Battleground you are only able to
            build factories. New units are build in factories. However,
            you can repair your units in factories too.

Technology: Tech             Cost         Effect per level
            Advanced units   120 x level  Better units
            Faster building  80  x level  one less turn to building times
            Faster repair    40  x level  increases 20 energy to repair rate
            Unit attack      80  x level  increases damage by 5
            Unit armor       75  x level  increases 3 armor points
            Unit energy      80  x level  increases 15 energy points
            Unit velocity    70  x level  increases velocity by 1

Each city starts with tech level 0 and can be raised to level 3

 Upgrading concerns:  = All units you build in this city after the upgade
                      = All units with lesser tech level in the city
                        <adds one level to the current level of the unit>

UNITS:

                   1. PANTHER

                        -small basic tank, useful at the beginning of the 
                         game
                        -upgraded version also useful later
                         
                        Tech level:       0
                        Cost:             55
                        Building time:    4 turns 
                        Attack:           25
                        Armor:            10
                        Energy:           70
                        Velocity:         4
                        Turning rate:     5
 
                   2. PHANTOM

                        -cheap vehicle with lethal special ability
                        -quick to build
                        -effective when groups of four because they cannot
                         hit mines.
                        -the small cannon is pretty useless at the
                         beginning but upgrading makes it a mean little toy
                         
                        Tech level:       1
                        Cost:             40
                        Building time:    3 turns 
                        Attack:           14 
                                          Mine damage: 30, bypasses armor
                        Armor:            5
                        Energy:           60
                        Velocity:         6
                        Turning rate:     8

                   3. DEFENDER

                        -boy, this does damage...
                        -VERY effective when defending your regions
                        -four of these in line stops almost everything...
                        -watch out the little amount of energy

                        Tech level:       2
                        Cost:             70
                        Building time:    5 turns 
                        Attack:           120
                        Armor:            5
                        Energy:           30
                        Velocity:         1
                        Turning rate:     1

                   4. PATRIOT

                        -a pretty effective rocket launcher
                        -can shoot three times before reloading
                         
                        Tech level:       2
                        Cost:             100
                        Building time:    5 turns 
                        Attack:           60
                        Armor:            10
                        Energy:           80
                        Velocity:         3 
                        Turning rate:     4

                   5. PUNISHER

                        -the king of the battleground
                        -a very, very, very BIG tank
                        -expensive, use carefully
                        -the fully upgraded version...                    
 
                        Tech level:       3
                        Cost:             180
                        Building time:    6 turns 
                        Attack:           50
                        Armor:            20
                        Energy:           140
                        Velocity:         2
                        Turning rate:     4


HOT KEYS IN COMBAT:

Red player:
	Fire            caps lock
	Accelerate      w
	Reverse         s
	turn left       a
	Turn right      d
	Select          TAB
	Select all      left shift
	Special         q

Blue player:
	Fire            right shift
	Accelerate      5 <keypad>
	Reverse         2 <keypad>
	turn left       1 <keypad>
	Turn right      3 <keypad>
	Select          enter
        Select all      * <next to backspace>
        Special         - <next to shift>


3. REQUIREMENTS

        = Pentium 90 <at least P120 is highly recommended>

	= 16 megabytes of RAM

	= 17 megabytes of free HD space

	= VESA 2.0 required to support linear frame buffer

	= Sound blaster compatible sound card
                                           
4. TROUBLESHOOTING   

	First of all check the game REQUIREMENTS.

	If you have only VESA 1.2 installed in your graphics card, you
        have to get VESA 2.0 drivers for your graphics card or get
        universal drivers like UNIVBE.

        If the game does not run in DOS try it in WIN. 

	Actually we know nothing about the possible problems installing or
	running the game yet, so if you have some problems, PLEASE report
	us. The email adresses are above.

5. REGISTRATION

   NOTE: The registered Battleground does not contain any new features
         yet but you are happier and can sleep better if you have the
         registered version under your pillow.

	You can donate us money by normal mail and tilisiirrolla.

	That way you get the following bonuses:

	  = Brand new registered version of BATTLEGROUND posted to
            you either normal mail or email. You also get the new
            versions of the game instantly.

          = You will get your name into the credits screen of the
            Battleground and possibly to our web site which is still
            under construction 
                    
    How to register?

      There are two ways: 1.  Send us ANY sum of money in an envelope.
                              Add your name and your address in the
                              envelope and tell also if you want
                              the game either email or in a disk posted
                              to you by normal mail.

                          2.  Send us email in which you wish to
                              register the game. We then confirm the
                              order and send our bank account number by
                              email to you. When you have paid the
                              money to our account we then send you the
                              registered version of the game either by
                              email or normal mail.

                              Our addresses are above.
