==========================
=== A Steamband Primer ===
==========================
Hi! 

My name is Courtney Campbell, and I'm going to talk to you about playing
Steamband!

First of all don't panic. It might also help if you have a towel. A quick
perusal of this file will make your experience much more pleasant.

Our first topic of disscussion is using the help.

Hint: Commands are given in parenthesies and quotes (''). Don't type 
anything but the command in the middle. Characters without the parenthesies
are how they are represented onscreen.

=============================
=== Using the Online Help ===
=============================

Nice topic, eh?

You can press Escape ('ESC') at any time to leave the online help.

You can press Question Mark ('?') to return to the previous help file.

You can press Space (' ') to advance one page. Plus ('+') and minus ('-') 
will move you through the file. You can hit a labeled number key to select 
the listed help file. (i.e. pressing ('1') on the first help screen brought 
you here to this file, general.txt)

That's bascially all you need to know to navigate the online help. Other 
functions are described in detail on the main page, which you can reach by 
typing ('?') from here.

Please continue to press Space to view the rest of this file...

There is one final useful help feature that you can use when you get into a 
fix. Any time you are looking for a command in the game you can hit ('Enter')
and you will bring up a menu that allows you to access a complete list of
commands.

===========================
=== General Information ===
===========================

Oh, man, you might love Steampunk or the Victorian age, but what the hell is
this?

Steamband is basically a complex single player dungeon simulation. A player
creates a character, choosing from a variety of sexes, races and classes,
and then attempts to escape from the centre of the earth.

How exactly do you do that? Well at the centre of the earth is a town of sorts
and there are passages that lead to the surface. You can equip weapons and 
armor, and use skills, items and powers to fight your way to the surface.

Steamband is a "roguelike" game and these can be very complex. A short
introduction to the key concepts follows.

=============================
=== A Simple Introduction ===
=============================

Any command may be accessed by pressing the enter key ('Enter').

Your character is represented by the '@' symbol! Look, that's you! You see
a top-down representation of the dungeon around you.

You use the "numeric keypad" to move. The arrow keys will also work. You 
are allowed to move diagonally. ('8') moves you up, ('6') moves you right 
and ('9') moves you diagonally up and right and so on and so forth. If you 
don't have a numeric keypad, use the arrow keys to move for now. You can 
use the number row in an emergency (if someone is blocking you into a shop 
entrance for example).

Messages will appear in the top row. If the messages are too long to fit on 
the top row, you will see a '-more-' prompt. Any key will clear this prompt 
and display the rest of the message. You may hit the escape key ('Esc') to 
clear all the '-more-' prompts remaining until your next action. 

If you need help with character creation please read the birth help file. 
You can get there from here by pushing ('?') and then ('2') to select the 
birth.txt help file.

If at any time you have trouble remembering a command for something you 
can hit the enter key ('Enter') and display a menu containing all the 
commands for the game!!

== Information gathering
==========================

How do we find out what all this stuff is? There are several commands to 
give you information about your environment.

You can 'l'ook at things around you by pressing ('l'). If you want to 
know what a symbol represents you can always use ('/') to identify what 
something is! ('l') is easy to remember because of look. You can remember 
('/') because it is on the question mark key. (See, it's giving you help, 
by telling what symbols represent!)

You can press ('i') to see your 'i'nventory.
 
You may press ('e') to see what you have 'e'quipped.

You may press ('C') to see information about your 'C'haracter.

You may press ('=') to adjust in-game options.

Other ways to gather information include pressing ('?') on the skills 
screen to get skill spoiler information, and using ('I') to 'I'nspect items. 
While you are looking at a monster you can press ('r') to 'r'ecall information
about them. If this doesn't make any sense to you; read on brave adventurer,
read on!!

== What's all this now?
=========================

You may be looking at the screen wondering what the heck you're supposed 
to be looking at. Here is a short introduction to the main parts of the 
interface.

Down the left side of the screen you see some character information. You'll 
see values for your six statistics (Muscle, Agility, Vigor, Schooling, Ego, 
and Charm). To your right, is an overhead view of your surroundings. Nothing 
will happen while the game waits for a command for you.

The symbols on the screen represent different things! (Hey, someone might 
not know this -- like aborigines or cave people.) Hash marks '#' or blocks
represent walls, periods '.' represent lit floors, letters of the alphabet 
represent monsters, numbers represent the entrances to stores and '@' 
represents *you*. 

The town in the center of the earth is always lit by a strange glow 
(convienent, that), so most of the town should consist of stores and 
illuminated floor grids.

Any "alphabetic" symbols always represent monsters, where the word 
"monsters" specifies a wide variety of entities, including people, animals, 
plants, etc. Only a few "races" of monsters normally appear in town, and 
all of them are "relatively" harmless.  The most common "monsters" in town 
are small animals (cats and dogs) and townspeople (gentleman, drunkards,
demimondaines, etc).

== What now? (Steps to survival)
=================================

So now that you've orientated yourself to the dangerous world of Steamband,
here are some steps to staying alive.

If you're not wearing or using armor or weapons, they aren't doing you any
good. Press ('w') to 'w'ear armor and 'w'eild weapons. It will ask you what
you want to equip. You may press space (' ') or * ('*') to get a list. 
Select the letter of the item you wish to wear.

Any time you wish you can press ('e') to see your 'e'quipment. You have 
twelve places for items (plus one for ammo). You can use a weapon, a gun, 
wear 2 rings an amulet, a light, some clothing, some pants, a cloak, a hat, 
some gloves, and boots. 

You can 't'ake off equipment using ('t'). It will ask you what you want to 
remove. You won't survive long naked. You do not have to take off things 
before wearing or wielding something else in its place.

Monsters can only move after you use a command which takes 'energy' from 
your character.  Commands that do something, such as changing weapons, 
moving, or taking off equipment cost you some energy. Commands that gather 
information are free. 

== A short interlude about skills
===================================

An important thing you'll need to do is use another free command and press
('G') to 'G'ain some skills. This will bring up the skills screen. You can
nagviagte this skills by pushing up or down on the arrow keys (or ('8')/
('2') on the numeric keypad). You can add skills by pressing the plus key 
('+') (You can also hit the equals ('=') key without needing to hit shift 
to make it into a plus).

Be sure to hit '?' on any skill you're curious about.

There are three skill panes which you can switch between by 'h'opping 
between them ('h'). These are the three groups skills are organized into. 
You can also 'h'op between the different 'C'haracter information screens.


== What's left to do before the killing begins? (AKA shopping)
================================================================

You'll need to do some shopping before you enter the dungeon if you expect 
to survive. You enter a store by walking into one of the numbers ('0'-'9') 
on the town level. The screen will change into the store interaction screen. 
A refrence key for store commands is located at the bottom of the screen.

Note:
Your inventory is always kept sorted in a semi-logical order, so the indexes
(letters) of some of the objects may change as your inventory changes.

Visit the various stores and look at their wares. I suggest purchasing in order
of importance:

Some Cure light wounds tonics (You can 'q'uaff these)
Some mechanisms of phase door (You can 'r'ig these)
One mechanism of Etheric Travel (For escaping from danger)
Bullets for your firearm (be sure to 'w'ield these to load your firearm)
other pieces of clothing. Possibly pants, or shoes. 

Buy as much as you can of what you think you need. When you're ready (armour
and weapons equipped, firearms loaded, potions and escape means in inventory,
skills picked, and bravery fortified). Head for the stairs.

== The dark and deadly subworld
=================================

The '<' symbol on the map is an upstaircase. Its reverse symbol '>' is a
downstair case. Move on top of the stairs and press that symbol and you will
use them.

In the dungeon you will see brown '+' or ''' symbols. These are closed and 
open doors, respectively. You can 'o'pen ('o') and 'c'lose ('c') doors.

Oh, did I forget to mention the giant steam powered dragon in the middle of 
the room? Monsters are represented by alphabetic letters. If you see one, 
you can 'l'ook at it, and once it is selected 'r'ecall all the information 
you have about it.

To attack a monster, simply move into it and you will strike it with 
your weapon.

to fire your gun at it, use the 'f'ire command ('f'). Make sure your firearm 
is loaded. It takes a while to load your firearm so be careful when you choose 
to load it.

'M' will bring up a nifty little 'M'ap of the dungeon! If you get tired of 
having to walk every single step ('.') + a direction will 'run' in that 
direction.

If you get hurt pressing 'R' will allow you to rest to recover your hit 
points. Caution: resting will *not* cure your wound points. You'll have 
to rest in town or 'q'uaff a tonic to cure them.

If the game gives you a message about hunger, 'E' will allow you to 'E'at 
rations.

== A word on difficulty
=========================

This is all wonderful help, but Steamband is a difficult game and contains 
a characteristic of all roguelike games -- permadeath. When you die that's 
it. The save file is deleted, and you must start over from scratch. This 
way, your choices mean something. If you're new to Steamband, and tired 
of rolling up new characters every five minutes you can always turn on 
cheat death to help you learn the game just a little better.

You can access the options by hitting the equals key ('='). 

Option 6 ('6') are the cheat options, and in there is the option to turn 
on 'cheat death'.

If you are having a *lot* of trouble try using one of the easier races, 
such as Automata, Steam-mecha, or Djinn.

Some monsters are too tough to melee (fight hand to hand) for first level
characters. Make sure you have a way to cause some damage at range 
(devices, spells, or firearms) or run when you see dangerous enemies (such 
as the small dogman).

