====================================
=== Attacking and Being Attacked === 
====================================

Attacking is simple in Steamband.  If you move into a creature, you attack it.
You can attack from a distance by firing a gun, by magical means, or by 
technological means (such as aiming a ray gun).  Creatures attack in the same
way.  If they move into you, they attack you.  Some creatures can also cast
spells from a distance, and others can use various breath weapons (such as 
fire) on you from a distance.

Creatures (or players) in walls can not be attacked by wands or other magic 
attacks normally stopped by walls, nor can they be shot at with guns and 
bullets. Tunnelling into the wall (using the "tunnel" or "alter" command) 
will allow  you to attack any creature in the wall. This applies to creatures 
which 'pass through' walls: if they 'bore through' walls, the wall is no longer
there, and the creature can be targetted normally. If you have easy alter
set, you may simply move towards the monster to attack it.

If you are wielding a weapon, the damage for the weapon is used when you hit
a creature.  Otherwise you get a martial attack which does damage based off
of your skill.

You may 'w'ield one weapon for melee combat, and also one firearm
(pistol, rifle or shotgun.) You may also wear one amulet (around the one and 
only neck of the character), two rings (on the two 'ring' fingers, i.e. the
third finger of each hand: a magic ring does not function when worn on any
other finger, nor may two be worn on the same finger), one light source, 
and a full set of armor - body armor, trousers, helmet, gloves, boots and a
cloak. Any or all of these items may provide powers to the character in 
terms of bonuses to-hit, to-damage, to-armor class, or to other stats (in
the latter case, a single numerical bonus applies to all affected stats.)
 
Firing a gun (while wielding the appropriate launcher) is the only way to
get the full power out of the missile.  You may of course throw an bullet at
a monster without shooting it, but you will find the effects will not be what
you had hoped. You must load guns before firing them by 'w'ielding the bullets.

Hits and misses are determined by ability to hit versus armor class.  A hit
is a strike that does some damage; a miss may in fact reach a target, but
fails to do any damage.  Higher armor classes make it harder to do damage,
and so lead to more misses; they also reduce the damage from a strike that
actually occurs.
 

========================
=== Monster Memories ===
========================

There are hundreds of different creatures in the pits of Steamband, many of
which have the same letter symbol and color on the screen.  The exact species
of a creature can be discovered by looking at it.  It is also very difficult
to keep track of the capabilities of various creatures.  Luckily, Steamband
automatically keeps track of your experiences with a particular creature.
This feature is called the monster memory.  You monster memory recalls the
particular attacks of each creature (whether or not technically a monster)
which you have suffered, as well as recalling if you have observed them to
multiply or move erratically, or drop treasure, etc.  Otherwise you would
simply have to take notes, which is an unnecessary bother.

If you have killed enough of a particular creature, or suffered enough
attacks, recalling the monster memory may also provide you with information
not otherwise available, such as a armor class or hit dice.  These are not
explained, but may be useful to give the relative danger of each creature.
This memory can be passed on to a new character even after you die by means
of a reduced save file. (You must start the new character by "opening the 
existing save file" of the dead character for this to happen: using the 
"start new character" option will not give access to any monster memory.)
 

===================
=== Your Weapon ===
===================

Carrying a weapon in your backpack does you no good.  You must wield a weapon 
before it can be used in a fight.  A secondary weapon can be kept by keeping
it in the backpack, and switching it with the primary weapon when needed. This 
is most often used when switching between a melee weapon and a digging tool, 
or when carrying two weapons, each of which provides a rare power that the 
character needs at two separate times.

Weapons have two main magical characteristics, their enchanted ability to hit
and their enchanted ability to do damage, expressed as `(+#,+#)'.  A normal
weapon would be `(+0,+0)'.  Many weapons in Steamband have bonuses to hit
and/or do damage.  Some weapons are cursed, and have penalties that hurt the
player.  Cursed weapons cannot be unwielded until the curse is lifted.
Identifying a weapon will inform you of the magical bonuses and penalties
and whether or not it is cursed.

Steamband assumes that your youth in the rough environment near the dungeons
has taught you the relative merits of different weapons, and displays as
part of their description the damage dice which define their capabilities.
Any damage enchantment is added to the dice roll for that weapon.  The dice
used for a given  weapon is displayed as "XdY".  The number "X" indicates
how many dice to roll, and number "Y" indicates how many sides they have. A
"2d6" weapon will thus give damage from 2 to 12, plus any damage bonus. The
weight of a weapon is also a consideration.  Heavy weapons may hit harder,
but they are also harder to use.  Depending on your muscle, agility,
character class, and weapon weight, you may get several attacks per turn: 
high agility and muscle and low weapon weight are the main factors.
Your blows are also affected by some skills, as well as whether or not
you are wielding a weapon. 

Guns, have their characteristics added to those of the missile used, if the
proper weapon/missile combination is used, and the the firearm multiplier 
is applied to the total damage, making firearms very powerful given 
the proper bullets, especially if they are enchanted. If a gun has any slays,
they are passed to the bullets fired from it.

Although you receive any magical bonuses an unidentified weapon may possess
when you wield it, those bonuses will not be added in to the displayed
values of to-hit and to-dam on your character sheet.  You must identify the
weapon before the displayed values reflect the real values used.

Finally, some rare weapons have special abilities.  These are called ego
weapons, and are feared by great and meek.  An ego weapon must be wielded
to receive the benefit of its abilities. It should be noted that some of 
these items are considerably more powerful than others, and generally the 
most powerful items are the rarest. Also important is the fact that not all
ego-items are nice...

Ego weapons are denoted by the following "names":  

(Holy)
     A Holy Avenger is one of the more powerful of weapons.  A Holy Avenger
     will increase your ego and your armour class.  This weapon will do
     extra damage when used against evil, demonic and undead creatures, and
     will also give you the ability to see invisible creatures.  

(Defender)
     A magical weapon that actually helps the wielder defend himself, thus
     increasing his/her armor class, and protecting him/her against damage
     from fire, earth, air, and water.  This weapon also will increase 
     your stealth.

(Martian)
     A cursed alien blade raises your resistance to fire, ice, electricty
     ether, sound, light, dark and mental attacks.  It humms and whines with
     radical alien power decreasing your stealth, however it boosts your 
     health, saving throw and muscle. It also sustains your muscle and agility,
     makes you immune to fear, is branded with fire, causes criticals and 
     slays animals. However while it is equipped it does not want to leave
     your grasp, though it can be uncursed. It can cause mutations, and 
     prevents any sort of teleportation of any kind, in addition to lowering
     your resistance to poison, air, and acid.

Weapon of Exigency.
     A Weapon of Exigency is one of the more powerful weapons.  It slays
     automata, and constructs, while increasing your muscle, agility, 
     and vigor.  It also lets you see invisible creatures and protects 
     from paralyzation and some slowing attacks. 

Weapon of Battle.
     A weapon of battle will allow the wielder to deliver extra attacks 
     during each round, as well as increasing the users muscle and 
     agility, providing immunity to fear, and often causing criticals.

Elemental Branded Weapons.
     Each of the four elemental attacks has a corresponding weapon which 
     will do extra base damage to creatures not resistant to that 
     element.
     There are weapons of Flame, Frost, Lightning, Poison, and Acid 
     elemental brands, which are named respectively "Burning", 
     "Freezing", "Shocking" "Poisoning" and "Melting".

Weapons of Slaying enemies.
     These weapons do extra damage against creatures of a vulnerable type.
     Weapons of Slay Evil and Slay Animal do extra base damage, while
     weapons of Slay Alien, Elemental, Beastman, Dinosaur, Automata, 
     Construct, Demon, Undead, and Deckcutter do more extra base damage. 
     
There are many more ego types in Steamband to be found. . .

Ego Missile Launchers and Ammo:
-------------------------------
Firearms of Precision.
    These launchers have an unnaturally high to-hit number, making them 
    extremely accurate, and they increase your agility.

Firearms of Ferocity.
    These launchers do an unnaturally high amount of damage due to their 
    high to-hit number, and they increase your muscle

Launchers of Extra Shots.
    These launchers have extra chambers in the weapon allowing you to load
    additional bullets.

Launchers of Extra Might.
    These launchers have a higher base damage than normally made launchers 
    of their type. For instance, a rifle of Extra Might (x3)(+X,+Y)(+2)
    is really a rifle (x5)(+X,+Y) where (+X,+Y) is the standard to-hit 
    and to-dam. As the damage multiplier with the gun affects *everything*
    - the base arrow damage, the magical damage bonus on both the bow and
    the arrow, and any bonuses for slaying or elemental-branded arrows - 
    this makes it a powerful weapon.

=== Your Armor Class ===

Your armor class (or AC) is a number that describes the amount and the
quality of armor being worn. Armor class will generally run from about 0 to
150, though exceptionally good armor can improve even on the latter figure.
 
The larger your armor class, the more protective it is.  A negative armor
class would actually help get you hit.  Armor protects you in three manners.
One, it makes you harder to be hit for damage.  A hit for no damage is the
same as a miss.  Two, good armor will absorb some of the damage that your
character would have taken from normal attacks.  Three, acid damage is
reduced by wearing body armor (but the armor will be damaged instead).  It
is obvious that a high armor class is a must for surviving the deeper levels
of Steamband.

Each piece of armour has a base armor value, which, like the damage from
weapons, is assumed known by the player, and a magic bonus, which will not
be displayed unless the armor has been identified or was bought in a store.

Armor class values are always displayed between a set of brackets as "[#]"
or "[#,+#]".  The first value is the armor class of the item.  The second
number is the magical bonus of the item which is only displayed if known,
and will always have a sign preceding the value.  Note that a few rings,
amulets, and weapons also have the "[+#]" notation, indicating that they
provide an armor bonus.  Many pieces of heavy body armor will also have a
"(-#)" before the "[#,+#]", which indicates that the weight of the armor
decreases your chances of hitting monsters.  This can range from nonexistent
for very light armor to (-8) for the very heaviest armor!

Some pieces of armor will possess special abilities denoted by the following
names:

Ego Armors:
-----------------------
of Inviolability to various element.
     A character wearing armor or a shield with one such resistance will
     take only a reduced percentage of damage from attacks involving the 
     relevant element. Note that multiple permanent sources of resistance 
     ARE cumulative: wearing two is better than wearing one. 
 
of Inviolability to the elements.
     A character wearing armor with this ability will have resistance to
     Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Ice, Acid, Poison, and electricty as 
     explained in each part above.

Armor of Daoine Sidhe.
     It will make you more stealthy.  It will sustain your ego, and help
     you resist confusion, as well as providing some resistance to Air,
     acid, poison, time, ether, nether, light and darkness.
 
Robes of Permanence.
     These robes are designed especially for scientists.  They provide 
     resistance to all elements, though not to mental attacks.  They 
     sustain all of your stats and protect you from a good deal of 
     all experience draining.  

Ego Helms:
----------
Stat Boosting Helms.
     There are magical helms found in the dungeon that have the ability
     to boost the wearer's intelligence, wisdom, or charisma.  Helms of 
     Beauty are the ones that boost charisma.  In addition to boosting 
     the relevant stat these helms will also prevent that stat from being 
     drained.

Hats of the Order.
     This is the great hat of the wizards.  The wearer will have an
     increased (and sustained) intelligence, ego, and will also be given 
     resistance against all of the elements.  These valuable
     helms also raise your mana and your ability to cast spells.

Hats of Safari.
     This is the hat of the hunters.  The wearer will have an
     increased and sustained muscle, agility, and vigor, 
     and will also be immune to any foe's attempt to slow or paralyze 
     him or her.

Hats of Rulership.
     This is the great hat of the leaders.  The wearer will have an
     increased and sustained ego, charm and health. It will also slow
     the digestion of the wearer and provide resistance to confusion.

Hats of Perception.
     This is the great hat of the rogues.  The wearer will be 
     able to see invisible creatures, and will have an increased ability to 
     locate traps and secret doors.  It is also rumored that the wearer of 
     such a helm will not be able to be blinded.

Hats of Telepathy.
     This hat grants the wearer the power of telepathy.

Hats of Regeneration.
     This hat will help you regenerate hit points and mana more quickly
     than normal, allowing you to fight longer before needing to rest.  You
     will use food faster than normal while wearing this helm because of
     the regenerative effects.

Hats of Teleportation.
     This cursed helm will always keep the player on the hop, never sure
     where he is and never able to stay in one place.

Hats of stat reducing.
     These helms can reduce your wisdom, intelligence or charisma.
 
Ego Cloaks:
-----------
Cloak of Protection.
     This finely made cloak will come with an unnaturally high enchantment
     and is not affected by elemental based attacks and provides resistance
     to the same. 

Cloak of Stealth.
     This cloak will increase the wearer's stealth, making the wearer less
     likely to wake up sleeping monsters.

Cloak of the Order.
     This cloak increases and sustains schooling and ego, as well as raising
     mana and spellcasting ability. It also provides some minor resistances.

Cloak of Invisiblity
     This cloak allows its wearer to remain hidden from monsters, all the 
     better to surprise them by casting a spell on them.

Cloak of Enveloping.
     This cloak gets in the way of everything you try to do. You can't seem 
     to hit monsters without having to shove aside several folds of cloth,
     and yet more layers cushion the blow and reduce the damage you do.

Cloaks of Vulnerability.
     This severely cursed cloak appears to be powerful, but in fact lets 
     through the full force of every attack directed at it.

Ego Gloves:
-----------
Gloves of Free Action.
     The wearer of these gloves will find himself resistant to paralyzing
     attacks as well as some slowing attacks.  Because of the special 
     nature of these gloves, magic users may wear these gloves without
     incurring a mana penalty.   

Gloves of Slaying.
     These gloves will increase the wearer's fighting ability by boosting
     the wearer's to-hit and to-dam values.

Gloves of Agility.
     These gloves will increase the wearer's agility.  

Gloves of Power.
     These spiked gauntlets will boost the wearer's strength as well as the 
     wearer's  to-hit and to-dam numbers.

Gloves of Weakness.
     These gauntlets sap your strength.

Gloves of Clumsiness.
     These gauntlets make you fumble.

Ego Boots:
----------
Boots of Slow Descent.
     These boots protect the wearer from the effects of small falls.

Boots of Stealth.
     These boots increase the wearer's stealth, like a Cloak of Stealth.

Boots of Free Action.
     The wearer of these boots will find himself resistant to paralyzing
     attacks as well as some slowing attacks.

Boots of Speed.
     The wearer of these boots will become unnaturally fast.

Boots of Noise.
     The wearer of these boots will make great echoing stamps as he walks 
     around the dungeon, waking up and aggravating all monsters.

Boots of Slowness.
     They seem to be stuck to the ground, and you can hardly move at all 
     while wearing these things.

There are rumors of unique "artifact" items in the dungeon - weapons and 
armor of all types. Many of these are more powerful than even the greatest 
ego-items: some are weak and have little more than a name to recommend them. 
In all cases, and indeed if the player desires to find out the powers of an 
ego-item with random powers, use of a mechinism of *Identify* will reveal all 
the powers of any given item.

=== Non-melee attacks and resistances ===

The player may at some time gain access to non-melee attacks, and many 
monsters also have them. Monsters may cast spells at the player, and vice 
versa. This damage generally is not affected by armor class, and does not 
need a hit roll to hit the player or monster being aimed at.

Some attacks are purely magical: attack spells which blind, confuse, slow, 
scare or paralyze the target.  In some cases, a melee attack may also do 
this.  These attacks are resisted by monsters of higher level (native to 
deeper dungeon depths) and characters with a high saving throw - saving 
throws being dependent on class, level and wisdom. There are also available
resistances to fear, blindness and confusion, and the power of "free 
action" prevents magical paralysis and most slowing attacks (the player may 
still be paralyzed by being "knocked out" in melee or by a stunning attack,
but this is very rare.) It should also be noticed that unique monsters 
automatically pass their saving throws, and some monsters are naturally 
resistant to confusion, fear and sleep-monster attacks. Monster spells 
to "cause wounds" are included in this category, of attacks which do no 
damage if a saving throw is made, or full damage if it is failed.

Some melee attacks by monsters may drain a stat, as can some traps: this is 
prevented by having that stat sustained.

Some monsters may cast spells that teleport the player character. To these, 
there is no saving throw, except to those that would actually teleport him 
up or down one dungeon level. The player may teleport monsters in the same 
way, with a spell or a ray gun.

Other attacks are usually elemental-based. Many monsters can breathe 
various attacks or cast bolt or ball spells, and the player may also 
have access to bolt and ball spells.

The player, and the monsters, may be resistant to these forms of attack: 
and resistance is handled in different ways for the player and the monster, 
and for different attack forms.

Bolt spells will hit the first monster (or the player) in the line of fire:
ball spells and breaths may centre on a target which may be hiding behind
other targets. Ball spells and breath weapons affect an area: other monsters
caught in the blast take reduced damage depending on how close to the 
centre of the blast they are. Bolt and ball spells depend on the skill of 
the monster or player: breath weapons are proportional to a fraction of the 
monster's current hit points, with a maximum cap on the damage.

In the case of fire, cold, lightning, acid and poison, if the monster has 
resistance to a player attack of this kind it will take almost no damage.
If the player has one or more permanent sources of resistance, he will have
the damage reduced by the % of resistance that the character currently has.
if the player has a temporary source of resistance (whether from potion, 
spell or artifact), this will reduce the damage by 1/3 of its normal level,
allowing the character to take even less damage if he has both permanent 
and temporary resistance.

The character may also gain immunity to fire, cold, lightning and acid if 
he can get his resistance over 100%: immunity means that no damage is taken.
Resistance values over 100% have no effect. Resistance values below 0% 
*increase* the damage done to the player.

Another attack that the player will come into contact with all too often 
is the soul-chilling nature of the undead, which can drain the character's 
life experience. Some monsters have a life-draining melee attack, others may 
cast ball or bolt spells or, in extreme cases, breathe the very force of the 
netherworld (shortened by the game to "nether".) There are two powers which 
are of assistance in this case: that of "hold life" will prevent 90% of all
experience drains, and in the other 10% of cases, the amount of experience 
lost will be reduced by 90%. 

Other attack forms are rarer, but may include: disenchantment (both in melee
or by a monster breath), nexus (which may teleport the player to the monster, 
away from the monster, up or down a level, or swap over two of the player's 
"internal" stats), light and darkness (which will blind a non-
resistant character), sound (which will stun a non-resistant character and 
may destroy his tonics), rocket shards (which will cut a non-resistant 
character and may destroy his tonics),time (which may drain experience 
regardless of hold life, or drain stats regardless of sustains), water 
bolts and balls (which may confuse and stun, and do considerable damage 
from high-level monsters), ice bolts (which may cut and stun, and damage 
potions).


=== A note on speed ===

Monsters which do not move at normal speed generally move "slowly" (-10 to
speed), "fast" (+10), "very fast" (+20) or "incredibly fast" (+30). 
This is further adjusted by the fact that any given individual monster may 
have a random adjustment from (-2) to (+2) to its own speed.

Generally, (+10) is exactly double normal speed, and (-10) exactly half. 
(+20) is about three times normal speed, but after that there is less 
noticeable improvement as speed goes higher - for instance, (+30) is not
quite four times normal speed, and higher values than this are largely
irrelevant. The player may find items which can be worn or wielded that 
provide speed bonuses: these may include boots of speed, rings of speed
and a few very rare artifacts. Boots will provide a random 1d10 to speed: 
rings of speed may be bigger than that - generally the best that the player 
will get is two just over (+10), but individual rings of up to (+22) speed 
have been known (although the record cursed one is much higher, at (-56): 
only one unsuccessful roll away from being a (+56) ring...)

Separate from the question of permanent speed (as determined by the player's
speed items and the monster's natural speed) is that of temporary speed. The 
player may cast a spell of haste-self, or use a potion, staff or rod of speed
or use an artifact activation to speed him temporarily: or a monster may cast
a haste-self spell, or be affected by another monster "shrieking for help" 
or the player reading a scroll of aggravate monster. In all cases, (+10) 
speed is added temporarily to the affected monster or player. Using two or 
more sources of temporary speed is cumulative only in duration - one cannot
get from normal speed to (+20) using a potion and a spell of speed. Spells
of temporary slowing (including monsters breathing inertia or gravity) are 
handled the same way, with exactly (-10) being subtracted from the player
or monster's speed temporarily, for the duration of the spell or breath's 
effect.


