                                Trynth
                                ******


(C) Copyright 1993 David Jones

This is a Space Strategy Game, that runs in the desktop.

It allows a number of opposing sides, controlled by humans, and the
computer, to attempt the domination of the Trynth universe. The mechanics of
the system are straightforward, highlighting the interaction of the opposing
sides.

Trynth extensively supports the Acorn !Help application to provide online
help.



                          Starting the Game
                          -----------------

To start this application simply double click on the !Trynth icon.

After a pause the Trynth - New Game window will be shown.



                           New Game window
                           ---------------

This window allows you to change a number of important factors describing
the game. Once you are happy with the game dimensions, clicking the OK icon
will start the game properly. To start another game will require you to load
another copy of !Trynth.


Sides and Players
*****************

There are a number of sides within the game. Each side is controlled by a
player. This player could either by a Human, or one of the number of
computer players.

Therefore if you look at the window as shown above, the initial sides are;
Super Squares, Capital Circles, Dear Dots, etc. Each of these sides has one
type of player, which respectively are: Human, Restrained Mad Attacker,
Human, etc.

One point of note here is that two sides; Marked Mess, and the Scintillating
S both have the Expert (?) player. This does not mean that the same Expert
player will control both these sides, merely they will both act by the same
set of rules.

The same applies to the two sides; Super Squares, and Dear Dots that both
have Human listed as their players. In this case you might like to control
both the sides, or let friends take control. In either case there is no
explicit option to form alliances at this stage in the games development.


Planets
*******

Planets are the distinct points in the Trynth universe where things happen.
Each planet has a resource level. This increases over time, and as a by
product creates ships. These are also stationed at each planet. Whichever
side owns the ships at a planet owns the planet. All ships are exactly the
same.

Each side starts with one planet. Therefore there has to be at least the
same number of planets as sides. Unfortunately this situation would lead to
a pretty boring game, as each sides starting planet are all created equally.

This leads us to Neutral owned planets. These are passive planets, whose
resources and ships do not increase beyond their initial values. Some of
these will be less strong than the starting planets for the sides, others
may well be stronger.

Increasing the number of planets can lead to a far more interesting game as
it increases the 'dimension' of the game.


Changing the number of Planets
------------------------------

This is just a case of setting the desired value with the icons to the left
of Planets icon. The minimum number of planets is determined by the number
of sides.


Changing the Sides
------------------

The number of sides within the game can be changed using the icons to the
left of the Sides icon.

As you change the value you should notice the list of sides changing in the
lower half of the window.

Notice that each side has a different colour, these colours are used
throughout the game to help you recognize the source of information a lot
easier.

Changing Players
----------------

As mentioned earlier each side is controlled by a certain type of player. To
the right of each Side the appropriate player is listed in black.

To change the player clicking with SELECT will cycle through all the
available players.

If you or your friends want to control any sides then their player should be
set to Human.

There are a number of computer players, with varying capabilities. These
range from suicidal to poor. 

Mad Attacker Restrained Mad Attacker Build Up Build Up 2 Expert (?) Super
Computer

Random
-------

Clicking on the Random icon will change all the computer controlled sides to
a random set of computer players. All human sides will remain the same.

No account is made of the resulting difficulty of the set of computer
players.

Loading Old Trynth Games
-------------------------

To load a saved Trynth game simply drag it over the load-in icon. This
should load the game, with the correct turn, etc set up.

Note that this is only time in the course of a game that a saved game can be
loaded. So once you have started the game properly, if you prefer to
continue a different game you will have to reload Trynth, and choose the
game at this stage.


Starting the Game
-----------------

Once you have chosen satisfactory values you can start the game by clicking
over the OK button. After a short delay the Trynth icon will appear on the
Icon Bar. The game then commences properly.


Turns
*****

As there are a number of sides within the game, there has to be some
ordering of their goes. The game is split temporaly into turns. All sides
have a set of goes for each turn. The order of sides within each turn is
randomly chosen at beginning of each turn.

Due to the simplicity of the games mechanics, the only type of move
available is the transfer of ships from one planet to the next planet. The
resolution of these moves is computed at the beginning of the turn of their
completion. Thereafter planets resources may be increased, and new ships
created at those planets. At this stage all the sides will have a chance to
start some new movement orders.


                              Main Window
                              -----------

Clicking SELECT on the Trynth icon bar icon will show the Main Trynth
window. This shows all the planets within the game universe.

The windows title will inform you of which side can currently move its
ships. Also if you move the pointer over the windows contents you will
notice that at the top left of the window there is a small 'details' area.
This displays information about the nearest planet under the pointer. The
top line shows the side which owns the planet.  The line below shows the
number of ships on the planet, journey time in turns from the currently
selected planet to the planet under the pointer, and the name of the planet.
A journey time of '--' shows that the investigated planet is in fact the
currently selected planet.

What is the currently selected planet ?

If you click SELECT over a planet, then the World Data window will be shown.
This planet is the currently selected planet. For ship transfers, this is
the originator of the ships.

Back to the Main window. It provides the following Menu:


                              Main Window menu
                              ----------------

Note that Next Side, and Next Turn are exclusive options.

Next Side
---------

When a side controlled by a human player has finished their go for this turn
then choosing this terminate the go. This will then allow the next side to
make any moves for this turn.

Next Turn
---------

This can be chosen once all sides have had their chance to make any moves
this turn. This will then end this turn, and start the next.

Statistics...
-------------

This will show the Statistics window. This displays information on the
totals of ships, resources and planets for all the sides at this point in
the game. There are also a number of extra statistics based windows that are
available from here.

Orders...
---------

This shows the details of any unfinished movement orders.

Clicking SELECT over an entry will display details of the destination planet
in the World Data window.


                            World Data window
                            ------------------

Clicking with SELECT over a planet on the Main Trynth window will show the
World Data window.

The position of the planet in the universe, and so in the Main window is
shown by the X, and Y entries. The planets current resources are also shown.
To the right of this the planets rulers flag is shown.

The lower section allows ships to be transferred from this planet to others.
The left icon shows the number of ships to be kept at the planet, the right
shows those that can be transferred. To move ships between these two
positions, the arrows move ships one at a time, the endstops move all. Also
a value can be directly typed into the left icon. If you want to transfer
any ships off this planet then ensure the right icon contains the correct
amount, then drag with SELECT pressed. If you finish the drag over a planet
on the Main Trynth window then the ships will be transferred to that planet.
In this case you will see the starting planets ships reduce by the correct
amount, and also the Movement Orders window will have recorded the transfer.
Remember the 'details area' at the top of the Main window for locating the
correct destination while transferring.

The right section shows information on the arrival of ships at this planet.
Every ring out from the planet lists the arrivals for the next turn.


Battles
*******

If ships arrive at a planet that does not belong to their side, a battle is
automatically started. This is a fight to the death. No ships can escape.
The single side with ships left at the end takes control of the planet.

If a number of different sides have ships arriving at the same planet, the
same side then the battles are fought in serial. The resulting ships from a
battle take the planet over, which is then immediately attacked by the next
wave of alien ships. Ships arriving at a planet they own are moved to the
planet straight away, so they can help defend the planet against all attacks
arriving at that point.

The mechanics of a battle are simple. A ship is randomly chosen from the
ships present. It is deemed a casualty and so removed from the game. This is
continued until only ships from one side are left.


                             Statistics window
                             -----------------

This window displays the current totals of ships, resources, and planets for
each of the sides.

There are also a number of other statistical based windows available. These
can be chosen from the Statistics menu.

Graphs
------

Presents a display of the long term progress of each of the sides. Either
the sides total ships, resources, or planets can be analysed. 

Sorted Planets
--------------

Merely shows a list of all the planets, ordered by the number of ships
stationed on them.

Useful in checking for easy targets, and also that your planets do not
become a target of choice through this method.

Side Information
----------------

Displays information on one side.

The examined side can be changed by the Menus. Setting it on Auto will
ensure that the windows contents will change with the change of sides within
the turn structure.


                             Battle Window
                             -------------

This is only met when two sides clash over a planet. The planet, and the two
sides involved are shown. Also the initial quantity of ships, and the
current numbers of ships for each side are also shown. As the battle
progresses you should see the numbers go down.

Once the battle is over, the result will be shown. Clicking over the OK
button will then finish this. There might be a number of battles in one
turn, so the Battle Window may well stay up.

If this is a large battle then it will take some time to complete. Click
over the Finish battle to speed it up, presenting only the result rather
than all the progress.


                                Extras
                                ******


                            Display Options
                            ---------------

There are a number of things that can be changed about Trynth from outside
the program.

In all cases ensure that you have an original version of the software BEFORE
you play around with these options.

Please only pass on the original, rather than any changed version. If you
come up with any better side pictures, etc please send them in.

Template file
-------------

There are two template files, Templ2d, and Templ3d. The 3d version can be
used on RiscOS 3.1 and produces pretty raised buttons, etc. To change the
particular set used, copy either version to Templates.

Menu Fonts
----------

The menu entries may be in a pretty font. To change this look near the
beginning of the Messages file.

Side names, flags
-----------------

The names, etc can be changed. The details of which are kept again in the
Messages file. The Sprites file contains the various 


                        Automatic Language Choice
                        -------------------------

    ResFind is copyrighted 1992
    Olaf Krumnow & Herbert zur Nedden
    German Archimedes Group (GAG)

!Trynth adapts automatically to the configured language if the corresponding
messages etc. are available. For this purpose a Resources directory is
contained in the application in which a subdirectory for each language
supported resides. If the language you need isn't in there, please feel free
to duplicate any of these language directories and translate the contents.

When you run the program a utility called ResFind is called which reads the
language your computer is configured to and then looks for the corresponding
language directory. If this fails the program will run in English (UK). By
setting several system variables (best done in your system's !Boot file) you
can change the language looked for. With this you can make sure a program
runs in a certain language, e.g. to avoid a weird translation. Furthermore
it is possible to name several languages you prefer to English. This is
controlled by three system variables: Trynth$Language, ResFind$LanguagesPref
und ResFind$Languages$Suff. When running the application ResFind looks for
the first language supported along the following list of languages:

  1. Contents of the variable Trynth$Language
  2. Contens of the variable ResFind$LanguagesPref
  3. The configured language
  4. Contens of the variable ResFind$LanguagesSuff
  5. UK

Take a Norwegian user for example (lots of great programs come from there)
whose computer is configured to 'Norway'. Since this language isn't too
common in Europe most programs won't support it - except for Norwegian ones.
But our user is pretty good in German and French but not too fond of
English. Therefore he prefers these languages to UK and would thus put the
following line in his system's !Boot file:

*Set ResFind$LanguagesSuff Germany,France

Running an applications (such as this one) using ResFind the list of
languages looked for is 'Norway,Germany,France,UK'. In case this user hat an
application calles !Pete supporting the languate 'Humorous' the line

*Set Pete$Language Humor

in the !Boot file makes sure !Pete will run humorous.



                                Futures
                                -------

Here is a list of possible features to add in the future:

	Link the Random feature of the Trynth - New Game window in with some kind
of level of overall difficulty for the computer players. From this the human
players have an idea of the difficulty, if any. Also could drive the choice
of computer players to get near a particular value.

	The planet detailed in the World Data window should flash on and off,
within the main window display. Helpful to gauge where you are. At the
moment you have to rely on the X,Y position shown in the World Data window.

	Allow mistaken orders to be removed from the Orders window before the end
of your go. So for all your moves entered this go a little icon could be lit
up, selecting this would remove the appropriate order.

	Show a compressed form of the planet, and attacking forces as on the right
of the World Data window on the map window. All movements to a planet would
be shown in one ring surrounding the planet on the Main window.

	Introduce sounds for successful, unsuccessful attack and also sending out
ships to an oppositions planet. Only sounding if a human controlled side was
concerned.

	Better computer players...




                                  Contact
                                  *******

The author can be contacted at:

       Permanent                        Term time till June 1993
       ---------                        ------------------------

       David Jones                      David Jones
       160 Hazelwood Drive              13 Glanmour Crescent
                                        Uplands
       St. Albans                       Swansea
       Herts                            W. Glamorgan
       AL4 0UZ                          SA2 0PS
       0727 - 52548                     0792 - 648220
                                        cs9h0dgj@uk.ac.swan.pyr

I would be interested in any comments, ideas, bugs, new features, etc about
this program.

If you have implemented any other Computer players then I would love to see
them.


Other Strategy Games

I am hoping to program more Strategy games for the Archimedes. Hopefully
these should be based around a more interesting and complicated set up. If
you have any ideas for future games, or are programming, or thinking of
programming any strategy games then I would like to get in contact. In
comparison with most other computer systems the archimedes is pitifully
stocked in this aspect of software. I would also like to get in contact with
anyone who would like to share on a 'professional' game.
