Mykinda Organization of Businesspersons (An Equal Opportunity Destruyer) Guide to Our Fair City The MOB is often asked questions like: 'Is company X or shop Y reliable and worth dealing with?' The simple answer is that if they are still standing they are reliably paying all their dues and taxes, and if not, then they have already been dealt with. However, we have decided to produce a small guide to Mykinda and those gems which have helped give it its byname, 'Windflower of the Great Plains'. Unwordly people like Father Scowling may object that all of them paid heavily to be included in the brochure, but they miss the point, that their ability to pay proves they are doing well, and in Mykinda, doing well is doing good. Pride of place goes, of course, to that famous old institution, the Mykinda Pizza Works, where happy workers under skilled supervision produce the Mykinda Pizza, that delicacy which we all love and would be delighted to export if only the Outsiders could be persuaded to accept it in place of the degenerate Arbuthnian version. Following on naturally from this is St James's Hospital, staffed with skilled and dedicated doctors who believe so deeply that health is worth more than money that they have put their prices up again. Their new wonder drugs have restored the decrepit to full vibrant health, and their reasonably priced plastic surgery has given many a new face and a new, or at least slightly extended, future. The Hospital OutPatients Department continues to be the in place of entertainment for connoisseurs of the human condition, frank sadists and the idle tired, who can spend many happy hours there - and it's free. Cap'n Ahab of Bespoke Tailors has been providing stylish modes for the rich and powerful of Mykinda ever since a mysterious accident at the docks ended his seafaring career. Rumor has it that he has wanted to retire for years, and only his ambition to complete one final special garment has delayed this. Fashion for the rest of us is in the capable hands of Effyn and Blynden, the menswear specialists, and those accessories without which the stylish would hesitate to walk the streets are admirably supplied by Guns R Us, who also accept for resale items no longer required by the upwardly mobile, the downwardly mobile and the formerly mobile, no questions asked. Wholesome plain food and gastronomic treats are the stock in trade of the Smelly Deli, who have asked us to say that they are also, for a limited period, doing a special on the Mykinda Pizza. St James's has been notified. Let us not forget the bustling entertainment district, where those with more money than skill can entertain the croupiers of the Silver Shotgun Casino, with the (slight} possibility of winning big, or at least deadly. Also for those looking for non-lethal enjoyment and in the same area is Wormy Lawn, where their new coach, Dr Frankie Stein, is grooming a slimmed down Mykinda Cubs to win the Pennant, and possibly even greater things. As Dr Stein said, 'Today the Pennant; tomorrow the world'. Father Scowling's allegations that there is a house of ill repute in the district are totally unfounded, and possibly actionable, if Madame Minerva chooses to sue. Unfortunately the Garden of Rest, which used to be so popular that everybody was dying to get into it, has been closed for the last few months. Rumor has it that they were unable to keep their clientele. Casey's Funeral Home is threatening to start charging rent if the crisis is not solved soon. Our docks fronting on Lake Ness are hives of industry, bringing in the wealth of Outside, or at least as much of it as isn't nailed down, as well as being the starting point of the projected Mykinda Railway on Stilts. Rumors of a Lake Ness Monster are dismissed with scorn by the hardy dockers; as they say, 'Elliot ith a myth'. The Mykindan Railway on Sticks itself, when completed, will be one of the wonders of the world. Mayor Bigg avers: 'It will knock the Outsiders for a loop, and I am so confident in its effect on property values that I have already bought most of the property concerned.' Stoption, though not completely successful, has already had a beneficial effect on the life of the city; our off-duty policemen, for example, have never been so well-dressed. Those with medicinal needs for speech defects are advised to visit the Stammer Cure; after a trip there, they will find they can speak much more easily. Nevertheless, pressure continues on Mayor Bigg to be seen to be doing something. To finish on a light note, while our reputation at home continues to be excellent, the opinion of Outsiders (as if anyone cared) is still slightly unfavorable. Some have said they wouldn't be seen dead in Mykinda. Well, if you find any, give them a resounding Mykindan welcome and prove them wrong. Windy City Pains Manual Having read that cheerful pamphlet, you may have decided that a vacation in Mykinda Town is not for you; a wise decision. But a party of adventurers on their way to somewhere better felt they had very little choice. Whether you will help these hungry, sick unfortunates is a matter for your conscience - and your computer. Mykinda Town (it does have another name, but nobody uses it) is one of those places where magic doesn't work. You start off with pistols, and you may eventually be able to afford a better weapon, but bullets are dear and for most of the time blackjacks or knives should suffice. Any fool who tried to strut through town in a tin suit would be stripped for scrap metal pretty sharpish. The hospital is quite good, but expensive, so your skill at First Aid will come in handy. Some of the available foods have an almost magical effect, but the Mykinda Pizza could be called an acquired taste - and you have to survive it first. On the other hand, it's generally tough enough to stop a knife going through it. Starting off (at last) Running the game for the first time brings up the intro screen; a key press/mouse click will terminate this. If you are starting from scratch you will go directly from there to the setting up of a new game. When you have saved games you will get a list of their names and an option to start again. If you had a save from another game, renamed savegame.009 and put in this game's save directory, you would get the chance to import the party to the beginning of the present game. This allows carrying a party through a series of games. You have 4 characters. You can choose name, sex, picture and battle sprite, and decide what percentage of their experience goes on each of the 4 primary characteristics. Roughly, strong people can dish it out, tough people can take it, dextrous people can run and pick their spot for the most chance of damage and smart people can pick their spot and cast mucho magic, but nobody will ever be all that much different from the norm. As a side note, I get annoyed with those games where the 'fighters' can kill a horse by throwing another horse at it, but are so stupid they should theoretically need the bridle and whip themselves to keep them going in the right direction, and the 'magic-users' can wipe out an orc tribe, but are doomed if it comes to mano a mano with the newborn orcling they missed. As the characters are picked, the Main Stats panel fills up with useful information. This window is permanent, and continuously updated. If a character's name is colored, he is diseased or poisoned; you'll know the symptoms soon enough. Not to worry; he can be cured. Oh, you don't have any GoldPieces; start worrying. If his Fatigue is in red, he's hungry. If he has either problem, he will get no benefit from rest. A question mark at the bottom of the text screen is a request for text information, followed by Return. It won't let you type too much. You then move to the View screen. At this point you can press lots of keys - but nothing will happen. The only options allowed are: ? Query Shows a crude map of where you've been in the current hex, with a list of what you've seen, then tells you where you are and the time and date. L Move Moves you one cell forward - if possible; reads anything readable in the cell. F Food Any party member with something edible in his pack will eat. > Right Turns your face right. < Left Turns your face left. U U-turn Turns you 180 degrees. S Save Saves the game. You can click on any slot and input a name. If a slot already has a name, pressing Return will save under the old name R Reload Brings back the loading options. Q Quit Quits the game without saving. + Louder Increases the noise level. - Quieter May save your life, if the neighbors are short-tempered. The arrow keys work like L, >, <, and U. The space bar works like U. F1 to F4 call up the player views. The choices can also be made from the letters on the menu column, where relevant, or the character's line on the Main Stats panel. When the mouse is in the View Window it can be an Up arrow, when clicking will move you forward, or pointing to the side of the screen, when clicking will turn you in that direction. The rest of the time it also functions as a compass, showing the absolute direction the party is facing. Player view The character's picture is in the View window, and some stats and the Items Worn in the Text window. The available options are in the menu row under the View; they can be selected from the menu row or by the keyboard. There are 4 primary characteristics, STRength, ENDurance, DEXterity and INTelligence. All the secondary characteristics are based on various weighings of the primaries and external influences. In the Main Stats, maximum VIGor depends on END more than STR, and current VIG on what has been happening to you, while FATigue is a figure that grows with lack of rest (and eventually load). WaRDing is the part psychological, part real effect of what you have in your hand on how much an attack is pressed home, and is based more on END and DEX than on INT or STR, and a nice long sword doesn't hurt. COVer is only what you wear, and SHielD the warding effect of what you have in your left hand, but they all have the same purpose, which is given as DEFence in the main stats. MaGicResistance is affected only by what you wear and is an inverse of how easy a target you are for spells. SKilL and SPeeD are those characteristics as they would be if you weren't encumbered by armor and weapons. LiGhT is the number of game minutes left before you either have to use some POWer points or a torch, or navigate by Braille in dark places. WtR, HtR, SkR and SpR really should be looked at when you're trying new weapons. The higher these ratios are, the more advantage you get out of your equipment. This isn't as important with modern weapons as it was when those who were strong had plate and greatsword and those who were fast had jerkin and dagger - and a sharp eye for those who weren't strong enough for that lovely plate. WtP etc. are 'part-stats'. They show where your experience from fighting is going and which main attribute is likely to go up soon. To be able to give a good blow is to have high HITs, and for that there is nothing like STR, unless it's two longswords. Of course, to get the blow in at all, or dodge one coming at you, requires SKilL. POWer is what you use to cast spells, and nobody has ever met a stupid, clumsy wizard, but many of them don't have the END for a high turn of SPeeD. In the items worn, the last three increase maxima in various stats, but there aren't a lot of suitable objects around. If you find one, don't expect an immediate improvement; you'll need to rest to see any change. If your gun is loaded, it's red and the hits are irrelevant. If it's white, it's just a fragile club. If you add a weapon in your left hand, your Hits will go up, but you may notice your other stats going down; you have to decide if it's worthwhile. If you find a shield, you will notice your Hits going up as well as your defence; this is natural - you're not just going to use it as a piece of armor. P Pools all the party's gold to the selected player. There's no provision for dividing it up, but if you can think of a better reason for this than allaying potential mutual distrust and envy in a collection of bytes, I'll consider making it possible. C is for Casting. You only have 1 spell, which you can use on anybody, including yourself. E brings up the equipment screen, showing the contents of the character's backpack, a maximum of 14 items, but not necessarily only one of each. Do remember the weight, though. Clicking on an item selects one of it; clicking on an empty slot selects 'Remove'. Clicking anywhere else gets you out of this screen without change. If you have selected an item, you are back at Items Worn, with your choice at the bottom and the menu row blank. If you now click on an equipment slot, it may go there; if you want to go into battle brandishing a pizza in your right hand, it's all one to me; your HIT would probably be higher with a sword, though. But I can't let you wear it on your head; there has to be some concession to realism. Selecting another character will transfer the item to his pack if there's room; if not, it will drop to the ground. D also brings up the equipment screen, but now anything you click on will be dropped. What you drop can be picked up again later. F is for Food. If the PC has anything edible in his pack, he'll eat it; if he has a choice, he'll eat the first item. If you want him to eat something else, try Use. Each character needs one meal a day, and gets little benefit from more. U is for Use; as well as picking a food, Using bullets will reload a pistol. S will share one item of the character's equipment round the rest of the party if he has more than one copy of it. It's handy for dividing up items bought in the shops. ? will bring up a screen with a little more information, including the difference between the character's present stats and full health and how badly worn his equipment is. To get back one from any screen, left click on the View screen. Right click will bring you back to the View from anywhere. Fighting This happens occasionally even in the best RPGs. I've kept it as simple as I can. Most of the battlefields are 'not quite random', being built out of the surrounding scenery. This very occasionally means that an enemy is on the wrong side of a wall and can't get into combat. When that happens, you have to wait till he runs away or reboot. There are a couple of set combats. You are told that you are facing 1 to 3 groups of monsters, and usually given the option of running away, which incurs no penalty, but doesn't always work (why aren't you surprised?). You are then asked to pick among Automatic, Fast and Strategic. If you choose Automatic, you can sit back till the end of the fight or the Death screen; the only key which will work, and only occasionally at that, is X. Fast and Strategic have most of the same options, but you have less time to spare and less control in Fast. If you wait too long, the PC will make his own decisions, which can actually be stupider than Automatic, e.g. he will break his gun by hitting with it rather than reloading or rearming. Most of the random fights can be left at Automatic in Windy, but you should run a couple at a higher level; you'll need the practice. Before you start fighting, you might like to look round the field. The arrow keys scroll it in the obvious directions. The first item on a PC's agenda is picking a target with the mouse. You may change this at any time you have control, but things may be taken out of your hands by circumstances. The target is the chosen opponent that a spellcaster will aim at and a normal fighter will head for if given a choice. You can change the target every time you are asked for advice. Fighting is organised by reflex round, a unit of time which varies inversely with the character's speed, so one who is slightly more than twice as fast gets in the second blow as well as the first; this is more realistic than the standard melee round, where the fastest character usually hits first, but, for all we know, spends the rest of the round reciting dirty limericks. A character unlucky enough to be hit twice within the same reflex round is more likely to suffer damage from the second blow, but recovers balance at the start of his next round. You can see this reflected in his Defence and Skill stats. Also, blows at the back are more likely to be damaging than ones at the front. Rest assured that the same thing happens to your enemies; I will be fair, even if it kills you. You can choose among Aim, Steady, Cast, Use, Equip, Right and Left turns and Forward. Any other key will let your character make up his own mind. Aim fires at the target, if he's within a cone spreading out from your character's face and (of course) if your character has a gun. Steady just passes time. This can be useful if you have a good position where you can't be mobbed or where moving 1 more cell lets your opponent hit you on his next move, whereas waiting lets you hit him when he arrives. Cast lets you do first aid if the target is in range. Yes; first aid on the monster you've just hit will work. Use will let you eat something or reload. Equip you may want to use when your wand stops working and turns into a club or your jacket gets too ragged to stay on. The movement keys don't do anything in Fast mode. The target is picked and it's just a case of get there and hit, and if anything else comes within range first, it will do just as well. Right and Left turn can also be done by the < and > keys. Forward, or 'L' moves the character forward, if there's nothing in the way. If the obstacle is an enemy, it becomes the target, and your character starts hitting. Once this happens, he's not going to listen to you till the target is dead. Back moves the character a step back if there's no obstacle. In Hexplay it's no more dangerous than any other choice, and may increase the character's options - or longevity. Keeping the enemy off your back is a Good Thing. X lets you choose again among the types of combat. But you won't get anybody's attention if they're in a life and death struggle. After you win, you get experience, and maybe gold, and pick who takes any piece of loot. If you select nobody, or his pack is full, the item will be dropped. Experience is not hoarded to a ridiculous extent. Once a character's experience points have gone up to or beyond a level geometrically commensurate with his 4 main attributes his part-stats get topped up in accordance with the percentage choices of character generation or regeneration and that amount of experience is removed. When a part-stat peaks, that attribute goes up 1 point. You will have to rest to get the full benefit of this increase. Your first half-dozen fights should be walkovers. You have no rep, so people and others will assume you're easy. After that, the word spreads. Other encounters It's true; everybody isn't out to kill you with an axe. Some just want to talk you to death. People who want something aren't bashful about letting you know about it. If you agree, they'll nag you every time they see you, till you bring the whatever-it-is; then they snatch it from your hands. They always pay up, though Most shops have their price list on the wall. When a customer shows an interest, the prices of the items he can afford change color (Magic, I suppose). He can buy till he runs out of money, or another customer takes over, or you deliberately choose not buying. Bars are a good place to pick up gossip as well as liquid refreshment - but don't believe everything you hear. Hospitals have a price list for their cures, but they want the patient, the treatment and the payer if the patient can't afford treatment. Or you can rest - no charge. One type of shop buys as well. he asks what you want to do, and you can spend till you drop or lighten your packs, or, of course, both. What I have left out You tell me. Probably quite a lot. The game and the manual have both been ported from the ST versions, and I may have missed out on some of the changes. Bug reports and suggestions to odonnllb@indigo.ie