Allure-0.4.6: PLAYING.md
Playing Allure of the Stars
===========================
Playing Allure of the Stars involves walking around an abandoned
Solar System space-ship, alone or in a party of trusted crew-members,
setting up ambushes, hiding in shadow, covering tracks,
breaking through to deeper spaceship decks, bumping into
hostile intruders, doors and walls, gathering technical resources
and making creative use of them. The bloodthirsty alien monsters
and their horrible minions do the same, intelligence allowing,
while tirelessly chasing the stranded heroes by smell and sight.
Once the few basic command keys and on-screen symbols are learned,
mastery and enjoyment of the game is the matter of tactical skill
and literary imagination. To be honest, a lot of imagination is required
at this stage, but the game is already playable and winnable.
Contributions welcome.
Terrain
-------
The heroes are marked on the map with symbol '@' and with '1', '2', ..., '9'.
Their goal is to explore an old, gigantic, once luxurious space liner,
battle the horrors within, gather as much gold coins and precious gems
as possible, and escape to tell the tale. The spaceship consists
of many levels covered with varying terrain of the following basic kinds:
terrain type on-screen symbol
floor .
wall #
stairs up <
stairs down >
open door '
closed door +
The game world is persistent, i.e., every time the player visits a level
during a single game, the level layout is the same. Some items
aid in exploration, e.g., a ring of searching improves the speed
of finding hidden doors by heroes and monsters. The higher the ability
bonus displayed for this and other items, the more effective it is.
Only the best item carried in a hero's or monster's inventory counts.
You can throw the rest away, but beware that your adversaries may pick it up
and use it against your party.
Keys
----
You move throughout the level using the numerical keypad or
the vi text editor keys (also known as "Rogue-like keys").
7 8 9 y k u
\|/ \|/
4-5-6 h-.-l
/|\ /|\
1 2 3 b j n
SHIFT (or CTRL) and a movement key make the selected hero run in the indicated
direction, until anything of interest is spotted. '5' and '.' use a turn
to brace for combat, which gives a chance to block blows next turn.
Melee, searching for secret doors and opening closed doors can be done
by bumping into a monster, a wall and a door, respectively.
Below are the default keys for major commands. The last four commands
are specialized versions of 'a' and 'p', offering narrower default item choice.
The commands that take player time are marked with a *.
key command
< ascend a level*
> descend a level*
? display help
R restart game*
S save game
X save and exit*
a apply a consumable*
c close a door*
d drop an object*
g get an object*
i display inventory
p project a projectile*
q quaff a drink*
r read a comm*
t throw a missile*
z zap a mechanism*
To make a ranged attack, you need to set your target first, using
targeting mode. Note that the target, for the few commands that require any,
is indicated by the targeting cursor. The origin of a command
--- the hero that performs it --- is unaffected by targeting. For example,
not the targeted door, but one adjacent to the selected hero is closed by him.
To avoid confusion, commands that take time are blocked when targeting
at a remote level (when the cursor is on a different level
than the selected hero). The targeting commands and all the less used
commands are listed below. None of them takes hero time.
key command
ESC cancel action
RET accept choice
SPACE clear messages
TAB cycle among heroes on level
SHIFT-TAB cycle among heroes in the dungeon
* target monster
+ swerve targeting line
- unswerve targeting line
/ target location
D dump current configuration
P display previous messages
[ target next shallower level
] target next deeper level
{ target 10 levels shallower
} target 10 levels deeper
0--9 select a hero anywhere in the spaceship
There are also some debug and cheat keys, all entered with the CTRL
key modifier. Use at your own peril!
key command
CTRL-o toggle "omniscience"
CTRL-i inform about level meta-data
CTRL-r rotate vision modes (effective next turn)
Monsters
--------
Heroes are not alone in the spaceship. Monsters roam the dark halls
and crawl from damp air-ducts day and night. While heroes pay attention
to all other party members and take care to move one at a time,
monsters don't care about each other and all move at once,
sometimes brutally colliding by accident.
When the hero bumps into a monster or a monster attacks the hero,
melee combat occurs. The best weapon carried by each opponent
is taken into account for calculating bonus damage. The total damage
the current hero can potentially inflict is displayed at the bottom
of the screen. The total damage potential of a monster may change
as it finds and picks up new weapons. Heroes and monsters running
into another (with the Shift key) do not inflict damage, but change places.
This gives the opponent a free blow, but can improve the tactical situation
or aid escape.
Throwing weapons at targets wounds them, consuming the weapon in the process.
Target a monster with the '*' key from the top keyboard row or from keypad.
You may throw any object in your possession (press '?' to choose
an object and press it again for a non-standard choice) or on the floor
(press '-'). Only objects of a few kinds inflict any damage.
Whenever the monster's or hero's hit points reach zero, the combatant dies.
When the last hero dies, the game ends.
On Winning and Dying
--------------------
You win the game if you escape the spaceship alive. Your score is
the sum of all gold coins you've plundered plus 100 gold for each gem.
Only the loot in possession of the party members on the current level
counts (the rest of the party is considered MIA).
If all heroes die, your score is halved and only the treasure carried
by the last standing hero counts. You are free to start again
from a different entrance to the spaceship, but all your previous wealth
is gone and fresh, undaunted enemies bar your way.