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                                             By David McCallum



DISCLAIMER

I assume no responsibility for any adverse effects that Age of Invasion may have on your computer or software. Use at your own risk.



Table Of Contents

0.0 What is this?

1.0 In-Game Play 2.0 Species Editor 3.0 Level Editor

4.0 About Age of Invasion



0.0 What is this?

Age of Invasion is a side-scrolling strategy game, where you harvest minerals, build structures, and amass an army to destroy your enemies. The view is from the side rather than the top; this means that flying creatures actually fly, and you can tunnel under or climb over obstacles. Age of Invasion has a built in species editor where you can draw, animate and then play the game with a new race of your own design.


0.1 System Requirements

96 Mb of Ram (128 Recommended)
Celeron 466 or better
7 Mb free hard drive space
16 bit soundcard
Windows 95 or better
DirectX 5.0
SVGA Display
2-button mouse


1.0 In-Game Play

This section contains all you need to know to play a game made with Age of Invasion. Just click on Single Player Game in the main menu, select a map and a race, and begin play.

If you are playing the campaigns, each campaign will specify what species it is intended for. For example: Kazitari Campaign 1 is meant to be played with the Kazitari. However, there's nothing wrong with using a different species if you so desire.


1.1 Object of the Game

You will begin each game with a single starting unit, which is relatively weak. The object of the game is to use this unit to build structures and more powerful creatures, and use them to attack and destroy your enemies. You win when your enemies do not have any structures or creatures remaining.


1.2 Controlling Your Units

Most creatures have a rudimentary AI to guide their actions, but there will be times when you need to take personal control. Left click on any creature or structure to control it. The keys to move the unit and to activate production will be shown in the bottom center of the screen.

Select a unit by clicking on it.

A shift-left click on the map orders the unit to move to the clicked position.

A ctrl-left click on the map orders the unit to move to the clicked position and stand ground.

A right-click on the map deselects the unit.

Click and hold on the delete button to destroy the selected unit. You regain half its cost in material.

Click the Attack button, and then somewhere on the map to have all your attackers group together at that spot.

Use the production keys to make buildings, fire weapons, etc. These are 1, 2, 3 and 4 by default. Press the production key twice in a row to make buildings.

Some buildings and creatures can reserve ammo. Use the unload key (default is 0) to fire their weapons.

The default load key, for transport-units and miners, is 9.


1.3 Power and Energy

At the bottom right of the console, there is a field labelled 'Power'. The Power meter is a measure of how much energy your species (collectively) has. In addition to this, each creature and building also has its own personal supply of Energy, shown in the 'Energy' field. When a building or creature is low on Energy, it will absorb some from your collective Power, at a maximum rate of 6 per second.

Every action that a creature or building can perform lowers its energy by a given amount. Engaging in melee combat, for example, lowers a creature's energy by 50 for each hit. It is very important to continually restock your Power. Should you run out of Power, your creatures and buildings will use up their personal energy in a minute or two, and will become motionless until more Power is supplied to them.

Very powerful units may require more Power than they can absorb, in order to operate at peak efficiency. These units are chronically low on energy, and it is a good idea to let them 'rest' once in a while to restore their depleted energy reserves.

Both creatures and structures may produce new energy, and add it to your Power. For each production slot used for energy, a structure produces 3 energy/second. Creatures will produce 2 energy/second.


1.4 Mining and Material

Material can be thought of as the money you use to buy new structures, creatures and projectiles. Your Material is given at the bottom rightcorner of the screen. Should this number become very low, beware! Your creatures and structures will no longer be able to fire projectiles, leaving you defenseless. The only form of attack which does not require material is melee.

New material is gained by mining. Press and hold the right mouse button while the cursor is over terrain. The terrain should turn a lighter color, indicating that you want your creatures to mine it. Mining units will proceed to the selected areas, and begin excavation. When a unit is full of valuable minerals, it will return to the nearest Depot, and unload. The Depot will process the minerals, and your Material will increase.

To define perfectly level areas to be mined, hold down the control key while right clicking.

A Depot is a special structure which can accept minerals. Should you have no Depot, your units will be unable to unload, and will sit there, waiting for you to build one.

Not all terrain is worth mining. Some terrain types will not contain any valuable minerals at all, and should be avoided when looking for Material. Your units can excavate them all day long, and never need to unload minerals at a Depot once. Experimentation is required to find which types of terrain on a given map contain the goodies.

Here is an example of mining using the Kazitari species. Note that the layer to be mined is never very deep - this is to prevent the miners from digging themselves into a hole and getting stuck.

mining example 1

After the miners have finished with the first layer, a second layer is added. The mining is highlighted so as to make a gradual incline for the miners to climb.

mining example 2

Its more efficient to keep the Depot close to the area being mined. You can create a new Depot wherever you like, but its a good idea to delete the old Depot, as miners might try to use it by mistake.

mining example 3

I recommend using between 15 and 20 miners.


1.5 Building Your Base

Every creature, projectile and structure has a cost associated with it, measured in Material and Energy. To construct a building with a cost of 550, you will need to spend 550 Material and (approx) 550 Energy.

When building structures, look for fairly level ground. 66% of the structure's base must be touching ground to avoid sinking. When a structure sinks, it levels the ground beneath it, and takes damage. If the ground is too irregular the structure will be destroyed. The same effect occurs if you build a structure in a cave, and the ceiling is too low. The structure will try to level the ceiling to a greater height, but will take damage for doing so.

It is a good idea to use mining units to level the ground before constructing buildings there.

To make a creature construct a building, press the production key for that building. (these are 1, 2, 3 and 4 by default) An outline of where the building would be appears. Move the creature until this outline does not overlap with other buildings or terrain. Now press the build key twice in a row, and the creature will begin construction.

Solid buildings can be built with their transparent portions overlapping regular buildings. Once the solid building is complete, everything except for the transparent portions becomes part of the terrain.


1.6 Combat

Creatures and structures have a certain amount of Hp, shown in the lower right of the screen. Hp stands for Hit Points, and represents the amount of damage your units can take. When a unit's Hp reach zero, that unit has been destroyed.

Most creatures and structures have a 'response distance' to enemies. Whenever an enemy approaches within this distance, the unit will aggressively respond, using its arsenal of weapons to deal with this threat. Creatures and structures will always try to attack the closest enemies first, and deal with more distant threats later.


2.0 Species Editor

The Species Editor is a powerful tool, where you can create unique creatures, buildings and projectiles, animate them, and use them as a completely playable race.

When you make a creature, structure, or projectile, the editor calculates its cost based on how powerful the editor thinks it is. The cost is calculated by taking a base value (for creatures this is 100), and increasing it by a certain percentage.

This increase is cumulative. So if you give your unit flying (+20%) and hover (+10%), its cost will be 132.

100 + 20% = 120 120 + 10% = 132


2.1 Movement

Max Speed: Ranges from 0 to 30.

Acceleration: Ranges from 0 to 30. Determines how quickly a creature can reach its top speed.

Control Keys: These keys are used when you select a unit and want to move it manually.

Jump: Jump height is directly proportional to acceleration.

Flying: Determines whether or not the creature can fly.

Hover: If this is enabled, the creature will move somewhat like a helicopter. Otherwise, it will circle in the sky like a plane. Creatures with Hover require a minimum of 12 acceleration to remain airborne, and flying creatures without hover require only 1 accel.


2.2 Statistics

Max Hit Points:

Max Energy: Falling Damage: Status: Solid: Production: Melee Damage: Share Energy:

2.3 Sounds

Here you can add sound effects to your creatures and projectiles. To listen to a sound, click on its name in the right window. The sound will become highlighted and play for you. You can then add the sound to one of the options on the left by clicking on that option.

For example, if you click on the 'explode' sound and then on the Destruction option, the unit will make an explosion noise when it dies.

To remove a sound from an option, click the 'No Sound' box and then the option.

You can add your own sound effects in the \Sounds directory, and then use them in the game. Both 8 and 16 bit wav files are supported.

Note: The 'Producing Special' option produces sound effects when repairing or healing.


2.4 Graphics

Height + Width:

Base Animation: Faces in the Direction of:


2.5 Ed Draw

Ed Draw

The Ed Draw is a tool which allows you to create and animate small sprites. Most of it is self-explanatory, but here is a description of the more obscure features:

Black vs. Transparent:

Add + Delete Frames: Production: Some Hints:

2.6 Artificial Intelligence

AI Status:

Mining: Respond to Enemies: Use These As Weapons: Movement During Combat: Respond to Attack Commands:

3.0 Level Editor

Hit h or F1 while in the editor to view the editing commands.

Placement Type:

Placing Units: Editing Terrain: Start Location: Music: Tech Levels: A.I. Delay: Reinforcements: AI Type Saving:

4.0 About Age of Invasion

Was written using DJGPP, Dev-Cpp, and the Allegro gaming library.
Is composed of 26391 lines (704K) of C++.
Was inspired by Warcraft II and Lemmings.


4.1 Changes

Beta 0.77

Beta 0.75 Beta 0.72 Beta 0.70 Beta 0.68 Beta 0.67 Beta 0.64 Beta 0.60 Alpha 0.54 Alpha 0.50 Alpha 0.46

4.2 Credits

Concept, Design and Programming: David McCallum

Music:

Voices: Art: Graphics, sound, input and timers courtesy of the Allegro gaming library, conceived by Shawn Hargreaves. Check it out at www.allegro.cc


4.3 Bug Reports

You can reach me at myrdosz@hotmail.com with any bugs you have found.