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                #         Doom, the Roguelike            #
                         Version v.0.9.8.10

                   (c) 2002-2008 by Kornel Kisielewicz


=============================================================================

Introduction

DoomRL (abbr. for Doom, the Roguelike) is, as the name implies, a
roguelike game. If you don't know what a roguelike is... hell, then visit
http://www.adom.de.


DoomRL is based on the world from id Software's(tm) game Doom(tm). You're
the sole surviving marine from a squad sent to investigate a distress call
from the moonbase of Phobos.  It turns out that all hell has broken loose
on the plant... literally.

Your quest in DoomRL is to descend into the moonbase complex, find the
source of this evil outbreak, and destroy it at all costs.

Unlike many other roguelikes, DoomRL is intended to be simple and easy to
get into. To that end, there is a limited inventory, maps of the size of
one screen, and one item per tile.  The number of keys you need to 
remember is also quite small compared to many other games.


=============================================================================

Getting Started

When you first start a game of DoomRL, you're presented with a menu screen
with a few different options. "New game" will, well, start a new game!
"Show highscores" displays the highscore list, not surprisingly. "Show
player" displays your player statistics, which include your player rank,
number of kills, and number of wins. It has 3 screens which can be scrolled
with the "Right" and "Left" arrow keys. "Help" displays the help screen, which
contains the info you are currently reading.

"Challenge game" is initially locked, and becomes unlocked after you reach
Corporal rank(need to survive 10 levels for it). Challenge games force you to
play the game a certain way (e.g. using only melee), and you can raise your
player rank in DoomRL by completing them. As your rank goes higher, more
challenges will be made available to you.

For now, select "New game" with the arrow keys and press "Enter" to start
your very first game of DoomRL!

Before you start your game, you have to make a few decisions. The first is
the difficulty level. At the beginning, only three difficulty levels are
available: "I'm too young to die", "Hey, Not Too Rough", and "Hurt Me
Plenty". At higher difficulties, more monsters appear and tougher monsters
appear earlier. "Ultra-Violence" and "Nightmare!" difficulties are unlocked
as your player rank rises. At Nightmare! difficulty, only the most insane
DoomRL warriors will stand a chance!

The second decision you have to make is what your name will be in the game.
You can figure that out, right?

The third and final choice to make is select a starting "trait". 
Traits are upgrades or "perks" that you earn when you gain levels in DoomRL 
(by killing monsters). Traits can raise your max health, let you run faster, 
deal more damange per shot, or otherwise make you more awesome. Each trait can be 
leveled up individually (up to a maximum of three, usually), and some 
"advanced" traits require that you reach a certain level of another trait 
to obtain them. Part of the fun of DoomRL is discovering what the traits are 
and which ones you like best, so I won't spoil them for you. Just find one 
that looks good to you and select it.

And that's it, you're ready to play the game! After a brief intro, you will
be greeted with something like this:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Welcome to the Doom Roguelike...
 ##########
 #@.........
 #..........
 #.........
 #.........
 #........
 #........
 #.......
 #......
 #....
 #..









 Doomguy                    Armor : none
 Health: 100% Exp:  1/0%    Weapon: pistol (2d4) [6/6]
 cautious                                                    Phobos Base Entry
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
                             The Starting Screen

This is a map of the first level of the moonbase on Phobos. The whole level
is exactly the size of the screen. Walk around (using the arrow keys) and
get used to the interface. Don't get yourself killed!

Take a look at the screen. It is divided into three parts. On top you have
the "message area", made of two lines of text. Watch this space carefully -- it
may notify you of impending danger or tell you that you're out of ammo (poor
sob!).

On the bottom you have the status bar. The top line displays your name, and
below it is the most important stat -- your health. If this one drops
below one percent, you're dead, dude - nothing can save you. Scanning 
to the right you can see the experience indicator. The first number is your
character level -- the higher it is, the tougher you are. The second number
is your experience displayed as a percentage. Each character level requires
a certain experience amount needed to achieve it.

Below your health and experience is "tactics". By default your tactic is
"cautious". This tactic gives no benefits or disadvantages.
If you press "Tab" once, it will change to "running" (note that changing
tactics takes some in-game time). With this tactic you have increased movement
speed, dodge chance, and defense bonus, but have less chance to hit). After
some time spent running(or after pressing "Tab" again), you will get
"tired". Tired has no effects, positive or negative (like "cautious"), but
while "tired", you cannot change your tactic to anything. You can return to the
"cautious" tactic by leveling up, using health-restoring powerup, using a
med-pack, or by descending to next level. Since running is limited
in this way, try not to waste it. Trying to "save" the uses of tactics for
later levels will not work.

In the column to the right of that, you have two indicators, "Armor" and
"Weapon", that show you what weapon and armor you have equipped. For 
weapons, the number in brackets indicates what damage the weapon does, and 
the two numbers in square brackets indicate how much ammo you have loaded 
in that weapon (eg. [4/6] means you have loaded 4 bullets in a magazine that
can hold 6).

Between the status bar and message bar, there's the map. The "@" sign with
the cursor below it -- that's you (aren't you ugly?). See another letter, no
matter what it is? That's an enemy. Kill'em all. The "#" are walls,
"+" is a closed door, "/" an open door. Dots are normal floor. Red dots are 
either Phobos's ugly rock landscape (on the first level), or blood (below).

Press "i" to see your inventory. It's pretty empty, right? Your character
starts equipped with two things -- your trusty 10mm pistol, and a handful
of ammo. The pistol is not displayed in the inventory because you have it
equipped. You can see it on the status bar, or press "e" in-game to see a
list of equipment.

Your pistol and ammo are not going to last you very long, though.  Press
"g" to pick up new weapons (represented by "}") and ammo ("|").  If you
walk around that first level you're likely to run into some small medkits
(red "+") that you can pick up and add to your inventory.  Press "u" at
any time to use one of these medkits. If you ever want to drop something
(usually to make room for new weapons or items), press "d" to open the
drop menu.

As you go deeper into the base, you'll find other types of power-ups - 
some are used as soon as you pick them up ("^"), like health globes and armor
shards, and some, like the medkit, can be picked up and used later.

To shoot, just press "f" -- you'll be asked for a target (if you have a gun
and proper ammo, that is...) -- use arrow keys to choose a target, and press
"f" again to fire. Or, you can press "m" to see an ASCII image and description
of what you are aiming at. You can also press TAB (when targetting) to toggle
between the targets.

Ok, I hear you cry -- "Out of ammo!" Don't panic. Press "r" to reload your
weapon. (Some weapons allow you to do a "special" reload by pressing "R".)
Reloading is automatic if you have the proper ammo in your inventory. But
what if you don't? You can try pounding on the enemy with your fists or a
hand-to-hand weapon -- to do that just walk into him.  Pick up a Berserk
pack or/and a chainsaw (or at least a knife) and you can do some
serious damage that way!

You're getting hit too frequent when trying to approach the enemy (or when
running from him)? Try to move not straight, but diagonally, this 
increases your chance to dodge. If you don't want to approach or
retreat from the enemy, but also don't want to be hit often, try moving
from side to side perpendicularly to the direction of enemy, as this
gives you the same bonus as moving diagonally). Sometimes, in important
cases, switching to the "running" tactic and using both of these tricks
at once will give you a much greater chance to dodge than normal.

In the equipment menu (remember, press "e") you'll see that you have a primary
weapon equipped and a secondary weapon at hand.  By pressing "z" you can
switch your primary out for your secondary.  This is faster than equipping
a new weapon from your inventory and it saves you valuable space.  It's
also quite useful in a firefight, when the situation can change at any
moment!

Hey, you think you're cool because you found some armor? Think again. Look,
there are three numbers by the armor. The first two in square brackets are
[current damage resistance/maximum damage resistance]. The second one is 
your armor's health. 100% means it's undamaged, 1% is almost destroyed. The 
more damaged an armor is, the lower its actual resistance is. Throw away 
armors that have a damage resistance equal zero -- they won't help you 
anyway. Keep an eye on those numbers!

Try to check out "@" screen, some useful information is written there.
First - there are listed your main parameters: movement, firing and
reloading speed, and also your chance to hit with the weapon you currently
have equipped (from point blank range). Also there you can find
your level, amount of played turns, and your score so far.
Second good thing that you can find there are parameters of equipment that
you have: damage, firing and reloading speed, and accuracy for
weapons, and protection value, durability, movement and knockback
modificators for armor and boots (yes, armor and boots can affect your
movement speed and chance to be knocked back by powerful attacks).

Along the way, you're bound to run into levers ("&") and barrels ("0"). To
pull a lever, stand on it and press "u" to use them. The effects are random,
so pull them at your own peril!  And if you've ever played Doom, you know
what to expect: barrels are always filled with radioactive slime that
explodes nicely when shot! Great for clearing out groups of enemies.

There are 4 types of items in this game:

1) Common - hmm... This items are... "common"? You will see them all
across the game. Most of them can be generated randomly, while some of them
only appears in certain places (as a reward for completing special level,
for example). Each common weapon and armor can hold 1 mod (without traits),
so choose wisely.

2) Upgraded - only weapons can come in upgraded versions. These are like
commons, with only one difference - they have one of their parameters boosted.
Upgraded items cannot be modded at all, even with one mod.
All "Upgraded" items are yellow.

3) Advanced - only weapons can come in advanced versions.
By default, advanced weapons have no advantages over commons, but there
is one, very big difference between the two. While common weapon can
be modded only 1 time (without additional player traits), advanced ones can
have up to 4 mods added to it. With a certain trait this amount of maximum
mods can be increased to 12. All "Advanced" items are yellow, but keep in mind
that they are different from "Upgraded" items.

4) Uniques - These items are completely different from commons.
Some of them just have cool stats, while others have special
abilities, and each of them come with a unique name. There are 2 ways to see
one of them: complete certain special levels, where a unique item is a
reward, or wait for level generator to spawn it on normal level (this happens
fairly rarely). Uniques that are generated on levels are usually green, while
rewarded uniques can have different colors. Uniques cannot be modded at all.


Whenever you see something that you aren't familiar with, press "l" to
trigger the Look command -- moving the cursor with the arrow keys will
show what's under the cursor in the message bar. You can also press "?"
in-game to open up the help menu.

Happy fragging!

=============================================================================

Keybindings

  Most keybindings can be redefined via the file doomrl.ini. The 
  following set describes the standard layout.

  Arrows -- Walking around (also PgUp, PgDn, Home, End -- diagonaly)
  '.'    -- Wait
  '?'    -- Run on-line help
  '>'    -- Go down stairs (you won't be able to come back!)
  'g'    -- Pick up item from floor
  'z'    -- Swap weapon (with prepared weapon)
  'd'    -- Drop item
  'i'    -- Show inventory
  'e'    -- Show or change equipment/show traits
  'o'    -- Open door
  'c'    -- Close door
  'l'    -- Toggle LookMode (Escape to exit)
  'f'    -- Fire equipped weapon (use TAB to switch targets)
  'r'    -- Reload equipped weapon
  'R'    -- Special reload weapon (depending on weapon)
  'u'    -- Use item from inventory (eg. Med-pack)/pull lever
  'U'    -- Unload weapon from inventory/from ground
  'S'    -- Save game (works ONLY on the stairs to the next level)
  'Q'    -- Quit game (without saving)
  ','    -- Run command
  TAB    -- change tactic
  '0'..'9' Weapon quick keys:
      0  : Chainsaw
      1  : Combat Knife
      2  : Pistol
      3  : Shotgun
      4  : Combat shotgun
      5  : Double shotgun
      6  : Chaingun
      7  : Rocket launcher
      8  : Plasmagun
      9  : BFG9000

  '('    -- Toggle sound on and off
  ')'    -- Toggle music on and off
  F9     -- Take BB screenshot (forum coded)
  F10    -- Take ASCII screenshot
  'P'    -- Show previous messages


Keys while targeting
   
  Arrows  -- move target line
  TAB     -- toggle target
  m       -- more information
  f,SPACE -- fire


Inventory screen 

  Press item letter to do the default action on a given item. Wearable
  items will switch if one is already weared.
  
  
Equipment screen 

  Pressing the letter of a weared item will unequip it. Pressing the 
  letter of a empty slot will let you choose an item. Note though, that
  switching through the inventory screen is faster.


 Helper keys for blind players

  'x'    -- examine NPC
  'X'    -- examine Items


=============================================================================

Feedback

I await your feedback! Mail me at admin@haosforge.org. Tell me what you
like, what you don't, and submit the bug reports :). The official webpage
of DoomRL is

  http://doom.chaosforge.org/

DoomRL has it's own forum now, it is quite active, and can be found at

  http://forum.chaosforge.org/

The primary source for DoomRL guides, information and spoilers is the 
DoomRL Wiki

  http://doom.chaosforge.org/wiki/

Announces of new releases will be placed on the official website and on
rec.games.roguelike.announce in case of major releases.

You can post your characters and discuss them on the misc roguelike
newsgroup (after you die/win the game creates a memorial file "mortem.txt",
and a player data file "player.txt"):

  rec.games.roguelike.misc

  (also on pl.rec.gry.komputerowe.roguelike if you're a polish speaking
  person)

IMPORTANT: please include the tag [DoomRL] if you post into any of these 
groups. People use filters, and tags are very important for that use.

Regulars and the author usualy lurk on the #chaosforge IRC channel on 
irc.quakenet.org, you're welcome to visit and stay around (if you don't have a 
IRC client, you can connect through a Java client at the ChaosForge forum).

If you enjoy this game, please consider supporting it's developement! There's
a PayPal donation option set up at the games site. Donations are very 
welcome!

Also, please visit the site of Chaosforge, to give a try at my other 
roguelike games:

  http://chaosforge.org/


=============================================================================

Credits

Credits in this particular production go to Ilya Bely, for feedback, ideas
and the enthusiasm that allowed me to actually finish something I started,
and (my oh my!) release it...

Thanks to my first beta-testers: Joseph Hewitt, Igor Savin, Timo Viitanen,
ABCGi, David Damerell and Andrzej Kosnikowski.

Special thanks goes to all the DoomRL forum regulars, especially (but not 
only!) to Anticheese, Derek Yu, jake250, Malek, Santiago Zapata, Thomas, 
Jorge Alonso, Jered Cain and Turgor for providing valuable ideas the new 
release of DoomRL.

Also, a big thanks to the #chaosforge IRC Channel Lurkers and Regulars :).

Big thanks to Michalis Kamburelis for the Linux port of DoomRL!

Thanks to Malek and Derek Yu for the talent descriptions.

A BIG thanks to all the people that donated to ChaosForge - in no particular
order : Behrooz Wolf, torch, zaimoni, Derek, FlynnTheAvatar, Baphomet, 
Picklish, RickVoid, DaEezT, BDR, Rook, ssfsx17, Styro, Aki, Vestin, Grassi, 
Madrayken, maso, Sdlonyer55, Kaz, bfg9001, MaiZure, tehtmi.

Also thanks to the whole crew of rec.games.roguelike.development for
the years spent together and the warm welcome of my game!


=============================================================================

Disclaimer

This game is Freeware but with some limitations. You can only download it
from the official website. Distribution (cd-magazines, other websites) etc.
is prohibited without asking the author. If you want to place this game
somewhere just drop me an e-mail and I'll probably agree (I'm not that
bad a guy :).

THERE IS NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILTY FOR ANY DAMAGE
CAUSED BY THIS SOFTWARE. USE IT AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Doom(tm) is a trademark of id Software. Many of the names in this game may
be trademarks of id Software. Using them in this free public production is
not supposed to challenge the rights of id Software.


=============================================================================

