********************************************** * _____ __ __ ____ _ __ ________ * * / _ _/|/ /|/ /|/ __ \ / |/ /|/_ __ __/| * * / _ < |/ /_/ / / _ _/|/ //__//_//_|/ * * /____/|/_____/ /_/|\_\|/_/|_///_______/| * * |____/ |_____|/|_|^\_| |_/|_/ |_______/ * * Version 1.00 * ********************************************** * Burn 2 * * Designed and Programmed * * By Chris DeLeon * (Pac-Deli@excite.com) WHAT IS BURN 2? Burn 2 is a real-time destructible terrain system in combination with the classic arcade game Gravitar... Team deathmatch style! Two teams of anywhere from one to five battle mercilessly to the death, with no emphasis on scores or points or style and with a total disregard for innocent bystanders. Take the battle into space for or onto any of the infinite (randomly generated) planets in the galaxy. Watch as the inhabitants of the planets try pitifully to make you and your enemies take the fight elsewhere, only to be buried beneath tumbling mountains, cluster bombs, and stray laser fire. GETTING STARTED QUICKLY: Click on the arrows to adjust the number of ships per team. Click on the ships to select the control styles for any human players on either team. Note that besides the directional movements and the fire button, there are also "Launch Bomb"/"Remote Detonate Bomb" buttons and "Highlight Players" buttons right by your other buttons (see below for details). Control schemes include three keyboard configurations and up to two joysticks, so that anywhere from 0-5 humans can play at the same time (0 because the AI can face off against itself). Note that depending on which ship icons you click on, you can play for either team. Although the ships look different, they perform the same. Your health is at the top of the screen - a full circle means 100% shield health, and when there is nothing left of the circle your ship will explode. If you're new to the Gravitar/Asteroids style physics, try turning off every ship on the other team. This will give you a chance to fly alone and feel for the game mechanics, practice cluster bombing turrets/civilians, and traveling from planet to planet. *RECOMMENDED SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: ********************************* IBM Compatible Sound Card Support for 16-Bit Color DirectX (may run slowly without it) 32 MB of RAM (may run with less) Two joysticks or (better) four-button gamepads *GAMEPLAY FEATURES: ******************* -Fully destructible, randomly generated terrain -Randomly generated skies -Dynamic colored lighting effects -Realistic planetary entry (time of day and location of sun in the sky depend on which part of a planet entered, whereas soil color and gravity are determined by what planet is landed on) -Two simple but versatile weapons: Automatic Laser Blasters (ALBs) and Remote Cluster-Nukes (RCNs) -Peaceful, innocent inhabitants wandering planet surfaces, complete with their own vulnerable cities, forests, and defense turrets -Intelligent AI that never resorts to cheating (it interfaces with the game through the EXACT same controls as human players) -An advanced particle system -A complex scoring system exported to a text file (records.txt) after gameplay, to prevent the numbers from being a distraction. -Techno soundtrack (NOT by Chris DeLeon - see credits) -Stereo sound -16-bit hi-res DirectX accelerated graphics, with the option to play windowed or fullscreen *CONTROLS: ********** -Main Menu Controls: (mouse only) -------------------- Use the mouse for the main menu. Click on the Arrow Boxes to adjust team sizes, sound volume, and music volume. Click on the Red X to quit (or press Escape). Click the Green Checkmark to start the match. **Click on a ship to toggle its control method (see In-Game Controls) -In-Game Controls: ------------------ P = Pause or unpause Esc = Return to the main menu F10 = Randomly pick a different music track -Ship Controls: (Keyboard and/or Joysticks) --------------- These are set for each ship from the Main Menu by clicking on the ship icons. Mode AI: AI = Artificial Intelligence. This will let the computer play for this ship. Mode WASD: W = Engine thrust A/D = turn S = Fires bullets X = Drops a bomb (or remotely detonates a live bomb) C = Highlights ships and controls Mode Directional Arrows: UpArrow = Engine thrust LeftArrow/RightArrow = turn DownArrow = Fires bullets KeyPad0 = Drops a bomb (or remotely detonates a live bomb) KeyPad1 = Highlights ships and controls Mode IJKL: I = Engine thrust J/L = turn K = Fires bullets , (<) = Drops a bomb (or remotely detonates a live bomb) . (>) = Highlights ships and controls Mode JOY1 or JOY2 (Joysticks or gamepads): MoveUp/Button#3 = Engine thrust MoveLeft/MoveRight = turn MoveDown/Button#1 = Fires bullets Button#2 = Drops a bomb (or remotely detonates a live bomb) Button#4 = Highlights ships and controls *WEAPON DESCRIPTIONS: ********************* Both are virtually unlimited, but they are recharged from the ship's central reactor so firing an RCN will temporarily disable a ship's weapons systems. -Automatic Laser Blasters (ALBs) - A space age version of the what amounts to a rapid-fire artillery cannon. Although the energy shells have no physical substance, upon colliding with an impenetrable surface an energy blast is released that rocks everything within a thirty meter radius. -Remote Cluster-Nukes (RCNs) - A small nuclear armament with preset ALB charges installed in the warhead. The RCN is harmless until it arms itself a second or so after release. Once armed, it detonates after either coming in contact with another object or when the RCN launch switch is pulled a second time. The detonation releases several dozen ALBs and creates a ground-shattering shockwave. Note that bombing a planet's lava core with an RCN will create a wave to the surface that will temporarily stun every defense turret on the planet. When attacking soft, dug-in ground targets, collateral damage can be maximized by detonating the RCN moments before impact - failure to early detonate will cause most of the blast damage to be lost in the crater. However, if the goal is to destroy a single armored target (such as an enemy ship) then a single armed RCN will cause an enormous amount of hull damage. *GAME SETTINGS: *************** Open the Burn2.ini file from the game directory (use notepad or a similar text editor). If this file does not exist, it will be created with default values the next time the game is run. Likewise, if the program will not run because the ini file has been changed incorrectly, or you wish to restore the defaults, just delete the burn2.ini file. By editing this file you have such options as disabling turrets, removing planets, setting the game to run in different resolutions or windowed, adjusting the game speed, playing with vector/line ships instead of bitmaps, etc. *DISPLAY AND SHIP DAMAGE: ************************* Each player's Heads Up Display is presented in a color that matches their ship's reactor color (the color of their weapon fire and the center of their ship). It consists of several measurement indicators, the most important of which is the THE HEALTH INDICATOR. A ship that has sustained no damage has a full circle in its HUD square. A ship that has sustained 25% damage will have a 3/4 circle, a ship at half health will have a half circle, and so forth. Once the shield energy is fully depleted and the circle disappears all of the previously absorbed damage is released into the hull with full force, demolishing the ship and its pilot. Other information available on the HUD includes: -A star indicating the ship's absolute position on screen -A line indicating the ship's current velocity -A horizontal range finder that indicates how much lateral room is available for maneuvering. -A vertical altitude indicator *SCORING: ********* The scores are tallied behind the scenes and saved to the "records.txt" file. This file contains detailed stats about each ship, and totals for each team. The scores file accumulates from match to match, but is cleared every time the game is run. *A NOTE ON THE A.I.: ******************** The Artificial Intelligence is far from unbeatable, but it may be a bit difficult for players new to this type of genre. If you're having trouble with one-on-one computer matches, consider unbalancing the teams: 2 on 1, 3 on 2, or whatever makes for the best matches. Likewise, if you find that you are naturally the Grand Master Champion of Burn 2, and that the AI doesn't provide any real challenge, try taking on more than one at a time. I'm good - but not good enough to take on five enemy ships at once. The A.I. ship mechanics (turn speed, thrust power), shield health, reload times, weapon stats, and hull sizes (for scoring hits) are identical to the ships controlled by humans. Their decisions are based intelligently on their own speed, heading, locations, distance from the ground, and how close they are to other ships. They do not take advantage of any lighting fast team communication, or otherwise do anything that a human player can't. Every effort has been made in their design to ensure that they look, think, and behave just like human players. *However*: The game supports five human players at once for a reason! Kill your friends, team up on the AI, or just carpet bomb planet surfaces together. Get someone else involved! *WHAT HAPPENED TO BURN 1? ************************* Burn 1 was a particle heavy aircraft combat game I programmed in 1998. It was my third game ever, and I never completed it because (A.) I wasn't a good enough programmer to do the AI (and B.) the gameplay was too rough for any of my friends to get interested in it. I've taught myself a lot about game design and programming since then, and since it's conceptually similar I'm deeming this the sequel to Burn. CREDITS: Graphics, Design, and Programming: Chris DeLeon (Pac-Deli@excite.com) The sound effects are a combination of my own work along with some royalty-free stock sounds dug up in various places. Most of the MIDI Music is from www.technomidi.com Adlbtekk By plsmith@lvcm.com in 1999 Another Race By the Techno group Eiffel 65 on the Europop album Sequenced by Daniel J. Hill (midi@rincewin.demon.co.uk) Dreamz By (unknown artist) found at www.technomidi.com from 1999 Egytech By THeDReaMaSTeR (THeDReaMaSTeR@GeoCities.Com) in 1999 JD Techno By Jonathan Daniel (daniel_jonathan@hotmail.com) http://go.to/d.j.hill Techrain By Antony (zemel@sisenis.com.latnet.lv) in 1999 Techrap By s9510929@babel.ee.up.ac.za in 1999 Vital - Zoetic Copyright © 1997 by Vital aka Tony (zoetic@mindless.com) If you created one of the MIDI tracks that I have used in this game and I was unable to contact you, please accept apology and e-mail me at Pac-Deli@excite.com if you would like your track removed. I did my best to contact the original authors, but most of my contact references are obscure and out of date so I couldn't count on a reply from everyone. I am not making any money by distributing this game, and by including the original title and sequencer for each freely available MIDI I am giving these authors as much or more credit/recognition as they receive when their files are downloaded online.