Mechanical Tower by Mikkosoft Productions Readme for version 1.0.1 1. Introduction You are a mad roboticist of the steampunk age. Your latest plan of world domination was perhaps a bit overambitious, and now your robotic creations have gone haywire and are assaulting your tower. You must build traps to destroy them before they reach you - or suffer the consequences. 2. How to play When you start the game, the majority of the screen is taken up by a view of the first floor of your tower. Initially you can only work on this floor, but you will get access to higher floors soon enough. On the top of the screen is a toolbar listing your available traps, and on the bottom is a status bar. Your first task is to evaluate the routes the routes the clanks may take. Entrances to and exits from the floor are marked with green arrows. Often there will be more than one possible route and you will need to block some of them in order to avoid defending on multiple fronts. Once you've formulated a plan, proceed to build walls to create a narrow corridor. Some traps need to be installed near or between walls, and it will force the clanks to walk over your traps. You may want to save your cogs for traps and not build the corridor all in one go. Now that you have a well-defendable corridor, it's time to fill it with traps. Concentrate on the damage-dealing traps at first - you won't need the more special ones for the first few waves, and your starting funds are rather limited. As you destroy clanks, you will be awarded with more cogs to bolster your defenses with. When you've successfully destroyed an entire wave of clanks, a hefty bonus will be deposited in your coffers. If a clank manages to climb the stairs at the highest floor and reaches your study, emergency defenses must be deployed. However, doing so costs a large number of cogs per clank, so it's better to destroy them before they get that far. 3. Clanks 3.1. Walker This is the most basic clank. It walks on two legs and has no special abilities. 3.2. Roller This heavily armored clank rolls around with two wheels. Acid spray can be utilized to corrode its armor and make it easier to kill. 3.3. Hopper Constructed of a metal ball and a spring, this clank moves with little hops. Occasionally it will perform a much higher and longer jump, avoiding damage from some traps. 3.4. Bosses At regular intervals you will encounter a wave of clanks which are considerably tougher than the regular ones. Prepare well, for even one could spell your doom unless you're well stocked with cogs. 4. Traps 4.1. Sawblade A large sawblade rolls back and forth between walls. Extra blades: Up to three extra blades can be added to this trap Tungsten Cardibe: Increases damage by 25% 4.2. Furnace A metal grating with fiery coals underneath it burns anything walking over it. White hot: Increases damage by 50% Pyre: The flames will occasionally go wild for a great temporary boost in damage 4.3. Lightning rod Lightning strikes at clanks from rods installed on the walls, arcing to hit multiple targets. High voltage: Increases damage by 25% and adds an extra arc, up to five targets Alternating current: Clanks are stunned momentarily by the lightning 4.4. Acid spray Installed on the walls, these acid dispensers will permanently reduce the armor of any clanks passing by. Synergy bonus for being on the same tile with a furnace. No direct damage. Sulphuric Acid / Aqua Regia: Increases the potency of the acid to 2x/3x the base 4.5. Rubble Slows down clanks walking over it, as they have to carefully choose stable footholds. No direct damage. Caltrops: Sharp metal spikes make it even more difficult for clanks to negotiate the terrain 4.6. Trapdoor A trapdoor on the floor opens up and drops clanks to the previous floor. Unfortunately the mechanism is rather unreliable and tends to get stuck. Lubricate: Improves the chances of the trapdoor opening, but wears off over time 4.7. Wall While they are not traps themselves, walls are nevertheless crucial for building formidable defenses. Archway Creates an opening in the wall for clanks to pass through 5. Hints Rubble works well in combination with sawblades and lightning rods, making the clanks stay longer on that tile. The electric arcs of a lightning rod can reach far outside its own tile, stunning clanks in front of other traps. When planning the layout of a floor, think of where you could drop clanks from a trapdoor. 6. Controls Mouse: LMB Use selected tool RMB Upgrade traps Wheel Rotate the view Shortcut keys for tools: W Wall S Sawblade F Furnace T Trapdoor L Lightning rod R Rubble A Acid spray U Upgrade Other shortcuts: N Launch next wave Q Toggle speed-up Esc Pause / menu PgUp Floor up PgDn Floor down 7. Options There are a few options which can be specified on the command line: --resolution WxH --fullscreen --windowed --nosound --lowgfx 8. Known problems and troubleshooting Problem: The game runs very slowly on Vista or Windows 7 Solution: This may be due to OpenAL. Try using the --nosound option. Solution: Aero may interfere with rendering. Try disabling compositing from the compatibility options for the game, or running in fullscreen mode. Problem: The game only shows a white/black screen on Vista or Windows 7 Solution: Some advanced features do not seem to render properly on all systems. Try using the --lowgfx option. Problem: The game slows down when I spam furnaces Solution: The volumetric flame effect is unfortunately quite a resource hog. Use the --lowgfx option to get a particle flame instead. 9. Contact information Homepage: http://www.tdb.fi/mechtower.shtml Email: tdb@tdb.fi 10. License Code and GFX copyright © Mikko Rasa, Mikkosoft Productions Mekanus font copyright © Arkandis Digital Foundry Music copyright © Jonne Lehtinen This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA. Full license text can be found in License.txt. ($Id$)