OMEGA OVERVIEW ============== omega is a complex rogue-style game of dungeon exploration. Unlike other such games, there are a number of ways to "win", depending on various actions taken during play. The ways you can get your name on the hiscore board include becoming the highest ranked head of a guild, sect, college, etc., as well as gaining the most points figured from possessions and experience. The game (via the oracle) may impose some structure on your exploration, but you need not follow all of the oracle's advice. There *is* a "total winner" status, by the way. omega offers a richness of playing detail that goes beyond a simple game like rogue. However, the majority of gameplay is very similar to rogue, hack, ultrarogue, larn, and other such games. The player is represented by the highlighted "@" symbol, objects and terrain features are represented by non-alphabetic symbols, monsters are represented by the various upper and lower case letters, and other humans are represented by a non-highlighted "@". It is recommended that the novice read the man pages for rogue or some other such game and perhaps play a few games before playing omega. omega currently consists of a countryside in which are sited a city, various villages, several dungeons, and some "special" sites, such as the temple HQ's of the various priesthoods. The game starts in the city of Rampart, where all the guilds have headquarters. As a dungeon is explored, all generated levels are saved in memory. However, only one dungeon is "remembered" at a time, so if you enter two dungeons, the first will be forgotten (it will be regenerated should you wish to enter it again). However, if a dungeon is "completed", this fact will be remembered, basically meaning that the unique monster at the bottom will not be regenerated if you've killed him already. You will first want to explore the city of Rampart. Although the architecture and important sites remain the same from game to game, details such as the precise position of certain shops, etc. will change. Rampart is relatively safe if you don't wander into places that are obviously dangerous or do things like breaking and entering. If you are reckless, it is quite possible to get killed before ever finding the dungeons. The 'M' command now allows you to return immediately to any establishment you have already visited that game, and is preset to "know" the permanent locations of Rampart. Many Rampart establishments are only open in the daytime, but some are only active at night. Due to the stringent anti-crime measures taken by the Duke, it is usually safe to sleep in the streets. You will find it far more rewarding, however, to rent or purchase your own lodgings, if you can afford them. The point of omega, though, is dungeon exploration. There are a number of dungeons hidden about the countryside. These dungeons are at different levels of difficulty and have various idiosyncratic differences. The easiest are the Caves of the Goblin King, which is due south of Rampart, in the nearby mountains. The caves must be searched for with 's' command unless you are lucky enough to move directly onto them. CHARACTER CREATION AND DEVELOPMENT ================================== You will have the opportunity to create a new character each time you start up omega. A random selection of statistics will be generated. To discourage sitting around trying to get an "optimal" character, you can only "reroll" 9 times before having to reload the game. Since your statistics tend to go up as you play, it isn't fatal to have low statistics when you start out. On the other hand, high stats don't hurt, either.... Each statistic is very important, but depending what sort of character you wish to play, different statistics will stand out. Combat is helped by Strength and Dexterity, Magic-use is aided by Intelligence and Power. Agility helps you avoid getting hit and avoid traps, while Constitution determines how many hits you can take before dying. A new option for omega is to "play yourself". By answering a sequence of personal questions, omega arrives at what your personal statistics should be. It is in seriously bad taste to lie.... Only the character you create in this mode can be saved to the omegarc. The questions are set up so that a "renaissance man" type of person will probably have stats generally around 14-15. The rest of us will stay around 9-12 on average. If you are really impressively good at something you can start out with a stat of up to 18, but this is pretty unlikely for most of us. As you continue to play, you will hopefully accumulate experience and treasure. You can gain skills and abilities through various means, the most important being training in one of the Rampart establishments devoted to self-improvement. Thus, you can choose to work out at the gym, study at the Collegium Magii, meditate at a Temple, and so on. Certain skills and abilities may only be gained through adventuring, and others are mutually exclusive. For example, you can only be a priest of one particular deity. One of the appeals of omega is the variety of different types of characters you can play, each with its own set of goals and benefits. Another aspect of your character is alignment. Characters are aligned towards the primal forces of Chaos and Law, or they can be neutral. Various actions affect this factor; killing peaceful monsters, or committing burgalry, for example, are chaotic acts. Alignment determines which guilds will let you in, the behavior of some artifacts and monsters, as well as much else. Your character will gain various statuses, abilities, immunities, etc., both harmful and beneficial. Most of the time these are kept hidden from you, but there are various ways of discovering the truth -- self-knowledge is very useful in omega. Remember, the oracle knows all, sees all.... Experience is accrued for skillful actions in the game. As in rogue, one of the main methods of acquiring experience is defeating monsters. You need not kill an opponent to defeat it (you can use the 'threaten' option of the 't' command, sometimes). There are many other ways of gaining experience, though, including learning spells, deactivating traps, using artifacts correctly, etc. Experience goes towards two kinds of character development. First, in the bizarre tradition of role-playing games like * & *, hit points and combat capabilities go up as experience is gained. Secondly, experience gained is shared out to each of the guilds, priesthoods, etc. that the character belongs to. The more guilds the character is a member of, the slower promotion will be (except in the City Nobility, and among the Gladiators, where promotion is not based on experience, but on quests and combats, respectively). Regardless of the number of guilds the character is a member of, the first type of experience (overall character level) will not be adversely affected. INVENTORY ========= omega inventories are now much different from other rogue-like games. Unlike rogue, et al., you cannot directly employ every object you carry. Every object may either go into your "pack" or into some specific inventory slot such as "belt" or "ready hand" or "left shoulder" etc. Some slots are dedicated to certain types of items (eg, only armor can go in the armor slot), but other slots are general purpose, like your belt or your shoulder. It takes game time to transfer an object from your pack, (which can hold a fixed number of items) to specific slots from which the item may be useable. The pack is implemented as a mock-stack, so the deeper you burrow into your pack looking for some item, the more game time you are wasting. Therefore, carrying a whole lot of (semi)useless items may be a strategically bad move. Of course, as always, you can't carry more weight (either in your pack or in your inventory slots) than is dictated by your current STRENGTH and AGILITY. INVENTORY CONTROL MODES ======================= There are two type of inventory control: Display mode and Quick mode. Which mode you use by default can be toggled by the TOPLINE option settable with the 'O' command and in your .omegarc file. In Display mode, all the inventory slots are displayed in the menu window. In Quick mode, only the message lines above the main window are used, and therefore the slots are not all displayed, only one of them at a time. Additionally, the commands are slightly different. One nuance to the display -- note the character following the index of the slot in the following two lines. -- b> weapon hand: mace -- c) left shoulder: short sword The '>' in the first line indicates the mace is "in use", while the ') in the second lines means the short sword is not currently being used. If it is possible for an item to be "in use" in the current slot, it will be indicated by a '>'. Therefore, if you don't want to put some new unidentified weapon into use, don't try to carry it in the weapon hand; the same holds for shields in the shield slot, etc. The amount of time each action takes is indicated below. Dropping two items takes twice as long as dropping one item. DISPLAY MODE: ^l,^r: Redisplay inventory (if screen is munged). Takes no time. d: Drop the item currently in the 'up-in-the-air' slot, or in the 'selected' slot if there is nothing 'up-in-the-air'. Takes one second. p: Put the 'up-in-the-air' item into your pack, or the 'selected' item, if the 'up-in-the-air' item is vacant. Takes 5 seconds. l: Looks at the item in the selected slot. Takes no time. s: Show the contents of your pack. Takes 5 seconds. t: Take an item from your pack and put into the 'selected' slot, or if that is full, tries to put into the 'up-in-the-air' slot. Takes 5 seconds + 1 second/item examined in pack. I.e., rummaging at three items before taking one takes 8 seconds. e: Exchange the 'up-in-the-air' slot with the 'selected' slot. This will merge two quantities of an item together if possible. Either slot may be vacant, in which case it is a simple 'put' or 'take' to a slot. Takes 2 seconds. x: Same as 'e' but quit inventory mode immediately if the up-in-the-air slot is vacant after the action (ie, if it wasn't an exchange, but was just a put). Helpful when picking up new items. Takes 2 seconds. >: Cause the next slot lower down to be the 'selected' one. Takes no time. <: Cause the next slot higher up to be the 'selected' one. Takes no time. ?: Print this help. Takes no time. ESCAPE: return to game, dropping any object in the 'up-in-the-air' slot. Takes no time. In Display Mode, the 'selected' slot is the one with a highlighted '->' before it. QUICK (TOPINV) MODE: d: Drop an item. Takes one second. p: Put some item into your pack. Takes 5 seconds. l: Looks at an item. Takes no time. s: Show the contents of your pack. Takes 5 seconds. t: Take an item from your pack and put into some inventory slot, or into the 'up-in-the-air' slot if the one selected is full. Takes 5 seconds + depth of item in pack. e: Exchange the 'up-in-the-air' slot with some slot. This will merge two quantities of an item together if possible. Either slot may be vacant, in which case it is a simple 'put' or 'take' to a slot. Takes 2 seconds. x: Same as 'e' but quit inventory mode immediately if the up-in-the-air slot is vacant after the action (ie, if it wasn't an exchange, but was just a put). Helpful when picking up new items. Takes 2 seconds. ~: Enter Display Mode. Takes no time. ?: Print this help. Takes no time. ESCAPE: return to game, dropping any object in the 'up-in-the-air' slot. Takes no time. In quick mode, there is no 'selected' slot, instead the letter identifying the slot must be entered following the command. The 'e' and 'x' commands in both modes are the ones you'll use most; it combines taking and putting from inventory slot to "up-in-air" where picked-up items will be, and where you will drop items from on leaving the inventory mode. Usually the pack is used for items which it is not important to be able to get at easily, while inventory slots are for useful items. MOVEMENT ======== The mechanics of movement are much like rogue. You can use either the vi keys (hjklbnyu) or the numeric keypad to move; the capitalized vi keys or a keypad direction preceded by a 5 "run" in that direction until either an object is run into, or an "interesting" location is hit. More locations are "interesting" if the "RUNSTOP" option is set. In most environments, a single move takes but a few seconds of game time, depending on the player's "Spd" score, but some places movement takes longer. In the countryside environment, the scale is much larger than usual (say 5KM/move), so a single move can take hours. (Riding a horse can reduce the amount of time taken in the country, depending on the terrain being travelled). In the city or village environments, the scale is such that a move takes about 30 seconds or so of gametime. COMBAT ====== As in most rogue-like games, you attack an adjacent monster by attempting to move onto it. At this time, your current real statistics on to-hit, damage, defense, and armor protection are always displayed. It is felt that the character would know (or quickly discover) how well any weapon, armor, etc. actually work. By comparing different weapons, armor, and shield combinations, you can decide what martial configuration is best for your character. Keep in mind that cost of equipment does not necessarily indicate how good it is (though it is a good rule of thumb). The 'F' command allows you to select precisely which actions you will take in a combat round -- parry high, thrust low, etc. You have several maneuver points for use in each combat round, depending on level, status as a gladiator, etc. At the beginning of the game, your combat options are already set for you, but as you progress, and possibly gain more maneuvers, the preset options will not be automatically updated, so remember to do it yourself periodically, as you may be losing the chance at more maneuvers if you do not. The following are your combat options: A) ATTACK: Punch, Cut, Strike, Shoot, or Thrust (depending on weapon) -- 1 pt. B) BLOCK: Prepare to block or parry enemy attack -- 1 pt. R) RIPOSTE: BLOCK/ATTACK (thrusting weapons only) -- 2 pts. L) LUNGE: More chance to hit than usual, does more damage -- 2 pts. Keep on selecting maneuvers until you have no maneuver points left. It does absolutely no good to have points left over. Following the choice of the maneuver, you must select a line for the action: L (low), C (center), or H (high). Some monster will tend to attack in a given line (short/small monsters, for example, will tend to attack low), so this choice is meaningful. If you block or riposte low, when the attack is high, you will have wasted the effect of the block. On the other hand, if you block low twice, and the attack is low, you will defend doubly. If you don't block or riposte at all, it will be particularly easy for monsters to hit you. Keep on selecting maneuvers until you have no maneuver points left. Hitting the BACKSPACE or DELETE key will erase your current choices and let you start over. When you are satisfied, confirm your choice with the RETURN key. Once a choice is selected, it stays in effect until you change it; you need not reset it for each attack. Selecting combat maneuvers takes no time. If you are in VERBOSE mode (settable with the 'O' command) you'll see just what the monster is doing, whether the blocks are effective, and so on. Otherwise you'll just be told whether you hit or miss. If you select VERBOSE mode, you will be able to see just where your opponent attacks. Some monsters may show a particular sequence or location which they attack in; you can use this information to your advantage by setting your own attacks and blocks accordingly. You can try multiple identical maneuvers if you like. If you don't try any BLOCKS at all, it will be easier than usual for your opponent to hit. Even if you don't get the location correct, a BLOCK still does some good. A RIPOSTE attacks in the same line as its block, if you got the line right. I.e., if you are attacked high, a high riposte will get a free attack back. If you are attacked high three times, a high riposte will get three free attacks back. Each block or riposte is good for your entire move; no matter how many monsters attack you you will be able to block or riposte each one. Naturally, each attack can only be used against one monster. Heavy edged weapons and smashing weapons do CUTTING or STRIKING damage. Your strength affects this, so if it is high you will do much more damage, and if low, much less. Light edged weapons, missile weapons, and pointed weapons do THRUSTING or SHOOTING attacks, whose chance to hit is greatly affected by your dexterity. Note that you can't use a missile weapon very well in ordinary combat (i.e. when you move adjacent to a monster) -- you would be using a crossbow as a club, for instance. Instead, use the 'f' command to fire missiles when at long range, and change to a melee weapon for close combat. A note on weapons use: A weapon is not prepared for combat unless it is in the "weapon hand" slot in your inventory. Anywhere else means you are just carrying it around.... Two-handed weapons will automatically take both hand slots, so remember to have both hands free if you want to wield such a weapon. Shields, of course, will only have effect in the "shield" slot, while armor is only considered to be worn if it is in the "armor" slot. BUGS AND FEATURES ================= "It's not a bug, it's an undocumented feature." omega is not just a large program, it is a large, complicated, and not particularly well written program. There are so many features that not all can be well tested, particularly in combination with one another. Therefore, it is likely that your version, whatever it is, has some bugs. The author no longer strives to correct bugs and remedy misfeatures, so you probably shouldn't send mail to brothers@paul.rutgers.edu. However, if you send such mail to omega@alcyone.darkside.com (Erik Max Francis), there may be attempts to remedy the problem - don't hold your breath, though. MAGIC ===== Your character may be taught spells by his or her guild or priesthood, at the collegium magii, by the sorceror's guild, or pick them up from a scroll of spells. Every spell costs some amount of mana to cast. Mana is not normally regenerated except when the player goes up an experience level, but various magic items augment mana, and the sorceror's guild will recharge you for a fee. If you learn the same spell multiple times, the effective power drain to cast the spell is lowered. Some spells have a constant effect, while others vary according to your level. The spell of ritual magic has a variety of different effects depending on the circumstances under which it is cast. The spell of high magic is the most powerful, by the way. THE COUNTRYSIDE =============== Rampart is set in a strange landscape of different terrain types. The land is surrounded in part by a mystic sea of chaos which it is probably a good idea to avoid. Screen characters have a different meaning in the countryside than they do elsewhere, by the way, and there is a different command set (accessible by '?' when out of the city). Time passes much more quickly in countryside movement; you will have to bring a lot of food with you, though you may wish to hunt ('H' command) to supplement your food reserves; many of the animals that you may encounter, for example, are edible. Since each countryside site is quite a large area, you may have to search ('s' command) to learn of interesting sites nearby. Countryside Map Example: ++----.--- The @ as usual is the player; the +'s are an arm of the Sea of +++++O--^^ Chaos; the O is the city of Rampart; the ^'s are mountains; ----@----^ the .'s are a road; the -'s are plains and meadows; ---.-^^^^^ and the * is a dungeon entrance. ...-^*^^^^ The countryside can be rather dangerous for low level characters to explore at random. However, maps of the surrounding areas can be purchased at the villages which can be found mostly at the ends of the roads. Each village has a "special" magical site somewhere inside its borders. These sites may be beneficial or harmful depending how they are approached and the circumstances of their activation. There are a number of "special" locations in the countryside; these are basically one-level screens of various sorts, or they may be multi-level dungeons. If you follow the advice of the oracle who may be found somewhere in Rampart, you will wind up visiting most of these sites. A special site or dungeon may be entered from the Countryside environment by means of the '>' command. Depending whether or not it is a multilevel or single level site, it may be exited simply by moving off the edge of the screen, or by ascending or descending a stairway from the first level of the dungeon. WHAT YOU SEE ON THE SCREEN ========================== Map: The large central area represents a map of the current environment. On it, the highlighted @ always represents the player, letters represent monsters, non-highlighted @'s represent other humans, and other characters represent either objects or terrain features. The map will take up as much of the screen as is possible, so if you are running in a windowing system make the omega window as large as it can be. Since the same character can represent different things or entities (even in the same environment), a good command to remember is 'x' (examine), which will tell you precisely what you are dealing with in any situation. This is especially helpful before you have terrain types like deep pools and lava pits (!) memorized.... You can use the CONFIRM option to avoid walking absent-mindedly into a trap, pool, etc. The '/' command will give you more general help, for example telling you that the ')' character represents a weapon. The '?' command can give you either a command list or this file. The command lists will differ depending whether you are in the countryside, or a dungeon or city. Messages: Directly above the map window is a three line area that shows current messages from the game describing what is going on. The ^p command, or ^o for IBM users, shows old messages. Location: Directly beneath the map window is a one line description of your current location or environment. Statistics: Beneath the Location line are two lines that show the current state of the player's statistics such as strength, dexterity, constitution, agility, intelligence, power, mana, gold pieces, carrying capacity, etc. When the value given looks like number1 / number2, number1 represents the current value, and number2 represents a maximum value. Flags: In the upper right corner of the omega display, below the date and time, and phase of the moon, you will see four flags: The top describes your food status, the second describes your status with respect to poison, the third your health (diseased or healthy), and the fourth, your mode of transportation. While you are diseased you will not regain hit points naturally. While you are poisoned you will take damage periodically until cured or killed (or the poison's effect can naturally fade). When your food runs out, and you start starving, you will take more and more damage as time passes until finally you die of starvation. It's always a good idea to stock up at the Commandant's.... If you manage to acquire a horse, your SPEED will probably improve (unless you were very fast already). Regardless of SPEED, having a horse will save some time in countryside movement, and may also help out your combat strength. However, horses tend not to enjoy going into dungeons.... Combat Abilities: In the lower right of the display, your current combat abilities are displayed. These are: Hit: is your current chance to hit with the weapon currently wielded, the higher the better. This factor varies with your DEXTERITY, experience level, and the weapon wielded. Dmg: is the maximum amount of damage you can do with a hit. This factor varies with your STRENGTH and the weapon wielded. Def: is your defensive rating, how hard it is for monsters to hit you. This factor varies with your AGILITY and experience level, and with the shield being used. Arm: is your armor rating, how much damage is absorbed when a monster hits you before you take damage. Armor only absorbs normal damage; various effects and forms of magic may penetrate armor. This factor varies with the armor worn. Spd: is a speed factor, how quickly or how slowly you move. This factor is calculated about a base of 1.00; 2.00 means you move twice as fast; 0.50 means you move twice as slowly as normal. This factor varies with your AGILITY and the amount of weight you are carrying. Every monster has its own speed factor. The maximum speed is 5.0; the minimum is infinitesimal. Magic spells, special items, and monster effects can affect all these factors, positively and negatively. SAVING AND RESTORING ==================== Since omega's dungeon is quite large, only the current dungeon and the city level will be saved; other dungeons you may have entered previously will be regenerated as you re-enter them. If you know the spell of Return, however, (learnable at the Explorers' Club) you will be able to warp to your deepest excursion in any dungeon without having to retraverse the old levels in between. Some other shortcuts exist for "warping" from one locale or level to another. Games can be restored by giving the save file as a command line argument as in: % omega quasar.sav To at least simulate the continuity of character in the game, saved files will be unlinked on restoration. Of course, you *can* copy them. Save files are automatically compressed unless the flag COMPRESS_SAVE_FILES is undefined in odefs.h. This doubles the amount of time taken to save, but reduces the typical save file by a factor of more than 10. If you feel that the wait is too long, and have space to burn, you can turn off save-file compression in the Options menu. OPTION SETTINGS =============== Options may be set with the 'O' command. The options are: (F) BELLICOSE: Attack friendly monsters without confirmation. (F) JUMPMOVE: Don't display things until the end of a run. (T) RUNSTOP: Stop a run when something like a door is passed. (F) PICKUP: Automatically pick things up when you move over them. (T) CONFIRM: Ask confirmation before you do some dangerous things. (F) TOPINV: Display inventory to message line, not to full screen. (F) PACKADD: Add new items to pack, instead of going into inventory mode. (T) COMPRESS: Determines if saved games are compressed (recommended). (T) COLOUR: On IBMs, this toggles whether the display in in colour. (V) VERBOSITY: TERSE, MEDIUM, or VERBOSE, the level of detail in combat. (1) SEARCHNUM: the number of turns spent searching when you hit the 's' key. The default values are parenthesized. These options will be recovered from your .omegarc if you use one. DUNGEON/CITY COMMAND LIST: ______________________________________________________________________________ key : description : # seconds ______________________________________________________________________________ ^f : abort the spell of shadow form : 0 ^g : enter wizard mode (WIZARD only) : 0 ^i : list items in pack : 5 ^l : redraw screen (redraw each window) : 0 ^p : print previous message (more or less) : 0 ^o : print previous message (IBM version) : 0 ^r : redraw screen (redraw curscr) : 0 ^x : make a wish (wizard mode and Adepts only) : 0 ^w : magic-map screen (wizard mode only) : 0 a : activate a wand, staff, or rod : 10* c : close door : 2* d : drop object at current location : 5* e : eat something : 30 f : fire/throw something : 5* g : pick up object at current location : 10* i : primary inventory mode (as per TOPINV option) : variable m : cast a magic spell : 20 o : open door : 5* p : pick the pocket of an adjacent monster : 20* q : quaff a potion : 10 r : read a scroll : 30* s : search all around you, # of times = SEARCHNUM : 20 t : talk to an adjacent monster : 10 v : vault over a few intervening spaces : 10* x : examine a location : 1 z : bash something (adjacent location) : 10 A : activate an item or artifact : 10 C : call an item something : 0 D : disarm an adjacent trap : 30 E : dismount (exit?) from your horse : 10* F : set combat action sequence : 0 G : give something to an adjacent monster : 15 I : secondary inventory mode (as per TOPINV option) : variable M : move quickly to some discovered site (city only) : variable O : set options : 0 P : public license information : 0 Q : quit : 0 R : rename character : 0 S : save game and quit : 0 T : dig a tunnel through a wall : 30* V : version information : 0 Z : bash something (item carried) : 10* . : rest a turn : 10 , : sleep some number of minutes : 60..6000 @ : stay in current location, activating any local effect here : 5 > : go down a level (walks to known stairs first) : 0~ < : go up a level (walks to known stairs first) : 0~ X : explore automatically (stops for monsters, messages) : 5*+ / : identify the onscreen usage of some character : 0 vi keys (hjklbnyu) & keypad number: walk one space or fight adjacent monster (Regular Combat Mode), pick up things if PICKUP option set : 5*+ capitalized vi keys (HJKLBNYU) or 5 followed by keypad number: run in that direction, fight adjacent monster if BELLIGERENT option set,don't display slowly if JUMPMOVE option set, stop for doorways, etc. if RUNSTOP option set. : 4*+ Enter: this command menu (arrows/8/2 move, Enter/5 choose) : 0 ? : display or copy help files : 0 * Actual time taken varies according to SPEED factor. + Takes longer in City or Village (different scale for movement) ~ Reduced to 0 time by popular demand COUNTRYSIDE COMMAND LIST: ______________________________________________________________________________ key : description : time taken ______________________________________________________________________________ ^p : print previous message : --- ^o : print previous message (IBM version) : --- ^r : redraw screen : --- d : drop object (will be lost forever) : --- e : eat something : --- i : inventory of things in pack (selected inventory mode) : --- s : search all around you for hidden traces : 1 hour H : hunt for food : 3 hours I : inventory of things in pack (alternate inventory mode) : --- O : set options : --- P : public license information : --- Q : quit : --- R : rename character : --- S : save game and quit : --- V : version information : --- > : enter a village, city, dungeon, et al. : --- / : identify the onscreen usage of some character : --- ? : display or copy help files : --- vi keys & keypad numbers: : variable w. walk one space (about 20 kilometers) terrain