Playing Allure of the Stars =========================== Playing Allure of the Stars involves walking around an abandoned Solar System space-ship, alone or in a party of trusted crew-members, setting up ambushes, hiding in shadow, covering tracks, breaking through to deeper spaceship decks, bumping into hostile intruders, doors and walls, gathering technical resources and making creative use of them. The bloodthirsty alien monsters and their horrible minions do the same, intelligence allowing, while tirelessly chasing the stranded heroes by smell and sight. Once the few basic command keys and on-screen symbols are learned, mastery and enjoyment of the game is the matter of tactical skill and literary imagination. To be honest, a lot of imagination is required at this stage, but the game is already playable and winnable. Contributions welcome. Terrain ------- The goal of the hero is to explore an old, once luxurious space liner, battle the horrors within, gather as much gold coins and precious gems as possible, and escape to tell the tale. The spaceship consists of many levels covered with varying terrain of the following basic kinds: terrain type on-screen symbol floor . wall # stairs up < stairs down > open door ' closed door + The game world is persistent, i.e., every time the player visits a level during a single game, the level layout is the same. Some items aid in exploration, e.g., a ring of searching improves the speed of finding hidden doors by heroes and monsters. The higher the ability bonus displayed for this and other items, the more effective it is. Only the best item carried in a hero's or monster's inventory counts. You can throw the rest away, but beware that your adversaries may pick it up and use it against your party. Keys ---- You move throughout the level using the numerical keypad or the vi text editor keys (also known as "Rogue-like keys"). 7 8 9 y k u \|/ \|/ 4-5-6 h-.-l /|\ /|\ 1 2 3 b j n SHIFT (or CTRL) and a movement key make the hero run in the indicated direction, until anything of interest is spotted. '5' and '.' skip a turn. Melee, searching for secret doors and opening closed doors can be done by bumping into a monster, a wall and a door, respectively. Below are the default keys for major commands. The last four commands are specialized versions of 'a' and 'p', offering narrower default item choice. The commands that take player time are marked with a *. key command < ascend a level* > descend a level* ? display help Q quit without saving X save and exit the game a apply a consumable* c close a door* d drop an object* g get an object* i display inventory p project a projectile* q quaff a drink* r read a comm* t throw a missile* z zap a mechanism* To make a ranged attack, you need to set your target first, using targeting mode. Note that the target, for the few commands that require any, is indicated by the targeting cursor. The origin of a command --- the hero that performs it --- is unaffected by targeting. For example, not the targeted door, but one adjacent to the selected hero is closed by him. To avoid confusion, commands that take time are blocked when targeting at a remote level (when the cursor is on a different level than the selected hero). The targeting commands and all the less used commands are listed below. None of them takes hero time. key command ESC cancel action RET accept choice SPACE clear messages TAB cycle among heroes on level * target monster / target location D dump current configuration P display previous messages V display game version [ target next shallower level ] target next deeper level { target 10 levels shallower } target 10 levels deeper 0--9 select a hero anywhere in the spaceship There are also some debug and cheat keys, all entered with the CTRL key modifier. Use at your own peril! key command CTRL-o toggle "omniscience" CTRL-i inform about level meta-data CTRL-r rotate vision modes (effective next turn) Monsters -------- The hero is not alone in the spaceship. Monsters roam the dark halls and crawl from damp air-ducts day and night. While heroes pay attention to all other party members and take moves sequentially, one after another, monsters don't care about each other and all move at once, sometimes brutally colliding by accident. When the hero bumps into a monster or a monster attacks the hero, melee combat occurs. The best weapon carried by each opponent is taken into account for calculating bonus damage. The total damage the current hero can potentially inflict is displayed at the bottom of the screen. The total damage potential of a monster may change as it finds and picks up new weapons. Heroes and monsters running into another (with the Shift key) do not inflict damage, but change places. This gives the opponent a free blow, but can improve the tactical situation or aid escape. Throwing weapons at targets wounds them, consuming the weapon in the process. Target a monster with the '*' key from the top keyboard row or from keypad. You may throw any object in your possession (press '?' to choose an object and press it again for a non-standard choice) or on the floor (press '-'). Only objects of a few kinds inflict any damage. Whenever the monster's or hero's hit points reach zero, the combatant dies. When the last hero dies, the game ends. On Winning and Dying -------------------- You win the game if you escape the spaceship alive. Your score is the sum of all gold coins you've plundered plus 100 gold for each gem. Only the loot in possession of the party members on the current level counts (the rest of the party is considered MIA). If all heroes die, your score is halved and only the treasure carried by the last standing hero counts. You are free to start again from a different entrance to the spaceship, but all your previous wealth is gone and fresh, undaunted enemies bar your way.