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FREEDROID(6)			 User Manuals			  FREEDROID(6)

NAME
       freedroid - a free Paradroid clone

SYNOPSIS
       freedroid [ options ]

DESCRIPTION
       Freedroid  is  a	remake of the classic C64 home computer	game Paradroid
       by Andrew Braybrook, including also various extensions.

       The player takes	control	of the so-called 001 influence device and must
       clear a freighter of robots by either shooting them or seizing  control
       over  them.  Seizing control is done in a small logic subgame, in which
       you have	to connect more	electrical connections within 10 seconds  than
       your opponent.

OPTIONS
       -v or --version
	       Prints out Freedroid version information.

       -q or --nosound
	       Suppress	 all sound output.  Very useful	if you don't have your
	       sound card configured yet or don't have any sound  hardware  at
	       all.

       -f or --fullscreen
	       Work  in	full screen mode.  Note	that fullscreen	or window mode
	       can also	be toggled from	within the game	via the	options	menu.

       -w or --window
	       Start Freedroid in a window rather than using full screen mode.

       -j or --sensitivity
	       Control joystick	sensitivity. Value must	lie in between [0:32].
	       Default is 1.

       -d LEVEL	or --debug=LEVEL
	       Control debug output of the game.  Debug	output will be printed
	       to stderr, i.e. in most cases to	the console you	started	 Free-
	       droid  from.  The variable LEVEL	controls how much debug	output
	       you would like to have.	LEVEL 0	is the default and means  (al-
	       most) no	debug output.  LEVEL 1 prints the most important debug
	       messages	 and  LEVEL 2 or LEVEL 3 print (almost)	all debug out-
	       put, which might	be quite a lot.

HOW TO PLAY
       Moving and Firing
	      The influence device can be moved	inside the ship	by either  us-
	      ing keyboard input or joystick directions.  Keyboard control can
	      be  done	by either using	cursor keys or the Quake and Half-life
	      style a-w-s-d keys combination.  Firing can be  done  by	either
	      using  the  crosshair and	the left mouse button or by pressing a
	      direction	key and	pressing space in addition  or	by  holding  a
	      joystick direction and pressing a	joystick button.
       Entering	Elevators and Consoles
	      The  influence device can	move from one deck to another deck us-
	      ing the elevators	of the freighter.  To do this, you  must  step
	      onto an elevator plate, and then either press the	e key or press
	      the  middle mouse	button or appropriate joystick button.	Enter-
	      ing consoles is done in a	similar	way.  You have	to  stand  di-
	      rectly  in  front	of a console terminal and then press the e key
	      to activate the console.	Inside the console you will  have  ac-
	      cess  to a small scale map of the	current	deck, a	side elevation
	      of the ship and to the droid database of the  ship.   Note  how-
	      ever,  that access to the	droid database is achieved via the se-
	      curity clearance of the host you	currently  control,  i.e.  you
	      will  only  be able to view droid	data for droids	that are lower
	      or equal to the host you currently control.
       The takeover subgame (Taking control of other droids)
	      To take control of another robot,	you must first enter  transfer
	      mode.   This  is done by either standing still and holding space
	      bar pressed (and keeping space bar  pressed  afterwards)	or  by
	      holing  down  the	right mouse button or holding town appropriate
	      joystick button.	While in takeover mode,	the  influence	device
	      can  try	to initiate takeover by	touching the host it wishes to
	      control.	As soon	as another robot is touched while in  takeover
	      mode,  takeover subgame will be initiated	and control of the new
	      host will	be seized, provided that the takeover subgame is won.
       Playing the takeover subgame
	      After the	takeover subgame was initiated,	the two	droids	strug-
	      gling  for  control  will	be presented.  Then the	player gets to
	      decide which side	of the takeover	game he	wants  to  play.   The
	      player  on  the  left side takes the yellow color, the player on
	      the right	side takes the magenta color.  Note that which side to
	      choose may be the	most important decision	of the	takeover  sub-
	      game,  cause  one	 side may host strong tactical advantages over
	      the other.  After	sides have been	chosen,	the takeover  capsules
	      will  be placed.	Each droid has a limited number	of capsules to
	      place and	must try to convert the	 central  status  bar  to  his
	      color.  The number of capsules you have at your disposal depends
	      on  the  clearance  of the host you currently control.  Once the
	      takeover subgame is won, the player will have control  over  the
	      new  bot	while the old host is destroyed.  Control over the new
	      host also	means  inheriting  the	movement  properties  and  the
	      weapons  of this robot.  Loss of takeover	subgame	results	in the
	      current host, if one is present, being destroyed or  the	influ-
	      ence  itself  being  burnt  out  and  destroyed  if  no host was
	      present.
       Notes on	energy loss
	      The influence device depends on hosts to control.	 Whether  cur-
	      rently  controlling a host or not, the influence device will al-
	      ways lose	energy due to construction  properties.	  When	taking
	      control  of a new	host, the influence device will	also take con-
	      trol of the energy this droid had	left, which will be even  more
	      the  higher the bot you take control of.	However, higher	droids
	      also tend	to put up more resistance against the control  of  the
	      influence	device,	resulting in faster loss of energy.  Therefore
	      it  is  recommended  to change hosts frequently in order to keep
	      the influence device well	powered.  Note that there are some re-
	      fresh field, where some of the energy lost so  far  can  be  re-
	      stored.  But note	also, that only	energy loss due	to collisions,
	      explosions and enemy fire	can be restored	this way, while	energy
	      loss  due	 to host resistance is permanently lost	until the host
	      is changed again.

PROJECT	HOME PAGE AND LATEST VERSIONS
       The  Freedroid  project	features  a  home  page	 at  freedroid.source-
       forge.net.   The	 project  itself  is  hosted  at the Sourceforge.  The
       project summary page at http://sourceforge.net/projects/freedroid/  can
       be used to access download and status information.  Note	that home page
       and  project  summary page are shared with the FreedroidRPG development
       branch as well.

FILES
       ~/.freedroidClassic/highscores
	      The high scores file of Freedroid.
       ~/.freedroidClassic/config
	      The file containing all configuration setting of this user.

ENVIRONMENT
       Freedroid does currently	not care about any environment variables.

DIAGNOSTICS
       Debug output can	be produced by using the -d or	--debug	 command  line
       options as described above.

BUGS
       Freedroid can now be considered pretty stable.  However we're sure that
       there  are  still some bugs here	and there.  If you encounter any prob-
       lems or bugs, please send mail  to  <freedroid-discussion@lists.source-
       forge.net>.

AUTHORS
       Johannes	Prix, Reinhard Prix, Bastian Salmela, Lanzz.

SEE ALSO
       freedroidRPG(6),

Linux				  MARCH	2003			  FREEDROID(6)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=freedroid&sektion=6&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.0>

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