CyberStrike 2 Late Breaking Information 23 October 1998 Thank you for investing the time to play CyberStrike 2. Team Simutronics has spent considerable effort, expense and sweat to bring you this exciting action-packed game title. Unfortunately, due to printing lead-times, some of the more advanced features were not covered fully in the printed manual. This readme gives you critical clarifications and documentation of new features. First, read the manual, then read this file to get all the information you need to be successful in CyberStrike 2. Additionally, hints for getting the best performance out of this game are covered in this file. See below for a list of supported video cards and the exact drivers you need. Game Features Not Found in the Player's Manual Arming CyberPods After completing a few missions, you will gain the ability to change the arming of some CyberPods before you launch a mission. When you view the arming screen, you may see a lock icon near the lower left corner of each CyberPod. If a icon appears and the lock is closed then you may not change the arming loadout or the pilot for that CyberPod. If a lock appears but it is unlocked you may change the arming loadout for that CyberPod, but you may not change the pilot. If no lock icon appears, you may change the arming loadout for the CyberPod, and you may also change the pilot. After you have completed the first few missions, command will trust your judgement enough such that you can modify the loadout of your CyberPod. Once you are promoted to squad leader, you will be responsible for arming all CyberPods in your squad. In some cases you can take along additional units depending on the logistics of the mission. To see the skill ratings for the pilots, right-click on the pilot's name. You may also right-click on any module or unit name to see additional information. Buying/Selling At a certain point in the game, you become responsible for the buying and selling of supplies. Keep in mind that the prices and availability of merchandise is highly volatile. The facilities on Syren are able to produce a certain amount of the supplies you need, but some supplies are difficult to obtain since the collapse of the wormhole, and therefore the prices are high, and availability is low. The amount of cash you have on hand is dictated by the operational budget your clan provides. Success during missions can sometimes increase your funding, but you must be careful to work within budgetary constraints. Pilot salaries are deducted at the end of each successful mission. Therefore, you should not hire pilots indiscriminately. It is a good idea to not carry too many pilots on the payroll. Try to not have any deadwood. Some missions have special hardware requirements, such as the need for a Mark III CyberPod, or a particular module. If so, and you do not already have such a unit or module in inventory, one will automatically be purchased for you. This is why you may see your cash on hand suddenly plummet at certain points in the game. Naturally, if the unit survives the mission, you can sell it at the current market value to become liquid again. It is possible, due to such circumstances, to have your cash go negative. If that happens, your strike team is operating over-budget, and you will not be able to buy anything until your funding catches up with your expenditures, and you once again have positive cash. The automatic purchases for required equipment will still take place, and those purchases will drive you even more into the red. If your Raven support aircraft are all destroyed (which is rare), one Raven aircraft will automatically be purchased for you even if it exceeds your budget. If you find yourself in the red, there are some things you can do to try to get your cash situation back into the black. You can volunteer for additional Skirmish missions. To attempt to volunteer for a Skirmish mission, click on the Skirmish control in the mission control center. If command authorizes the mission, and you do well, you should earn some increased funding. Another way to get back to being cash-positive is to sell off unnecessary inventory items. Because you bring back salvage from any successful mission, you will typically have some things you do not need, such as an excess of Power Relay Towers. Sell your excess inventory off to generate badly needed cash. Be careful with hiring and firing pilots. Pilot skills improve over time, and you must consider the time you spend building up their skills as an investment. It may be very hard, and very expensive, to replace a good pilot. Recovering Pilots If, during the course of a mission, a CyberPod on your team is destroyed, there is a chance that the pilot of that CyberPod may eject in time to save his or her life. If the pilot successfully ejects and survives, he or she will continue to appear on your list of available pilots on the arming screen. Should the pilot die in spite of the attempt to eject, the pilot will no longer appear on your list of pilots. It is important to remember this while playing the missions. If you see a key pilot destroyed during the mission, you should continue the mission and attempt to win it anyway. There is a chance that the pilot will survive and be recovered. Of course, it is a good idea to save the game before each mission, so if a highly skilled or key pilot does die, you can back up (replay) and try the mission over again. Remote Module Ordering / Tower Drops / COMM Commands Normally when you order a module or request a tower drop, the location of the drop/resupply zone is fixed just in front of your CyberPod at the time the order is made. However, a special, additional mode allows for you to position the drop/resupply zone independently of your CyberPod position. This feature is extremely useful in some missions, and you should take time early on to become familiar with it. When you press the M key and then select a class of modules to initiate the process of ordering a module, a Drop Zone marker appears a few feet in front of your CyberPod. If you want the module dropped at that location, simply complete the ordering process as described. However, you may want to have the module delivered at a remote location elsewhere on the map. In the lower left corner of the screen is a map of the area, superimposed with radar information. Your CyberPod is at the center of that map. You can have modules dropped anywhere on that map by using the remote module ordering system. Initiate remote module ordering in the same way you initiate normal module ordering. Press the M key, and then select a class of modules. The Drop Zone Marker will appear in front of your CyberPod. To move the Drop Zone Marker, press and hold the SHIFT key. Then move your mouse to move the Drop Zone Marker. You will see a small cross-hair marker on the radar map as you move the mouse around. When you have positioned the Drop Zone Marker where you want it, right-click on the mouse to select the module you want to order. When you right-click the mouse, the first available module on the list will be highlighted. Continue to right-click the mouse until the module you want is highlighted. Then left-click the mouse to order that module. If the Drop Zone Marker is at a good location for performing a drop, and the module you request is available, the Raven will acknowledge the Re-supply Request. The timing for remote module ordering is critical. You have 30 seconds after you press the M key to complete the remote ordering process. After 30 seconds, if you have not completed the order, your CyberPod onboard computer will automatically cancel the operation and return to primary control mode. This feature is in place to prevent you from inadvertently leaving your CyberPod under the control of a sub-menu. (This 30 second time-out feature exists in all sub-menus.) With some practice, you will be able to order modules for remote drops with little trouble. NOTE: 1) This technique also applies to calling in towers (press M, then P for power) and defenses (press M, then D). You will find this very useful in some missions. For example, you might want to lay down a power grid ahead of your advancement. Or, if defending an area, you might want to place defensive units at a distance. 2) You can use this technique when commanding wingmen as well. For example, you can issue the GO TO POSITION command after moving the indicator where you want the wingman to go. Getting Help Playing There are three additional text files on the CyberStrike 2 CD. MISSUM.TXT This file contains summaries of all missions in the game. Each mission starts with a mission briefing, but if the briefing is unclear to you, or you cannot remember what you are supposed to be doing, you will find a summary of the mission in this file. STRATEGY.TXT This file contains general advice about strategy and tactics. There are no "game spoilers" in this file. The advice given here is good, general advice for both the single player and multiplayer games. ADVICE.TXT This file contains advice for completing the individual game missions. This file DOES contain "game spoilers." If you are stuck, then read the advice in this file, although reading this file will reveal some of the plot twists and can spoil parts of the game for you. Technical Specifications System Requirements Pentium 166 MHz required, 233 MHz recommended Windows 95 or Windows 98 DirectX Version 5.2 or higher (works with DirectX 6.0) 32 MB RAM required, 48 MB RAM recommended 75 MB Hard Disk space required, 400 MB recommended 4X CD-ROM required, 8X recommended 28.8 kbps modem required for multiplayer option 3D Video Card From List of Supported Cards Below SoundBlaster compatible Sound Card (Optional for sound) Windows Compatible Joystick (Optional) CONTROL REMAPPING CyberStrike 2 does not allow you to remap the controls, although we do provide a lot of control options. The reason is because this game requires a lot of "modal" use of the keyboard. For example, when you enter different modes (such as ordering a module), the meaning of certain keys changes. Remapping the keyboard is, in theory, possible but ultimately became very complex and confusing from a user interface standpoint. You can remap joystick buttons using various utilities. For example, the SideWinder series of joystick from Microsoft has a utility for assigning joystick buttons to certain keystrokes. This is our recommended method for managing joysticks with extra buttons. VIDEO CARDS If you are having a problem with CyberStrike 2 working correctly with your video card, the first step is to make sure you have the absolute latest driver. We have found that this fixes most problems. Here is a list of supported 3D cards and the drivers we have tested with: Supported 3D Video Cards Recommended Driver Version ATI Xpert@Play ATI Xpert@Work ATI All-In-Wonder 4.10.2278 ATI All-In-Wonder Pro Best Data Arcade FX 3D Best Data Arcade FX 3D II Canopus Total 3D Canopus Total 3D 128V AGP Canopus Pure 3D Canopus Pure 3D2 Creative Labs 3D Blaster Voodoo2 Creative Labs 3D Blaster Exxtreme 4.10.01.2111-12.0395 Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Riva TNT Creative Labs 3D Blaster PCI 4.02.0205 Diamond Monster 3D Diamond Monster II 4.10.01.0200 Diamond Stealth II S220 4.10.01.0104 Diamond Stealth II G460 4.10.01.1346 Diamond Viper V550 4.10.01.0220 Diamond Viper V330 4.10.01.0001 Diamond FireGL 1000 4.00003.223.1 Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro 4.10.01.2348 Genoa V-Raptor 3D Hercules Dynamite 3D/GL Hercules Thriller 3D 4.10.01.3539 Hercules Stingray 128 4.10.01.2072 Matrox Millenium G200 Matrox Mystique G200 4.10.01.4140 Matrox Productiva G100 Metabyte Wicked 3D Number Nine Revolution 3D-Ticket to Ride Orchid Righteous 3D RealVision Flash 3D Sierra Screamin 3D STB Velocity 128 4.10.01.0182 STB Velocity 3D STB Black Magic Voodoo2 STB Glyder MAX -2 WinFast 3D L2300 4.10.01.2105-0356 WHQL To get the latest driver, visit the web site of the vendor of your video card. If you have a 3Dfx based video card, then we suggest you use the Glide 3.01 drivers (included on the CDROM). Known Issues STB Velocity 128 In Overgame and multiplayer Hub, there is a redraw problem. As the cursor moves around, and animations take place on the display, image distortion and bleeding may occur. This appears to be a bug in the STB DirectX drivers. There is no known fix at the time of release for this bug. Contact STB to see when they will have updated drivers. General Notes Some of 3D cards have problems with polygon interfacing, which results in gray outlines around polygons. This effect is most noticeable when dynamic lighting is turned on. When dynamic lighting and detail mapping are both turned on, slight variations in alpha blending among different cards can result in slight image distortions. Slow Frame Rate The most common causes of slow frame rate are: Inadequate System Speed Insufficient System Memory (or slow RAM) Insufficient Video Memory Getting good frame-rate in a game requires every part of your system to be "up to speed." For example, we were testing CyberStrike 2 on an AMD K6 300 machine with a Voodoo1 3D Accelerator. We were very confused why the frame-rate was so bad. Eventually we found the problem: The machine had 60ns RAM. We replaced it with 100PC RAM and suddenly the game ran fantastic! This should serve as an object lesson in optimizing your game hardware. Note that: The game runs best on a Pentium II processor. AMD K6 chips are Pentium compatible, but have slow floating point operations and CyberStrike 2 uses a lot of floating point. 3DNow Technology does not speed up the 3D of any game that does not specifically take advantage of it (or uses DirectX 6.0's rendering pipeline, which CyberStrike 2 does not). This technology will not improve CyberStrike 2's frame-rate. A patch may be available in the future to get some benefit. While the ideal solution to slow frame rate is to upgrade your system, we recognize that not everyone can afford to upgrade their system just to play a game. Therefore, there are some software settings you can adjust to speed up the frame rate. Unfortunately, by adjusting some of those options, you may also lose some of the detail and dramatic visual effects in the game. To adjust the video settings, go to the OPTIONS screen and select the Video tab. Make the following changes to your video settings. These settings have different effects on frame rate and game speed depending on your system configuration. Change the settings one or two at a time and check to see what impact the changes have on your system before deciding to stick with the new settings. Use Low Resolution Textures and 8 Bit Textures Switch to a lower screen resolution (512 x 384) Under Jungle Canopy, select Light Canopy or No Canopy Turn off visual effects: Dynamic Lighting This setting has a large potential effect on frame rate and game speed. However, it also has a very large effect on game playability. On some some systems, night missions may become very difficult, even unplayable, with this option turned off. Glow Effects This setting has a large effect on frame rate and game speed for most systems. However, by turning this effect off you will lose a lot of the dynamic visual effects and night missions may become more difficult. Background Sky This setting has a moderate effect on frame rate and game speed. By turning off this setting you lose much of the visual effect during outdoor missions, but playability should not suffer. Texture Filtering This setting has moderate to little effect on frame rate and game speed. Turning off this effect will degrade the visual elements of the game. Detail Mapping This setting has the biggest effect on frame rate and game speed. However it also has the biggest effect on game playability. It is recommended that you do not turn off this effect. Fog This setting has little or no effect on frame rate or game speed on most systems. One feature that may improve frame rate while in the game is to turn off the information boxes that appear over the CyberPods. The semicolon key (;) acts a toggle switch to turn the information boxes off and on. By turning them off, you may see an immediate improvement in frame rate. However, the identity information those boxes provide will not be available. You can also disable the info boxes from the Video Options. This technique works on video cards where updating textures dynamically is slow. 3D CARD RECOMMENDATIONS For best results, we recommend a 3Dfx based video card. The game will run identically and with good frame rate (limited by the rest of your system configuration) on any Voodoo or Voodoo2 based system. A Voodoo Banshee chipset should also work, but none were available for testing. The Voodoo2 chipset, with its extra RAM is the best bet. Not only will the frame-rate be the best possible for your system, but the visual quality will be as the designers and artists intended. Other 3D accelerators have various problems with properly rendering the types of special effects we use throughout CyberStrike 2. A few chip sets such as the i740 and the RIVA TNT do a decent job. We expect some of the newer generations of 3D cards to do an even better job. But attempt to avoid "cheap" 3D cards because you "get what you pay for." Frequently Asked Questions The sound is garbled or not present, how can I improve the sound? Go to the OPTIONS screen and select the sound tab. Make sure that the Sound Effects and Music settings are turned on or off, depending on what you want. You can also increase or decrease volume from this screen. Switch back and forth between Direct Sound and WaveOut Sound to determine which setting gives you the best sound. The video looks great until I go to play a mission, then everything looks bad, or it stops working entirely. How can I fix this? Go to the OPTIONS screen and make sure you have the correct 3D Video Card selected. Only the specific cards listed are supported. Check your 3D video drivers against the list above. If a specific version of the driver is listed, make sure you have that version. Switch settings between Primary Video Driver, Glide Driver, and Direct X Driver to determine which works best for you. I get a mutual exclusion error when I try to launch the game using Glide 2. What do I do? You should update your Glide software to version 3.01. You can find it at http://www.3dfx.com. A copy should also be on the game CD-ROM. I see a lot of white boxes and video dropouts when I play. How can I fix this? If you see a lot of white boxes or video dropouts, it is because of a lack of video memory, or system memory. Make sure you have at least 32 MB of system memory. If the problem seems to be a lack of video memory, read the advice in the section above about Known Issues with Slow Frame Rate. That same advice applies to video dropout. When I try to move, my CyberPod seems to move sideways instead of straight ahead. What is the problem? Your CyberPod's chassis can turn independently of the torso. This means you can walk in one direction while looking in another direction. If you have a joystick with a POV Hat, the sensitivity setting or installation setting for it may be causing your CyberPod's chassis to turn when you don't mean for it. Exit from the game, bring up the Control Panel, double-click on the game controller icon, and reconfigure your joystick settings. If you inadvertently turn you CyberPod's chassis in the game, you can cause it to look straight forward by using the * key on the keypad, the Delete key, or the joystick button number 3. I have modified a lot of different options settings and everything is all messed up. How can I set it all back to the starting defaults? You can delete the file named GAME.CFG. The next time you start the game, it will prompt you to configure the game settings all over again. What is the difference between low resolution and high resolution graphics? There is a big difference in the amount of memory used, for a small to moderate improvement in the graphics. If your video card has 8 MB or more of video memory, you may want to use High Resolution and 16 Bit Textures. Some video cards do not support 16 Bit textures and may default to 8 Bit textures anyway. If you have less than 8 MB of video memory, you should always use Low Resolution and 8 Bit textures. CyberStrike 2 was designed around the use of the Low Resolution Textures, and they look great. You will see very little change by shifting to High Resolution, so even with lots of video memory, you may want to play with Low Resolution just to get a better frame rate. The display is very dark and difficult to see, even during the daytime missions. What can I do to brighten it? This is probably due to the Gamma Settings for you video card. To adjust the settings, exit from the game and go to the Windows Desktop. Right-click on a vacant area of the screen. Select Properties. Look for a tab that has the Gamma Settings for your video card, and adjust those settings to produce a brighter display. If you cannot find the Gamma Settings, refer to the owner's manual for your video card. The enemy CyberPods are really beating me up. Can I make the game easier? Yes. Go to the OPTIONS screen, select the Game tab, and switch the game difficulty to an easier level. How can I get more equipment and hire more CyberPilots? You cannot Buy or Sell equipment, or hire new CyberPilots until you have been promoted high enough to do so. When have been promoted far enough, click on the Buy/Sell control in the Mission Center. How do I see what skills the CyberPilots have? Right-click on the pilot's name, either in the arming screen, or the Buy/Sell screen. How do I know what each of the weapons and other modules do? While in the arming screen, or the Buy/Sell screen, you can right-click on any of the items to get more information. I need more equipment but I have run out of money. What do I do now? Play one or more Skirmish missions. Skirmish missions are random combat encounters, and you get paid for winning skirmishes between regular missions. However, it is a good idea to save your game before you go into Skirmish mode, just in case. When I am in the game I get stuck in sub-menus, like the Communication menu or the Module menu. How can I get out of these sub menus? You can wait a few seconds, don't press any keyboard controls, and the game will automatically drop out of the sub-menu. If you are in a hurry to get back control of your CyberPod, you can simply press the ESC key several times. Each time you press ESC, it drops back one sub-menu layer. Pressing ESC three or four times should guarantee that you drop back to the game. Are the missions always the same? All of the missions were developed using some very complex scripts and a highly sophisticated AI. While the mission objectives will always be the same, the way the mission plays out can change dramatically depending on what equipment you take and what you do during the mission. If you want some fun, random play, use the Skirmish mode. Skirmish mode allows you to set up a few parameters, and then play a random mission based on those settings. This is an excellent way to earn money later in the game when you start buying new equipment. It is also a good way to practice, since you can set up Skirmish missions with a wide variety of difficulties. Additions to Credits: Thanks to the additional 989 Testers who didn't make it into the credits in time: Justin Anelia Mike Moore Annette Almirol Customer Support For additional support, please contact 989 Studios Support at: 989 Studios Customer Support 1-888-GAMES02 (426-3702) 9:00 AM to 12:00 Midnight Pacific Time, 7 Days a Week Or look for 989 Studios on the web at: http://989studios.com The official CyberStrike 2 web site can be found at: http://www.cyberstrike2.net