How to play City Beneath the Surface? ------------------------------------- The object of the game is to survive the 30 levels in the city beneath the surface. This is not going to be easy and you might need some instructions before you get started. The very first thing you have to do is run SETSOUND.EXE and choose your sound card configuration. After this run CBS.EXE. Choose "new game" if you want to begin a new game, "load game" if you want to load a previously saved game or "show intro" if you want to read what this game is all about. When you begin a new game you have to create your characters. You have to choose a race, a face, a name, a class and roll the stats (strength, intelligence, agility and constitution) for all of the four characters. You can re-roll their stats as many times as you wish. When you have created your characters, choose "start" and the game starts. You don't necessarily have to create your own characters if you don't want to. You can load one of the six example groups that we have created and start playing with that. You can move you characters by using the numeric keys on your keyboard as following: Turn left Step forward Turn right 7 8 9 \ | / \ / Step left 4 --- 5 --- 6 Step right Step back In the 3D-screen you will see what your characters see. Walls, monsters, doors, locks, holes, levers, buttons and many other things. We don't bother to explain all their functions. You should be able to figure them out quite easily. Just click the thing and see what happens. You can pick up items by clicking the left mousebutton and drop items when clicking the left button a second time. If you want to strike enemies with your weapons, click the right mousebutton when the cursor is over the weapon you want to use. Note that the weapon must be in one of your character's hand if you want to use that weapon. Some weapons require two hands, so your character may not wear a shield if he is using a weapon that requires both hands. Your mages and clerics can cast spells to help their life in some way, for example by damaging the enemy or by healing one of your characters. Click the "spells" button, choose the spell caster and throw a spell by clicking it's name on the screen. When you cast a spell a certain amount of magic points is reduced from the character who casts the spell to represent exhaustion. If you don't have enough magic points left to cast a spell, you won't be able to do so! The amount of magic points required to cast a spell is shown beside the name of the spell. We didn't include a list of spells here because we didn't feel it would be necessary. You should be able to figure them out. In the "char" screen you can equip your characters with different items such as weapons, rings, armour and shields. Just drop the item to it's location and your character wears it. In the "equip" screen you can put all your general equipment. Click the arrow if there's not enough space for all of your stuff and a second "equip" screen appears. There is a yellow box around the picture of one of your characters. This character is the "active" character. When you cast a spell to help one of your characters, it is cast to the active character. Also any potions drunk by dragging the potion on the drink button are drunk by the active character. You can change the active character by clicking it's picture. The numbers shown under the picture of your character are his hitpoints. The hitpoints represent his general endurance and ability to receive blows. When the hitpoints drop to zero or below, the character dies and cannot be resurrected in any way. "AC" means armour class. This represents the total protection your character's armour, shields and some other items or spells give. The higher the armour class, the less your character receives damage. The "rest" button is quite useful. Resting gives your characters back their original hit points and magic points. You can't rest if there are enemies nearby. The rest of the "camp" screen should be clear to you; click "save" to save the game, "load" to load a saved game, "quit" to quit and "effects" to turn the sound effects on/off. When you kill a lot of enemies, you will gain a lot of experience points, and when one of your characters collects enough experience, he will gain a level when you rest the next time. The level represents the skill of your character. When your character gains a level, he will become a better man/orc/whatever. He will be a better fighter, he will have more hitpoints and magic points, and maybe he will learn a few new spells. Your characters have a level of 5 at the start of the game. Now you should be able to play the game. We probably forgot something important, but we believe that you are able to learn the game quite easily. Just run CBS.EXE and have fun!