INTRODUCTION
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     Welcome to Gene Splicing.  A science fiction roleplaying game which takes
place roughly 75 years into the future, during the later half of the 21st
century.
     With people living longer than ever before, the economy of the world
began to feel the weight.  Outer space looked more appealing as the answer
for everything.  New jobs off world and curving the population living on
earth.  For the first time in decades, governments began to increase funding
towards space administrations.
     The Space Security Agency has been created in an attempt to help monitor
the ever increasing off world activity.  However many costly problems have
plagued the development of this new agency.  And now with several political
groups calling for its termination, the SSA's future has come into jeopardy.
In this game, you are the latest inductee into this agency.  What perfect
timing...

CREATING A CHARACTER
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     When starting a new game you will need to create a new character.  Your
character will be your alter ego in the game world.  Character generation
involves accepting a set of randomly generated ability scores, choosing a
gender, selecting a portrait, and providing a name for your character.

STATISTICS
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All characters have four ability scores...

Strength     - A high strength score can help inflict additional damage with
               melee weapons.  It will also increase the number of items you
               can carry.
Intelligence - The higher your intelligence rating the more PSI points you
               will have.  Some NPCs, however, have no psionic capability and
               so a high IQ will not benefit them.
Agility      - A valuable attribute that can increase your Defense rating as
               well as increase your chances of striking a target using ranged
               weapons.
Endurance    - This determines how healthy your character is.  A high endurance
               will increase the number of hit points you receive each time
               you attain a higher level.

     Ability scores start off for a level 1 character ranging anywhere from
1-10.  The scores can increase over time as your character attains higher
levels through experience.  The maximum any ability score can be is 20.

Gender -  Either male or female.

PSI    -  Represents the number of psionic points your character has.

Hits   -  The number of health points your character has.

Level  -  A measure of how much your character has advanced.  When a
          character has achieved enough experience points, that character
          automatically increases in level.  See the chart at the end of
          this documentation to learn how many experience points are needed
          to advance to each level.

PLAYING THE GAME
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     The main game screen is set up with three windows.  The upper left box
displays a first person view of the area you are in.  The upper right box
is the message area.  This will contain descriptions of areas and often
present sub menus during special encounters.
     The box at the lower right, beneath the message area, displays party
information.  This can detail the roster of characters present or display
data on a specific character.  Also on this screen is a compass to assist
you in exploring.
     Movement is accomplished by clicking on one of the arrow buttons beneath
the 3-D window.  Or positioning the mouse cursor within the 3-D window and
clicking.  Or by using the keyboard.  Keyboard movement involves either using
the arrow keys or the keypad.  Left handed players can use the 6 farthest left
keys on their keyboard for movement if they desire.
     Plus there are additional options available to you by pointing the mouse
cursor to one of four buttons at the bottom of the screen and clicking the
left mouse button, or by pressing the first letter of the option.

OPTIONS MENU
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Selecting the "Options" button will present the following...

SAVE GAME      - Select this option to store your game so that you can resume
                 it later at your current location. Remember to save often.
                 Especially after really tough battles.
RESTORE GAME   - Select this option to resume a game from a previous saved
                 position.
RETURN TO GAME - As it implies, select this to return to your current game.
                 Pressing the escape key also works.
EXIT GAME      - Select this to quit the game.  Don't forget to save the game
                 first if you want to continue at your current point at a
                 later time.

AUTOMAP
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     The automap displays where you currently are as well as where you have
been and seen in the current area.  Select the continue button to exit the map
and return to the game.

CHANGE ORDER
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     Changes how the characters are listed when viewing the character roster.
Those at the top of the list are closest to your opponents during combat.
The first four characters are considered in melee range.  Any more characters
are behind them and safely out of range of hand-to-hand type attacks.  However
they can still be attacked by ranged weapons.

VIEW ROSTER/VIEW CHARACTER BUTTON
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     The button at the bottom right corner of the game screen toggles between
displaying the party roster and the active character.

INVENTORY
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     During the course of the game you will discover many items along the way.
Some equipment will have obvious uses like that laser rifle.  However other
not so obvious items may be important to finishing the game.

The following options are available to you in the inventory window...

Equip   - Select this to ready an item in your inventory.  Weapons and armor
          cannot be put to use until they are equipped.
Unequip - To unready an item select this option followed by the item you
          want to de-equip.
Trade   - To pass an item to another character in your group.  The item you
          wish to trade must not be equipped to perform the trade.
Drop    - To remove an item from your inventory.  Select this option should
          you need to make room in your inventory to carry a new item.  You 
          will not be able to drop an item that is equipped until you    
          unequip it first.  Be sure that you want to drop an item!  For once
          you do it will be gone forever.

Tips on Inventory
-----------------
     While in the SSA headquarters stock up on ammunition clips in the armory.
There are an unlimited number of clips to be taken.
     The higher a character's strength score, the more items that person can
carry.
     If you are out of inventory slots and need to carry something, you can
safely drop any empty clips as a way of making room.  Careful about dropping
keys.  Also consider trading any items to an NPC to make more room.  But be
aware that some NPCs may not want to give the item back later.  It's always
safe to let another SSA agent hold equipment for you.

Non-Player Characters (NPCs)
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     During the game you will encounter numerous characters.  Some will simply
speak with you.  Some will want to join your ranks and travel with you.  And
others will be out to kill you, in which case you will be forced to enter
combat with them.
     Those npc's which can join your party of characters will fight along side
you in combat.  They have their own statistics and equipment just like your
character, however when in combat, the computer handles their actions.  These
npc's also have their own behaviors.  For example the npc, Ann Palmer, will
happily trade any items to you and others.  However not all characters that
you meet will be so giving.  Some will only assist you if it does not place
them in too much jeopardy and others may be quite selfish.

COMBAT
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     Quite often you will enter combat.  Combat consists of rounds.  You
determine what actions you want your character to take, NPC's in your group
determine their actions, and your opponents decide theirs as well.  Then the
combat round begins where all actions set for that round are resolved and
their results are displayed.
     If you find the scrolling text is moving too fast or too slow, you can
adjust the speed at which it is displayed between combat rounds by clicking
on one of the two arrow boxes in the window border.  The red bar acts as a
speed indicator.  When the bar is completely red, the text is scrolling as
fast as it can.  When it's completely grey, the text is scrolling at its
slowest.
     When you have an encounter with hostiles, you will first be presented
with a menu consisting of 2 or 3 options:

Fight    - To initiate an attack.
Run Away - To attempt to flee from the encounter.  The farther away you are
           from the closet group of enemies, the more likely you will be able
           to successfully escape.  Likewise, the closer you are to your
           opponents the less likely you'll be able to get away.
Advance  - To proceed forward by 10 feet.  By spending time leading your
           group forward you miss out on any other actions for the current
           combat round.  It may be necessary to advance if your opponents
           are out of your attack range.  This third option only appears if
           your party is more than 10 feet away from your closest opponent.

     If you have selected to fight, you will be presented with another menu
for which you can tell the game what you want your character to do for the
next round.

Attack Opponents - To perform a physical attack with a weapon.  Although using
                   a gun isn't necessary.  With no weapon equipped, your fists
                   are used.
Defend           - To stand back from fighting for the next round.  Although
                   your opponents may still attack you, they will receive a
                   -2 to hit.  If you have very few hit points left this may
                   be a wise move to perform.
Psionic Attack   - To attack an opponent by focusing your mental energies on
                   its mind.  There is no such thing as "missing" with this
                   kind of attack.   The damage inflicted is determined by
                   taking your experience Level and multiplying that by a
                   factor of 2.  Thus, if you are a level 1, then you will do
                   2 points of damage.  If you are level 2, you will do 4
                   points of damage.  And so on and so forth.  The number of
                   Psionic Attacks you can perform is revealed on your
                   character's stats, labeled as PSI.  Once you have a 0 for
                   your current PSI, you will not be able to use this attack
                   again until you have recuperated from the mental strain
                   naturally or through the use of drugs.
Give Order       - If there are any NPC's with you, then this option will be
                   present.  You can tell an NPC to perform an action like
                   one of the first three options you have above.  Although
                   odds are the NPC will perform the action you want him/her
                   to do, the final call ultimately rests on that character to
                   carry out your order.  And so there is a small possibility
                   the NPC will not do as you wish.

     Besides the options above, you can also access your inventory by
selecting the "Inventory" option at the bottom of the screen.
     Each time you kill an opponent, you will receive a certain amount of
experience points that will be added to your EXP score.  Tougher
opponents give more experience than weaker ones.  The one who kills an enemy
will receive full experience for it while remaining party members will get
half.

Tips on Combat
--------------
     The first four characters in your party are considered to be in melee
range.  If you have more than four characters in your party, move the weakest
ones into the back, thereby keeping them out of range of any opponents who
do not use shooting weapons.
     If you run out of ammunition and have no loaded clips to spare, remember
to unequip your weapon so as to at least punch.  Otherwise you'll miss out
on attack rounds attempting to shoot an unloaded weapon.
     If a character has few hit points left, you should trade any sort of
healing items to that character in between combat rounds and have him/her
equip it to restore some of the lost hit points.

TABLES
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 Level     Experience needed
-----------------------------
   1                     0
   2                  1000
   3                  2000
   4                  4000
   5                  8000
   6                 16000
   7                 32000
   8                 64000
   9                128000
  10                256000
  11                512000
  12                768000
  13               1024000
  14               1280000
  15               1536000
  16               1792000
  17               2048000
  18               2304000
  19               2560000
  20               2816000

*Required experience is doubled each level until Level 10.  After that, an
 additional 256,000 experience points is needed to gain a level up to the
 maximum of 20th.


When a character attains a level, he or she receives hit points as well as
an additional skill point to one of their ability scores.  The higher an
ability score, the more proficient a character becomes.  For example, a
character with a Strength score of 11 has a +3 bonus, enabling him to do
+3 damage with physical attacks and get 3 additional inventory slots.

Ability Score   Ability Bonus
-------------   -------------
     1-8              0
      9              +1
     10              +2
     11              +3
     12              +4
     13              +5
     14              +6
     15              +7
     16              +8
     17              +9
     18              +10
     19              +11
     20              +12


Here are some of the items to be found in the game...
 
 Weapon Name        Ammo Type        Target        Range       Damage
 -----------        ---------        ------        -----       ------
 Knife                None           Single         10          1-4
 9mm Pistol           Clip           Single         30          1-5+1
 Minigun              Clip           Group          40          1-5+1
 Laser Pistol       Power Pack       Single         50          1-8
 Shotgun              Clip           Single         20          1-8+2
 
 Defense Unit   Increase Defense by
 ------------   -------------------
 Shield Belt                     2
 Kevlar Vest                     3
 Combat Helmet                   1

 Health Unit    Affect
 -----------    ------
 First Aid Kit  Heals 5 points of damage


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WEB SITE:  http://neptune.spaceports.com/~splicing/
EMAIL:  genesplicing@spacemail.com

Gene Splicing has been created by Adam Stanchos.
Copyright (C) 1998, Nachos Software.
All rights reserved.

-End of Documentation-
