FreedroidRPG: README
   ----------------------

0. INDEX
=========
  1. Introduction
  2. Install & Play
  3. Basic controls
  4. Known issues
  5. Screen resolution
  6. FAQ
     - Miscellaneous
     - Graphics
     - Sound
     - Level Editor & Developer
  7. Contact us
  8. Licence


1. Introduction
================
 This game tells the story of a world destroyed by a conflict between the droids and their human
 masters. Play as Tux in a quest to save the world from the murderous rebel droids who know no
 mercy. You get to choose which path you wish to follow, and freedom of choice is everywhere 
 in the game.

 FreedroidRPG features a complete real time combat system with melee and ranged weapons, fairly
 similar to the proprietary game Diablo. There also is an innovative system of magic, with features such as 
 forced casting and over 20 spells. You can use over 50 different kinds of items and fight countless 
 enemies on your way to your destiny. We have an advanced dialogue system, which aims at being at
 least on par with Fallout's. The dialogues in the game represent a large part of the gameplay. 
 Finally, if guns are too inaccurate and blades too messy, you can always take over your enemies and
 have them fight on your side.


2. Install & Play
===========
 For general help with installation, please refer to the INSTALL file located in the same folder as this file.
 Specific instructions for Ubuntu:  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6127097#post6127097

 To run the game you normally just have to launch the executable.
 For advanced options execute "freedroidRPG --help" (in a terminal) to get a list of commandline options.


3. Controls
============
 Movement
 
  The game is controlled using the mouse. Left click onto the locations you want to move to.  Hold 
  the button down to keep moving in that direction.  Holding down CTRL key will make you run.

 Attack

  Left clicking an enemy will cause Tux to come close to the droid and to start attacking it with the 
  current weapon. If the current weapon is a gun then Tux will stand still and shoot the droid.
 
 Special functions

  Use the right click to activate the currently selected skill/program. 

 Default keys (most keys can be reassigned with the ingame key chart - F1)

  Escape     ... Show main menu
  F1         ... Show keychart
  F2         ... Toggle fullscreen (Linux only)
  F3         ... Quicksave
  F4         ... Quickload
  F5-F12     ... Quick-select program 1 through 8

  I          ... Inventory panel
  C          ... Character panel
  S          ... Skills/Program panel
  Space      ... Close all open panels
  Q          ... Quest log
  0-9        ... Use quick-inventory items 0-9

  P          ... Pause
  Hold A     ... Attack while staying at the same position
  Hold Shift ... Keep current target selected when moving
  Tab        ... Toggle automap

  R          ... Reload weapon
  Hold Ctrl  ... Run
  U          ... Toggle always run

  Hold X     ... Show labels for items on the ground
  Z          ... Toggle show labels for items on the ground
  T          ... Toggle walls becoming transparent when Tux approaches (OpenGL only)


4. Known Issues
================
 General
   * Most melee and ranged weapons only have placeholder laserswords/rifles for their Tux holding 
     and attack animations. If you are skilled with 3D modelling, please help us out to fix this.

 Windows 
   * Using the tool IZarc to unpack the downloaded zip breaks the game. IZarc apparently can not 
     handle filenames without extensions. Please use other options, e.g. 7zip, winzip, winrar etc, to 
     correctly unpack the game.

 Mac
    * Open Files: OSX max number of open files defaults to 256 (as of 10.6). This can lead to errors when 
      loading images: "In Function: get_iso_image_from_file_and_path. Could not load image 
      /usr/local/share/freedroidrpg/graphics//obstcles/<filename>.png"
      Solution:
        1) Check value of open files limit with $ ulimit -n
        2) Set new value for open files limit with $ ulimit -n 2048
      (issue #2913487)
    * Font rendering: If you get no fonts in the main menu with SDL or if in openGL mode, the game dies 
      with the error message "In Function: PutCharFont. Surface for character 46 was NULL pointer!", 
      check your display configuration and set the color profile to sRGB.
      (issues #2913485 and #2913484)

 Linux
   * Pulseaudio: Using SDL-pulseaudio you are currently likely to not get sound. This has nothing to do 
     with FDRPG but with Pulseaudio and it's plugins still in general being unmature. We recomend using
     eg SDL-esd or SDL-alsa until these problems has been fixed upstream. If you manage to get a working 
     config, do let us know so we can update this entry with versionnumbers etc.
   * AMD/ATI R300 graphics cards: Mesa 6.5.2 does not support user clipping planes which breaks the 
     text in freedroidRPG. Upgrading to Mesa 7 fixes this.
   * When playing in SDL windowed mode, teleporting has the side effect of changing the brightness
     of the whole screen instead of just the game window, if the option
     (Options -> Performance Tweaks ->) Skip fadings is set to "NO".


5. Screen resolution
=====================
 There are a few hidden high resolution settings only accessible from commandline. They are badly tested 
 and thus generally considered to be buggy and are unsupported. They however can still be quite useful for
 many, especially for widescreen LCDs in fullscreen mode. 

 To get an up-to-date list of available resolutions use "freedroidRPG -r99".

 Some known issues for the unsupported resolutions:
    - Portrait image in dialogs overflows its borders
    - Off center light radius
    - Incorrect text scrolling when talking to NPCs at times


6. FAQ
============
Miscellaneous FAQ:

	Q: Do I have to have Linux to try out Freedroid/FreedroidRPG?
	A: While using Linux is greatly recommended for the sanity of the system
	   administrator, FreedroidClassic and FreedroidRPG both have MS-Windows
	   executables available. Note that since the FreedroidRPG development team
	   doesn't use MS-Windows, it gets much less testing. Help with testing and
	   feedback from Windows users thus is greatly appreciated.

	Q: How can I subscribe/unsubscribe to the mailing list?
	A: Freedroid has two mailing list. One is for discussing stuff related to
	   Freedroid, the other one is a list with auto-generated changelogs from our 
	   developer server and therefore usually only interesting for developers themselves.
	   In any case, you can subscribe, unsubscribe or change your membership options
       from the following web page:  
	   http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=54521

Graphics FAQ:

	Q: The game is *extremely* slow on my system running Windows and using OpenGL output.
	A: It might be that you're using the OpenGL drivers that came with your
	   operating system from Microsoft. These drivers don't use hardware acceleration
	   and are therefore extremely slow. You'll have to download and install a real
	   OpenGL capable driver for you graphics card. Usually these can be downloaded 
	   from the home page of the graphics chip manufacturer, typically Nvidia, AMD/ATI,
	   etc. Note, that if you do absolutely cannot get OpenGL working reliably on your
	   system, you can still run the game in pure SDL output mode. For this, you
	   must either use a 'MS-DOS command line prompt' and type

	   freedroidRPG -n 

	   inside this command line, or you can also make a link to freedroidRPG.exe
	   and then edit the link properties and add the -n after freedroidRPG.exe in
	   the link properties dialog box.

	Q: The game is *extremely* slow on my Linux machine with OpenGL enabled.
	A: The reason for this might be that you're not using hardware accelerated OpenGL.
	   Software OpenGL should be avoided.  If you don't have hardware-accelerated
	   OpenGL on your system (because e.g. your graphics card manufacturer doesn't
	   make suitable Linux drivers), you might be much better off when disabling
	   OpenGL support altogether.  For this, you can use command line switch -n,
	   i.e type

	   freedroidRPG -n

	   to start the game with OpenGL output disabled.  Graphics will revert to
	   pure SDL mode.

Sound FAQ:

	Q: My sound isn't working with FreedroidRPG. I don't hear anything.
	A: 1.)  Make sure your sound is working with other applications. If you
		    don't hear anything when trying to play simple mp3 files or ogg files,
		    then the sound system on your machine is not properly set up and it's
		    not a freedroid related problem. In that case, you must install your
		    sound card properly first.
	   2.)  See if you have the SDL_mixer libraries installed. You might want
		    to use "locate SDL_mixer" and see if you get a lot of results.  If
		    not, then the missing SDL_mixer library is the problem.
		    Also check if you have libogg and libvorbis installed.
	   3.)  If you're compiling from source, make sure the ./configure script has
		    properly detected the SDL_mixer library. Just look at the ./configure
		    output. There should be a line like:
	  
		      checking for Mix_ChannelFinished in -lSDL_mixer... yes

		    If you get instead something like

		      checking for Mix_ChannelFinished in -lSDL_mixer... no

		    then the ./configure script didn't detect your SDL_mixer
		    installation. You might want to make sure you've got SDL_mixer and
		    SDL_mixer_devel packages installed or install SDL_mixer from source.
		    You can download everything from here:

		      http://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_mixer/

		    If you compiled from source, you'll have to recompile now, because the
		    previous compile didn't include the sound module of FreedroidRPG. If
		    the SDL_mixer stuff is installed properly, it should work after the
		    recompile.

	Q: My sound is lagging behind. Every sound seems to be somewhat out of sync.
	A: There might be a sound daemon running on your system.  Many window managers
	   like e.g. KDE start a sound daemon by default upon startup. To get rid of
	   the most common sound daemons, you can try (best as root)

	   killall -9 artsd
	   killall -9 esd
	   killall -9 yiff

	   After that, you might want to try freedroid again. The sound lag should
	   not be present anymore.

Level Editor & Developer FAQ:

	Q: Is there a Level editor?
	A: Yes, we have a level editor integrated into FreedroidRPG. It can be accessed 
       from the main menu. It has tooltips on every button to help you find your 
       way. Play around with it a bit by yourself and don't hesitate to ask for
       assistance on IRC or the mailing list.

	Q: How can I get the latest development version of the game?
	A: This is very simple when using Linux. You can find the details here:
	   https://sourceforge.net/svn/?group_id=54521
	   If you are using Windows we recomend using a tool like eg 
	   http://tortoisesvn.tigris.org/
	   If you still run into problems, best again discuss it with the people on
	   the freedroid-discussion mailing list.

	Q: I want to help out with FreedroidRPG development.  What should I do first?
	A: Best thing is to first subscribe to the freedroid-discussion mailing list.
	   Then the next thing to do is to get the latest development version of the game
	   from SVN, then to either make a small patch right away or to discuss anything
	   bigger you have in mind with the people on the discussion mailing list, so it
	   can be assured that all the developers are pulling in the same direction and
	   know what's going on and who is working on what.
	   If you are new to the Sourceforge, you should also take at least a brief look
	   at our Sourceforge project pages. You can find the main page here
	   http://sourceforge.net/projects/freedroid
	   and other relevant pages should be reachable from there.

	Q: How can I add a character to FreedroidRPG?
	A: This involves several steps:  
	   1. A new map label must be created, so that the game knows where to place the 
		  new character inside the game.
	   2. A dialog section should be written, so that there can be some interaction
		  (other than combat) with this character.
	   3. The dialog section should get a number associated with it, which involves
		  some very minor modification of the program code. 
	   4. An entry in the character list has to be added, so that the new character
		  will be added in any new games from then on. (Old saved games will remain
		  unaffected.) You can specify what the character should look like, i.e. what 
		  model should be used for your character and stuff like that.
	   Hint:  Best send word to the developers.  We'll be happy to help or also to
	   include the new character in the next version of the game, if it comes with
	   a good dialog.


7. Contact
===========
 Website       ................ http://freedroid.sourceforge.net/
 Forum         ................ https://sourceforge.net/apps/phpbb/freedroid/
 IRC channel   ................ #freedroid on irc.freenode.net
 Mailing list  ................ freedroid-discussion@lists.sourceforge.net
 Sourceforge project page   ... http://sourceforge.net/projects/freedroid/

 For below trackers, sort for Status:OPEN and correct Category: and press the filter-button
 Bug tracker   ................ https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=54521&atid=474016
 Feature Request tracker ...... https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=54521&atid=474019


8. Licence
===========
 The game itself is licensed under GPL. Some other tools use a more permissive license, 
 please refer to the FILES file located in the same folder as this file.