FREEDROID(6) User Manuals FREEDROID(6)NAMEfreedroid - a free Paradroid clone
SYNOPSISfreedroid [ 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
(almost) no debug output. LEVEL 1 prints the most important
debug messages and LEVEL 2 or LEVEL 3 print (almost) all debug
output, which might be quite a lot.
HOW TO PLAY
Moving and Firing
The influence device can be moved inside the ship by either
using 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
using 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
directly in front of a console terminal and then press the e key
to activate the console. Inside the console you will have
access to a small scale map of the current deck, a side eleva‐
tion of the ship and to the droid database of the ship. Note
however, that access to the droid database is achieved via the
security 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
always 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
refresh field, where some of the energy lost so far can be
restored. But note also, that only energy loss due to colli‐
sions, 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 ALSOfreedroidRPG(6),
Linux MARCH 2003 FREEDROID(6)
