Shotstone 3D Curling Game - Version 1.0 Readme file Thank you for purchasing a copy of Shotstone. We sincerely hope you are enjoying the game. We had fun programming it. Contained in here are some instructions for this version of shotstone, as well as some trouble shooting tips. Contents ========== 1. Menus a) Setup menu b) Practice menu c) Standalone menu d) Multiplayer menu e) Credits menu 2. Gameplay a) 3D Camera views b) Throwing a rock c) Sweeping d) Controlling the speed of gameplay e) Scoring f) Strategy 3. General Troubleshooting a) Missing "dll" error b) Poor graphics performance c) Antialiasing settings d) Playing the game on laptops e) Troubleshooting multiplayer =================================== 1. Menus A) Setup menu ============= Play On Any Rink You Like: The setup menu allows you to configure Shotstone to your liking. You can play on rinks 1 thru 6 by simply clicking on the appropriate number. Adjust The Friction On the Ice: The coefficient of friction of the ice can be adjusted as well. Just click and drag the rock in the middle of the slider bar labelled "Select Ice Speed" to adjust for faster or slower ice. Adjust The Amount Of Curl: The amount of curl can be adjusted as well. Just click and drag the rock in the middle of the slider bar labelled "Select Ice Swing" to make straight or swingy ice. The combination of the two slider bars should allow you to accurately reproduce any ice conditions you may have played on, and probably some that you haven't! Adjust the Ice Conditions; The actual ice conditions can be adjusted as well by selecting "Ideal" or "Realistic". Under the ideal setting, the speed of the ice does not cahnge with time. The ice will be identical from the first end the last and is useful for those players who are new to the game. If the conditions are set to "Realistic", then the ice will become keener as more rocks travel down it, just like in a real game. The game keeps track of where the rocks have traveled on the ice surface and adjusts the coefficient of friction slightly in that area. In an actual game of curling, the ice conditions can change by 25% or more, so watch out, it'll get slick! Adjust the Level Of Detail: Those players with slower computers may want to consider setting the "Level Of Detail" to "Low" instead of "High". This setting supresses the rendering of the characters, so those players with slower machines will notice much better game performance. Choose the Rule Set You can choose to play "Canadian" rules, in which a three rock guard rule is in effect, or "International" rules in which a 4 rock guard rule is in effect. Under the three rock rule, you may not remove a guard from play until the third rock is ready to be thrown. Under the four rock rule, you may not remove a guard from play until the fourth rock is ready to be thrown. Choose How Many Ends You Want To Play Type in the number of ends, from 1 to 10 and start playing! Press the back arrow when you're ready to start playing. B) Practice Menu ================ Selecting practice puts you into a game mode which allows you to set the rocks in any configuration you like, save the shot, and then practice it over and over. To start, click on a rock and hold the mouse button down, and drag the rock into the desired position. Once you are happy with the position let go of the mouse button and the rock will stop moving. Repeat until you have the desired configuration. Once you're ready to shoot, you may save the rock configuration by clicking on the "Save" icon. When you're ready to throw, click on the "Throw" icon and you will be sitting in the hack, ready to throw. The throwing process is explained in the GamePlay section (f). C) Standalone Menu ================== Pressing "Standalone" allows you to play either head to head against another person on your computer, or to simply play against the computer itself. You are shown a screen with two players sweeping. Under the red player are two icons, a human head and a computer terminal. Click on the human head if you desire a head to head matchup, and click on the computer icon if you'd like to play against the computer. Also, enter your names in the boxes provided by clicking in the name box and typing. Hit the backspace key to remove the current name. Once you're ready to go, click the arrow in the lower right corner. If you want to exit this menu click on the arrow to the left. D) Multiplayer Menu =================== Pressing "Multiplayer' allows you to play a game of curling over the internet with another person. You have two options. You may "Start A Game" on your machine, or you may "Join A Game" on someone else's machine. The only supported connections is via TCPIP, which is the usual way of connecting to the internet. if you want to "Join A Game", you will need to know the IP address of the computer that started the game (the host). To find this out, the host must tell you either by email, phone, ot instant messanging his or her ip address. If you are hosting a game, and you want to determine you IP address, follow these steps: Determining your IP Address (Host only) 1) Before gameplay starts, go to the start menu, click "Programs", and click on "MS-DOS Prompt". Under Windows XP choose "Start->All Programs->Accessories->command Prompt". 2) When the command prompt window comes up, type "ipconfig" and press return. If you are connected to the internet, a series of numbers will appear on the screen. Write down the number which says "IP Address" beside it. it will be something like 25.83.205.114 or something similar. Write this number down and communicate it to the client so he/she can connect to the game. Joining a Game If you choose to join a game, you must type in the ip address of the host into the section labelled "Enter Host IP Address". Click in the box, press the backspace key to delete the ip address contained there, and type the host's IP address, including the "." characters. Enter you name in the box labelled "Enter Team Name". Once you're ready to connect, click on the rock in the lower right portion of the screen. The connection status may be monitored int he "Connection Status" box. It will change from "Not Connected" to "Initializing Internet Connections". Once you are connected to the host computer, the screen will read "Game joined! Press Start to Play!" At this point the game may be started by clicking the rock on the lower right. If you recieve another message, then something has failed. Please refer to the Multiplayer Troubleshooting section of this document. Starting a Game If you choose to start a game, click on the "Start a Game" text, and then enter your team name in the box provided. Click on the box, and use the backspace key to erase the current name and enter your own. Once you're ready, click the rock in the bottom right corner. The connection status may be monitored in the "connection Status" box. It will change from "Not Connected", to "Initializing Internet Connections", then to "Game Started. Waiting for player to connect". If the player is able to connect to the game, the message will read "Player has joined the game. Press start to play!". At this point the game may be started by clicking on the button on the lower right. If you receive another message, then something has failed. Pleae refer to the Multiplayer Troubleshooting section of this manual. Multiplayer Concept The multiplayer concept is implemented using Direct Play with a Peer to Peer model. In this model, both computers are active participants in the game play. When computer A and B are connected, and it's computer A's turn to shoot, computer A does all the motion computations and tells computer B what to draw. Similarily, when it's computer B's turn to shoot, it does all the motion computations and tells computer A what to draw. In this way both computers take an active and equal role in the game. Multiplayer Troubleshooting 1) "Unable to connect to 123.456.789.0" - The computer at the specified ip address is refusing the connection. Ensure that you have typed the right IP address. If you've tried it several times, then make sure that the host actually has started a game on his or her computer. If they have done that, then exit the game and ensure that any firewall software, such as Zone Alarm, is completely shut down. It's often not enough to just turn off "Program Control', you MUST shut it down completely. Tell the host to do the same. Once the firewalls are off, try the conection again. If it still doesn't work, then the problem may be beyond your control. If either your computer or the host computer sits behind a corporate firewall, and you are trying to connect through the firewall, then the chances of connecting successfully are slim. The firewalls are programmed to block connections on the gaming ports. There's not much you can do at this point, unless you feel confident about talking to your sysadmin to program the firewall to let the connection through. 2) "Connected to 123.456.789.0 but timed out waiting for server to respond" - the connection attempt was successful, but the server didn't send a message after you connected. This could be due to the server shutting down the game, or some network problem. Contact the server and ensure that his/her machine is up and running. Try the connection agian. if it still fails then it could be something wrong with the network. Talk to your network administrator to try to diagnose the problem. Again, make sure that all firewall software is shut down completely on both machines. 3) "Unable to initialize game" - this is a rare one. The connection is fine, but you weren't able to initialize your own game to play. It could be a packet got corrupted during the network transmission. Exit the game and try to connect again. If it still doesn't work, make sure that you have no other programs running, like Word, or Excel, or anything like that. A reboot may be in order as well. 4) "Timed out waiting for client to respond" - Client connected to the game, but the client didn't send us a response when we queried him. Could be a network problem. Check your network connections. Try the connection again. If it happens again then it could be caused by an extremely slow connection. The timeout is 5 seconds. If the round trip message time is greater than that, then you won't be able to play a very good game online with this person anyways, since the connection is likely too slow. 5) "Failed Creating the IDirectPlay8Address Object" - failed during the initializing of Direct Play. Try rebooting you machine, and make sure nothing else is running while you're trying to play the game. If it happens again, you may consider reinstalling Direct Play to see if that solves the problem. 6) "Failed Setting the Service Provider to TCPIP" - your computer isn't connected to the internet via TCPIP. You may need to install TCPIP fromm your Windows disks. Consult the windows help for guidance on how to do this. 7) "Failed Adding Hostname to Host Address" - you may have typed the IP address incorrectly. Try again, ensuring that the "." characters are there. 8) "Failed Hosting Session" - odd one - the computer failed to host the session - you may have too many things running on your computer. Try shutting down other programs that are running. A reboot may be in order as well. If the problem continues then you may need to reinstall Direct X 8.1. 9) "Failed Connecting to Host" - the client failed to connect to the host. Ensure the IP address is correct and retry. if the connection still fails, then check the network settings and connections, and shutdown all firewalls. E) Credits Menu ================ Click on the credits menu to see pictures of us, the Shotstone team, and see the screens where we thank everyone for helping make this dream a reality. 2. GamePlay =========== Whether you're playing in Standalone mode, or Multiplayer mode, the gameplay is essentially the same in both modes. a) Camera Views There are 5 different camera views available to you in the game. These are listed below: F1 - thrower view. Press the up and down arrow keys to pan up and down while in this view. F2 - Skip view. Press the up and down and left and right arrow keys to slide left, right, and up and down. F3 - Overhead house view. Press the up and down arrow keys to pan the camera forward and back. F4 - Rock Cam. Not for people who get dizzy easily. Look up and down with the up and dwon arrow keys. F5 - Free cam mode. Press the up and down, and left and right arrow keys to walk around the rink, anywhere you like. Levitate with the "s" and "x" keys, and look up and down with the "a" and "z" keys. Try flying through the HVAC pipes. It's quite reminiscent of flying through the trench in the Death Star in Star Wars. b) Throwing a rock There are two components to throwing the rock: aiming the shot and picking the power. If you're off the broom, your rock won't curl to the right place. If you have too little power, you'll hog the rock. if you have too much power you'll throw it right through the house. Tricky business! The first step is to set up the skip position. Setting up the skip position Because the rock curls in the direction it turns, we want to place the skip's broom NOT at the place we want the rock to end up, but rather at the place where if we hit the broom, the rock will curl to the correct position. For instance, if we think the rock will curl 3 feet in it's travel down the ice, and we want the rock to end up on the button, where do we place the broom? On the button? No, because then the rock will end up three feet away from the button. We need to set the skips broom three feet to the side of the button to compensate for the curl. To set the skip position, press F2 to get into the Skip View. Then if we press the "shift" key and the arrow keys at the same time, we can set the skip position to anywhere in the house. You may also press the F3 key to get a different view for setting up the skip. Selecting the turn The rock curls in the direction it turns. If it is turning clockwise, it will curl to the right and if it is turning counter clockwise it will curl to the left. Press F1 to get into thrower view. The curved green arrow shows you the current direction of the turn. Press the "tab" key to change turns. The arrow direction will change. Throwing the Rock There are two ways to throw the rock: Easy (no slide) and Hard(slide). We'll discuss both in turn. Start with easy and when you're ready for a challenge try hard. Easy: Press the throw icon on the power bar to your right. Press and hold the left mouse button. Drag the mouse forward and notice the power level increasing in the power bar. This controls how much power you are putting into the shot. Move the mouse left and right and notice that the red arrow is moving with the mouse. This is the direction that you are shooting. Aim at the broom! When you're happy with the power and direction, let go of the mouse button to release the shot. Hard: This method simulates sliding with the rock and is more challenging since you can adjust your power and direction while you're sliding with the rock. It takes a steady hand to keep on track! Press the throw icon on the power bar to your right. Press and hold the left mouse button. Drag the mouse forward and notice the power level increasing in the power bar. This controls how much power you are putting into the shot. Move the mouse left and right and notice that the red arrow is moving with the mouse. This is the direction that you are shooting. Aim at the broom! When you're happy with the power and direction, press the RIGHT mouse button, but keep holding down the left button. You are now sliding with the rock. But look, the power has changed! You must drag the mouse either forward or back to try to get it to the original power. Remember to aim at the broom! When you're ready to let go, simply release the left mouse button. Remember, if you don't release before the hog line you'll get a hog line violation! c) Sweeping Sweeping the rock does two things - it lowers the friction immediately in front of the rock (so it'll go farther), and it causes the rock to curl less. There are two reasons for sweeping: line and weight. If the rock is curling too much, you'll need to sweep it hard so that it curls less. Also if you're trying a draw and it looks like it won't make the house (it looks "light") then you'll need to sweep the rock in order to get it into the house. There are three levels of sweeping in this game. "Cleaning" just cleans in front of the rock with no real effect on the motion of the rock (but it gets the sweepers into position). "All the way!" is medium hard sweeping, while "Haarrdd!!!"is the highest level of sweeping. To sweep a rock, simply point at it with the mouse and click with the left mouse button. To cycle through the levels of sweeping, just click again and again on the rock. One click gets you to "Clean" mode, a second click gets you to "All the way" mode, and a third click gets you to "Haaaarrdd!!!" mode. Clicking once more will get you back to "Clean" mode. The sweeping mode is indicated by the color of the shadow under the rock. Green = "Clean", Brown = "All the way", Red = "Haarrrdd!". In order to stop sweeping a rock just click anywhere else and the sweepers will pull up. You may sweep any rock in head to head mode! Just like real curling it's up to you to police yourselves and not sweep each others rocks unless the opponents rock is behind the T-Line! d) Controlling the speed of gameplay Up in the top right corner you'll find a stopwatch, three timers (for the hard core curlers), and a "Play" and "Fast Forward" button. Clicking on the stopwatch will hide or show the times, whatever you prefer. Professional curlers carry stopwatches and time the delivery of the rock to see if it needs to be swept or not. The timer can be used to calibrate how much weight you'll need to throw as well. If you click on the "Play" button, you'll see some text in the top right corner that says "Normal Time". This indicates that the game is running at normal speed. If you're in a hurry, press the "Fast Forward" button. This will cause the rock to run at twice normal speed, and the text in the top right corner will change to say "Double Time". It's great for playing a few ends in a hurry! e) Scoring Scoring in curling is nothing like darts. In regular gameplay you DO NOT get a certain number of points for being in a certain color ring. Rather, the rock closest to the button scores 1 point. This is called the "Shotstone". The second rock closest to the button, if it is the same color as the Shotstone, also scores a point. If the second rock is a different color than the Shotstone, then the score is one for the team with the Shotstone and zero for the other team. It only matters who's closest to the button! For example, Red could have all 8 rocks in the house, and Blue might have no rocks in the house. But if Blue draws in for shotstone on his last rock, Blue scores 1 and Red scores 0. f) The Hammer The advantage in each end goes to the team who failed to score in the last end. This team is said to have The Hammer, which means that they shoot last in the end. The team iwthout the hammer always shoots first in the end. At the beginning of the game, the hammer is determined by a coin toss. g) Strategy This is not the place to discuss in depth curling strategy. There are many better sources on the web that will have much more involved discussions of curling strategy, which is a fascinating topic. A couple of pointers though - if you don't have the hammer, try to control the center line with guards. This will prevent your opponent from having an easy draw for a point with his or her last stone. If you have shotstone, always try to guard it to prevent your opponent from taking it out easily. If you have the hammer, try to set up an outside biter on your 1st couple of shots. You are prevented from going after your opponent's guards by the Three Rock or Four Rock Rule (whichever rule set you prefer, see Setup menu), so bang away at them later. Your goal should be to score at least two points. If you can't, then you may consider trying to "blank" the end, by not scoring. That way you get to keep the hammer and try again next end. If you're behind in points, play the draw game. Get lots of rocks into play and open up more possibilities. Try bumping rocks forward into the house for points. If you're ahead in points, revert to the hit game. Don't let your opponent set up an excessive number of guards. Keep the house as clean as you can, and try to limit his possibilities for scoring as much as possible. Watch the computer player for strategy hints. It's not unbeatable by any means, but it does play a sound game! 3) General TroubleShooting ========================== A) You recieve an obscure message about a missing "dll". - Direct X is likely not installed properly. Try reinstalling it and try rerunning the game. Direct X may be obtained for free from here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/ . Just navigate the page to find the particular version for your computer and follow the installation instructions. B) The game plays reaaaaallllyyy slow! - Don't panic, this could be due to a couple of factors, most likely the video card. The first thing to try is to get turn the game to "Low Detail" mode (see setup menu). This will stop the characters from being rendered. This game is very graphics intensive and REQUIRES an Open Gl accelerated 3D video card. The first step is to check what type of video card you have. From the start menu, click "Control Panel", and click on the "Display" icon. A window will appear with a number of tabs. Click on the tab labelled "Settings" and note what kind of video card you have. Look in your owners manual for the card, and try to determine if the video card supports 3D hardware accelleration. Also try finding your card on the web at the manufacturers website. If it looks like your card doesn't support hardware acceleration, alas you will need to upgrade your card before you can play the game. If it looks like your card does support 3D acceleration, then it's possible that the hardware acceleration is not turned on. To determine if it is, click on the "Settings" tab again and click on the "Advanced" button (if there is one). Unfortunatley, because there are so many different card manfacturers there is no standard interface, so it's impossible to describe every single one. Try to navigate to the "Troubleshooting" tab and see if there is a slider bar for the hardware acceleration. If so, experiment with the settings, starting with "none" and gradually going to "full". Try playing the game at each setting and see if you notice any improvement in the game play. If that doesn't solve the problem, go to the manufacturers website and download and install the latest drivers for the video card. After installinging, reboot your computer. Again try to adjust the hardware acceleration and see if that makes a difference. C) The lines in the game are jagged! - This is called anitaliasing, and some video cards allow you to specify the level of antialiasing. Click on the "Display" icon in the control panel again, and click on the "Settings" tab. For NVIDA processors, click on the "nView Display Mode" tab and click on the button near the bottom beside "Device Settings". This will bring up a window with many tabs. Click on the tab labelled "Accuview Antialiasing Settings" and click on the radio button "Manually select the antailaising mode". Be warned - selecting 4X will cost you performance wise, although the game will be a lot prettier! D) Special note on laptops Many older laptops, even those of a couple of years ago, have fast enough processors to play the game, but are loaded with non hardware accelerated video cards. Thus, playing Shotstone, and in fact any graphics intensive game, is an exercise in frustration. To make matters worse, these cards are generally not upgradable either! We recommend either the NVIDIA 460 "Go" Mobility processor, or the ATI Radeon 9000 Mobility processor or better for laptops. E) Multiplayer Troubleshooting - Refer to section 1 under Multiplayer Menu. If you are still having problems, check our website www.shotstone.com for any notices under the support column. If that's no help, then send an email to support@shotstone.com. We'll do our best to sort it out for you!