Options:
This is the options screen. Here you can start a new game, load and save old
games, change many of Pocket War's settings, see the credits for Pocket War, get help or exit Pocket War.
Starting a new game
The first button on the main options page is "Start New Game." This button will take you
to the start new game screen where you can create a new map and start a new game.
First you will have to choose if you want to start a 'skirmish' (single player game) or a multiplayer game.
If you choose 'Skirmish' you will see the screen above.
The first row of buttons "E", "M", and "H" on the start new game screen stand for Easy, Medium
and Hard. These buttons control how hard it will be to win the game.
The second row of buttons "S", "M", "L" and "XL" stand for Small, Medium, Large, and
eXtra Large. They control how big the map will be. The third row lets you choose the type of game
you want to play. "Last City" means if you lose all your cities you are out. "Last Unit" means you will
play until all units and cities are gone. The next section allows you to set up the players
that will play. "None" means that no one will play that player. "Local Player" is someone playing on this computer.
"Sgt Maj Lee" is a computer AIs you can play against. The numbers next to the players represent the team the players are on.
To change the team click on the number. When two players have the same number next to them they will be on the
same team and their units will not attack each other.
Once you have set the size, difficulty, game type, and players for the map tap the "Make Map"
button to create the map and move on to the map screen. To go back to the main options
screen without making a new map click the "Cancel" button.
If you choose multiplayer you will see this screen. On this screen you can start a new multiplayer game or load an existing multiplayer game. To start a new multiplayer
game the first thing you must do is go to the MetalShard website (www.metalshard.com) and set up a multiplayer group.
You can do that by logging into your account and then clicking the multiplayer button next to pocket war. Once there
follow the instructions on setting up and joining groups. If you belong to a group and it has more than one player
in it then when you click on the "Multiplayer" button in Pocket War it will show you the group and the members that
are in it. If you are the leader of this group then you will be given the option to "Start Game." If you are not the
leader of the group then you can click the "Load Game" button. If it is your turn then you can go in and make your
moves. When you are done the next player will be allowed to go. If it is not your turn then you will be brought to
a wait screen where you can wait for your turn. You do not have to be connected continuously to play pocket war. You
only need to start Pocket War, load the game, take your turns and then after it tells you to wait you can shut down the
game again. To help you there is a program on the MetalShard website called the GameBug. The gamebug will sit in
your task bar on a PC and let you know when it is your turn. Depending on your playing style and the group your are
playing with you may or may not want to use the GameBug.
Loading and saving games
The second button on the main options page is "Load and Save." This button will take you
to the load and save game screen.
On this screen you can save an existing game or load an old game. First, you much choose which
load and save game slot you want to use. There are 40 slots numbered 0 through 39. To choose
your load and save game slot tap on the purple arrows. This will increase and decrease the
slot number being used. To save the current game simply pick a slot and tap "Save Game" to
save it. If a game has been saved in one of the slots then the "Load Game" button
will light up. You can only load old games if you have purchased your copy of Pocket War. If you
are playing the demo copy of Pocket War then the "Load Game" button will not light up.
To load the game in that slot just tap the "Load Game" button. Both loading and
saving games will close the load and save game screen and take you to the map screen.
here is a special saved game to the left
of Game 0 called Auto-Save. As you play Pocket War it can automatically save the game after every
so many turns. You can load those automatically saved games by loading the Auto-Save game.
Game settings
The third button on the main options page is "Settings." This button will take you
to the settings screen.
The above screen is the top level menu for the settings. It has five subsections messages, sound and video, general, map, and buttons.
The "Messages" button will take you to the messages settings screen, which is used to turn on and off messages
that the units will send you during the game. To turn a message on or off for a specific unit tap the blue ball
at the point where the name and unit type meet. If the ball has a red square around it then that message
will be show when it occurs if it does not have a red square around it then it won't. To turn on and off
all of the messages for a specific type of unit tap the image of the unit. To turn on and off a message for
all units tap the message name. To save your changes and get back to the top level settings menu tap the "Settings" button.
The "Sound and video" settings button will take you to the setting page for sound and video. Play music and play sound effects
will switch on and off the music and sound effects in the game. The Music volume and effects volume will change the volume levels.
The rest of the settings are video settings. Video settings do not work without restarting the game and all of them except the
brightness setting have no effect on the pocket pc version. The "full screen" button will toggle will turn on and off full screen
mode for pocket war on the desktop version. Resolution is the resolution pocket war will run at and refresh rate is the monitor refresh
rate that pocket war will use when in full screen mode. There are two brightness settings one for the map and one for the units on
the map. You can use those settings to adjust how bright each part of Pocket War is.
To save your changes and get back to the top level settings menu tap the "Setting" button.
The "General" button will take you to the general settings screen, which is used to set general options. "show splash screen" will turn on and off the title
screen. If the title screen is off when you first run Pocket War it will display the options screen
right away. If you have not purchased your copy of Pocket War you will see the registration screen
first. The "pick non-existing waypoint" option will make the waypoint pickers (we will talk more
about them later) show not only existing waypoints but the next waypoint that will be created.
The "only stop on tap" option will make the double right arrow keep going even if there is a message. The
only way to stop the game from taking turn after turn is to tap the screen or click a mouse button. The
"no sync" button will move the saved game folder to a directory under the Pocket War program folder.
This will turn off syncing between the desktop and PDA versions of Pocket War, but is useful if you have
the program installed on a compact flash card and want the games to be saved there as well.
The "show messages each turn" will automatically pop-up the message view list after any turn where messages occurred.
The "show unit delete" button turns on and off
a red X will in the status area for units. If you hit that X then the unit will
be dismissed. If you switch this off then the dismiss button will not be available.
The "Show unit surrender" button turns on and off the white flag on the main screen. You can use the white
flag to surrender to your enemies.
Tapping the "More" button will take you to the second page of the general settings.
To save your changes and get back to the top level settings menu tap the "Setting" button.
The second page of general settings has event more settings that can be set.
The "Trace Mode" setting is used when you are having
technical problems and should remain off unless a MetalShard technical support person tells you
to turn it on. The "Fog of War" button will turn on and off the fog of war. If this is on you will
only be able to see enemy troops withing the see range of your units. If it is off then you will be
able to see any enemy units in areas of the map that you have explored. If it is off you will not be
able to use the multi-turn feature in multi-player games.
The "Show tutorial" turns on and off the in game tutorial. When this is on little yellow boxes will
pop-up from time to time with hints on how to play the game.
The "refuel buffer" is used to say how many extra moved a plane should keep in reserve before going
for fuel. The lower this number the longer a plane will keep flying before going back for fuel but
the greater the chance the plane has of crashing. The "repair if less than" sets the minimum number of points
that a unit can have before it goes looking for repairs. If a unit naturally has less points then this
setting then it will go looking for repairs if any amount of damage is done to it.
The "Auto-save" setting is the number turns between times that the game will automatically be saved.
The "Check Delay" setting is the number of seconds between it will wait to check to see if it is your turn in a multiplayer game.
To go back to the first page of general settings tap the "General" button.
The "Map" button will take you to the map settings screen, which is used to set map settings.
The "use cursor" option will turn on and off the cursor. If use cursor is on then the directional pad on
the PDA (arrow keys on the desktop version) will move the cursor around, and the select button on the PDA
(enter on the desktop version) will select whatever is under the cursor. If "use cursor" is off then
the directional pad on the PDA (arrow keys on the desktop version) will scroll the map view around. The
"fast scroll" option when turned on will make the map view scroll faster. The "follow selected unit" option
will always scroll the map such that the selected unit is on the screen at the start of your turn. The
"show attack and see ranges" option when turned on will draw the attack ranges and see ranges for the
selected unit on the map. The "show units attacking" option when turned on will show stop processing a turn
for a few moments and show you the battle between your units and other units or your units and other
cities. The "show grid lines" will turn on and off the grid lines and "show grid numbers" will turn
on and off the grid numbers on the map view. The "haze fog edges"
will turn on and off the fuzzy edges around areas you have not explored.
The "Choose Mods" section allows you to set which mods will be used. Each seperate mod will show up in this list and can be switched off
by unchecking it. Changes in mod states only take place when a new game is created. Once a game has been
created it knows which mods it needs and will automatically switch them on when that game is loaded.
To go back to the main options screen tap the "Main Page" button.
In-game help
The fourth button on the main options page is "Help." This button will take you
to the in game help for the options page. Now is a good time to point out the
button at the top
right hand corner of the screen. At any time during the game you can tap that button to get in-game help.
The in-game help is limited and is meant mostly to act as reminders.
Exiting the game
The fifth and final button on the main options page is "Exit Game." Tapping that button will shut down Pocket War.
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