Getting Started
From freelords
|
This page is the first and central documentation for players of FL as long as the ingame help system is not yet working and other Tutorials or game mechanics documentations for players are not set up. Please be aware that FreeLords is currently still not yet fully playable (alpha/tech demo status) and probably offers only limited game experience!
The version used for this tutorial is roughly between Tech Demo 3 and Tech Demo 4 and can change during further updates of this site. So, details of a downloadable release version and this description can occur. We will dynamically adapt the Tutorial to reflect actual changes in the game.
Starting a game
After starting FreeLords the first screen welcomes the player and offers the option to start a Network Game, start a local game (New Game), change game Preferences or see the Chancelog of the present version. The Tutorial button is unfortunately not implemented yet and therefore currently inactive.
To start a new game and show what FL (FreeLords) is capable of in the current stage, please click on New Game. The next screen's purpose is to make all the necessary settings to start a game. Important at this stage is the Scenario selection list (currently determines mostly the map). The Demonstration map is the showcase for the Tech Demos. In the middle you can see a players list. Players differentiate themselves by a name/race and a color. The checkmark determines the favored race of the user. At least two players must be selected for a game. So clicking on another race and changing its status Open to AI will be sufficient.
Having finished the settings, a click on Start Game will result in the display of the game screen.
The gamescreen
The game map consists of a menubar at the top with the possibility to save the game, exit the game, accessing other important screens of the game and the help section. However almost all of these function are still under development. The largest portion of the screen takes up the game map. The game map is divided in tiles whose variable terrain is shown in an isometric view. The actual scenario's game map is most likely much larger, so scrollbars (minimap is under development) will be shown in this case on the side of the game map.
You can select (clicking) on various things on the game map, as there are units and buildings for now. Selecting a unit is displayed as a black dashed border around the unit. A movement path for this unit can then be proposed (not executed!, this takes place after pressing the End Turn button) by clicking left on another tile or the unit's selection can be cancelled by right clicking anywhere.
After giving commands to all units, the End Turn button on the right side will cause the programm to perform the turn change, i.e. unit movement and fighting, city production and much more... If your armies and cities still stand after this, a new turn will be started.
What else can I do and why aren't there more features?
Well currently, you can click on your cities (first left on the city, then right on the city image in the small status window on the right upper screen corner) and issue a unit production or cycle through the units using the arrow buttons on the right side (also try right click on the units image in the status window right above) or try to kill some enemy units (real fights are to be implemented in Tech Demo stage 4 and 5) or try to conquer a city. But beyond moving around actually, there aren't much features... The reason is that FreeLords started from the scratch in Java and therefore needs some time to catch up with its predecessor, the now as LordsAWar continued C++ version. Most of the programming work, e.g. the communication between server and client are not visible in gameplay either in this early stages of the project development. However, if you like what you see, you might also want to push the development with us. You can contact us in various ways.
Troubleshooting and Suggestions
With problems with starting FreeLords, crashes, bugs or similar things please post in our forum's Technical Support section. Similarly suggestions or feature request can be posted in the forum's Suggestions section. Please be aware that for guests posting there is probably forbidden. If necessary you may register with Sourceforge and then post or use the bug/feature request tracker on our project homepage, which is as good as posting in the forum.
