FACHODA Complex - DOCUMENTATION

     (rixed@free.fr)




      Section 1 : legacy

     Fachoda Complex is free, you are free, and I am free. If
     this deal looks suspicious to you, don't use.




      Section 2 : the game


       2.1 technical

     Fachoda Complex is an airplane simulator. It's downable from
     http://rixed.free.fr and you can reach me at rixed@free.fr
     to report bugs or to tell me what a great coder you think I
     am.

     You need a i586-MMX to run the game. Sources are not
     available for multiple reasons, some of these reasons being
     good ones. (nonetheless, full source code is now available).

     You do not need any particular library nor 3D card. If the
     X11 raw version fails you can still try a SDL port (download
     SDL from http://www.devolution.com/~slouken/SDL).


       2.2 playing alone

     If fachoda can't connect to fachodasrv you will play in
     mono-mode. The aim is then to make money by destroying the
     more you can. Sometimes a special target will be spotted in
     your map with a magenta skull with a radio message telling
     the nature of the target : destroy it to earn a reward !

     You can refuel, repair and rearm while landed at you base,
     but have to pay for everything.

     You can also buy one of the plane that's parked in your home
     base by parking yours close to one that you can afford and
     hitting the key (see keys section).

     When you earn money, the amount is printed in big blue
     characters in the center of the screen. Red ones when you
     lost it. After what the balance is printed in white for a
     second or two.

     Your score is the maximal return on investment achieved during
     the whole play.

     When you crash, you continue with just $55 in another plane
     of your side that is equivalent or cheaper than yours (if
     there's still one left -- that's why it's important to
     upgrade your plane as soon as possible !)


       2.3 playing.com networked.com

     Run fachodasrv and pass it through command line the number of
     expected players. Then each player run fachoda with the name
     of the machine thats running fachodasrv on the command line
     ('-host' option). If everything goes right, everything will
     go right.


       2.4 the planes

     You can fly six different planes :

     snophill (a red biplane with no bombing facilities) : $800
     dewoitine (a green good old plane) : $1000
     bogoplane (an ugly white war bird) : $2000
     spitflame (a raced red acrobat) : $4000
     corsair (escaped from the pacific) : $5000
     moshito (an orange bi-propulsed gunner) : $7000






      Section 3 : controlling a plane


       3.1 mouse

     The mouse controls the flight stick. Left button fires the
     selected weapon, right button switches between guns and
     bombs.

     If you dislike, you can play with keyboard instead
     ('-nomouse' option). The numeric keypad's <8>, <4>, <6> and
     <2> then works for up, left, right and down, while <5>
     centers the stick. You can also set keyboard sensitiveness
     in the option menu, and tune the neutral point of the flight
     stick during the play by the combinations <5>+<2> or <5>+<8>
     (that is : center+up and center+down) on the keypad.

     In -nomouse mode, <space> fires and <control> switches
     between weapons.


       3.2 keys

     Here are a key list. You can redefine all these in the
     option menu.

     ESC: Quit

     +/- : throttle

     F7/F8 : zoom in map mode and external views

     F4 : swap between internal views (normal/dogfight)

     F6 : external view (traveling)

     F5 : swap between external views (around, satellite,
     pursuit, bomb)

     F2/F3 : cycle through other planes of your camp, or through
     every plane of the game in view-all mode, or through close
     planes in dogfight view

     F1 : view your own plane, or select the closest enemy plane
     in dogfight view

     F10 : in bomb view, cycle through bombs

     F9 : map view

     P : autopilot

     G : gears

     F : flaps

     B : wheel brakes

     X : accelerated mode

     S : set a flag at plane's location on the map (will appears
     on every other player flying in the same side's map)

     N : set navpoint to home base

     Arrows : watch in every direction in internal view ; move
     the map in map view

     Home : back to front view (must be hold in dogfight view)

     End : rear view (same)

     Delete : left view

     PgDown : right view

     PgUp : up view

     Insert (hold) : control panel view

     Pause : guess what

     F11 : sell your plane and by the closest one amongst those
     parked at your home base.

     Enter (hold) : display the highs-cores

     Mouse : move the command controls

     Left click : fire with the active weapon

     Right click : select the other weapon (guns/bombs)

     F12 : suicide


       3.3 control panel

                         +--+
     ---------  -------- |a | -------   +-------+
    |elevating|| speed  ||na|| alti  |  |bullets|
    |  speed  || meter  ||gt|| meter |  |  bombs|
     >-------<  >------< |lt| >-----<   +-------+
    |  slope  ||throttle||ea||       || Gear |Flaps|
    |indicator||--------|| c||compass| >----< >---<
     --------- |  fiul  ||ok||       ||Brakes|Auto |
                -------- |f | -------        |pilot|
                         +--+






      Section 4 : troubles


       4.1 notice

     THE DGA MODE IS DANGEROUS BECAUSE YOU CAN HANG YOUR PC ! DO
     NOT USE 'FULLSCREEN' IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THIS
     RESPONSIBILITY !


       4.2 when it fails

     When it crashes, try with '-nosound', then try SDL version
     instead of the X11-raw one.

     Also beware of the libs : if 'ldd' on fachoda returns some
     errors, that can be because your libs have not the expected
     names. Add a few links with 'ln -s your_files
     expected_files' (followed with 'ldconfig') to fix the
     problem. If you miss some library, install them. fachoda.x11
     uses only very common libs.

     When the colors seam to be random use the '-xcolor' option
     or (recommended) the SDL version, or try another depth for X
     ('X -bpp n' or 'xinit -- -bpp n').

     When it can't connect to fachodasrv, search for the real
     first name of the host machine. Sometimes aliases do not
     work.



                                                           line

     legacy...................................................7
     the game................................................15
       technical.............................................18
       playing alone.........................................34
       playing.com networked.com.............................63
       the planes............................................72
     controlling a plane.....................................79
       mouse.................................................82
       keys.................................................100
       control panel........................................175
     troubles...............................................180
       notice...............................................183
       when it fails........................................190