# The &kspaceduel; Handbook

Andreas
Zehender

    az@azweb.de

1999
2000
Andreas Zehender
&FDLNotice;
2002-02-06
1.00.00

&kspaceduel; is an space arcade game.

Two ships fly around the sun and try to shoot eachother.

Space duel
KDE
game
ships
shooting

## Introduction

&kspaceduel; is an space arcade game for two players.

Each player controls a ship that flies around the sun and tries to shoot at the other ship. You can play &kspaceduel; with another person, against the computer, or you can have the computer control both ships and play each other.

## The Game

The idea of the game is simple (but addictive). You try to destroy your opponent before he destroys you.

Be careful not to hit the sun.

### Rules of the Game

#### Ship Movement

Each player controls one ship.

The ships can rotate, accelerate, shoot and lay mines.

#### Energy

Each ship has an amount of energy (refer to the game options for values).

Ships need energy for rotation, acceleration, shooting and laying mines. A ship gets energy from its solar panels. The amount of energy a ship gets depends on the distance from and direction to the sun. A ship gets more energy near the sun and less energy near the border. It gets the full amount of energy if the sun shines directly on the panels and less or even no energy if the sun shines at an angle to the panel or to the side of the panel.

If a ship has no energy it can't navigate or shoot.

#### Hit points

Collisions with own or other bullets or mines decrease the hit points of a ship. If two ships collide, the weaker ship is destroyed and the hit points of the stronger ship are decreased by the hit points of the weaker ship plus an amount (Crash Damage). A ship is destroyed when it flies into the sun.

#### Bullets and Mines

Bullets fly around the sun like a ship.

Mines have an amount of energy to stay at the same position. When the energy is spent, the mine falls into the sun. Mines near the sun need more energy than those which are further away.

Mines can be destroyed with bullets.

By default a ship can have 5 bullets and 3 mines on the screen.

#### Powerups

From time to time powerups appear on the play field.

There are four different powerups:

Mine

  The maximum number of mines is increased for the player.

Bullet

  The maximum number of bullets is increased for the player.

Energy (yellow sphere)

  The player gets energy.

Shield (blue sphere)

  The player gets hit points

#### The &kspaceduel; screen

&kspaceduel; Main Screen
&kspaceduel; Main Screen

You can see that the central part of the &kspaceduel; screen is the playing area. To the left and the right are the Red Player's and the Blue Player's stats.

The top box on the player stats, represents the Hit Points of the craft.

The middle box on the player stats, represents the battery power.

The bottom box on the player stats, shows the number of wins.

The top of the playing area is occupied by the menubar and toolbar.

The bottom of the playing area is the status bar.

### Game Options

&kspaceduel; has many, many options you can adjust to increase the enjoyment of this game.

All of the game options can be changed using the Settings menu.

Configuration is divided into 5 sections:

- Player Keys

- Game

- Handicap

- Graphics

- AI

#### Keys

&kspaceduel; has a default set of keys to control the game. For a list of default keys see the section entitled Default key bindings.

Keys can be configured by:

Selecting Settings Player Keys... from the menubar.

This will bring up a dialog box.

Configure Player Keys
Configure Player Keys

You can see that each player (Red and Blue), have 5 keystrokes corresponding to Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Accelerate, Shot, and Mines.

To change a key, click on the button for the correct player. Then press the key you want for that control.

When the key is detected, it will show the new key in the box to the right of the button.

When you are finished configuring your keys, you should click on OK to apply your changes.

If you want to restore the default keys, simply click on the Default button once. To make these changes permenant, press OK.

If you want to abandon the changes you made, and return to your previously selected keys, simply click Cancel, and your changes will be lost.

#### Game Configuration

All game settings of &kspaceduel; are configurable.

If you want to change the game settings, simply select Settings Game... from the menubar.

This will bring up a dialog box with 7 tabs across the top.

Settings are collected in different configurations. You can choose from several pre-defined configurations.

If you choose the Custom configuration, you can define all settings for yourself.

If you have not selected Custom, you will not be able to make any changes to these options.

If you have found an interesting configuration, mail it to the author of the game. It can be implemented in a future version (send the part [Game] in the file `~/.kde/share/config/kspaceduelrc`).

When you are finished altering the options, you should click on OK to apply your changes.

If you want to restore the default, simply click on the Default button once. To make these changes permenant, press OK.

If you want to abandon the changes you made, and return to your previous options, simply click Cancel, and your changes will be lost.

The settings are:

##### General

Game speed

  Controls the speed of the whole game.

##### Bullet

Shot speed

  The speed of bullets

Energy need

  The amount of energy needed for one shot.

Max number

  The maximum number of bullets a player can have on the screen.

Damage

  The number of hit points damage done when a bullet hits a ship.

Life time

  The maximum life time of a bullet.

Reload time

  The time a ship needs to reload a bullet.

##### Mine

Mine fuel

  The amount of fuel on a mine.

Energy need

  The amount of energy needed for laying a mine.

Activate time

  The time a mine is inactive.

Damage

  The number of hit points of damage done when a ship hits a mine.

Max number

  Maximum number of mines a player can have on the screen.

Reload time

  The time a ship needs to reload a mine.

##### Ship

Acceleration

  Acceleration of the ships

Energy need

  The energy needed to accelerate a ship.

Rotation speed

  The speed at which a ship rotates.

Energy need

  The energy needed to rotate a ship.

Crash damage

  The number of hit points damage done when two ships collide.

##### Sun

Sun energy

  The strength of the sun. The higher the value, the quicker ships will be recharged.

Gravity

  The strength of the gravitational pull of the sun.

##### Start

Position X and Position Y

  The ships position at the beginning of a new round. The ships start at opposite sides of the sun.

Velocity X and Velocity Y

  Velocity at the beginning of a new round.

##### Powerups

Appearance time

  Maximal time between the appearance of two powerups.

Life time

  Maximal life time of a powerup.

Energy amount

  Amount of energy a player gets from an energy powerup.

Shield amount

  Amount of hit points a player gets from a shield powerup.

#### Handicap

You can specify the number of hit points each player has at the begin of a new round by selecting Options Handicap... from the menubar.

#### Graphics

Refresh time

  Time between two screen refreshes in milliseconds. All other settings are independent of the refresh time.

### AI

Each ship can be controlled by the computer. You can choose a difficulty for each ship.

The AI is optimized for the default config, but can mamage with other configs. Just try...

To alter the AI settings on either or both players, simply select Settings AI... from the menubar.

This will bring up a dialog box.

AI Configure Dialog
AI Configure Dialog

For each player, there is a check box labled Player is AI. If this box is checked, the computer will control that ship.

Below that, is a drop down box, with several levels of AI intelligence. Select the level that is appropriate for you.

When you are done, simply click OK. If you want to leave things as they were before, click Cancel, to abort your changes.

## Commands/Keyboard Shortcuts

The following sections briefly describe each menubar option.

### The Game Menu

The Game menu is used to start and pause the game.

&Ctrl;G Game New Game

  Starts a new game of &kspaceduel;

&Ctrl;N Game New Round

  Starts a new round, at the current level.

&Ctrl;P Game Pause

  Pauses and unpauses the game.

&Ctrl; Q Game Quit

  Quits &kspaceduel;

### Settings Menu

Settings Show Toolbar

  When selected, the toolbar will be visible. When not selected, the toolbar will be hidden.

Settings Show Statusbar

  When selected, the status bar (the bar along the bottom of the screen which gives textual information) will be visible. When not selected, the status bar will be hidden.

Settings Save Settings

  Saves your current setup to a configuration file. These settings will be reloaded when you start &kspaceduel; again.

Settings Configure Shortcuts...

  Allows you to change the keyboard shortcuts for &kspaceduel;

  Be careful not to confuse this option with configuring players keys. Players Keys are the keys used during the game (Rotate Left, Bullets, etc). This option allows you to change the keyboard shortcuts for Pause Game, New Game, &etc;

Settings Player Keys...

  Allows you to configure the keys used during game play.

  For more detailed instructions, see the section entitled Keys.

Settings Game...

  Allows you to configure game options

  For more detailed instructions, see the section entitled Game Configuration.

Settings Handicap...

  Allows you to handicap a player to make the game more challenging (or easy).

  For more detailed instructions, see the section entitled Handicap.

Settings Graphics...

  Allows you to change the graphics refresh rate.

  For more detailed instructions, see the section entitled Graphics.

Settings Ai...

  Allows you to alter the nature of the computers play.

  For more detailed instructions, see the section entitled AI.

### Help Menu

&help.menu.documentation;

### Default Key Bindings

The following tables show you the default key bindings.

Menu bindings

Key Combo | Action
--- | ---
&Ctrl;Q | Quit &kspaceduel;
&Ctrl;G | New Game
&Ctrl;N | New Round
&Ctrl;P | Pause Game
F1 | Help Contents
&Shift;F1 | Whats This Help
Space | Start Game

The Menu Key Bindings can be changed by selecting Settings Configure Key Bindings

Game Play

Action | Red Player | Blue Player
--- | --- | ---
Rotate Left | S | Left Arrow
Rotate Right | F | Right Arrow
Accelerate | E | Up Arrow
Shot | E | Down Arrow
Mines | A | Insert

To change these keys, refer to the section entitled Player Keys....

## Credits and License

&kspaceduel;

Program copyright 1999-2000 Andreas Zehender az@azweb.de

Documentation copyright 2000 Andreas Zehender az@azweb.de

Documentation updated for &kde; 2.0 by Mike McBride mpmcbride7@yahoo.com

&underFDL; &underGPL;

## Installation

### How to obtain &kspaceduel;

&install.intro.documentation;

### Compilation and Installation

&install.compile.documentation;