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<HTML>
<HEAD>
<title> The Crossfire Frequently Asked Questions </title>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<h1> Crossfire Frequently Asked Questions </h1>

<h3>Current maintaner: Mark Wedel (master@rahul.net)</h3>
<h4>Original code by Frank Tore Johansen (frankj@ifi.uio.no)</h4>
<p>
This is a preliminary release of the Crossfire FAQ. It was originally written
in HTML and hopefully will be available soon on the Crossfire WWW pages.</p>
<p>
Please send any comments and additional input to 
Sam Mackrill <em>mackrill@atuk.aspentec.com</em> </p>
<hr>
<h2><a name=contents>Contents</a></h2>
<h3> <a href=#intro>Introduction to Crossfire</a> </h3>
<h3> <a href=#install>Installation Questions</a> </h3>
<ul>
<li> <a href=#needs>What do I need to run Crossfire?</a>
<li> <a href=#files>How do I get the files?</a>
    <ul>
    <li> <a href=#ftp>Via FTP</a>
    <li> <a href=#www>Via WWW</a>
    </ul>
<li> <a href=#help>How do I get help compiling Crossfire on my platform?</a>
<li> <a href=#mail>How do I send mail to the Crossfire mail server ?</a>
</ul>
<h3> <a href=#play>Playing Crossfire</a> </h3> 
<ul>
<h4><li> <a href=#begin>Beginners' Questions</a> </h4>
   <ul>
   <li> <a href=#istats>Which inital stats are most important?</a>
   <li> <a href=#ostats>What do the other stats mean?</a>
   <li> <a href=#race>Which race is best?</a>
   <li> <a href=#save>How do I save my position?</a>
   <li> <a href=#levels>When will my player advance a level?</a>
   <li> <a href=#survival>Help I keep dying, what should I do?</a>
   </ul>
<h4><li> <a href=#advanced>Advanced Playing Questions</a> </h4>
   <ul>
   <li> <a href=#mweap>How do I create my own magical weapons?</a>
   <li> <a href=#encum>How does encumbrance work?</a>
   </ul>
<h4><li> <a href=#monsters>Monster Problems</a> </h4>
   <ul>
   <li> <a href=#vampire>How do I kill vampires?</a>
   </ul>
<h4><li> <a href=#maps>Solving Maps</a> </h4>
   <ul>
   <li> <a href=#start>I'm on the starting map, what do I do now?</a>
   </ul>
</ul>
<h3> <a href=#cs>Client/Server Questions</a> </h3>
   <ul>
   <li> <a href=#speed>Which is faster, Crossclient or Telent?</a>
   <li> <a href=#server>How do you start a server and also how do people play in 
that same game?</a>
   </ul>
<h3> <a href=#maint>Maintenance Questions</a> </h3>
   <ul>
   <li> <a href=#balspells>How do I balance up the spells?</a>
   </ul>
<hr>
<h2><a name=intro>Introduction</a></h2>
<p>
  Crossfire is a multiplayer graphical arcade and adventure game made for
  the X-Windows environment.
  It has certain flavours from other games, especially Gauntlet (TM)
  and Nethack/Moria.
  Any number of players can move around in their own window, finding
  and using items and battle monsters.  They can choose to cooperate
  or compete in the same "world".
</p>
<p>
  Crossfire is currently awaiting the "Great Leap Forward", which will be a
  split into a proper client/server format. When this is stable then Crossfire
  will be released to the world. Look for V1.0+ .
</p>
<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>
<h2><a name=install>Installation Questions</a></h2>
<h3><a name=needs>What do I need to run Crossfire?</a></h3>
  You will need UNIX, X-windows and an ANSI C compiler to compile this game.
<p>
  Crossfire has been known to compile on the following systems
  (latest known version number of Crossfire that compiled on these
  systems is included in parantheses):
<ul>
<li>  <a href=#Sun> Sun</a>3, SunOs 4.1.1, gcc (0.90.3)
<li>  <a href=#DEC> DEC</a>300AXP-500 (Alpha with OSF1 1.3) (0.90.3)
<li>  <a href=#Sun> Sun</a>4 with SunOS 4.1.3 (0.90.2)
<li>  <a href=#Ultrix> Ultrix</a> 4.2a (0.90.1)
<li>  <a href=#PC> PC</a> Compatiable, with Linux (0.89.3)
<li>  <a href=#IBM> IBM</a> RS/6000 with AIX 1.2, X11R4/5 (0.91.4)
<li>  <a href=#HP> HP</a>735, HPUX, X11R5 (0.90.2)
<li>  <a href=#DEC> DEC</a> 3100 and DEC 5000 with ULTRIX BSD 4.2
<li>  <a href=#DEC> DEC</a> with OSF1
<li>  <a href=#DEC> VAX</a>3100 with BSD 4.3
<li>  <a href=#IBM> IBM</a> RT with BSD4.3
<li>  <a href=#HP> HP</a>9000-series (HP-UX) (very old versions of HP-UX might 
barf on stdarg.h)
<li>  <a href=#MIPS> MIPS</a> with RISC/os
<li>  <a href=#UMIPS> (UMIPS)</a> 4.52 (?)
</ul>
<p>
It has been compiled with X11R3, X11R4 and X11R5 (the editor requires X11R5).
<p>
To get directions on compilation, read the INSTALL file.
<p>
<h3><a name=files>How do I get the files?</a></h3>
<ul>
<li><strong><a name=ftp>Via FTP</a></strong><p>
The commonest method is to use anonymous ftp from one of the following
sites, choose the closest one to you for a faster transfer rate :-
</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="ftp://ftp.ifi.uio.no/pub/crossfire">ftp.ifi.uio.no:/pub/crossfire</a> 
(Europe)
<li><a 
href="ftp://yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/crossfire">yoyo.cc.monash.edu.au:/pub/crossf
ire</a> (Australia)
<li><a href="ftp://ftp.world.net/pub/crossfire">ftp.world.net:/pub/crossfire</a> 
(USA)
<li><a 
href="ftp://ftp.cs.city.ac.uk/pub/games/crossfire">ftp.cs.city.ac.uk:/pub/games/cr
ossfire</a> (Europe)
</ul>
<p>
A quick guide to using ftp, I'm assuming you're on a UNIX system here 
because thats what I use, if not the messages may be slightly different but the
commands should be the same , if you are on a machine with filename
length restrictions you may have to replace 'get crossfire-0.91.3.tar.gz' with
'get crossfire-0.91.3.tar.gz xfire.gz' which will save it on your system as 
xfire.gz,
which is short enough, also you may need to put stuff in quotes, eg on a VAX
you would type cd "pub/crossfire". Everything you type below is marked with a 
** before it (don't type the **).
And replace my email address with yours when asked for a password.
</p>
<p>
<pre>
** <KBD>ftp ftp.ifi.uio.no</KBD>
Connected to menja.ifi.uio.no.
220 menja.ifi.uio.no FTP server (Version wu-2.4(7) Thu Apr 21 13:28:21 MET DST 
1994) ready.
Name (ftp.ifi.uio.no:mackrill):** ftp
331 Guest login ok, send your complete e-mail address as password.
Password:** <KBD>mackrill@atuk.aspentec.com</KBD>
230-Please read the file README
230-  it was last modified on Fri Dec  3 14:45:21 1993 - 259 days ago
230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
ftp> ** <KBD> cd pub/crossfire</KBD>
250-Please read the file README
250-  it was last modified on Thu Jul  7 09:36:19 1994 - 43 days ago
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> ** <KBD>dir</KBD>
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for ls.
-rw-rw-r--  1 frankj    frankj       10675 Jul  7 07:36 README
drwxrwsr-x  2 frankj    frankj        1024 Aug 16 10:08 archive
-rw-rw-r--  1 frankj    frankj      358891 Jan 29  1994 bitmaps-a.tar.Z
-rw-rw-r--  1 ftp       frankj      478345 Aug  5 07:27 
crossfire-0.91.2-0.91.3.diff.gz
-rw-rw-r--  1 frankj    frankj        1654 Jul  7 07:34 crossfire-0.91.2-README
-rw-rw-r--  1 frankj    frankj      606463 Jul  7 07:34 
crossfire-0.91.2.arch.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r--  1 frankj    frankj     1173498 Jul  7 07:34 
crossfire-0.91.2.maps-alpha.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r--  1 frankj    frankj     1121742 Jul  7 07:34 crossfire-0.91.2.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r--  1 kjetilho  frankj        1383 Aug  6 13:17 crossfire-0.91.3-README
-rw-rw-r--  1 kjetilho  frankj      582807 Aug  6 13:06 
crossfire-0.91.3.arch.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r--  1 ftp       frankj     1221948 Aug  5 07:41 
crossfire-0.91.3.maps.tar.gz
-rw-rw-r--  1 kjetilho  frankj     1062177 Aug  6 13:06 crossfire-0.91.3.tar.gz
drwxrwsrwx  4 frankj    frankj        1536 Aug  6 13:14 incoming
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> ** <KBD>bin</KBD>
200 Type set to I.
ftp> ** <KBD>get crossfire-0.91.3.tar.gz</KBD>
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for crossfire-0.91.3.tar.gz (1062177 
bytes).
226 Transfer complete.
1062177 bytes received in 610.5251 seconds (1.699 Kbytes/s)
ftp> ** <KBD>quit</KBD>
221 Goodbye.
</pre>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>

<li><strong><a name=www>Via WWW</a></strong><p>

Try one of the following :
<p>
   <ul>
   <li><a href=http://www.ifi.uio.no/~frankj/crossfire/>Crossfire Home Page</a> 
[http://www.ifi.uio.no/~frankj/crossfire/]
   <li><a href=http://www.cm.cf.ac.uk:/Crossfire/>Cardiff's Crossfire Pages</a> 
[http://www.cm.cf.ac.uk:/Crossfire/]
   <li><a href=http://web.cs.city.ac.uk:/games/crossfire/crossfire.html>City 
University, Crossfire Archive</a> 
[http://web.cs.city.ac.uk:/games/crossfire/crossfire.html]
   <li><a href=http://gin.obspm.fr/~wacren/crossfire/>Feux Croises</a><em> (in 
French)</em> [http://gin.obspm.fr/~wacren/crossfire/]
   </ul>
<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
</ul>
<hr>
<h3><a name=help>How can I get help compiling Crossfire on my platform?</a></h3>
Try mailing the Crossfire <a href=#mail>mailing list</a> with your problem or
alternatively try one of the following people :
<p>
<ul>
<li>  <a name=Sun>Sun</a>
   <ul>
   <li>Sun3 <strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   <li>Sun4 <strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   <li>Sparc <strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   </ul>
<li>  <a name=DEC>DEC</a>
   <ul>
   <li>DEC300AXP <strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  
<em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   <li>DEC3100 <strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   <li>VAX3100 <strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   </ul>
<li>  <a name=Ultrix>Ultrix</a>
   <ul>
   <li><strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   </ul>
<li>  <a name=PC>PC</a>
   <ul>
   <li><strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   </ul>
<li>  <a name=IBM>IBM</a>
   <ul>
   <li>RS6000  Sam Mackrill <em>mackrill@atuk.aspentec.com</em>
   <li>RT <strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   </ul>
<li>  <a name=HP>HP</a>
   <ul>
   <li>HP735 <strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   <li>HP9000 <strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   </ul>
<li>  <a name=MIPS>MIPS</a>
   <ul>
   <li><strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   </ul>
<li>  <a name=UMIPS>UMIPS</a>
   <ul>
   <li><strong>Volunteer Wanted</strong>  <em>NiceChap@here.and.there</em>
   </ul>
</ul>
<p>
<h5><a href=#install>Return to Intallation Questions</a></h5>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>
<h2> <a name=mail>How do I send mail to the Crossfire mail server ?</a></h2>

  There are two mailing-lists dedicated to the developement and
  bug-testing of crossfire.  The first is for discussing bugs and
  features, the second is for announcing new versions.
<p>
  If you want to join or leave any of the lists, send mail to
  crossfire-request@ifi.uio.no with the subject "subscribe",
  "unsubscribe","subscribe announce" or "unsubscribe announce".
  If you use the subject "subscribe" or "unsubscribe" you will
  (un)subscribe to <b>both</b> lists.
<p>
  To send messages directly to the list, mail crossfire@ifi.uio.no.

<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>

<h2><a name=play>Playing Crossfire</a></h2>
<hr>

<h2><a name=begin>Beginner's Questions</a></h2>

<h3><a name=istats>Which initial stats are most important?</a></h3>
<ul>
<li>   St  :  Strength.  
       <ul>
       How strong a character is, can affect Damage and how
       much can be carried without losing speed.  Also affects how
       often the character can attack.
       </ul>
<li>   Co  :  Constitution.    
       <ul>
       How healthy a character is.  Affects the maximum
       Hit Points.
       </ul>
<li>   De  :  Dexterity.    
       <ul>
       Helps the character avoid being hit.  Affects the
       Armour Class and the speed.
       </ul>
<li>   In  :  Intelligence.  
       <ul>
       Affects the maximum Spell Points. 
       </ul>
<li>   Wi  :  Wisdom. <nl>   
       <ul>
       Determines the chance of learning a spell, and for
       certain classes, gives bonuses for casting priest spells.
       </ul>
<li>   Ch  :  Charisma.    
       <ul>
       How charismatic a character is, this affects the
       prices when buying and selling items.
       </ul>
</ul>
<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>
<h3><a name=ostats>What do the other stats mean?</a></h3>
<ul>
<li>   Hp  :  Hit Points. 
       <ul>
       How much damage a character can take.  If this
       drops below 0 the player dies.  It consist of two numbers,
       the current and maximum.
       </ul>
<li>   Sp  :  Spell Points.
       <ul>
       How many spell power a character has.  They are
       consumed when casting spells.  It consist of two numbers, the
       current and maximum.
       </ul>       
<li>   Wc  :  Weapon Class.   
       <ul>
       How well a character is able to hit enemies.
       </ul>
<li>   Dam :  Damage.   
       <ul>
       The maximum a character can damage an enemy with a
       single successful hit.
       </ul>
<li>   Ac  :  Armor Class.   
       <ul>
       How hard a character is to hit.
       </ul>
<li>   Arm :  Armour.   
       <ul>
       How well protected the character is.  This number
       specifies a percentage which is subtracted from the physical
       damage inflicted on the character.
       </ul>
<li> Speed :   
       <ul>
       How fast a player moves around. The number in the ( ) indicates
       weapon speed.
       </ul>
<li>  Food :   
       <ul>
       How much food a player has, if this drops to 0, the player will
       die shortly.
       </ul>
</ul>
<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>
<h3><a name=race>Which race is best?</a></h3>
After a player rolls stats and he/she is happy with the character they
must decide on what class or profession the character will be. 
<ul>
<li>  <a name=Human>Human</a>
<li>  <a name=Ninja>Ninja</a>
<li>  <a name=Warrior>Warrior</a>
<li>  <a name=Wizard>Wizard</a>
<li>  <a name=Elf>Elf</a>
<li>  <a name=Cleric>Cleric</a>
<li>  <a name=Barbarian>Barbarian</a>
<li>  <a name=Priest>Priest</a>
<li>  <a name=Mage>Mage</a>
<li>  <a name=Viking>Viking</a>
<li>  <a name=Swashbuckler>Swashbuckler</a>
<li>  <a name=Thief>Thief</a>
<li>  <a name=Fireborn>Fireborn</a>
<p>
<pre>
attacktype      restrictions    immunities      prot./vuln.
fire,phys       no armour,      fire            vuln:ghosthit
                no weapons      poison          drain,cold
</pre>
Fireborns are supposed to be fire spirits.  They're closely in tune with
magic and are powerful and learn magic easily.  Being fire spirits, they
are immune to fire and poison, and vulnerable to cold.  They are vulnerable
to ghosthit and drain because being mostly non-physical, anything which 
strikes directly at the spirit hits them harder....</P>
<li>  <a name=Quetzalcoatl>Quetzalcoatl</a>
<p>
<pre>
attacktype      restrictions    immunities      prot./vuln.
physical        no armour       fire            vuln:paral
                                                poison,cold
</pre>
  Quetzalcoatl's are now born knowing the spell of burning hands, but
because of their negative wisdom bonus, they have a very hard time learning
new spells.  Their maximum natural wisdom is 13.  With the high intelligence
bonus, they will typically have many spellpoints.  They can be very
devastating at low level due to their low natural ac and can make mincemeat
out of low-level monsters.  However, at midlevel, they really begin to have
problems because they cannot use armour.</p>

</ul>
Each class or profession modifies the initial stat rolls.
<pre>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Class/Prof   |  Str  |  Dex  |  Con  |  Wis  |  Cha  |  Int  |  Net  |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Human        |   0   |   0   |   0   |   0   |   0   |   0   |   0   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Ninja        |   2   |   2   |   0   |  -1   |   -1  |  -2   |   0   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Warrior      |   3   |  -1   |   2   |   0   |   -1  |  -3   |   0   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Wizard       |  -2   |   1   |  -2   |   2   |   0   |   3   |  +2   | 
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Elf          |  -1   |   4   |  -1   |  -3   |   2   |   1   |  +2   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Cleric       |   1   |  -1   |   0   |   3   |   1   |  -1   |  +3   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Barbarian    |   4   |   1   |   3   |  -1   |  -2   |  -8   |  -3   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Priest       |   0   |   0   |  -1   |   2   |   2   |   0   |  +3   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Mage         |   0   |   1   |  -1   |   1   |  -3   |   2   |   0   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Viking       |   1   |   1   |   2   |  -1   |  -1   |  -2   |   0   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Swashbuckler |   1   |   3   |   1   |  -1   |   1   |  -4   |  +1   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Thief        |   0   |   4   |  -2   |   0   |  -3   |   1   |   0   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Fireborn     |  -7   |   4   |  -3   |   3   |  -4   |   4   |  -3   |
+--------------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+-------+
| Quetzalcoatl |   4   |  -4   |   4   |  -7   |   0   |   5   |  +2   |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
</pre>  Net refers to the all the bonus/penalties added up.<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>
<h3><a name=save>How do I save my position?</a></h3>
<p>
Whenever I use the save command it seems to work fine but when I quit the gave the
player is deleted! What gives?
</p>
<p>
The save command is to provide an emergancy backup in case of a game crash.
To save your player you must find a "Bed to reality", move your player over it
and apply it ("A"). These beds can usually be found in the inns and taverns 
dotted around the maps (especially in cities). This prevents you just saving
anywhere and forces you to finish what you are doing and return somewhere safe.
</p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>

<h3><a name=levels>When will my player advance a level?</a></h3>
<p>
Your player will advance when his score reaches the following values :</p>
<ul>
<li>Level  1:  0
<li>Level  2:  1000
<li>Level  3:  2000
<li>Level  4:  4000
<li>Level  5:  8000
<li>Level  6:  16000
<li>Level  7:  32000
<li>Level  8:  64000
<li>Level  9:  125000
<li>Level 10:  250000
</ul  
<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>

<h3><a name=survival>Help! I keep dying, what should I do?</a></h3>
<p>

<h4>TIPS on SURVIVING </h4>
<p>
   Crossfire is populated with a wealth of different monsters. These
monsters can have varying immunities and attack types. In addition,
some of them can be quite a bit smarter than others. It will be
important for new players to learn the abilities of different monsters
and learn just how much it will take to kill them. This section
discusses how monsters can interact with players.
<p>
   Most monsters in the game are out to mindlessly kill and destroy
the players.  These monsters will help boost a player's score, after
he kills them. When fighting a large amount of monsters in a single
room, attempt to find a narrower hallway so that you are not being
attacked from all sides. Charging into a room full of Beholders for
instance would not be wise, instead, open the door and fight them one
at a time.
<p>
   For beginners, there are several maps designed for them. Find these
areas and clear them out. All throughout these levels, a player can
find signs and books which they can read by stepping onto them and
hitting 'A' to apply the book/sign. These messages will help the
player to learn the system.
<p>
   One more note, always keep an eye on your food. If your food drops
to zero, your character will soon die, so BE CAREFUL!
<p>

<h4>NPCs</h4>
<p>
   Non Player Character are special monsters which have
"intelligence." Players may be able to interact with these monsters to
help solve puzzles and find items of interest. To speak with a monster
you suspect to be a NPC, simply move to an adjacent square to them and
push the double-quote, ie. ". Enter your message, and press <Return>.
You can also use 'say if you feel like typing a little extra.
<p>
   Other NPCs may not speak to you, but display intelligence with
their movement. Some monsters can be friendly, and may attack the
nearest of your enemies. Others can be "pets", in that they follow you
around and help you in your quest to kill enemies and find treasure.
<p>

<h4>SPECIAL ITEMS</h4>

   There are many special items which can be found in Crossfire, of
these the most important may be the signs.
<ul>
<li>Signs : 
       <p> Signs often have messages that might clue you in on quests and
        puzzles or even refer you to NPCs. It is your job as a player
        to make sure you read every sign to make sure you do not miss
        things.</p>

<li>Handles and Buttons : 
       <p> These items can often be manipulated to open up new areas of
        the map. In the case of handles, all a player must do is apply
        the handle. In the case of buttons, the player must move items
        over the button to "hold" it down. Some of the larger buttons
        may need very large items to be moved onto them, before they
        can be activated.</p>

<li>Gates and locked doors : 
        <p>Gates are often tied to a handle or button and can only be
        opened by manipulating the the handle/button. Doors that are
        locked can either be smashed down by attacking the door or by
        using keys which can be found throughout the game.</p>
 
<li>Pits : 
      <p>  Pits can be doorways to new areas of the map too, but be
        careful, for you could fall down into a pit full of ghosts or
        dragons and not be able to get back out.</p>

<li>Break away walls: 
       <p> Are a common occurrence in Crossfire. These type of walls can
        be "destroyed" by attacking them. Thus, sometimes it may be
        worth a player's time to test the walls of a map for "secret
        doors."</p>

<li>Fire walls:
       <p> Will shoot missiles at players. Some firewalls can be
        destroyed others cannot.</p>

<li>Directors and Spinners:
        <p>These odd items will change the direction of any item flying
        over them, such as missile weapons and spells.</p>
</ul>
<h4>CAUTION: Some items are perishable.</h4>
       <p>If for instance you shoot a
        fireball into a room full of scrolls, you will notice them
        going up in smoke! So be careful not to destroy valuable
        items.</p>
<ul>
<li>Books/scrolls: 
       <p> This is how players can obtain magical spells, sometimes a
        player can learn the spell, other times they cannot. There are
        many, many different types of books and scrolls out there.</p>

<li>Wands/Rings:
       <p> Again many different types, rings can be worn to add/remove
        different immunities.</p>

<li>Artifacts:
       <p> These are the real treasures of the game. There are more than
        20 artifacts out there, but they are very hard to come by.</p>

<li>Weapons/Armor: 
       <p>Tons of items, it is up to you as the player to figure out
        which work better then others.</p>
</ul>
<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>

<hr>
<h2><a name=advanced>Advanced Questions</a></h2>

<h3><a name=mweap>How do I create my own magical weapons?</a></h3>
<p>
<h4>Improve item scrolls</h4>
        These are used to turn non magical weapons into magical weapons.
        These magical weapons can do many things - improve stats, have
        lower weight, higher damage, etc.
<p>
        For each improve scroll & prepare weapon scroll, at least 10 food
        and 5 booze must be on the ground.  How much the ability is raised
        depends on the amount of item donated, with each scroll requiring
        that something be donated.  Here is a short list:
<p>
        Prepare weapons: Diamonds (Gems) are required for the sacrifice.
        The item can be enchanted the square root of the number of diamonds
        sacrificed.  Thus, if 100 diamonds are sacrificed, the weapon
        can have 10 other enchant scrolls read.
<p>
        Improve damage:  The square root of the number of rubies determines
        how much the damage will go up.  Weight is also increased.  The
        maximum damage a weapon can ever do is 70.
<p>
        Improve weight:  The square root of the number of pearls determines
        how much the weight is reduced.
<p>
        Improve Stat (ie, Strength, Dexterity, etc): The sacrifice is the
        potion of the same type as the ability to be increased (ie, Improve
        Strength requires strength potions).  The amount increased is the
        square root of (sacrifice/2).
<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>

<h3><a name=encum>How does encumbrance work?</a></h3>
I did not include an allowance for strength in the encumbrance code.  My
reasoning is that this is because these items get in the way more
than they weigh down.  Unfortunately, my only measure of 'getting
in the way' was the weight.
<p>
  I basically accumulate encumbrance points from applied objects.
Weapons give 3x their weight in kg in encumbrance points.
Shields give 1/2 their weight in kg in encumbrance points.
Armour gives its weight in encumbrance points.
<p>
  There's an allowance of encumbrance points which all players get
before they start losing spells, this was about 35-45, not too much.
<p>
  The formula works like this:  You make a roll of 1-200.
You compare it to a failure threshold.
This threshold is:
  encumbrance + spell level - caster level - 35
<p>
  Someone wearing plate mail, casting a spell they just learned,
wearing a 20kg sheild and a 15kg weapon would have an encumbrance
of 100 + 10 + 45 = 155, or just about 3/4 failure rate.
<p>
Magical armour makes things better through its weight, as do
magical weapons.
<p>
  If we interpret 'encumbrance' literally, then players with higher
dex should be less hindered, and players with lower strength should
be more hindered.  However, I abstracted the idea to 'this garbage
gets in the way', so i didn't feel that dex, str bonuses were important.
<p>
  I would not mind replacing the minimum allowance with dex and
strength bonuses.  I'll look in the appropriate arrays, and see if
this is handy.  At the time, i didn't want to deal with the extra
complexity.
<p>
Armour, weapons, sheilds now encumber a spellcaster
and cause spell failure.  Light equipment causes no failure at all,
heavy equipment causes mondo failures.  
<p>
  My reasoning is that the bulkiness of objects, not their weight exactly,
is what causes failures.  Spell failure works thusly:  people
walk around thusly:
  they have a new field, 'encumbrance', which contains the sum of
1/2 the equipped shield weight
the equipped armour weight
3*the equipped weapon weight
<p>
In order to determine whether a spell fails or not:
roll a die from 0-199.  If the roll is less than:
encumbrance + spell_level - caster level - an allowance for minimal equip.
<p>
suppose someone is wearing robes, (weight 10) weilding a dagger
(weight 2) and a small sheild (weight 10)
encumbrance = 10 + 3*2 + 10/2 = 21
<p>
the allowance right now is either 35 or 45, i forget
suppose he is attempting to cast burning hands (level 1) and he is
level 5:  spell_level - caster_level = -4
<p>
The total of these is:  21 - 4 - 35  ==> -18:  he cannot fail the spell.
<p>
Now:  platemail (100) high shield (20) skullcleaver(22)
encumbrance = 100 + 10 + 66 ==> 176
same spell:
176 - 4 - 35 ==> 137, meaning the spell will fail 68% of the time.
(137/200)
<p>
  Right now there's no dex or strength bonus. My reasoning is that
it was primarily the bulkiness of things which gets in the way
of spellcasting, not the weight, but weight is the only measure
of bulkiness i have around.
<p>
  Magical weapons/armour are less bulky then their normal counterparts.
<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>


<h2><a name=monsters>Monster Problems</a></h2>

<h3><a name=vampire>How do I kill vampires?</a></h3>
<p>
<ul>
<li>How do I kill these suckers? Stakes don't touch them when wielded.</p>
<p>
Lightning, firebolt, burning hands, holy word, these spells work
very nicely if you have enough spellpoints. Especially holy word,
the vampire is sometimes running away.</p>
<p>
I dunno what the deal with stakes is.  I honestly think you're
better off with some artifact weapon such as Darkblade or
Demonbane.</p>
<p>
<li>I was zapping one vampire with my rod of firebolt and my rod of 
small lightning for ages, and he just wasn't going down! Do I
need to be more patient? They don't have THAT many hps though,
at least, according to the spoilers...</p>
<p>
  You will never kill a vampire with rods.  A wand might do it.
Vampires have constitution, and HEAL QUICKLY.  You've gotta
pour a large damage/time into the vampire quickly, via spells,
or you'll never kill him.</p>
<p>
Rods take too long to regenerate, you can't cause damage fast enough
with one.</p>
</ul>

<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>

<h2><a name=maps>Solving Maps</a></h2>
<h3><a name=start>I'm on the starting map, what do I do now?</a></h3>
You should be in a city square with a few sign posts in the middle. Move over
the signs and apply them ("A") to read what they say.

<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>

<h2><a name=cs>Client/Server Questions</a></h2>

<h3><a name=speed>Which is faster, Crossclient or Telnet?</a></h3>
<p>
Crossclient and telnet are equivalent in speed for playing crossfire
right now.  No flags are really going to speed things up for you very
much, except the difference between font and xpm graphics.  Font
graphics are most certainly going to be quicker.</p>
<p>
The reason is that crossfire's client isn't really a client right
now, the server simply sends over an X-window.</p>

<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>
<hr>
<h3><a name=server>How do you start a server and also how do people play in that 
same game?</a></h3>
You do it this way:
<P><KBD>crossfire -server -detach</KBD>
<P>
The server will now be running in the background on your machine.</P>
<P>
Better yet, look at utils/crossloop or some such.
Then announce your new server to the network.</P>
<P>
To start a new player on the local machine type:</P>
<P><KBD>crossclient</KBD></P>
<P>
To start a new player over the network type:</P>
<P><KBD>crossclient -server "server node name"</KBD></P>

Try this as well for other options:</P>
<P><KBD>crossfire -h</KBD></P>
<P><KBD>crossclient -h</KBD></P>
<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>

<hr>
<h2><a name=maint>Maintenance Questions</a></h2>


<h3><a name=balspells>How do I balance up the spells?</a></h3>
You need to edit the spell_params file in your libdir. Have a look in the file
Crossfire/doc/spell_params.doc for more information.
<p>
<h5><a href=#contents>Return to Contents</a></h5>

<hr>
<ADDRESS>
Sam Mackrill / mackrill@atuk.aspentec.com
</ADDRESS>

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