575 lines
23 KiB
Plaintext
575 lines
23 KiB
Plaintext
DISCLAIMER
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----------
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We have made every effort to ensure that ArenaEd functions as
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expected and without anomaly. In particular we have gone out of our
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way to ensure the integrity of your saved-game files. The bottom
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line, however, is that what you see is what you get. Since we cannot
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control every possible use to which ArenaEd is put, we must pass the
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responsibility for its use on to you.
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WE DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AS TO THIS SOFTWARE, WHETHER EXPRESS OR
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IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
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MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, FUNCTIONALITY,
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DATA INTEGRITY OR PROTECTION.
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Table Of Contents
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-----------------
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1. What is ArenaEd?
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1.1. Introduction
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1.2. Features In Brief
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1.3. Special Features
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1.3.1. Temporary Stats
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1.3.2. Race
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1.4. System Requirements
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2. Quick Start
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3. Up and Running
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3.1. Where To Install
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3.2. Getting In, Getting Out
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3.3. What ArenaEd Will Do When It Runs
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3.4. What Can You Edit
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3.5. What You Can't Edit
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3.6. What To Do After You Edit
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4. What You See On Screen
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4.1. Menu Bar
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4.1.1. Commands for the Menu
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4.2. Status Line
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4.3. DeskTop
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4.4. Save-Game List
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4.5. Character Window
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4.5.1. Commands for Windows
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4.6. Other Windows
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4.7. Edit Fields
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4.7.1. Commands for Edit Fields
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4.8. "Edit ..." Buttons
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4.8.1. Commands for Buttons
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5. General Good Advice
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5.1. Protect Yourself
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5.2. Where To Find What You Are Looking For
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5.3. Where To Look If You Can't Find It
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6. How Does ArenaEd Work?
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6.1. Editing The saveengn Files
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6.2. Saving Edits: File/Save
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6.3. Discarding Edits: File/Reload
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6.4. Make A Backup: File/Backup
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6.5. Restore From Backup: File/Restore
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7. Help in ArenaEd
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7.1. Status-line Help
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7.2. Help file
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8. If Something Goes Wrong
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8.1. Get Me Out Of Here!
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8.2. Restore Your Backup
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9. Hints On Playing Arena
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10. About ArenaEd
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10.1. Who We Are
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10.2. A Few Thoughts On Shareware
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10.3. The Difference Between Editing And Cheating
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10.4. How To Contact Us
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10.5. Respect for Bethesda Softworks (tm)
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1. What is ArenaEd?
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-------------------
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1.1. Introduction
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-----------------
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ArenaEd is a gamer's utility for editing the saved-game files in The
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Elder Scrolls: Arena (tm) (version 1.05) from Bethesda Softworks (tm).
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ArenaEd is a DOS application that uses a sophisticated, window-based
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user interface.
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The interface can be controlled using a mouse or keyboard.
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1.2. Features In Brief
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----------------------
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Arena allows the user to have up to ten (10) different save-game
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files, each file can save the status of a different character.
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ArenaEd will allow the player to edit all features of each character,
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in each of the saved games: race, gender, name, temporary and
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permanent attributes, current spell points, current and permanent
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health, current fatigue, gold, experience points and level are all
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editable.
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1.3. Special Features
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---------------------
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1.3.1. Temporary Stats
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----------------------
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Although it is not immediately apparent in the game, each character
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has two distinct sets of stats (Str, Int, Wil, etc). The first set
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of stats is temporary and the second set is permanent. All other
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things being equal (i.e. no disease, etc) the temporary stats will be
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reset to the equal the permanent stats the next time the character
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gains a level.
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Since the temporary stats are reset every once in a while it makes
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them a great choice for temporarily giving your character a boost.
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Feeling a little overwhelmed by those Minotour? Bump up your Strength
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a bit to even the odds. When your character gains the next level
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your Strength will be reset and your character will carry on as
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before.
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1.3.2. Race
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-----------
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So you didn't really what to be an Argonian after all? In the game
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your only choice is to start a new character. Using ArenaEd you can
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change what the fates had in mind for you (at least a little) by
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changing your character's Race. The portrait you get is more or less
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random but at least you can be the Race you prefer.
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1.4. System Requirements
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------------------------
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ArenaEd has been extensively tested on a 486/33 (8 meg RAM) and a 386/25
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(4 meg RAM) under DOS 5.00. It runs nicely in a DOS-box in Windows 3.1
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or from the DOS prompt itself. It neither uses nor requires EMS/XMS but
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is fully compatible with popular memory managers (eg. 386MAX and EMM386).
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ArenaEd can be mouse-driven but is fully controllable from the keyboard.
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Fully installed, ArenaEd requires about 350k of disk space.
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2. Quick Start
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--------------
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To get started quickly, simply run ArenaEd from the DOS prompt.
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If you are not in the right directory ArenaEd will tell you that and
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allow you to move to the directory where Arena is installed (see
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File/Change Directory). Once there, you are in business. That's all
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there is to it.
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3. Up and Running
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-----------------
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3.1. Where To Install
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---------------------
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Generally speaking, your life will be simpler if you install ArenaEd in
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the same directory that you have Arena installed.
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While this is not necessary, since you can always change to the Arena
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directory from within ArenaEd, it will speed up the editing process
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by removing the need to change directory.
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3.2. Getting In, Getting Out
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----------------------------
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To start ArenaEd, simply type "ArenaEd" at the DOS prompt.
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To exit ArenaEd, select File/Exit or use the "accelerator" key command
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Alt-X.
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3.3. What ArenaEd Will Do When It Runs
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--------------------------------------
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When ArenaEd runs it will present a list of the saved-games in the
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current directory. When you select a saved-game to edit ArenaEd will
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look to see that you have a backup file (if you are editing the third
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save-game, saveengn.02, the backup file will be called engn02.bak).
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If the backup file exists, ArenaEd will load the save-game file and
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you'll be in business.
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If the backup file does not exist, ArenaEd will try to create it. Once
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the backup file exists, ArenaEd will be happy and will proceed to load
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the save-game file for your editing pleasure.
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3.4. What Can You Edit
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----------------------
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ArenaEd has been designed to give the user maximum control over the
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player's character. We've tried to allow the user to edit anything
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and everything related to a particular character's stats and
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abilities, insofar as it is safe to do so.
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If something isn't in the editor it is simply because (a) we don't
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know how to edit it or (b) editing it could corrupt the game.
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Whatever we do know how to edit safely we've made editable by you.
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3.5. What You Can't Edit
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------------------------
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As powerful as ArenaEd is, it can't do everything. Whatever you see
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on the screen during game play is pretty much beyond our control
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(i.e. spell effects, weapon types, character portrait, etc).
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One feature that we did not allow edits on is a character's Class.
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Since a character's class is integral to the game (determines whether
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spells are available, etc) we decided to disallow edits in order to
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avoid corrupting the save-game files.
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Spells and weapons are not editable in ArenaEd version 1.0.
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3.6. What To Do After You Edit
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------------------------------
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As far as characters in Arena are concerned, the gods work while the
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character sleeps. You've probably noticed that most changes that
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happen to the characters stats, abilities, etc happen while you
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camp. The same is true of changes you make via ArenaEd. To get the
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benefit of your edits, we recommend you Camp as soon as you restart
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the game after an editing session. Resting for one (1) hour will
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usually do it.
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4. What You See On Screen
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-------------------------
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4.1. Menu Bar
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-------------
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The line at the top of your screen is the menu bar.
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All features of ArenaEd appear as items on the menu bar or as items on
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the drop-down menus that are controlled by the menu bar.
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4.1.1 Commands for the Menu
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---------------------------
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The menu can be controlled with the mouse in the usual manner. Left-
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click on something to select it, left-click and drag to move the focus.
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The usual stuff, nothing fancy.
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The menu system can also be fully controlled from the keyboard:
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o F10 moves the focus to the menu bar.
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o Alt-? will select a menu bar option where "?" is the highlighted
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character on the menu option (eg. Alt-F will drop the File menu,
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Alt-W the Window menu, etc).
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o Alt-Spacebar will drop the System menu (left-most on the menu bar).
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o Arrow keys can be used to move between menu items.
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o Enter will select a highlighted menu option.
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4.2. Status Line
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----------------
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The line at the bottom of your screen is the status line.
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The purpose of the status line is to show the user the "status" of
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ArenaEd. This usually means that it will display a helpful message.
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4.3. DeskTop
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------------
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Everything between the menu bar and the status line is the desktop.
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When a window is open it is said to be "on the desktop". If something
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is on the desktop the user has control of it and can manipulate it.
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4.4. Save-Game List
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-------------------
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When ArenaEd begins it will open a window that lists the games you've
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saved, as indicated by the text you typed when you saved the game.
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To select the save-game that has the focus (is highlighted) press the
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Spacebar.
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Selecting one of your saved games from the list will open a window
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that has the character's name in the title: let's call this the
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'character' window.
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4.5. Character Window
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If you want to edit a particular character, or something related to
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that character, then the character window for that character is where
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you start.
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The character's name in the title is prefixed by the number of the
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saved game file. This prefix is just for informational purposes.
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4.5.1. Commands for Windows
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---------------------------
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o Items on the Window menu allow the following window operations:
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o Size/Move the current window (Ctrl-F5)
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o Cascade all windows
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o move to Next window (F6)
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o move to Previous window (Shift-F6)
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o Close the current window (Alt-F3)
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o Tab will move the focus to the next field or button; Shift-Tab will
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move back to the previous field.
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4.6. Other Windows
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ArenaEd organises the details of a character into sub-windows
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accessible from the Character window.
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The title of each window fully specifies the "ownership" of the data
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within that window. For example, a window entitled
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"03:WilliamTheRed/Temporary Stats" contains data relevant to the
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temp stats of your character WilliamTheRed as saved in the fourth
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save-game on the save-game list.
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4.7. Edit Fields
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If something is editable from a given window then an edit field will be
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available within the window to allow the user to performs the edits.
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What the user can do within a given edit field depends on the type of
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data the edit field represents.
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When a particular edit field has the focus (is highlighted) the status
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line will display a message indicating what form of input is expected in
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that field.
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4.7.1. Commands for Edit Fields
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-------------------------------
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The best advice here is to look at the help text on the status line.
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The edit fields are fairly sophisticated and provide a wide range of
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options to the user. The help text will detail those options. Here
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is a quick summary:
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o Text fields: type the text you want, Del to delete, Backspace to
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backspace-and-delete, Home to go to the start of the text, End to go
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to the end.
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o Number fields: Up-arrow to decrement, Down-arrow to increment, Home
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for first valid value in the number's range, End for the last valid
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value in the number's range. You can also enter a number from the
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keyboard.
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o Named fields (eg. race, gender): Up-arrow to go to previous "value",
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Down-arrow for next "value", Home for first "value", End for last
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"value".
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4.8. "Edit ..." Buttons
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-----------------------
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As mentioned above, ArenaEd is organized into windows. To move to a
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sub-window, select the appropriate "Edit ..." button (left-click or
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Spacebar).
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4.8.1. Commands for Buttons
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---------------------------
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o Using the mouse: simply left-click on the button.
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o Using the keyboard: press the Spacebar to select the button.
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5. General Good Advice
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----------------------
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5.1. Protect Yourself
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---------------------
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The old saying goes that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
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cure. In the world of software, a minute of prevention is worth an
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eternity of recovery.
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We strongly suggest that you take that minute and copy your
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"saveengn.*" and "engn*.bak" files to a safe place, preferably a
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diskette that you reserve for just this purpose. The word is that
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the sequel to Arena (Daggerfall?) will use characters from Arena so
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the backup will doubly useful.
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5.2. Where To Find What You Are Looking For
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-------------------------------------------
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Everything is in the menus. Step through the menus to see what is
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there.
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Try things that look interesting. The editor won't do anything
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drastic without warning you first and you will have the option to
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cancel.
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5.3. Where To Look If You Can't Find It
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---------------------------------------
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If you can't find what you are looking for on the menu, try Help on the
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Help menu. You'll get a text window showing this file. Scrolling works
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so you can zoom up and down through the file.
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6. How does ArenaEd work?
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------------------------
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6.1. Editing The saveengn Files
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-------------------------------
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ArenaEd does one thing: it edits files called "saveengn.0?". Those
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files contain all of the information related to each character's
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'numbers' in Arena. Using the editor, you modify the contents of the
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saveengn file. The next time you boot the game, you will see the
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changes you made.
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Any window that has had edits made in it will have the "unsaved
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changes" marker, '!!', in the title. This is a quick visual
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indicator that you need to save.
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6.2. Saving Edits: File/Save
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----------------------------
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Once you've made your edits, you'll want to save them: select File/Save.
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When you save your edits the "saveengn" file is updated (i.e. the changes
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are written to disk).
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If you exit ArenaEd without saving your edits they will be discarded and
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you won't see them next time you play.
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To be on the safe side ArenaEd will warn you if there are edits
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("unsaved changes") that have not been written back to the save-game
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file.
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Try a few edits and then select File/Exit. This will pop up the
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warning box. Now you know that you can trust ArenaEd to protect you
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from accidental loss of your edits.
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6.3. Discarding Edits: File/Reload
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----------------------------------
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Sometimes you make edits that you would rather discard: perhaps you
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made a mistake, or been a little more generous than you think is
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best.
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To discard all the edits you've made since the last time you saved
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simply reload the save-game file (File/Reload). This dumps all your
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current unsaved changes and gets you back to a "clean" character file.
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6.4. Make A Backup: File/Backup
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-------------------------------
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ArenaEd will automatically make a backup for you the first time you
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start an edit session. If you are editing the second file in the
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list, the file you are editing is actually called 'saveengn.01'. The
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backup file is called "engn01.bak". The first time you edit
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saveengn.01, a backup will be made. Subsequent edits will not
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automatically create a backup since the backup already exists. As
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mentioned above, we do suggest you copy these files to a diskette and
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put the diskette in a safe place.
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If you really want to update your backup file, select File/Backup.
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You will be warned that you are going to loose the old backup, but if
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that is really what you want to do, carry on. The current saveengn
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file, say saveengn.01, will be copied to "engn01.bak" and the old
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"engn01.bak" will be lost.
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6.5. Restore From Backup: File/Restore
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--------------------------------------
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If you want to restore "saveengn.0?" to what it used to be, File/Restore
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will copy "engn0?.bak" to "saveengn.0?".
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The next time you play Arena, you'll see the character stats,
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experience, gold, etc, as they were when the backup file was made.
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7. Help in ArenaEd
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------------------
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7.1. Status-line Help
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---------------------
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The status line is the first place to look for help in ArenaEd. Every
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attempt has been made to assist the user by displaying helpful messages
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on the status line.
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ArenaEd is context-sensitive and the help text on the status line will
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change to reflect the current context.
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7.2. Help file
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--------------
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You are reading the help file now. This help file can be displayed from
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within the game by selecting Help/Help.
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The Help file window is like any other window: Size/Move, Close,
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Cascade, Next, Previous all apply as per 4.5.1.
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The help file itself (arenaed.txt) is a straight text file. This file
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can be printed using your favourite print utility. At the very least
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you can type "print arenaed.txt" at the DOS prompt.
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8. If Something Goes Wrong
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--------------------------
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We really don't think that anything bad will happen using ArenaEd. We
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have designed it such that the safety and integrity of the game data
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file is of primary importance. Extensive tests have shown that the data
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is well protected and that ArenaEd behaves properly. But the unexpected
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does happen when you least expect it.
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If -heaven forbid- a game data file (saveengn.0?) has been corrupted
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somehow, ArenaEd will detect the invalid data and give the user LOTS of
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warnings about it. You can correct the data from ArenaEd on a field by
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field basis. If the file is truly corrupted this process can get
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annoying. The best option is to bail out of the editor and restore the
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backup file. Here's how:
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8.1. Get Me Out Of Here!
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------------------------
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Ctrl-Alt-Q means "get me out of here, now!". No saves are done, no
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backups, no nothing. This is the only "secret" command in ArenaEd and is
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there for emergencies only. Hopefully you'll never need it, but at least
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it is there if you do.
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8.2. Restore Your Backup
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------------------------
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If the game data has been trashed somehow, your best bet is your
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backup file "engn0?.bak". You can select File/Restore from ArenaEd,
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or simply copy "engn0?.bak" to "saveengn.0?" at the DOS prompt. Yes,
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you'll loose the latest stuff in your game, but this should recover
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from the corrupted game data file.
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9. Hints On Playing Arena
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-------------------------
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We have logged more hours than we can count playing Arena. We like the
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game a lot and that is why we wrote this editor. We have learned a few
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things along the way. Perhaps some of it will be useful to you.
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o Giving yourself a temporary break is sometimes all you need. Let's
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say you're in a real slug-fest and you just want a temporary boost to
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get you through the day. Boost your Current Health, Current Fatigue
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or Current Spell Points (as appropriate to your character). Health
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and Fatigue will be reset next time you sleep, Spell Points will wear
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out as you use them up; these boosts are truly temporary.
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o Getting started in a wicked world. Arena can be pretty rough on
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the neophyte character. A standard trick we use is to boost our new
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character's level to say 2 or 3. This will get you hitting better
|
|
and spells will be cheaper to cast. When you've actually earned
|
|
those levels (i.e. your experience has reached the appropriate
|
|
magnitude) your character will gain levels as normal. Note that there
|
|
is a down-side to this technique: you'll loose the benefit of Health
|
|
gain that comes with each level gain.
|
|
|
|
o Getting ripped off at the local vendors? A judicious increase in
|
|
Personality will make the shop owners a lot more reasonable in their
|
|
pricing. Barter can be fun - if you have the Personality for it!
|
|
You can save a bundle in gold too.
|
|
|
|
10. About ArenaEd
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|
-----------------
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|
10.1. Who we are
|
|
----------------
|
|
ArenaEd's authors, Trevor Flory and Joe Mooney, are both professional
|
|
software designers with a combined total of over 20 years in the
|
|
business. ArenaEd is the second in a series of game editors we are
|
|
producing.
|
|
|
|
10.2. A Few Thoughts On Shareware
|
|
---------------------------------
|
|
We think "try before you buy" is good for everyone. We like it
|
|
ourselves and we think it is one of the best ways to ensure that the
|
|
user get what they pay for. We encourage you to avail yourself of
|
|
shareware's advantages: try the software, see if it works for you,
|
|
make sure you can trust it to do what it says it will.
|
|
|
|
As wonderful as software is, it won't happen if it isn't worthwhile to
|
|
do it. If you like ArenaEd, please give serious consideration to
|
|
registering. See "Shareware!" on the ArenaEd menu bar for further
|
|
details.
|
|
|
|
10.3. The Difference Between Editing And Cheating
|
|
-------------------------------------------------
|
|
If a game does something you don't like, we think you should be able to
|
|
change it. We feel that users have the right to edit games because they
|
|
paid money for them: the game designer's don't own the game, the user
|
|
does. Editing isn't cheating, it is called getting your money's worth.
|
|
|
|
10.4. How To Contact Us
|
|
-----------------------
|
|
The fastest way to get our attention is through CompuServe. Either
|
|
of the following will do the job:
|
|
|
|
Trevor Flory, CIS: 70711,3712
|
|
Joe Mooney, CIS: 71171,3042
|
|
|
|
If you would like to send us money or simply prefer communicating
|
|
via the postal service, our business address is:
|
|
|
|
Box 119 - 154 Chadwick Court
|
|
North Vancouver, B.C.
|
|
CANADA V7M-3K1
|
|
|
|
This information is also available from within ArenaEd: see
|
|
"Shareware!" on the ArenaEd menu bar.
|
|
|
|
10.5. Respect for Bethesda Softworks (tm)
|
|
-----------------------------------------
|
|
Bethesda Softworks (tm) has been remarkably attentive to their Arena
|
|
customers. They've hung in for 5 upgrade cycles and all the
|
|
attending user requests, suggestions, complaints and flames. What
|
|
this really means is that they have invested time, money and effort
|
|
in keeping you and every other Arena user happy.
|
|
|
|
Most companies don't like game editors because a buggy game editor
|
|
can make their jobs infinately more difficult. If we have one request
|
|
it is that you be up-front with Bethesda about the fact that you have
|
|
used a game editor. If you talk to their customer service people
|
|
don't 'forget' to mention that you have used an editor. They won't
|
|
like hearing that, but at least you will be telling them the truth.
|
|
|
|
If fact, to ensure that everyone is happy, reproduce your problem in
|
|
a save-game that has NOT been edited. That will ensure that the
|
|
problem is really their's and not ours, and it will be respecting
|
|
the valiant efforts of their customer service people and their
|
|
play-testers.
|
|
|
|
For what it is worth, even though we wrote ArenaEd, we would never
|
|
even think of calling their customer service department until we had
|
|
reproduced any problem we were having in a save-game that had NEVER
|
|
been edited, not even a little bit.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Th-th-that's all folks. Have fun, play safe, pay as you go.
|