CLAN
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Copyright (C) Ben Weston 1992
This product is licenceware and may only be distributed by L.A.P.D.
If you bought this copy from any other public domain company,
please tell me ! (see below address).
Loading
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Double-click on the CLAN.PRG icon to load the game.
The program will look for two files which between them contain
the all-time record score for the game. If both are not found, the
game will create the file when it is needed. The all-time record
will thereafter be saved to these files.
The disk should not be write protected, and should be left in the
drive until you have finished playing the game.
Background
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Many centuries ago, the people of the world were more scattered,
less integrated than they are today. Each village or group
existed more or less as a self sustaining community, concentrating
primarily on producing enough food to survive. In some parts of
the world these groups were known as clans.
You take on the role of leader of one such clan, in a time long
since forgotten. Your clan is newly formed, an outcast band of
warriors from a larger clan in a now distant land. Your people are
weary, and in poor health. What grain has been brought with you to
your new home has been carried hundreds of leagues. Now your new
makeshift village lies by a natural well, in the centre of a plain
which can be as hard a rock or as soft as water depending on the
unpredictable climate. You must guide your people wisely, so that
your clan may thrive for as long as possible.
The basics
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Firstly, it should be noted that the term 'men' is used in this
game to refer to men, women and children. All are considered to
have equal status.
Your clan, being a simple community with no aims of grandeur,
thrive on a diet of grain. But grain is a decent sort of crop, and
can be planted to produce even more grain. Thus your people live.
You must decide each year how many sacks of grain to plant, and
how many men to work as farmers. The more grain planted, the more
grown, but only with enough farmers will you be able to harvest
all that is grown. The weather, however, is likely to play the
largest part, and so you must hope for a good year when planting
large amounts of grain.
You must also decide how many men shall improve grain storage
facilities (to prevent grain rot), how many men shall improve the
village defences (to defend against attack), and how many men
shall improve medical facilities (to reduce natural death rate and
increase natural birth rate).
The game generally works in 4 cycles to a year.
Annual Census / Decisions
Food report
Defence report / Medical report
Events
Events will be something which happens that year, and may be good
or bad for the clan. Sometimes a choice will be offered, but other
times the outcome is pre-decided.
Scoring is in the form of accumulated man-years. Each year you
will be told how many men are in the clan. Each year this figure
will be added to an undisplayed total, given at the end of the
game. This scoring method obviously favours larger clans, but
sustaining a large clan over time is the real secret, and this
is not easy.
There is a choice of turning on/off music as well as retiring
following each years medical report.
Ending a game
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There are three ways a game can end.
Firstly, your clan can become extinct. This is usually due to
combat, but may be assisted or even caused entirely by famine.
Secondly, you may retire using the option after the medical
report.
Thirdly, a least likely, you may be forced into retirement after
100 years of rule.
Note that score is largely unaffected by the means of ending the
game.
The not quite so basics, and a little more technicals, but still
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very importants
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Generally speaking, most of the game is a random system. Luck
plays more than it's fair part in things. Such is life. It is your
job to be prepared for the worst, and know what's going on.
Some things that it will help to know -:
Each man in your clan eats one sack of grain per year (they are
big sacks !)
The worst crop failure possible is 90%.
You will never lose more than a few facility levels in any year.
It is difficult to become extinct from famine, but easy to come
close.
Enemy clans attack you for your grain. Therefore the more grain
you have the larger an attacking army on average shall be. Armies
also tend to become larger over the years, as your reputation as a
worthy target grows.
It is also possible for some troops in an army facing overwhelming
odds to defect, resulting in a gain in men for the other side.
thus it is actually possible to finish a combat with a few more
men tha you started with.
It takes approximately 500 man-years work to increase a facility
level. No facility can increase more than one level per year, but
excess man-years will be put to good use. Therefore, 2000 men
working as medics one year will make the medical facilities
increase for several years to come, without further work being
done.
Roughly speaking, any facility-affected figure in the game is
first worked out as normal, and then divided/multiplied by the
facility level. Thus, going from level 1 to 2, HALVES the
effect ! This is true for natural deaths, grain rot, and combat
losses, and of course opposite for births. It is therefore
important to increase all facilities by a few levels early on.
Tips and advice
---------------
Remember that combat losses and starvation deaths are included in
the census.
The paradox of the game is that to get a big score, you need a
big clan, and a big clan needs lots of grain, and lots of grain
invites big attacking armies. The best policy is to produce enough
food to thrive and no more. This is not as easy as it sounds,
however.
Storage plays a very important part later in the game, as
it reduces the chances taken with farming.
Medical facilities should be increased as soon as possible, to
stabalize the birth/death rate.
Defences should be given a high priority too. You can defeat an
enemy thousands of times larger if you are well fortified.
Don't rely on anything ! Luck is biggest factor in life, and it is
in this game too !
That's the instructions then ..
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Right, no doubt I've forgotten something vitally important about
the game, but there you go.
Credits and stuff
-----------------
Thanks go to me, the writer of this game (including the music).
Thanks to Colin Watt (co-author of the Misty extension) for
advice, especially concerning getting rid of the STOS key at the
beginning of the game !
Thanks to the authors of STOS, for a really amazing programing
language. This prog was written with STOS V2.6, by the way, and
uses a couple of commands from the Misty extension.
Thanks to LAPD for their support !
A little story about a virus
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Once upon a time there was a bloke who wrote the odd game in STOS.
His 1986 TOS 1.0 520STFM was falling apart, so he got a nice new
520STE with 2 meg RAM. He always checked his disks for virus's,
and on completion of his latest game (Logic problems, available
from LAPD), he loaded up his virus killer. But the virus killer
didn't load up on his nice new STE. Oh well, he thought, I've
never had a virus yet ! And so he sent off his game to LAPD.
Well, that disk did in fact have the Signum virus on it, and it
was only LAPD's vigilence which stopped it. Good 'ol LAPD. So
luckily that game was never sold with a virus (in fact all LAPD
games have a virus detecting bootsector, anyway !). But the morale
is here to be learnt. It can, and will in time happen to you. Get
hold of either the Professional or Ultimate virus killer and be
certain. After all, my virus came out of nowhere !
THAT WAS A PUBLIC INFORMATION STORY
History
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August '92 : wrote game
Well, all the decent progs have histories on 'em nowadays.
My other games available from LAPD are :
LOGIC PROBLEMS - a computer format of the classic puzzle formula.
(Licenceware)
UNMAGNIFICENT 15 - a point and click (quickly!) western shoot-out.
(Budget)
Give 'em a whirl, after all they don't cost much.
A strangely underlined heading
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Good grief, I think I've run out of things to say. better do the
address.
BEN WESTON
7 SWANGLEYS LANE
KNEBWORTH
HERTS.
SG3 6AA
ENGLAND
If you have any problems with the game, or even just a query,
please write to me. I am extremely eager to get some feedback..
The End
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Well there you go, your money worth just in a documentation file !
You've virtually got the game for nothing, so stop moaning.
Time to go ....
Ben.