Trader 2
Copyright 1996-1998 Croft Soft Strategy Software
The year is 1357, you are a trader in Northern Europe.
After many years of trading, you have been able to buy yourself a
ship. This will enable you to increase your income, and open up new
markets. However there are many problems with travelling by sea for
example the threat of pirates. You must overcome these problems in
order to become the greatest businessman in Europe.
You begin the game with 1 Sloop and £1000. Your aim is to make as
much money as possible whilst fending off the threat of the
pirates.
System Requirements
-------------------
Trader 2 should run on the following minimum set-up:
An Atari ST/STE/Falcon
At least 512K memory
A Mouse
A Double Sided Disk Drive
A Colour Monitor or Television
A Hard Drive and more memory are recommended
The game has been tested on:
4 Mbyte STE, TOS 1.06
1 Mbyte STFM, TOS 1.04
4 Mbyte Falcon030, TOS 4.04
4 Mbyte PaCifiST emulation, TOS 1.62
4 Mbyte PaCifiST emulation, TOS 2.06
If there are any problems running the game on your system, try
disconnecting any unneccessary peripherals and loading it again. If
you have more than 1 Mbyte of memory, you could also try using a PD
program which reduces the amount of available memory you have.
The game hasn't been tested on systems such as the Medusa T40, the
Hades, the Medusa T60 or the C-Lab Falcon Mk X.
If the game fails to run correctly on your system then try running the excellent Generic STOS Fixer by Anthony Jacques on the TRADER2.PRG file.
Finally, Trader 2 is not fully compatible with NVDI 3 and will not run
on an Apple Macintosh running MagicMac.
Croft Soft Software cannot be held responsible for any loss of data or
damage to any hardware through the use of this program.
New Features
------------
Trader 2 is twice as big as the original game, below are just some of
the improvements.
A full specially designed graphical interface
A much more user friendly environment
A new Dynamic Economy System (DES)
Improved graphics
More variation
Print Option
Before you start
----------------
You MUST save games on to the Trader 2 program disk, you must ensure
that the disk is write enabled at all times.
It is strongly recommended that you make a back-up copy of the game
before you play it.
If you are running Trader 2 from a hard drive then ensure that all saved games are in the correct Trader 2 directory.
Loading
-------
Boot your computer and insert you Trader 2 disk. You should shortly be
presented with the GEM Desktop, double click on the "TRADER2.PRG" icon
to load the game.
The game can be installed on any hard drive, to do this, create a
Folder called "TRADER2", and copy the contents of the Trader 2 program
disk to it.
The initial figures for each game are randomly generated, therefore
every game you play will require a different strategy.
The Main Screen
---------------
Once the game has fully loaded, you are presented with the main
screen. From here you can do the following things:
Buy/Sell Ships
Sail to different towns
Trade Goods
Trade Weapons
Visit the local bar
Load
Save
View the information screen
View your opponents status
View the credits screen
View Croft Soft's previous releases
Print Statistics
Quit
Each option has its own icon.
Buy/Sell Ships
--------------
In order to increase your cargo space, you will need new bigger ships.
By clicking on this icon, you are presented with the ship trading
screen. There are 10 icons on this screen. The three leftmost icons
give you details of the ships available to you, the arrow icons enable
you to buy or sell ships and the Exit icon returns you to the main
screen.
Ships are very expensive, before you buy a ship you must have enough
money to do so. You can only sell a ship if you will have at least one
left. There are three types of ship available:
Sloops
Merchantmen
Hulks
Each has a different cargo capacity and price. Remember by buying
ships, you increase the amount of crew required to sail. Make sure
that you can afford to pay peoples wages before investing in a new
ship.
Sailing
-------
By clicking on this icon, you are presented with a map.
On the map there are eight towns marked out. By clicking on a town,
you will sail to it.
If you click with the right hand mouse button, you will be shown the
name of the town.
By clicking on the Exit icon you will be returned to the main screen.
It takes about a month to travel between any two towns on the map.
Trading goods and weapons
-------------------------
This is the main part of the game, it features eleven
different tradeable items (including weapons) within a newly developed
Dynamic Economy System. Unlike in the original Trader, prices were in
general random, in Trader 2 they are based on a unique set of forumlae
taking into account both supply and demand. In general, trading in
these goods has different effects on the economies of a town, eg.
buying all of the towns corn will cause demand for this product to
increase in turn leading to an increase in price.
To trade in goods, click on the trade goods icon, to trade in weapons
click on the trade weapons icon. (Both on the main screen)
Trading in these items is very similar to trading in ships, clicking
on the relevent arrow either buys or sells each item, clicking on the
picture icon shows what each item is. The figures to the right of the
icons are:
Buying Price Selling Price Supply Quantity owned
The number in the top right of the screen corresponds to the amount of
free space within your ships. Money is displayed at the bottom.
To exit, click on the Exit icon.
Bar
---
By going to the bar you can recruit crew members. These are useful in
many ways:
Required to sail between towns
Every five crew people you recruit increases your weapons
strength by one. You weapons strength is also multiplied
by one for every five crew members you have eg:
Crew=5, Weapons=50
Weapons strength=51
Crew=10, Weapons=50
Weapons strength=102
Remember, each crew member you recruit must be paid a wage of œ5 per
month, don't recruit more than you can afford.
The recruiting screen is similar to the trading screen, clicking on
the arrow icons increase and decrease your crew compliment
respectively.
The numbers to the right of the icons are:
Required Crew Actual Crew
To exit, click on the Exit icon.
Print
-----
By clicking on this icon, you can print of various game statistics,
you should ensure that your printer is connected and on line before
attempting to print.
You can print your current status and your opponents status.
To exit click on the exit icon.
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At the extreme top right hand corner of the Main Screen, there are five buttons, to access these, press the left hand mouse button on all occasions other than the quit option which requires you to press both buttons.
Info Button (I)
---------------
This gives you a report on your current status in terms of what cargo
you own, what ships you control, number of crew, weapons strength,
money, date, total cargo space and free cargo space.
This is the screen you are presented with at the end of every year.
Opponents (O)
-------------
This button gives you access to information on your opponents, it
tells you how much money and how many of each type of ship they own.
Credits Button (C)
------------------
This leads you to the credits and greeting screen, exit by clicking on
Exit
Releases Button (R)
-------------------
This leads you to the list of croft softs releases, exit by clicking
on Exit
Quit Button (Q)
---------------
Use this button to quit, you will be asked to confirm this. NB, you
must press both mouse buttons over this option.
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Money
-----
You begin the game with £1000, this will increase or decrease
throughout the game depending on your actions. You must pay wages and
docking fees at the beginning of every month.
Weapons
-------
There are four different types of weapons in Trader 2, they all weigh
different amounts and each one has advantages:
Weapon Weight Hit Points
Cannon 4 Tonnes 10 HP
Gun 3 Tonnes 6 HP
Bow and arrow 2 Tonnes 2 HP
Swords 1 Tonnes 2 HP
The total strength of you weapons depends on many factors:
No of each weapon type
No of ships
Number of crew
The more ships you have, the greater the area you must protect and the
less effectve each weapon is. Weapons can be used more efficiently the
more crew members you have.
Battles
-------
You may be attacked while at sea, if this occurs, you will be given
the opportunity to retreat. If you retreat, you lose out on any ships
you may gain by attacking the enemy. On some occasions, the enemy
ships may be travelling faster than yours, if this is the case they
may catch up with you and attack even if you do attempt to retreat.
If you decide to attack, the computer works out who wins based on the
number of ships, weapon strengths and number of crew members each
fleet has.
Upon winning, you can capture the enemy ships for your own use.
Usually, the enemy will lose some ships in the battle and therefore
you may not have any ships to salvage. To prevent you from stealing
their weapons and goods, on most occasions the pirates will discard
these items before you board the ship.
If you lose a battle, you will lose the game.
Random events
-------------
Throughout the game, it is likely that various random event will
occur, these could be almost anything, some will be useful, others
will be detrimental to your success.
Later on
--------
As the game progresses, the economies of the different towns will
change, therefore, it is likely that you will have to change your
strategy fairly often. As you make more money the threat of attack
increases, you will therefore need to make sure your ships are well
defended.
Credits
-------
Programming, Graphics, Idea, STE, Falcon and PaCifiST Testing and Design - Colin Polonowski
STFM Testing - Kevin Wilcox
Additional Testing - Croft Soft Testing Group
Programmed in STOS
Graphics in Crackart.
Full source code is included with this program. IT MUST NOT BE ALTERED
AND RESOLD.
SHAREWARE
---------
Trader 2 is shareware with a £5 registration fee. If you enjoy playing the game then please show your support by registering with Croft Soft Software.
To register, please send a cheque made payable to 'C J Polonowski' to:
Croft Soft Software
The Croft
Hope Rd
Nibley
Nr Yate
Bristol
BS17 5JH
This game is exclusively distributed in North America by the Computer Dungeon. If you have purchased this game from the Computer Dungeon, you are not required to register.
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Version 2.01
Release 2