1Welcome to Xconq version 7.5 Prerelease! 2 3Xconq is a general strategy game system. It is a complete system that 4includes all the components: a portable engine, graphical interfaces 5for Unix/Linux/X11, Macintosh, and Windows, multiple AIs, networking 6for multi-player games, and an extensive games library. 7 8In addition to Xconq's "default" game, which is similar to the 9classic Empire/Empire Deluxe games of years ago, the games library 10includes games for ancient civilizations, the Peloponnesian War, the 11Roman Civil War, Frederician strategy, Napoleonic strategy, Gettysburg 12at a brigade scale, the Russian revolution, the Normandy invasion, 13WWII at scales from tactical to grand strategic, Beirut street 14fighting, voyages of discovery, African exploration, and many others, 15including space and fantasy games. 16 17As befits its emphasis on strategy, Xconq's forte is turn-based play 18using overhead views of a tiled world. The world is basically 19two-dimensional, although varying elevations are available for games 20that need elevation effects or line-of-sight. Xconq is especially 21interesting for games about unusual or lesser-known strategic 22situations; it is unique in providing a single system for modelling 23the conflicts and strategies of any period in history. 24 25Xconq games may include hundreds of types of units, hundreds of 26materials (ammo, fuel, etc), hundreds of types of terrain, and 27hundreds of types of technological advances. Worlds may be up to 2832,767 x 32,767 in size, over a billion cells (hexagons)! The largest 29map currently in the library is a monster 800x320 map of the Earth. 30Xconq can also synthesize new worlds for its games. 31 32Up to 31 sides may participate in a game, with any mix of human and AI 33players. Xconq networking is peer-to-peer, so no separate server is 34required. 35 36To set up new types of games, Xconq includes an interpreter for a game 37design language (GDL). While the syntax resembles Lisp, GDL is a 38declarative language, where you create a game just by defining the 39properties of types and objects, and then filling in tables describing 40their interactions. There are literally hundreds of properties 41available, and hundreds of tables relating units, materials, terrain, 42and advances. Xconq is capable of emulating many other strategy 43games, and Xconq's generic AI includes the ability to analyze a set of 44rules and to figure out (usually!) how to play it. 45 46In addition, the game designer gets a collection of nearly a thousand 47graphic images available for use in games, including unit icons, 48terrain tiles, and national emblems. It's also easy to import 49additional graphics content of your choice. 50 51To help keep the both new and experienced designers from being lost in 52the complexity, Xconq includes a game designer's manual that describes 53all of this machinery in detail. 54 55If you are compiling your own of Xconq from sources, you may wish to 56look at the INSTALL files in the doc directory. Xconq has been tested 57in a wide variety of systems and environments, including most versions of 58Unix, Linux, Macintosh (PowerPC only), and Windows. 59 60Once Xconq is installed, depending on your system you should be able 61to either type "xconq" at a shell or click on the program's icon. The 62program will guide you the rest of the way. If this is your first 63time playing Xconq, choose the "Introductory" game; this is a simple 64preset scenario that uses the standard rules. 65 66There are also alternative user interfaces for Xconq. The Curses interface 67can be used in terminals and text consoles; it is generally invoked as 68"cconq". The SDL interface is being developed as a sleeker, faster, easier- 69to-use replacement to the Tcl/Tk interface; it can be invoked as "sdlconq", 70or, on Windows, by locating it in "Start Menu | Programs" as 71"Xconq (Experimental)". 72 73Xconq calls several different sites home. For a number of years now, Xconq 74has been found at 75 76 http://sources.redhat.com/xconq 77 78But, this is not its only home, and most development is now taking place at 79 80 http://sourceforge.net/projects/xconq 81 82and discussion and news can be found at 83 84 http://www.xconq.org 85 86These pages include information about new versions of Xconq, screenshots, 87online versions of the manuals, and so forth. 88 89A number of mailing lists are available. Information on these lists can 90be found at 91 92 http://sourceforge.net/mail/?group_id=124062 93 94and at 95 96 http://sources.redhat.com/xconq/lists.html 97 98Xconq is free software, and is licensed under the Gnu Public License, 99version 2; see the file COPYING for more details. 100 101Since Xconq is free, you can copy it, hack on it, and redistribute the 102hacked version as you like; but PLEASE identify clearly any changes 103you make to an "official" release - this will be of immeasurable help 104to me, other Xconq hackers, and users. I always enjoy hearing about 105and seeing any improvements, fixes, or suggestions, and will try to 106incorporate the best ones into future versions of Xconq. 107 108 109 Stan Shebs 110 shebs@shebs.cnchost.com 111 112 (with updates by) 113 Eric McDonald 114 mcdonald@phy.cmich.edu 115 116 117Thanks to the many Xconq players and hackers around the net who have 118contributed literally hundreds of suggestions, fixes, and improvements 119since Xconq's first release to comp.sources.games in 1987. The manual 120includes more detailed acknowledgments. 121 122