SnowballZ(6)							       Games							      SnowballZ(6)

NAME

       snowballz - fun RTS game featuring snowball fights with penguins

SYNOPSIS

       snowballz

DESCRIPTION

       Take command of your army of penguins as you blaze your path to victory!

       March through snow laden forests to conqueror new frontiers and grow your small army. Ambush enemy lines with blasts of freezing snowballs.
       But don't neglect your home, invaders are just over the next snow drift!

       Gather fish for your cold penguins to munch on as they warm up in your cozy igloo.

       It's a snowy world you don't want to miss!

REQUIREMENTS

       You will need to make sure that you have all of these items installed on your system. If you use linux most of these will be in	your  dis-
       tribution's repository.

	 * Python 2.4
	 * pygame
	 * PyOpenGL
	 * Numeric
	 * PIL

CONTROLS

       You  can  control  snowballers  (not  workers) by selecting them (ether by clicking on them or dragging a select box around them) and right
       clicking to tell them to do something.

       Left click to select, right click to perform an action. If you right click somewhere, they will move and stay there until they get cold	or
       you  tell  them	to go somewhere else. Snowballers that don't have any orders (they are cleared when they get cold), will walk around their
       home igloo. Penguins get cold when hit by snowballs.

       To disband your units (make them go stray around their igloos) by pressing the **o** key. You can also make  your  penguins  run  somewhere
       without stopping to throw at enemies by middle clicking instead of right clicking.

       You can move the screen around by using the arrow keys or **aswd** keys. Hold down on space to bring up a nice big minimap.

       Zoom in and out with the page-up and page-down keys. Note that for now it might be a little slow when zoomed out!

CHAT

       To  send  a chat message, first press enter to bring up the chat box. Once up, simply type your message and press enter again. Your message
       will be sent to everyone! If you want to send to just one person, you can type::

	>playername Hi playername! This is a privet message!

       playername being the name of the person you want to send a chat message to.

       There is tab completeion too! So you can type ">" then hit TAB to see all players that you can send a privet chat to. Two useful  shortcuts
       you  can  use  are the "," and "." keys. Press the period when you aren't in chatmode and it will bring up the chatbox to send a message to
       the last person that sent a privet chat to you. The "," works the same way except to the last person you sent a privet chat to.

       If you ever have a bunch of chats on your screen that you just want to get rid of, you can press the **c** key to clear them all.

TAKEOVER

       If you tell a snowballer to move to an enemy igloo (by right clicking on it), it will run without stopping until it gets into  it.  If  you
       can hold the enemy igloo for 30 seconds, it, the region, and all penguins belonging to the igloo will become yours.

       Be  carefull  though, if an enemy snowballer enters the igloo you are taking over, your penguin will be shown the door with a cold snowball
       in his face.

       Penguins (on ether side) can not exit an igloo that is in the middle of a takeover.

       When an igloo is being taken over, the penguins belonging to that igloo will go bananas. The workers will just run around in  a	panic  and
       the snowballers will rush to try to save it in time not listening to your orders. (actually, the workers don't do that yet, but they will!)

       On  the bottom right corner of igloos there is a marker designating which player that igloo belongs to. When an igloo is in jeopardy (being
       taken over), that marker turns multicolored.

WARMING AND REASSIGNING

       When a penguin gets cold from being hit with too many snowballs, it will run madly back to it's home igloo (you won't be able to control it
       again  until  it's  warm).  Once back in it's igloo, it can take up to 40 seconds to get warmed up (depending on how cold it was when going
       in)! It also requires a fish before it will go back out if it's warmth was below a certain level (your workers  will  automatically  gather
       fish).

       If  you	tell  a snowballer to enter one of your igloos (again, by right clicking on it), it will enter it. Immediately after entering, the
       igloo you told it to go to becomes it's home igloo. If it is all the way warm, it will exit immediately. Otherwise it will stay for a snack
       and warm up.

TERRAIN TYPES

       In  the game you will come across two different types of land; Ice and snow. Really the only difference between the two is that snowballers
       can only create snowballs on snow (not ice).

       Try to catch your enemy on the the ice with your snowballers standing on the snow. If you can, you'll cream 'em!

TIPS

       When one of your penguins enters their igloo and is only a little bit cold, they won't eat a fish but will still get warm. The  colder  the
       penguin, the longer they take to warm up!

       You  can  gain  a strategic advantage in a snowball fight if your penguins are among some trees while your opponents aren't. Snowballs that
       hit trees have no effect on surrounding penguins.

       Normally, a snowball that lands next to a penguin brings it's warmth down just a little while a direct hit will bring it  down  a  lot.	If
       your penguins get close enough to their enemy, they are much more accurate!

       One  mean  strategy  you  can use against your opponent when they are between your army and their own igloo is to send one of your penguins
       into their igloo. This will make your penguin run without stop towards their igloo distracting the enemy. This will give your snowballers a
       chance  to  get	a handle on the situation. If your snowballer does manage to get into their igloo, all of their snowballers will panic and
       race to it, and stop throwing their snowballs!

CREDITS

       The game has been developed by:

	 * Joey Marshall <joey@arcticpaint.com>
	   - lead programmer
	   - designer
	   - gfx

	 * Matthew Marshall <matthew@matthewmarshall.org>
	   - programming
	   - networking

       This man page has been made by Miriam Ruiz <little_miry@yahoo.es>, based in the README file that comes along with the game.

SEE ALSO

       You can find more information at http://joey101.arcticpaint.com/snowballz/

								     June 2007							      SnowballZ(6)