Flotilla readme

# Flotilla

Orbital Battleship Maneuvers
Created by Blendo Games

TABLE OF CONTENTS

- Welcome to Flotilla!
- System Requirements
- Technical Support
- Game Modes
  - Adventure
    - How to start an Adventure
    - How to add another player
    - How to visit planets
    - How to move the map
    - Random Events
    - Wormholes
    - How to upgrade your fleet
  - Skirmish
    - How to start a Skirmish game
    - How to add a computer-controlled player
    - How to add another human player
    - How to add ships to a fleet
    - How to start the match
- Combat
  - Overview
    - Orders phase
    - Action phase
  - Camera controls
  - How to select a ship
  - Ship orders
    - Attack move
    - Flank move
    - Focus fire
  - Executing Orders
    - Horizontal Movement
    - Vertical Movement
    - Orientation
    - Priority Target
  - Manual Mode
  - Armor facing
  - Veterancy and promotion
- Shortcuts Appendix
- Version History
- Credits
- Fors fortis

WELCOME TO FLOTILLA!

Thank you for trying out Flotilla, the game of space exploration and tactical combat. Explore mysterious planets, build your fleet, and encounter a menagerie of deep-space drifters, fortune-hunters, pirates, and pandas.
We'd love to hear your feedback. Visit us at www.blendogames.com or email me at brendon@blendogames.com
Have fun!

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

OS: | Windows 2000/XP/Vista
Processor: | 1GHz
RAM Memory: | 1GB
Free Hard Drive Space: | 80MB
DirectX version: | 9.0c
Sound: | DirectX-compatible
Video: | DirectX-compatible, Shader Model 1.1
Controls: | Keyboard and mouse

TECHNICAL SUPPORT

Please visit http://www.blendogames.com/flotilla/help.htm for the latest technical support information.
For any issues not covered, send an email to brendon@blendogames.com and let us know how we can help.

GAME MODES

Flotilla includes two game modes: Adventure and Skirmish.

Adventure

In the Adventure game mode, explore the galaxy and build your own customized ship fleet. The universe is randomized after each playthrough, so no two Adventures are the same.

How to start an Adventure

Select "ADVENTURE" from the main menu. The Adventure menu will appear. Click on your name to generate a new universe and start the Adventure!

How to add another player

You and a friend can play the Adventure cooperatively. Plug in a gamepad (or Xbox360 controller). While the Adventure menu is on-screen, press the gamepad's primary button.

How to visit planets

Left-click on a planet to visit it. As you continue exploring, more visitable planets will become available.

How to move the map

Move the mouse cursor to the edges of the screen to move the map. Alternatively, you can also press and hold the right mouse button.

Random Events

Through your journey, you'll encounter a variety of characters, disasters, and opportunities. At these encounters, an Event window will appear. The window will display a portrait of the event and its name.
You will often be given choices on how you want to handle the event. Left-click on a choice to confirm it. Be mindful of your decisions! The choices you make will steer the course of your Adventure.

Wormholes

Ancient legends speak of mysterious portals leading to who-knows-where. See if you can catch them before they disappear!

How to upgrade your fleet

Left-click the "FLEET SETUP" button located on the upper-right corner of the screen (or press F). The Fleet Setup menu will appear.
In the Fleet Setup menu, left-click the grey square labeled "EMPTY SLOT". A popup window will appear listing all available upgrades. Left-click on any upgrade to install it.

Skirmish

The Skirmish game mode lets you jump straight into combat. Fight with or against the computer or another player. Skirmishes are great for practice and testing out new spaceships!

How to start a Skirmish game

To start a Skirmish game, select "SKIRMISH" in the Main Menu. The Skirmish menu will appear.

How to add a computer-controlled player

Left-click on any of the boxes labeled "EMPTY SLOT". A small popup menu will appear. Select the "ADD COMPUTER PLAYER" option from the menu.

How to add another human player

Plug in a gamepad (or Xbox360 controller) and press the gamepad's primary button. Note: you can reconfigure the gamepad buttons in the options menu.

How to add ships to a fleet

Click on any of the grey squares located to the immediate right of each commander names. A small popup menu will appear, displaying a list of ship names. Select a ship to add it to a commander's fleet.

How to start the match

Click on the "START SKIRMISH" option. The skirmish match will begin immediately.
Fight wisely and watch those angles. Good luck!

COMBAT

Throughout your Adventures, you'll inevitably bump into goons who want to smash you into space-dust. Your battleships are armed to deal with situations just like this!

Overview

Flotilla combat uses a simultaneous turn-based style of play. There are two phases in combat: the Orders phase, and the Action phase.

Orders phase: In the Orders phase, you give orders to your fleet ships. A typical order tells the ship where to go, what angle to face, and who to attack. Note your enemy is also giving orders to his ships during this time.
Action phase: Once you're satisfied with your fleet orders, you'll continue to the Action phase. In the Action phase, your fleet (and the enemy fleet) carries out its given orders. The Action phase is non-interactive, so make your orders count!

Camera controls

Use the camera to move through the battlefield.

W A S D | Move the camera.
Right mouse button (Press and hold) | Rotate the camera.
Shift (Press and hold) | Increase the camera speed.
Mousewheel | Raise/lower the camera.

How to select a ship

Press spacebar to select your next available ship. Alternatively, you can left-click on a ship to select it.

Ship orders

Once you have a ship selected, the Orders Menu will appear. There are three available orders:

Attack Move: The ship moves while firing. This standard maneuver is effective in many situations.
Flank Move: The ship engines receive a dramatic speed boost, at the expense of not being able to fire. Use the Flank Move to quickly move to advantageous positions.
Focus Fire: Increases the firing rate of the ship firing systems, but slows engine speed to a crawl. Focus Fire is great when you're in range of the enemy and have a clear line-of-sight.

Executing Orders

When you order a ship, you'll be asked to give a destination location, what angle to face, and what enemy to target.

Planar Movement: Where to move on the horizontal axis.
In this step, tell the ship where to move on the horizontal plane. Notice every ship is attached to a colored line and circular disc. The circular disc serves to show your ship's position relative to other ships.
Vertical Movement: Where to move on the vertical axis.
Visualize the orange grid as the surface of a glass table. The colored line attached to your ship depicts how high above or how deep below you are relative to this grid. Use the length of this line to determine your position relative to enemy ships.
Orientation: What angle to face.
Tell the ship what angle to rotate toward. Do this be selecting which enemy to face. Your ship will turn to face the enemy you select.
During this step, you also have the option to activate Manual Mode, described below.
Priority Target: What enemy to target
In this step, tell the ship which enemy to prioritize. If your ship's weapon turret has line-of-sight to the priority target, your turret will fire exclusively at that target.
If your turret does not have line-of-sight to the priority target, your turret will instead fire at the closest enemy it has line-of-sight to.
You also have the option of not giving your ship a priority target. If your ship is not given a priority target, your ship turrets will fire at the closest enemy it has line-of-sight to. Do this by clicking on the NO PRIORITY TARGET button (or press F).

Manual Mode

Advanced starship captains may choose to active Manual Mode to give ships any arbitrary yaw, pitch, and roll. Manual Mode is useful for exact control over your turret firing arc coverage and armor facing orientation.
To activate Manual Mode, click on the MANUAL MODE button (or press F) during the Orientation step.

Yaw: Rotate the ship left/right.
Press and hold the left mouse button, then move the mouse up/down. The ship will rotate on its horizontal axis.
Pitch: Rotate the ship up/down.
Press and hold the left mouse button, then move the mouse up/down. The ship will rotate on its vertical axis.
Roll: Roll the ship.
Press and hold the left mouse button, then move the mouse up/down. The ship will rotate on its roll axis.

Armor facing

Most parts of a ship are covered in heavy armor. This armor is able to deflect most munitions.
However, there are two weak spots in armor: the bottom of the ship, and the rear of the ship. The first tactic every battleship captain learns is how to flank and hit these weak spots.

Promotion and veterancy

In the Adventure mode, your ships gain veterancy by engaging the enemy and gaining combat experience. The ship's veterancy level is signified by small stars above the ship's name.
Veterancy makes a ship more effective in battle, including higher damage output and enhanced armor performance.

SHORTCUTS APPENDIX

While Flotilla can almost entirely be played with the mouse, handy keyboard shortcuts are included for your convenience.

W A S D | Move the camera.
Shift | Increase camera speed.
F | Toggle Manual Mode / Open Fleet Menu / Open Command Menu / No Priority Target
R | (during Yaw/Pitch/Roll steps) Reset ship orientation.
Spacebar | Select next available ship / Open Command Menu (when no ships available)
1 | (orders menu) Select Attack Move.
2 | (orders menu) Select Flank Move.
3 | (orders menu) Select Focus Fire.
4 | (orders menu) Cancel order.
Tab | Scoreboard / Captain's Log
Backspace or C | Close current menu / Cancel
Page down | (playback mode) Play/Fast forward.
Page up | (playback mode) Rewind.
Esc | Open Pause Menu.
Shift+F12 | Toggle HUD display.

VERSION HISTORY

2.4

September 6, 2010
- Crash: Fixed crash in audio initialization.
- Game: AI now chooses enemy targets on a more random basis.
- Game: Fixed issue with Bruja Heart item not working.
- Game: Camera no longer automatically zooms out after all ships have orders. Player can manually invoke camera reset by clicking mousewheel.
- Controls: Q and E now lower/raise the camera.
- Controls: can now use numpad for camera control.

2.33

April 25, 2010
- Fixed crash in audio initialization.
- Fixed crash in in scoreboard.
- Fixed soft crash in online scoreboard when no internet connection is available.
- Added more granularity to score calculation.
- Increased online scoreboard listing to top 1000.

2.3

March 12, 2010
- Improved error-checking in rendering systems.
- Fixed bug where player gets stuck in invisible menu.
- Fixed incorrect location of Smite UI.
- Hide Smite UI during skirmish.
- Smite now has a chance of destroying multiple enemies.
- Gave extra bonuses to enemies in Hardcore mode.

2.1

March 11, 2010
- Fixed missing tutorial message.
- Fixed position of Hardcore button.
- Fixed incorrect labels on high score buttons.
- Hid experience point UI during tutorial.

2.0

March 10, 2010
- Fixed crash with the disc renderer.
- Fixed bug with incorrect enemy fleet sizes.
- Added Hardcore mode (longer adventures, tougher enemies)
- Added Hardcore online scoreboard.
- Added "Smite" power. Spend XP points to vaporize enemies.
- Added ship type UI to player ships.
- Enemy ships can now use upgrades.
- Added spacebar shortcut to New Item, New Ship, and AAR menus.
- Added Pgup/Pgdn/Home/End shortcut to Captain's Log menu.

1.9

March 8, 2010
- Fixed save/load of control options.
- Fixed bug in online high score saving.
- Fixed scrolling bug in high score menu.
- Added "Find Me!" button in online high score menu.
- Spacebar now opens the Fleet Setup menu.

1.8

March 6, 2010
- Fixed crash in the fleet setup menu.
- Fixed crash when selecting priority target.
- Fixed crash in controller rumble.
- Fixed crash when toggling manual mode.
- Added online high score table.

1.7

March 4, 2010
- Fixed crash in the line renderer.
- Fixed collision on Beam Gunship.
- Fixed bug that caused ships to stop rotating.
- Fixed bug that prevented high scores from being saved.
- Moved hardware mouse option to the video settings menu.
- Added functionality to slow down camera (ctrl or alt)
- Balancing: increased flank move speed.

1.6

March 3, 2010
- Fixed crash in particle system.
- Added extra check to ensure AI ships don't collide.
- Planar grid now raises and lowers to the selected ship's altitude.
- Unlocked the Proto Fighter for skirmish games.

1.5

March 2, 2010
- Fixed audio system crash.
- Fixed crash in the mesh renderer.
- Fixed crash in the Fleet Setup menu.
- Fixed crash caused by beam weapon sounds.
- Fixed crash in the patch version-check.
- Fixed crash during the Priority Target step.
- Fixed crash in the skybox renderer.
- Fixed crash in the starfield renderer.
- Fixed missing Captain's Log for hitchhiker-deer event.
- Fixed bug in playback recording.
- Reduced default screen resolution.
- Added extra check to ensure AI gives every ship a move order.
- Activating Manual Mode now defaults orientation to the ship's current orientation.
- Added an option to default to Manual Mode.
- Added an option to use hardware mouse.

1.4

March 1, 2010
- Fixed crash in the bloom renderer.
- Camera no longer auto-rotates when player selects ship.
- Added option for mousewheel to toggle between moving the camera forward/backward or up/down.
- Added option to adjust mouse sensitivity.
- Added new keyboard shortcuts/UI:
  - F: toggle Manual Mode.
  - F: skip priority target.
  - F: open command menu.
  - F: open fleet menu.
  - Spacebar: close Captain's Log.
  - Spacebar: close Fleet Setup menu.
  - Spacebar: close Playback menu.
  - 1 2 3 4: select event decisions.
  - 1 2 3 4: select ship orders.
  - 1 2 3: select command orders.

1.3

February 28, 2010
- Fixed crash when loading certain ship content.
- Fixed crash with graphics device not properly unloading.
- Fixed crash when unequipping inventory items.
- Fixed audio crash when player ends or begins a turn.
- Fixed bug with assassin encounter giving infinite cargo items.
- Fixed player not having any more planets to visit.
- Selecting the patch option now directs user to Flotilla patch website.
- Added UI label showing ship type beneath the ship name.

1.2

February 27, 2010
- Fixed crash with region-specific character sets
- Fixed crash with certain gamepad/joystick configurations.
- Fixed rare crash when game saves options settings.
- Fixed region-specific issue with the startup version check.
- Fixed issue with video settings menu sometimes not saving changes.
- Added "Draw Planets" video option. Uncheck this if you have a low-end PC or netbook.

1.1 | February 26, 2010 Initial release

CREDITS

Created by | Brendon Chung
Audio | SoundSnap www.soundsnap.com

Special Thanks

Daniel Wiksten
Drew Marlowe
Neil Mehta
Robert Kingsley
Tom Nguyen
Sherman Wang
Venny Wong

FORS FORTIS

A bead of sweat rolled down the Pig's cloven hoof.
"Full speed ahead, Mr. Parker. Full speed ahead!"
"Full speed over here, sir!"
"Action station! DPICM in effect, locking tremolo."
"Aye, aye, sir! Fire!"
"Heaven! Heaven!"

The Pig believed in one true loves. He met her at a party once.
The Pig also believed in the inverse of that. At first, the Pig didn't want to believe it, and thought it sounded rather silly. But at a party (a different one, years later), he met his hate at first sight.
It broke the Pig's heart to realize someone like that existed.

"Positive ID acquired!"
A face blipped on the video screen. The decision to flee came suddenly.
"They say there are more moves in chess than there are atoms in the universe."
"How- no, what does that 'ave to do with our situation, captain?"
"Absolutely nothing. I just wanted my last words to sound deep."

Copyright 2010 Blendo Games. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication of this game is prohibited.
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