Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness/Help/Readme

WARCRAFT II: TIDES OF DARKNESS

This README file contains errata and information not covered in the Warcraft II manual, as well as additional troubleshooting tips.

CONTENTS Minimap Options Capturing Screen Shots Resetting Game Display & Keys Scoring Clarifications Usage of Walls Usage of Spells Manual Errata Map & Sound Editor Help Troubleshooting Contact Information

MINIMAP OPTIONS The TAB key toggles the minimap between two different views during gameplay. These views are the standard view which reveals known terrain and units, and unit view which shows units only, with no terrain. The unit view is especially useful for tracking down units on a map that are difficult to find.

CAPTURING SCREEN SHOTS The Print Scrn key allows the user to take screen captures at any time. These will be stored in PCX format in your Warcraft 2 directory. If this does not work under Win95, try using CTRL-ALT-Backquote(') instead.

RESETTING GAME DISPLAY & KEYS The Scroll Lock key will reset the display if it becomes corrupted, which can occur when switching between applications in Windows. If the keyboard hot-keys seem to stop responding, press the backslash (\) key to reset the keyboard.

SCORING CLARIFICATIONS The unit and kill counts on the score screens may not always match up. This can happen in the buildings and razings score where you receive credit for destroying a partially built structure, but your opponent will not receive credit for building it.

USAGE OF WALLS Walls cannot be placed in single player games. Walls may be used in multiplayer games that have at least two human participants.

USAGE OF SPELLS Spells such as raise dead, bloodlust or healing only affect units that are organic in nature. These types of spells will not affect units such as ships, catapults or flying machines.

Haste increases the speed of a unit to the equivalent of a Knight. If haste is cast on a Knight or faster unit, no change in speed will occur.

Bombers and Sappers are unstable due to the dangerous charges they carry. Casting Unholy Armor or Invisibility on them will set off their explosives and kill them.

Bloodlust increases the speed of a unit and increases the amount of damage done per attack.

Death Coil will drain life from any organic enemy unit within the area that the spell is cast and adds that life to the caster's.

MANUAL ERRATA There is no manual based copy protection in WarCraft 2. To play single player games, you will need to have the Warcraft CD in the drive. You may install a spawned copy onto another system and that person can play in multiplayer games against a player with the Warcraft CD. You can play with up to 3 people with 1 CD, 6 people with 2 CD's, and 8 people with 3 CD's.

There is only one install type as opposed to the three install types listed in the manual.

MAP & SOUND EDITOR The Map and Sound Editor that is included with Warcraft 2 is a Windows application. If you are using Windows 3.1x, you will need to have installed both Win32S and WinG. If you have not installed these add-ons to Windows, you can download them from several Microsoft sites which are listed when you attempt to run the Map Builder in Windows. If you are using Windows 95, there is no need to install these additional files.

When you are using the Map Builder to create custom maps, they will be saved as .PUD files. These .PUD files must be saved in your Warcraft 2 directory to be accessed. For tips on creating your own .PUD files, check the Help section in the Map Builder.

TROUBLESHOOTING If you are having problems running under Windows 95, please shut down to DOS and then run Warcraft II from there. To do this, press the start button, select "Shut Down" and then select "Restart in DOS Mode". If you are running in Windows NT and the mouse is caged to the top left of the screen, set the vidmouse=0 line in your WAR2.INI file to vidmouse=2.

If you are using an Ensoniq Soundscape and are experiencing sound degradation, use the Warcraft 2 setup program to set the digital sound configuration to SoundBlaster.

Modem Init Strings For best performance you will want to disable compression and error control on your modem. Here are some init strings for popular modems that we have found to work well.

MOST HAYES COMPATIBLES: AT &K0 M1 S46=0 &D2 &Q6

US ROBOTICS SPORTSTER: CLEAR string set to:AT &F0 AT &K0 M1 &M0 &D2

INTEL 14.4: AT &F\N0\Q0

2400 BAUD MODEMS: CLEAR and INIT strings set to ATZ

If your system does not run smoothly during MODEM or DIRECT LINK play and you are using MIDI music, turn music OFF to increase game speed. This is done by setting your MIDI Music Volume to 0, or by using the alt-m keystroke shortcut.

If your CD-ROM drive does not support Redbook Audio or is not connected properly, uncheck the "Enable CD Audio" selection box in the sound options dialog. This will cause the game to now play MIDI music.

For technical support please contact Blizzard Entertainment at:

Phone: (714)955-1382 Online: support@blizzard.com WebSite: http://www.blizzard.com