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AGGRESSION MANUALVersion 1.09, Updated 10/01/03 ©
1999-2003 BLiT Games, All Rights Reserved |
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TABLE
OF CONTENTS
Quick Start
Game Screen (see what
every button does visually)
Advanced Game Interface (why you bought this
game)
Juggernaut (Try
it! Really - you won’t be
disappointed.)
Random Number Generation (you got a problem
with that?)
QUICK START (so you've played Aggression like games
before, eh?)
As
of the current version, Aggression will only run on color PalmOS devices,
although this is a high priority and should change with the next major
release. Be sure to read the README.TXT
file to see any known compatibility issues.
Whether
your version of Aggression has an automatic installer of if you have to pick
the files yourself, you will be asked to choose which graphics best fit your
Palm Screen.
“Classic”
or “Low Resolution” palms have a screen that is 160 x 160 pixels. If you have an older model Palm, such as a Palm
IIIc, M515, M505, M130, or a PalmOS powered cell phone from Samsung or Kyocera,
or if you have the new Treo 600, choose the LoRes file.
“High
Resolution” palms have a screen that is 320 x 320 pixels. If your Palm is Tungsten, Zire or most “square”
Sony CLIEs, chose the HiRes file..
“CINEMA
Resolution”
palms have an extended long screen that is 480 x 320 pixels. If your Palm is a Sony like the NR-70,
NX-70, NZ-90 or any of the newer deluxe Sony CLIEs like the UX-50 and UX-40
that has a screen that is longer than it is wide, than congratulations! The Cinema version is for you!
Important
note on Cinema use – there are some third party devices, such as the Garmin
iQue, which have a long screen but which use proprietary APIs in order to use
the full screen. While we do everything
possible to get the needed information from these third parties, until we do,
you will be forced to use the HiRes (square) version of Aggression on these
devices. If you have a device with a
Cinema screen that won’t support Cinema mode, email support@blitgames.com
Unlocking the game:
If
you have downloaded the free trial version of Aggression, then you will not
have all of the features of the full product, and you will only be able to play
it a certain number of times before you will no longer be able to play. (For
example, the trial version NEVER has the advanced AI opponents.) This is because the free version of
Aggression is JUST A TEST DRIVE. If you
enjoy it, then for a very reasonable price you can own the full version and
play it forever, including free software upgrades.
When
you buy Aggression, you will get the latest version of the commercial version
of the game plus a secret code to unlock it.
(If you purchased Aggression and received a code that was NOT TEN
DIGITS, then you must first go to www.blitgames.com and convert
your vendor specific code to an official ten digit Aggression secret code, or
if unsupported by that vendor, you must wait for BliT Games to generate your
code.) If you have not received your 10
digit code within 48 hours, contact support@blitgames.com
-> it is likely that your order was lost in transit.
Once
you have the official 10-digit Aggression code, you
must install the commercial version of Aggression. Run the game, hit the menu button to go to
the main menu screen and select
“REGISTRATION” from the main menu.
If you enter your code successfully it will unlock your game. If you cannot get it to unlock, send an
email to support@blitgames.com. Please read your confirmation email
for any specific installation directions unique to your store.
Calibration:
IMPORTANT! Before you attempt to play Aggression for
the first time, you MUST recalibrate
your Palm by launching System/Welcome.
All Palms slowly move out of calibration, and a game like Aggression
requires the highest pen accuracy you can get, so really concentrate during the
calibration. If buttons don't seem to
work right, or the wrong country keeps highlighting, it is very likely that
your calibration is off. Bad
calibration can make Aggression unplayable.
Custom in game calibration will be released in future versions of
Aggression.
Game Options:
You can select two to six
players. For each color, you can select
no player (0), a human (H), a neutral (N), or a computer opponent - beginner (B) or medium (M). Advanced AI (A) will be in the next
release of Aggression.
Random Start: Deal out
territories randomly, skipping that
aspect of the pregame strategy.
Quick Populate: In the pregame, each player gets three moves per turn instead of
one.
Max 12: No territory
can ever hold more than 12 men.
Limit Values: Aggression Points are never worth more than 40
men.
Limit Undos: Normally,
Players get unlimited UNDOs within their turn.
Initial
Screens: First time through gives additional
information on playing the game.
Automatically turns off once your read
them once.
Reset
Help:
Show the most basic game playing tips again.
Advanced
Defaults: When selected, sets default options to what
is preferred by experienced players.
When deselected, sets default options to what is preferred by beginners.
? button -> pull up context help
O button -> toggles
between beautiful mode and opaque mode
C button -> shows
reminder of continents, continent values, and adjacent territories.
Menu button /
Tap top of screen -> return to the main menu.
Tap on
territory ->
claim empty territory, or add another man to territory
Game: Note that you can play with just tapping, but you really cruise once you start using the Arrows, the
Jog Dial and/or the function keys!
UNDO / DONE
button ->
undo accidental move / finish
turn
Arrow Keys /
Jog Dial ->
increase or decrease by one for move/fortify, up repeats an attack
on a territory
Attack -> once you
tap on the territory to attack from, you can repeatedly
attack on adjacent countries to repeat attack - you don’t need to keep tapping on the source. When you defeat a territory and move into it, that becomes the new source.
Final Move -> you must tap on the ocean before
doing a final move.
If you begin a final move by accident, hit UNDO. (The top bar will say
"Final Move")
MOVE BAR -> control number of men to drop or move:
arrow buttons / jog dial
-> increase / decrease by one man in move or drop
tap
in left or right green boxes -> choose max/min amount of men to
move/drop
tap on bar -> choose exact
amount of men to move/drop
tap on red line -> tap to evenly balance
move between two territories
check box -> toggle
"retain mode" -> how many men drop with first tap?
Juggernaut
Attack / Juggernaut Move -> toggle JD button, or hold F1(calendar)
or Press Jog Dial while
tapping. Will completely kill enemy (or pause if you are losing.) Will move all into new territory. One tap
per country is all you need.
Juggernaut
Save ->
first tap JS Button, or hold F2(contacts) and tap. Will attack enemy until there is just one
or two men left (or pause if you're losing), but will not capture.
Attack Control -> first
tap x1 Button, or hold F3(memo) and tap. Will attack using only one man.
Mark Territory
->
first tap M button, or hold F4(to do) and tap. Will mark a territory
so you remember to deal with a situation before your turn is up.
"AP"
->
amount of "aggression points" you
currently own
"AV"
->
the current turn in value of aggression points
(See
section, "The Game Screen" below)
I button -> toggle
the Info Grid:
top delta button -> toggle entire
grid between values and changes
delta buttons -> toggle between a
value and its change
tap on name -> (left half / right
half) change value shown in row
tap top of grid -> toggle
between large and small text (not available in LoRes version)
Help: For constant tips while you are playing the game, use the help box.
Arrow
Buttons -> See next tip or return to previous tip
More
Button -> See tip on same subject
‘?’
Button -> Show or hide help box.
Detailed Screen Shots and Controls
“Cinema” version of Aggression
“Standard” layout of Aggression
Details of game controls
Game Rules of Aggression (if
you've never played a Aggression-like board game)
The
goal of Aggression is to conquer the World.
The
World is divided into 42 "territories" and six "continents."
In
the "pregame", the territories are divided up among the players. Players then distribute or
"fortify" their initial men across their territories. Then the real game begins.
Each
turn begins with a player being awarded new men. The player then distributes or "fortifies" the new men across the territories that he
occupies.
The
player can then attack his enemies. Any territory the player has at least two
men on it may attack an enemy territory that is "adjacent"
to his, or across a marked water pathway.
Every attack causes men to die
from the attacker or/and the defending territory. A player can make as many attacks with as many territories as he
wishes during the turn.
If
a player succeeds in killing all the men in an adjacent enemy territory, he
then moves his own men from the attacking territory
to the conquered territory.
At
the end of person's turn, he is allowed one "final
move" in which he may move one set of men between two adjacent territories.
Once
all of a player's men have been killed, he is out of the game. The last person standing wins.
Specific
Strategies:
The
heart of Aggression is maximizing your amount of men. This is based on two principles: you have better odds defending
vs attacking, and you are awarded men every turn and
"aggression points" based on your
actions during a turn.
At the start of a turn, you are given a minimum of three
men. You are then given an additional
man for every three territories you occupy.
Holding
all the territories in a continent gives you a set
number of extra men per continent, depending on how difficult the continent is
to hold. Holding South America give you
an extra two men per turn, but holding Asia gives you seven per turn. If you STILL occupy all the territories of a
continent by the start of your next turn, you get the additional men for that
continent.
Finally,
you are rewarded for aggression. At the
end of every turn in which you have conquered at least one enemy territory, you
will receive an "aggression point". At the beginning of a turn, when you have
five, or sometimes as few as three aggression points, you may turn in three
aggression points to receive extra men.
When you completely kill another player, you get his aggression
points. If you have six or more
points after killing your opponent, you get to immediately cash in your
points for men and place them in the current turn. The value of aggression points goes up
continually during the game. If the Limit Values option
is selected, then points will never be worth more than 40 men.
Basic Game Interface (if
you've never played a Aggression-like computer
game)
At
any time you may return to the title
screen by tapping the menu icon. From there, you can always resume your game
but choosing resume.
The
top line of text on the screen is the Top
Bar. It displays your current turn number (or "pregame"),
followed by the current value of aggression points, followed by the current
player's name, followed by the
current state of the player's turn,
e.g. fortify/attack/attack move/final
move.
The
line of text under the map is the Info
Bar. This emphasizes the current
player by showing his colors. It also
shows the amount of aggression points that
player has, and a detailed description of what the player is doing, e.g. PLACE
10/10 MEN.
Below
the Info Bar will appear the Move Bar when you start working with a large number
of men. This is explained later.
On
the bottom of the screen is the Button
Bar, with various tap buttons explained below.
Above
the Button Bar, or to the right of the screen in Cinema Mode, you can optionally display the Info Grid, which you can toggle with the I button.
Basic Buttons:
"?"
Button:
At
the center of the buttons at the bottom of the screen is the context help button. {With this button depressed, you can then
tap anything on the screen, or pres any button, and be told what that button
does in the game. - NYI} With this button
depressed, you will get helpful hints and tips about
the game that relevant to what you are doing at the time. (This does not replace comprehensive help,
however.)
"O"
Button:
The
game screen runs in two different modes:
a visually stunning, graphically rich mode (called clear mode), and a
more basic, monochrome color mode (called opaque
mode). Advanced players usually
prefer the beautiful mode, but for beginners, the opaque mode makes it very
easy to see what territories are occupied and by which players. Pressing "O" (to the right of help) toggles the screen mode.
Aggression
continents do not exactly match real continents. (For example, Australia has four territories.) To remember what the continents are, what territories are "adjacent", and how
many men each continent is worth (when you occupy all of it for one turn),
press and hold the "C" button to
the left of the help button.
Once
you finish the pregame and start your turn, the UNDO button appears.
Aggression has perfect UNDO logic to get you out of trouble. You can always UNDO all the way back to the very beginning of your turn, even
before the fortify! The LIMIT UNDOS option exists in
multiplayer games to prevent weaker willed players from using UNDO to cheat. In this event, after a player has hit UNDO
three times, the button disappears, and for the rest of the turn the player
must live with his mistakes.
Once
you have finished any fortifies needed on your turn, you finish your turn by
hitting DONE. Be CAREFUL -> you CANNOT UNDO HITTING DONE.
You also might want to first do a final move,
and check out any situations you marked for later
review.
The Game:
When
a new game starts, all the selected players are given a random order,
regardless of the order they appear on the options screen.
Use
Opaque mode ("O") if it is
hard for you to see which territories are not yet claimed.
Each
turn, tap on one untaken territory to claim it (and drop one man on it.) With the Quick Start option, you get to choose three territories each
turn. With the Random Start option, all the territories are handed out randomly
and you skip the pregame. Be
careful! There is no UNDO during the pregame.
In
this phase of the game you distribute your initial allotment of men across your
territories. In order to react to how
the other players are stacking their men, you take turns, each placing one man
at a time (or three men at a time with the Quick
Start option). Be careful! There is
no UNDO during the pregame. Tap on one of your territories to add a
man to it. Each territory shows a number representing the number of men,
and retains the two colors of the player who occupies that territory.
Once all territories are claimed, and all initial men are placed on the board, the official game begins.
Fortify:
At
the start of each turn, you are awarded men based on the amount of territories
you hold, any continents you have held onto, and for
any aggression points you have built up. Also, if you wipe
out an enemy player and take his cards, you may be awarded men in
the middle of a turn as well. During fortify,
you decide how to distribute your new men across your territories.
Each
time you tap on a territory, you drop another man onto it. If the MAX
12 option was selected then you can never place more than 12 men on any
territory. If you make a mistake, you
can always hit UNDO.
Once
you have placed all of your men, finishing the fortify phase, you can end your
turn at any time by hitting DONE. You can also choose to attack other players, or perform a final move.
Attack:
First,
tap on the territory you want to attack FROM.
It must be one of your territories with at least 2 men. That territory will highlight in white.
Then, tap on the territory you want to attack.
This territory MUST be adjacent to
the territory you are attacking from. (Press and hold "C" for a territory guide.) The first
attack will occur, and one or two men will die, depending on the outcome.
You
can continue to attack the same territory by retapping
it. (You do NOT have to keep
reselecting the source territory). In
fact, you can tap any adjacent territory and attack it, once the source
is highlighted. If you get into any
difficulties, you can tap on the ocean (to
clear the selected source and remove the white outline) or hit UNDO.
If
you defeat a territory, you MUST move at LEAST as many men in as were involved
in the attack (usually three), and you must leave at least one man behind to
hold the old territory. Anything in
between is called the Attack Move.
Attack Move:
After
you win an attack, the minimum number of men (usually three) are moved into the
new territory. To move more men into the new territory, keep tapping the new territory. To move men back to the original territory,
tap the original territory.
When
you are finished the attack move, the new territory is considered your attack
source. You can immediately tap on
another adjacent territory to attack it from the new
territory. You can also tap on a new territory to start a completely
different attack. You can also tap on
the ocean to perform a fresh attack or
a final move. Or you can finish your turn by tapping DONE.
Final Move:
You
only have one "final move" in a turn, and once you begin it your only
choices are to finish your turn with DONE, or abort by hitting UNDO.
First,
tap on the ocean (clear
source). Then tap on one of your
territories with at least two men. It
will highlight white. Then, tap on an adjacent territory
you own. You will begin to move men
between the two territories, exactly as in an attack move. When you are satisfied, tap DONE and your turn will end.
Advanced Game Interface (when
you get tired of all the tapping)
The
advanced game interface is the very reason Aggression was developed. It provides the fastest, most streamlined
way to play. An early version of the
interface used intelligent contexts so that anything you wanted to do could be
done with a single tap. However,
beginners found this confusing, so the interface was made a little more
consistent, with the effect that occasionally you need to tap twice to do
something, such as a final move.
After
the game progresses a bit, you start to deal with a lot of men. It is no longer practical to fortify,
attack, and move them one at a time.
There are MANY OPTIONS to help you, so choose whichever feels the
most comfortable for you.
Arrow Keys and
Jog Wheel:
When
attacking a
territory, you can hit the UP key or
roll your Jog Dial up to repeat
attack. When fortifying a territory, you can hit the UP key and DOWN key or Jog Dial to
change the number of men you are placing on a territory. When you do an attack move or final move, you can again use the arrow keys or Jog Dial to change the number of men moving from one territory to
another. This allows for greater
control, and is faster and lesss monotonous (or damaging to your screen) than
repeated tapping.
The Move Bar:
There
is a way to control exactly how many men you wish to drop
or move onto a territory with a single tap. When you start dealing with a lot of men,
the MOVE BAR appears. This is a set of controls that shows the
amount of men moved to or fortified onto a
territory. You can tap on the green arrow buttons to change the
amount by one, just like the arrow keys.
If
you tap on the green square on the
right of MOVE BAR, you will move ALL
YOUR MEN onto the new territory with one tap.
If you tap on the green square to
the left of the MOVE BAR, you will remove ALL THE MEN you had moved into the
new territory. This is usually the very
first thing that beginner players do besides tapping on the screen.
If
you tap on the MOVE BAR itself, you
will choose the amount of men transferred based on where you tap. A green
line shows the current amount of men transferred. During a move, a red line shows where to tap such that
the men are evenly divided between the two territories. (balance men.)
If
you select the check box on the far
right of the move bar, you enter advanced
fortify mode. Normally, during
fortify, each time you tap on a new territory, you only add one man (or
all). In advanced fortify mode,
each time you tap on a new territory, you initially drop the same amount
of men you dropped on the previous territory.
For advanced players, this works extremely well, because they usually
strengthen territories for defense first, then add lots of men to the attack
territories. This provides a similar
(but not identical) function to other games in this genre that let you drop 1,
5, or 10 men with each tap. Try both
modes and choose what works for you.
Juggernaut Mode:
(Hold Jog Dial, Hold F1, toggle JS button.)
In
Juggernaut mode, a single tap
replaces all the taps needed to see an operation to completion. If you attack a
territory in juggernaut mode, you will automatically keep attacking until you
have defeated him and then you will move all
available men into the new territory ready to attack again. (Although the juggernaut attack will pause
to warn you that you are losing.) If
you are placing men (fortifying)
or moving men,
in juggernaut mode you will drop or move ALL REMAINING men to that
territory. There are many ways to use
juggernaut modes, depending on which is most comfortable.
Juggernaut
Mode:
Pressing the Jog Dial while tapping:
If
you hold the jog dial in and tap, you will do a juggernaut attack, fortify, or
move. A very handy combination is to
press the jog dial to attack someone, then turn the jog dial to control how
many men moved into that territory.
Juggernaut
Mode:
Holding Down F1(calendar) while tapping:
If
you hold down F1 (calendar) and tap, you will do a juggernaut attack, fortify,
or move. For an advanced player, it is
convenient to hold down F1 and then continually tap on adjacent enemies,
killing them and moving all men to the new territory. In this way, taking over an entire continent just takes one tap
per territory!
Juggernaut
Mode:
Tapping on the "JD" button and
THEN tapping:
When
you tap on the leftmost button, JD,
you enter "juggernaut default"
mode. From this point on, EVERY TAP YOU
DO will cause a juggernaut attack or move.
To leave this mode you must again tap JD, dehighlighting it. If JD is selected, and you use another
technique for juggernaut, such as
holding F1 or the jog dial, the effect will be to NOT juggernaut. In this sense, JD is a toggle. JD is
the ONLY way to juggernaut if it's not convenient to press any of your Palm's
keys.
Other Features:
Juggernaut
Save:
(Hold F2 while tapping or first tap JS button)
A
special situation happens during a juggernaut in which you may wish to weaken
countries in your path as much as possible first, so that your powerful country
can juggernaut through with minimal
resistance. You can do this in a single
tap using juggernaut save. When you tap on a territory to attack while holding down F2 (contacts), or by first tapping on
the JS button and then tapping on
the territory, you will automatically repeat attack the country until there is ONLY
ONE MAN REMAINING on it. Like with
juggernaut, the process will pause if you are losing. Note that unlike JD, the JS
button is NOT a toggle -> it goes off after the attack.
Attack
Control: (Hold F3 while tapping or first tap x1 button)
In
Aggression, the more men you attack with, the more you risk
losing, but the better your odds are to win.
The most men you can attack with are three, which risks losing up to two
of them, but also can kill up to two of your enemy's men. This is the default way an attack occurs in
Aggression, unless you have less than four men on your territory. (Three to attack, one to stay behind to hold
the old territory.) There is a special
case, similar to juggernaut save, in
which an enemy territory has two men on it, and you wish to WEAKEN it, but not
actually take it over. When you tap on
a territory to attack while holding
down F3 (To Do), or by first tapping
on the x1 button and then tapping on
the territory, you will do an attack by
one. This gives you the least
chance of winning the attack, but ensures that neither you, nor the enemy can
lose more than a single man, so you are not at risk of taking it over.
Marking
Territories: (Hold F4 while tapping or tap M button)
Often,
early in a turn you make a minor assault that will necessitate using your final move to protect a continent.
However, you then may go on to do major campaigns in other
continents. By the time you have
finished your turn, you may hit DONE, only to realize you forgot that you need to do that final move from
the beginning! At any time during your
turn, you may hold down F4 (Memo)
and tap a territory, or first tap on the "M"
button and then tap on a territory, and that territory will be marked, i.e., have a cyan highlight
around it. This feature exists solely
to aid you in your thought process, and your memory. By marking territories
early on, you can remember to look at that situation before finishing your
turn. You can unmark a territory by marking it a second time. When your turn ends, all marks vanish.
The INFO GRID: (toggle I button)
Advanced
players like to easily know about their state in the game. The most critical piece of information is
how many aggression points each player has and
if they are about to turn them in for a lot of men, or to see if it is a good
time to wipe them out and take their points.
It is also useful to see how many total men other players have, to judge
if you can wipe them out, and to see how many territories your opponents have,
to make sure you haven't missed one of them.
You can see all this information and more by turning on the Info Grid by hitting the I button (to the left of UNDO.) If you don't use the Info grid, you can get
a much less cluttered screen by hitting the I button again to turn off the Info Grid.
Customizing
the Info Grid:
You
can customize the Info grid to show what you want, where you want it. Your settings are then saved for future
games. The left most column of the
table shows the name of what's being shown in each row, and to the left of each
name is a Triangle (Delta) Button. If you hit the first delta button (next to PLAYER) in
the upper left corner of the grid, all of a sudden, instead of seeing absolute
amounts of the grid, you will see the amounts CHANGED since the last turn for all values. Hit this first delta button again to return
to seeing absolute amounts. If you
highlight the delta button in a given row, then that row will show
changes in values from the last turn.
(And then highlighting the first
delta button will switch that row to absolute values.) This is good if you want to be on alert if a
player suddenly got a lot stronger or weaker, or just to infer what he did on
his turn.
You
can also choose what value is displayed in each row by tapping on the NAME for that row. This will cycle through all possible
statistics Aggression can display. Note
that if you pass a name you like, tapping on the RIGHT HALF of the NAME cycles
in the opposite direction as the LEFT
HALF of the name.
In
HiRes and Cinema versions of the game, tapping on the title bar of the info
grid toggles between large text with few rows and tiny text with many rows.
LOGIC DETAILS
In a common attack,
the attacker will have 4 or more men, and the defender will have 2 or more
men. Each attack only involved 3
attackers and 2 defenders. Each attack,
two men will die. The odds in this case
slightly favor the attacker, with a 37% that the defender loses two men and the
attacker goes unscathed, only an 29% chance that the attacker loses two men and
the defender is unscathed, and a 34% chance that both players lose one man
(tie). Or on average, the attacker
loses .92 men, and the defender loses 1.08 men per attack. (A ratio of 1.17:1)
This is the long term average,
but in Aggression, the standard deviation is huge, and this is what
makes the game interesting. It is not
impossible for an attacker to lose 20 men in a row to a single defender! This is not a "bug" in the game,
but the expected outcome of an extremely novel random formula that maximizes
standard deviation and allows for the unexpected. (It is also far less often for a person to make a special note
that he has just wiped out an opponent with ease.) But there are no biases whatsoever in this game (see
section on Random Number Generation), and
no aspect of the game logic ever makes a distinction between a human player and
a computer player.
However, if the attacking country
has less than 4 men, his odds of winning diminish. Similarly, if the defender has just one man, his odds
diminish. However, involving less men
means that less can die. If the
defender has just one man, or the attacker has just 2 men, then in each attack
only ONE man can die, because only 2 participate in the battle. Just as an example, if 4 or more men attack
a single defender, the odds are 66% that the defender will die, and 33% that
the attacker will lose one man (no tie scenario). If the attacking country has only 2 men and attacks a defender
with 2 or more men, the attacker only has a 26% chance of killing one of the
defenders. With such low odds, vast
losses are common.
Aggression Points:
Every turn in which you conquer at
least one enemy territory you are awarded an aggression point (AP). In reality, aggression points come in three
types: red, green, and blue. You are
randomly awarded an aggression point of a given type. At the beginning of a turn, if you have three APs of the SAME
type (pure red, green, or blue), or three APs of DIFFERENT types (pure white),
you may cash them in for the amount of men listed as the current AP VALUE. What this means is that the MINIMUM
number of APs you need before you can cash them in is three, and if you get 5
APs, you are guaranteed to turn them in. So in short, you never know ahead of time if you will get to turn
in your cards at 3, 4, or 5 points.
The current AP value increases every time someone turns in their APs. A common game option to use is "LIMIT VALUES" -> this currently sets the maximum AP value to 40. Otherwise, the AP value gets so large that it becomes the only factor in