Welcome! ------------------------------ NetMECCG version 1.4 by Mike Collins A very brief manual for NetMECCG. NetMECCG is a program for playing Middle Earth:The Wizards (an excellent game from Iron Crown Enterprises) head-to-head across an Internet connection. NetMECCG knows nothing about the rules of METW, it simply acts as a "virtual table"---it allows you to play, tap, move, etc. cards in whatever way that you want. The interface was designed to be easy to use. This help file will (hopefully) tell you all that you need to know to get playing. If you have any questions, send them my way. Enjoy! Mike Getting Started ------------------------------ To run NetMECCG you need to be running Windows 95/98 and have the 32-bit version of NetMECCG, or be running Windows 3.1 and have the 16-bit version of NetMECCG. You need to have Windows running at a resolution of at least 800x600. You also need to have an Internet connection (either direct or dynamic such as SLIP/PPP). I've heard that under Windows 3.1, you need to have Trumpet Winsock open (though not necessarily connected) to run NetMECCG. Finally, you need to have a friend to play against! You start the game simply by typing NETMECCG at the DOS prompt, or by double-clicking on the NetMECCG icon. See Gameplay/Networking for information on what to do next to play. See Screen Layout for information about the interface. Screen Layout ------------------------------ [Note: The application is designed to be 800x600 pixels in size, and cannot be resized smaller than this. It can be resized larger, or maximized, to make the working area larger on larger displays] NetMECCG has several large components on the interface. First, there are 3 large list boxes with drop-down lists beside them. The one in the bottom left shows your hand, discard pile, etc. The one in the bottom right shows your In Play, Companies, and Agents. The list box in the top left is used for all of your opponent's cards. Cards appear in each list box color-coded to the card type: Heroes appear as light blue Minions appear as purple Fallen-wizards appear as blue Hero Resources appear as orange Minion Resources appear as blue-gray Fallen-wizard Resources appear as greenish-blue Hazards appear as dark gray Hero Sites appear as black Minion Sites appear as medium gray Fallen-wizard Sites appear as light gray Regions appear as green Cards which are not found in the database (normally due to a typo in the card name---card names must appear exactly as they are on the card) appear as bright red. Right-clicking on a card in any list box brings up a list of actions to perform on the card (move to another list, tap, etc.). Note that Minion cards with the same name as other Hero cards have an "*" appended to their name to distinguish them. Likewise, Fallen-wizard cards that have the same name as Hero cards have an "@" appended to their name, and Balrog cards that have the same name as Hero cards have a "%" appended to their name. For example, the Lidless Eye card "Bree" becomes "Bree*" to distinguish it from The Wizards card of the same name. The drop-down list beside each list box selects which list of cards you are looking at. If a list box is showing a company, the site path for that company is shown beside the list box as: From site First region in path (From region) Second region in path Third region in path Fourth region in path (To region) To site For agents, the second and third region are not used, as agents can only move between adjacent regions. If the "To site" is tapped or discarded, this is indicated by "(tapped)" or "(discarded)" appearing under the "To site". You can tap or discard the site that you're at by right-clicking on the "To site" and choosing "(un)Tap" or "(un)Discard" from the pop-up menu. You can also untap all of the sites that you've tapped from this menu. Sites automatically discard when your company leaves a site that you tapped unless you uncheck the "Discard tapped site" checkbox on the Move Company dialog. "To Sites" used by more than one company are marked with "(occupied)"---this allows you to avoid using sites that are in an Agent's site history, for example. Sites that you discarded appear as red X's in the Move Company dialog---typically these sites would be considered unavailable for you to travel to. Sites which are tapped (either by you or your opponent) appear as the tap icon (a yellow right arrow). Grayed site symbols indicate that the site is being used by another company. In several of the card lists, card state is indicated to the left of the card as: green up arrow - untapped, healthy yellow right arrow - tapped red down arrow - wounded Agents have three additional card states: grey up arrow - untapped, healthy, face down grey right arrow - tapped, face down grey down arrow - wounded, face down Note that the third state, wounded and face down, is not actually used by Agents (wounded Agents must be face up) but was added for completeness. Finally, with companies, cards can be indented to show that they are under the influence or owned by the card above them. In this example, Aragorn, Frodo, Merry and Pippin are all under GI. Aragorn II is wielding Narsil and has Boromir II as a follower. Boromir II has the Horn of Anor, Frodo has The One Ring, The Mithril-coat, and Sting, and Sam Gamgee as a follower. Sam Gamgee has the Star-glass. Aragorn II Narsil Boromir II Horn of Anor Frodo The One Ring The Mithril-coat Sting Sam Gamgee Star-glass Merry Pippin Use the Path button (looks like a man using a surveyor's transit) to set the site path of the current company. When a company has a new site path set, the old site path beside the company turns gray. To have the company move to it's new site, press the Move button (looks like a man walking). On the move company dialog, the map shows all of the regions as dots indicating the region type as follows: blue is Coastal Seas [c] white is Free-domains [f] purple is Border-lands [b] green is Wilderness [w] gray is Shadow-lands [s] black is Dark-domains [d] There are also lines connecting regions which you can normally travel between. Select the From Site, Regions, and To Site from the drop down lists. When selecting a Region, the region is selected as a red box on the map. After selecting the region drop down list, you can click on the map to select the region instead of using the drop down list. Sites can only be selected from the drop down lists. You can select whether Hero sites, Minion sites, or both are listed using the "Hero" and "Minion" checkboxes. If the "Show only sites in regions" checkbox is checked, the Starting/Destination site list will only show sites location in the Starting/Destination region. If the checkbox is unchecked, all sites will be shown in the checkbox. You can make your previous Destination your new Starting location by pressing the "Destination->Starting" button. If your current site was tapped by you, a "Discard tapped site" checkbox appears. This determines whether your current site will be discarded if you move to a new site. Finally, if the company that you are moving is a hidden Agent, a "Add site to site history" checkbox appears. When checked, this adds the current site to the site history for the hidden Agent. The site history is shown to your opponent when the hidden Agent is revealed. You can examine your own site history by right clicking on the "To site" of a hidden Agent. While examining your own site history, you can remove the last site or all the sites from the site history, per the Agent movement rules. In the top right is a card info box. Whenever you click on a card name (yours, opponent's, dialog boxes, site path, etc.), the card info box brings up the text for that card. If a bitmap with the same name as the card is found, it is displayed as well; otherwise, a generic picture is shown. If a sound with the same name as the card is found, it is played (see Graphics and Sound for more information). Additionally, the rune corresponding to the card's expansion set is displayed in the top right of the card info box (a rune like "F" for METD, "B" for MEDM, "H" for MELE, "<" for MEAS, an upside-down "Y" for MEWH, and a backwards "R" for MEBA). Note that the lookup feature only works if the card name is typed in exactly as it appears on the card. The only exception is that Minion/Fallen-wizard/Balrog cards with the same name as Hero cards have an "*"/"@"/"%" appended to the card name to differentiate them. Card names which are not found in the database appear in bright red, making them easy to locate and correct. It is impolite to have mistyped cards in your deck, as your opponent won't be able to get the card info on them without typing the name in themselves. Note also that when you click on a card, the card name is copied to the clipboard (useful for pasting into the send box) You can double-click on the card picture in the card info box to do a search for any card, not just those on the screen. Just type the name of the card you want to look up exactly as it appears on the card. In the middle of the screen is a large message box. Every action that each player takes gets recorded here. You can also send a message using the send box underneath the message box. Type into the send box, then press "Send" (or press ENTER). You can right-click on the send box to cut/copy/paste. Underneath the send box on the right is a place for you to type your name. Under that are a group of buttons for indicating the phase of your turn. A ">" or "<" points to the current phase---Hero Resource colored if it's your turn (you pressed the phase button), Hazard colored if it's your opponent's turn (they pressed the phase button). Finally, between your Hand and Company list boxes are buttons to Draw a card (looks like a hand holding a card), change the site Path of the current company (looks like a man using a surveyor's transit), Move the current company (looks like a man walking), and Select the current Company for your opponent (looks like a man standing), as well as number boxes for Marshalling Points, General Influence, and Stage Points. Your opponent's MP, GI, and SP are shown beside the number boxes. Double-clicking on the MP, GI, or SP labels bring up dialog boxes that facilitate calculating your current MP/GI/SP. The MP dialog shows all of the cards in your Marshalling Pile, your Companies, and your In Play, along with any MP listed on the top left corner of the card. The GI dialog shows all of the cards in your Companies and your In Play, along with the Mind and Influence attributes listed on the left border of the card. . The SP dialog shows all of the cards in your Companies and your In Play, along with any Stage Points listed on the left border of the card. Note that these dialogs are only current at the time that your open them! They do not update as cards are played, and are only to be used as a bookkeeping aid. When you exhaust your Play Deck by drawing the last card in your Play Deck, you are immediately prompted to exchange cards between your Discard Pile and your Sideboard. If you desire to do so, a dialog box will appear to help with the exchange. Next, you are prompted to place all the cards from your Discard Pile into your Play Deck, and then to shuffle the new Play Deck. See Gameplay/Networking for information on how to use NetMECCG to play a game of METW. Look in Menus for a discussion on the functionality of NetMECCG. Hot Keys/Popup Menus ------------------------------ You can right-click in your Hand and Company list boxes to bring up a list of card actions (Move the card to another list, move the card up, down, etc.). Notice that many of these actions also have hot-keys (very convenient). Cards that need to be transferred between players (such as playing a corruption card on your opponent's character) can be done by putting the card In Play, then transferring the card to your opponent's In Play, then having your opponent put the card in the appropriate place. Not elegant, but very versatile. Ctrl-# brings you straight to the list corresponding to # without using the drop-down list. You can also use Ctrl-plus and Ctrl-minus to cycle through your lists. Here is a complete list of hot keys: F1 - Help F2 - Save Game F3 - Load Game Ctrl-A - Ask opponent to wait Ctrl-C - Copy (standard Windows hotkey) Ctrl-D - Draw card Ctrl-F - Face up/down card Ctrl-G - Tell opponent to go Ctrl-H - Show Hidden type Shift-Ctrl-H - Show Hidden type/subtype Ctrl-I - Bring up In Play dialog Ctrl-M - Move Company Ctrl-N - See number of cards each player has in Hand, Play Deck, etc. Ctrl-O - Reveal On-guard card Shift-Ctrl-O - Return all On-guard cards to Hand Ctrl-P - Set Company Path Ctrl-R - Roll dice Ctrl-S - Shuffle Play Deck Ctrl-T - Tap/Untap card Ctrl-U - Untap all cards Ctrl-V - Paste (standard Windows hotkey) Ctrl-X - Cut (standard Windows hotkey) Ctrl-W - Wound/Heal card Ctrl-+ - Go to next card list in list box Ctrl-- - Go to previous card list in list box Ctrl-Backspace - Undo Ctrl-Ins - Add card Ctrl-Del - Delete card Shift-Ins - Paste (standard Windows hotkey) Alt-1...Alt-0 - Sends user message 1 thru 10 Menus ------------------------------ The menus allow you to use all the functionality of NetMECCG. The Hot Keys and the Speed Buttons allow you to use the commonly accessed features much more quickly than using the Menus. File Menu * Load deck - Allows you to load the deck that you want to play METW with. See File Formats for the format of the deck file * Retrieve game - Loads a saved game * Save game - Saves the current game. You and your opponent must save the game at the same point in the game * Log to file - Allows you to log all the messages to a file so that you have a record of the game * Exit game - Exits NetMECCG Action Menu * New Game - Starts a new game, which is the following - sets your MP, GI, and SP to zero - loads a deck (if you haven't already done so) - puts your starting cards in Company 1 - puts your sideboard cards in the Sideboard - puts your deck into your Play Deck - shuffles your Play Deck - draws eight cards * Shuffle Play Deck - Shuffles your Play Deck * Draw a card - Same as the "Draw" button---draws a card. * Roll Dice - Rolls the dice! * Set Company Path - Same as the "Path" button---brings up a dialog box for you to pick the site/region path for the current Company. * Move Company - Same as the "Move" button---moves the current Company along it's site path. * Untap all - Untaps all of your tapped cards* Add a card - Same as the "Add" button---explicitly add a card. * Add Anti-FW to Sideboard - adds the Anti-FW section of your deck to your Sideboard * Reveal On-Guard card - Reveals any On-guard cards for Opponent's current Company * Return On-Guard cards to Hand - Returns any unused On-guard cards to your Hand * Delete a card - Same as the "Delete" button---explicitly delete the selected card. * Tell opponent to go - Sends a message informing your opponent that it's their turn to take an action if they want to * Ask opponent to wait - Sends a message asking your opponent to wait so that you can take an action View Menu * In Play - Brings up the In Play viewer window. This window shows both players' cards In Play * Marshalling Points - Brings up the Marshalling Points viewer window. This window shows the MP of both players' cards. Useful for quick bookkeeping tasks. Note that the MP viewer does not update as cards are played; it is only current at the time that it is invoked. * General Influence - Same as the Marshalling Points viewer, but for General Influence. Note that the GI viewer also does not update as cards are played; it is only current at the time that it is invoked. * Stage Points - Same as the Marshalling Points viewer, but for Stage Points. Note that the SP viewer also does not update as cards are played; it is only current at the time that it is invoked. cards are played; it is only current at the time that it is invoked. * Number of cards - Shows the number of cards both players have in their Hand, Discard, etc. * Restricted cards - Allows you to see a specific number of (possibly randomly selected) cards from your Play Deck, opponent's Hand, opponent's Play Deck or opponent's Discard pile. You can move the cards once you see them (if they aren't randomly selected), which moves the cards in the original lists. You can also move cards from these restricted cards to other lists by right-clicking on the card. * Card info - Same as double-clicking on the card info picture. Allows you to bring up the card info on a specific card. Type the card name in exactly as it appears on the card. Options Menu * Sound - Toggles whether or not sound is enabled. * Show Card Image - Toggles whether or not the card image is shown to the left of the card text * Color code cards - Toggles whether or not cards are color coded based on the card type---Heroes are light blue, Minions are purple, Fallen-wizards are blue, Hero Resources are orange, Minion Resources are blue-gray, Fallen-wizard resources are greenish-blue, Hazards are dark gray, and Hero Sites are black, Minion Sites are medium gray, Fallen-wizard Sites are light gray, Balrog Sites are brown-gray, and Regions are green. Cards not found in the database as on of these card types are marked bright red. * Female Gender - Toggles the gender between Male and Female * Wizard - Indicates that you are playing as a Wizard. When playing as a Wizard, Company 1 starts at Rivendell, and Hero sites are shown on the Movement map by default. * Ringwraith - Indicates that you are playing as a Ringwraith. When playing as a Ringwraith, Company 1 starts at Minas Morgul, and Minion sites are shown on the Movement map by default. * Fallen-wizard - Indicates that you are playing as a Fallen-wizard. When playing as a Fallen-wizard, Company 1 starts at The White Towers, and Hero sites, Minion sites and Fallen-Wizard sites are shown on the Movement map by default. * Balrog - Indicates that you are playing as a Balrog. When playing as a Balrog, Company 1 starts Moria, and Minion sites and Balrog sites are shown on the Movement map by default. * Discard face-up - Card names are displayed when you move a card to your Discard Pile. (Pallando support) * Show Hidden Type - Allows card Types to be displayed when otherwise hidden cards are moved. This feature is used to show that you are in fact bringing a card of type Hazard from your Discard Pile with the "Mouth of Sauron" (for example). With Show Hidden Types checked, NetMECCG would state "puts a Hazard card in his Hand from his Discard Pile" instead of "puts a card in his Hand from his Discard Pile". * Show Hidden Type/Subtype - Same as "Show Hidden Type" (above), except that the card's Subtype (Creature, Major Item, etc.) is also shown. * Solitaire mode - Solitaire game as described in the rules. See Solitaire for details. Network Menu * Wait for Connection - Act as the Server, and wait for your opponent to connect. * Connect to Server - Connect to your opponent, who has already selected "Wait for Connection". * Disconnect - Break connection with opponent. * Send update - Allows you to resend you cards to your opponent. Use this if you suspect that your opponent doesn't have an accurate list of your cards. * Verify opponent's cards - Verify that your copy of your opponent's cards is correct. Message Menu * Message 1 - Message 10 - Send one of the 10 user messages. Each message also plays a sound on your opponent's computer when it arrives. Help Menu * Help - Displays the help file * About - Displays the version and copyright info. Worth looking at, just to see the cool animation of The One Ring that Sean Monahan made for me. Speed Buttons ------------------------------ The speed buttons are located below the main menu, and correspond to commonly used menu items. The buttons are, from left to right: Retrieve game Save game New game Number of cards In Play Viewer Roll dice Tell opponent to go Ask opponent to wait Connect to server Wait for connection Disconnect There are also four speed buttons between the Hand and Company list boxes. These buttons are, from left to right: Draw card Set company path Move company Select company for opponent Gameplay/Networking ------------------------------ To play a two-player game of Middle Earth using NetMECCG, you first need to connect with other player. In NetMECCG, one player acts as the Server, and the other acts as the Client. The Server needs to be waiting for a connection before the Client can connect. Alternately, you can play a one-player game using Solitaire mode. Once you are connected, you can start a new game (you'll probably want to indicate whether you are playing as a Wizard, Ringwraith, or Fallen-wizard first. Use the appropriate menu option under the Options menu). If you haven't already done so, you will be asked to load a deck at this point. See File Formats for more information on the deck file. Alternatively, you could load a saved game instead of starting a new game. Make sure that you and your opponent both load a saved game that occurred at the same point in the game. When you start a new game, the first thing that happens is the Character Draft. All of the starting characters in your deck appear in your hand, and several new buttons appear between the Hand and Company lists: Reveal Card, Done, Play, Add, Delete, All -> Company 1, and All -> Play Deck. The Reveal Card button indicates your intention to reveal the current card---when both players have a card to reveal, they are revealed simultaneously. You continue to reveal cards until all of the desired starting characters are in the starting Company. When you are done, press the Done button. This notifies your opponent that you are done revealing cards. They can continue to reveal cards, without waiting for you to press the Reveal button. At this point, move any minor items from your hand into the starting Company (in the normal way, by right-clicking on the card). Also, if there are any characters still in your hand that you would want to keep, move them into the Play Deck. If you would like all the remaining cards put in your Play Deck, you can save time with the All -> Play Deck button. If you don't want to use the Character Draft at all, but want to use the old Standard Rules beginning game, use the All -> Company 1 button, which moves the entire contents of your Hand into Company 1. When your starting Company is ready, and all the desired cards have been moved into your Play Deck, press the Play button, which ends the Character Draft and begins normal game play. Note that through the whole process, you can still use the normal card mechanisms for card movement (right-click on the card), and your can use the Add and Delete buttons to explicitly add or delete a card. Once the Character Draft is finished, game play proceeds as it does with a "normal" game of METW---you can draw cards, play cards, tap cards, roll dice, send messages to your opponent, etc. Every aspect of METW was incorporated into NetMECCG except for your opponent's facial expressions! Most of your actions are automatically documented in the Message window. Use the Go and Stop for the quick "go ahead" and "wait a second" messages, otherwise use the send function to send messages to your opponent.. Use the phase buttons on the bottom right to indicate the phase of your turn. Right-clicking on a card brings up a list of actions that can performed on that card. Cards can be transferred between players (such as playing a corruption card on your opponent's character) directly to each others MP pile, In Play, Discard Pile and Companies. If for some reason, a card would need to be tranferred to a different set of opponent's cards, it can be done by putting the card In Play, then transferring the card to your opponent's In Play, then having your opponent put the card in the appropriate place. Double-clicking on a card selects that card in red on your Opponent's screen. This saves typing the card names back and forth during combat, corruption checks, etc. You can similarly select a whole Company (during the M/H phase, for example) by using the "Select Company" speed button. Remember that you can always explicitly Add and Delete cards to handle any peculiar situations, but I haven't found a need for this yet. Use the Path button to set a new site path for the current company, and the Move button to actually move the company on its site path. When you click on a card, besides showing the card's information in the card info box, the card's name is copied to the clipboard. This is useful when sending a message in the Send box. The Server and the Client each maintain a list of the cards. If at any time you suspect that the lists are not synchronized (for example, if you receive a "list index out of range" error) you can verify the card lists using "Verify opponent's cards" under the Network menu. For the very paranoid, "Verify opponent's cards" verifies that the list of your opponent's cards that you have is correct. At any time you can retransmit your cards to your opponent with "Send update" (again, under the Network menu). These functions shouldn't be needed if the program is operating correctly (which has been the case for quite a few versions now). See Screen Layout for more information about the interface, look at the Menus for a discussion of the functionality of NetMECCG. ICQ ICQ is a free program from Mirabilis that allows users to see if other users are online, send messages, chat, share URLs, etc. It also allows to users to easily start client/server applications like NetMECCG. NetMECCG has three command-line options to facilitate using it with ICQ: -c --- client mode, connect to and -s --- server mode, wait for connection on -w