                    Populous II
             --------------------------
             Trials of the Olympian Gods



The game's memory requirements are as follows:

                       Conv. Memory        EMS
                       -------------      ---------
MCGA/No Sound          485,400 bytes        272 KB
MCGA/PC Speaker        539,700 bytes        272 KB
MCGA/Sound Blaster     543,800 bytes        272 KB

VGA/No Sound           558,500 bytes       1040 KB
VGA/PC Speaker         613,600 bytes       1040 KB
VGA/Sound Blaster      617,800 bytes       1040 KB

To get EMS RAM you MUST run EMM386.EXE from config.sys like this:
  device=himem.sys
  device=emm386.exe 1040 RAM
(you can put more than 1040, or simply don't put any number, only the word RAM)


Type GO in the game's folder to run the game.

Command line parameters:
/L:  Low-Res graphics (256 colors)
/H:  High-Res graphics (16 colors)  >> better
/SN: No sound
/SI: Sound via PC Speaker, no intro music.
/SS: Sound via Sound Blaster.

(Look at GO.BAT to see what's already in there).

The game seems to detect the Sound Blaster address and IRQ from the BLASTER environment variable, so make sure you have that set up correctly.

Note:  If the game doesn't start in Win2000/XP, disable DPMI memory for it.



Quick Intro
-----------
You're the son of Zeus. You have special powers and feel pissed off that he doesn't recognize you as his son, and therefore a god like him. You will play different maps, each map against an evil deity and must defeat the bad guys to move on to the next map. Depending on your score, you'll get a number of bonus points (look like lightning) which you can apply to any of 6 divine power domains to improve yourself in that domain.

The 6 effect domains are:
People, Vegetation, Earth, Air, Fire, Water.
You get up to 5 powers (called Effects) in each domain (listed later).

You start with a small tribe and you must order them to settle in the land so they will multiply. The bad god will do the same. You must terraform the land for them to be able to build bigger houses and castles (you can flatten the land with the left and right mouse buttons). As your followers grow in number, you gain mana, which allows you to cast the higher level spells in each domain. Also, as a settlement (house/castle) gets full, a group will leave it (called wanderers) and seek a new place to build a home.  Make sure they can find a flat spot.

When you have enough people, position the Papal Magnet (looks like a golden sphere with spikes) in a suitable area (not far from enemy houses, yet not too far from the current leader, if you have one), and order your people to go to the magnet. Only the wanderers are free to go there, so if you don't have wanderers, terraform the land under a couple of houses and they'll come out.

The first one to reach the magnet will become a "leader". If you already have a leader, then the people will go to him and join him, and he/she will go to the magnet. You can recognize the leader by the goldern sphere that hangs over his/her head.

You can have only one leader, but many heroes. You create transform a leader into a hero by using your divine powers (each of the 6 domains allows you to create a different type of hero). 
Your wanderers will all converge to the magnet and join the leader (although you will only see one person - use the Query command and click on the leader to see how many they are as shown by the flags in the colosseum).  When you have a big enough "leader" (a couple of thousand people), click on the divine power (spell) which creates a hero, and that leader and his people will become a hero and will automatically go forth and massacre the enemy.  You can create many heros like that.  Make sure your hero doesn't fall into traps you have placed there for the enemy (lava pits, etc...).  You can't tell your hero what to do, so just clear all the dangers on his path (terraform them).

You can also use your divine powers to destroy the enemy (red guys) and their settlements (houses with red flags).  Left click on a divine effect (spell) to select it, then click on the house or area.



Game Views:
-----------
The default game view is pretty awkward to use. Use F7 to switch to a full-screen view, and back. You can't see the Colosseum in full-screen view (to inspect how big the population has become or how advanced a settlement or a walker is). So you need to go back from time to time to normal view to do that (pretty lame I think).

The Colosseum is an arena on the top left corner of the screen. It always shows how many followers you and your enemy have (you're blue if you chose to be the good deity). If you let the computer help you terraform (look in options), you'll build followers faster than your enemy.
On the top of the arena are 8 flags which, if a unit (person or house) is selected, will tell you how many they are, and how technologically advanced they are (icon on bottom left side of colloseum: the sword is the highest tech level).
The flags are actually decimal digits: The rightmost counts 10's, the second from the right counts 100's, the third counts 1000's, etc... So the 8 flags can count upto 999,999,990 or approx 1 billion.  Each flag has 10 positions (heights), the higher it is, the bigger that digit. Accelerate the game and watch how the flags count numbers.



Game is too fast
----------------
The game will run too fast on modern cpu's. Use the - key to decrease the game speed, + to increase it.  Or use the Game Options screen.  Note that the - and + keys are situated just after the 0 on the top row of a US keyboard (- is right of 0, + is right of -). So if you don't have a US keyboard, you'll have to use those keys that are to the right of the 0 on the top row of the keyboard, not + and -.  The same applies to all other keys used by this game (the position of the key counts, not the character printed on it).



Keyboad Shortcuts:
-----------------
Pause           F10
Quit            Shift-Esc
Full screen     F7
Scroll          Arrow keys (if too fast, lower the keyboard repeat rate, eg from the BIOS)

People Effects          F1
Vegetation Effects      F2
Earth Effects           F3
Air Effects             F4
Fire Effects            F5
Water Effects           F6
Select Effect(spell)    1-5  (top row, not numeric keypad)
Enable/Disable Effect   Hold Tab and click on the effect icon (will make it disappear, unusable)
Effect description      Hold H key and click on effect (spell) icon to see what that spell does.

Fight                      F
Go to Papal Magnet         G
Join others                J
Settle                     S
Query                      ? (key which is 4 keys to the right of N, or just left of Right Shift)
Game Requester (Options)   R
Decrease game speed        -  (right of zero on the top key row)
Increase game speed        +  (two keys right of zero on top row)

Switch from Campaign Mode to Custom Mode with Alt-C.

In Campaign mode you get to play a series of levels. After each level you click Campaign Mode again, and as the new level starts, you see a long (very long) code for the level. Write it down if you want to be able to access that level later on with the same character you have.  The code also describes what kind of a god you are (the face features you chose) and where you placed your bonus points (and perhaps other things too) - so you can't use someone else's codes, or you'll be playing a different game.



Creating your Deity
-------------------
You determine who you are by adjusting your face. You can choose what you're wearing on your head, what your eyes look like and what your chin looks like.
Apparently, the opponent deity will react differently depending on what you look like (i.e. how you have defined your character).  For example, if you look agressive, your opponent with fight you more, or harder.  If you look like a wise man, you'll get more subtle and intelligent fights. (Not tested by me).

You get 5 or 6 free bonus points when you first create your character, which you can place in any of the 6 domains (also all in the same domain).  The more points you invest in a domain, the more powerful your spells become (for that domain). I.e. your fire burns longer, does more damage, etc...  You gain new spells as you advance in the game (the higher levels are designed to introduce more powerful spells).  However, you'll only be able to cast the higher spells if you have enough mana, and you get mana by having many followers (worshippers), and you increase your followers by ordering them to Settle (however, some of them will also make new settlements if you order them to fight or gather together).

In the main game screen, you'll see an arrow pointer on the spell toolbar, which will increase in level as you gain more mana. You can only cast a spell if the mana pointer has reached it (so higher level spells require more mana).

Even terraforming (a low level People spell) requires mana, but it does not count as a spell in the final score (you are told how many spells you used and how many your opponent used).

The ultimate objective, after you defeat all the minor deities, is to defeat Zeus himself!



Increasing your population
--------------------------
The more flat ground there is, the bigger a settlement can be built. A castle requires a large area.
The bigger the settlement, the faster the population growth in that settlement.  As the population increases in a settlement, its little flag outside the house will move upwards. When the flag reaches the top, a walker will come out and look for a place to build a new settlement.

If you don't want to wait for it to become full, you can order a walker to come out any time you like, so you have more settlements and your population can grow faster than your opponent (and you can get enough mana to start attacking him first).  To order a walker to come out, you right-click exactly at the centre of the house. Learn how to do this as it is important.(Requires practice to know where exactly is the center of the house -- mouse control is pretty poor in this game).

If you have lots and lots of walkers running around, you can order them to group together (join other walkers) with the J command, so you'll get fewer, but more powerful walkers who can fight better if need be, and will not require a lot of empty land (to build settlements) if there isn't much left.



Orders:
------

-- Go to Papal Magnet -- All walkers (people walking on the map) will walk towards the current leader, if there is one. If not, they'll walk towards your magnet.  The first walker to reach the magnet will become the leader.  If there is already a leader, he'll walk towards the magnet, and all others will walk towards him and join with him (they'll disappear, but the leader has become stronger).  As long as this command is ON, the leader will stay at the magnet and all walkers will come and join him.
You recognize your (Good) leader by the golden sphere on his head, visible even when the leader is inside his house. The Evil leader has an ugly mask on his head.
By the way, you can only move the Papal Magnet if you already have a leader, or you have already issued the "Go to Papal Magnet" command.

-- Settle -- All walkers will build a house in any flat area they find and will breed and multiply. Plus they will advance in technology (intelligence, combat), and they will make you offerings which will create more mana for you to cast spells.

-- Fight -- All walkers will seek and fight enemy units and settlements. However, they are not as powerful as a hero.  Fight will also tell walkers to settle in new settlements and produce new walkers for the battle.  (By the way, even in Settle mode, your walkers will fight the enemy if they encounter them, and kick them out of their homes if they can't find flat ground to build their own homes).

-- Gather Together -- All walkers will group together to form less but more powerful walkers.  This also encourages them to settle as they unite together.  (In fact you should consider individual walkers to be a whole tribe, or an army).

-- Query -- (question mark). Click it, then click a walker or a house. The colosseum will show you how many people they represent, and what technology they have.

-- Options -- (called "Game Requester"). Opens the game's options screen. (Save, Load, Game speed, etc...)



Map key:
--------
On the little map, Good settlements are while dots, Evil settlements are yellow dots (by default you're a Good deity, so they are your enemy's settlements).  The GREEN dots are deseased settlements (the plague).  Good walkers are Blue dots, evil walkers are Red.



Spells and levels
-----------------
Not all spells will be available to you on every level. Some levels will allow you to use high level spells that you don't have yet, others will not allow you to use low level spells that you already have used.  To play a random level using all the spells you have learned, you must play a "Custom Game" (not the Conquest Game).

The spells available on each level of the game are displayed before the level action starts. On that screen, you can click on the spell icons to read their description.

Apparently, there are 1000 levels in the game!  But you won't play them all.

People Domain:
--------------
1- Terraform
2- Position Papal Magnet: Place it near where you want your hero to start his attacks. Don't place it too far from the leader's current position or he will take a long time to get there. To jump the view to where your magnet is, right-click on this icon.
3- Hero (Perseus): Strong soldier.  To jump the view to your heroe(s), right click on this icon.
4- Infect with the Plague: It spreads to everything it touches. Plagued followers don't provide mana.
5- Declare Armageddon: All settlements disappear. All your population and the enemy's population become heroes and fight each other to the death. So make sure you have more followers than your enemy before you do this.

Vegetation Domain:
------------------
1- Plant trees: You gain popularity.
2- Greenery: Necessary after volcanic activity to reuse the land. Leave a lot of room for flowers to grow. Gain popularity.
3- Swamps: Enemies drown if they fall in it. But so do your people.
4- Mushrooms: Spread and poison any settlements. Plant three or five rows, far away from your own settlements.
5- Hero (Adonis): Wearns a plant on his head. Splits up after a fight, multiplying your number of heroes automatically.

Earth Domain:
-------------
1- Roads: Faster travel for walkers. Block the advance of poison mushrooms.
2- City Walls: Protect your worshippers settlements with a wall. Any new sectio of wall must connect to the old wall. You can't build walls on enemy territory. You can't modify it afterwards. Strong enemy walkers can punch holes in it, or climb over it.
3- Earthquake: Choose a direction and create a twisted chasm of lava where your enemies will fall and die. (If it happens to you, quickly fix the earth by Terraforming it. The stupid computer doesn't seem to repair his area, so it loses many walkers over time).
4- Batholith: Underground rock movement, which causes earth surface to change and rocks to appear, destroying settlements. Keep the mouse button pressed to get a bigger effect.
5- Hero (Heracles): Has double a normal hero's strength.

Air Domain:
-----------
1- Lightning: You can't aim it with precision. Keep mouse button pressed for stronger effect.
2- Whirlwind: On land a whirlwind, on sea a whirlpool. Whirlwinds carry people in the air, dropping their weapons (if any) and they become stunned (stupid). In the water, they drown and the whirlpool attacks the surrounding earth (if any). [You can dig a big hole till the water shows up then create a whirlpool in it].
3- Storm: Choose a direction and create wind, water and lightning on the enemy.
4- Hero (Odysseus): Fastest hero.
5- Hurricane: Devastating wind. Choose a direction.

Fire Domain:
------------
Fire destroys land and burns settlments and people.
1- Column of Fire: Can climb up mountains, but can't climb down.
2- Fire Rain: Great one, but aim higher than your target area.
3- Volcano: Devastating effect. Land cannot be restored by terraforming. Damage depends on points you invested in Fire.  To fight it, cover its opening with earth as quickly as possible. Raise land to form low hills to block the lava. Plant Greenery to recover the soil so you can build settlements on it again.
4- Hero (Achilles): Fast runner with a flaming head, burning all in his path.
5- Fire Burst: Your leader will throw flames in all directions over long distances, killing all humans, even heroes, friend or foe.  Make sure your leader is far away from his people.

Water Domain:
-------------
1- Basalt: Create a basalt bridge on water. Create a basalt wall in water to stop the enemy from terraforming into the water.  Choose a direction.
2- Whirlpool: Eat up the shores of your enemies.
3- Baptismal Font: If you fall in it, your faith changes to the opposite god. Convert some enemies using this little trick (but if they fall again, they go back to their original faith, etc...).
4- Tidal Wave: Start a tidal wave to drown the enemy, but make sure your settlements are all on hills as the water will reach you too. Build hills on your coasts to stop the wave from drowning your lands. The further away in the sea you start it, the bigger it will be when it reaches land.
5- Hero (Helen of Troy): Wise and intelligent, will manipulate (charm) the enemy as they come close to her, and lead them to an underwater tomb. Destroy her with fire or lightning quickly (from far away) as soon as you see her.



How are the bonus points obtained?
----------------------------------
The higher your score (strategy, speed), the more points your adversary deity will give you as a the prize for defeating him (of course you didn't kill him, he wasn't even in the battle, just as you weren't).  The points appear as small lightning rods in the screen following the score screen.
Apparently, a lot goes into the calculation of your score.  I can't say which is more important.



Tactics
-------

- Force your followers to build more new settlements especially in the beginning, by righ-clicking in the centre of a settlement to bring out a walker.

- Flatten out as much land as possible so your settlements can be large (fastest growth) and develop high combat skills.

- Drown annoying rocks in the water by digging 4 holes all around them. Wait for them to drown completely before repairing the ground again.

- Place baptismal fonts around the enemy's Papal Magnet to convert all those who are converging to the magnet.  Don't mess up the fight that will follow.

- Build roads on enemy territory so they will walk on them. Put a swamp at the end of a road and watch them all march to their tomb.

- Dig a little lake in enemy territory and create a whirlpool in it.

- Before you create a Tidal Wave, put your settlements on high ground, or build a hill all along the coast on your side. Otherwise you will lose a big part of your population.

- Lava flows in straight lines. If you see it coming, quickly build a hill to stop it.

- Learn to get cues from the sound effects.



Two Player Mode
---------------
You can apparently play this game against a friend by connecting your PC to his via null modem cable (COM1 or COM2 only - no mouse on COM2), 2 modems, or a network. The 2 CPU speeds must be equivalent.  The baud rates must of course be identical.  One player must be GOOD and the other EVIL.  If one player pauses the game, it will pause for the other too.  This note doesn't contain the detailed instructions for doing that but you can probably figure it out quite easily if you're interested.




Have Fun!

Thanks Bullfrog, for this nice game!
(c) 1991, 1992 Bullfrog Productions Ltd.

