Version: Beta 4.1

Arcana Mysteria Magica

a Half-Life add on
Read this file first before playing Arcana Mysteria Magica to understand what the game is about and how to play it successfully. For more information especially about spells and combinations surf the mod's webpage at: http://www.superiki.de/amm/

Contents:

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Introduction

Arcana Mysteria Magica is a Half-Life add on which features a new form of gameplay. The players now act as mages and try to destroy each other. Sometimes everybody must play against each other, sometimes they must work in teams. But there's even more: A complex spell system and a class system with anti spells against certain classes are some other features of Arcana Mysteria Magica. Read this file to understand the myths.

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How to install and run the game?

To install just extract the zip file into your Half-Life folder (activate "Use folder names"). To do so you need WinZip. This will create a folder called "amm" with a "Arcana Mysteria Magica.bat" in it. Run this file to start the game.

To play the tutorial run the "Arcana Mysteria Magica Tutorial.bat" instead of starting the game. Then create a LAN-server to play on.

To play a custom map (all normal Deathmatch maps allowed) copy the map into the subfolder "maps".

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What is the aim of the game?

Kill your enemies and try not to die, because the difference between your frags and deaths counts. This difference gets listed on the scoreboard. Try to get a high positive difference.
Remember:
    If you kill yourself, you get a death and you lose a frag. That means your difference goes 2 down!
And there are more ways to get your difference grow: Protect or destroy the totem or doing a crazy solo. This will be explained later.

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What are mage classes?

There are 5 different mage classes in Arcana Mysteria Magica. You can switch them by pressing N by default. Every class starts the game with different spells and can learn different ones.

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What is magical resistance?

Magical resistance protects you from losing much life during magical combat, but it will also slow down your Mana regeneration. You can increase it with eating the blue plants.

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What is Mana good for?

The purple shields lying on the ground are Mana. Shoot them to make them explode or collect them. Spellcasting needs Mana. Mana can be collected and regenerated. If you get magical resitance, the regeneration slows down. The Max Mana you can have is 200. You start the game with 100.

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How do I get new spells?

To learn new spells you must collect spellbooks. You can get 2 advanced spells that way. The default numbers of getting the spells are at 10 and 20 spellbooks, but the server configures that. You can see the configured numbers by pressing I by default. The spells you get depend on the mage class you are.

You can also learn auras. If you want to learn an aura, go into the aura menu and select it. Then collect enough books. The books will be counted seperately for every aura. When you have enough books, the aura will be activated.
An activated aura can be deactivated by clicking on it in the aura menu.

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What are anti spells?

Each mage class also has 1 anti spell especially against one other class. It can be cast as the 2nd function of your staff and it hurts only the special enemy class. You can press I by default to see against what class your spell works. Here is the list:
Black hurts Green hurts Blue hurts Red hurts White hurts Black.

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How do I use auras?

Activate or deactivate an aura you learned with a click on it in the aura menu. That does only work with auras you have already learned.

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What is a rescue spell?

If you cast the rescue spell (just press the rescue spell button) your get one death and your enemy gets one kill. Your health will be reset to 100, your armor to 0 and your mana to 100. You will also respawn somewhere in the level. So why should anybody cast it? It's like dying! Well, but you keep your spells and books. So think about it once more.

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What are magical rings?

Magical rings are rare to find. If you found one you must identify it to use its powers. Select "Ring" in the aura menu to do so. Then collect 5 books (the server can configure a different number, look at the info menuu [I by default]). You can only have one ring at a time.
After identifying your ring you will get to know the ring's name. The name shows the attributes of your ring. A ring can regenerate you, damage you, have additional power, and so on. Look the abilities up in the info menu at the "Ring" section.
Your ring is limited to 10 minutes unless he has certan abilities that extend this time. After that period, your ring will be destroyed.
Your ring has a number of charges. Charges are used to cast ring spells.
If you don't want to keep your ring, destroy it with the "destroy ring" button (BACKSPACE by default).

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What are ring spells?

If you have an identified magical ring, you have the ability to cast ring spells. With every ring you can cast all of the six ring spells. The selected ring spell is shown in the picture down left. To loop through your 6 ring spells use your "next ringspell" and "prev. ringspell" keys (MOUSEWHEEL by default). To cast a ring spell, press your "cast ringspell" button.
Every Ring has a certain amount of charges. They are shown on the screen. Also on the screen is the casting cost for your selected ring spell. It may range from 1 to 6. That depends on the spell, the ring and your class. If you have too few charges left, you cannot cast the selected ring spell.

A brief explanation on the casting costs (not necessary to read):
Every ring spell has a colour (red, green, blue) and a light (light, dark) and every ring has a primary ring spell (look at the ring's name).

  • A ring spell normally costs 3 charges.
  • The selected spell's colour and your primary ring spell's colour differ: +1
  • The selected spell's light and your primary ring spell's light differ: +1
  • You are red, green or blue and the selected spell's colour is not yours: +1
  • You are red, green or blue and the selected spell's colour is yours: -2
  • You are white or black and the selected spell's light is not yours: +1
  • You are white or black and the selected spell's light is yours: -1
You need not know this, the casting costs are listed on the HUD.

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What is a totem?

This is the best feature of Arcana Mysteria Magica: Ingame gameplay mode changing!
Sometimes you find these white jingjang satchels lying on the floor. If you pick up one, you'll be a defender when a totem comes. A totem is a big purple crystal and it appears when half the people are defenders. Then the defenders protect the totem for 5 minutes. All people who did't collect a white satchel are attackers, they must destroy the totem. If they win, they'll get 7 frags and the attackers will get 7 deaths. Otherwise it's the other way round. The totem has 5000 health and when it has only half the health it stops spinning.

All attackers spit purple balls and glow purple when the totem is there to distinguish them and every team can communicate with M by default.

Hmmm. that's not easy for somebody who haven't played it before. Just look on your screen:
When you are defender, don't attack glowing people, when you're attacker don't attack not-glowing people.

a white jingjang satchel

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What is a crazy solo?

This is another ingame gameplay mode: The Crazy Solo. When you have at least 2 Jing Jang satchels you can activate it by clicking on it in the Gamemode menu (G by default). Nobody but you will know that you play a crazy solo. You cannot cast any spells while in the crazy solo but your staff will do 50 damage per hit. Then you have to get killed 10 times in 5 minutes. If you do so, your deaths won't count and you'll get 10 frags. Otherwise you just get 10 deaths.
Additional information about the Crazy Solo can found on the website under "Documents".

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How can I announce a crazy solo and why should I?

To announce a crazy solo you must select "announced" from the gamemode menu. This will start an announced crazy solo which works like a normal one with one difference: Everybody now knows that you play a crazy solo. They will try to avoid you and not fragging you.
So why should you do this? If you win, you will get 10 additional points!

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What are these pentagrams?

"Grab the Pentagrams" is another gamemode, but it cannot be activated with the gamemode menu. It just appears when nobody wants to collect jingjang satchels for a long time. Then all jingjang satchels convert into pentagrams which must be carried to the capture points. Even collected jingjang satchels convert into pentagrams. Only one pentagram can be carried at a time. The pentagram can be dropped with the "Drop Pentagram" key.
But where is the capture point??? You must set it up for yourself. Find a place that is hidden somewhere on the map and just press the "Drop Pentagram" button. If you don't hold any pentagram, your capture point will appear here.
Your pentagrams must be dropped near to your capture point. They will get attached to it with a white line. When the round is finished, you get 4 points for every pentagram attached to your capture point.
Tip: Try getting pentagrams from other players' capture points. You can carry their attached pentagrams away and attach them to your capture point.

a pentagram attached to a capture point

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What is the ingame help?

The red blinking window on the left appears sometimes to give you useful tips. Perhaps if you look at a spellbook, it will give you information about what you can do with a spellbook. If you are new to the game you should let it be activated and profit from the tips.
The ingame help can be deactivated in the main menu: multiplayer / customize / advanced options

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How to add bots?

To add a bot to the game type "addbot" into the console. To kick the bot just use the normal kick command.
The bots included in this version are not meant to be very skilled.
If a bot is on your team (if the totem game is running) you can "use" the bot with the use key to make it follow you.
I included bots, because people wanted bots. Here they are. Frag them.

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Credits:

I am Christian Ikenmeyer and I had the idea of this mod. I did the most new stuff but not the new maps or models.
The models are from Andrew Fischer, the modeler of Wizard Wars.
The maps are from Florian Halbritter alias Apocalypso.
For more information about Arcana Mysteria Magica surf the mod's webpage: http://www.superiki.de/amm/
Contact: SuperIKI@gmx.net
P.S.
If you have any questions concerning the gameplay you can contact me and I'll explain it to you. But please read this file first!

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