Manual:Main menu

From AACWWiki

Contents 1 Overview 2 Options 2.1 Media 2.2 Game 2.3 AI 2.4 System 3 Campaigns & scenarios 4 Loading, deleting, renaming a game 5 Saving a game 5.1 Play by email (PBEM) 5.1.1 Create a game 5.1.2 Host sends TRN file to opponent 5.1.3 Non-host sends .ORD file to host 5.1.4 Host resolves turn

Overview

After starting the game, you will reach the main menu where you can access all the basic game functions. These include starting a game (against the computer or a human opponent), saving or loading a game and setting game options.

Options

Media

You can activate/deactivate music and sounds, choose the language used in the game, adjust the tooltip delay and adjust the combat animation delay. You can also select the way that units will be displayed on the map (“leader on top” and “regroup armies” options) as well as whether the turn resolution should be paused when a battle occurs (“pause after battle”).

Game

In this menu, you can activate/deactivate the fog of war, activation and withdrawal rules. You can also play with random leaders; in this case, leader names and attributes are randomized when you create a new game. It's recommended to leave the default settings for your first game.

AI

This is where you select the difficulty level of the game and adjust how smart your computer opponent will be. By allowing longer processing times during turn resolution, you will enhance the AI. Giving even a slight fog of war advantage to the AI will enhance it significantly.

System

You can adjust technical settings here. These include “region pre-caching” and “textures init.” which allow for smoother scrolling. The Armory sub-section of the AGEOD forum can help you decide which settings are best for you.

Campaigns & scenarios

When starting a new game, you will be presented with several types of scenarios to choose from. There are basically four levels of play ranging from the shorter scenarios, involving a limited number of units for a short period of time on a portion of the map, to the full grand campaign:

• The grand campaign covers the whole duration of the war using the whole map.
• Yearly campaigns are similar to the grand campaign but cover only one year of the conflict.
• Theater campaigns cover the whole duration of the war but only in a specific geographical region (available on the forum).
• Scenarios are more limited in scope and feature individual campaigns or battles, such as Shiloh. The time period, the units involved and the map area covered are accordingly limited. As such, scenarios are highly recommended as an introduction to the game.

The list also includes several tutorials, which are instructive scenarios designed to help learn the basic game mechanics.

Procedure: Hovering the mouse over the name of a campaign/scenario on the left hand sign displays a short description on the right hand side. After selecting a campaign/scenario, you get to choose your side and play begins.

Loading, deleting, renaming a game

Instead of starting a new game, you can resume a game you previously saved or that was saved automatically. You also have the option to rename, delete or restore a previous turn, of any saved game, as indicated by each entry’s tooltip. Hovering the mouse over the game in the load game window provides you with the shortcuts to these file manipulation options. It is not advised to rename a saved game outside of AACW.

Saving a game

At any time during a game, you can reach the main menu (Esc key). From here, you can select the save game menu. You don’t generally have to save a game, as this is done automatically each turn once you hit "end turn". As explained previously, you have the option to restore the 24 previous turns of any saved game. Usually, the only cases where you would want to manually save a game is either if you halt your planning in the middle of a turn and want to resume giving orders after quitting the game or to change the name of the save game from its default. In others words, if you click "end turn", watch it unfold and only check your forces without entering new orders, you can quit safely and everything is saved by default.

Play by email (PBEM)

AACW can be played against another human opponent using PBEM or any other valid file transfer protocol, such as instant messaging. One of the players (the “host”) will have to initiate the game. The procedure is detailed below:

Create a game

The Hosting player chooses a campaign/scenario and a side and starts the game as usual. This automatically generates a sub-folder in the "C:\Program Files\AGEod's American Civil War\ACW\Saves\"-directory, named after the campaign or scenario selected ("1863 Campaign" if you play the “1863 Campaign”-scenario, for example). Please note that a number helps differentiate between multiple instances of the same campaign/scenario. However, the best way to avoid confusion is to rename the in-game save (e.g. "1863 Campaign John vs. Joe"). Do NOT rename any ACW files outside the game.

In this newly created folder you will find two .TRN files, each with three letters indicating which side it belongs to (USA or CSA).

Host sends TRN file to opponent

The hosting player now sends his opponent the .TRN file with the opponent’s designation (i.e. if you play the USA, then send the CSA file to your opponent). The opponent must store this file in the folder named "AACWGame\AACW\Saves\". It is advisable to use subfolders to keep all PBEM games in progress separate. For example, the opponent could save the TRN file under the "AACWGame\AACW\Saves\JohnVsJoe"-subfolder.

Note: In order to avoid possible data corruption during the e-mail transfer process, it is strongly advised to e-mail the file using some type of compressed format such as ZIP, RAR, etc..

Non-host sends .ORD file to host

Each player now loads the game and gives his orders for the upcoming turn. When ready, each player saves the game. This will generate an .ORD file (in the folders mentioned above).

Important: do not click on End Turn at this step.

The non-hosting player then sends his .ORD file to the hosting player.

Host resolves turn

The hosting player saves the .ORD file received from his opponent into the appropriate directory and loads the game again. He now clicks on "end turn" to launch the turn resolution, where all orders are then executed. A new turn is now ready to start. Go back to step # 2 ("Host sends TRN file to opponent") and repeat.

Note: The non-hosting player doesn’t get to “play back” his opponent’s turn. However, he can check the turn’s message log to see what has occurred during the turn.