                                
                                
                        Version 01.3.98 - "Avatar"
                        ---------------------------
                       User's Guide/Technical Manual
                       Geoff "Link/Adereth" Halliday
                              March 29, 2002




                       Please view this document in
                          DOS or Notepad with the
                          TERMINAL font for best
                                 results.




>       Weapons

        1. Tazer Stick (Charged)
Ammunition Type: Power Cells
Weapon Type: Melee
Notes: CHEWS ammo.

        1b. Tazer Stick (Ammoless)
Ammunition Type: None
Weapon Type: Melee
Notes: Rumors of ineffectiveness in breaking glass (unconfirmed)
     > Source: http://www.cygnusloop.com/lameduke/

        2. 9mm Pistol
Ammunition Type: Bullets
Weapon Type: Ranged
Notes: Laser site is inaccurate, being a weapon, it is subject to ALL
hitscans.

        3. Quantum Explosion Dynamo Particle Accelerator Cannon (QEDPAC)
Ammunition Type: Power Cells
Weapon Type: Ranged
Notes: Original Graphic (1.3.95) later evolved into Chaingun Cannon.
     > Only way to kill slimers.
     > Easiest way to kill Drones.

        4. Pipebomb
Ammunition Type: Pipebomb
Weapon Type: Ranged
Notes: Puts the FPS in a coma.

        5. Rocket-Propelled Grenade Launcher (RPG)
Ammunition Type: Rocket-Propelled Grenades.
Weapon Type: Ranged
Notes: Can fired while holstered.
     > Buggy[er].
     > Needs to be aimed before it can be fired.

>       Enemies

In order of coding:

	1. Female Guard
These ladies are what you'd call a... real threat. Being the
brute force of the Fazis, a cheesy alliance between Neo-nazis and
extreme feminists, they're armed to the teeth with a
very powerful machine gun.

	2. Male Guard
These war-hardened artillary officers aren't the kind of people
you'd play games with. Specially trained to use a rocket launcher,
they're perfect at making their enemy's day just a little bright.

	3. All-purpose Generic Brand Trooper
Not specifically well trained*, Troopers carry the largest threat
in numbers, where they can easily mow you down with their powerful
QEDPACs or 100% compatable. However, not being trained very well
has a very painful downfall--they'll freak if you pull out an RPG.

*Or well coded, either.

	4. Cyborg Captain
These semi-robots are significantly more threatening than their
Trooper subordinates. Armed with an RPG (no pun intended), they
can be fatal at close range. Watch out!

        5. Drone
AltDuke drones are much different from the character in Duke 3D sharing
the name. Instead of exploding once they're close enough, they prefer
to hang back and shoot you up. The easiest way to get rid of them is to
use a QEDPAC, which fries their circuts. Asta la vista, baby!

        6. Slimer
The only difference from the Duke 3D slimer is that the AltDuke slimer
can only be killed by a QEDPAC.

>       Boss Creatures

        5. THE Octabrain
Out of the depths of the alien homeworld comes this fierce beast. In Duke
Nukem 3D, it's brainchildren plagued you as one of the four most formidable
non-boss creatures. In AltDuke, you come face to face with the engine's most
fearsome creature*, who makes the Ganalech cower in fear.** Capable of firing
an ominous volley of around a hundred psychic blasts per second, and putting
the Cycloid Emperor to shame, Duke will only encounter it on O@ (E4L16), and
in the secretive Sixth Episode, to be released with AltDuke version 1.4.00.

Beware the jade beast . . . . . . . .

*In reference to BUILD Map version 5, specifically. Evil Al from Ken-Build
is by far the worst of them all. Take that, Tchernobog!

**This, alas, is due to a formidable Intelligence Quotient of 316. I never
really liked the half-Shikadi, anyways!

>       Technical Notes
>       (Recommended reading if you want to do heavy damage to the game)

> 1. FAQ

What are all these .LDT files?

Those are actually MIDIs that have just been renamed to conceal their
nature to the average idiot.


AltDuke doesn't like my maps, and I can't open it's in BUILD. Why?

AltDuke uses the more antiquated BUILD map version 5. This means they have
to be converted by special programs (BACKMAP and CONVMAP) before they can
be used. These can be found in two places: At http://www.advsys.net/ken/
under the BUILD section, and at 
http://www.geocities.com/adereth_2000/lameduke/ as MKLDMAP.


I don't recognize some of AltDuke's CON language. What is all this?

I recommend you download the Perseus Document from
http://www.geocities.com/adereth_2000/lameduke/ . There I've described it as
well as I presently can.


What the heck are .LDC files? GAME.CON refers to them, but how do I edit
them? Is this some kind of offshoot of CONtrol Code?

.LDC files are critical blocks of CONtrol code that several things rely on.
Please, do not edit them except in the most critical cases.


I have a problem. My name is Bob Murton.

I'm sorry, I can't help you with that problem.


Quantum Explosion Dynamo? Isn't that...

Yep! Pried the core from the wreckage of the OMEGAMATIC [TM] m'self.


Why doesn't AltDuke work on my blazingly fast, ultra-compatable
Windows 5.0 system with 8 quadrillion gigs of RAM and a 8,000,000 GB
harddrive?

Because you're a friggin' idiot. Windows ME [and similar] lack an
important tool called the Microsoft Disk Operating System (aka
MS-DOS). If you've got XP, then try compatibility mode.

(As of March 28, this is the only question I've actually been asked,
the rest are speculation)


> 2. The Editing of Various Elements

> The Score Table
Hexice (6) upon a time, on a computer far, far, away, the highscores table
worked. Twice upon a time, on a computer far, far, away, the end level screen
worked, too. But let's get back to the highscores table. As it doesn't
actually work, I recommend using the messages for perhaps an ad or author
info. The file the high scores are in is called USERDEFS.TMP. Go figure. But,
this is one of the few elements I've gotten to work fully. To edit it, I
recommend using a hex editor, and if you plan on screwing around with scores,
you'll also need a hex calculator (such as Windows's CALC.EXE in scientific
mode). To change the messages, just type whatever you want. There's a limit
to how long these messages can be, trust me not to know. To edit the scores,
first, on DEC mode, type in the number you want to use, such as 4263123
(part of Apogee's phone number). Then, flip to HEX mode, to get the proper
representation of your number (in the example, this would be 410CD3). If the
number has an odd quantity of digits, and 0 to the front. Next comes the fun
part. You have to reverse the number in two-digit chunks (bytes).

Examples:
DEC: 4263123    DEC: 74565
HEX: 410CD3     HEX: 12345 (012345)
FIN: D30C41     FIN: 452301

Finally, find the appropriate number in USERDEFS.TMP to overwrite, save, and
glower at your marvelous work! ! By the way, the game engine is the thing
that sorts the scores, so as long as the scoreboard doesn't actually trigger,
then feel free to put numbers in random orders, such as 4263123, 87653, 1243,
4567898. The sky is the limit!




