CO N T E N TS INSTALLATION Installation of Worms Armageddon Uninstalling Worms Armageddon Latest documentation Starting Worms Armageddon 1 1 1 1 1 INTRODUCTION Overview Turn-based system Time Landscapes Worms and weapons Utilities Donor cards Strategy On your own, or in a group 2 2 3 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 QUICKSTART GAMES Single player Network 5 5 5 PLAYING THE GAME Moving the view Changing worms Moving worms Jumping Other moves Action replay Quit Name switch Force energy bars 6 6 6 6 6 7 7 7 7 7 ON-SCREEN INFORMATION Commentary panel Turn/round time indicator Wind bar/background incidentals Team status Worm status Utilities Weapons panel Chat panel Quit panel 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 9 9 9 SELECTING YOUR WEAPON Method A Method B 10 10 10 WEAPON USAGE CRATES'R'US Weapon crates Health crates Utility crates 11 24 24 24 24 i UTILITIES Collectable utilities Instant effect utilities 25 25 26 MENU SYSTEM Main menu System configuration Video options Secret selection 27 27 27 27 27 SINGLE PLAYER MENU Training Single player quickstart game Missions: a worm too far Deathmatch challenge 28 28 28 29 29 CREATE GAME Multiplayer non-network game How to create a new team Barracks Game roster Game styles General options Weapon options Game options Miscellaneous options Landscapes 30 30 30 31 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 NETWORK PLAY Local network Connecting to existing games Hosting a game Chat 39 39 39 40 40 WORMNET Internet play Gaming channels Channel chat Hosting Servers In-game network chat Network set-up information 41 41 42 43 44 44 44 45 TROUBLESHOOTING Online help Mail/telephone support 46 46 46 SOUNDBANK EDITOR GAME CONTROLS CREDITS 46 47 49 ii IN S TA L L AT IO N INSTALLATION OF WORMS ARMAGEDDON Thank you for purchasing Worms Armageddon. This documentation comprises a feature overview, play hints, weapons guide and much, much more. It is recommended to print out this manual as a quick point of reference. This will be a useful resource during play for weapons values and gameplay tactics. If you're a Worms veteran then welcome back! We think you'll enjoy all of the enhancements and extra goodies we've added into Worms Armageddon, especially the new improved online WORMNET play. When Worms Armageddon has successfully been installed, a Team17 group will be included in the Program group within your Start Menu and the Worms Armageddon game icon will be placed in here, along with the utilities, the latest documentation and uninstall icons. UNINSTALLING WORMS ARMAGEDDON To uninstall Worms Armageddon, select the Start Menu, select the Team17 group and UNINSTALL WORMS ARMAGEDDON. This will remove the game from your system. Please note that any additional files added or created after installation will not be removed and will have to be removed manually. LATEST DOCUMENTATION Software is continually improved throughout all stages of development wherever possible to ensure the finest quality gaming experience. We advise players to read this document for any last minute changes or additions that are not reflected in this manual. The document will also be installed within the Team17 Program group. STARTING WORMS ARMAGEDDON Ensure the game is successfully installed. Ensure that your system meets correct hardware and software requirements. Click Start and select Team17 from the Programs Menu. Click on Worms Armageddon, the game will run and play. 1 IN T R O D U CT IO N Worms Armageddon is the final chapter of the phenomenally successful WORMS series. It expands and stretches the Worms series to new heights, offering more features, weapons, options and hours of brilliantly crazy gameplay than ever before. Worms Armageddon is a single or multiplayer game that blends no-holds-barred action, strategy and sheer outrageous fortune, meaning you can play for 20 minutes or 20 hours. No game of Worms Armageddon is ever the same, making it endlessly entertaining. Up to six teams can battle it out on the same machine, local network or via the Internet, making it the ideal party game. It doesn't matter how you play it, once you're hooked, you'll always come back for more! OVERVIEW Worms Armageddon is a turn-based strategy game, where teams battle across bizarre, randomly generated landscapes or finely crafted custom designed levels. Each team takes it in turn to pick off the opposing teams, using crazy weapons, tools and other utilities they may have discovered to inflict whatever foul strategies they can conjure. Worms die when they lose all of their energy or drown in the murky depths. The winning team is the one that manages to survive the mayhem and have Worms left standing! 2 TURN- BASED SYSTEM Players have a set time in which to make a move before the game automatically switches to the next team. During this period, you can select which Worm to use (unless you only have one Worm or are playing with WORMSELECT disabled) and either let its arsenal loose on the enemy or move the Worm into safer territory. TIME In addition to the time limit for each turn (an option that you can change), each battle has an overall time limit before "Sudden Death" extra time is called. There are a number of options you can change for "Sudden Death", including having the water level gradually rise, making high territory even more strategic, having all Worms energy reduced to 1 or gradually drain it over time. LANDSCAPES Each time you play Worms Armageddon the game is completely different. Worms and mines are randomly placed on billions of possible landscapes, providing you with endless playing opportunities. Why not play around with the fabulous landscape editor to custom design your own cool landscapes? WORMS AND WEAPONS Each team of Worms has an arsenal of devastating weapons at their disposal. Some of these weapons will be limited in supply so you will have to use strategy to achieve maximum carnage. There are a wide variety of weapons available. For full details about weapons and their usage, see the Weapon Usage section later in this manual. UTILITIES These add a whole new element to Worms Armageddon. Utility crates drop from the sky, offering features to enhance the player's turn. These can be saved and used later, while some are used from the moment they are collected. 3 DONOR CARDS When the last member of a team dies and that team held any utilities or special weapons, a DONOR CARD is left. Any Worm collecting this card collects the special goodies left behind! STRATEGY Worms Armageddon can be played in many different ways - some players opt for wanton destruction, while others play it safe, and there are those that are so underhanded that they have vengeance wreaked upon them at every opportunity! Those who resort to hiding their Worms away and playing a very defensive game, have turned to the "Dark Side" of Worms playing and must be slain, so keep on your toes and tails! You will have to adapt your strategy to the weapons available, the landscape you're playing on and to each new opponent you play. Worms Armageddon allows for even more strategy than before in that each team can now select a special weapon to take into battle. The selection of this weapon or utility seriously affects the potential outcome, so do choose wisely! ON YOUR OWN, OR IN A GROUP Worms Armageddon features Single Player Missions for the lone player, pitting your skills against crack computer teams and a variety of intriguing Training games, where you can practice key skills, gain rankings, medals and some other goodies for extra-special performances. Multiplay is popular on a single computer or via a local network, but the ultimate Worming experience is playing via WORMNET, pitting your Wormy skills against players from the four corners of the globe - let battle commence! For details of INTERNET PLAY see the section entitled WORMNET. 4 Q U IC KS TA R T G A M ES We realise that not everyone will have read the manual before the excitement of playing the game got the better of them, so we have created a number of QUICKSTART options, which do not require you to create teams or anything too complex, but get you into the action quickly. SINGLE PLAYER To begin a quickstart DEATHMATCH game, select SINGLE PLAYER and then QUICKSTART. You will control the PLAYER 1 team against WORMBOTS. The game will keep track of your performance and adjust the difficulty accordingly for the next time you play. No statistics or details are kept on the team you control. NETWOR K Please note that there is no QUICKSTART network option. You must create a team before playing any network or WORMNET Internet games. 5 P L AY IN G T H E G A M E You've started the game but now what? This section will familiarise you with the basic controls of Worms Armageddon that are essential if you're going to take on the World! MOVING THE VIEW You can use the mouse to scroll around the landscape, simply move it in the direction you'd like the screen to scroll. Press the HOME key to centre on the current Worm. CHANGING WORMS If you have Worm Select set to "Manual" (see General Options), press the TAB key to select a different member of your Worms Team. You can only change Worms if you haven't already moved one, or selected a weapon. See also 'SELECT WORM' in the Weapons listing, this is a new weapon which allows advanced Worm movement. MOVING WORMS Move your Worm around by using the ARROW keys. The LEFT ARROW moves your Worm to the left, the RIGHT ARROW moves your Worm to the right. If the Worm is blocked then it will stop. JUMPING Make your Worms jump forward by pressing the RETURN key on the Keyboard. Be careful, Worms that jump and fall too far can hurt themselves - any injury will prevent the Worm completing its turn. You can also make Worms jump backwards by pressing the RETURN key twice in quick succession and perform an upward jump with the BACKSPACE key, which is useful for performing air-moves. Press BACKSPACE twice in quick succession to perform a back-flip. 6 OTHER MOVES Some of the weapons and tools have some nifty little tricks that can aid your Worm in its movements. Check out the Weapon Usage section later in the manual for further details. ACTION REPLAY Press the R key to replay the last shot. This can only be done immediately after the shot. Press the S key to watch the replay in slow-motion. Press and hold the SPACEBAR during a replay, to fast-forward it to the end. QUIT Press the ESCAPE key to open the Quit Menu. You can select Draw Game, Sudden Death and Quit Game. You can also view the number of rounds won by each team from here. In a Network game, action will continue as normal behind the menu, whereas the game will pause in a non-network game. Quitting a game in Network makes your team surrender, leaving the other players intact while declaring them the winners. Note: If the host quits the game in a Network match, the game is over. NAME SWITCH Sometimes the visibility of the Worm names can hinder the player, press the DEL key to toggle the Worm Name Visibility setting from full, partial or none. FORCE ENERGY BARS You can toggle this option to ON by pressing SHIFT-DELETE. Normally, the team energy bars disappear when a Worm is moved, this option can force them to be displayed at all times. 7 O N -S C R E E N IN F O R M AT IO N The game screen is full of useful information - the following explains what it all means! COMMENTARY PANEL A full commentary appears at the top of the screen, giving full details of which Worm has been killed, whose move it is and which weapon has been selected. TURN/ROUND TIME INDICATOR Your Turn Time counts down at the bottom left of the screen. As an option, you can also have the Round Time displayed here (for full details see the Game Options section later in the manual). When it reaches zero, play passes to the next team. The game will wait until everything has stopped moving (Mines, Worms etc) before it considers the turn complete. WIND BAR /BACKGROUND INCIDENTALS There is a wind strength indicator at the bottom-right of the screen. The arrows indicate the strength and direction of the wind. The incidental images in the background also serve to give an indication of the wind direction, these can be set with the INSERT key. TEAM STATUS The energy bars of each team playing are shown at the centre of the lower section of the screen. Status bars are removed from the screen when a team's energy is depleted and that team is knocked out. WORM STATUS Worm names, team name and energy values appear above each Worm. UTILITIES Enabled utilities (Double Damage, Crate Spy etc) will appear above the wind indicator in a small box when they are in use. 8 WEAPONS PANEL When selecting a weapon, the panel slides in from the right of the screen. To remove it, you can right click or select a weapon. CHAT PANEL In network games, a chat panel will slide onto the top of the screen, this can be removed with the PAGE UP key and recalled with the PAGE DOWN key. QUIT PANEL When the player presses the ES ...