Myth: The Fallen Lords (C) 1997 Bungie Software Products Corporation IMPORTANT NOTE: This CD-ROM includes version 1.3 of Myth: The Fallen Lords. For more info on 1.3, read the last section of this Read Me. ------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you for purchasing Myth: The Fallen Lords. This file contains the most up-to-date information regarding installation and performance of Myth: The Fallen Lords. For even more information and help troubleshooting, please visit our web site at and have a look at the Online Troubleshooting Guide. ------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENTS I. Contact Information II. Installation III. Performance Notes IV. 3Dfx Notes V. Rendition Notes VI. Multiplayer VI. Last Minute Changes VII. 1.3, 1.2 and 1.1 Changes and Bug Fixes I. CONTACT INFORMATION ------------------------------------------------------------ Technical Support (Not Hints) TEL: (312) 255-9600 FAX: (312) 563-0545 EMAIL: support@bungie.com WEB: http://www.bungie.com Orders: (800) 295 0060 Hints: (900) 740 HINT Hint calls are $0.95/minute for automated hints, or $1.35/minute to speak to a live operator from 9:30am - 5:30pm CST, Monday through Friday. You must be 18 years old or have a parent's permission before calling. A touchtone phone is required. Bungie Software Products Corporation P.O. Box 7877 Chicago, IL 60680-7877 II. INSTALLATION ------------------------------------------------------------ After inserting the Myth: The Fallen Lords CD in your computer, autoplay will present you with a menu of options. Simply choose "Install Myth: The Fallen Lords". This is the US English version of Myth: The Fallen Lords and, as such, does not operate on Japanese or German operating systems. If you live in these territories please contact a local retailer for a compatible version of Myth: The Fallen Lords. Installing DirectX 6.1 Myth requires that you have Microsoft's DirectX 5.0 or above installed. During the installation, the Myth installer will ask you whether you want to install DirectX 6.1. If you have DirectX 5.0 or above installed, you can skip this procedure. If you do not have DirectX 5.0 or above installed or are unsure, click "Yes". After the Myth The Fallen Lords Installer has finished, the DirectX 6.1 installer will query your system and install any necessary drivers. You will need to restart your machine after installing DirectX 6.1. Click your Start menu and highlight the Programs menu. From the Programs menu, select the Myth The Fallen Lords menu, then select the Myth executable and click it to launch the game. Alternately, you may simply open your Myth folder and double-click the Myth executable. III. PERFORMANCE NOTES ------------------------------------------------------------ To get the most from your Myth: The Fallen Lords experience, run the game on the fastest computer you can. If, by chance, your computer isn't all that fast - then try this: 1) Run in Low Res Mode (in the preferences window) 2) Turn off Landscape Filtering (in the preferences window) 3) Make sure Myth: The Fallen Lords utilizes as much physical memory as possible (virtual memory will slow performance significantly - this might be unavoidable if you have less than 32 megs of RAM). This means quitting other applications and disabling system services such as peer web services and ftp. 4) Turn off modem compression and error correction while playing over a modem. Turn on TCP/IP header compression (if available). 5) The movies on the Myth CD-ROM have been optimized for 4X CD-ROM drives and higher. If you have a 2X CD-ROM drive you may experience movie playback slowdowns. 6) Get a 3Dfx card IV. 3Dfx NOTES ------------------------------------------------------------ If you have a 3Dfx card, Myth: The Fallen Lords will automatically load the 3Dfx version. Please make sure you have the latest 3Dfx drivers installed! The most recent drivers can be found online at . V. RENDITION NOTES ------------------------------------------------------------ If you have a Rendition-based 3D card, Myth: The Fallen Lords will automatically load the Rendition version. Please note that some older Rendition drivers (for the V1000 series) will not work with Myth. Please make sure you get the latest drivers from your 3D card vendor. The most recent drivers can be found online at . VI. MULTIPLAYER ------------------------------------------------------------ If you are unable to access the Multiplayer option on the main menu you may want to try deleting the Myth prefs folder which is inside the "Local" folder. The Local folder is in the same folder as your Myth: The Fallen Lords application. With your purchase of Myth: The Fallen Lords you get unlimited free access to bungie.net our online gaming service. Before you can play over bungie.net you must register a login and password for the service at http://www.bungie.net. You will need to have your serial number ready. Your serial number is located on the back of your jewel case. DO NOT LOSE this serial number. Without it you cannot register or change account information. Never give your serial number to anyone else. If you like net games, get yourself to http://www.bungie.net and register your account, so you can start the carnage now! Once you get your login and password you select "Multiplayer Game" from the main menu of Myth: The Fallen Lords. Enter your login and password, click the login button and you'll be automatically connected. Playing on Non Standard Ports via TCP/IP We've included the ability to play over TCP/IP over a user defined port as an advanced option. If you are playing over a user-defined port, you MUST join by address. Searching for local network games on a non-standard port will not work. This option is included to allow users to play through existing firewalls and/or avoid conflicts with other existing network services. Most users will not need to utilize this function. VII. Last Minute Changes ------------------------------------------------------------ Unit Tading Keys (+/-) The unit trading keys as seen in the configure keyboard dialog (accessed via the preferences option) have been replaced by a snazzy dialog that appears at the beginning of net games which have unit trading enabled. The +/- keys are no longer used for unit trading. No Blood Option Unfortunately, this option could not be included in this release. Have a nice day ;-) VII. 1.3, 1.2 AND 1.1 CHANGES AND BUG FIXES ------------------------------------------------------------ Changes in 1.3 - 3rd Party Plugins: The star of the 1.3 update is the plugin feature. It allows users to take third party plugins that they download from various Myth sites online and plug them into Myth without having to modify the Myth application. This is done through the plugin folder. This folder can be found in Myth_TFL\tags\local\. Third party maps that end in the .gor extention are placed here. Upon entering the multiplayer options screen you will notice a new list called plugins on the far right side of the interface. Any .GOR files that have been placed into the plugins folder will appear here. If you select a plugin in your plugins folder it will appear in your list of maps. If you select the newly appearing map, you will be able to play on it with all of it's options. However the REALLY COOL thing is that if you select a plugin but select another map all of that plugin's unit changes (assuming the author of said plugin didn't create new monster tags) will affect the map that you use. If it doesn't then you'll need to talk to the author of the plugin. Now here are a few catches: 1). You can only enter a game that is using a plugin if you have that same plugin installed. 2). If you change plugins all people without that plugin will get booted. Please note that all players must have the same versions of a given plugin as well. If you'd like to find plugins a good place to start your search would be . 3). We will NOT be maintaining a list of plugins. Plugins are not maintained, distributed, or regulated by Bungie. If you have a problem with a plugin, you need to contact the author of the plugin in question. WE WILL NOT PROVIDE TECH SUPPORT FOR THIRD PARTY PLUGINS. This means that you should not send email to us about plugins or call us with questions about plugins. 4). Third party plugins can be played in ranked and unranked rooms. HOWEVER, anyone playing on a third party map/plugin takes full responsibility for knowing what they are getting into. You should always look a map over and play with it in unranked before you start using it in ranked. If a map turns out to be unbalanced in ranked, then direct your complaints to the plugin author, not us. 5). WE WILL NOT PROVIDE TECH SUPPORT FOR THIRD PARTY PLUGINS. No, I really mean it. If this doesn't make sense to you, please by all means reread items 3 and 5 as many times as necessary until it does. ;) 6). The plugin module only supports those plugins that exist as a .GOR file. Previously existing plugins will have to be rebuilt as a .GOR file. This can be done by the author using one of the available 3rd party .GOR composers. - Bodycount The co-star of the 1.3 update is the much lauded Bodycount game. Bodycount (especially BC Trow) has been the subject a great deal of abuse. We've made numerous tweaks and changes to resolve these problems. They are as follows ... 1). Redirection bugs (i.e. chain lightning, trowkicking, etc.) have been resolved. Fetches will only shoot to their extreme range and that's it. 2). The death of your own units will count against you if you kill them. The same amount you would win from killing an opposing unit, you will lose if you kill your own unit. For the most part this only happens if YOU kill your own unit, but there is one exception (see below). In any case it is very possible for your score to go into the negatives so beware. This does mean that you must be more careful with wight usage in order to get maximum kill for the 3 point loss you will incur. 3). Satchel charges, empty bottles, and pus packets are now tracked to some extent. Any unit that is blown up by a satchel charge will count as a unit loss for the player who lost the unit. This means that satchels can be used to reduce your opponents score. They are a sort of offensive defense. This was done mainly because it is much too difficult to track satchels and pus packets to the current owner. It also adds a new tactical element to the game. - Other 1.3 Fixes and Notes: 1). 1.2 is not compatible with 1.3. To deal with this issue -- as well as to encourage people to update -- those using 1.2 will see 1.3 games in red and will not be able to join them. 1.3 will see 1.2 in red also and won't be able to join those games. 2). There is now a 6 minute minimum time in all ranked games. Changes in 1.2 - Fixes the Fetch chain lightning bug. Make sure you are playing with other players who have 1.2b1 installed or else the game might go out of sync! Changes in 1.1 ### HIGHLIGHTS ### - 3Dfx Rush boards fixed! (Hercules Stingray 128/3D, Intergraph Intense 3D, Jazz Adrenaline Rush 3D, etc.) - Rendition support! (Canopus Total 3D, Creative Labs 3D Blaster, Diamond Stealth II, etc.) - Major bungie.net upgrade! - You can now zoom out farther, and gesture clicking is easier! - Melee units should do a much better job of automatically surrounding enemies in battle! NOTE: Saved games and replays from Myth v1.0 will work in v1.1 (the text "v1.0" will appear in the lower right corner of the screen), but the reverse is not true! ### ENHANCEMENTS ### - Melee units should do a much better job of automatically surrounding enemies in battle. - Myth now supports 3d acceleration boards using the Rendition chipset. - Added graphic to show gesture direction; this gives people trying to learn how to gesture better feedback about what they are doing right or wrong. - The right mouse button now moves units; this is the easiest way to gesture (mac users use option + click). - Added a message visible to everyone warning that having more players than starting locations randomly creates teams. - You can zoom out farther than the default zoom factor. - After a replay myth returns to the replay dialog instead of the main menu. - If you ask a unit to move into impassable terrain, that unit's waypoint marker is drawn in red instead of yellow. - Melee units should do a much better job of automatically surrounding enemies in battle. - Misc. (significant) 3Dfx optimizations. - After a replay of a network game, the postgame statistics are displayed before the replay ends. ### BUG FIXES ### - 3Dfx rush boards work! - Increased "waiting for server..." delay from 1.5 minutes to 3 minutes to avoid dropping people with slow CD drives. - When exiting a game where a team captain dropped out, the team display no longer gets confused. - Levels played cooperatively over the network are marked as having been visited and can be selected again. - The "revert to last save" button is disabled in the loss screen if you never saved the game - The netgame chalkboard works correctly in low-resolution now. - Units renamed by the player are displayed with those names during the solo postgame report. - The Windows95 start bar should no longer be drawn while in Myth. - The last team alive in body count no longer wins, although this is still true of all the other netgames (which are all better than body count, by the way). - Ties in territories are now correctly broken by choosing the team who at one point in the game owned more flags than the other team. - Timid and easy are significantly easier and timider, respectively. - Servers who cannot be pinged are no longer displayed with a latency of zero milliseconds - The out of memory error on Windows95 now also suggests that you might be out of swap (i.e., hard disk) space. - Cycling through selection presets with "F" used to get stuck if you had two identical presets, this no longer happens. - The in-game player rankings (F7) will display in two columns if there are too many players to fit on the screen. - Several TEN bugfixes. - On a Macintosh you no longer have to be in a resolution which supports thousands of colors for Myth to run (as long as some other resolution supports it). - Several problems with the network maps Rest In Pieces, Rest In Pieces (Dark) and Death In The Dire Marsh have been fixed. - People who leave a game in progress or lose their connection to the person who hosted a game are now allowed to place in that game instead of suffering an arbitrary "quitting" penalty. Usually they end up at the bottom of the rankings anyway, because they no longer have any units left, but this is not always the case (especially if they have extant teammates). - Capture the flag games can now end in a tie if neither team takes the enemy flag. - There is a new check box in the preferences to make the second mouse button deselect units like it used to in v1.0. - The word "Light" is not printed after the names of computer-controlled units in solo play any longer. - Trading for maximum dwarves on "If I had a Trow..." and dropping all their satchel charges in the same square inch of ground and setting them off no longer causes Myth to quit, so I expect everyone to go try that now. - The Rendition code now tries to run at 60 Hz (like our 3Dfx code) instead of 85 Hz, allowing it to sync to older monitors. - The volume of the "hey!" sound has been decreased, and it is no longer played during replays. - The postgame carnage report displayed after a replay now shows the correct information all the time. - Rotating presets no longer gets stuck. - If a team captain dropped during a game, all his teammates would remain indented without a captain (sometimes making it look like they were on other teams). - All variety of last recording trauma has been fixed. - The wording of the "teams might be created" warning was changed. - Body count, once again, had an endgame problem which has been fixed. - Shift-JIS (i.e., big) fonts work on 3Dfx and Rendition boards. - Removed unused "more/fewer units" options in configure keyboard dialog. ### BUNGIE.NET UPDATE ### Changes made to bungie.net - There are now ranked and unranked rooms on bungie.net. Playing a game in an unranked room will not change your score in any way. - Games in ranked rooms must have four or more players. - There are a bunch of new player icons, 30 new room graphics and better looking rank icons. - Those players wishing seeking to discover the maximum hang time of a dwarven torso can now start 1-player games on bungie.net and experiment to your heart's content. - Fixed several problems with the room popup on bungie.net. - Open games are now always sorted to the top on bungie.net. - A player's caste icon should now be more consistent between the chat area and inside a game. - The control key (as well as the option key) locks down selections in the bungie.net player list for sending lots of private messages to the same player.