ShellShock Shareware Release Notes, v1.0
For ShellShock Shareware v1.0
Written by Jeremy Hammond

This text file is the first edition of ShellShock release notes. This
will change often so visit the ShellShock homepage frequently. Despite my
fascination of the Soviet Union, I am not a communist or I was not the
'commy' from th Neozone's QBoard, however I did find it funny as hell.

Table Of Contents

1 Game Concept
  1.1  Story
  1.2  Object of the game
2 The Main Screen
  2.1  Controls
  2.2  The Sidebar
  2.3  Saving/Loading
  2.4  Mouse controls
3 Skirmshes
  3.1  Making Skirmish levels
  3.2  Special rules
4 Battle tactics and tips
  4.1 Common tips
  4.2 Game strategies for campaigns
5 System Info
  5.1 System requirements
  5.2 Troubleshooting
Appendix A: Unit types
Appendix B: About
1 Game Concept
        ShellShock is a non-turned based strategy game. The camera is at a
  bird's eye view of the action. There are two sides to this war, and you
  could be either the Soviet Union, or the Allied powers. Each campaign is
  different and have different levels and stories.
1.1 Story

  Allies

        In is 1963, and Soviet aggression against the United States has been
  an increasing problem. Hostile acts nearly tripled in the last three years,
  and with nuclear bombs, the American citiizens are scared to death. At first
  it was the little hostile acts like building up their military powers while
  breaking treaties. But now the Soviets are threatening 'complete domination'
  and they seem confident of victory.
        You just recieve news that the Soviets just nuked West Valley Air
  Force Base. Congress declares war on the Soviet Union the next day. The
  following week, the Soviets invade over twenty small countries. Germany,
  France, and Poland allies with the US. Japan has been nuked to the ground.
  To top this all off, the President has been assasinated. The US is in a
  state of total panic.
        Since the western front suffers from Nuclear Fallout, an invasion is
  out of the question. So we build up our forces in Berlin and await further
  instructions.

  Soviets

        Back in 1948, we had almost total control of Berlin. We shut off all
  access to the great city and was using it to influence communist beliefs
  to all nations and expand our beloved Soviet Union. This turned out
  unsuccesful, and order was restored. We have been building our military
  since. Because this, Soviet unrest tripled. Revolutionists threaten
  our beloved Comrade Krushchev. With the threat of a new government, we
  needed prompt change. Krushchev, obsessed with the idea of a nuclear
  holocaust, forms a sinister plan. The draft begins in USSR. Men, ranging
  from 14 to 42, enlist in the Soviet Army. Morale is extremely high, as
  the people belive we can take total control of the Earth.
        The plan is soon put into action. We nuke an area in the Western
  region of the US, putting them at their knees. Then we march into Iran,
  using it's fine plutonium deposits to construct more nuclear weapons.
  Once we recieved the new nuclear weapons, each capable of destroying
  a forty mile radius, we launched over fifty at China, thus eliminating
  any chance of the western front becoming a weak point. Radiation levels
  in that area were so high, no one could survive an hour even with proper
  protection.
        Then the great invasion of the US began. Troops poured into New York
  with no resistance. We use New York as our main striking position. We await
  further instructions from our Comrade.

1.2 Object of the Game
        The object of the game is to eliminate any threat from the opposing
  side. Specificly, the Soviets demand a complete termination of every
  American citizen, and the Allies demand unconditional surrender.
        In each mission, the main objective is to kill any enemies. But, as
  specified, certain missions require other tasks to be accomplished.

2 The Main Screen
        The main screen consists of the viewport, in which you view the action,
  and the Sidebar, that enables you to purchese units and other bonuses,
  providing you have barracks.

2.1 Controls
  Here are the keyboard controls:

  Keyboard                              Action
  Up/Down/Left/Right                    Scroll viewport.
  ESC                                   Quit
  S                                     Scatter all highlighted units

2.2 The Sidebar
        The sidebar is a handy tool which uses include purchesing items. If
  do not have Barracks, you will have very little choices in your sidebar. It
  includes all Units you can buy. If you have an advanced unit, say a Rocket
  Launcher, yet you cannot train one, you do not have a high enough
  technology level to make such a unit yet. Other choices include Paratroopers,
  which when fully trained, the cursur turns blue. You then select a spot in
  which you want them to be dropped off, and click in the desired location.
  A plane will fly from the top of the screen in the direction of your spot.
  Then six paratroopers will drop from the plane. While this is happening, they
  can be shot at, but cannot shoot back until they touch the ground, then they
  turn into Infantry. Same goes for a bombing run.

2.3 Saving/Loading
        During gameplay when the battle gets rough, you may wish to save your
  game before acting a strike. You can save anytime during the game by clicking
  on the Save button at the side oof thee screen. You then choose a save slot
  to save your game into. Remember that you can load your game at any time.
  Some good times to save your game:
  - When the enemy is striking
  - Just before you attack
  - Before making any kind of risky activity
  Generally, you should save your game often because you may never know when
  the enemy might strike leaeving you without defenses.

2.4 Mouse Controls
        Mouse controls make gameplay easier and smoother. The table below is
  a description of each action.

        Mouse action                            What it does

        Left click on a friendly unit           Select that unit
        Left-drag across the viewport           Select multiple friendly units
        Right click                             Move all selected units to
                                                that location
        Right click on an enemy                 Tell all selected units to
                                                attack
        Move mouse cursor to the                Scroll map in corrisponding
        edge of the screen                      direction

        When the cursor's color is other then white, it's telling you
  something. Here are the tell-tale signs:

        Color                                   What's happening

        Blue                                    You just finished making
                                                either Paratroopers or a
                                                Bomber. Select a location.
        Green                                   The cursor is over a friendly
                                                unit
        Red                                     Your cursor is over an enemy
                                                unit.

3 Skirmishes
        Skirmishes is a non-campaign battle. You play only one battle, and
  your technology level is at the maximum, meaning you can build everything.
  Skirmishes have special maps, and later on I'll describe how you can make
  your own. When playing a skirmish, you are playing against the computer.
  You can choose the map you want to play, and also choose what side you
  can be(Soviets/Allies). Once you finish a skirmish, a screen will show up
  describing the results of the battle. Skirmishes are good at teaching
  someone to first play ShellShock.

3.1 Making Skirmish Levels
        Included in the registered version of ShellShock includes a map
  making program that enables you to make Skirmish levels. You can also
  download ShellShock levels offf the internet. However, you cannot
  play those levels unless you have the registered version. There's another
  reason to buy the registered version of ShellShock. See ordering info below.

3.2 Special rules
        In skirmishes, there are a few rules to follow. In a skirmish, the
  object of the mission is to destory the enemy. Also, you cannot save a
  skirmish because it's only one mission long and saving a campaign is much
  more important than a skirmish.

4 Battle Tactics and Tips
        By now, you should have the idea of playing ShellShock. For the more
  advanced player, here are some tips.

4.1 Common Tips
  - Rocket launchers have a slightly larger range then a pillbox. Remember
    this when striking.
  - When you tell a group of units to attack, you really are telling them
    to move to that location, and if you find anyone it the way, kill it.
    Normally when you tell a unit to move somewhere, if it sees an enemy
    it will ignore it until it reaches his destination.
  - When neared by more then one enemy soldier, units are prone to
    'shellshock'. If you dunno that that means, read:
     SHELLSHOCK - A psychonueratic condition that appears in soldiers who
                  has been exposed to modern warfare.
    This means your unit will freak out and attack the first thing it sees,
    which, 9 times out of 10, will be the worst choice. To avoid this, it is
    better to attack small groups then large groups, obviously.
  - Pillboxes are excellent infantry killers. They work exetremely well
    against Infantry and Grenaders who need to be pretty close to attack.
    However, they are very vulnerable against Rocket Launchers so it's a good
    strategy to have your own Rocket Launchers sit next to the pillboxes.

4.2 Game Strategies for Campaigns
    Here are some very tried-and-true effective strategies to use.
    - When using large strikes, it's best to use a 'dummy' in the front lines.
      Example:
        You are preparing for a large strike including many grenaders and
        Infantry. While positioning your troops just outside their defense's
        range, keep a Infantry as a dummy. When you are ready to have a strike,
        first tell this dummy to go out into the kill zone to have all their
        pillboxes, rocket launchers, and grenaders to use their ammo on that
        one guy. While they are reloading, quickly send the rest of your troops
        into battle and they get an extra second or two.
    - When using pillboxes as your main defenses, and the enemy has Rocket
      Launchers, train two Rocket Launchers and place them right next to the
      pillbox.
    - Ore trucks have a lot of life, and if you have no more ore around, you
      can still have a good use for them. When sending a big strike, put that
      ore truck into battle with them and let it take the beating that was
      meant for your troops.

5 System Info
5.1 System requirements
    You need:
    - VGA graphics card
    - Mouse
    - About two megs of hard drive space
    - A sound card is highly recommended
    - At least a 66 MHz processer. This is the bare bones! My 486 66 MHz runs
      like a dinosaur and is very flashy. You would want a 166 MHz for normal
      speed, but at rough points even this runs slow. A good tip to minimize
      flicker is to increase the game speed. I made ShellShock an a 133. A
      Pentium processer is also needed, but ShellShock will work at a very
      very slow speed without one.

5.2 Troubleshooting
  There could be a few errors. This is in the form of Q+A.
  Q. I try to run ShellShock, but I get an 'Out of memory' error.
  Q. An 'Out of string space' error occurs.
  A. Make sure you run ShellShock from the batch. ShellShock will not
     work with QBASIC 1.1, it needs QB45. However, QB45 is included with
     the registered version. If this doesn't work, reboot your machine and
     remove any TSR's(Progs that stay open even when you quit. Some examples
     are SBMIDI and SBSIM. Make sure those arn't active.)
  Q. 'Module not found' or 'Tried to load file with duplicate procedure.'
  A. Go to the DOS prompt and type 'DEL SHELL2.BAS'. For some reason,
     QuickBASIC associates my program with another program even after I remove
     the program and delete it. Then enter QuickBASIC and unload module
     MODULE SHELL2.BAS. It should work then.
  Q. I can't install ShellShock.
  A. If you can't install the registered version, make sure you followed the
     installation instructions. If you have the Shareware version, make
     sure you are using QuickBASIC 4.5 and you unzip all the files in the
     same directory.
  Q. I get a 'Syntax error' andd it highlights 'CALL ABSOLUTE'
  A. You didn't load QuickBASIC 4.5 with it's default library. To do this, go
     to the DOS prompt, enter the directory with QB45, and type:
     QB shell /l
  
Appendix A: Unit types
  Look at this table:
Unit            Life    Range   Damage   Cost   Speed   Level   Weapon
Infantry        10      3       1-4      100    Normal  1+      Machine gun
Grenader        10      4       8-13     300    Normal  3+      Grenades
Rocket Launcher 15      8       10-15    600    Normal  7+      Rockets
Pillbox         80      7       12-15    -      -       -       Machine guns
Ore truck       75      -       -        -      Slow    -       -

Infantry
These guys have a good strategy against the later missions. Their low-cost
enables you to buy many and sheer numbers beats a few rocket launchers.
Grenader
These are good against fighting infantry because their larger range. They use
grenades, which are very effective.
Rocket Launcher
Very good against small strikes, they should be used as defenses only, because
of their cost.
Pillbox
Heavy duty guard posts are effective against all units.

Appendix B: About
        This game took many hard months to make. I used QuickBASIC 4.5 to
  make it.
Credits
        Written by              Jeremy Hammond
        Graphics by             Jeremy and Jason Hammond
        Sounds by               Jeremy and Jason Hammond, and various intenet
                                sites.
        DMAPlay by              Mike Huff
        Beta testers            Jason Hammond
                                Kevin Patel
                                Prit Shah
                                Robert Pacie
                                Jim Waller
                                Nick Zmouski


