===== Valyria Tear - Player's Manual =====

# To be replaced by a small static website.

This file contains a very concise manual for playing Valyria Tear.


=== Description ===

Valyria Tear plays very much like a typical console role-playing game, or CRPG.
You can explore maps and talk to non-playable characters (NPCs),
fight active-time battles against multiple enemies,
and manage your characters and equipment through a series of menus.
Valyria Tear runs in a series of "game modes" which represent
different states of operation in the game.

The most important game modes are: boot mode, map mode, battle mode,
and menu mode.


=== Game Input ===

Valyria Tear players can input commands to the game either through the keyboard
or a gamepad/joystick. Mouse input is not supported.

The table below lists the standard set of user input commands,
their default keyboard mappings, and their general purpose.

Most of these keys can be re-mapped from the Valyria Tear main menu
(the boot screen you see when first starting Valyria Tear).

Command Name    Default Key Map    General Purpose

Up              'up arrow'         Move sprite or cursor upwards
Down            'down arrow'       Move sprite or cursor downwards
Left            'left arrow'       Move sprite or cursor to the left
Right           'right arrow'      Move sprite or cursor to the right
Confirm         'f'                Confirm an action or menu command
Cancel          'd'                Cancel an action or menu command
Menu            's'                Display the main menu
Pause           'spacebar'         Pause/unpause the game
Quit            'ESC'              Quit the game


There are also a series of meta-commands which serve various functions.
These commands are not normally used during game play.


Command Name    Default Key Map    General Purpose
Fullscreen      'Ctrl+f'           Toggles between full-screen mode and windowed mode
Quit            'Ctrl+q'           Quit the game
FPS Display     'Ctrl+r'           Toggles display of the frames per second in the upper-right hand corner
Screenshot      'Ctrl+s'           Takes a screenshot and saves it to 'screenshot.jpg'


=== Quitting the Game ===

The game may be quit at any time through three different methods:

- Pressing Ctrl+Q
- Clicking the close button on the game's window (only available if not running in full-screen mode)
- Pressing the ESC key

If a game is in progress
(the player is not at the boot menu when the quit command is received),
this will bring the player to a quit menu where they can select
if they want to truly quit the game, return to the boot screen,
or cancel the quit operation.

Inputting a quit command a second time while in the quit menu will go back
to the game.


=== Boot Mode ===

Boot mode is what the player first experiences when starting the game.
It begins with a short animation of the game's logo,
which the player may choose to skip by pressing any key on their keyboard.

In boot mode the player may change a number of options that affect
how the game is played, including changing the resolution of the game,
toggling full-screen mode, changing the volume levels,
re-mapping the input keys for their keyboard or gamepad, etc.

To begin a new game, the player should use the arrow keys
to select the "New Game" option and press the confirm key to begin.


=== Map Mode ===

Map mode is where large environments are drawn to the screen,
which may be populated with several sprite characters.

Most of the time, the player has control over a single sprite that represents
their main character.
The player may interact with other NPC sprites in map mode by facing
that character and pressing the confirm key.

Dialogue text can be fast-forwarded by pressing the confirm key
while the text is gradually being rendered to the screen.
The cancel key toggles run-walk mode for the player's character sprite.

Random encounters may occur on a map while the player walks across the map.
Menu mode may be entered from map mode by pressing the menu key when a dialogue
between characters is not taking place.


=== Menu Mode ===

Menu mode is where the player can manage their characters, equipment, inventory,
and perform other operations.
Perhaps the most important function is to allow the player to restore
the health of their characters.
This can be done by selecting the "Inventory" option in menu mode,
selecting the potion using the confirm key,
and then selecting the character to use the potion on by pressing
the confirm key once again.


=== Battle Mode ===

Battles are fought between two types of actors:
characters on the left and enemies on the right.

Battles are active-time based, which means that only one actor can initiate
an action at any given time, but it is not strictly turn-based since actions
may be selected by actors while another actor is carrying out an action.

The player-controlled characters may select an action to carry out
once their stamina (ST) rating is full.
Both enemies and characters may be targetted in multiple locations
(e.g. head, torso, etc.), called attack points.

The battle is over when either all character actors have zero health points (HP)
or all enemy actors have zero health points.

=== Save files location ===

The save files named with the following pattern 'save_game_N.lua' where N is the game slot number -1,
are stored in different locations depending on the OS you're playing on. Here are the different known locations
of these files:

- Linux/BSD:
~/.local/share/valyriatear

- Mac/OSX:
<User>/Library/Application Support/ValyriaTear

- Windows:
%CSIDL_APPDATA%\ValyriaTear (often equals to: %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\ValyriaTear)
Example on WinXP:
C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\ValyriaTear

=== Settings file location ===

The same goes for the settings.lua file, which stores the different application (video/audio) related options.

- Linux/BSD:
~/.config/valyriatear

- Mac/OSX:
<User>/Library/Preferences/ValyriaTear

- Windows:
%CSIDL_APPDATA%\ValyriaTear (often equals to: %USERPROFILE%\Application Data\ValyriaTear)
Example on WinXP:
C:\Documents and Settings\<User>\Application Data\ValyriaTear

You can perfectly reuse one of those files from an OS to another, as long as you follow the corresponding location.
