=============================
Mercenary Sniper version 1.05
=============================


<< TABLE OF CONTENTS >>

        CHAPTER I - Introduction
                About the game
                Makers
                Getting the newest version of the game
                Sending feedback
                System requirements
                CWSDPMI (r4)
                Troubleshooting


        CHAPTER II - The game
                Keys (CHECK THIS !)
                Commandline parameters (YOU HAVE TO READ THIS !)
                Starting a new career
                Saving/loading a career
                Missions
                Shop
                Hospital
                Items
                More about weapons
                Enemies
                Prisoners
                Tips



CHAPTER I

--------------
About the game
--------------

This game is specially dedicated to all militarists. So I guess they
have extra fun when they play the game. Here's a brief description of
the game's plot: You are a mercenary sniper and your mission is to kill
all the enemy soldiers. The sooner you kill 'em all the better because
otherwise they will start firing towards you... and you will get wounded !

Currently the game is FREEWARE, which means that you can distribute the
game as much as you like. We would be appreciated if you sent us an email
including some feedback of the game :)

NOTE:
The game is a little violent, so we recommend that you don't play the game
if you are too young or scary...


------
Makers
------

<Coding>
			Ismo Horppu

<Graphics>
			Tuomas Aikioniemi
                        Miki Nakamura

<Musics>
			"HISCORE" MUSICS:
			Mikko Kuorelahti
                
                        "DRUM", "INTRO" and
                        "MISSION: TAKE NO PRISONERS" MUSIC:
			Timo Horppu

			"SNIPER ROCK" MUSIC:
			Jimmi Pedersen

                        "PELIMUSA 3 & 4" MUSIC:
                        Antti Pyykk”nen

<Speeches>
			Aleksi Ala-Mononen (some of dying soldiers' yells)
			+ A cool speech engine (all other speeches)


--------------------------------------
Getting the newest version of the game
--------------------------------------

Mercenary Sniper download sites:

MBNET (BBS) at:
telnet://mbnet.fi (mainly for Finns...) or you can call
directly to the bbs. Check out the number from Finnish magazine called
"Mikrobitti".

"International" way:
'Official' Mercenary Sniper WWW page at:

1) http://webclub.solutions.fi/~hannuh/sniper.htm
2) http://www.jyu.fi/~ishorppu/msniper.htm

(Visit to check out news, newest release of the game and screenshots. Or
at least to increase the page-hit counter and we would be appreciated !)


----------------
Sending feedback
----------------

You can send feedback to us via following email address:hannuh@solutions.fi
Remember that I am army during the (whole) year 1998 (or actually from eight
up to eleven months). So replies are extremely slow...


-------------------
System requirements
-------------------

Required:
* Mouse (of course)
* 486 (66 MHz+)
* MCGA/VGA compatible fast VLB/PCI display card 
* About 5 MB of memory
* Approx. 4 MB of HD space

Recommended:
* Pentium
* Fast PCI display card
* SoundBlaster compatible soundcard
* 8 MB of memory (for some diskcaching if the game is played under DOS)


------------
CWSDPMI (r4)
------------

CWSDPMI is a memory manager (DPMI = Dos Protected Mode Interface). It
allows programs to use DPMI interface with different memory drivers under
DOS. The game loads automatically CWSDPMI.EXE if it is required so you don't
have to worry whether DPMI is supported by OS or isn't.
NOTE:
Some DPMI extenders may not be compatible with the game.

And some REQUIRED copyright stuff:
CWSDPMI is Copyright (C) 1995-1997  Charles W Sandmann (sandmann@clio.rice.edu)
                                    1206 Braelinn, Sugar Land, TX 77479

Distrubuting of CWSDPMI requires that users have a right to receive the
source code and/or binary updates for it. So here's a site from where
you should be able to download newest version of CWSDPMI (current one is r4):
ftp://riceng.rice.edu
login:DJGPP
password:BETATEST
PS. I am not sure whether this address still works if it doesn't then you
can seek CWSDPMI from www.delorie.com or via www seekers.
PPS. I can't guarantee that the game works with a newer version of the
CWSDPMI (a long time ago my keyboard handling routine worked well with
CWSDPMI r2 but it didn't work with CWSDPMI r3...)


---------------
Troubleshooting
---------------

CHECK OUT THE FILE TROUBLES.TXT !



CHAPTER II

----
Keys
----

I hope that most of you have realized the keys used in the game. If not
then here's a list of them:

A - Zoom in (maximum zoom depends on type of the current riflescope,
with 1x scope you can't zoom in or out !)
Z - Zoom out (100% is the minimum zoom)
S - Toggle sight mode: normal/night vision (requires nightvision !)
P - Toggle pause mode
*G - Toggle AGCE object rendering mode
(normal/nearest neighbour/bilinear interpolate)
ESC - Bail OUT ;)

* If you won't start the game -HIGH parameter then quality sprite
texturing is not automatically enabled when you toggle between rendering
modes !


----------------------
Commandline parameters
----------------------

In case you haven't notice that MSNIPER.EXE supports commandline parameters
here's a list of them (and some details):

Parameter        Description

-FORCE_NODOSBOX  Skips DOSBOX detect
In case DOSBOX detecting causes some problems with your system... ;)

-FORCE_486       Skips CPU detect
In case CPU detect "freezes" your system
(I think that this may happen with AMD's and Cyrix's processors...)

-DEBUG           Used to debug/trace game bugs
Used to debug things...

-? or /?         Help "screen"
Lists supported commandline parameters & brief details of them

You can pass these parameters to the game by two different "ways" like:
RUN -FORCE_NODOSBOX -FORCE_486
OR MSNIPER.EXE -FORCE_NODOSBOX -FORCE_486 (.EXE is needed !)


---------------------
Starting a new career
---------------------

This option will start a new career and ask your name. By default you will
be given a SVD Dragunov semiautomatic sniper rifle with 5 (one in weapon)
clips of ammo. And you have 250$ of money at start... remember that the point
is to snipe enemies not to shoot at them as crazy and run out of bullets
and money... (running out of money will force you to restart the career !)


-----------------------
Saving/Loading a career
-----------------------

"Save career" button in briefing screen will save your current career
(to file savegame\msniper.sav).
If you have previously saved your career then you can load it from
game's startmenu.


--------
Missions
--------

The career has a 10 different missions which you "clear" from enemies.
Before entering a new mission it is recommend to visit the shop and the
hospital (if required) in order to make the mission a lot easier...
Mission briefing text is drawn to upper (left corner) of the screen. And
has a vital information of the current weather and maybe some info of
enemies. Remember to save your career before entering a mission
(pressing ESC while in mission will bail out to operating system and
won't save your career automatically !).


----
Shop
----

This is the place to buy different kind of equipment. There are four main
sections from where you can buy: weapons, ammunition, scopes and
miscellaneous items. You can have simultaneously only one different weapon
and scope. You are able to have up to three different miscellaneous items
and up to 12 clips of ammunition. Notice that you can't buy weapon or scope
if you already have one (sell it before buying a new one !).


--------
Hospital
--------

From hospital you can get healed by buying "health" :) notice that healing
price is not linear (it is more exponential) so I recommend you to visit
hospital before buying anything new (of course you can sell items before
getting healed...).


-----
Items
-----

In your career you will be able to buy different kind of items
(from the shop) like: weapons, scopes and misc. items. There are
available a set of common sniper rifles, assault rifles and few "heavy"
rifles. There are also four major scope types: 4x, 6x, 8x, 10x. 4x can
zoom up to 400% and 6x to 600% and so on... Notice that zooming in will
"cause" higher weapon kick (or actually the same as normally but with
smaller radius it will be higher percentage of the whole circle - scope).
You can also (of course) buy ammunition for your weapon you can only buy
the ammunition that fits in your weapon... (there is also available special
ammo: AP - armor piercing which is very effective in penerating vehicle
armors, etc). Note: that you can carry up to 12 clips of ammo so buy as
much as you can afford ! and remember that running out of ammo is not very
clever... Miscellaneous items include: bipod, tripod, kevlar vest and helmet
,nightvision and silencer. You can have simultaneously only one weapon, one
scope and up to three different miscellaneous items so select them carefully
(if needed) before entering a mission.

- Bipod will make weapons recoil 2 units smaller
- Tripod will make weapons recoil 3 units smaller
(HINT: bipod/tripod is very useful with RPK-74 automatic rifle)
- Nightvision will allow you to see enemies in a night (press 'S' to
switch sight mode if you have bought nightvision). You should only
use this when the level is really dark using this in bright level is
not worth it -> will make things even harder...
- Kevlar vest and helmet will protect you from enemy fire. Hit damage
is reduced by these armors a lot (so you may need these with missions
full of enemies !)
- Silencer will silence the gunshot sound thus it will make harder to
spot your location.


------------------
More about weapons
------------------

All weapons have a set of weapon attributes like: hitaccuracy, recoil,
move velocity, magsize, reload time, ROF (rate of fire), ammunition.
Hitaccuracy 1 is best and 5 is worst. Recoil 1 is minimum (best) and
5 is maximum (worst). Move velocity 1 is slowest (worst) and 5 is
fastest (best). Magsize is just magazine size (how many bullets will fit
in a clip). Reload time is in milliseconds (the higher the slower to
reload). ROF (rate of fire) is given in milliseconds and this defines
how long has to be wait before new shot gun be fired. To calculate how
many rounds are fired per second just divide 1000 by this ROF. For example
ROF 100 means that 10 rounds are fired per second (RPK-74 only). In shop
there are three/four main weapon types which are: boltaction,
(boltaction rifle with internal clip), semiautomatic and full automatic.
Boltaction rifles are capable of firing around 2 shots per 5 seconds so they
are not very powerful against big enemy groups and reloading the weapon is
very slow. Semiautomatic rifles are more powerful because they have usually a
bigger clipsize and their fire rate is 5 shots per 5 seconds though firing a
"burst" with semiautomatic weapon will of course cause some recoil
(boltaction weapon's recoil is handled easier than semiautomatic's). There
are available four full automatic weapons: M16(a1 & a2), AK47 and RPK-74.
The first three ones have a firerate of 25 shots per 5 second. But remember
that firing a massive bursts will cause a massive recoil and most of the
shots are not handled very well... RPK-74 is the most deadly weapon in the
game because of it is firerate (not because of it is damage which is less
than M82's, etc). This weapon has a impressing firerate of 50 shots per 5
second. Because of its high firerate this weapon is very effective against
big enemy groups (but shooting against machine gunners and antisnipers is
not so easy because of its high recoil). To make this weapon "the best" you
need to buy a bipod or even tripod to reduce recoil caused by shots and thus
gain more hit accuracy.

Now assault rifles (M16A1, M16A2 and AK-47) and machine gun (RPK-74) don't
support anymore scope zooming or nightvision because you are looking through
your eyes instead of riflescope with these weapons ! So remember that when
you buy anyone of these you can sell riflescope and nightvision and buy
something else !

-------
Enemies
-------

The game has a three different types of enemy soldiers: walking soldier
and two stationary soldiers: machine gunner and sniper or actually the
latter one is antisniper ;) Walking soldiers have an ability move around
the level and come closer to you. Remember that the closer they get the
higher their firing accuracy gets. These soldiers can fire towards you at
three different way: from ground, from kneeing and "normally". Remember
that hitting these soldiers at head will cause double the normal damage
and will kill the soldier immediately (at least it should...). Machine
gunner has a powerful weapon which has a high fire rate but their fire
is usually very unaccurate (except if they are were close to you). MGs
can't move around. (Anti-) sniper enemies have a sniper rifle and their
fire is pretty accurate. These two stationary type enemies are much harder
to kill because hitting them is harder (really !). I recommend you to shoot
them all over the body to kill them. And you need a accurate (sniper rifle)
and powerful weapon to kill them or you can use a weapon with high firerate
with bi/tripod to reduce recoil caused by shots to kill these fast...


--------------
Enemy vehicles
--------------

There are two types of enemy vehicles: patrol jeeps and transport helicopter.
Patrol jeep's has only a driver and it is no threat to you at all. Its
missions is just to patrol the area. It hasn't a weapon so it can't hurt you.
Transport helicopter is the game's powerful unit because it carries enemy
soldiers (up to 32 !) and can land and drop them to ground. And it also
has a powerful autocannon which will fire HE (High-Explosive) ammunition.
The transport helicopter can drop up to five soldiers simultaneously on
the ground. So when you observe transport helicopter then it is recommended
that you immediately try to shoot it down... or results will be something
that you may not like at all... ;) If you should happen to know that the
following mission will have a helicopter then it is recommended that you buy
a large caliber (= 7.62mm or 12.7mm) weapon with special ammotype called AP
- armor piercing. Of course you can use smaller caliber weapons to shoot the
helicopter but you have to shoot it more times before it explodes... ;)
Finally remember that the longer transport helicopter is "alive" the more
enemy soldiers it will drop on ground and the more kills are needed to
"clear" to the level... And you should know that shooting helicopter when
it is heading left or right is less effective than shooting directly to it
when it is heading towards you... (there's a 75% chance in first case(s)
that bullet will go "through" the helicopter's "armor" and cause only half
of the original damage !).


---------
Prisoners
---------

In some missions there are prisoners walking around the level. Do not shoot
them or your mission will fail ! (hitting them will auto fail mission !). So
make sure that you don't fire any deadly bursts when prisoners are near your
target !


----
Tips
----

Here are some good tips for you:
1) Try to shoot soldiers at head (if possible) and you will cause at least
double the normal damage...
2) Don't use silencer and AP ammo simultaneously =>
they both will reduce damage caused by a bullet by 20% so total damage loss
is 36% !
3) M82 Barrett with 12.7mm normal ammo is best weapon against machine gunners
and (anti-) snipers because it is very accurate and powerful.
4) Opensight fullscreen ("enabled" when assault rifles or a machine gun
is used) is best mode against transport helicopter because these weapons
which "use" this mode have a very high firerate.







