Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
144 lines (95 loc) · 13.1 KB

manual.md

File metadata and controls

144 lines (95 loc) · 13.1 KB
Raw

Settlers of K'tah User Manual

The following manual guides you through the installation and usage of Settlers of K'tah, a 3D video board game made in Unreal Engine.

How to Install Settlers of K'tah

At the time where this document is written, Settlers of K'tah only supports local multiplayer, and therefore is not hosted on any site. An exported version of the game is available only to a small set of test players. However, the application's repository is public, and users can clone the repository and play the game through the Unreal Engine editor by following the instructions below.

Downloading and Installing Unreal Engine

To download and install Unreal Engine, follow the instructions here and select the Creators License. You might be prompted to log onto an Epic Games account. If you do not already have an Epic Games account, feel free to create one with your email, or simply link Epic Games to your existing Google, Facebook, Xbox Live, Playstation Network, Nintendo, Steam, or Apple account.

The downloaded file's extension will vary based on your operating system. Once the download completes, simply install the application based on how you would install any application onto your operating system.
For reference, here is a quick external guide on how to install applications on Windows and Mac.

Cloning the Settlers of K'tah Repository

Navigate to the command line interface on your operating system (Terminal on Mac, Command Prompt on Windows), and run the following command. This command will download the Settlers of K'tah repository onto your computer and allow you to open the project in Unreal Engine. Note that this might take a few minutes to run because the repository contains a large amount of rendered assets and package contents.

git clone https://github.com/mlouis2/Settlers-Of-Ktah.git

Once the clone is complete, navigate to the folder where you cloned the repository, and you should see the Settlers of K'tah Unreal project (file name SettlersOfKtah.uproject) in Settlers-of-Ktah > src > SettlersOfKtah.

How to Start Settlers of K'tah

Once you have completed the Unreal Engine installation, simply navigate to the Settlers of K'tah project file (directions above) and open the application. When you open Unreal Engine for the first time, the application might prompt you to create an Epic Games account. Simply log in with the method you used to create your account when downloading Unreal Engine.

You might also see the following error, or something similar to it:

Do not be alarmed! Your computer simply does not have the necessary build files to run Settlers of K'tah at the moment, so go ahead and click Yes and Unreal Engine will build those required components for you.

If all is well, you should see the following screen.

To start the application in the editor, we will hit Play in Unreal Engine. If you do not see the Play button in the top panel, you might need to expand the panel first.

Hit Play or use the Alt-P shortcut to start the Settlers of K'tah application.

You should then be greeted by the Settlers of K'tah title screen.

How to Stop Settlers of K'tah

Whenever the Settlers of K'tah application is running in Unreal Engine, you can stop it by navigating to the same place where the Play button is, and hit the Stop button. You may also hit the Escape key on your keyboard to stop the application at any time.

How to Uninstall Settlers of K'tah

To uninstall Settlers of K'tah, simply quit the Unreal Engine application, navigate to the directory where you cloned the repo and delete the Settlers-of-Ktah directory. If you wish to uninstall Unreal Engine from your machine, please follow the appropriate instructions for uninstalling applications on your operating system.

For reference, here is a quick external guide on how to uninstall applications on Windows and Mac.

Playing Settlers of K'tah

Title Screen

The title screen is where you can set up the game for 2-4 players. Select "Add Player" or "Remove Player" to adjust the player amount, click the the text boxes in the middle to change players' names, and select the dropdown next to the text box to select one of two castle styles per player. When all players are satisifed with the set-up, click "Start Game" to begin.

Placement Phase

The game begins with the Placement Phase. Follow the instructions in the Game Log (bottom-left hand of the screen) in order to proceed. Each player will place two castles and two outposts following snake order (player 1, player 2, player 1). Players should place their buildings strategically in order to gain as many resources as possible, while also avoiding the Zombie Hub tile (see back middle of image).

This image shows what the game should look like when the Placement Phase has been completed. Note that each player has two castles and two outposts.

Turn Phase

The majority of the game takes place in the Turn Phase. Click the "Toggle Bounty" button on the left in order to turn the bounty numbers on each tile on and off. Refer to the Game Log in the bottom-left hand corner of the screen for game updates and instructions. Players can also perform actions on their turn using the Action Panel on the right-hand side of the screen. The different actions are explained in detail below.

Building

The Build Panel shows players the options for different items they can create with their resources (outposts, roads, knights). The number of resources required for each build item is listed, and if the player does not have sufficient resources to build a certain build item, that item will be disabled.

Trading

The Trade Panel has two different trade options:
  • Bank Trade

Players can trade with the Bank by turning in 6 pieces of any resource for 1 piece of any other resource. The panel on the top allows players to choose the resources they want to trade away, and the bottom panel allows players to choose the resources they want to receive. If the exchange rate for the resources is correct, the Trade button is enabled. If the player changes their mind, they can return to the Trade Panel by clicking Cancel.
  • Player Trade

Players can also initiate a trade with other players. They can first propose an offer by selecting the number of resources they want to receive and are willing to give away. Once the player makes the trade offer, the remaining players are required to choose their response to the offer:

The player is free to accept or decline the trade offer. However, if the player does not have sufficient resources to give away, the Accept Trade button is automatically disabled.

Once all players have responded to the trade offer, the player who initiated the trade is able to review the responses, and decide who they want to trade with (if any). If the player changes their mind, they can still return to the Trade Panel by clicking Cancel Trade Offer.

Attacking

The Attack button enables when an Infected tile is adjacent to the current player's outpost--it allows the player to fight off the Zombie horde using the Knights that they have built.

End Turn

The End Turn button is self-explanatory; it simply ends the current player's turn and advances the game to the next player's turn.

Zombie Spread Phase

One encounter worth mentioning is the Zombie Spread phase. There are two variations of this:

  1. At the end of each round (after every player's turn), there is a 50% chance that the Zombie Horde will infect one additional tile that is adjacent to any existing zombie-infected tile. If the newly-infected tile is owned by a player (signified by the player's castle on that tile), a battle occurs and the player may lose their castle.

  2. This is possible when the Horde has infected at least 2 tiles (indicated by the number in the top-right corner of the screen). This occurs when the Zombie is selected on the resource spinner, so this has a 20% chance of occuring on each player's turn. During this phase, the current player can move any existing zombie-infected tile to another tile on the map. The current player must first select one of the highlighted tiles to move to a location of their choice, then they must select where they would like it to move to, which will also be indicated by tile highlights.

Game Over

There are two possible ways for the game to end. Firstly, a Lone Survivor Victory, which means that all players except one have lost both of their castles to the Zombie Horde. This may occur through the random Zombie spread each round. The other possible victory is a Military Victory, which means that the winning player has successfully fought off the Zombie Horde with their Knights for a total of 10 times. When this modal view appears, the player can click "Return to Title Screen" in order to reset the application.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

Below are some problems that you might encounter when installing or starting Settlers of K'tah, with possible solutions for each:

Settlers of K'tah failing to build

When opening the Settlers of K'tah application for the first time, it is not unusual to be prompted to re-build either the project modules or the editor. However, sometimes you might run into an error during the compilation:

This error will stop you from opening the Settlers of K'tah application! :(

  • If you are on a Mac machine, make sure that you have Xcode installed-- this could be the reason the compilation is failing.
  • There is a known bug involving macOS Big Sur (version 11) and Xcode 12 that stops users from building Unreal projects. A fix for this bug is included in Unreal Engine version 4.26. If you suspect that this is the cause of the error, make sure to install or update to this latest version of Unreal Engine (at the time this document is written).

Unreal Engine looks different than the Start Guide

If you are not seeing the screen shown on the screenshot above when opening the Settlers of K'tah project in Unreal Engine, you might need to switch tabs and navigate to the Title Screen tab in the editor.

Title Screen not showing when Play Button is clicked

If you are not seeing the Settlers of K'tah title screen as shown in the Start Guide when you click the Play Button, Unreal Engine might be opening the wrong level. In the Content Browser at the bottom of the screen, navigate to Contents > Maps and open the Title Screen map by double clicking on it.

If all else fails...

If you run into any significant issues that aren't listed above, first and foremost, make sure you have the latest version of Settlers of K'tah downloaded! You can pull the latest version by going to your command line, navigating to the repository directory and running git pull. The Settlers of K'tah engineers are always hard at work fixing bugs, so we might just have fixed the bug that's causing your problem! If you're still having issues, reach out to our engineers through their contact information below!

Have Additional Questions or Feedback?

In the event that you require assistance to install or run Settlers of K'tah, or if you simply have suggestions or feedback on the application, feel free to contact the Settlers of K'tah engineers listed below, and we will try our best to get back to you as soon as possible!