
README for GMonsters
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Table of Contents
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	1. Description
	2. Gameplay
	2-1. Trainer Levels
	2-2. Battle Screen
	2-3. Battle Effects
	3. How can I help?
	4. Support
	5. License

1. Description
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  Gmonsters is a Gnome-based game in which you train, raise, and battle
virtual monsters.  It features asynchronous battles, the ability to capture
new monsters, use items, and includes an LGPL'ed library for the development
of other games that would use the Gmonsters engine.

2. Gameplay
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  GMonsters is a simple game to play.  The game is in the Gnome menu under
the section "Games".  You can also start it by running the command
"gmonsters".  To start a new game, click the "New Trainer" button on the main
screen.  After you have created a trainer, you can click on "Trainer Manager"
to view your monsters or check your Trainer Levels.  You can also click on
"Battle Monsters" to enter the battle screen.
  2-1. Trainer Levels
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    Trainer Levels are the measurement of how well you work with different
  types of monsters.  The higher your trainer level for a certain type, the
  more likely that type will be to obey you and the faster they will gain
  experience.  Your trainer levels raise or lower depending on whether or not
  your monsters win battles, and whether you withdraw them before they become
  too injured to battle.
  2-2. Battle Screen
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    The battle screen is where you choose the type of battle you wish to
  engage in.  "Random Monster" gives you a choice of the type of terrain you
  want to go to for battle, then a battle will begin with a random monster
  of a species that lives in that terrain.  You can only capture new monsters
  during these "Random Monster" battles.  "Random Trainer" sends you into a
  battle with a computer-controlled AI trainer with a random set of monsters
  that are around the same experience levels as your monsters.  "Network
  Battle" will ask you for the hostname or IP number of the computer the
  player you wish to battle is on, then attempt to connect to them and start
  the battle.  "Network Host" is the option to pick if someone else is going
  to connect to your computer for a battle.
  2-3. Battle Effects
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    Battle effects are changes to a monsters condition during battle.  The
  effects that can occur are:
  Sleep:    The monster falls asleep for a random period of time.
  Stun:     The monster is in a daze and may not be able to attack.
  Poison:   The monster has been poisoned and will slowly lose hit points.
  Leech:    The opponent's monster is slowly draining hit points from your
            monster and adding them to it's own.
  Scared:   This causes the monster's "Fear" to rise, which will make them
            less likely to attack, and if their fear raises to 100%, the
            monster will run away.
  Blinded:  This lowers the monster's accuracy to lower, which will cause
            their attacks to miss the opponent's monster more often.
  Confused: The monster is confused and may hurt itself when trying to use
            an ability.  (Note: including healing abilities!)

3. How can I help?
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  If you want to help the development of GMonsters, email Scott Barnes
(reeve@ductape.net) or join the GMonsters mailing list (see the GMonsters
website, http://gmonsters.sourceforge.net), and say you want to join the
project!  Or if you want to help but don't want to join, you can visit
the Sourceforge page for GMonsters (http://sourceforge.net/gmonsters/) and
sumbit ideas and bug reports.  If you do sumbit an idea or bug report, please
sign up on the GMonsters mailing list and tell us, so we can get right on
it.  :)  And thanks for the help!

4. Support
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  If you need help with something and don't know where to turn, join the
GMonsters mailing list (see the GMonsters website for more info,
http://gmonsters.sourceforge.net) and ask away!  We'll try to be prompt
in answering any messages on the list, but remember, we have lives outside
of GMonsters development too.  (At least, some of us do :))

5. License
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  GMonsters is licensed under the GNU General Public License, which is
included with the game in the COPYING file.
