Game Guide, until I find a better place to put it

Satyrane on 2012/09/21 02:34 of Team Nerd Paradise, v5 (MVF15)

   Shunned Survivor Game Guide, by Satyrane

    Since it seems our small in-game tutorial may not be sufficient, or for those who had issues playing the tutorial, here's a brief written guide to help with the basic features of the game. There will also be a short video clip for those who find the typed word unappealing :)
    Upon landing, you'll notice at the top of your screen there is a taskbar at the very top with five options: Build, Demolish, Infiltrate, Fire Ray Gun, and Main Menu. Clicking on Build will bring up the Build menu, which contains the Resource, Offensive, Defensive, and Misc. options; Demolish will allow you to destroy any structures you have placed by approaching them and pressing the space bar; Infiltrate allows you to deploy bots in another player's base; Fire Ray Gun allows you to use the space bar to fire your characters ray gun instead of hitting the “Z” key; and Main Menu is rather self-explanatory. Selecting the Build option will bring up another menu containing the options Resource, Offensive, Defensive, and Misc. Resource contains structures that bring in additional resources; Offensive build items are the various factories that will allow you to build bots to deploy against other players; Defensive buildings include various kinds of turrets that protect your base; and Misc. has unique items that can be constructed as you progress in the game.
    In order to build, most structures require resources: you'll find the amount of each resource you possess in white numbers next to a small image at the top right of the screen (you can hover over each image to see the name of each resource type: Num nums [food], Wawa [water], Shinyium, Rust, Obtainium, and Dark Chocolate). You'll notice a small CD image with blue numbers after it; if you hover over it, you'll see the title Bytes of Research. These will come into play when you begin to do research and infiltrate other bases. 
   The first three build options available to you are the greenhouse, the turret, and the med tent. Greenhouses are free and require no resources; they will give you food and water. The turret costs a small amount of food, water, and shinyium, and it will attack enemy invaders. If you have trouble collecting the appropriate amount of shinyium at the earliest stages, killing the aliens roaming the unclaimed parts of the world will give you a small amount of resources: just go on a small killing spree, and you should be able to afford turrets. Finally, the med tent requires some food, water, and shinyium, and it increases your character's health. Once you build med tents, be sure to enter them (approach the building; when it turns a bluish shade, hit enter) at least once to get your health bonus.
    When you feel you have a sufficient amount of turrets, you'll want to enter your headquarters and select the research option “Factory” using the mouse. This will lower the shields protecting your base and will trigger an enemy attack. Between your turrets (which attack automatically) and your ray gun which your character wields, do your best to eliminate the invaders. When all enemies have been destroyed, the shields will be raised again, there will be an announcement of the success of the research attempt, and you will be able to build factories. Note: if your base is near water or some kind of unusual geography, enemies can occasionally become trapped or stranded. They must be killed for attack to be considered over; if for any reason you absolutely cannot hit the enemy with your ray gun, you'll have to close the game and trigger the attack again.
    Once you have a Factory, you'll be able to build bots: simply enter your factory, and click on the Build CheapBot icon. This requires a small amount of shinyium. Once you have at least one bot, you can attack other bases and gain more bytes; simply find another player base and select the Infiltrate option. This will bring up a screen prompting you to decide whether or not you really want to deploy bots; if so, select Fly My Pretties! In order to deploy the bots, stand next to whatever building you wish the bots to attack (the building should turn bluish) and press the “1”, “2”, or “3” keys to deploy corresponding bots (1 is for CheapBots, 2 is for QuickBots, and 3 is for StrongBots). In order to obtain bytes, however, you must bring their headquarters down to 1 health, so it's usually best to focus on the HQ. The more well-defended the base, the harder it is to destroy the enemy HQ and likewise the higher amount of bytes you can win. As you gain bytes, you'll find new research options in your headquarters; the amount of enemies as well as their strength will increase as the research levels increase; however, your defensive capabilities will increase as well as your ability to gather resources. You'll also notice you'll gain items in your Misc. category such as a radar that lets you locate your neighbors.
    This should be a pretty good guide to the running of the game; if anything remains unclear, or you have any other questions, several members of the team are usually on #pyweek (blakeohare, Cosmologicon, and Satyrane especially), and we try to check the discussion page regularly! We hope you enjoy the game, and thank you very much for playing! :)