Galactic Arms Race (GAR)

Documentation for GAR v1.1

I. Introduction
II. Main Menu
III. Basic Controls
IV. In-Game Menus
V. Playing GAR
VI. Credits

Introduction

First and most importantly, thank you for downloading Galactic Arms Race. To those of you who've been waiting in anticipation for GAR's release, we hope the final product meets your expectations. In general, we sincerely hope you enjoy playing Galactic Arms Race as much as we enjoyed making and testing it.

As its creators, our goal with Galactic Arms Race is to demonstrate the new possibilities that automatic content generation opens up for gaming. We've all put a lot of thought and care into the development of GAR, and we hope you'll agree that the fruits of our efforts have paid off.

Welcome to Galactic Arms Race! Remember that "the best defense is a good isotope!"

For any further assistance, please contact us at gar@eecs.ucf.edu.

Main Menu

From the main menu, you may select from among several options:

Introduction: Provides background information and basic game instructions for Galactic Arms Race.
Single Player: Launches the single player version of Galactic Arms Race.
Multi Player: Opens the multiplayer menu. From here you can connect to one of several hosted GAR servers and play online!
Options: Opens the options menu, where you can customize your name in Single Player mode and the resolution of the game window. If your graphics card supports it, we recommend turning on the "Bloom Effect" for an enhanced gameplay experience. Note that not all graphics cards support this option.
Credits: Displays the credits acknowledging the creators and developers of GAR.
Exit: Closes Galactic Arms Race.

Versioning and Updating: Note that GAR's version number is displayed in the lower-right corner of the main menu screen. Updates may be found at http://gar.eecs.ucf.edu. Multiplayer servers will also notify you if you need an update. You must have the latest version of GAR to connect to the official multiplayer servers.

Multiplayer

Connecting to GAR's multiplayer servers is very simple.

(1) Enter your desired user name.
(2) Enter your desired password.
(3) Click the Refresh Server List button to pull up a list of available GAR servers.
(4) Click the button for the desired available server. You're ready to play GAR online!

Note that you may scroll through the list of available servers with the up and down arrow keys. Anyone may host a GAR server by downloading the GAR Server software; the new server will then be automatically added to the list of available servers when running.

If this is your first time connecting to a multiplayer server, the server will create your account using the user name and password you entered. The next time someone attempts to log in to the server with that user name, it will check for the password entered upon the account's creation. This is how it remembers all of your in-game information!

Options

GAR's Options menu allows you to customize your game experience in a few different ways.

Name: Allows you to change your character's name in Single Player mode.
Bloom Effect: Creates a bloom effect that improves the quality of in-game graphics. This may be turned on or off and is recommended for systems with fast GPUs only.
Screen Resolution Options: Select the option that best matches your monitor's screen resolution.
Fullscreen: Toggles fullscreen mode for Galactic Arms Race on or off. If fullscreen mode is on, make sure that the screen resolution is set to the fullscreen resolution of your monitor.

Controls

W Move forward.
A Strafe left.
S Move backward.
D Strafe right.
Q Rotate left.
E Rotate right.
Space Teleport.
G Toggle grid display on/off.
Enter Open/send a chat message. Only available in multiplayer.
K Music volume down.
L Music volume up.
1 Choose weapon in slot 1.
2 Choose weapon in slot 2.
3 Choose weapon in slot 3.
L-Mouse Fire weapon / open sub-menu / choose weapon.
R-Mouse Target object / interact with guards and stations.
R-Mouse Target object / interact with guards and stations.
Scroll Wheel Switch weapon.
R-Mouse on Weapon Slot Reverse polarity of isotope (reverse direction of fire).

Squadron Console Commands

In GAR you can form squadrons of up to 4 players. The benefit of squadrons is that there is no friendly fire in PVP zones against your squadron mates. Thus you can team up more effectively against aliens or other players.

/invite name Invite a player to your squadron.
/leave Leave the current squadron.
/squad message Transmit message to your squadron.

In-Game Menus

An assortment of sub-menus (represented by small icons) are available during gameplay. From left to right, they are as follows:

Ship Menu: Displays vital information and statistics about you and your ship. Here you can see your experience, credits, kills, and other information.
Isotope Menu: Displays vital information about your weapons (a.k.a. neuralium isotopes). Here you can see how your weapons have evolved from previous ones you or another player may own or have owned in the past!
Star Map: Displays the map of the Galactic Arms Race galaxy. Here you can see which system you are in and how to get to other systems. In Multi Player mode, you can also see which systems other players are in!
Exit Menu: Allows you to exit to GAR's main menu or directly to your Windows desktop. In Multi Player mode, there is a 5 second delay before the game session closes. *** In Multi Player mode, in the exit menu you can see the stats of the top players currently online.
Help Menu: Provides you with a quick reference for GAR's basic controls as well as a few tips and tricks.
Music: Toggles background music on or off.
Mission Menu: Displays your current mission and objectives.

Playing GAR

Learning the specifics of how to play Galactic Arms Race is designed to be simple, fast, and convenient. Refer to the Introduction in the Main Menu and the in-game Help menu to learn how to navigate the world of Galactic Arms Race and gain power with your ship.

The missions you receive from the start of the game are designed to help you become familiar with all of GAR's features and interfaces. The Mission menu can be accessed by clicking the right-most sub-menu button. Be sure to complete them all from start to finish; you will quickly become a master of the Galactic Arms Race!

Interaction

The following are some individuals and objects you will interact with as you play Galactic Arms Race:

Guards: Because there needs to be some order in the vast depths of space! These powerful NPCs protect the few civilized sectors that exist within each system. If your ship's defenses are stripped and the enemy is in hot pursuit, you can take comfort knowing they've got your back!
Stations: These massive structures serve as bases of operation for both friend and enemy alike. Friendly stations provide you with a variety of services to make your career as a gunship pilot a long and prosperous one. These services include the following.
Buy Ships: Got more credits than you know what to do with? Buy yourself a new ship here! As you venture into harsher star systems, better ships will become available to you.
Install Mods: As your pilot level increases, you'll be able to outfit your ship with helpful modifications here.
Scrap Gun: Got an isotope that you really don't like? Strapped for credits? Choose the unwanted isotope and click Scrap Gun to sell it! The pawned isotope's weapon slot will have a basic isotope installed in its place.
Repair Ship: If your ship is heavily damaged due to an intense dogfight, you can decrease your downtime for a small fee and have your ship fully repaired! The cost of these repairs is proportional to the amount of damage you've taken, but it's much cheaper than replacing your entire ship.
Jump Gates: In reality, star systems in Galactic Arms Race are light years away from each other. Thankfully, space travel has been mastered to the point that jump gates now exist. Jump gates can usually be found at the edge of each star system; they will instantly transport you to other star systems, which you can see on your Star Map.
Neuralium Isotopes: The main reason you became a gunship pilot in the first place. Recent studies found that these newly-discovered substances make really powerful and diverse particle weapons. Some scientists even suggest that weapons created by these isotopes can evolve! In a quest for power and glory, you are encouraged to seize neuralium isotopes from hostile alien and pirate stations. Your eagerness will therefore dictate your victory in the Galactic Arms Race!
Isotope Polarity: By right-clicking a weapon slot you can reverse the isotope polarity and thus reverse the weapon's primary direction of fire. This is useful when you find an amazing isotope that just happens to fire in the opposite direction you would like.
Aliens: Little green guys and other specimens. Whatever you want to think of them as, they're not human like you are. More importantly, they're hostile. You'll encounter tons of these buggers out in open space, and it's your job as a gunship pilot to clear them out.
Pirates: Put simply, pirates are humans gone bad. Whether in rebellion against the ways of their human brethren or simply in pursuit of their own personal gain, pirates are guaranteed to be hostile targets. For the sake of your own survival, you must see to their destruction as well.
Space Blobs: These mysterious creatures have only recently appeared in charted star systems. To this day no one knows where they come from, but they are assumed to be non-intelligent. Regardless, Space Blobs are indescribably powerful and leave only destruction in their wake wherever they appear. Only the bravest gunship pilots would dare try to take down one of these monsters. However, with great risk comes great reward; Space Blobs are known to be made of a substance that makes for the production of powerful isotopes.

Other Useful Information

Here's some other information you may find useful during your Galactic Arms Race experience.

Modern gunships all come equipped with technology that allows them to teleport a short distance. By pressing the Space Bar, your gunship will teleport forward in a quick burst of speed! Teleportation systems consume a lot of energy, however, and must cool down before they can be used again. Ships can be modified to increase the effective range of their teleportation systems or decrease the amount of time it takes for the system to cool down.

Ship modifications come in many varieties. Some modifications can improve the strength of your ship's defenses, while others may increase the rate at which your defenses replenish themselves. Modifications can also be made to improve your gunship's weaponry or to improve its teleportation capabilities. Each of your ship's systems has a lot of capacity for improvement, but it has been found to be impossible to upgrade a ship to its total maximum potential. Fortunately, removing ship modifications is a very simple process. This means that you may refund all of your modification points at any friendly station, at any time, free of charge! Feel free to experiment with different customization settings and tweak your gunship to your liking!

Multi-Player

Playing Galactic Arms Race online carries all the excitement of single player GAR with multiple human players! There are no complicated new features that come with online play, but pressing the Enter key allows you to type chat messages to everyone else in the server. Now you can communicate with your friends and allies and plan out your neuralium excursions!

Online play also features Player-versus-Player (PvP) capability, where the Arms Race in GAR truly comes into play! A special system called The Arena is reserved exclusively for players to duke it out for galactic supremacy! To encourage both cooperative and competitive behavior, every star system designed for pilots of level 40 or greater is designated as a PvP system where friendly fire is always on! Conflict is not necessary in these systems, but it gives exploration an exciting new edge! To avoid friendly fire you can group up with others to form a Squadron. Type "/invite playerName" to invite a friend to your squadron. Type "/leave" to leave a squadron and type "/squad message" to transmit a message only your squadron mates can see.

Credits

Credits can be found at here, or by visiting Credits from the GAR main menu.

GAR was created by the Evolutionary Complexity Research Group at the University of Central Florida: http://eplex.cs.ucf.edu.