Convolution

Junkyard

Welcome to JunkYard! by T&J Software

JunkYard is a game of scrounging landfills looking for items to sell. You
may hire workers to help you search, attack other players, and much more.
Some items we will not discuss as it will take away from the game (random
events, special items you may find, etc.).

When you first enter the game, you are asked to type in an alias name
for your player, your player statistics are randomly chosen. The
statistics will range from 10-25 and you will have 4 chances to pick
those statistics.

SCROUNGE: This number effects how many "good" items are found in
          the junkyard. A low scrounge value could result in you
          finding a worthless item in the junkyard.

CHARISMA: This effects how well you do in finding helpers and coercing
          helpers to leave other players as well as a few other
          attack menu options.

KISMET:   This value will effect the daily paying of your helpers. Each
          day you play you must pay your workers. By using your KISMET,
          you may attempt to pay them only a percentage of what they
          wanted. If you fail, they may charge more! You will only be
          prompted for paying your helpers if you have helpers.

PILFER:   This value effects how good you are at stealing from others
          and transfering items to others.

BARGAIN:  This value effects how well you can bargain with storekeepers to
          pay you more for your items. Beware, if a storekeeper catches
          you bad-bargaining them over a certain number of times (as
          determined by your sysop) you may not enter the store again
          until the door resets.

**NOTE** There are some special items that can be found that will
increase these values such as Book's of Charisma. If you find a book
that particular statistic is increased by 5 points (as long as you
hold on to the book). There are also cursed books which will decrease
your stats by 5!

You may also find a BOOK OF KNOWLEDGE which will increase each attribute
by 1. You will not be give more than 5 bonus points however. So, if
you find two BOOKS OF CHARISMA, you might as well sell one or give it
to a friend! 

The BOOK OF WEAPONRY gives you a bonus 10% chance to hit another
player (if you own a weapon). Just like the above listed books, having
two books of weaponry does not give a 20% bonus.

The game is designed to let the sysop decide how/if the game resets.
The game can be configured to reset monthly, or just continuous play.

ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ MAIN MENU COMMANDS ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

ATTACK MENU:  This option will take you to the ATTACK SUB MENU and it
will be described in detail in a later section.

BUY VALUE MENU: You may buy additional statistic points for each of
your statistics (Pilfer, Charisma, Kismet, Bargain, and Scrounge). The
cost to buy one point is $300 x YOUR CURRENT STATISTIC VALUE. You may
not buy points if you are currently at 25. The only way to have a
value greater than 25 is with a special item.

COLOR TOGGLE:  This option will toggle color ON or OFF.

DUMP ITEMS:  Dump items will automatically sell all your held items for
half of there listed value.  Handy when you have a bunch of $1 to $4 items
and don't want to be bothered with going to stores to sell them.  $1 is the
minimum amount of payment. Dumping items will not get rid of books.

EQUIPMENT MENU:  The equipment menu allows you to buy head, hand, foot,
and weapon protection. There are five levels of protection, each level
costs more than the preceding level. These items will help you while
scrounging at the junkyard (broken glass, falling, mugging, etc.). They
may even help in other circumstances!  Buying a weapon allows you
to FIRE at an opponent from the attack menu and also allows you to
protect yourself when you are not playing.

FIND HELPERS:  This option allows you to search for helpers to assist you
in finding items.  Searching is based on your CHARISMA value.  If you fail
your CHARISMA check, no helper will be found.  Your sysop sets up how
many searches and how many helpers you may have at any one time.  Each helper
you have increases by 3 the total number of searches you have per day.  You
get an automatic 10 searches per day (in the registered version).
Thus, if you have 10 helpers you will have 40 scrounges (10 automatic
+ 30 for the 10 helpers). In the unregistered version, you only get an
automatic 5 scrounges and a maximum number of 1 helper.

HELP:  Brings up this help screen.

GO TO JUNKYARD: This takes you to the JUNKYARD SUB MENU.  At the junkyard
you look for items to later sell to the stores. There is always a
chance of finding a worthless item depending on your scrounge value.
If you do not have sufficient equipment (hand, head, foot, and weapon
protection) you may also be robbed or hurt while looking around. Other
miscellaneous things can happen! 

JOIN STOCK MARKET:  This takes you to the stock market menu. You may
BUY, SELL, or VIEW the stocks/stock market. Stock prices vary from day
to day depending on the total worth of items found in the JunkYard the
previous day. The higher the value of items found, the higher
tomorrow's stock value. There are various strategies to this, but we
won't discuss them here.  Your sysop has the ability to set a
maximum number of shares you may buy.

LOOK AT ITEMS:  Allows you to view all the items you currently
holding.

MESSAGE MENU:  Allows you to read/enter message to other players and
on the graffitti wall.

QUIT DOOR:  Before exiting the door, you may be prompted for some
additional information.

           - If you are holding any items, you may be prompted if
             you want the items concealed (for a particular fee).
             This will help protect items from being stolen.

           - If you have a weapon, you may be prompted if you want
             your weapon PRIMED. Priming your weapon (for a set fee)
             will help protect you while you are away from the game.
             If a player shoots at you and your weapon is primed, you
             will automatically shoot back at the player!

REGENERATE:  Allows you to regenerate your character.  You may not play again
until the next day! All your statistics will also be reset.

SELL ITEMS:  Takes you to the various stores to sell selected items
and also the ability to sell cursed books at $750 each.  More info later
on this.

VIEW TOP SCORES:  Show the current top 10 players or a listing of all
players.

WITHDRAW/DEPOSIT:  Allows you to store SCROUNGES to use at another time.
Your SYSOP has the option to place a maximum number on the amount of
SCROUNGES that can be deposited. Your sysop also has the ability to
give interest on accounts. You'll get a message stating interest
earned if this option is turned on.

ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ATTACK MENU COMMANDS ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

ASK AROUND ABOUT PLAYERS:  This option is a way for you to gather information
about other players: helpers, items, etc.

BLACKBALL A PLAYER:  Using this attack function allows you to blackball a
player at a particular store.  If successful, the store BAD-BARGAIN value
is increased by ONE.  Remember, after so many BAD-BARGAINS at a store, you
may no longer sell items at that particular store.

COERCE ANOTHER PLAYERS HELPERS:  They will either join you (if you have
open slots), refuse to have anything to do with you, or will quit the
service of the other player (if you have no slots for them to join).

EMBEZZEL STOCKS:  This option allows you to steal a percentage of an
opponents stocks.

FIRE AT OPPONENT:  If you have a weapon, you can fire at another
player. Be warned, he may have his weapon PRIMED and shoot back at
you!

STEAL ITEMS FROM ANOTHER PLAYER:  Allows you to steal any item you want
from your opponent. If his items are concealed, you'll have to take a
chance at picking a concealed item -- who knows what you'll get!

TRANSFER ITEM TO ANOTHER PLAYER:  This speaks for itself!

ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ SELL ITEMS MENU ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ

This is where you will make the majority of your money! From this menu, you
select the store that you wish to sell your items to.

Each store has an honesty value associated with it, this honesty value
changes daily. The honesty value determines the stores starting wager
for the item you are selling. The higher the honesty rating, the more they
offer for the items. Remember, what the store offers today may change
tomorrow!

After their initial offer you have three options. First, you may accept
their offer, after which time the item is taken and the money is given
to you. Second, you may decide not to sell the item. If you elect to do
this, it counts as ONE BAD-BARGAIN attempt at that store. Third, you may try
and BARGAIN the items price higher. With a successful bargain, they will
offer a higher price for the item. There is always the chance of you being
caught. If you are caught, you are thrown out of the store and are tallied
ONE BAD-BARGAIN point at the store.

NOTE: Once you are caught BAD-BARGAINING the maximum number of times at
      any store, you are banned from the store until the door resets!


Enjoy the game! If you have comments of suggestions, please let us
know so they can be incorporated into future versions!

Tom & Jane Wildoner
T&J Software
397 West Broadway
Jim Thorpe, PA 18229
717-325-9481 14.4k  \
                     Free access to both nodes.
717-325-4369 28.8k  /
Internet: tom.wildoner@channel1.com