                      SOE Readme file

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Seal of Evil Demo	1.01

Object Software, Beijing

Dec.14th.2003
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Features of Seal of Evil

Grandiose Background

Thousands of years ago, a war among the gods sowed the seeds of tragedy for the human world. Endless resentments between the gods and humans and humans¡¯ betrayal of the gods took place during the last few years of the Warring States period. Seal of Evil blends mysterious ancient legends and magnificent scenes during a time of war where players will enjoy an exciting adventure, search for all kinds of equipment, fight against various monsters and meet many famous historical figures. In the whirlpool of love and hatred, players will struggle shoulder by shoulder with their loyal friends. There are many mysteries in the game that need to be explored by players. Why did the people from the Central Plains and the Baiyue people hate each other? What was the story about the mysterious Beastman race? What was the war between the gods in ancient times like? 

Mysterious Five Elements

Ancient Chinese philosophers believed that the whole world was made up by five basic elements, Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. There is a kind of complicated interactional relationship amongst the five elements: Metal promotes Water, Water promotes Wood, Wood promotes Fire, Fire promotes Earth and Earth promotes Metal; Metal restricts Wood, Wood restricts Earth, Earth restricts Water, Water restricts Fire and Fire restricts Metal. The theory of the five elements reflected the traditional knowledge of ancient Chinese people towards the world and vividly described the constitution of the world and how the world worked. The Five-element philosophy is applied throughout the whole game, e.g. character¡¯s attributes, skills, equipment, making-things and puzzles in the game. Making good use of the Five-element philosophy can achieve pleasantly surprising results and make the game more interesting.

Subtle Graphics

SOE adopts Object Software¡¯s newly developed GFX3D engine and blends the techniques of 2D and 3D to bring players brilliant game graphics. The backdrop of the game uses 2D graphics that fully display geographical features across ancient China. Players will pass through hundreds of regions in the game such as mysterious Baiyue villages, magnificent cities in the Central Plains, clumsy Beastman residences, bizarre ancient palaces, cloud-capped mountains and meandering brooks. Each region has distinct landform where players won¡¯t feel bored during their adventures. All kinds of special effects are displayed through 3D technique. In this way, not only bright and brilliant visual effects can be achieved, but also hardware potential can be fully exploited.

Numerous Items

SOE creates for the five hero types more than eighty series of equipment, including weapons, armor and helmets, according to the features of the different hero types. Making good use of the Five-element system can activate equipment¡¯s hidden attributes. The activated equipment can also be improved through fighting and killing. Potential equipment will bring players more fun because its attributes can be improved as the game develops. There are some sets of equipment that can greatly increase a hero¡¯s ability.

Complicated Making-things System

SOE introduces Multiple Making-things Methods into the game, i.e. there are several different methods to make the same kind of equipment. Each method requires different kinds of materials and Five-element attributes. Players can master these methods via persistent exploration. The number of raw materials and ways to get the materials will be greatly increased. Players can obtain all kinds of materials from various enemies. The main equipment in the game can be upgraded through making-things system. The upgraded equipment will have greatly improved properties. In the game, players can also make medicine, refine gems and create some other items.

Balanced Skill System

The five types of heroes all have their own unique features. Some skills are so powerful that they can defeat many enemies in a split second. The Five-element attributes of characters and weapons can activate the hidden functions of skills. After activation, the skills will be several times more powerful than they were previously. When confronting a large number of enemies, Martial Skills can turn defeat into victory. Players can learn skills in many ways: some books about powerful skills may be hidden in a cave or a ragged old man in the street may be a master of Kung Fu. Players will have many opportunities to learn a superior skill if they keep searching.

Critical Teamwork

SOE adopts a Real Time Strategy mode in fighting. Players will control a small party of characters to fight against enemies. A specially designed monster AI system makes the gameplay more interesting. Some skills such as Suicide Bombing and Curse demand high skill in character manipulation. Moreover, attacking an enemy from the back will cause more damage than attacking an enemy from the front. Thus it will be worth spending some time to consider tactics before fighting. Party members, choice of skills, combinations of equipment and teamwork among heroes will play important roles in battles.

Multiple Endings

There are many side quests in the game and they will work together with the main quests to affect the endings of the game. Players can choose different ways to respond to NPCs according to their own desires. Different conversations will result in different endings. The systems of Log and Completion Status will make records of players¡¯ every step in the game. A 30% extension of the game including hidden quests and surprising endings await players¡¯ exploration.

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System Requirement

CPU		£ºPII 300 or higher
Memory		£º128MB
Video Card	£º800x600x16bit resolution, 4MB video memory, support 3D acceleration
Sound Card	£ºSound Blaster compatible
Disk Space	£º600MB or bigger
Input Device	£ºKeyboard, mouse
DirectX		£ºversion 8.0 or later
OS		£ºWindows98¡¢WindowsXP¡¢Window2000 
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How to Control

Capture the screen		PrintScreen
Force to attack			Ctrl + left click
Move, attack and speak to NPC	Left click
Pause				Space
Select team member		1,2,3			
Select mutiple members		SHIFT + mouse drag
Select all members		~
Set Leader			Double click a member's icon, or press number key twice
Toggle Mini-map			Tab
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FAQ

1 I found a "Can't register Program" error during the installation.
Please make sure you have administrator's privilege if you're using Windows NT/2000.

2 The game displays wrecked.
Your video card may not support some features of hardware acceleration. Please upgrade your system driver or contact  the vendor of your Video Card.

3 I can't hear the sound.
Please check if your speaker is turned on. You can also raise the volume in game setting interface.
	
4 The game runs slowly, and often reads hard drive.
Please check is your memory big enough. You may need at least 64MB memory to run the game under windows 2000.
	
5 I got a "Can't find .dll file that needed - D3D8.DLL" error.
SOE requires DirectX 8.0 to run correctly, you can download the latest version of DirectX in http://www.microsoft.com.
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Tech Support

Please contact us if you have any problem.

Tel:		086-010-88469054 086-010-88469067
Homepage:	http://www.object.com.cn
Forum:		http://forums.objectgames.com/list.asp?boardid=30
E-mail:		help@object.com.cn

Copyright(C) 1995-2003, Object Software (Beijing) Co. Ltd.
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