Superhero Simulator (c) 2015 Matthew Mahowald. All rights reserved.

Thanks for downloading Superhero Simulator! This has been a 
hobbyist project of mine for the past couple of years, and 
I'm really happy to finally have a playable version (even if
it's still pretty bare-bones at the moment). 

Since not all of the in-game tutorials are implmented yet,
I've included a how-to-play reference below.

Enjoy!

-Matthew Mahowald

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            HOW TO PLAY
======================================

Superhero Simulator is a strategy/action game where you control
a customized superhero and attempt to defeat crime in the city
of New Gothamopolis. The core conceit of the game is that the 
hero can only be in one place at one time, so in order to fight
crime, the player must make difficult decisions about where to
intercede. The game is won when all criminal factions are
eliminated. At present, the game has essentially three
parts: character creation, the city map, and the tactical 
map. 

Character Creation:

In character creation, you select superpowers and design the
physical appearance of your character. (Due to some issues with
the mesh, currently only the female character model is 
available). Scrolling with the mouse will zoom in to the
character's face, and right-clicking and dragging will allow you
to rotate the character. In addition to changing features via 
the sliders on the right-hand side of the screen, you can also 
edit the physical appearance of the hero by clicking and dragging 
directly on the hero mesh. 

City Map:

The city map screen displays the state of the city and provides
feedback about the game state. The city is divided into 9 districts
which the various factions try to capture and control. Factions 
gain control of a district by moving agents into that district, 
and by defeating opposing agents present in the district. There are
currently two factions implemented: the police and the criminals.
You've won the game when the criminals no longer control any 
districts and possess no agents. 

Each turn on the city map, the player must pick a single district
to patrol. If there are any criminal agents present in the district,
then this will trigger a combat encounter and move the game to the
tactical mode (see below). As the criminals might be up to no good
in multiple places, this can lead to difficult decisions about 
where the hero can do the most good. 

You can control the camera in the city mode with the WASD keys (W = up,
S = down, A = left, D = right). To select a district to patrol, 
click on the district. The currently selected district will remain
highlighted on the map, and the text at the top of the screen will
indicate the currently selected district.

The map mode button will let you switch between different map modes:
the standard mode displays a textured "terrain" view of the city,
the faction ownership mode colors each district by the faction
which controls it (blue = police, red = criminals, grey = neutral),
and the other two modes are not currently implemented. 

Tactical Mode:

In tactical mode, you control your hero directly and use your powers
to fight criminals. In this build, most powers are not implemented
(with the exception of invulnerability, which is unintentionally
implemented in the sense that it is impossible for the hero to be
defeated). Red bars above the enemies indicate their current health,
and the red bar in the upper-left corner of the screen indicates 
the hero's health. 

The controls in this mode are standard for a third-person game:
Moving the mouse rotates the camera around the player. Scrolling
zooms the camera in or out from the player. WASD moves the character
with respect to the camera's orientation (W = forward, S = backward,
A = left, D = right). Clicking with the mouse will cause the hero to
attack the enemy that the camera is currently looking at. The shift
key blocks. When blocking, enemy attacks from the front cause no 
damage. Finally, to jump, press and release the spacebar. The longer
the spacebar is held, the higher the character will jump.

After defeating all enemies in the tactical mode, the game will
inform you of your success, and return to the city map. Sucess
in the tactical mode removes any criminal agents from the 
selected district in the city map. 


======================================
           RELEASE NOTES
======================================
These are the release notes for the first release (2015-10-28).

Character Creation:
    - Click-and-drag manipulation of facial features
    - Costume color selection
    - Skin and hair color selection
    - Emblem selection

City map:
    - Multiple map modes (standard, faction ownership)
    - AI-controlled factions (police and criminals)
    - Faction agent icons and movement
    - Graphical effects for player-selected districts
    - Basic event support (tutorial system implemented using events)

Tactical:</strong>
    - Player can run, jump, attack, and block
    - AI-controlled enemy characters
    - GUI: Healthbars for enemies and player
    - One level (a dark alley)

Behind the scenes:
    - Game state saving and loading
    - XML serialization/deserialization of game data at runtime (e.g., events)
    - Custom shaders implement multi-color texture tinting