The world of Xenimus is constructed to be as realistic as possible. This means that while although it is a fantasy realm, it still holds true to aspects such as environment, politics, and physics, which would have affects in real life. Thus, certain rules should be stated, as they will drastically affect game play.  I.E. the following:

• A person with higher agility will run faster, and be more likely to hit when attacking, or dodge when being attacked.

• A wiser person will have more powerful healing spells.

• A higher intelligence will result in more powerful magic attacks, and increase the amount of learned experience/or skill from battle.

• A stronger person will do more physical damage in a fight, and have a higher endurance while swimming.

• A bad reputation in a town or with a computer character will get you in trouble and possibly killed.

• Killing other **good** players (although entirely allowed) under the wrong circumstances is murder. The world NPCs would then treat the killer as such.

These are just a few small examples of things to consider while in game play. It is also recommended that these things be considered when first creating a character *(see "Getting Started"), as different races, and classes, of fighters all have different weak and strong points. Understanding that the world is based along these guidelines, will help in making the most use of what you have. Consider that some items or spells could be combined, or that some items or spells may only work under certain conditions. It is also important to remember that as the world is constantly expanding (updating), certain things may not work or have a use presently, but could have a drastic affect on game play that is yet to come. It is even recommended to save some skill points for skills that can not yet be learned, as it would necessitate creating a new character to learn the skill if the existing one has no points to place on it. Using this knowledge to an advantage can make a seriously strong tactical fighter. Not everything in the world can be hacked and slashed or magically assaulted apart. Fighters will have to make the best use of their strength physically, while outfoxing their opponents with whatever items/magic (or combination of the two) they have. Magic users on the other hand have to effectively capitalize on their mystical abilities through making the most of each spell/item or combination of them they know, while more or less avoiding a straight up fight. These are however just guidelines given to aid in the effective understanding and use of ones character. The world is free to do whatever you want, so one could fight with a wizard, and try to rely on magic as a fighter if they wished. Or perhaps create a character that is a fine blend of magic, and battle strength. All in all it is essential that skills or attributes are not looked on as trivial, as they have a varied and heavy impact on game play. And it is very important to remember that the game treats all actions as realistically as possible.

General Game Play Instructions

1. Screen Layout: The game is viewed in full screen so that as much of the world, and action can be seen as is possible. At the bottom left of the screen there are two bars. One is red, and the other is blue. The red bar indicates the players remaining hit points, while the blue bar indicates a players remaining magic points. When certain items or spells are in effect (or have affected the player), icons may appear to the right of these bars to indicate that the spell or item has been used. At other times spell effects will be seen on the players casting or being casted upon.
 
2. Moving: The player movement is controlled by the mouse. The position of the mouse is indicated by a sword. The tip of the sword is the mouse pointer position. To move to a location, point and click the left mouse button on the location that you wish to travel to. If the path of your player is blocked, the player will attempt to walk around the object that is blocking its path until it has reached the given destination. However, if the path of the player is blocked by an attacking monster, the player will automatically fight the monster. Good control of the character can run away from the attacking monster and/or manage to go around it. Left clicking directly on a monster, or player, will cause your player to attack the other player. If precise movement is needed, it is recommended to use the direct overhead view mode.

3. Identifying: The right mouse button is used for identifying objects in the game. Not all objects can be identified. To identify a person or monster, right click on their location (at their feet) and their name will be displayed above their head for a brief period of time.

4. Talking: To talk, press the chat key ( " T " is default ) and type your message. The message can be near 40 characters long. Then, depress the enter/return key. Your message will be displayed above your characters head for a brief period of time. You can also talk to the computer controlled characters in the game.

5. Attacking: To attack a monster (or player), click the left mouse button on their location (their feet). Your player will then go into attack mode and continue to fight until given another command, which stops it. A player will automatically go into attack mode if it encounters an attacking monster at close range. Running from a fight is possible, if you have room to get through the attacking monsters/persons. The use of some spells and/or items will also allow a player to escape an attack. To stop your player from attacking, click the left mouse button on a location that is away from the attacker. If the attacker is a monster, the location must not be behind the monster, or your player will continue to run into it and attack. It is recommended to use the "Stop Action" key, to stop a fight immediately. * (see "Stopping an Action")  If you hold down the shift key and click on a point of the screen, your player will attack the given point while remaining stationary. This is useful with a bow, or other projectile weapons, when you wish to keep your distance from the target, or hit something between your character, and the point of attack.
 
6. Using Items/skills: To use an item, press the "use item/skill" key( " U " is default ), then left click on the item or spell which you wish to use. Some items/skills can only be used by the character that has them, and will affect only them. Other items/skills can be used to affect other players as well. If the item/skill is only usable by the player, it is immediately put into effect when it is clicked on in the "use item/skill" screen. If the item or skill can be used on other players/creatures(areas), once clicked on, the "use i/s" screen will disappear and the sword mouse pointer will be changed to a wand. This is to indicate that the game is waiting for a command from you as to what the item/skill will be used on. Place the wand pointer over the feet of the creature/person you wish to use it on(or area), and left click. The item or skill will then be put into effect on that player/creature.
 
7. Using magic: To use magic, press the "cast" key  ( " C " is default ) then follow the same steps as you would to use an item or skill.*(see "Using Items/skills"..above)

8. Stopping an Action: To stop an action, press the "stop action" key ( "S " is default ). When the stop action key is pressed, it will stop your player from doing whatever it is currently doing. This also works for exiting menus or using items/skills, and casting spells. The stop action key works on a multiple levels. For instance: If you had cast invisibility on yourself and then went and attacked something, the first press of the "stop action" key would remove the most recent stoppable command. In this case, your player would stop fighting. If you then pressed the "stop action" key again, it would bring you out of being invisible.

9. Switching View Modes: Xenimus has two view modes to choose from, and they can be switched during game play. The modes are: 1. Isometric 2. Top Down. To switch between the modes, press the "view mode" key ( " V " is default) isometric has a lush look , while top down is recommended for precise control in tight areas or battle, to prevent mistaken attacks.
 
10. Switching Weapons: To switch weapons press the "switch weapons" key ( "W" is default ). This will switch between the top two weapons in your "in use" inventory. *(see  "Using The In Game Menus")

11. Dropping Items/Gold: To drop an item and or gold press the "drop item key" ( " D " is default) then select the items that you wish to drop indicating a quantity in the qty box if desired. If no quantity is entered, the entire amount of the item selected will be dropped. To drop gold, you must first depress the gold button, and then enter an amount if desired before clicking "done" .

12. Picking up Items/Weapons: To pick up items/weapons walk directly over the items and your character will automatically collect the items on that spot. A player can only pick up ten items at a time. If there is more than that amount of items in a given location, you must walk off of the location , and then back on.

13. Accessing the In Game Menus: To access the in game menus, press the "character statistics" key ( " S " is default). Once in this screen, all of the other in game menus can be accessed through the buttons along the bottom. The other screens can also be brought up with shortcut keys. *( see "Using the in Game Menus")

14. Equipping Weapons/Armor: To equip weapons and/or armor, first access the "inventory" screen. This can be done by entering the "statistics" screen and clicking on the "inventory" button, or by pressing the inventory screen hotkey ( " I " is default ). Once in the inventory screen, you will notice two windows. The bottom window contains the things which you are currently carrying. The top window displays that which you are currently wearing, or holding. To ready a weapon or armor, click on the item you wish to ready in the lower window. When done, click the "ok" button.

15. Exiting the Game: To exit the game, press the "esc" key then click yes. This will take you to the main menu. From the main menu, choose "quit game" and hit "esc" to leave the credit screen.

Using The In Game Menus

During game play, you can check your characters statistics, inventory, skills, and alignments by entering the in game menus. There are a number of ways to access these menus. Entering the statistics screen will allow you to sub sequentially enter any of the other screens by selecting them from buttons at the bottom of the statistics screen. To enter the statistics screen, press the statistics screen hotkey ( " S " is default). The statistics screen will be displayed and show you important information, such as: your current level, your experience, how much experience the next level requires, your current amount of gold, hit points, magic points, your good/evil alignment, ect.. Pressing the buttons at the bottom of the screen will display the denoted in game menu. Options listed at the bottom are for viewing your characters statistics, inventory, keys bound, and skills. Some of these screens are also made instantly accessible during game play through binding a key to the screen. The default hotkey for the inventory screen is " I " ...  When viewing any of the in game menus, clicking "ok" will exit the menu. You can also exit any screen by pressing the "stop action" key** see "stopping an action" in the general game play section**. Using the "stop action" key will allow for fast response time if you are attacked while viewing a menu.

1. The Statistics Screen: The statistics screen will show you your characters wisdom, strength, agility, intelligence, constitution, ect. Distribution of  bonus points to these stats is done through this screen when your character has gone up a level. Only 1 bonus point is distributed per level, so choose its distribution wisely.

2. The Inventory Screen: The inventory screen displays what your character is currently carrying in the bottom window, and what your character is currently wearing/using in the top window. The left side of displays the current statistics of the weapon that the mouse is over. Through this screen you can select which weapons/armor/items your character is wearing or using. **see "Equipping Weapons/Armor" in the "general game play section** The inventory screen also displays your characters current amount of gold.

3. The Skills Screen: The skills screen displays what skills your character currently has, and how many skill points the character has placed on each skill. When a character has gone up a level, you can distribute the newly gained skill points from this screen. Clicking the plus sign adjacent to the skill you wish to place a point on, will distribute 1 skill point to that skill. You can place as many skill points on a skill as you desire until that skill has been mastered. As new skills are learned they will start with 0 points, for this reason you may consider saving some skill points for future use.

4. The Keys Screen: The keys screen displays all if the currently "mapped" keys. **mapped key def: a key map binds/associates a particular key on the keyboard, to performing a particular command that would otherwise have to be executed through a menu or other slower method**. When a key is bound to an action I.E. spell/item/screen, you can perform the action by pressing the one key that is bound. (For example: instead of  casting poison by hitting "C" to access the casting menu and then selecting "poison" from the list and selecting a target, you could bind the "P" key to the poison spell and just hit " P " and select a target.) The effective use of key binding allows for fast reaction time in battle and when accessing menus during game play. The keys screen is divided into a top and bottom section. The top section is for "main key mapping", and the bottom is for "custom key mapping". In the main key mapping section. You can select which keys will activate the primary functions listed by selecting the existing keys denoted as being bound(they will highlight blue when selected), and depressing the key that you wish the bind to be changed to. To bind a key to a custom function (item/spell), select an empty spot in the lower left window by clicking on it. The bound keys list scrolls up and down by using the up and down arrows to the right of the window. Once the dash( - ) is blue highlighted it has been selected. Then depress the key that you wish to bind to an action. Once the key has been depressed, it will show up in blue highlight in front of the dash. Then select the item/spell that you wish to bind the key to from the bottom right window. The item and spell list scrolls up and down by using the up and down arrows to the right of the window. Once you have selected an item or spell to be bound, it will show up in blue highlight to the right of the dash in the bound keys window.....the key has now been bound. To switch the item/spell window between displaying items or spells press the tabs above the window labeled "items" or "spells. Only one action can be bound to a key. Some keys may not be displayed with the proper graphic when being bound and show up as a " ." . no graphic exists for those particular keys yet, but the bind will still work. All key bindings can be changed at any time. To delete a key binding, first highlight it in the "bound keys" window, then depress the delete key on your keyboard. To change a key that it bound from one custom function to another custom function, first select the key binding in the "bound keys" window and then select the new function you wish the key to perform from the spell/ item list. The key should be bound to the new function then.

Special Game Play Features

There are some features in the game that require a special set of instructions. These features are listed, and explained here.

1. Charmed creature control: It is possible during game play to charm a creature/s that will then belong to you (a pet). Once a creature has been charmed it is under the full control of its master. When the master of the creature right clicks for identification of the creature, it will list the creatures  level, and hit points. Charmed creatures  normally follow their master a short distance behind, and attack only what the master attacks. however,  the master of a charmed creature can give specific orders to it. To do this the master must first select the creature by left clicking on its location the master will not attack its own creature when he left clicks it*. Then the master can click any given location on the screen, and the creature will go there. If the location given to the charmed creature is that of a monster or player, the creature will attack the selected monster or player. Once a specific order has been given to a charmed creature, the creature will not follow the master or attack what the master attacks until it has been called back. To call back a charmed creature, double left click on the charmed creature. The creature will then return to its master, and follow as normal. When a charmed creature kills an enemy, it will gain experience. This means that your charmed creatures can actually go up levels and get stronger.  To get rid of a charmed creature, you must kill it. Once you have successfully attacked the creature, the creatures charm will be broken, and it will most likely attack you.  Charmed creatures can be charmed away by someone else. Charmed creatures will exit  the game,  and be saved with your character when you log off, and can be kept as long as you wish.
2. World Map Location Marking: It is possible to mark up to ten locations on the world map. To do so you must enter the chat console and type either "mark0" "mark1" "mark2" ... "mark9" your character will then speak "mark0-9" and a clicking noise will be heard indicating that the location has been marked. If you reuse a already marked number (say "mark1"). The mark ("mark1")will  be changed to the new location. These marks can be used later in the game for other things such as the dimensional portal. Were you to open a dimensional portal, it would ask you which mark you would like the portal to lead to. You would then press 0-9 and the gate would be opened to that corresponding location.

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