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Act of War: Direct Action (tm) Readme File

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Release version .001 2/08/05
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0. CONTENTS
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1. MINIMUM SPECIFICATIONS
2. INSTALLATION
3. RELEASE NOTES
4. FIREWALL/ROUTER CONFIGURATION
5. COMMANDS
6. COMPATIBILITY NOTES

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1. MINIMUM SPECIFICATIONS
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* Windows 2000/XP
* Pentium� 4 1.5 GHz or AMD Athlon� 1500+ or higher (Pentium� 4 2.5 GHz or AMD
Athlon� 2500+ recommended)
* 256 MB RAM (512 MB RAM recommended)
* DirectX 8.1 compatible 64 MB video card (128 MB video card recommended) with full
hardware support for vertex and pixel shaders (i.e. not GeForce 4 MX)
* 2x DVD-ROM drive (6x recommended)
* DirectX 9.0c
* sound card, mouse, keyboard
* 6 GB free hard drive space

Please scroll down to the end of this document for a full list of known
compatibility issues.

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2. INSTALLATION - INSTRUCTION MANUAL
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* Included on this product's game disc is an electronic version of the game's

Instruction Manual in .pdf format, Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.0 (which enables you to
view the manual in .pdf format), and an Install Guide file explaining how to access
and use these features. Please refer to the Install Guide file by clicking on the
Start button on your Windows� taskbar and then selecting Programs > Atari > Act of
War: Direct Action > Install Guide.

* Please be aware that Act of War: Direct Action is a huge game that takes a while
to install, between 10 and 90 minutes totally depending on the speed of your DVD-
drive. Please be patient. The speed of your DVD-ROM drive does NOT affect the speed
of the gameplay or loading times during the game.

* As you first launch the installation, we will show you a clip from the TV show
Spotlight. This clip can also be found in the root of the DVD. Please be patient
while the clip is copied to the hard drive. Playing this video clip does not
affect the duration of the installation.
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3. RELEASE NOTES
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A couple notes that didn't make it into the manual or in-game text explanations:

* By pressing Alt-I or clicking the icon of Lieutenant Vega to the right-hand side
of your screen, you will find information about the new units, structures,
abilities and gameplay features in the current mission. This feature is not
available while a cinematic is playing.

* Note that you cannot enter any buildings or climb any rooftops in the first
mission. For game balancing and/or technical reasons, some buildings/rooftops in
later missions aren't accessible either.

* If your internet connection is lost while connected to the online lobby or a game
session, for example if your cable is disconnected, you may need to exit Act of War
before you can log on again.

* Please note that the information in Duty Time and Rank in your online profile
only takes your WAR ROOM (i.e. ladder games) into account; not online games played
in Fort Irwin, LAN games, or Engagement single-player games. Also, they are not
updated in real-time; you may need to log off and log on again for this information
to be updated.

* Please note that medals are awarded from online play only; not in LAN or single-
player games.

* Queueing Defend Zone/Heal Zone/Repair Zone Commands: Please note that these
commands are "infinite", and therefore you can't really queue up other commands
(such as a build command) to occur after them, as they won't get executed. For the
same reason, a construction unit with one of these orders won't be selected when
you toggle through with the "Zz" button.

* Please note that games created in one room of the Fort Irwin Virtual Battlefield
area are not visible to other rooms, i.e. if you create a game in the Main room,
players in other rooms will not be able to see that game.

* In the game staging screen, if you want to send a private chat message to a
specific player, you can type "/w [player name]" before your message, i.e. if you
want to send the message "Sox rule!" to a player called GOPATS, you should type "/w
GOPATS Sox rule!". (Note that player names may be case sensitive.)

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4. FIREWALL/ROUTER CONFIGURATION
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If you're having problems connecting to Online multiplayer games, this can have
several different effects:

* The "Join" button is disabled when you select a game in the online lobby.

* You get the message "One or more players were unable to connect to you. Please
check that UDP port %1 is open to incoming traffic." when you try and join a game
in the online lobby.
* No one is connecting to games you create.

* You never manage to connect in War Room games or Quickmatch games in Fort Irwin.

If you are experiencing one or all of these issues you will need to configure your
router or software firewall to allow Act of War outside access.

1) Go to the Options menu and make sure that the Enable Network Port option is
checked.

2) Make sure that your firewall allows incoming traffic to UDP port 12222.

3) Make sure that your router directs incoming traffic to UDP port 12222.

Exactly how to do this depends on the make and model of your router/firewall
software and hardware, refer to the user manuals. This operation may require the
help of a network administrator. If your manual doesn't explain the concept of
"port forwarding" or "virtual network" clearly, you may find this site --
http://portforward.com -- helpful. (Atari assumes no responsibility for the
content on third party internet sites.)

* Note that if you are NOT behind a router, you should NOT check the option "Enable
Network Port".

* If you want to change the port number, you can manually change this to any number
between 6001 and 65535.

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5. COMMANDS
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UNIT COMMANDS
A Attack
M Move
S Stop
D Defend/Heal Zone/Repair Zone
T Land/Take Off
C Capture
U Unload immediately
V Unload on location
W Crawl/stand up
O Load
B Ambush
Z Attack area

GENERAL BUILDING COMMANDS

O Set rallypoint
L Sell

GENERAL CONSTRUCTION UNIT COMMANDS

X Open Undercover/Defcon 3/Battlefield Construction menu
C Open Revealed/Defcon 2/SHIELD Technology Construction menu
V Open Defcon 1/Drone Technology Construction menu
E Return to previous construction menu

GENERAL GAME COMMANDS

F1 Launch Tactical Weapon
F2-F4 Launch airstrike
F5 Quicksave
F10 Quickload
" Chase camera on selected unit
Alt-" Aircraft chase camera
ESC Pause game
SPACEBAR Center camera on last message
BACKSPACE Center camera on Headquarters
ENTER Open/send chat message
= Center camera on idle construction unit
TAB Toggle unit type within selection
SHIFT Keep pressed to queue commands, or to add/subtract units to a selection
Alt-O Display objectives (single-player) or list of players (multiplayer)
Alt-I Display intelligence (single-player only)

NAVIGATION/SELECTION COMMANDS
LEFT MOUSE Execute command/select unit
RIGHT MOUSE Move
Mouse wheel Zoom in/out
Cursor Move map
CTRL Keep pressed while left-clicking on a unit to select
all units on the screen of the same type (or double-click the unit)
SHIFT Keep pressed while left-clicking on a unit to add/subtract units to a
selection
CTRL-# Assign hotkey (number between 1 and 0) to selected unit(s), or a
building
# Select hotkeyed group
## Center camera on hotkeyed group

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6. COMPATIBILITY NOTES
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* As a general rule, almost completely regardless what problem you have with the
game, the first thing to check is that you have the latest drivers for your video
card. These can be downloaded from the web site of your video card manufacturer.

* The game will automatically detect the capabilities of your hardware

configuration and choose an appropriate quality setting. If you choose to increase
your quality settings, you may experience performance issues. In particular,
lower-end video cards with support for pixel shader 2.0, such as the GeForce
FX5200, FX5600, FX 5800, and the Volari XGI series, will typically run better with
the SHADOW setting set to LOW.

* As is noted in the minimum requirements not all video cards have hardware vertex
and pixel shader support even though they have the required video memory available.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of video cards that are not supported:

ATI Radeon 7200

ATI Radeon 7500

Intel 82810 Integrated Graphics

Intel 82815 Integrated Graphics
Intel 82830M Integrated Graphics
Intel 82845G Integrated Graphics
Intel 82852 Integrated Graphics
Intel 82855 Integrated Graphics
Intel 82910GL GMA 900 Integrated Graphics
Intel 82915G GMA 900 Integrated Graphics
Intel 82915GV GMA 900 Integrated Graphics

Intel 82855GM Extreme Graphics 2

Intel 82865G Extreme Graphics 2
Intel 82865GV Extreme Graphics 2

Mobile Intel 915GM/GMS Express Integrated Graphics

Mobile Intel 910GML Express Integrated Graphics

Nvidia GeForce 2MX

Nvidia GeForce 2GTS
Nvidia GeForce 4MX

SiS Xabre series video cards

If you have any of these video cards please contact your system vendor for
assistance in upgrading your video card.

* Matrox P750 and Parhelia: Depending on your hardware configuration and driver
version, you may experience random lock-ups and freezes. Try installing a different
driver.

* With 256 MB of RAM you may experience random lock-ups when Windows is swapping
memory to the disc. Terminate all other applications, including those running
invisibly in the background to minimize these issues.

* If you have an AMD Athlon 64, or any Intel processor that ends with the letter J
such as the 520J, processor with Windows XP (any edition) and Service Pack 2, and
have problems entering the game, aside from making sure that all your drivers are
up-to-date, you can also try changing your Data Execution Protection settings:
- Click START > Settings > Control Panel > System > Advanced
- Click Performance > Settings
- Select the Data Execution Prevention tab and make sure that the first option
("Turn on DEP for essential Windows programs and services only") is selected.

* If you have an AMD Athlon 64 processor and experience issues with Windows XP
rebooting your PC seemingly spontaneously, make sure that you have the latest
processor drivers (available for download from www.amd.com).

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