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Act of War: Direct Action (tm) Readme File
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Multiplayer demo version 1.0, April 15, 2005
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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 or Intel Extreme Graphics Family)
* 2x DVD-ROM drive (6x recommended)
* DirectX 9.0c
* sound card, mouse, keyboard
* 1 GB free hard drive space

Please scroll down to section 6 of this document for a full list of compatibility issues.

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2. INSTALLATION
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1. Double-click "Act of War MP Demo.exe" to extract the build components to your Hard Drive.

2. Double-click "wmfdist.exe" to ensure you have Windows Media Format 9 Series runtime files installed (required for video playback).

3. Double-click "actofwarmpdemo.exe" to launch the demo.

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3. DEMO NOTES
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* This demo contains two maps (out of 15), the Fort Irwin practice online game mode, the Engagement skirmish mode, and you can only play as one of the three different sides.

Getting Started in Engagement and Multiplayer Mode
With practice, you’ll soon figure out the best way to defeat opponents in the Engagement and Multiplayer modes. Here are some helpful tips to get you started:
1. Build a Refinery – For reliable, steady cash flow, build a Refinery close to an (existing) Oil Derrick. Build two additional Tankers to increase oil extraction speed.
2. Build a Barracks – Recruit some ground units to scout the surroundings and protect your base.
3. Build Defense or Offense – Make the important early decision to eitehr attack opponents immediately with light troops or to first build a strong defense to protect against a rapid enemy attack.
4. Cash or Conquest – Decide whether to capture additional oil wells or assault an opponent.

* Game Replays: when the game is over, you can save a replay of the game and open it from the Load menu in the Main menu. Whether you won or lost, this is a great way to study what went right or wrong and thereby master the game.

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4. MISCELLANEOUS NOTES
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4A. GENERAL GAME PLAY AND FUNCTIONALITY NOTES
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* Please note that if you host an online or LAN game with one or more A.I.-controller players, these A.I.-controlled players will not be migrated to a new host if the original host is disconnected or leaves the game.

* 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 in the War Room only; not in LAN games, single-player games, or online games in Fort Irwin.

* 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.)

4B. GAMESPY
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* GameSpy provides a free-of-charge match-making and stats tracking service for Act of War: Direct Action. They do not host the patch or the Online game sessions. If you have latency problems in the game, this is caused by one of the players having a slow connection or PC -- not by GameSpy.

* If you have problems finding a unique nick, we suggest adding a "clan tag" to the beginning of your nick, i.e. "[REDSOX]MannyRulez"

* Please note that when creating a new GameSpy user profile, you cannot enter an e-mail address that contains two dots in the domain name, such as "gamer@us.freedomain.com".

* If you get a message "Invalid password" when creating a new user ID, it means that there is already an existing account using the same E-MAIL ADDRESS. Try again using a different e-mail address, or try and remember what password you used when you previously created a GameSpy user ID with the same e-mail address (probably for another game).

* If you have problems logging on or connecting to the GameSpy server, please verify that your internet connection is OK and try again in a couple minutes.