Welcome to Xconq version 7.2!

Xconq is a graphical multi-player strategy game and game design
system.  You can either play any of the games in the extensive
library, or use Xconq to build new kinds of multi-player strategy
games.  The designer's manual explains how to do this in great detail,
and the library directory contains a large assortment of predefined
game modules as well.

In addition to Xconq's "standard" game, which is similar to Empire or
Empire Deluxe, the distributed library includes games for ancient
civilizations, the Peloponnesian War, the Roman Civil War, Napoleonic
strategy, Gettysburg at a brigade scale, the Russian revolution, the
invasion of Normandy, WWII at scales from tactical to grand strategic,
voyages of discovery, African exploration, and many others.

Xconq games may include up to 126 types of units, 126 types of
materials (ammo, fuel, etc), and as many types of terrain.  Worlds may
be up to 65,535 x 65,535 cells (hexagons) in size, not that anyone has
ever played on that large of a world and lived!  Xconq can both load
worlds from library files, or randomly generate new ones.  Up to 31
sides may participate in a game, with any mix of human and AI players.

For game designers, Xconq provides literally hundreds of object
properties, and hundreds of tables describing interactions between
units, materials, and terrain.  Xconq is capable of emulating many
other games, although it works best for games in the Empire genre.
Xconq's generic AI includes the ability to analyze a new game design
and to figure out how to play it.

The file INSTALL describes how to get Xconq running on your system.
Xconq has been tested in a wide variety of systems and environments,
and includes graphical interfaces for Unix/X11, Macintosh, and
Windows.

Once Xconq is installed, depending on your system you should be able
to either type "xconq" at a shell or click on an icon.  The program
will guide you the rest of the way.  If this is your first time
playing Xconq, choose the "Introductory" game.

The Xconq home page is at

	http://sourceware.cygnus.com/xconq

This page includes information about new versions of Xconq, screenshots,
online versions of the manuals, and so forth.

There is also a mailing list, xconq7@sourceware.cygnus.com.

Xconq is free software, and is licensed under the Gnu Public License,
version 2; see the file COPYING for more details.

Since Xconq is free, you can copy it, hack on it, and redistribute the
hacked version as you like; but PLEASE identify clearly any changes
you make to an "official" release - this will be of immeasurable help
to me, other Xconq hackers, and users.  I always enjoy hearing about
and seeing any improvements, fixes, or suggestions, and will try to
incorporate the best ones into future versions of Xconq.


						Stan Shebs
						shebs@cygnus.com


Thanks to the many Xconq players and hackers around the net who have
contributed literally hundreds of suggestions, fixes, and improvements.
The manual includes more detailed acknowledgments.

