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## X11 Xconq Play

The basic idea of play is to be in move mode, let the program select the next unit to do something, then give it a command, either by clicking the mouse or by typing on the keyboard.

Each map may be in either survey or move mode (See section Modes) independently of the others. In survey mode, the default actions are not to do anything, while in move mode, the default actions are to do things. This principle applies to both mouse and keyboard commands. For instance, 'h' in survey mode moves the current position west by one cell, but in move mode it causes the current unit to try to move west by one cell.

- Using the Mouse
- Using the Keyboard
- Saving and Restoring Games

### Using the Mouse, excuse me, Pointer

Although in classic X style, all the actions may be arbitrarily rebound, for simplicity the default Xconq setup uses the left button for the most important actions.

### Using the Keyboard

The general commands (See section Standard Keyboard Commands) all work.

Commands that operate on units will be applied to the current unit of the map. If the map has no current unit, then you will get an error message.

Commands that need further input will generally request it from the prompt subwindow that is sandwiched between the history subwindow and the date subwindow. You do not need to put the cursor over the prompt window to type into it however; when a prompt is up, any typed characters will be considered to be part of the answer to the prompt. You can type in an escape (``C-['`) character to cancel the command and clear the prompt.

If the request is for a unit type, such as when choosing a type to construct, you can choose the type either by typing its character, or by clicking on its entry in the unit type list.

The X11 interface defines these options to the ``map'` command:

``close``
  Close a map window.
``meridians``
  Toggle display of meridians. Prefix argument sets spacing in arc minutes.
``rv``
  Switch to reverse video.
``pattern``
  Prefer patterns for drawing terrain.
``solid``
  Prefer solid colors for drawing terrain.
``mono``
  Switch to monochrome display. (debugging) This is really meant for debugging only, and is only available if debugging was compiled in.

### Saving and Restoring Games

The save command ``S'` saves games to ``~/.xconq/save.xconq'`. The saved game is a normal text file. To restore the game, give the command ``xconq -f ~/.xconq/save.xconq'`. The saved game preserves all of the player information, including display names, so the restored game will use all of the same displays as before.

If the environment variable ``SAVEDIR'` is set, then Xconq will use that for the directory in which to save, instead of ``~/.xconq/'`.

You can change which displays go with which sides by using `-r` to suppress the addition of a default player, and listing all of the players explicitly, in the order desired. For instance, suppose that the original 5-player game was started with the arguments `foo:0.0 joe@bar:0.0 -e 2`, then to just change the displays, restore with `-f save.xconq -r baz:0.0 weeble:0.0 joe@andros:0.0`. This puts the original person who started the game onto `baz:0.0`, and the other two humans on `weeble:0.0` and `andros:0.0`, while leaving the two AIs unaffected.

This ability is also useful for swapping sides, although it can be tricky to get right. For instance, `-f save.xconq -r ,ai ,ai ,ai ,@foo:0.0 joe,@bar:0.0` restores the game, but gives the first three sides to the default AI, and the last two (which had been played by AIs) to humans, and disables the AIs that had been running them. (The `,@` sequence effectively asks for an AI with an empty type name, which is interpreted to mean "no AI"; otherwise the displays would have been opened, with an AI moving the units.)

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