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Quickstart

Single-player mode

After starting up ChartFight for the first time, dismiss the dialog that may have popped up. Then shake your iPod or iPhone to set up your ships. If nothing appears to happen, shake a bit harder. Now tap the large round 'Start' button at the top-left, and you're ready to play.

A large round 'FIRE' button and a targeting mechanism will have appeared. By tapping any of the square fields on the largest chart, the viewfinder will move to that field. Press the 'FIRE' button to fire a broadside at the field which is centered in both the horizontal and vertical elements of the viewfinder.

If you failed to hit any ships, a hole will be burned in the chart. If you did hit something, a rectangle will appear, and the status line at the bottom will tell you what type of ship it is. If you managed to sink a ship, this will be shown as well.

In the meantime, notice some action going on in the smaller chart which contains your own fleet: your opponent (your iPhone or iPod) is shooting at you, and will do everything in its power to wipe your fleet from the charts. And it will, if you let it! Good luck!

Dual-player mode

Before starting in dual-player mode, make sure that you have an active network connection.

After starting up ChartFight, tap the small 'i' button at the top-left, and then on the next screen the 'Settings' button at the top-right. Move the 'Play Against...' switch to 'Other Opponent'.

A list of possible opponents appears. Tapping the name of any of them will immediately challenge that opponent on their own iPhone or iPod. If there are no 'local opponents' around, you can connect to the ChartFight Server (more info below) to challenge someone else looking for a fight.

Alternatively, you may be challenged yourself: a dialog box will appear, which you may accept or dismiss. Once either you or your opponent have accepted a challenge, you're ready for battle.

Go back to the main screen by tapping the small buttons at the top-left, and press 'Start'. If you hit the button before your opponent does, you get the first shot. Don't forget to shake your iPhone or iPod first, to set up your fleet!

When it's your turn to shoot, the targeting mechanism becomes enabled, and you can aim and fire. Good luck!

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User Guide

ChartFight 2 for iPhone or iPod is an implementation of the classic pencil and paper naval battle game, which can be played between between human and computer, or (currently via network only) between two humans. The program has several pages or screens: the Main screen, the Information screen, the Settings screens, and the Help screen.

The Interface

The Main Screen

This is always the first page after starting the program. It offers a view of two nautical charts, so-called 'portolans', from the Age of Sail. One is enlarged, while the other is reduced in size. The small one may always be enlarged by tapping it.

Deploy your fleet

Target enemy fleet

The lower chart offers a view of the player's fleet. While in the set-up stage of the game, shaking the iPhone/iPod results in a new distribution of ships across the chart. You can relocate ships simply by touching and dragging them around the screen. Turn a ship in a different direction by double-tapping it. Note that it is not possible to have two ships intersecting each other: the rotation facility tries to find room for the ship as close as possible to the cell you tapped, but if it fails you will either have to make more room for the ship to turn, or move it to a different position first.

While the lower chart is enlarged, the round button at the top is visible and shows one of three legends: 'Start', 'Stop' or 'Reset'. This button sets the current game state to, respectively, running, aborted, or setting up.

The upper chart is where most of the action from the player's point of view takes place. If it's the player's turn, the targeting apparatus will be visible. If the upper chart is enlarged, the 'FIRE' button is visible. This button will be enabled if the viewfinder is targeting an empty field on the chart.

The small 'i' buttons next to the bigger buttons give access to the Information (Chart Fight) screen.

The Chart Fight Screen

This information page gives an overview of the game state. It currently lists only the ships both players still have active. A complete fleet consists of the following ship types:

Ship-of-the-Line

The largest ship in your fleet. May easily carry more than a hundred guns. Most fearsome, though hampered by slowness and lack of maneuverability. [1]

Frigate

Long, low, and sleek, this formidable warship carries up to sixty guns. Though smaller than the ship-of-the-line, it is also a good deal faster. [1]

Corvette

Often used as a patrol vessel or flag bearer, this ship may carry up to thirty guns. Despite its supporting role, still a dangerous adversary. [2]

Brigantine

Powerful two-masted ship carrying up to twenty guns. (At some point particularly popular with pirates in the Mediterranean!) [3]

The Settings Screen

Use this screen to customize your gaming experience.

Sound Effects

Here you can change the volume of the sound effects. This setting is saved when you exit ChartFight.

Play As...

This setting determines your identity as seen by other ChartFight players. Tapping the detail button brings up a new screen where you can change the name from the default (the name of your iPhone or iPod) to a name of your own choosing. Only the first 20 characters of the name will be saved.

Changing the port number may come in handy when you have trouble playing over the default network port ChartFight uses, for instance due to constraints in the network your device is connected to. Do not change this while connected to an opponent, because the connection will be terminated! Under normal circumstances it should be left at its default value anyhow.

Both these settings are saved when you exit ChartFight.

Play Against...

Use this switch to choose between single-play and dual-play. If it is set to 'iPod' or 'iPhone' you play against the computer, otherwise you must challenge another human (network) opponent.

The state of this switch is saved when you exit ChartFight.

Choose Another Opponent...

This section shows the list of possible opponents. There are three ways to play against someone else over the network.

• The simplest option is to tap one of the names that may appear at the top of the list. These are devices in the neighbourhood, that are currently running ChartFight 2 in dual-player mode: 'in the neighbourhood' here meaning on the same local area network, or more precisely: on the same link. When you're at home this usually means that your opponent's device should be connected to the same WiFi hub.

  Tapping a name in the list will cause your iPhone/iPod to connect to the named device and issue a challenge to its user. If the challenge is accepted, a checkmark will appear after the name, and the game is ready to start. In case both players issue a challenge simultaneously, only one needs to accept.

• If there are no local opponents, you can use the ChartFight Server to connect to any other players that are currently registered with the server. These players may be anywhere in the world. For more information about the ChartFight Server: see below.

• Finally, if you know the IP address of an opponent you want to play, you can tap the 'Other...' field at the bottom of the list. This brings up a screen where you can enter the IP address of your opponent's device and the port they use to play ChartFight over.

  Enter the address, then tap 'Go'. If the connection can be established, the Settings screen will appear again, with your opponent's name checkmarked in the list.

Once a connection has been established, go back to the main screen and press 'Start'. If you hit the button before your opponent does, you get the first shot. Don't forget to shake your iPhone or iPod first, to set up your fleet!

You can disconnect at any time by tapping the checkmarked name of your opponent again.

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Playing ChartFight

A new game is initiated by tapping the 'Start' button, and finishes when either one of the players has no ships left. The player who taps 'Start' first may fire the first shot. At any moment the 'Stop' button may be tapped: this aborts the current game. In the case of a network game, the other player receives a notification that the game has been stopped. Tapping 'Reset' sets up a new fleet on the player's chart.

If the Home button on the iPhone/iPod is pressed, the program quits immediately. The next time ChartFight is started, the game resumes where it was left off. In case of a network game, the other player is notified that the connection was lost. On restart of the program (or programs, in case both players quit) an attempt is made to restore the connection so that gameplay may resume. If this fails, the game will have to be aborted - so it is safest to try not to quit while a dual-player network game is in progress!

For obvious reasons it is not possible to switch from a single-player to a dual-player game while playing.

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Network Play

ChartFight will do its best to keep your network game active, even after quitting and restarting (currently only for games played over local-area WiFi.) If, however, something is wrong with the connection outside the application or the device, then there is little it can do.

Possible problems may be:

There is no active WiFi connection. Start up the Settings application, and make sure the name of a router is visible behind the 'Wi-Fi' label. For link-local play, both players must be connected to the same router. For general internet play using ChartFight Server or direct addressing, a connection to the internet is necessary.

Network traffic over the port ChartFight uses is blocked. This will not often be a problem in home network situations, but corporate networks may be blocking the ports that are available for ChartFight to use. Other public WiFi networks may present similar problems. You can configure the port ChartFight uses on the 'Play As...' settings screen.
   Even on home networks, though, it may be necessary to tweak settings on your WiFi router, perhaps using port forwarding to direct ChartFight network traffic to your iPhone or iPod. Consult your router's documentation on how to accomplish this.

The network is slow. When playing over the internet, there is no way to tell by what convoluted route your cannon shots reach your opponent. This is a general problem, which may depend on the time of day and the phase of the moon. In these cases it may be good to remember that patience is a virtue.
   This may be even more of an issue when playing a game started on the ChartFight Server: on the iPhone, when using the cellular network, with or without EDGE or 3G, a lot depends on the quality of service in the location you happen to find yourself in.

In case of a slow network connection, don't try to 'speed things up' by firing at your opponent as fast as you can, as this may lead to synchronization problems, resulting in a game which appears to 'hang' and must be aborted. Always wait at least a few seconds before firing back.

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ChartFight Server

The ChartFight Server (CFS) is a central directory you can connect to in order to find opponents to challenge. The CFS is globally accessible, so your opponents can be located anywhere in the world. In addition, you can choose to upload the results of your battles and have them visible in the global rankings list.

Connect

Use the 'Connect' switch to register with the CFS. As soon as you're registered, a list will appear, containing all other ChartFight players currently looking for an opponent. Tapping any of these opponents will issue a challenge to them. If the challenge is accepted, the Settings screen will appear again, with your opponent's name checkmarked in the list. You can then start to play in the way described above.

Again, you may be the one challenged: remember that as soon as you register with the CFS, your device name may appear in the 'Remote Opponent' lists of any other iPhones or iPods that are also registered.

For performance reasons, the list of opponents is only retrieved from the server periodically.

Upload Scores

Use this switch to determine whether you want the results of your battles uploaded to the scores database. NOTE: once you have started a game, you can NOT change this setting. Make up your mind in advance whether you want the world to know about your victories and defeats!

Only the results of battles that have been started via the ChartFight Server are stored.

The state of this switch is saved when you exit ChartFight.

Score

The High Score page shows the results currently stored for your device in the CFS scores database. These are the accumulated results for all battles that you have chosen to register.

Global Rankings

This page shows the ranked high scores as present in the CFS scores database. Use it to keep track of your world ChartFight ranking.

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Contact

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