Source:Knight Quest Manual

This page is a verbatim reproduction of original source material and should not be edited except for maintenance.
Description	This document contains Section II ("Files") of what is assumed to be a more complete manual for the Knight Quest game system. It's unknown if other sections of the manual were ever completed or made available.
Source	ADFILES, a text file included on the Knight Quest Utilities II disk.
Date	1983
Author	John Nelson
License	It is believed that the use of this copyrighted item in Eamon Wiki qualifies as fair use under the copyright law of the United States.

Section II. Files

The Knight Quest System is disk dependent for all of its adventure data. The programs are written to read all the information regarding the adventure from the diskette. This makes it possible to easily create new adventures simply by editing the data on the disk.

The files needed to define an adventure are described in this section. The fields listed are described in the order they will be found on the disk, although this may not be necessary for you, as a designer, to know.

The files required for the adventure are:

KQ.NAME	Contains the name of the adventure and other information related to the adventure.
KQ.ROOMS	Contains information about the rooms.
KQ.MON	Contains information about the monsters.
KQ.ART	Contains information about the artifacts.
KQ.DESC	All the descriptions needed.
CHAIN	Binary file for linking program together.

These files together define the adventure. Further detail on these text files is given below.

KQ.NAME

This file is a sequential text file containing the information relevant to the entire adventure. The fields in this file are:

Name of Adventure

This must be the exact name of the program that is to be run when the system links between the Town Square and the adventure. You do not have to concern yourself with this, since the system sets this up for you.

Number of Directions

This field must be 6 for now. Future versions of the program will be able to work in 10 directions.

Recommended Level

This is the level that the character should have reached before attempting to tackle this adventure. It may also be called the minimum level, but this is not totally accurate, since characters below this level may go on the adventure.

Maximum Level

This is the highest level character that will be allowed to go on this adventure. Anyone of a higher level will be told to go away and pick on someone their own size.

Number of Friends Allowed

This is the number of friends that will be allowed to accompany the adventurer. Any number of friends higher than this number will be destroyed.

KQ.DESC

This file contains all of the descriptions and effects that will be used by the program. Each record of the description file is a maximum of 256 bytes and contains one field. Records 1 through 100 contain the descriptions of the rooms. Records 101 through 200 contain the artifact descriptions. The effects and any text of readable artifacts is found in records 201 through 300. Monster descriptions are in records 301 through 400.

Record 0 = # Rooms / # Artifacts / # Effects / # Monsters

Records	1-100	...	Room descriptions
Records	101-200	...	Artifact descriptions
Records	201-300	...	Effects
Records	301-400	...	Monsters

KQ.ART

This is the artifacts file. It contains all the data pertaining to the artifacts in the adventure. The artifacts are all inanimate objects that may have any purpose in the adventure. The artifacts file consists of the following fields:

Artifact Name

The name by which this item can be acted upon by the adventurer. It should be between 1 and 25 characters in length and should not start with a number.

Room number

This is where the artifact can be found. There are some special room numbers:
+100 = Inside another artifact (e.g. 124 = inside #24)
+200 = Buried in a Room (e.g. 224 = buried in room 24)
+300 = Hidden in a Room (e.g. 324 = Hidden in room 24)
+400 = Under an artifact (e.g. 424 = Under artifact 24)
+500 = Randomly placed
-100 = Hidden on a monster (e.g. -124 = hidden on monster 24)
-m-1 = Carried by a monster (e.g. -10 = carried by monster 9)

Artifact Type

A code to tell the program what type of artifact the object is. There are currently 25 artifact types. These artifact types are listed in appendix A.

Weight

This is how heavy the item is. An adventurer can carry up to 8 times his hardiness.

Value

This is the price that can be obtained from the item from a merchant when the item is returned to civilization, or the number of gold pieces.

Experience Points

If the item is difficult to find or obtain and has special significance, you may assign the item some experience points. Most things should not have experience points.

Number of Uses

Usually what the next field is used for. The number of uses field will determine how many times the item can be used, assuming it is a useful item.

Chances

This field is usually used for a chance to work field for usable artifacts.

Effect / Dice

This field is used for the effect or dice for usable artifacts.

Sides / Guarded by

Used for sides for a weapon and for the guarded by field for non-weapons. Weapons cannot be guarded without special programming.

KQ.MON

The monsters file contains all the information needed to define monsters. The monster file consists of the following data:

Room number

The room the monster is in. There are some special meanings for the room field:
+100 = Inside an artifact
+200 = Buried in a room (or underground)
+300 = Hiding in a room
+400 = Under an artifact
+500 = Wandering monster
Room - 500 = % chance of walking in
+600 = Randomly placed monster
Room - 600 = Lowest room to appear in
+700 = Embedded or conjured friend
Room - 700 = Identifier
Identifier will be used to read an effect from the effect are of the description file and print it. Then all monsters having the a 700+ code in their room field that matches a 700 code in another monster's defensive odds field of their record will be brought into the room when the monster is attacked. For example, suppose there is a monster (number 12) in room 36 by the name of Albert Schweitzer. The room description says that he is sitting in a band of seven African natives, telling stories. The defensive odds of Mr. Schweitzer have been coded as 703. Monsters 1 through 7 have a room number of 703. If you attack Mr. Schweitzer, the program will first print effect number 3 (which it obtains by subtracting 700 from the defensive odds field.) Effect 3 says something to the effect that the natives are irritated by your attack and jump at you. The program then searches through the monster table, finding all monsters with a room number of 703. These monsters will be brought into the room ready for battle.

Hardiness

Number of damage points a monster can take before he will fall unconscious.

Agility

Only used to determined how often he will fumble. May also be used in calculating what a monsters chances to hit are.

Friendliness

This is the % chance that the monster will be friendly. It will vary randomly and according to the adventurers charisma.

Hatefulness

This is the opposite of the friendliness. It will be evaluated only if the friendliness does not make the monster a friend.

Courage

The monster's courage is used for both enemies and friends to determine how determined they are to stick with things even in the heat of battle. A courage in the negative numbers will cause the monster to remain where they are and not move at all. A courage of 100% will mean the monster will stay in battle until dead. A courage of 200% or more will assure that a monster, even an enemy, will chase the adventurer forever.

Spell Resistance

This is used for determining if a monster can resist magic spells or usable artifacts. A monster with a spell resistance of 100% will be immune to magic such as a sleep spell. It also works the same way for sleep gas (a usable artifact type).

Defensive Odds

This is the monster's ability to dodge attacks from weapons. A 100% defensive odds should keep him away from the adventurer, unless the adventurer has greater than a 100% chance to hit. Defensive odds > 700 will cause friends of the monster to enter the fray.

Armour Hits Stopped

This is how many hits are stopped by the armour of the monster. It does not matter whether it is an armour worn or a natural plating such as a dragon may have. A 1D6 weapon will glance off 6 point armour, unless a critical hit occurs.

Weapon Number

The weapon number this monster is using. This will point to artifact that you have set up for this monster's weapon. If the monster is not using an artificial weapon (using teeth, claws, flame breath, etc.), this field will be 0.

Offensive Odds

The total chances for a monster to hit an enemy. This is a percentage figure and should be between 0-99. If a value => 100 is used, the rightmost 2 digits are used for chances and the leading digits are used for the number of attacks per round. For example, a monster with Offensive Odds of 372 would get three attacks per round with a 72% chance to hit each round.

Dice

This game is played as if you were rolling dice to determine the amount of damage. This field is the number of dice to be rolled to determine the damage. It will usually be 1.

Sides

This is the number of sides (or highest number contained on one die.) It may be any number from 1 to 20, but should be 4, 6, 8 (most usual.)

Status

This is the status the monster will be when first encountered. The values available are:
-1 = Invisible
0 = Normal — usual case
1 = Poisoned
2 = Intangible
3 = Staying
4 = Out of Body
5 = Paralyzed
6 = Stone
7 = Asleep
8 = Unconscious
9 = Dead

Status Count

This is the length of time in turns of how long the monster will stay in the status that he stats in. This is only counted when the adventurer is in the room.

Bribe Amount

This is a relational field to describe how bribable the monster is. It is only used when the monster is bribable, as described by the friendliness and hate fields.

Sense Invisibility

This is the % chance that the monster will be able to see or sense the adventurer even if the adventurer was invisible.

See in the Dark

This is the % chance that the monster would be able to see or sense the adventurer even if it was pitch dark in the room.

Greed / Intelligence

This is a factor that serves two functions. It determines the monster's need to pick up things in the room, even though they may be useless, and also is used for the ability to be able to use an artifact once it is in the monster's possession.

KQ.ROOMS

The rooms file consists of all the information about the rooms, and how they connect. The rooms file consists of the following information:

• Room name
• Room number to the north
• Room number to the south
• Room number to the east
• Room number to the west
• Room number above
• Room number below
• Amount of light
• Underwater flag

The special codes for room numbers are:

0	...	No room in that direction
1‒99	...	Room you will enter
100	...	Exit - Back to Town Square
negative	...	Secret passage (except -100)
+100/+200	...	Locked door in that direction
+100	...	Normal locked door
+200	...	Locked - requires special key
+400	...	Pitfall Room - 400 = artifact #
+1000	...	Instant death
+10000	...	Guarded entrance / exit Format = 1mmrr mm = monster # of guard rr = room into
-101‒199	...	Dig through to another area

The light codes are:

0	...	Magic darkness
1	...	Total darkness
2	...	Too dark to see
3	...	Normal light
4	...	Too bright to see

To help clarify the special room codes used for the KQ.ROOMS file, let's take a look at some examples.

Let's assume you are setting up a dungeon and want to have a secret passage to the south in room 43 that will lead into room 44. When you are entering the room codes for room 43, enter -44 when prompted for south.

Now let's say you are in a shaky old north/south tunnel (room 44) and that the tunnel has collapsed to the south. You want the adventurer to have to dig through in order to go south and that the room he will break through to will be room number 45. When entering the rooms connecting to room 44, enter -145 for the south connection. The program will recognize the negative value and also that its absolute value > 100. When the adventurer digs south, the program will automatically connect him to room 45.

Now let's assume you are in room 45 and it is an entryway to a large temple. You want to guard the entrance with a monster (lets say monster #18.) The room to enter after you get past the guard is room number 46 and is to the south of room 45. The room connect code will be 11846. The fact that the number is > 10,000 will tell the program that this is a guarded doorway. It uses the two rightmost digits (46) for the room number and uses the next two digits (18) for the monster number. The only way to get past the guard would be to put him out of action or get him to leave the room.

Next, let's say you are in room 46 and there is a locked door to the east that uses a standard skeleton key. When you get past the door, you will be in room 47. This will be coded as 147 for the east room connect code in room 46. If the door required a special key, the code would be 247. The key that would be required for the special lock would have 46 for the effect (field 7), since this is the room you would be standing in while using it.

Appendix A

[Artifact types]