The Arcadian Legend

The Arcadian Legends is a multiplayer, empire-building strategy door game for bulletin board systems set in medieval times.

In TAL, the player begins as ruler of a small county. The goal is to build the largest, strongest county.

Gameplay in The Arcadian Legends is similar to its SRGames cousins, Barren Realms Elite and Falcon's Eye, also turn-based strategy games. The player must manage his county's economy, build an army, and engage in trade and diplomacy. TAL is unique, though, in that each of its turns represents one day of a month, and during that day you can only do one thing, such as mining, farming, conducting war or sending out a treaty proposal.

Name                       The Arcadian Legends
Internal Code              TAL
Start-up Directory         ../xtrn/tal
Command Line               tal
Clean-up Command Line
Execution Cost             None
Access Requirements
Execution Requirements
Multiple Concurrent Users  Yes
Intercept Standard I/O     No
Native (32-bit) Executable No
Use Shell to Execute       No
Modify User Data           No
Execute on Event           No
Pause After Execution      No
BBS Drop File Type        (R) Solar Realms    DOORFILE.SR
Place Drop File In         Start-Up Directory
Time Options               Set as needed for your BBS

TAL and the other SR / John Daily doors are easy with Synchronet since it supports SR doors native DOORFILE.SR. Basically just place the DOORFILE.SR in TAL's directory and you're home free. Note: TAL is not Multiplayer and can only be used on one node at a time. However, we can leave Allow Mulitple Users ON in SCFG as BRE will inform the player the door is in use by itself.

From the command prompt, in the TAL directory, run the TAL103.EXE executable. Once that is completed, run the UNPACK.BAT file. This will create the DATA and DOC directories. TAL.DOC is in the DOC directory. Next, run INSTALL.EXE...

Install The Arcadian Legends (Y/N)? - Yes.
Next screen 'BBS Types', select #10 - Synchronet (DOORFILE.SR).
Ignore next screen which contains 'Setup Instructions' by pressing any key.

Game Setup Screen
TAL 1.03 setup:
The TAL Directory is '[The directory to which you installed TAL]'
Which directory is your BSB in? [Enter the Directory to which you installed TAL]
Hit 'Enter'
Enter the full path to your BBS's door files: [Enter the Directory to which you installed TAL]
Hit 'Enter'
Batch file to create: [Enter the Directory to which you installed TAL]\tal.bat
Hit 'Enter'
TAL Can use the fossil driver for communications.
Do you want TAL to use the FOSSIL? (Y/N)
Hit 'Y'
If you have locked baud rates, please enter the baud rate:
Hit 'Enter'
Hit 'Enter' again

Score File Setup
Enter the location for the ANSI score file
Enter the location for the ASCII score file
Hit 'Enter'

News File Setup
Enter the location for the ANSI News file
Enter the location for the ASCII News file
Enter the location for Yesterday News ANSI file
Enter the location for Yesterday News ASCII file
Hit 'Enter'
Hit 'Enter' again

BRE creates the following BAT files:
@ECHO OFF
C:
CD \SBBS\XTRN\TAL10
COPY C:\SBBS\XTRN\TAL10\DOORFILE.SR .
TAL
C:
CD \SBBS\XTRN\TAL10

Since SBBS places the doorfile in the startup directory, edit it to match this
@ECHO OFF
TAL FULL

I run a FULL with each game to process and stray inbound or outbound packets

Contact the League Coordinator for the League you wish to join and they will send you the files needed to setup InterBBS play. Once you have those files, run FE SETUPINTERBBS and fill out the information as needed.

You are about to create a BBS.CFG file for InterPlanetary warfare.
Proceed? (Y/N) - Yes
Sysop Name: Enter your Name
BBS Name:   Enter your BBS's Name
The Net/Node number should include zone only if BRNODES.DAT has it.
Input as: (zone:)net/node
Net/Node Number: Enter the information given to you by the League Coordinator
The Following questions are related to your front end mailer.
Incoming FILES Directory:     Enter the location where your mailer places inbound files
Outbound NETMAIL directory:   Enter the location where your outbound netmail is placed
TAL Planetary League Number:  Enter your TAL League number
Your mailer must be one of the following:
FRONTDOOR     BINKLEY     DBRIDGE     DBRIDGEOLD     OTHER     NONE
DBRIDGEOLD is the setting that should be used for DBridge v1.32 and lower mailers
Front End Mailer: Enter the type of mailer you are using (Note: Argus/Radius/Taurus use NONE)

Hit 'Enter' and your BBS.CFG file will be created. Copy the TALNODES.DAT that you received from your League Coordinator into the TAL directory.

Edit the RESOURCE.DAT file and make the changes requested by the League Coordinator to match the other systems in the League. Normally these are:

ReconUpdate
OldestRecon
TimingCheck

From the command line, in your TAL directory, run TAL RESET and set the information to match what your TAL League Coordinator has given to you. Here, for example, are the settings for League 10:

             TAL League 10 settings for game starting Jan 6, 2016
                -=[ Current version used at this time v1.03 ]=-
      
                     Next start will be around Jan 2, 2017


------- The Arcadian Legends Configuration Editor --------------
Game Start Date               : 01/6/2016   00:00:00
Game Join Date                : 01/8/2017  00:00:00
Turns Per Day                 : 20
Turns of Protection           : 100
Land from Exploring           : 25
Max Players                   : 25
*Days for "Lost Attacks"      : 3
*Dupe Checking                : Enabled

From the command line, run TAL TEST and take a look at the RESULTS.TXT file generated. This will tell you if there are any issues.

I run TAL inbound whenever my system receives mail. I also run the following every midnight in my nightly maintenance batch file.

::TAL League 10
CD C:\sbbs\xtrn\tal10
TAL INBOUND [Processes any inbound BRE packets]
TAL SCORES [Creates InterBBS score files]
TAL PLANETARY [Runs daily Maintenance for BRE]
TAL REQUEST [Create global recon updates and requests]
TAL BBSINFO [Creates a text file of all League BBS's, their version number and date of last recon.]
TAL OUTBOUND [Processes any outbound packets]
cd outbound
move *.* c:\taurus\out\[filebox name] [Moves outbound packets to the filebox for the League Hub system]
del c:\taurus\out\[filebox name]\*.msg [Deletes extraneous MSG files]

TAL can still be registered at John Daily Software. If you plan on joining a InterBBS league, I highly suggest you register the software to have all functionality available to your players. Registration cost is $15.00. You can purchase the “Bundle” the includes BRE, FE, TAL and FH for $45.00

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