Atlantis Advisor Help

Atlantis Advisor is the client program designed for viewing reports of Atlantis PBEM, all versions from Atlantis 3.0 to Realms 4.0.10 and Ceran. © Gnawer aka Wredosoft Software LTD 1999-2003.

This program is shareware. Registration fee is 10$. Unregistered version has limited functionality. See Registration for further details.

Useful Hints

Orders (unit popup): Shift-click an order to make it repeating (like @work)
Items: Drag items from unit inventory to another unit to GIVE them. Enter amount to give from keyboard while dragging. Hold Alt when releasing item to issue GIVE ALL order.
Turn Events: Click an event to center region on map; double-click to center region and close window; shift-click battle to open Battle Viewer.
Movement: While moving unit, click an object in left panel to enter it. If it was linked shaft, unit will MOVE IN.
RTFM

Environment

Game Manager

Structure of the Game

In Advisor, Game is folder like Advisor/sample game with all game data. Important files inside the folder is: game.dat - database for all game items, skills, map etc; scripts.txt - all scripts for the game. These files may be edited in text editor. Also this folder by default keeps all game order and report files.

There is some predefined rulesets (databases) available on game creation: standard.dat, ceran.dat and conquest.dat. That's actually files in Advisor root folder, which will be copied to newly created game folder. The rulesets contains most information available in game rules and will never contain any data for advanced items.

Using Manager

First, you should create a game. In unregistered version you can't create more than one game, so delete Sample Game and then create new one. Note that when you removing a game, files will not be actually deleted, so you'll not lost an information. If you want to completely destroy a game, remove it from Manager and then manually delete game folder.

Then, add reports to the game. You may add report files from disk or paste report from clipboard. In latter case, report will be saved to game folder. You may set option to automatically rename all opened files and move them to game folder; see Options | Manager.

When all reports added, you should parse them to transfer data from text files into memory. To do it, press Read button. Parse log is shown on the right; blue triangle on the bottom hides or shows the log. Review the log if there is errors on report parsing.

Advisor usually keeps some last reports and kicks out old ones from the game. You can't view unit disposition from kicked (archived) reports, but all valuable data (skill reports, map etc) is stored in game database and available.

Another feature is loading orders for last turn. After parsing all reports, Advisor will scan Game/Orders folder for last turn order file, and load found orders. So, if you saved orders and then reopened game, no orders will be lost.

Options

Keep N last reports - amount of newer reports to keep in memory; all other will be archived.

Move reports to game folder - when you adding report files from disk, Advisor will automatically rename them and move to game folder.

Prompt to remove wrong reports - Game Manager will ask you to kick files from batch if they are not recognized as reports.

Try to load order - Advisor will scan Game/Orders folder for last turn orders and load them while parsing.

Setting up new game

When you created new game and parsed first report, do following:

Open File | Options.
Change game password.
Check if Faction Points sequence matches your game's one (see game rules for your server).
If you know map dimensions for the game, enter them now.
If you are registered user, fill in E-Mail data for Send Order command.

Main Window Interface

Map

Map has many display options, available from map toolbar right above it or from Map menu.

Right-click and drag to move map to another position. Double-click to center a region. Press Home to center on selected region. Bookmarks allows to quickly navigate to bookmarked regions.

You can select map level (surface, underworld etc) from drop-down list near Level button or from Map menu. Level button or "Map | Level down" selects next level from list. If you want to follow a shaft rather then just select next level, double-click a shaft in object list.

In "autodetect size" mode, map shows the regions you already explored, plus 4-hex border around them to allow units move further. Map is cylindric, cycled from east to west. If you found a margin of the map (last eastern or southern region), you may manually set map size to remove 4-hex border. Open Options, set Manual Map Dimension for selected level, then enter map size (coordinates of last south-eastern region plus 1 for each dimension).

Mini Map ("View | Mini Map") used for fast world navigation; clicking on Mini Map centers clicked region on main map. Red rectangle on Mini Map shows visible area in main map.

Object list

This list is to the left of map and shows structures in selected region. If structure is not finished (needs further building), it has small number of material units Needs. If there is units inside, structure icon also has flag of owner faction. Double-click a shaft here to open a region shaft leads to.

Unit Grid

Region information

This panel contains information about selected region. On the top you see icon for current month weather and land name. Then comes region information.

Hex. Terrain and coords; for regions not visible in current turn, also last month when they were visible.
Settlement. Region settlement, if any.
Peasants. Inhabitants of region.
Tax Rate. Amount of money available to collect with TAX command. Grayed numbers is: amount of taxers in region (if any) / amount of men to collect all tax money. If amount of taxers is more than enough for region, income per taxer will come in (brackets).
Wages. Payment for WORKing men.
Max Wages. Amount of money for all workers. Grayed is amount of working men (if any) / amount of men to collect all money / income per man in brackets.
Entertainment. Amount of money available to collect with entertainment. Grayed is amount of entertainers multiplied by skill level (if any) / amount to collect all money / income per level in brackets.

All calculations for taxers, workers and entertainers taking into account only player's faction, because other faction's units' orders are unknown.

Then comes grid for items available to produce in the region. Double-click on this and following grids opens Item Editor. Resources without amount shown in strikeout font is advanced resources which may appear in this type of terrain, but wasn't found in the region (see Analyzing Resources)

Next is grids for items Wanted and For Sale here. Empty Amount column in For Sale grid means "unlimited". If units buys or sells items, amount will be shown here as "Currently Wanted/All Wanted". For example, if a unit sells 1 sword from wanted 10, number is "9/10".

Notes tab opens region notes. These notes are valuable only inside Advisor. If Map | Show Region Notes is on, notes will be shown as hints when mouse cursor is over the region on the map.

Unit information

This panel shows info for unit currently selected in grid. On the top is unit's name, number, and description (line below name). Name and description may be edited right here. Description line may work in two modes, selected by button with green head. If head is in normal level, description is regular game description. If it is down, description is local and will not be shown to other players. You may assign local descriptions to any unit, including units of other players.

Then comes unit flags.

Item grid shows unit inventory. Items in this grid is sorted by item index (see Item Editor). Double-click opens Item Editor. You may give items to another units by dragging them to unit grid or discard (GIVE 0) them by dragging to map (see GIVE). Items bought during this turn is grayed and can't be given. Right-click opens popup menu with advanced GIVE options: for example, by selecting "Give to Riding" you will command target unit to accept no more items than it can carry when riding.

There is two special types of items, shown here: trade income and work income. Basically, that's money unit earns this turn.

trade income - money from TAX, PILLAGE and SELL. Counted for BUY, STUDY and mainentance.
work income - money from ENTERTAIN and WORK. Counted for STUDY and mainentance.

You can't give income money to other units, because GIVE order are processed before other ones.

Item Grid usually displays all modifications in unit's items: when you sell or give items, amount will change or item will disappear. If you wish to have amount of items as they appears in report (without any modifications), choose "View | Unmodified item amounts". Unmodified amounts are grayed.

By dragging icons below Item Grid, you may issue masked GIVE orders: GIVE ALL ITEMS, GIVE ALL WEAPON/ARMOR, and GIVE ALL TRADE. "Give spoils" icon works slightly different: it issues one order for each "spoil" item. "Spoils" is any items except silver, men, weapons, armor, mounts, and misc combat items.

Skill grid shows unit skills. "Can Study" skills for mages are grayed, Combat Spell are marked with casting hand icon. Double-click on the grid opens Skill Editor; right-click shows skill context menu. Note that behavior of this menu is similar to unit's: shift-clicking Study will issue "@study" command.

Load tab shows unit load and capacity for various types of movement. Numbers near Wagons icon is amount of wagons used (supplied with a horse) / full amount of wagons. Then comes calculations for walking, riding, flying, and transport. If unit can move this way, numbers are following: "1 (max 5)", which means: "Load 1, Capacity 5". For Transport (Ship) movement, numbers are: "5/15 (max 200)", which means: "Unit weight in ship 5, full ship Load 15, ship Capacity 200".

Object information

This panel contains information for structure selected in Objects List. On the top is structure name, number and description (line below name); name and description may be edited right here. Then comes structure information.

Type.
Owner. First unit inside.
Defence. For defence structures: amount of men which receives defence bonus when inside.
Men inside.
Size. Amount of material units to build the structure.

For Transports: Load is weight of men and items inside; Control is men*skill value to SAIL the ship. For example, both 15 level 1 sailors and 5 level 3 sailors gives 15 Control units.

Shafts are known to have passages to another regions. You may link a shaft to destination region by pressing Link button and selecting a region on map. When Level button (or "Map | Level down") pressed on a region with shaft, map will show linked region. Shafts will be automatically linked when your units are passing through and server shows their way in Events (see Automatic shaft linkage).

Receive Items

By pressing F5, you may toggle on and off another item grid, containing all items in all faction units in the region, excluding selected one. You may drag items from the grid into unit's items, ant they will be given to the unit. This is useful if you want to collect spoils, load caravan etc. Items in this grid are sorted by item indexes (see Item Editor).

Grids

Advisor implements its own type of advanced grids; most cool specimen is Unit Grid. Grids has some common options, though some of them may be disabled.

Sorting. Click on column header sorts the grid by this column. Another click on sorted header changes sort order from ascending to descending. When there is equal rows in column, sorting algorythm will search other columns, from left to right. There is two types of sort for a column: string (1, 10, 2, 20) and numeric (1, 2, 10, 20). Sort type is defined in config file.
Filtering. There is usually buttons to filter something, for example My Faction button for Unit Grid.
Column moving and resizing. Drag column headers to set width and position of colimns.
Column hiding. Right-click a column header to open popup menu, then deselect the columns you want to hide.

New Unit window

Item Editor

Indexes

All items has indexes, or numbers. These indexes used for two purposes: first is sorting items in grids (for example unit's items), and second is preference of combat equipment for Soldiers in Unit, Battle Simulator and army exchanges. Items with lower indexes are usually considered better. Rulesets supplied with Advisor already has all weapons and armors ordered in correct way; do not change this order, or all battle features will work incorrectly. Note that absolute position is not important: for example, plate armor may be #10 or #100, but it must be before chain armor.

Flags

Type of an item may be set by combo and some checkboxes. Types in combo are self-explaining; note that Wagon type must be set manually for wagons. Here is the explanation of extra flags.

Tool. Item are raising production of other items.
Can't be given. Just that.
Resource. Item doesn't needs raw materials to produce and may be produced in specific types of terrain.
Advanced. This is the resource you can't see and produce with lower skill levels, or the items made from advanced resources (mithril swords are Advanced).
Misc combat item. This item has special combat ability (fire attack, shield etc).

Item Classes

Item classes (or masks) may be used in GIVE command (i.e. GIVE ALL TRADE) and in Needs. Advisor's understanding of these classes is slightly different than server's and always based on item flags.

items	GIVE: all items. Needs: all items except men and silver.
weapons
armor
mounts
men
normal
advanced
monsters
magic	Misc combat items
battle	Misc combat items
special	Misc combat items
tools
food
spoils	For Needs only: all items, except silver, men, weapons, armor, mounts, and misc combat items.
materials	For Needs only: all pure Resources and Advanced Resources (mounts is not pure Resources)

Battle Viewer/Simulator

Battle Viewer is the graphical window which shows you battle disposition. In the left half of window you see two boxes for army leaders (tactics) and the armies themselves. Units are usually shown in appropriate armor, wielding weapons. Small number near unit is the count of men/monsters in. When you are moving mouse over unit or selecting it by clicking, unit details are shown on "Unit" tab. To play animation for battle actions, press Play button.

Battle Simulator is the tool which helps you to predict results of a battle. You may run it on already concluded battle or create your own situation. When you pressing "Calculate damage" button, Simulator runs 100 battles, and records winners and loses. Then it shows percent of victories for each side. Also, small percent numbers appears near damaged units; for one-man unit they may be considered as possibility to lose this man; for many-man units - as percentage of men which will be most likely lost. You may also view animation for one simulated battle; press Play in simulation mode to do it.

To run properly, Simulator requires correct settings for weapons, armor and mounts used by combatants. Basically, it will rely on numbers similar to shown in "Soldiers in Unit" window. Proper setup for special abilities and monsters are extremely important, because they may change battle dramatically.

Options

Current Game

This tab contains settings for opened game. All other are global for all games.

Details

E-Mail settings used for Send Order command and should contain headers for your order messages. If "Send Immediately" is not set, email client will open orders in message editor, so you may review it and send manually.
Other game settings used to tune Advisor for specific game. You should review rules of your game server to set these options correctly. One special option is Code modifications. This select list enables hard-coded features specific to some supported modifications of Atlantis.

Faction Points

sequence of war and trade regions and mages per amount of FP. See game rules for Faction Points table of your game.

Map settings

Map dimensions is the coordinates of last south-eastern region on the map. See Map for further explanations.
Bad Seasons box allows Advisor to calculate weather in all surface regions. To enable this feature, set Guess Weather flag and define map size for surface. You should enable it as soon as possible, because calculations of move points rely on weather.
Show winter terrains is another cool map feature: region looks different in summer and winter.

Environment

Main Window

Custom string is contents of custom column in Unit Grid.
Long Item lists makes columns for Men and Horses look like "10 sea elves" instead of "10".
Show Name if no Local Description given box commands to fill empty entries in Local Description column with unit names. Also, all unit marks will be drawn in Local Description column. Thus, you can use it instead of Unit column and hide actual unit names from enemies.
Show army colors. When this box is checked, army unit names are drawn in army colors.

Show Wrong Avatars. Registered version may include many avatar packs. If someone exported avatar for a unit, and that avatar's pack is not installed in your Advisor, with this option it will be shown as special error image.
Show Battle Images as Avatars. When this flag is on, images from Battle Viewer will be drawn in place of avatars.
Show Turn Events on game startup simply shows Turn Events on game startup.
Compact orders before save/send. This option compacts orders before saving, copying to clipboard or sending to email client, to reduce size of order message. All comments except repeating "@;" will be removed, full item and skill names will be replaced with short names. If Also compact repeating orders flag not checked, full names in repeating orders will remain intact.
Overwrite month-long orders. When this option is set, monthlong order issued from unit popup menu will remove all previous monthlong orders. For example, if unit has MOVE order and we are issuing WORK, we will have both MOVE and WORK orders without this option and only WORK with it.
Auto-set Needs. This flag enables automatical declaration of Needs for each PRODUCE, BUILD and STUDY order issued from environment.
Redirect "new" orders. See description in "Redirect ..." section.
Use Translit feature. This feature was included for Russian players, but probably could be used with other languages too. When it's enabled, all units with names starting with dot, like ".Drovosek", will be shown in Unit Grid in russian characters, like "��". Also, names in Form and Name Unit dialogs may be typed in russian, and Advisor will automatically convert them to translit. Transliteration settings may be changed in config.ini file.
Custom Fog. When "Map | Fog Type | Custom" selected, Advisor will shadow regions older than certain amount of months. This amount may be set here.

Default faction colors is the colors to show factions with defined attitude. You may assign special colors to factions in Factions window.

Bookmarks

This tab allows to remove bookmarks.

Shortcuts

In this tab, you may define keyboard shortcuts (hot keys) for unit menu and main menu items. To define shortcut, select an order and press desired key combination.

Shift key has special meaning. Normally, when you selecting an order from menu with Shift pressed, it appears with @. If the order is invoked by shortcut key, Shift has same effect: Shift+Key produces @-order. But what if you always issuing this order with @ (for example, @work)? You may want to add it with single key, not Shift+Key combination. To do this, press Shift when defining shortcut (for bold orders).

Order Tools

Main Window tricks

Advisor offers special ways to issue some common orders - smarter than just entering them manually or adding one-by-one from unit menu. Usually these methods allows to issue a bunch of orders in couple clicks.

Movement

Movement mode starts when you issuing MOVE, SAIL or ADVANCE command from unit's context menu. In this mode, you can click the regions on map which you would like the unit to move through. Red frame shows regions available for unit; number in unit's current region - remaining movement points; and arrows shows the regions unit can enter right now.

If men in unit can swim, it will MOVE over water. Otherwise walking units can't leave land. Ships can SAIL in water and coastal regions.

If unit was inside structure when started MOVE, it will MOVE OUT first.

While moving, you can enter objects in region. To do it, click an object in left panel. If you clicked a shaft, unit will MOVE IN. If the shaft was linked to another region (see Object information), map will show linked region and unit will be able to continue movement. Otherwise, movement will be ended.

To work properly, movement mode requires following:

Men and mounts in unit are properly defined in Item Editor (Weight and Movement tab are particulary important);
Map size is defined manually for surface and Guess Weather mode is on;
Explored shafts are linked.

Maintenance

Advisor calculates maintenance (upkeep) for moving units by target region. Consider unit without silver. It will automatically take silver from units in same region to avoid starvation. When unit moving, it will take money from units in target region.

To view units arriving in selected region, select "View | Arriving units". This option is useful when you receive Advisor warning "No money for maintenance", which points to empty region, being target of one or more units.

Drag-n-drop GIVE

GIVE interface based on Item Grid of Unit Info Panel. You may GIVE items by dragging them from item grid onto target unit in unit grid or discard (GIVE 0) them by dragging to map. You may also toggle Receive Items grid on and drag items from there to Item Grid.

Hold Shift when relesing item to issue @GIVE order. Hold Alt to issue GIVE ALL order. Both keys results in @GIVE ALL.

"Give:" box below item grid shows amount to give. By dragging icons below the grid, you issuing "GIVE ALL ITEMS", "GIVE ALL WEAPON, ARMOR" and "GIVE ALL TRADE" orders, respectively.

Right-clicking on grid pops up menu with advanced GIVE options. For example, when you selecting "Give to Riding" option, target unit will accept no more given items thain it can carry when riding.

Note that GIVE orders will take into account position of items before any turn processing. Consider example. Unit A has 10 swords and gives 5 swords to unit B. Then unit B gives 2 swords to unit C.

Unit A	10 swords	give B 5 swords
Unit B		give C 2 swords
Unit C

Normally, this sequence will throw an error, because B doesn't have a swords when processing starts. But if you issued the orders with drag-and-drop, they will actually look like this:

Unit A	10 swords	give B 3 swords give C 2 swords
Unit B
Unit C

Armies

Army is a group of units which should move together - in other words, receive similar MOVE orders.

To make an army, open "View | Armies" and click +.
To command units to join an army, choose "Specials | Army | army name" in unit popup menu.
To move all army units in region together, choose "Specials | Move Army" in popup menu of any army unit. Army will move with speed of slowest unit.

FORM Templates

If you often create some type of units, for example scouts or taxing squads, you may want to write template for this units and then create them in one click. To do this, set up new unit as usual, and then press "Save as Template" button near unit name in New Unit window. You will create template with name given to this unit. Now you may open "Form" submenu in Unit Menu (right below Form New item) and choose saved template.

Templates could be modified in Options | Environment. Note that template contains some wildcard strings:

%N - number of new unit
%PEASANTS - name of peasants of current region
%RECRUITFEE(amount) - cost of men bought * amount

Automatic orders

Instead of OrderScript, Advisor has some built-in features to automatically perform some common tasks. These features has no support on server, they are inner matter of Advisor.

Needs

Each unit in your faction needs a set of items to complete its tasks. STUDYing units needs silver, PRODUCEing units needs tools and raw materials, armies needs weapons and horses. Normally you are providing these items manually, by issuing multiple GIVE commands. Advisor allows you to define units' needs; these units will automatically request needed items from the neighbours.

Technically, to declare needs, you should add special "@;needs" comment to unit's orders. You may do it from wizard: select "Specials | Declare Needs" from unit popup menu. Also, needs may be automatically declared with each monthlong order; to enable this feature, set the flag in "Options | Environment".

Format of the declaration

@;needs amount [usable] [unneeded] items1[, amount [usable] [unneeded] items2, ...][, priority N]

@;needs equipment[, priority N]

@;needs nogive

amount is number of items (like 10), "all", or "enough" (equal to amount of men in unit).

usable means unit will need only items it can use (units without Crossbow skill will not consider crossbows Usable).

unneeded means unit will take only unneeded items. Note: if unit has no declared needs, it needs all its items (with priority 1). But if unit declared needs to some items, all other items will be considered Unneeded.

items may be name of item (like "silver"), or item class - same that in GIVE command, with one exception: "items" will not select neither men nor silver. Normally, you shouldn't declare men as needs. Needs has two special item classes: Spoils and Materials (see item classes).

priority defines strict order for units to take specific items. If no priority given, priority is 0. Higher priority takes first.

"@;needs equipment", is equal to "@;needs enough usable weapons, enough armor, enough mounts".

"@;needs nogive" means unit will not give anything to anyone (automatically). It still may take items, if other needs declared.

Examples:

weaponsmith	@;needs 3 iron, enough hammers
student	@;needs 10 silver
local storage	@;needs all unneeded items
special forces	@;needs equipment, all unneeded silver, priority 1

What if unit has choice?

If unit declared, say, "@;needs enough weapons", and has a choice between crossbows and swords, it will prefer (in that order):

Weapon it skilled with (crossbow, if has Crossbow skill)
Ranged weapon, if unit is Behind.
Item with bigger total bonus for unit's skills (combat, riding etc; Behind units will prefer armor with good defence from armor-piercing).
Mount with greater capacity.

What if two units wants same item?

Generally, unit with bigger bonus from the item will take first. If units receive equal bonus, older "veteran" with higher skill levels will take first.

When Needs modify orders?

Needs will not be redistributed on each order processing, because that's time-consuming process. They will be actually redistributed:

On game startup (when new turn loaded and no saved order file found)
When you declaring needs from environment, either by "Declare Needs", "Add to Needs" or by entering monthlong order in auto-set Needs mode
When "Specials | Distribute Needs" selected from unit popup

Routes

Route is the path unit should constantly follow. Best example is a trade caravan: it may walk 20 hexes north, then 5 hexes south-east, return back, and then repeat the route. With this feature, caravan will cover optimal distances each turn, without any manual kicks.

To set a route for unit, you should add "@;route" comment to its orders. You may do it manually or select "Specials | Declare Route" from unit menu. In latter case, define route on map like normal movement. Hold Ctrl to command unit to stop in clicked region; double-click to finish route. Ctrl+double-click will finish route and make it one-way.

Format of the declaration

@;route [oneway] [move_order] (region_coords) path[: position]

oneway means this path sholdn't be repeated. If this token present, route will be removed when unit found himself in final region. Without it, unit will repeat route, if it begins and ends in same region.

move_order should be one of: move, advance, or sail.

region_coords defines starting region, like it appears in report: "1,1" for surface or "1,1,underworld" for underworld.

path is sequence of directions, like for MOVE command. Directions should be separated with spaces; if you'll insert comma after direction, unit will stop after this move, even if it can move further.

position is the automatically maintained number of current move; normally you shouldn't change it.

Examples:

@;route (10,10) N N NE, SW S S

Move three regions and stop there (to get some goods). In the next turn, move back and stop in starting region. Then repeat.

@;route sail (10,10) N N, S S: 1

Sail two regions north, stop there, then return and repeat. Ship already made one move north and now should make one more move to reach "comma region".

@;route oneway (5,5,underworld) S 1 IN N N

Move through shaft, walk a little, and stay there.

When Routes modify orders?

Routes will not be ran on each order processing. They will be actually processed:

On game startup (when new turn loaded and no saved order file found)
When you declaring route by selecting "Specials | Declare Route" (only selected unit will be processed)
When "Specials | Run Route" selected from unit popup.

Setting up a Caravan

Here is an example of automatic trade caravan between town and production region two hexes north.

In Town we have: taxing Guards and Smiths producing swords.
In Mines we have: Miners digging iron and Ranchers breeding livestock.

We want to regularly move some money from Guards to Mines to support workers, and bring back their production. Guards should keep all goods, sell required amount of livestock and give to Smiths required amount of iron to maintain optimal production ratio.

So, let's declare needs and set orders for these units:

Guards	@;needs all uneeded livestock, all unneeded iron, priority 1 @;needs 5000 silver @sell all livestock @tax
Smith	@;needs 1 hammer, 3 iron @produce swords
Miners	@;needs enough picks, all silver @produce iron
Ranchers	@;needs enough lassoes, all silver @produce livestock

Now, we'll create new unit - Caravan. We'll set circular route to move from town to mines, stop, exchange goods, and then go back.

Caravan

@;route (10,10) N N, S S
@;needs 1000 unneeded silver, all unneeded iron, all unneeded livestock
@;needs 10 horses, 50 silver, priority 1

So, Caravan will:

Exchange silver. In Town, Guards declared needs to 5000 silver, all other silver they have is unneeded. So Caravan will take up to 1000 silver to pay workers. In Mines, all silver is needed, so either Miners or Ranchers will take money from Caravan. Note that Caravan also has 50 silver as highly needed - that's its own maintenance fee, noone will take it.
Take unneeded items from workers. They needs only silver and tools, all produced goods are unneeded. In Town, Guards needs same items, but with higher priority, so they'll take all. Smith needs 3 iron each turn, so it'll take it from Guards when necessary.

Redirecting "new" orders

When you creating new unit, you don't know in advance its real number and must use alias, like "new 1". The problem is, if you want to teach the unit more than one turn (or do something like this), you must correct the TEACH order in next turn after creation, when unit receives real number. Advisor can handle this automatically. To do it, "@;new <number>" token will be supplied to each newly-created unit. In next turn, Advisor will look for these tokens and correct orders of other units according to token owners' real numbers. Then tokens will be removed.

To enable this mode, set "Redirect "new" orders" in Options.

Adding items

In some cases, unit may obtain items or money in ways, which aren't supported by client - for example, receive a gift from ally unit, or cast a spell. You may tell Advisor that you expect the unit to receive items by issuing @;add order (manually or from Specials menu).

Format of the declaration

@;add amount item_name [nogive]

nogive means item will appear as obtained after GIVE phase, and therefore will not be given to other units by any means.

Example

@;add 300 "silver"

NOP Directive

Add @;!NOP command to unit's orders to disable "No monthlong order" warning for this unit. Myself, I see no point in this, but people somehow found it useful.

Turn Analyzers

Unit tracking

Advisor keeps track of all units met in game by their numbers. For each unit, it records its faction and magical talent.

Faction recording works in following way. You have observer in region, and see unit from Some Faction. In next turn, observer moves out, and you see only unit, but not faction. Advisor will show the recorded faction for you, but it will be marked with ?, and whole unit row will be shown in colors of unknown faction.

Also, Advisor will attempt to record and show unit's faction if it was revealed in battle.

Unit will be considered mage, if:

It's your unit, and it knows some magic skills
It is one-leader unit of other faction, and:
1. Your mages spotted monthlong casts from this unit (they appeared in turn events); or
2. It was once met in battle, casted something, and this cast seems to wasn't produced by controlled monsters or battle items. To filter casts from battle items (staves etc), mark them as Magic in Item Editor and supply text of spell produced.

Mages are marked with mage head near unit name.

Analyzing Resources

Consider example. You have expert miner in mountain region, and he is not found a mithril. Now you know that this region surely not contain a mithril. Such inexistant resources are remembered in Advisor and shown in strikeout font in Products on Region information. This analysis requires following conditions:

The terrain potentially may contain the resource (this may be set up in Terrain Editor);
Resource is marked as Advanced Resource and has production skill defined;
Units with the skill are present in region.

If your explorers found in region some unexpected advanced resource, it will be included in list for that terrain.

Spy Reports

This window are available at Tools. Feature allows you to view activity of other factions on visible territories. It requires two or more turns loaded at same time. Basically, Advisor will try to find all units visible on current turn in previous turns and compare previous unit state with current one. So, you may spot appeared and disappeared (either moving or killed in battle) units, changes in unit parameters and inventory.

Last type if information - "economy" - is special. That's not direct unit events, but rather statistical calculations for regions. For example, if you have 10 level 1 entertainers in region with Entertainment Available $200, you expect them to collect exactly $200. And if you got in events "Earns 180 silver entertaining...", this means that someone else is entertaining in region. Advisor will deduct approximate skill of unknown labourers, in our example that's (200 / 180 * (200 - 180)) / 20 = level 1. Note that this feature works only in overloaded economy, when you get less than expected.

Here is the explanation for tool buttons.

First row of buttons filters information by type.
Selected Region shows info from selected region only.
Selected Unit shows info from selected unit, if that was unit of non-player faction. You may initialize this mode by selecting "Spy Report" from unit menu.
All loaded turns performs compare not only for last turn, but for all turns currently loaded.
Faction box filters events by faction.

Features

Automatic shaft linkage

Shafts leading from one level to another, so there is no way to calculate the region shaft leads to. So, target region will be recovered only when scout moved through shaft. Advisor will spot this movement from scout's Events and automatically record target region for the shaft. Explored shaft otherwise called "Linked". You may manually link a shaft from Object info panel.

If both source and target regions (the region scout moved from, and the region it moved to) has one shaft each, both these shafts will be linked: shaft from source region will lead to target region, and vice versa.

Using Send Order

Send Order command available in registered version and transfers orders straight to your email client. This option relies on Simple MAPI interface. Warning: it's still not too reliable and may not work at all. If you have a problems, try following:

Make sure that your email slient is registered in Windows as default Simple MAPI handler.
Set a default account in your mail client. If you are using The Bat, select Properties of an account and set "This account is default for "mailto:" URLs" flag.

Exporting and Importing Map

Export Map command available in File menu. It exports a regions in text file, similar to region section in your reports. There is two options: export whole map and export selected regions. To make selection, click on the map holding Ctrl or Shift. After exporting selection, you may add more regions to export file by selecting them on map and choosing "File | Add Current Region". Regions will be added to map file with same options as first ones. Shaft links will be exported as comments.

You can read exported map from your ally by selecting Import Map in File menu.

Advisor's exported map format is typically compatible with one used in EAP AtlaClient. Users of other clients may copy Advisor's map into clipboard and paste it into region report for their current turn, then parse report as usual.

Exporting and Importing Selection

To select a group of regions, click on the map holding Ctrl or Shift. Coordinates of selected regions may then be copied to clipboard (File | Selection to Clipboard), to paste in emails. Your recipient may Ctrl+C the coords from email message and use File | Selection from Clipboard to recreate the selection in his client. This may be useful if you want to show him some area.

Exporting and Importing Unit Skills

Export/Import skills commands available in File menu. This option helps you to establish teaching between ally factions. For example, you have some mages and want an ally to teach them. You exporting skills of these mages to clipboard and sending them to ally. They'll look like this:

!732:240
PATT 30, SPIR 30, GATE 30, EART 30, WOLF 30
@study "wolf lore"

Then he imports this data to his client and receives full information about your mages' skills and current study orders. He may also send you similar info about his teacher.

This format is compatible with EAP Atlaclient "Export Mages" feature.

Custom Graphics

Many of Advisor graphics may be customized. All custom graphics placed in Advisor/Images folder and being loaded on program startup. You may freely edit the files or add new. Advisor main pack comes with basic set of graphics; if you want many more, download latest Image Pack.

The subfolders of Images are:

Icons. Item and Object icons. 16x16 bmp files named after short names of items (viki.bmp) or group names of objects (galleon.bmp).
Extras. Small images of races for map "Status Icon | Peasants" mode. 10x10 bmp files named after short names of items (viki.bmp).
Terrain. Terrain images to use on map. 49x43 bmp files. This folder requires terrain.ini file in following format:

terrain [weather] = filename.bmp
Example: plain winter=plain_winter.bmp

If there is no [weather] section, the image will be used for all weathers. If a terrain also has line with [weather] section, it will be shown differently on selected weather.
Battle. Unit images for battle viewer. 32x32 bmp files. This folder requires battle.ini in following format:

[ITEMS] [skills] [mage, default] = filename.bmp[+mask.bmp] [filename2.bmp] [.style]

Mask is optional image to draw faction color on units (must be monochrome black & white bmp).
Tokens in CAPITAL are item short names, like VIKI. Tokens in regular letters are skills, like "combat", "tactics". "Mage" is special token, meaning unit casted something in the battle. "Default" line used as default. So, line "VIKI SWOR combat" will provide image for trained vikings with swords. Unit will take image from first matching definition, even if there is other matches.
If there is multiple filenames, pictures will be drawn over each other, last will appear on top. For example, you may draw man, then armor, then weapon.
Instead of name, you may define style and then include another section named after style, containing additional definitions. First matching definition from style section will be supplied instead of style entry. For example:

VIKI=peasant.bmp .def_armor

[.def_armor]
PARM=def_parm.bmp
CARM=def_carm.bmp

will draw peasant.bmp and then draw one of armor images over it, if armor was found in unit.

Editing Items, Objects and Skills

Advisor has internal editors for these things. But often there is no need to enter data manually, because it will be parsed from "Item reports", "Skill reports" and "Object reports" sections of report file. Simpliest way to set up an item is press "Request info" button or issue SHOW ITEM command and then wait next turn report with item information. Usually server automatically sends you reports for items you really need.

This feature, although, is highly relies on report format, which may differ on different servers. There is many versions of Atlantis now, highly differ in item (skill, object) reports. So if Advisor can't parse data automatically, you are baned to set it up manually.

Active Faction and Ally Reports

Advisor allows only one controlled faction in one game. It will remember main faction from first readed report in the game and then always use it as Active Faction. But you may also load reports from other factions (added in Game Manager, with your reports). Advisor will treat them as Ally Reports. You will be able to see all regions, units and battles from Ally Reports. Units from Ally Reports will be marked in unit grid and shown with full details, but you can't give orders to them.

Local Games

You may use Atlantis server engine locally to run your own test games. Advisor offers support for simple game with one faction. Note: normally you'll not need this feature, that's useful mainly for testing scripts or specific game conditions.

More detailed. Atlantis server engine is simple console application which takes some text files and writes some other files. Usually it collects all files with player orders plus two world files, processes these and then writes reports. Advisor makes this process automatic by placing order and world files into right locations and running engine in proper time. You should read engine help to fing more.

To use this feature, do following:

Download Windows executable file of engine from AtlantisDev
In Game Manager Options, supply path to engine
Create new game with "Local" flag checked. Advisor will run engine in "create world" mode. You will be prompted to set up some parameters like map size. Then Advisor will run first turn and load Nexus report. Note that all data files for engine are now in Advisor/Game/local folder.
Read this report and play it as usual.
Choose "File | Run next local turn". Advisor will save orders, run engine to process them, and then load next turn.
To rollback game to some of older turns, open Game Manager and delete some new turns. Advisor will load report for last turn in Manager.

FAQ

Advisor doesn't read reports properly, there is many errors on report reading, game seems to be broken (map looks wrong etc).

Backup your reports.
Unpack Advisor from installation archive to new folder
Try to load Sample Game. If there was errors - something going really wrong.
Delete Sample Game, create new one. Add the report with errors.
If there is still errors - email me. Attach erroneous report and describe problem. I will never show your report to anyone else.

Would you give me the source code to make this and that, I'll not give it to anyone!

I would not. Or at least you must tell me really good reasons to do so.

Advisor reads only three last reports, all other seems to be lost

Report files are still in game/reports folder. All valuable data (map, skill reports etc) from the archived reports was written to game.dat for faster access. If you want to read more than three reports at a time, set the amount at Options | Manager.

I do not understand what's this scripts about!

Do not use scripts.

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