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                             HEROES 4 SPELLBOOK v2.0
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                              by Jurcoane Ion Aurelian
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NOTE: Hey, it's got no flicker!!!


------Description
      This software reproduces the spellbook found in Heroes 4. It nevertheless
introduces some new features, like being able to check how powerful a spell would
be in various hero configurations. For example, if you would want to know how many
devils you can summon with an x level hero, "SpellBook" makes it really easy, as
opposed to creating a map with the Campaign Editor. Besides changing the hero's level
you can change the hero's skills so as to make the spell more powerful.
      Another great aspect is the "spell-story". Have you ever wished to read those
juicy descriptions that 3do wrote about each spell and never got up to reading them all
(if any)? Well, please take a few minutes of your time, and, with the help of "Spellbook"
you can have some fun reading them. Take my word for it, they're nice. Too bad I lost
too much time creating the program so that I kinda lost appetite for reading them. :(

------How to use
      If you ever played heroes4 (I really hope you did, because otherwise "SpellBooK"
is useless), you should know how to manipulate the software. Still, there are some 
issues that I'd like to focus on:
- To read the description of a spell you may either press&hold the Left-Mouse-Button (when you release the button, the description will disappear), or press the Right-Mouse-Button (thus
having to close the description by clicking again).
- To read the "story" of a spell, press the "?" near the spell, using the above technique.
- Most of the "book-labels" are functional (the spell-class labels, the spell type labels).
Here are the exceptions:
      "All spells" (marked with a "?") has been replaced with the "About" box.
      "Combat spells" (marked with a "H") has been replaced with the "Hero Screen".
- In the Hero-Screen, the situation gets a bit tricky. You can upgrade a skill by clicking
on its appropriate corner (see the hints). To decrease the skill level you may click the 
same corner. If you wish to delete the skill press CTRL+Click. You will notice that when 
changing the level of a skill, others might also change. It is only natural. Other features 
-When deleting a skill (or decreasing it, for that matter) some spells will become unavailable.
It's only natural.


------Known bugs/aspects:
-Some spells do not match at high levels. I don't know why, 'cause I compared my formulas 
with the "real thing" (the H4 data files). Don't worry, the large majority are safe to believe.
-The font isn't the original one. It's Verdana + Arial.
-When deleting all the skills you will end up with 1 spell. I was too lazy to remove this bug.
:). But, then again, why would you want to delete all the skills?


------"Soon-to-be" features (as in "a few years from now")
-the fixing of some formulas
-spell points
-more...


Version History:
01.05.2002 - v1.00 (Beta) Ground zero.
08.05.2002 - v1.10 (Beta) Added the hero screen.
                          The font is Arial, Bold.
                          Fixed a lot of bugs (drag, spell description, etc)
                          Did the research for only one formula ("Bind Wound").
10.05.2002 - v1.11 (Beta) Added a missing library.
28.05.2002 - v2.0 It's no longer Beta.
                  A whole new engine.
                  Removed flickering (it took me only a few weeks to do it).
                  Added Icon + Cursor.
                  Formulas.
                  Spell Story.


------Credits
Me (I worked alone on this whole project)

Oliver Fernandez (for the formulas).
Gervan Peter (for the Heroes Extractor, though I didn't ask for his permission).
www.celestialheavens.com (for publishing this program).
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For the creation of this program, the following applications have been used, in
this exact order of importance:
1. Delphi 6.0 (oh, the pain that I suffered with this one...!)
2. Corel PhotoPaint 9 
3. HiperSnap-DX4
4. Microsoft Excel
5. Heroes Extractor (only for the spell-story!)
They're all great! Big thanks to them!

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Jurcoane@home.ro, Stefana@mailbox.ro                                28.05.2002
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