The Game
The idea of the game is simple (but addictive). You try to destroy your opponent before he destroys you.
Be careful not to hit the sun.

Rules of the Game

Ship Movement
Each player controls one ship.
The ships can rotate, accelerate, shoot and lay mines.

Energy
Each ship has an amount of energy (refer to the game options for values).
Ships need energy for rotation, acceleration, shooting and laying mines. A ship gets energy from its solar panels. The amount of energy a ship gets depends on the distance from and direction to the sun. A ship gets more energy near the sun and less energy near the border. It gets the full amount of energy if the sun shines directly on the panels and less or even no energy if the sun shines at an angle to the panel or to the side of the panel.
If a ship has no energy it can't navigate or shoot.

Hit points
Collisions with own or other bullets or mines decrease the hit points of a ship. If two ships collide, the weaker ship is destroyed and the hit points of the stronger ship are decreased by the hit points of the weaker ship plus an amount (Crash Damage). A ship is destroyed when it flies into the sun.

Bullets and Mines
Bullets fly around the sun like a ship.
Mines have an amount of energy to stay at the same position. When the energy is spent, the mine falls into the sun. Mines near the sun need more energy than those which are further away.
Mines can be destroyed with bullets.
By default a ship can have 5 bullets and 3 mines on the screen.

Powerups
From time to time powerups appear on the play field.
There are four different powerups:
Mine 	The maximum number of mines is increased for the player.
Bullet 	The maximum number of bullets is increased for the player.
Energy (yellow sphere) 	The player gets energy.
Shield (blue sphere) 	The player gets hit points

The screen
Main Screen
Main Screen
You can see that the central part of the screen is the playing area. To the left and the right are the Red Player's and the Blue Player's stats.
The top box on the player stats, represents the Hit Points of the craft.
The middle box on the player stats, represents the battery power.
The bottom box on the player stats, shows the number of wins.
The top of the playing area is occupied by the menubar and toolbar.
The bottom of the playing area is the status bar.

Game Options
has many, many options you can adjust to increase the enjoyment of this game.
All of the game options can be changed using the Settings menu.
Configuration is divided into 5 sections:
Player Keys
Game
Handicap
Graphics
AI

Keys
has a default set of keys to control the game. For a list of default keys see the section entitled Default key bindings.
Keys can be configured by:
Selecting Settings Player Keys... from the menubar.
This will bring up a dialog box.
Configure Player Keys
Configure Player Keys
You can see that each player (Red and Blue), have 5 keystrokes corresponding to Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Accelerate, Shot, and Mines.
To change a key, click on the button for the correct player. Then press the key you want for that control.
When the key is detected, it will show the new key in the box to the right of the button.
When you are finished configuring your keys, you should click on OK to apply your changes.
If you want to restore the default keys, simply click on the Default button once. To make these changes permenant, press OK.
If you want to abandon the changes you made, and return to your previously selected keys, simply click Cancel, and your changes will be lost.

Game Configuration
All game settings of are configurable.
If you want to change the game settings, simply select Settings Game... from the menubar.
This will bring up a dialog box with 7 tabs across the top.
Settings are collected in different configurations. You can choose from several pre-defined configurations.
If you choose the Custom configuration, you can define all settings for yourself.
If you have not selected Custom, you will not be able to make any changes to these options.
If you have found an interesting configuration, mail it to the author of the game. It can be implemented in a future version (send the part [Game] in the file ~/.kde/share/config/kspaceduelrc).
When you are finished altering the options, you should click on OK to apply your changes.
If you want to restore the default, simply click on the Default button once. To make these changes permenant, press OK.
If you want to abandon the changes you made, and return to your previous options, simply click Cancel, and your changes will be lost.
The settings are:

General
Game speed 	Controls the speed of the whole game.

Bullet
Shot speed 	The speed of bullets
Energy need 	The amount of energy needed for one shot.
Max number 	The maximum number of bullets a player can have on the screen.
Damage 	The number of hit points damage done when a bullet hits a ship.
Life time 	The maximum life time of a bullet.
Reload time 	The time a ship needs to reload a bullet.

Mine
Mine fuel 	The amount of fuel on a mine.
Energy need 	The amount of energy needed for laying a mine.
Activate time 	The time a mine is inactive.
Damage 	The number of hit points of damage done when a ship hits a mine.
Max number 	Maximum number of mines a player can have on the screen.
Reload time 	The time a ship needs to reload a mine.

Ship
Acceleration 	Acceleration of the ships
Energy need 	The energy needed to accelerate a ship.
Rotation speed 	The speed at which a ship rotates.
Energy need 	The energy needed to rotate a ship.
Crash damage 	The number of hit points damage done when two ships collide.

Sun
Sun energy 	The strength of the sun. The higher the value, the quicker ships will be recharged.
Gravity 	The strength of the gravitational pull of the sun.

Start
Position X and Position Y 	The ships position at the beginning of a new round. The ships start at opposite sides of the sun.
Velocity X and Velocity Y 	Velocity at the beginning of a new round.

Powerups
Appearance time 	Maximal time between the appearance of two powerups.
Life time 	Maximal life time of a powerup.
Energy amount 	Amount of energy a player gets from an energy powerup.
Shield amount 	Amount of hit points a player gets from a shield powerup.

Handicap
You can specify the number of hit points each player has at the begin of a new round by selecting Options Handicap... from the menubar.

Graphics
Refresh time 	Time between two screen refreshes in milliseconds. All other settings are independent of the refresh time.

AI
Each ship can be controlled by the computer. You can choose a difficulty for each ship.
The AI is optimized for the default config, but can mamage with other configs. Just try...
To alter the AI settings on either or both players, simply select Settings AI... from the menubar.
This will bring up a dialog box.
AI Configure Dialog
AI Configure Dialog
For each player, there is a check box labled Player is AI. If this box is checked, the computer will control that ship.
Below that, is a drop down box, with several levels of AI intelligence. Select the level that is appropriate for you.
When you are done, simply click OK. If you want to leave things as they were before, click Cancel, to abort your changes.