README

==Harris==
by Edward Cree
--Readme--

Harris is a strategy game based around the actions of RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War.  In Harris, you take on the role of the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command, tasked with launching bombing raids against Nazi Germany.  It is your responsibility to take the war to the enemy and destroy their capacity and will to wage war.

Harris is currently in a fairly early stage of development; not all the basic gameplay mechanics have been finalised, and there are still several balance issues.  However, enough is present that the overall shape of the finished game can be discerned.  At this stage, the development process is probably not parallelisable, particularly as I have not documented my plans for how various mechanics will work.  I am thus releasing it more for criticisms and suggestions than for direct contributions to the code.  In particular, I welcome corrections and additions to the historical information and data present.  However, note that some of the more discretionary data (like bomber type accuracies and target production contribution) have in some cases been chosen for gameplay balance reasons; after all, there has to be /some/ reason why the player might want to use Blenheims!  Also, for the time being at least, all raids are assumed to be made at night; while this is ahistorical (day raids predominated until around May 1940), it simplifies the interface as well as making balance easier.

Harris is licensed under the GPLv3+ (see the file COPYING).

The game manual is in the file 'HOWTOPLAY', and includes a short tutorial.  Alternatively, there is a series of tutorial videos at <https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhaUuAr7h0jdKzOKJGSp40fMG-BXmCtcn>.
For installation instructions see the file 'INSTALL'.
Incomplete notes on strategy and the historical background of the game can be found in files 'STRATEGY' and 'HISTORICAL' respectively.

Harris uses SDL and a simple graphics toolkit called "libatg" (for A Tiny Gui).  The former can be found at <http://www.libsdl.org> and the latter at <https://github.com/ec429/libatg>.  It also depends (via atg) on the Liberation Mono font, which Debian users can get from the package "fonts-liberation".  SDL packages needed: sdl, sdl-devel, sdl-image, sdl-image-devel, sdl-ttf, sdl-ttf-dev, sdl-gfx, sdl-gfx-dev.

For project info (roadmap, how you can help, etc.) see the wiki, <https://github.com/ec429/harris/wiki>.

The name "Harris" refers to the player's real-life counterpart, Sir Arthur Travers Harris (1892 - 1984), "Bert" to his friends, "Bomber" to the public and "Butch" or "The Butcher" to his crews.  This last was not intended as a comment on the morality of area bombing; rather it referred to his seeming indifference to the losses his aircrew were suffering.  Nonetheless the crews had a great deal of confidence in him, for here, they saw, was a man who would ensure their lives were not frittered away on ineffectual raids, but given in making a real contribution to the war.  It was largely by Harris' efforts that Bomber Command eventually became rather /too/ powerful, for late in the war actions such as the almost total destruction of Dresden caused public opinion to turn against the area bombing policy and against Harris himself.  To this day, Harris' legacy remains controversial.
	"The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them.  At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation.  They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind." - MRAF Sir Arthur T. Harris, 1st Baronet of Chipping Wycombe, GCB OBE AFC.