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  • help > twars
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    TWARS - While-booted Wars!
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    Players are able to participate in wars while logged into
    the MUD regularly.  Currently, there are two types of wars:
     1: shutdown wars
          This is when the MUD shuts down (currently every 4 or
          so hours) and everyone either participates in the war
          or watches.
     2: tsunami wars (or twars)
          This is the 'new' style of war and is explained in this
          document in detail.
    
    Q: When can I play in twars?
    A: TWars are able to be started every 30 minutes, on the house and
       on the half hour.  If no one starts one, then they can still be 
       started later in that hour.  If, however, a war ends at 8:31, the 
       next one cannot be started until 9:00.  This will provide players
       with a sense of knowing when they can periodically login to
       war.
    
    Q: How do I participate?
    A: The first and most important thing is that you MUST be a member
       of the channel 'war'.  Join by typing 'war /on'.  This channel is
       used much like the war room is used in shutdown wars.  Through this
       you will be notified when a war can start, how voting is proceeding,
       etc.  During a war you will see messages about players dying, etc.
    
    Q: How do I start a war?
    A: You go to the twar start room and type 'start'.
    
    Q: What about voting?
    A: When someone calls for a war (pulls the lever) all players on the
       'war' channel that are not idle will be allowed to vote for the
       style of war they would like to participate in.  Use the command
       'warvote <options>' to vote for the type of war you would like
       to see.
    
    Q: What if I don't vote for anything?
    A: If you don't vote, it is assumed that you do not want to play and
       you will be passed over when the voting concludes.
    
    Q: What kind of options can I pass to 'warvote'?
    A: You should use 'warvote help' to see a complete list of options.
       Generally speaking, 'warvote list' will list the current status
       of the voting.  You can use commands like 'warvote field',
       'warvote leader', and 'warvote respawn' to vote for a FIELD, LEADER,
       RESPAWN style war.  If you just 'warvote field' then you are letting
       others (or chance!) decide the other factors of the type of war
       (such as team type).
    
    Q: What are the minimum requirements for a war?
    A: The minimum requirements are:
                      INDIVIDUAL WARS: 4 players
         TEAM/LEADER/JIHAD/CLASS WARS: 6 players
                LADDER/CHALLENGE WARS: 6 players
    
    Q: What playing fields can we play on?
    A: Sadly, the only playing fields available right now are the MAP and
       FIELD war.  MUD wars are not possible during this style of war
       because the MUD is inhabitted by players.  Once completely open for
       the public, shutdown wars will ALWAYS be MUD-style wars so that
       MUD wars are still possible and anticipated.
    
    Q: What's a RESPAWN style war?
    A: In a RESPAWN war when a player dies they are moved off of the
       battlefield temporarily.  The killer receives a corpse and kill
       points as usual, however, the dead player will respawn to the battle
       in a short while.  Respawn wars die when time runs out, NOT when all
       players are dead.  This also means that you are 'stuck' playing in 
       the war for the full length of the war - there is no way to forfeit
       and head back to the MUD - such as dying in the war and not waiting
       to see the outcome.  Consider this wisely when voting for this war
       type - you don't want to be the only level 15 in an all hero war.
    
    Q: What about if I don't want to play in these crazy new war types?
    A: All 19 wars and RESPAWN wars are considered different and not normal.
       As such, every voter that abstains for voting how they feel for these
       types of wars will instead be casting a vote AGAINST it.  This is
       unlike, for instance, choosing a battlefield type where a player who
       does not vote does not effect the choice.  Additionally, unlike the
       other voting types, each vote is worth 1 point - regardless of level.
       So if there are 10 prospective players, the war system starts with 10
       votes against an all 19 war and 10 votes against a respawn war.  The
       players must work to correct that by changing their vote if they
       really want this type of war.
       A final note about respawn wars - you respawn to the location where
       you died.  Juggernaughts in particular will find this helpful as they
       respawn to where their broken down machine is and can climb right
       back in.
    
    Q: Do we get experience for these wars?
    A: Yes, you receive experience in the same manner as regular wars.
       However, the point system of twars is more liberal and should result
       in more points and therefore more experience.  The experience value
       of each point has been reduced slightly as compared to shutdown wars
       to compensate for this, as well as twars increased frequency.
       Note: You can elect to receive money in lieu of experience via 'setenv
       twar_money 1'.
    
    Q: What are the changes to the points system?
    
    A: 1: Survival Points:
          If you are a survivor, you will receive 'your level * 2' bonus points.
          If it was a team war, you are dead, but your team won then you will
          receive 'your level' bonus points.  This helps award players who
          assist teammates but end up dying.  
       2: Assitsance Points:
          If you give a teammate a war item (caltrop, net, gate scroll,
          healing potion, etc) you will receive bonus points immediately.
          Similarly, if you give them an item that has a healing value, such
          as a potion a cleric creates or heal you find in a room, you will
          also get a bonus.  This is to encourage, in particular, low level
          players giving items to heros in an attempt to help the heros win.
          Additionally, with the invent of Survival Points (see #1) helping
          in this way is even more beneficial to you.
       3: Kill Points:
          Each player now has counters on their 'body' which records each
          point of damage done to them and by whom.  These counters also
          record damage THEY do as well as spell point damage done and
          taken.  When a player dies, the players 'taken' counters are
          examined and kill points are distributed to all players that
          contributed enough to that player's death.  So as not to deter the
          long-time honored strategy of kill-stealing, the killer
          immediately gets half of the killed person's point value.
    
    Q: What other changes in general can we see?
    A: If you are interested in some colorization additions, you should
       'setenv war_color 1'.  Teams now have their own color, in a player's
       'team' listing it is easier to tell hurt players by color, and when
       looking at items you can buy with the 'list' command, those that you
       cannot afford are colored red.  There may be other places it is 
       used as well.
       The 'counter' system described in the 'Kill Points' section allows
       you upon death to quickly see every thing that hurt you or you hurt.
       Think of this like a specialized version of 'damage done' and 'damage
       taken' but just for you.
       In the 'team' listing, players can see how many purchase points their
       teammates have.  This was done to encourage players to request help
       from teammates that they were aware had available purchase points.
    
    Q: Can my buddies and I form a team?
    A: Yes.  We have a team registration system where before a war players
       can organize and form their own team.  There are many restrictions on
       the number of people in a team, the number of teams a player can be
       in, and how often they can switch teams.  This is to force players to
       form real teams and actually have an allegiance.
       Teams can challenge each other and battle it out to see who is the
       best team.  We plan on having tournaments, team rankings, a 'ladder'
       system and similar things down the lines.
    
    Q: What about statistics?
    A: At this time, we are not logging statistics because we are still in
       testing.  Once this becomes open to the general public, statistics
       will be logged and a players 'warscore' will change based on how they
       perform in this style of war.
    
    Q: Where'd everyone go?
    A: In a war, if you type 'who' or 'people' the players who are on the
       MUD but not warring are invisible to you.  They can see you in their
       'who' listing.  Players are completely unable to communicate with
       each other during wars.  Those outside in the MUD cannot 'tell'
       warrers anything.  Wizards are the exception to this, as they
       straddle the MUD-side and WAR-side.  Additionally, war players are
       forced off of all channels EXCEPT the 'war' channel and are unable to
       use any channels but the 'war' channel.  This will require players
       who rely on channels for communication to learn new methods.
       MUD players can listen on the 'war' channel during a war but are
       unable to communicate on it.
    
    Q: Can I watch?
    A: MUD players can go to the war area and watch the war.  They are
       provided a monitor very much like the monitor found in shutdown wars.
       Similarly, when a player dies (not in a respawn war) they are ejected
       from the war and reside in this area to finish watching the war.  If
       you choose to go back to the MUD you can 'return' through a portal
       that takes you back to your character on the MUD.
    
    Q: What happens to my stuff when I go into a war?
    A: We handle this very much like the arena.  Your body and equipment are 
       moved to a storage location and you enter a new 'war' body.  This
       means that when the war is over or you 'return' to your body you
       return to the room you were in before you entered the war.  All your
       equipment will be there as well.  This is exactly like the arena.
    
    Q: How does this effect commands like 'warkills', 'wardamage', and
       'wartime'?
    A: These commands will only show the latest results (whether that is 
        shutdown or while booted.  To see the last shutdown results add 
        shutdown to the command (i.e. 'warkills shutdown')
    
    Q: What else can we expect in the future?
    A: There are many ideas for the future of these wars and we welcome
       suggestions.  This style of war will be the 'future' of Tsunami
       warfare games.
    
    See also: "help twar"