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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"