Concepts guide
From The Five Pillars
Contents |
Main Concepts
Mages
In 'The five pillars' you can create an mage on each server available. This mage will be your alter ego in the game. It's this mage that will appear in the statistics screen and if you did well even in het Hall of Fame. You can create as much mages as you want, but only one on each server.
Turns
When you have created your mage(s). You can actually start playing this game which means 'taking turns'. Almost every action requires an amount of turns. For example an attack takes two turns, summoning Wendigos takes five turns and the most devastating spell in the game Plague of Doom requires 18 turns. Every 5 or 7 minutes you get a turn, depending on the server. You don't have to be online to gain turns. You can save up to around 250 turns, again depending on server, but if you are a donator your maximum amount of turns is increased. You can loose turns if somebody uses specific spell or items on you, but you can gain extra turns by voting. Use your turns wisely !
Upkeep
Here is why you have to use your turns wisely. Every turns you have to pay the upkeep cost of everything you have: buildings, units, heroes, enchantments. As you have started playing you will notice some of your upkeep will go negative, so that you spend more of a certain resource each turn then you gain it. Is this a problem? Well not if know how to handle it, or the loss is not significant. Say that you loose 30.000 gold every turn, but you have 123.000.000 gold there is no problem. If it does become problematic there are certain things you can do
- gold: collect taxes: double your gold income
- mana: manacharge: double you mana income
- population: some items can help, building more houses or eliminate the thing that eat your people
Protection/Counters
When you start playing you might notice something about a 300 turns protection. Nobody can attack you in any way (normal attack or with spells or items), before that moment. This will give you some time to build your lands, research and get a preliminary defence. In tournaments this time is reduced to 15 turns. There is also another kind of protection and that is the protection that kicks in after you got heavy beatings. If you loose more than 30% of your power in 24 hours, you will be put in protection up to the moment (part) the damage disappears. Damage will diappear after 24 hours. For example: if you got hit at 15.30 for 16% and again at 18.00 for 17%, you will be in protection (you were hit for 33% damage in 24 hours) till 15.31 the next day (the notice will say 17% damage no protection). For items and spells there is a similar thing. You can only use a certain amount of items on one mage (not sure how many), a mage can be only under the influence of a certain spell once and more advanced Burn Land and Spectral Shadow can only be used 15 times successfully on a mage in 24 hours.
There are only two things that will negate protection. Havoc is one (see later), counters are the second. If you attack someone or use a spell or item on an other mage, he or she normally then has a counter on you. You damaged him or her so this mage has 24 hours to retaliate/counter. This has serious consequences. Say you attacked three others, won and after that you are far stronger then them. Now their stronger friends can attack you, but only to the point that you enter protection after that no one can attack you. No one except those former three whose power is now again quite close to yours. (my personal record is "last 24 hours you lost 96% power, you are in protection", but I had been quite agressive at that time).
Reset
This game runs in loops, so after 2-3 months everybody will have to start over to give new people a better chance to go for the top. Each loop is called a reset. All resets end in Havoc.
Mentor Program/Guild
As you start you will notice the great variety of spells, items and units. You allready had to choose one of the five colours. Who will help you to combine the best this game has to offer? Everybody ! But better is to apply for a mentor, who will take you under his wings and will answer any question. A guild can help you by providing extra info on spells, items, ... building a wonder and most important to give this game a more social aspect. The forum and irc are also great for this.
Advanced concepts
Havoc
This is the end of a reset, grudges are settled here and the biggest battles are fought. All protections are cancelled and the rule that you can only attack another in the 80-200% power range is dropped.
Mediation
If you can't play for several days or more, this is how you can protect your mage for a certain time.
BBQ
Hitting a mage in protection and taking maximum counters, maybe spelling and iteming that mage. Normally this doesn't happen without a reason. This requires a great deal of coordination of a group of mages, mostly all part of the same guild.
more to come
