War.app Wiki - User contributions [en]

Gameplay Basics

2015-01-26T05:33:35Z

Arctic82:

A WarLight game is played between 2 and 40 players, either human or computer-controlled. The goal is to conquer the entire map, or at least conquer enough to force your opponents to [[surrender]].

WarLight games are highly configurable. This introduction will assume that default [[settings]] are being used.

==Map==

The [[map]] is the center of attention in a game. The map is simply a collection of [[territories]], where each territory is filled with a color that indicates the player that controls the territory, and a number that indicates how many armies are present on that territory.

Some territories can be controlled by [[neutral]]. The neutral armies cannot move, and simply sit still for the entire duration of the game until conquered by a player.

All territories controlled by players must keep at least one army on them at all times.

==Controls==

WarLight mainly utilizes the left mouse button, although there are [[hotkeys]] that can make playing more efficient.

Territories and bonuses can be selected and information such as what other territories connect to it as well as what how much the bonus will be for controlling this bonus.

==Phases==

Each turn goes through three [[phases]]: Deploying Armies, Attack/Transfer, and Confirmation. These phases can be seen in the upper-left corner of the interface. You can switch freely between the three phases just by clicking on the phase.

===Deploying phase===

Each turn, you receive new armies that you can add to [[territories]] you control. While in the deploying phase, the game will inform you in the upper-left corner by saying something like:

:0 / 5 armies placed

This shows you are receiving 5 armies this turn, and so far you've deployed 0 of them. Simply click on a territory you control to place an army there.

When done deploying, you can click Next Phase or simply click the Attack/Transfer link to go to the Attack/Transfer phase.

===Attack/Transfer phase===

Attack/Transfer allows you to attack other territories or transfer your armies between territories you control.

Each army you control can only do one attack or transfer each turn. Games with [[multi-attack]] enabled allow armies to move long distances in a single turn, but this page will assume you're playing a game without multi-attack.

Since each army can only do one attack or transfer, that means each army can only move to directly adjacent territories in a given turn. If it moves to a friendly adjacent territory (either your own or a teammate), that's considered a transfer. If it moves to an enemy territory (either another player or neutral), that's considered an attack.

Transfers are simple, and always succeed. The army simply moves.

Attacks are more complicated. To fully understand attacks, see the [[basic combat]] page. Remember the rule of thumb is to always attack territories with at least twice as many armies as the defenders have.

===Confirmation phase===

Confirmation lets you view your orders before sending them to the WarLight server. It will highlight all of your orders, and you can also examine them in the [[orders list]].

==Lower-left buttons==

The buttons in the lower left-hand corner can be used to accomplish a variety of tasks.

* '''Chat''' lets players speak publicly or privately with their team.
* '''History''' lets players look backwards in time in the current game to see previous turns and the orders placed in them.
* '''Settings''' shows you the settings of the current game as well as what template and tournament (if any) this game is connected to.
* '''Players''' opens up a list of players with information about them. It also contains options to [[surrender]] or [[vote to end]] the game.
* The [[Statistics Window]] shows you interesting information about the game.
* '''Nudge/Boot''' lets users [[Nudge|nudge]] players who are slow to take their turn or [[boot]] players who are holding up the game.
* '''Fullscreen''' makes the game window bigger, although players can also try using the F11 key to put their browser into fullscreen mode.
* '''Refresh''' causes WarLight to check the server for updates, which includes new chat or checking to see if the turn advanced. It also updates automatically as indicated by the green bar.

==Players Summary==

The bottom right hand corner of the interface shows the players (and, in team games, what teams they are in).

Clicking on a player's name opens up a menu showing:

* A link to view the player's full profile
* The player's average move rate, both across all games and for the last ten turns of this game.
* Their tagline
* Send private messages (if enabled by the game creator)
* Visible armies, income, and number of territories in this game.
* If they're a teammate, players can view the orders that they've committed.
* A button to report the player if they're breaking WarLight's [[rules]].
* A button to select their visible armies. This helps visualize their empire.
* The left side of this pop-up shows their surrender status, including who has accepted their surrender.

[[Category:Gameplay|!]]

User:Arctic82

2015-01-26T05:23:05Z

Arctic82: Created page with "https://www.warlight.net/Profile?p=5220299662"

https://www.warlight.net/Profile?p=5220299662

Ladders

2015-01-26T05:19:17Z

Arctic82: /* Expiration of Old Games */

WarLight ladders are competitive arenas where players compete for the highest spot on the ladder.

You can find the main ladder pages by clicking the Ladders sub-tab under the Community tab. This is where players can join or leave the ladder, or see the up-to-date standings.

==Ladders==
WarLight currently has four ladders:

* The [[1 v 1 Ladder]].
* The [[2 v 2 Ladder]].
* The [[Seasonal Ladder]].
* The [[Real-Time Ladder]].

==How Ladders Work==

In the WarLight ladders, you don't get to choose who you play against. Instead, the ladder sets up games for you. You can, however, pick how many games you'd like to be playing at any given time.

The ladder updates once every other hour starting at midnight GMT, then 2am GMT, 4am GMT, etc. Each update, it updates ratings and rankings of all players and creates new ladder games.

WarLight ladders use an ELO rating system, similar to what is used in professional Chess tournaments, to rank players by their skill level. Based on the results of your ladder games, you will receive a rating that will be used to give you a rank on the ladder's scoreboard.

Your rating will change based on the results of other player's games, too. For example, if you beat a player who ends up becoming the #1 player, you get the full results of beating the #1 player even if they were not #1 when you beat them.

Players must complete a certain number of ladder games before they are given a rank: 20 in the 1 v 1 ladder, 10 in the 2 v 2 ladder, and 5 in the seasonal ladder.

==Leaving the Ladder==

Players are free to leave the ladder and re-join it at any time with no penalty. Leaving the ladder does not delete any on-going games, it just stops new games from being created for you. Your rating continues to be updated even when you’re not participating in the ladder. However, you will not receive a rank while not in the ladder and, therefore, won’t be included on the leaderboard. This is done to ensure high-ranking players have to actively defend their high ranks, and can’t just get into the #1 spot and squat on it. If you re-join the ladder, your existing rating will be used to rank you just as it was before you left. This makes it easy to take breaks in case you’re going to be away from WarLight for a while.

==Automatic Booting==

In Ladder games, WarLight uses the [[auto boot]] feature to automatically boot any players who do not move for more than 72 hours (3 days). This helps keep the ladder fair and balanced for all players. Without automating booting, players with their finger on the boot button would, over time, have an edge in the ratings over players who give their opponents extra leeway. Automatic booting takes booting out of the equation, and ensures ratings are determined the same way for everyone. This also prevents games from stagnating which can clog up the ladder and prevent players from advancing as fast through the ladder as they'd like.

==Slight Advantage for First Pick==

In Chess, it's advantageous to play as the player playing white, since the white player goes first. Similarly, in [[Manual Distribution|manual distribution]] WarLight games, it's advantageous to get first pick. That is, if two players pick the same [[Territories|territory]] as their #1 choice, the randomly decided player with first pick will get the territory and the other player will get their #2 choice.

To counteract this, WarLight gives a slight ratings advantage to the player who gets first pick in ladder games, similar to how some ELO systems give a ratings advantage to the player playing white. In Chess, the advantage is estimated to be worth about 33 points, whereas in WarLight the advantage is only 10 points.

Only the 1 v 1 ladder and the 2 v 2 ladder give an advantage for first pick. The seasonal ladder does not.

==Expiration of Old Games==
Games in the 1 v 1 ladder and 2 v 2 ladder will expire after a few months. Once they're expired, they no longer count towards your rankings. Games in the 1 v 1 ladder and games in the 2 v 2 ladder expire after five months. This date is calculated from the date the game ends, not the day it starts.

Games in the seasonal ladder never expire, but they only apply to the current season.

Expiring old games keeps the ladder fresh and ensures that ratings don't inflate over time. ELO rating systems are zero-sum systems, meaning that each player that joins the ladder brings new points into the mix. See [[wikipedia:Elo rating system#Ratings_inflation_and_deflation|Ratings Inflation and Deflation]] for a more detailed analysis.

==See Also==
* [[How Ladder Games are Created]]
* [[Ladder Ranks and Ratings]]

[[:Category:Ladders]]

AI

2015-01-14T01:09:20Z

Arctic82: /* General behaviour of the AI */

The exact inner mechanics of the AI remain a mystery. However, some general rules of its behavior are known. Those were either deducted through observation of the AI's movements, or they have been stated by the [[User:Fizzer|creator]] himself on the [[forum]]s.

== Weighted Random ==

The AI constructs a list of actions it could take on each turn, along with a value of how strongly it feels it should do that action. It then does a weighted random against that list. This means that the AI is never perfectly predictable, but it does have tendencies.

== General behaviour of the AI ==

Confirmed:

* It currently does not know how to use any card other than the reinforcement card. {{Ref|http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID{{=}}136}} {{Ref|http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID{{=}}2159&Offset{{=}}3}}
* It does prefer to expand as long as it still sees neutral bonuses to expand to. {{Ref|http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID{{=}}136&Offset{{=}}12}}
* When deciding whether or not to complete a bonus, the AI currently uses (bonus value) * 3 - (armies we'd have to kill to take the bonus). If this comes out negative, it won't deem the bonus worthy in some cases. {{Ref|http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID{{=}}3218&Offset{{=}}17}}
observed:
* It tends to attack with twice as many armies as the territory is showing. {{Ref|http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID{{=}}1744&Offset{{=}}2}}
* It generally only places armies in a few spots and attacks from them. {{Ref|http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID{{=}}1744&Offset{{=}}2}}
* It tends to prefer neutral territories over player controlled territories, but it mostly prefers to attack the weakest territories. {{Ref|http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID{{=}}1744&Offset{{=}}4}}
* It tends to favor getting bonuses, and breaking enemy bonuses higher than making random other attacks. {{Ref|http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID{{=}}1744&Offset{{=}}4}}
* It tends to issue attacks with all of its armies in a territory with more than one army, and is unaware of the fact that one army must remain on every territory while attacking.

== Behaviour of the AI in team games ==

* It will only attack teammates in two circumstances:

#If a bonus is entirely controlled by teammates and it has >= 50% of the territories. It will only do attacks of 2 then.
#If it's expanding into a new bonus that no teammates control. {{Ref|http://warlight.net/Forum/Thread.aspx?ThreadID{{=}}2489&Offset{{=}}2}}

* The AI will not play cards when teamed with a human teammate unless it must play cards by rule. The only circumstance where an AI must play cards when teamed with a human teammate is if the last player on a team turns into an AI via boot or surrender, and cards must be used by that team that turn.

== Changes ==

The AI's behavior has not been changed since it was introduced in 2009. Changing the AI's behavior, even slightly, would invalidate every single-player score that's been achieved. If the AI is to be improved in the future, it will likely be done in conjunction with a revamp of the single player levels.

== Playing Itself ==

Under the single-player tab, you can set up a game full of AIs, no fog, and watch the entire game play out on its own.

However, under the multi-player tab, the AI will not play a game without any humans involved. If only AIs remain in a game, the AIs will simply [[vote to end]]. If voting to end is not possible, such as in a [[tournament]] game, the AIs will just pick a winner randomly. This restriction is necessary due to the way that multi-player games work. Due to WarLight's flexible engine, someone could construct a game that took thousands or millions of turns to finish. For example, a game with no bonuses or large wastelands separating players. The WarLight server would strain to complete these games, likely causing the entire site to grind to a hault.

[[Category:WarLight]]

Luck Modifier

2014-12-15T03:48:35Z

Arctic82:

When a game is created, players have the option to control how much that luck will affect the game. They can pick an amount from 0% to 100%.

The default is 0%. The strategic templates, as well as the [[ladders]], use 16%.

==Details==
To understand the details of how the luck percentage affects combat, it is assumed you first understand the [[combat basics]].

When an attack happens, WarLight calculates the "expected" number of armies that should get killed, assuming an average roll. The attack is also randomed as normal and these two numbers are interpolated based on the luck percentage.

==Example==

If a player attacks with 100 armies, it is expected that it will kill 60 of the defending armies, but let's assume the random number generator determined that only 54 would get killed.

In a game with a luck percentage of 100%, WarLight will simply use the 54. However, in a game where the luck percentage had been reduced to 50%, WarLight would take the average of these numbers and would use 57 instead. If the luck percentage were 0%, WarLight would simply ignore the random and use the 60 every single time.

==Analysis==

http://s3cdn.warlight.net/static/img/LuckGraphs.png

==Remainders==

In the event that the calculations do not come out evenly, the [[rounding mode]] will be used to determine how the result is rounded.

==See Also==
* [[Combat Basics]]
* [[Analyze Graphs]]
* [[Attack Luck]]
* [[Rounding mode]]

[[Category:Game Settings]]