Post by Water Dumple on Dec 4, 2008 21:54:22 GMT -5
Here it is! I don't have the log templates up yet, but for now I've got the rules done. Tell me if this all is fine, and if it is, we'll be mere inches from starting the next version! Note that I've only re-read this once, as I've been busy recently, so there might be a couple of mistakes in thar.
Pikmin Wars is a text-based game where you build an army, attack other players and take their stuff, establish trade, make defenses, write logs, and so on–Based on Nintendo's franchise Pikmin. It’s been around since October 2007, and has had two versions before now.
And now, with version 3, you can have up to three different bases. The game also acts more like a real-time strategy game, and your base’s position will play a part in who you can trade with, how easily you can move around, and the like.
During this time you may make suggestions as to how the rules should be changed. At the moment, I, Water Dumple, primarily control the rules–But, of course, the game’s open to suggestions and changes. Please read the rules as carefully as you can so you don’t have to keep looking back as you play later. Overall, just have fun.
And, please, when you make your application, at least try to make it appear that you looked at the rules. It's pretty obscure sometimes. Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask questions about the rules in the Questions board. Just please don’t ask something that’s really obvious, or you will incite the wrath of Bubs, the forum’s Hairy Bulborb.
...Maybe.
NOTE: As we progress, we gradually find better concepts, better ways of doing things, changes that need to be made, and even entire new rules. Don't be surprised if we have a rule update, as it will be posted here. Just check this thread if there's a new post in it. Of course, they won’t probably be very frequent, so you shouldn’t have to be ready to do something different every week.
General Rules: Various points and guidelines that should be followed at all times. If you already know typical forum etiquette and generally how the game works, such as if you’ve played in a previous version, just go to Game Rules.
1) The staff deserve your respect. Treat them appropriately. While we’re on the same line, treat your fellow players with respect as well. Trolling, flaming, and so forth will be dealt with as it shows up. If you're at war with someone in the game, look at them as a worthy opponent, not as an idiot you're dealing with. Read the Forum Rules–Bumping and spamming are the big ones folks need to keep in check.
2) Flower Commanders, Perennial Managers, and the Emperor Dweevils may elect new authoritative figures with a vote by the other staff. 65% positive and the person in question is in.
3) A poor staff member may be ousted by a vote. This vote is allowed for everyone who has been with the game for three weeks. 50% and he/she is out.
4) Staff have the power to downsize a project or item you have. We’re only trying to keep it fair. PM me or the staff to tell us about an unfair project or unit. I m33n, we’re here to help! You can also tell everybody about it in the God-Mod Alert board (This is recommended). This will get the forum’s attention on it, so everybody can say what they think about it.
5) Please keep stuff in the correct board. "Questions" such as "DO U LIEK PICKMIN" don't belong in the Questions board, for instance.
6) Be reasonable. 30 Orange Bulborbs vs. 100 Red Pikmin will naturally get by with few casualties, unless these Pikmin have some sort of anti-bite armor, little machine guns, and a wall to stay on top of. You get the picture.
7) Be realistic. We’re talking about a fantasy world here--But please, keep the Adamantine, plasma, nuclear missiles, and 10.0 magnitude earthquakes in another game.
8) uze gud grammaer pl0x!!!11! Seriously, when we can hardly read what you’re saying or the like, you need to use better grammar. It takes under a second to fix a capitalization error. Typos are not a problem, and you don’t need to put a whole lot of effort into it–But use punctuation where it’s needed and capitalize. Thx!
Game Rules: How to play the actual game. See the bottom for log templates. This section is divided into two parts, a newbie section for everything a starting player needs to know about, and an advanced section with more complicated rules once you’ve got the hang of it. You will need to look at the Advanced section fairly soon once you’ve started playing, but when you’re just making your application, the New Player rules should have all you need to know.
New Player Rules: This section contains mostly the basics for the game, and not every single little restriction and law one ought to know. You can learn the rest by playing or looking at the Advanced Rules section, but this is all you’ll need to know at the start. Do not forget to look at the other rules later, however, as they are quite vital–You just don’t need to know them right away.
1) Give all of your information in a basic log. It doesn’t matter exactly how you organize it, just that you follow the rules and get all the basic information on it. It should not be a pain to read–Organize as much as you can, it’s just that the order doesn’t matter.
2) You don’t need to post detailed descriptions of stuff in the log, just concise stuff. In your HQ you may post more about tech, troops, your base, and all that fun stuff. Use little one-sentence descriptions in your logs and you’ll be fine. For example, a type of tank could be described as (Medium-armor tank with Armor Shell cannon and machine gun.) Simple stuff like that.
3) You may pick one of two army types to play as. Here are the rules and instructions for each.
Wildlife Army
1) To begin playing as a Wildlife army, make your army’s name and first base location. This can be any area from Pikmin 2 besides a cave. You will later have two other bases–See the Advanced Rules–But right now, just worry about the one.
2) Wildlife armies have no leaders. Their troops simply have good instincts, and are good at fighting all-around. They’re very versatile.
3) You may begin with 550 troops of your choice. 50 of them may be “Special”. Every in-game “Day,” you may add 50 ordinary troops or 5 Special soldiers to your army. See number five for what constitutes a Special or Ordinary troop, and number nine for what a “Day” means.
4) The troop caps are 1,000 for Special troops and 10,000 for Ordinary soldiers. Don’t worry, it won’t matter for a long time into the game.
5) Ordinary troops are weak things such as Pikmin, Dwarf Bulborbs, and Shearwigs. Special troops are anything as large as a grown Bulborb or a powerful animal, like a Careening Dirigibug. A general guide is that1 Special=10 Ordinaries. With me so far?
6) Making up your own species of creature is absolutely allowed, as long as it is reasonable. If you’re worried about whether it’s fair or not, look at the Approval Centre topic and get it approved there.
7) Leave a small description by every creature, tech, or project you have in your army. The main descriptions will go in your tech and troop threads.
8) It takes a 50+ Day project to get a boss creature in your army. (In-game days.) Bosses and similar creatures are identified as "Super" creatures. These are capable of dealing immense damage if used correctly, but are not invincible and should not be treated as such. You can’t have more than 3 with you at a time.
9) Six external hours constitute a “Day” in the game. That means that one real-life day is four game days.
10) To build things, you need resources! Resources are in general, large units. A standard building would take 4 resources to construct. Resources are things like Stone, Iron, Steel, and other stuff.
11) To get resources, you must buy them from a general store that everybody can access. See the “Universal Store” topic in the Trade board to look at prices. See farther below for information on currency.
12) In your log, write down the projects you have going and how many days it will take to complete them. You may have six active projects going at once. You may not have any more, but you can have fewer than six running at a time if you wish.
13) In your projects section, state how many resources you'll spend building something. An ordinary building would be about 4 Steel or Iron pieces, or whatever resources you’re using to make it. A typical tank, just about always 1. Based on the strength of the materials and how many you use to build them, your buildings, machines, and so forth may be stronger or weaker than others. Please be honest with the number you use, and look at other peoples' logs to get proportion.
14) Begin with 5 Iron.
15) To start off, you may only have one or two base defenses. More, such as walls and traps, must be built by themselves with individual projects. One project for one gate. One project for one bomb-rock cannon. You could, if you wanted, fill all of your slots with the same projects if you want multiple copies of them. This usually applies to base defenses. Also, don’t forget that defenses cost resources to build! Usually it’s just one resource unit per defense.
16) Because you must build them individually, base defenses have quite a lot of armor, meaning that they aren't easily destroyed--If you attack someone, remember this! Building a factory to automatically make something every certain number of days is allowed. However, you can’t automatically get resources without getting a mine installed at the Universal Store.
17) Making a project to upgrade a defense, machine, or species of creature is perfectly allowed. Example: “Upgrade Careening Dirigibugs to Zooming Dirigibugs.” With this in mind, you cannot start with Zooming Dirigibugs, but must undergo an upgrade project to get them.
18) Start with a Weapons Storage, Resource Storage, Ammunition Storage, and Barracks. These are fairly generic buildings that just give you the ability to hold the appropriate thing without having it cluttered around on the floor. You can rebuild a destroyed one in a 4-Day project.
19) Although you have an unlimited supply of war machine and defense ammo, it takes a 20+ day research project before you can use a certain ammo. (Example: “Research Mini Missiles: 25 Days”.) Furthermore, although your base has an infinite amount of ammo that it can resupply your stuff with, your machines can only hold so much at a time. This just means that your lone Bomber can’t destroy an entire player just because he doesn’t have any anti-air.
20) Currency is Petals. Depending on what you own and what projects you have going, you can sell items and such for Petals. With this, you can establish trade with people and actually get something else from what they own, or maybe gain some of the elusive Titanium if they have any. There are some limits on trading, though, primarily having to do with the sea. See the Advanced Rules about that.
21) Start with 200 Petals. The maximum you can hold is 3,000.
22) You get 10 Petals an internal day. You can increase that gain by buying “Petal Gathering Centers” at the Universal Store, but they are rather expensive.
23) Overall, Wildlife armies are based on troops and versatility. Although they can certainly construct war machines, defenses, and so on, they don’t have quite the knowledge of technology that Hocotatian armies do. If you select a Wildlife army, you cannot use extremely complicated, futuristic technology. To give just a general idea, World War II technology would be fair and is a typical standard.
Hocotatian Army
1) Hocotatian armies play very similarly to Wildlife armies, but there are some notable differences.
2) Hocotatian armies are controlled primarily under a single leader (A Hocotatian astronaut, known as your General). Their troops fight somewhat poorly when the General isn’t present, but fairly well when he is there commanding them.
3) Hocotatians can only get Pikmin as troops. Additionally, they cannot get any Special or Super troops. Their troop cap is 20,000, and they can get 50 Pikmin per day. They start with 1,000.
4) Making up new species of Pikmin is allowed. However, they should stay as Pikmin and not try to work around the only-Pikmin-as-troops rule by making Dweevilmin and Gatling Groinkmin and Armored Cannon Beetlemin. The Pikmin are not the focus of the Hocotatian army–It is not advisable to put too large of a focus on them.
5) Unfortunately, Hocotatians must pay extra for resources and things at the Universal Store. Such prejudice.
8) They start with 100 Petals and 8 Iron.
7) Hocotatians can build more advanced technology in comparison to Wildlife armies. This means that they can make “Non-Pikmin” weapons or things that don’t exactly fit in the Pikmin world (You won’t see a Wildlife army with a rocket ship, but you might with a Hocotatian). However, do not take this too far; Hocotatian technology is significantly more advanced, but not unbelievably better, where two Wildlife tanks can’t defeat one Hocotatian’s.
8) The General himself has a lot of defense, being hard to kill, but has few fighting capabilities. He’s there for commanding, not participating in combat. He can be equipped with equipment through projects, though; for example, you could give him a Mega Tweeter to allow him to whistle more Pikmin at a time.
9) Here is a general comparison between the two groups, which should help you make the final decision which one you want to pick.
Hocotatian Army:
Pros
- Can construct two additional factories to make defenses or war machines. (Included in Advanced Rules.)
- Can create "non-Pikmin" weapons, such as spaceships or weapons that don't fit in with the Pikmin world. In another words, more advanced tech. This class is meant for very good machines and defenses.
- Can build spaceships/rockets, or things that can penetrate the atmosphere. (Included in Advanced Rules.)
- When the General is around, the troops are pretty smart.
- Can build extra-fast trade routes and base transports (Included in Advanced Rules.)
Cons
- Can only use Pikmin and Bulbmin for troops.
- No Special or Super troops.
- Overall troop effectiveness is far less than the Wildlife class’. This class is not meant to have a focus on soldiers; they can be good, but re not stellar.
- The General is the sole leader and not very strong.
- When the General isn't there, the troops are rather foolish and unorganized.
Wildlife Army:
Pros
- Can use Specials and Supers.
- Can use multiple species of creatures for much more versatility.
- Have a much higher level of versatility for troops than Hocotatians.
- Have no leaders. This means that troops are always at a set level of intelligence, which is fairly good based on instincts and training.
Cons
- 2 fewer factories than the Hocotatian class. (Included in Advanced Rules.)
- Technology is worse than the Hocotatian class'.
- Take longer to trade and transport than the other class.
Now, for the last few Newbie Rules.
4) General term--It takes six days to walk from one end of an above-ground area to the other, to give you a size estimate. Difficult areas to traverse may take longer.
5) When you begin, you must choose one of these classifications for your base. Then, you get a BONUS! YAY!
Land base: Terrestrial vehicles gain a 5 "day" bonus
Naval base: Naval vehicles gain a 5 "day" bonus
Air base: Aircraft are 5 "days" more durable
Trade base: All routes are 2 days faster
Mining base: All Universal Store Prices are reduced by 5 petals
Scavenger base: Every day gain an extra petal
Defense base: All Base Defenses gain a 5 "day" bonus
The “Day” bonuses mean that your stuff acts as if it took 5 days longer to build than it really did. Think length=strength; basically, it means that your stuff is slightly strong in that category. Choose a Naval Base for good ships, Mining Base if you want to buy a lot of stuff, and so on.
Advanced Rules: This is what you’ll be looking at after you have played for a short while, and they’re more complex. If you’re just trying to learn the basics, look up at the New Player Rules. If you just want to get all the info you need right away, by all means, go ahead and eat it up. Some aren’t that important and are optional, but others are quite vital–So if you’re gonna skip ‘em, don’t leave them alone for very long or you’ll fall behind without any extra bases!
Yeah. I know I just got you hooked by saying “Extra bases”. *Punched*
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This first one is big, and then they’re smaller. BUT GET THIS: You can have three bases total. Each one has its own location, troop gain, set of defenses/assets, resources, money, and so on. However, they are still under the same army, and your overall upgrades/your research (For ammunition or extra-big projects) remain for each base.
-Post your updates for your bases in the same log if you're doing multiple updates for them, but try to update them all on the same day. Plz. Use a couple of straight lines to separate them, like this:
Make that by using this BBC code: [ hr ]
-Bases will be identified by letter (A/B/C), but you can also give 'em flashy names, like "Lakeside Docks".
-To build a new base, you must spend 10 resources and a 50-day project to build it. It starts with a wall made of whatever resource you used, and the four basic buildings (Ammunition/Resource/Weapons Storage, and Barracks). It also takes 500 Ordinary troops or 50 Specials to set up a base, as they'll be the first forces it has.
-Each base you have possesses 2 project slots, and 4 that can be used anywhere. So at the beginning when you have 6 project slots, that’s actually the 2 that correspond to your first base and the 4 that can go anywhere. You MUST identify what base you're making stuff for.
-Each Wildlife base can have a max of 10,000 Ordinary troops and 1,000 Specials. A Hocotatian base can have 20,000 Ordinaries. Wildlifes can create 6 Super creatures total, but only 3 may reside at one base at a time. Because, y’know, they fight and...stuff...
-Hocotatians get 4 factories per base, and Wildlifes 2. These factories can make either defenses or machines, but do not all have to make the same thing.
-Hocotatians can build transports between bases; these take twice the time to build as it would to walk from base to base. A transport, which can be something like a train, transports things from your bases twice as fast. You need no transport overseas, only a freighter ship to carry your stuff. A transport takes two or three resources to build, too.
-Normally it takes 10 days to transport something from a base to an adjacent area's base or 5 days if it's in the same area. 15 days if you’re transporting stuff on opposite edges of the world,. So if you wanted to send some Petals from a base in the Valley of Repose to the Awakening Wood, it would take 10 days to arrive. With a Hocotatian transport, that'd be 5. This means that if a Hocotatian wanted to build a transport connecting those two bases, he would need a 20-day project.
-If you learn that you will soon be attacked, you may send reinforcements from one base to another to help defend, even if the total number goes over the troop cap for that base. You may also send forces from multiple bases to attack people.
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Alright, that’s the big one over with. And now, in no particular order...
1) (Wildlife Armies) If you wish, you may have a fictional character, a representative, to write logs for you. This will only serve for entertainment purposes, though, and will not grant you a benefit like Hocotatian officers..
2) (Hocotatian Armies) Once one of your bases hits 7,500 Pikmin, you automatically promote a Captain. This is a Hocotatian leader who is very similar to your General. This character is slightly weaker than the General and does not affect the Pikmin troops quite as much, but is still quite useful and can lead your forces into battles. Additionally, once you hit 20,000 troops, you’ll get another Captain. However, for a 50-day project, you can recruit one earlier. But no more than 3 per base. A Captain can replace your General if he falls.
3) (All) You can have one ally and two peace treaties. Send letters to establish these.
4) (All) Letters to each other are automatically received--It is extremely hard to intercept them, unless you've got the person who’s letter you want to block under siege. And if it’s email, you won’t be finding it. Your fellow players can read the letter and see your plans, of course, but in the game they can’t magically know what you sent someone. That’s known as using Out-Of-Game Knowledge, and is illegal.
5) (All) Special weapons may be designed for your army with projects. They can be unique to specific creatures. (Bulborb holds sword in its, mouth, etc.) Hocotatian troop weapons can be more advanced than Wildlife types. However, it'll take longer to build specialized types of weapons--For example, a gun that a Bulborb could use would take a long time to design, if it could work at all. The whole no-hands deal is sort of hurdle.
6) (All) Weapons are not always individually made–A very simple weapon like stone clubs could be mass-produced, and then technically you would have an infinite amount. However, a more complicated weapon like a gun would need to be made in specific numbers; for example, you could perform a 20-day project to make 1,000 seed guns for your Pikmin, or the like. Armor, however, is always made in specific numbers of suits.
7) (Wildlife Armies) War Machines and Base Defenses can be made in normal projects, but there are some restrictions for factories. First off, only 2 War Machine or Base Defense factories can be running at any one time (Per base). Each factory can only have one work-line, meaning a factory can only work on one project at a time. The time to build a factory that produces either land, air, or water machines (not a combination) OR just base defenses is 40 days. A factory that can build all types of war machines (land, sea, and air) takes 60 days to build. No machine or base defense factory can produce anything over 60 days in length; use project slots for larger ones. And don’t forget that factories still use resources to make stuff.
8) (All) ...Ordinary factories, that is. You can make a special one that will consume no resources for a 60-day project. However, this will produce things at strength 3. (See the resource description topic. That’s as strong as Iron.) A factory that can make any kind of machine and will consume no resources takes 80 days to build.
9) (Hocotatian Armies) It’s the same way with factories for Hocotatians as with Wildlifes. The only difference is that Hocotatians get 4 factories per base in comparison to the Wildlife’s 2.
10) (All) Aircraft can only be built using the following resources: Wood, Aluminum, Stainless Steel, Titanium, and Hocotate Freight Rocket Metal. Also, due to their speed and terrain-crossing capabilities, a 20 day aircraft has significantly less defense than a 20 day truck.
11) (Hocotatian Armies) Hocotatians have the ability to build spaceships. Each one takes at least 50 days to build, but can be heavily upgraded. However, ensure that the total time of the spaceship and its upgrades does not exceed 400 days. Additionally, spaceships require, at the minimum, one unit of HF Rocket Metal to make. If that's all you use, it will probably end up being small and poorly armored. More resources of any kind can be added on, but HF Rocket Metal will be the best.
12) (All) When you attack someone or are attacked, you must formulate your strategies before the battle. A Flower Commander, Perennial Manager, or Emperor Dweevil will moderate your battle once he has the war strategies of the players involved. Be aware, however, that once an attack you're involved in is established, you have to send your plans in three external days. This is just so that battles don't get dragged on because someone won't write their plans.
13) (All) You may not attack someone with more than a force of 150% the size of his. This is to prevent experienced players from easily wiping out new armies or fresh bases.
14) (All) When a base is destroyed, the attacker receives 1/3 of the defending base’s Petals, as well as any resources not destroyed and captured/damaged war machines, base defenses, etc. In a battle, all of these things can be stolen without the enemy base being destroyed, but the attacker will receive fewer. You can even acquire a free base if you don’t already have three if you eject an enemy from theirs.
15) (All) There are four kinds of attacks: "Raids" are the smallest. These are usually small hits at the enemy to take down defenses, steal things, prod key points, and that sort of thing. "Attacks" are pretty generic attempts to paste your foe and cause damage, and "Assaults" are full-scale hits meaning to cripple or even wipe out your enemy. The fourth is special. “Sieges” mean that the attacker sends forces to surround an enemy base. If you are under siege, you cannot get more troops, letters sent by a method other than e-mail will be intercepted, and you cannot transport things to/from that base. You can punch through a siege by sending troops from any of your bases, and this will then act like a normal battle.
16) (All) Staff will sometimes make Random Events--These can range from an earthquake to an anonymous army invading. They will not unreasonably hurt you and will possibly be an optional event–A tournament, for example. They are also one of the few ways to get HF Rocket Metal.
17) (Wildlife Armies) A Super troop can only be upgraded 5 times, which includes any weapons or armor you give it. (Example: A Burrowing Snagret could be upgraded to a Pileated Snagret, have two Auto Cannons added, be given Bulborbium armor, and get a saddle attachment for troops to ride it. That'd be the limit.) Additionally, the total time for the Super and all of its upgrades/weapons must not exceed 400 days. So even if you make some insane sort of 300-day Bulblax monstrosity with l33t laz3r b33mz, it won't be able to get many upgrades. Don't try overpowered projects--They'll have their limits, like everything else!
18) (All) Just like Supers and spaceships, no project may surpass 400 days in power, which includes upgrades.
19) (All) Moving by sea is twice as fast as by land. Loading up some forces onto some landers and cruising to your destination will be faster than having them march by land, even if the ships must use a slightly longer path to get there.
20) (All) If your base is by the ocean, you can trade with some minor races that may give you good deals on stuff. Don’t neglect your ships!
21) (Wildlife Armies) You can set up trade routes to get stuff you send to and receive from other players faster! Take the time it takes to walk from your base to the other player’s base; multiply that by two. That’s the amount of time it takes to make a trade route between them. (10-day march=20 day project.) A Wildlife trade route transports stuff in two-thirds the time it would normally take, by using wagons and simple things like that.
22) (Hocotatian Armies) Hocotatians can also build trade routes. These take longer to build but are superior to Wildlife routes. Take the time it takes to march from one base to another, and multiply that by three. That’s the project time. (5-day march=15-day project.) It also takes 2 metal if you’re in the same area as the other base, 4 metal if he’s in an adjacent area, or 6 metal if he’s in a far area. Hocotatian trade routes use trains and special transports to get stuff around, and thus can get things through in just one-third the time it normally takes to ship stuff.
Pikmin Wars is a text-based game where you build an army, attack other players and take their stuff, establish trade, make defenses, write logs, and so on–Based on Nintendo's franchise Pikmin. It’s been around since October 2007, and has had two versions before now.
And now, with version 3, you can have up to three different bases. The game also acts more like a real-time strategy game, and your base’s position will play a part in who you can trade with, how easily you can move around, and the like.
During this time you may make suggestions as to how the rules should be changed. At the moment, I, Water Dumple, primarily control the rules–But, of course, the game’s open to suggestions and changes. Please read the rules as carefully as you can so you don’t have to keep looking back as you play later. Overall, just have fun.
And, please, when you make your application, at least try to make it appear that you looked at the rules. It's pretty obscure sometimes. Additionally, don’t be afraid to ask questions about the rules in the Questions board. Just please don’t ask something that’s really obvious, or you will incite the wrath of Bubs, the forum’s Hairy Bulborb.
...Maybe.
NOTE: As we progress, we gradually find better concepts, better ways of doing things, changes that need to be made, and even entire new rules. Don't be surprised if we have a rule update, as it will be posted here. Just check this thread if there's a new post in it. Of course, they won’t probably be very frequent, so you shouldn’t have to be ready to do something different every week.
General Rules: Various points and guidelines that should be followed at all times. If you already know typical forum etiquette and generally how the game works, such as if you’ve played in a previous version, just go to Game Rules.
1) The staff deserve your respect. Treat them appropriately. While we’re on the same line, treat your fellow players with respect as well. Trolling, flaming, and so forth will be dealt with as it shows up. If you're at war with someone in the game, look at them as a worthy opponent, not as an idiot you're dealing with. Read the Forum Rules–Bumping and spamming are the big ones folks need to keep in check.
2) Flower Commanders, Perennial Managers, and the Emperor Dweevils may elect new authoritative figures with a vote by the other staff. 65% positive and the person in question is in.
3) A poor staff member may be ousted by a vote. This vote is allowed for everyone who has been with the game for three weeks. 50% and he/she is out.
4) Staff have the power to downsize a project or item you have. We’re only trying to keep it fair. PM me or the staff to tell us about an unfair project or unit. I m33n, we’re here to help! You can also tell everybody about it in the God-Mod Alert board (This is recommended). This will get the forum’s attention on it, so everybody can say what they think about it.
5) Please keep stuff in the correct board. "Questions" such as "DO U LIEK PICKMIN" don't belong in the Questions board, for instance.
6) Be reasonable. 30 Orange Bulborbs vs. 100 Red Pikmin will naturally get by with few casualties, unless these Pikmin have some sort of anti-bite armor, little machine guns, and a wall to stay on top of. You get the picture.
7) Be realistic. We’re talking about a fantasy world here--But please, keep the Adamantine, plasma, nuclear missiles, and 10.0 magnitude earthquakes in another game.
8) uze gud grammaer pl0x!!!11! Seriously, when we can hardly read what you’re saying or the like, you need to use better grammar. It takes under a second to fix a capitalization error. Typos are not a problem, and you don’t need to put a whole lot of effort into it–But use punctuation where it’s needed and capitalize. Thx!
Game Rules: How to play the actual game. See the bottom for log templates. This section is divided into two parts, a newbie section for everything a starting player needs to know about, and an advanced section with more complicated rules once you’ve got the hang of it. You will need to look at the Advanced section fairly soon once you’ve started playing, but when you’re just making your application, the New Player rules should have all you need to know.
New Player Rules: This section contains mostly the basics for the game, and not every single little restriction and law one ought to know. You can learn the rest by playing or looking at the Advanced Rules section, but this is all you’ll need to know at the start. Do not forget to look at the other rules later, however, as they are quite vital–You just don’t need to know them right away.
1) Give all of your information in a basic log. It doesn’t matter exactly how you organize it, just that you follow the rules and get all the basic information on it. It should not be a pain to read–Organize as much as you can, it’s just that the order doesn’t matter.
2) You don’t need to post detailed descriptions of stuff in the log, just concise stuff. In your HQ you may post more about tech, troops, your base, and all that fun stuff. Use little one-sentence descriptions in your logs and you’ll be fine. For example, a type of tank could be described as (Medium-armor tank with Armor Shell cannon and machine gun.) Simple stuff like that.
3) You may pick one of two army types to play as. Here are the rules and instructions for each.
Wildlife Army
1) To begin playing as a Wildlife army, make your army’s name and first base location. This can be any area from Pikmin 2 besides a cave. You will later have two other bases–See the Advanced Rules–But right now, just worry about the one.
2) Wildlife armies have no leaders. Their troops simply have good instincts, and are good at fighting all-around. They’re very versatile.
3) You may begin with 550 troops of your choice. 50 of them may be “Special”. Every in-game “Day,” you may add 50 ordinary troops or 5 Special soldiers to your army. See number five for what constitutes a Special or Ordinary troop, and number nine for what a “Day” means.
4) The troop caps are 1,000 for Special troops and 10,000 for Ordinary soldiers. Don’t worry, it won’t matter for a long time into the game.
5) Ordinary troops are weak things such as Pikmin, Dwarf Bulborbs, and Shearwigs. Special troops are anything as large as a grown Bulborb or a powerful animal, like a Careening Dirigibug. A general guide is that1 Special=10 Ordinaries. With me so far?
6) Making up your own species of creature is absolutely allowed, as long as it is reasonable. If you’re worried about whether it’s fair or not, look at the Approval Centre topic and get it approved there.
7) Leave a small description by every creature, tech, or project you have in your army. The main descriptions will go in your tech and troop threads.
8) It takes a 50+ Day project to get a boss creature in your army. (In-game days.) Bosses and similar creatures are identified as "Super" creatures. These are capable of dealing immense damage if used correctly, but are not invincible and should not be treated as such. You can’t have more than 3 with you at a time.
9) Six external hours constitute a “Day” in the game. That means that one real-life day is four game days.
10) To build things, you need resources! Resources are in general, large units. A standard building would take 4 resources to construct. Resources are things like Stone, Iron, Steel, and other stuff.
11) To get resources, you must buy them from a general store that everybody can access. See the “Universal Store” topic in the Trade board to look at prices. See farther below for information on currency.
12) In your log, write down the projects you have going and how many days it will take to complete them. You may have six active projects going at once. You may not have any more, but you can have fewer than six running at a time if you wish.
13) In your projects section, state how many resources you'll spend building something. An ordinary building would be about 4 Steel or Iron pieces, or whatever resources you’re using to make it. A typical tank, just about always 1. Based on the strength of the materials and how many you use to build them, your buildings, machines, and so forth may be stronger or weaker than others. Please be honest with the number you use, and look at other peoples' logs to get proportion.
14) Begin with 5 Iron.
15) To start off, you may only have one or two base defenses. More, such as walls and traps, must be built by themselves with individual projects. One project for one gate. One project for one bomb-rock cannon. You could, if you wanted, fill all of your slots with the same projects if you want multiple copies of them. This usually applies to base defenses. Also, don’t forget that defenses cost resources to build! Usually it’s just one resource unit per defense.
16) Because you must build them individually, base defenses have quite a lot of armor, meaning that they aren't easily destroyed--If you attack someone, remember this! Building a factory to automatically make something every certain number of days is allowed. However, you can’t automatically get resources without getting a mine installed at the Universal Store.
17) Making a project to upgrade a defense, machine, or species of creature is perfectly allowed. Example: “Upgrade Careening Dirigibugs to Zooming Dirigibugs.” With this in mind, you cannot start with Zooming Dirigibugs, but must undergo an upgrade project to get them.
18) Start with a Weapons Storage, Resource Storage, Ammunition Storage, and Barracks. These are fairly generic buildings that just give you the ability to hold the appropriate thing without having it cluttered around on the floor. You can rebuild a destroyed one in a 4-Day project.
19) Although you have an unlimited supply of war machine and defense ammo, it takes a 20+ day research project before you can use a certain ammo. (Example: “Research Mini Missiles: 25 Days”.) Furthermore, although your base has an infinite amount of ammo that it can resupply your stuff with, your machines can only hold so much at a time. This just means that your lone Bomber can’t destroy an entire player just because he doesn’t have any anti-air.
20) Currency is Petals. Depending on what you own and what projects you have going, you can sell items and such for Petals. With this, you can establish trade with people and actually get something else from what they own, or maybe gain some of the elusive Titanium if they have any. There are some limits on trading, though, primarily having to do with the sea. See the Advanced Rules about that.
21) Start with 200 Petals. The maximum you can hold is 3,000.
22) You get 10 Petals an internal day. You can increase that gain by buying “Petal Gathering Centers” at the Universal Store, but they are rather expensive.
23) Overall, Wildlife armies are based on troops and versatility. Although they can certainly construct war machines, defenses, and so on, they don’t have quite the knowledge of technology that Hocotatian armies do. If you select a Wildlife army, you cannot use extremely complicated, futuristic technology. To give just a general idea, World War II technology would be fair and is a typical standard.
Hocotatian Army
1) Hocotatian armies play very similarly to Wildlife armies, but there are some notable differences.
2) Hocotatian armies are controlled primarily under a single leader (A Hocotatian astronaut, known as your General). Their troops fight somewhat poorly when the General isn’t present, but fairly well when he is there commanding them.
3) Hocotatians can only get Pikmin as troops. Additionally, they cannot get any Special or Super troops. Their troop cap is 20,000, and they can get 50 Pikmin per day. They start with 1,000.
4) Making up new species of Pikmin is allowed. However, they should stay as Pikmin and not try to work around the only-Pikmin-as-troops rule by making Dweevilmin and Gatling Groinkmin and Armored Cannon Beetlemin. The Pikmin are not the focus of the Hocotatian army–It is not advisable to put too large of a focus on them.
5) Unfortunately, Hocotatians must pay extra for resources and things at the Universal Store. Such prejudice.
8) They start with 100 Petals and 8 Iron.
7) Hocotatians can build more advanced technology in comparison to Wildlife armies. This means that they can make “Non-Pikmin” weapons or things that don’t exactly fit in the Pikmin world (You won’t see a Wildlife army with a rocket ship, but you might with a Hocotatian). However, do not take this too far; Hocotatian technology is significantly more advanced, but not unbelievably better, where two Wildlife tanks can’t defeat one Hocotatian’s.
8) The General himself has a lot of defense, being hard to kill, but has few fighting capabilities. He’s there for commanding, not participating in combat. He can be equipped with equipment through projects, though; for example, you could give him a Mega Tweeter to allow him to whistle more Pikmin at a time.
9) Here is a general comparison between the two groups, which should help you make the final decision which one you want to pick.
Hocotatian Army:
Pros
- Can construct two additional factories to make defenses or war machines. (Included in Advanced Rules.)
- Can create "non-Pikmin" weapons, such as spaceships or weapons that don't fit in with the Pikmin world. In another words, more advanced tech. This class is meant for very good machines and defenses.
- Can build spaceships/rockets, or things that can penetrate the atmosphere. (Included in Advanced Rules.)
- When the General is around, the troops are pretty smart.
- Can build extra-fast trade routes and base transports (Included in Advanced Rules.)
Cons
- Can only use Pikmin and Bulbmin for troops.
- No Special or Super troops.
- Overall troop effectiveness is far less than the Wildlife class’. This class is not meant to have a focus on soldiers; they can be good, but re not stellar.
- The General is the sole leader and not very strong.
- When the General isn't there, the troops are rather foolish and unorganized.
Wildlife Army:
Pros
- Can use Specials and Supers.
- Can use multiple species of creatures for much more versatility.
- Have a much higher level of versatility for troops than Hocotatians.
- Have no leaders. This means that troops are always at a set level of intelligence, which is fairly good based on instincts and training.
Cons
- 2 fewer factories than the Hocotatian class. (Included in Advanced Rules.)
- Technology is worse than the Hocotatian class'.
- Take longer to trade and transport than the other class.
Now, for the last few Newbie Rules.
4) General term--It takes six days to walk from one end of an above-ground area to the other, to give you a size estimate. Difficult areas to traverse may take longer.
5) When you begin, you must choose one of these classifications for your base. Then, you get a BONUS! YAY!
Land base: Terrestrial vehicles gain a 5 "day" bonus
Naval base: Naval vehicles gain a 5 "day" bonus
Air base: Aircraft are 5 "days" more durable
Trade base: All routes are 2 days faster
Mining base: All Universal Store Prices are reduced by 5 petals
Scavenger base: Every day gain an extra petal
Defense base: All Base Defenses gain a 5 "day" bonus
The “Day” bonuses mean that your stuff acts as if it took 5 days longer to build than it really did. Think length=strength; basically, it means that your stuff is slightly strong in that category. Choose a Naval Base for good ships, Mining Base if you want to buy a lot of stuff, and so on.
Advanced Rules: This is what you’ll be looking at after you have played for a short while, and they’re more complex. If you’re just trying to learn the basics, look up at the New Player Rules. If you just want to get all the info you need right away, by all means, go ahead and eat it up. Some aren’t that important and are optional, but others are quite vital–So if you’re gonna skip ‘em, don’t leave them alone for very long or you’ll fall behind without any extra bases!
Yeah. I know I just got you hooked by saying “Extra bases”. *Punched*
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This first one is big, and then they’re smaller. BUT GET THIS: You can have three bases total. Each one has its own location, troop gain, set of defenses/assets, resources, money, and so on. However, they are still under the same army, and your overall upgrades/your research (For ammunition or extra-big projects) remain for each base.
-Post your updates for your bases in the same log if you're doing multiple updates for them, but try to update them all on the same day. Plz. Use a couple of straight lines to separate them, like this:
Make that by using this BBC code: [ hr ]
-Bases will be identified by letter (A/B/C), but you can also give 'em flashy names, like "Lakeside Docks".
-To build a new base, you must spend 10 resources and a 50-day project to build it. It starts with a wall made of whatever resource you used, and the four basic buildings (Ammunition/Resource/Weapons Storage, and Barracks). It also takes 500 Ordinary troops or 50 Specials to set up a base, as they'll be the first forces it has.
-Each base you have possesses 2 project slots, and 4 that can be used anywhere. So at the beginning when you have 6 project slots, that’s actually the 2 that correspond to your first base and the 4 that can go anywhere. You MUST identify what base you're making stuff for.
-Each Wildlife base can have a max of 10,000 Ordinary troops and 1,000 Specials. A Hocotatian base can have 20,000 Ordinaries. Wildlifes can create 6 Super creatures total, but only 3 may reside at one base at a time. Because, y’know, they fight and...stuff...
-Hocotatians get 4 factories per base, and Wildlifes 2. These factories can make either defenses or machines, but do not all have to make the same thing.
-Hocotatians can build transports between bases; these take twice the time to build as it would to walk from base to base. A transport, which can be something like a train, transports things from your bases twice as fast. You need no transport overseas, only a freighter ship to carry your stuff. A transport takes two or three resources to build, too.
-Normally it takes 10 days to transport something from a base to an adjacent area's base or 5 days if it's in the same area. 15 days if you’re transporting stuff on opposite edges of the world,. So if you wanted to send some Petals from a base in the Valley of Repose to the Awakening Wood, it would take 10 days to arrive. With a Hocotatian transport, that'd be 5. This means that if a Hocotatian wanted to build a transport connecting those two bases, he would need a 20-day project.
-If you learn that you will soon be attacked, you may send reinforcements from one base to another to help defend, even if the total number goes over the troop cap for that base. You may also send forces from multiple bases to attack people.
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Alright, that’s the big one over with. And now, in no particular order...
1) (Wildlife Armies) If you wish, you may have a fictional character, a representative, to write logs for you. This will only serve for entertainment purposes, though, and will not grant you a benefit like Hocotatian officers..
2) (Hocotatian Armies) Once one of your bases hits 7,500 Pikmin, you automatically promote a Captain. This is a Hocotatian leader who is very similar to your General. This character is slightly weaker than the General and does not affect the Pikmin troops quite as much, but is still quite useful and can lead your forces into battles. Additionally, once you hit 20,000 troops, you’ll get another Captain. However, for a 50-day project, you can recruit one earlier. But no more than 3 per base. A Captain can replace your General if he falls.
3) (All) You can have one ally and two peace treaties. Send letters to establish these.
4) (All) Letters to each other are automatically received--It is extremely hard to intercept them, unless you've got the person who’s letter you want to block under siege. And if it’s email, you won’t be finding it. Your fellow players can read the letter and see your plans, of course, but in the game they can’t magically know what you sent someone. That’s known as using Out-Of-Game Knowledge, and is illegal.
5) (All) Special weapons may be designed for your army with projects. They can be unique to specific creatures. (Bulborb holds sword in its, mouth, etc.) Hocotatian troop weapons can be more advanced than Wildlife types. However, it'll take longer to build specialized types of weapons--For example, a gun that a Bulborb could use would take a long time to design, if it could work at all. The whole no-hands deal is sort of hurdle.
6) (All) Weapons are not always individually made–A very simple weapon like stone clubs could be mass-produced, and then technically you would have an infinite amount. However, a more complicated weapon like a gun would need to be made in specific numbers; for example, you could perform a 20-day project to make 1,000 seed guns for your Pikmin, or the like. Armor, however, is always made in specific numbers of suits.
7) (Wildlife Armies) War Machines and Base Defenses can be made in normal projects, but there are some restrictions for factories. First off, only 2 War Machine or Base Defense factories can be running at any one time (Per base). Each factory can only have one work-line, meaning a factory can only work on one project at a time. The time to build a factory that produces either land, air, or water machines (not a combination) OR just base defenses is 40 days. A factory that can build all types of war machines (land, sea, and air) takes 60 days to build. No machine or base defense factory can produce anything over 60 days in length; use project slots for larger ones. And don’t forget that factories still use resources to make stuff.
8) (All) ...Ordinary factories, that is. You can make a special one that will consume no resources for a 60-day project. However, this will produce things at strength 3. (See the resource description topic. That’s as strong as Iron.) A factory that can make any kind of machine and will consume no resources takes 80 days to build.
9) (Hocotatian Armies) It’s the same way with factories for Hocotatians as with Wildlifes. The only difference is that Hocotatians get 4 factories per base in comparison to the Wildlife’s 2.
10) (All) Aircraft can only be built using the following resources: Wood, Aluminum, Stainless Steel, Titanium, and Hocotate Freight Rocket Metal. Also, due to their speed and terrain-crossing capabilities, a 20 day aircraft has significantly less defense than a 20 day truck.
11) (Hocotatian Armies) Hocotatians have the ability to build spaceships. Each one takes at least 50 days to build, but can be heavily upgraded. However, ensure that the total time of the spaceship and its upgrades does not exceed 400 days. Additionally, spaceships require, at the minimum, one unit of HF Rocket Metal to make. If that's all you use, it will probably end up being small and poorly armored. More resources of any kind can be added on, but HF Rocket Metal will be the best.
12) (All) When you attack someone or are attacked, you must formulate your strategies before the battle. A Flower Commander, Perennial Manager, or Emperor Dweevil will moderate your battle once he has the war strategies of the players involved. Be aware, however, that once an attack you're involved in is established, you have to send your plans in three external days. This is just so that battles don't get dragged on because someone won't write their plans.
13) (All) You may not attack someone with more than a force of 150% the size of his. This is to prevent experienced players from easily wiping out new armies or fresh bases.
14) (All) When a base is destroyed, the attacker receives 1/3 of the defending base’s Petals, as well as any resources not destroyed and captured/damaged war machines, base defenses, etc. In a battle, all of these things can be stolen without the enemy base being destroyed, but the attacker will receive fewer. You can even acquire a free base if you don’t already have three if you eject an enemy from theirs.
15) (All) There are four kinds of attacks: "Raids" are the smallest. These are usually small hits at the enemy to take down defenses, steal things, prod key points, and that sort of thing. "Attacks" are pretty generic attempts to paste your foe and cause damage, and "Assaults" are full-scale hits meaning to cripple or even wipe out your enemy. The fourth is special. “Sieges” mean that the attacker sends forces to surround an enemy base. If you are under siege, you cannot get more troops, letters sent by a method other than e-mail will be intercepted, and you cannot transport things to/from that base. You can punch through a siege by sending troops from any of your bases, and this will then act like a normal battle.
16) (All) Staff will sometimes make Random Events--These can range from an earthquake to an anonymous army invading. They will not unreasonably hurt you and will possibly be an optional event–A tournament, for example. They are also one of the few ways to get HF Rocket Metal.
17) (Wildlife Armies) A Super troop can only be upgraded 5 times, which includes any weapons or armor you give it. (Example: A Burrowing Snagret could be upgraded to a Pileated Snagret, have two Auto Cannons added, be given Bulborbium armor, and get a saddle attachment for troops to ride it. That'd be the limit.) Additionally, the total time for the Super and all of its upgrades/weapons must not exceed 400 days. So even if you make some insane sort of 300-day Bulblax monstrosity with l33t laz3r b33mz, it won't be able to get many upgrades. Don't try overpowered projects--They'll have their limits, like everything else!
18) (All) Just like Supers and spaceships, no project may surpass 400 days in power, which includes upgrades.
19) (All) Moving by sea is twice as fast as by land. Loading up some forces onto some landers and cruising to your destination will be faster than having them march by land, even if the ships must use a slightly longer path to get there.
20) (All) If your base is by the ocean, you can trade with some minor races that may give you good deals on stuff. Don’t neglect your ships!
21) (Wildlife Armies) You can set up trade routes to get stuff you send to and receive from other players faster! Take the time it takes to walk from your base to the other player’s base; multiply that by two. That’s the amount of time it takes to make a trade route between them. (10-day march=20 day project.) A Wildlife trade route transports stuff in two-thirds the time it would normally take, by using wagons and simple things like that.
22) (Hocotatian Armies) Hocotatians can also build trade routes. These take longer to build but are superior to Wildlife routes. Take the time it takes to march from one base to another, and multiply that by three. That’s the project time. (5-day march=15-day project.) It also takes 2 metal if you’re in the same area as the other base, 4 metal if he’s in an adjacent area, or 6 metal if he’s in a far area. Hocotatian trade routes use trains and special transports to get stuff around, and thus can get things through in just one-third the time it normally takes to ship stuff.