Ragnarok is upon us.
The mountains shake, the oceans boil, the ground bears no fruit.
Even the gods have been defeated - as, indeed, they must. This day has long been prophesied.
Death may be our destiny, but as Norse warriors, we will die bravely. The inevitable cannot be prevented - but it can be staved off, for a time.
The denizens of Muspelheim and Niflheim - the fire and ice giants - have begun invading the land, with their hellish monsters. And we will fight them until we die.
Welcome to Jp's entry to the Game in a Day competition, 2007. This year, I wrote up a turn-based tactical combat game, in which you command an army of norse warriors, ice giants, or fire giants to battle other players or the AI. The theme for this year is 'Frost and Flame' - which is why the Norse mythological aspect. Fire and ice resistance play a significant role in your tactics.
To start from the start - you may begin a game by using the 'Start' verb. This takes a single numeric parameter, which is the number of players - anywhere from 2 to 4. Players will be selected randomly from the clients attached to the server, and if there aren't enough players to fill up the game, bots will be added instead. The Start verb is provided to all participants if the game is hosted under DreamDaemon, or only the host if you're hosting via DreamSeeker.
You may specify that you are 'AFK' by using the AFK verb, and return using the same verb. AFK players cannot be selected for a game, and skip their turn automatically if they're already playing. Going AFK will end your turn automatically if it is currently your turn.
If the game starts, and you are selected to be part of the game, then you get to choose which faction you wish to play as - options are the Humans, the Fire Giants, and the Ice Giants.
The humans are generalists - they're individually weaker then Fire Giants or Ice Giants, but they have both ice and fire attacks, as well as a good ranged unit. The humans have been able to capture and tame some of the monsters used by the Ice and Fire giant contingent.
The Fire Giants are fast and strong - most of their units are fast, agile, and powerful. They are, however, lacking in defence, and have no ranged attacks. Their Dancing Flame unit can fly over walls and other units.
The Ice Giants are tough - most of their units have high HP and defence. They are, however, slow, and don't do a great deal of damage. Ice Giants also have no ranged attacks. Their giant wolf unit can move great distances, however.
So, the game has started, and you've chosen your faction. What now? First, wait for your turn. You can tell if it's your turn, because the Cursor statpanel tells you whose turn it is. Additionally, you will receive a message when it's your turn in the output box.
Once it's your turn, you may start selecting units and commands. Select a unit by clicking on it. When you select a unit, you will get it's movement and attack range displayed in a blue and red overlay, respectively. The unit can, from where it is standing, attack anything in the red squares. It can move anywhere in the blue squares.
Once you've selected a unit, you can command it to do something by clicking one of the command buttons up the top of the screen, or using the macro corresponding to it. The buttons are as follows, from left to right:
Reset: CTRL+R
Move: CTRL+M
Attack: CTRL+A
Cancel: CTRL+C
End Turn: CTRL+E
Once you've selected a command and a unit, select the target you want the unit to execute the command on. For example, clicking a unit, clicking move, and then clicking a turf will try to move the unit to that turf. Clicking a unit, clicking attack and then clicking another unit will order that unit to attack the other unit (You get a confirmation dialog for that one, and you can attack your own units. That could actually be useful...).
There are some special cases:
The Cancel button, when clicked, will un-select whichever unit you have selected, and clear whichever command you have selected.
The Reset button, when clicked with a unit selected, will move that unit back to it's original position, assuming it hasn't attacked. This is to allow you to fix movement mistakes - if you've moved the unit somewhere you don't want to move it to, and it hasn't attacked yet, then clicking this button will reset its movement.
The End Turn button, obviously, ends your turn. Control passes to the next player in the queue, and all your units have their movement and attack flags reset.
Units may move once and attack once per turn, in any order. Units will counterattack when attacked, if they can attack the unit attacking them. Units may have resistances to fire or ice attacks, in which case damage will be increased or reduced depending on the resistance of the unit and the type of the attack.
Units will dim in colour once they have both moved and attacked
Your goal is to slay every unit belonging to your foes.
There is a Say command you may use to communicate with other players. It will be used by default if you type in the command box - you may type other commands in by deleting the '>' prompt.
Good luck!