Guildwar Server New Reset - Jun 28, 2014

General announcements for the community to read.
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Laanders
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Guildwar Server New Reset - Jun 28, 2014

Post by Laanders » Jun 27th 2014 00:30

Guildwar Server will restart on Sat Jun 28 22:00:00 2014.
Armageddon is scheduled to begin at Tue Aug 26 17:00:00 2014.

Changes from previous set

Changes:
  • Player castable Armageddon changed:
    • Pillage protection threshold for casters no longer increases as seals are broken
    • Volcano Eruption daily limit for casters does increase, by +1 per seal
    • Pre-casting introduced: the guild that breaks the first seal in a casting sequence gets first access to later seals
    • Previous casters that are already in damage protection when a seal breaks, will not be affected by the increased threshold until their protection was due to expire
    • Various bugfixes and cosmetic changes
    • See the appendix for a full(er) description of how Armageddon works
  • Mages can now join guilds until the 6th seal breaks
  • Preorder code reworked, no changes to the actual mechanic
Please note that this set will have midweek Armageddon.
Last edited by Laanders on Jul 22nd 2014 14:00, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Arma details.
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User avatar
Laanders
Head Designer, Dev etc
Posts: 8460
31Rank Halls 3Guild Halls
Location: Malmö, Sweden

Re: Guildwar Server New Reset - Jun 28, 2014

Post by Laanders » Jul 22nd 2014 14:06

The promised changes to player castable Armageddon have been activated and announced above. Sorry for the delay - I've been on vacation. The following is an attempt to summarize Armageddon mechanics pretty much in their entirety, such as they are on this server. Please note that this differs from the current Armageddon implementation on beta and lightning servers.

An example follows for added clarity. Any feedback on these changes or the way player castable Armageddon works on guildwar should be directed to this thread.

Player castable Armageddon mechanics:
  • Mages may break seals of Armageddon by casting the Armageddon spell. Seals must break on intervals of at least 24 hours.
  • There are seven seals in total. Each successful cast of the Armageddon spell breaks one seal. When the seventh seal is broken, Armageddon begins.
  • A mage can only break a single seal per casting sequence.
  • In order to cast Armageddon, a mage must be a member of a sufficiently powerful guild, and be authorized by the guild's leader to do so. Unguilded mages cannot cast at this time.
  • Only a single player-controlled Armageddon sequence exists; all mages/guilds break seals in the same sequence.
  • The guild that breaks the first seal of any casting sequence is considered to be the "owning" guild of that sequence.
  • Members of the owning guild may cast Armageddon again immediately after a seal has broken. The corresponding seal will then break exactly 24 hours after the previous one. This is known as "pre-casting".
  • If the owning guild does not pre-cast within 24 hours of the last seal, any qualifying (guilded) mage regardless of guild affiliation may cast Armageddon, causing the next seal to break immediately. This does not change the ownership of the casting sequence.
  • If any caster dies before the seventh seal breaks, the casting sequence is aborted and all seals are restored.
  • Once the seventh seal breaks and Armageddon begins, it may not be halted in any way.
  • If Armageddon is started as a result of player casting, all seven mages that successfully broke seals in that casting sequence will be rewarded with a place in the Hall of Immortals. Caster halls are separate from rank halls, and will be awarded even to casters who die after Armageddon begins.
  • Armageddon casters can be attacked by anyone, regardless of relative kingdom size.
  • Armageddon casters can receive damage protection ("D"), but it becomes increasingly difficult (+8% damage per seal) as the casting sequence progresses. The increased protection threshold applies equally and immediately to all casters, regardless of which seal they broke. Exception: if a previous caster is already in damage protection at the moment a later seal is broken, that mage will not be affected by the increased threshold until the time at which he is due to leave protection.
  • The amount of Volcano Eruptions a mage can be targeted with in a 24 hour period also increases (+1 per seal) as more mages cast Armageddon.
  • Pre-casting mages will only be affected by the increased protection thresholds from the time their seal breaks, and not from the time they cast the spell.
  • Once Armageddon proper begins, no protection (except apprentice) is available for anyone, caster or not.
  • Once cast, Armageddon can neither be cancelled nor dispelled. Serenity, Cancellation, Minor Indulgence, Indulgence from God and Spell Strike will also not affect it. However, Orb of Protection, when used by a caster, will remove the spell and cancel the current casting sequence.

Example:

The Orcs guild is in a strong position, and decides to cast Armageddon to end the set early. After Grok, the leader of Orcs, has set the appropriate permissions in the Guild Manager, he casts Armageddon, immediately breaking the first seal and raising his damage threshold from the normal 30% to 38%. This happens at 21:00 game time. One hour later, at 22:00, Orcs member Wark also casts Armageddon. Nothing happens immediately, but at 21:00 the following day, exactly 24 hours after Grok broke the first seal, Wark's casting breaks the second seal. At the same time both Grok's and Wark's damage threshold is raised to 46%.

Orcs had planned for their member Smak to break the third seal, but he's mysteriously absent, and Orcs fail to pre-cast the third seal. Instead, at 21:02 on the third day, Tippletoes, a member of rival guild Faeries, casts Armageddon and immediately breaks the third seal. As she does so, raising her own damage threshold as well as those of the previous orc casters to 54%, Orcs are faced with a decision of whether to kill Tippletoes and restart the casting sequence, or to let Faeries keep the third seal and continue with their casting. Because Grok is an impatient orc, he decides not to break off the casting sequence, instead seeking out Smak and chastizing him for being late. As a result, Smak immediately proceeds to pre-cast the fourth seal, which he can do because Orcs are still the owning guild for the current casting sequence, despite Faeries breaking the last seal.

At 21:02 on the fourth day, Smak's earlier casting leads to the breaking of the fourth seal, immediately raising the damage threshold of Grok, Tippletoes and himself to 62%. Wark's threshold would have similarly gone up, were it not for the fact that he is in damage protection with 60% damage suffered when the fourth seal breaks, with his status report showing he will come out of D at 02:30. Because of this, the damage threshold does not affect Wark until 02:30, and he avoids being dumped out early, in conflict with what his status report had told him.

At 04:00 on the fifth day, Orcs member Plonk (pre-)casts Armageddon and begins preparing his mage's defenses for the breaking of the fifth seal, due to take place at 21:02 the same day. However, his preparations are in vain since a few hours later, the Treant Hill Mob, who like elves but can't really stand faeries, kill Tippletoes. Because a successful Armageddon casting requires all seven casters to survive until the seventh seal is broken, the death of Tippletoes breaks the spell, restoring all previously broken seals, and dispelling all existing instances of the Armageddon spell. If Orcs wish to get their mages into the caster Hall of Immortals, they will have to start over from the beginning. If there is a new casting sequence, whoever breaks the first seal will be its owner.
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