| Warsim Help
Welcome to Warsim, an online combat simulator based around rules
from the Star Wars Combine Universe. This file will help explain
how to get started in Warsim, including creating an account, the
rules involved, and how to use Warsim. If you wish to learn about
how to play Warsim, you can go straight to the How
to Play Section.
Setting Up Your Account and Logging
In
Creating An Account
To play Warsim, you first need an account. Accounts must be linked
to a valid Star Wars Combine handle. This is to ensure that everyone
only has one account and the game is fair for all players.
Please ensure your computer meets the System requirements for Warsim.
Warsim uses Javascript to speed up map downloading and to reduce
datatransfer, because of this, only Firefox and Opera are supported,
and you need a sufficiently fast CPU to run it.
Requirements:
- 350mhz or faster Processor
- 56k Internet or faster
- Firefox or Opera Browser [IE NOT supported]
- Javascript Enabled
- Cache Turned on [So to Save Server Bandwith]
XP and Skill Points [Not Implemented]
To make Warsim fair for all players, XP has been introduced
to give a limit to the size of ship you can pilot. When you first
create your account, you don't have any XP. To gain XP, you have
to join and participate in games. As your XP rises, you will have
access to a variety of ships. Low XP will enable you to only fly
Light Fighter Squadrons. As you progress, you will gain access to
Heavy Fighters, Freighters, Cruisers, Capital ships and finally
Uniques. XP can be lost for certain reasons, including exploiting
bugs/cheating, and losing too many ships in battle.
» Click Here to Events that Generate XP
» Click
Here to View all the Ships in Warsim, their Weapons, and their XP
requirements
Skill points and XP level in SWC do not
count in Warsim. Warsim has its own skill system, based around the
Space Skills in SWC. You will gain skill points as your XP level
grows, and you can also gain skill points through competing/winning
certain Scenarios/Tournaments that are held. Skill levels range
from 0 to 5. A 0 in a certain catagory does not mean that you can't
fly a certain type of ship, it just means that you won't fly it
as effectivly. For Example; A Captain with 0 points in Capital Ship
Piloting Can fly an ISD, however, he lacks refined skills in battle,
and because of this, the ship will be less agile than one Commanded
by a Pilot with 5 points in Capital Ship Piloting.
» Click Here to View the Skill sheet used in Warsim
Joining A Game
Warsim is divided into games, you can participate in as many games
as you want at any time, however, joining multiple games is not
recomended, since you will only be able to 'play' in one game at
any time. To join a game, first you must have an account. Login
to your account, and you will be greeted with the lobby screen.
This screen shows several important features of your account, and
lets you edit your preferences. The lobby screen will also list
any games looking for players, or games that are open for new players.
It is advised that you look at your XP level and look at the games
XP mean/cutoff before Joining. The XP cutoff is the max amount of
XP available for pilots to use in that specific game, if you have
an XP level higher than that, your still able to join, however you
will be limited by the XP cutoff. If your XP level is significantly
lower than the cutoff, then you may be at a disadvantage, since
you will only be able to access smaller ships.
Once you have decided which game/s you wish to join, click the link
below the game name 'Join This Game'. You will procede to a Team/Ship
Selection screen where you choose which team you wish to be on,
and what ship you will fly. It is advised that you get into contact
with other people in the game, either through Warsim messages or
IRC and check to make sure that you are all picking ships that will
complement each other. For Example: It is no use everyone picking
ISDs, because they have very little fighter defence alone.
» Click here to view a series of screenshots showing
how to join a Game.
Setting up a Game [Admin Only Right Now]
If there are no good games available, then you can create a game,
which will be hosted on the Warsim Server. There are a number of
options applicable that must be set, including: Teams, Ships, XP
Cutoffs, Max Players, spawn points, Max lives, and Winning Objectives.
This help guide does not go into depth about setting up a game.
» Click here to view the rules on setting up games
Playing
Warsim
This section deals with playing Warsim. It is assumed that you have
already created an account and have joined a game.
Moving Your Ship
The first thing we will look at, is how to move your ship. Moving
your ship is simple, it is done through the 'Travel' page, which
is can be accessed through the top menu once logged in. If your
ship is stationary, all you need to do is click a square to set
the destination, then click 'Start Travelling' when the path is
displayed. An ETA [Estimated time of Arrival] is displayed, and
your ship will begin to move. Please be patient, as moving speed
depends on the speed of the specific game, and the speed of your
ship.
Scanning Other Ships
In Warsim, your not alone, there are probibly several other ships
on the battlefield with you. To see these other ships, you can look
at the map on any of the pages, however this gives you only a very
small amount of information. To see what type of ships are out there,
and what sort of stats they have, you have to use your scanners.
To use your scanners, you must be on the 'Scanner' page, which is
accessed through clicking the link on the top menu. When you first
click the link, you will see a list of all ships in scan range,
which includes your own ships and any ships on your team.
» Click here to view what the scan list looks like
To narrow down your scan results, use your mouse to select a square
on the map. This will only display the ships located in that specific
square.
Ships will show their 'Name' and their relative FoF [Friend or Foe]
indicator. If the ship is friendly, a green 'Ally' note will be
displayed next to its name. Friendly ships are ships that are on
your team, as well as ships that your team has 'Alliances' with
[Not Implemented].
To get more information about a target, you must use your sensors
to do a 'Focus Scan'. This is done by clicking on any ships Name.
It will lead you to a new page, where several specific stats will
be displayed about the target ship. These stats include 'Team',
'Movement Status', 'Hull', 'Shields', and 'Ionic Capacity'. Any
intel you have gathered, such as that ships kills will also be displayed.
Any ship that you scan, will get an event telling them your
Ships name, Team, and position.This is because, when you 'Focus
Scan', your using active sensors and they can be picked up by the
other ship. You should limit your focus scanning, because it can
give away your position.
» Click here to view what the focus scan looks like
Understanding Scan Blocking
If a planet is between you and a square, then you cannot scan that square, because the planet blocks any active or passive scans you send. You can see the effects of scanner blocking when you view the map, and take note of any discrepancies. To work out wether a square is blocked or not, use the following tests:
- If the Planet is above the ship, and the square being scanned is above the planet, Square may be blocked.
- If the Planet is below the ship, and the square being scanned is below the planet, Square may be blocked.
- If the Planet is to the right of the ship, and the square being scanned is to the right of the planet, Square may be blocked.
- If the Planet is to the left of the ship, and the square being scanned is to the left of the planet, Square may be blocked.
For A square to successfully be blocked, two of those conditions must be met. If those two conditions are met, a further test is performed:
- If Bearing(Ship to Planet) is within 30 degrees of Bearing(Planet to Square) Then, Square is blocked.
Visible Code for this can be seen in 'mapmaker.js' under the function 'scanner_radius'. The two arguments are the players x and y coordinates, and the third is the scanning range of the ship. Every argument after that is a planets coordinates, so argument four would be planet1's x, and argument 5 would be planet1's y. There can be an unlimited number of planet arguments.
» Click here to see an Example of Scan blocking
Safe Zone
There is a safe square at the top left corner (0,0) on each map.
You cannot scan the safe zone regardless of you being inside or outside the zone,
therefore you cannot attack ships hiding there. Keep in mind however,
that ships hiding at the safe zone CAN shoot at you when you are in range!
The Map
The map is displayed on every page of warsim when your logged into
a game. It shows a variety of data, including scanner data, and
movement data. To interpret it, you can look at this key, which
shows what all the different symbols mean. The map uses advanced
'Alpha' Blending to render, and thus doesn't work in old, incompatible
browsers like IE6. Use Firefox or Opera for max compatibility.
The map is interactive, and responds to clicks. It is context sensitive,
and the action that occours when you click will be shown in the
Caption Box that pops up.
» Click here to view the Key
Weapons, Reloading And Repairing
The whole point of warsim is to create war, so Weapons were included
very early in production. To use weapons, you first must be on the
'Weapons' page, which can be accessed through the top menu. To see
the status of any weapons you have, visit the 'Overview' page, which
can be accessed through the top menu.
To fire weapons at any ship, you first must Target that ship, to
do this, on the Weapons page, click the square which that ship is
located on. This will bring up a list of ships on that square which
you can target, which looks oddly like the scanner page. When you
have found the ship you wish to shoot at, press the 'Target Ship'
button below it.
» Click here to view the ship listing
When you have targetted a ship, you will be shown a page which shows
the enemy ship and its systems, much like the focus scan. Below
the scan, you can see a listing of your own ships weapons, and how
many you can shoot. If they are in range, a dropdown box will be
shown, if the enemy ship is too far away, then a red 'Out of Range'
marker will be shown. Select how many weapons you wish to fire,
and click the 'Fire!' button.
» Click here to view the Weapons display and Fire button
You will then be shown a screen showing you the results of your
attack. A listing of weapons is shown, including how many was fired,
how many hit, and how much damage was done. Below this, is the actual
damage done to the ship, shown as a total off all the weapon hits.
Any other information will be shown here, including how many ships
were shot down if you were attacking a squadron, or if you destroyed
the enemys shied generators, or disabled the enemy ship.
» Click here to view the Combat Results Screen.
After you have fired, you may have to wait for your weapons to reload.
This is done automatically for capital ships and Freighters, which
will be reloaded after a certain amount of time [Shown by hovering
over the Weapon Image]. Fighters however, carry a far more limited
supply of warheads, and must return to a friendly capital ship to
reload when they run out [Not Implemented Yet] [See Docking]. You
will be given an event when your weapons are reloaded.
Ships also can sustain Combat damage when fighting. Damage to Shields
and Electronics [Ionic Cap] is repaired over time slowly. Shields
will only repair if your shields are still up, and the 'Shield Generator'
is still functional. Ionic Capitance is repaired by your engineers,
as long as your ship is not completely disabled [See Ship Status].
Shield generator damage, and completly disabled ships cannot be
repaired in the short time that battles occour in. You will get
an event when your ships have been repaired slightly.
Fighters do not repair by themselves, they have to dock with a capital
ship to be repaired. Fighters that have been destroyed in combat
will not be replaced.
» Click here to view Repairing information
Docking
Docking can be performed only by Fighters. Ships
that have docking bays are classed as Capitals, regardless
of SWC rules. Ships that have docking bays have a 'docked' quota,
which says how many ships they can have docked at any one time.
The quota is in 'Squadrons', however, the following rule is used
to caluclate the amount of Freighters that can dock:
2 Freighters = 1 Squadron [Not Implemented yet]
When a squadron is docked, it can be 'Repaired and Reloaded' [Not implemented yet] by
the capital ship, this may take a certain amount of time depending
on the game speed. If the capital ship is destroyed when a squadron
is docked inside, the Fighters escape, taking minor damage from
the proximity of the destruction.
Capturing Ships [In Testing]
When you disable a ship, or stop it with Tractor Beams, you can
then send in Assault Transports to 'Capture' it. To capture a ship,
you must successfully attach a Assault Transport to the Hull of
the ship, then when your ready, somebody on your team can give the
'Capture' command, to make the Marines aboard the transports attempt
to secure the bridge of the enemy craft.
To successfully capture it, you must overpower the enemys marines
aboard the ship. If you manage to do that, then the ship is captured,
it changes teams, and becomes under the command of the Assault Transport
Pilot [Pilots Old Ship is left unattended].
Any Freighter with the 'Assault Transport' Stat is thought of as
carrying a full load of marines [Passenger Capacity - 1 = Number
of Marines]. Capital ships and Freighters without the 'Assault Transport'
rating are thought of as carrying a small security force [Defending
Marines = 20% of Passenger Capacity]. Full Military Class capital
ships, such as the ISD have more defending marines aboard [30-40%].
Specific Scenarios may give certain teams bonuses towards capturing.
For Example, a 'Pirate' based Scenario may give the team 'Eidola'
a 25%+ bonus when capturing, because they are skilled at it.
Failure to capture a ship can be the result of:
- Not having enough Marines
- Target Ship is not Fully Immobile
- Target Ship provides enough suppressing fire to hold off Assault Transports
Ship Status
Ships carry one of a few status that classifies it at any moment:
Normal: Ship is alive and not Moving. Ships Hull
> 0, Ships Ionic > 0. Can perform all tasks as usual.
Travelling: Ship is alive and moving. Ships Hull
> 0, Ships Ionic > 0. Can shoot while moving.
Docked: Ship is alive and docked inside a larger
ship. It cannot shoot, but can access scanners. Can get Reloaded
and Repaired through the larger ship. Moves with the larger ship.
Disabled: Ship is disabled, and cannot move or
shoot. Ships Hull > 0, Ships Ionic = 0. When your at this stage,
you can opt to respawn and leave your old ship in the battle, or
you can wait and see if you'll be captured/destroyed. Your Ships
engineers May be able to bring your ships
systems back online, to 20%, however, the chance is only very slight
[1 in 4 chance every repair cycle].
Destroyed: Ship is destroyed, cannot move, shoot,
scan... Ships Hull = 0. Ship image is shown as a wreck, and you
can respawn in a new ship, Wreck will remain. |
