[KaVir]

There are infinite planes of existence, but the Supernaturalis are not able to physically manifest on all of them.  On some planes you are only able interact through visions and indirect manipulation, achieving divine victory by guiding your mortal worshippers into wars against the worshippers of your rivals.

In November 2005 I won the first MudMagic Code Challenge, creating a basic card game along with a example poker minigame.  I really wanted to use it in my mud, but didn't want it to feel like a tacked-on extra - I wanted it to really be part of the game.  After much design and debate, I've finally completed the first playable version of the game which I've imaginatively called 'War' (yes, I know, "war isn't a game"...but now it is).

To begin a war, a player types 'war start'.  Other players are then informed, and have 30 seconds to join by typing 'war <your name>'.  Note that players must be on their home planes in order to do this (just type 'home' - every player has their own plane of existence, which they can terraform to their liking, so yes this means you can literally log on and start/join your first war immediately).  You may also type 'surrender' to give up at any time.  There is no limit to how many players may participate in any one war.

Each turn in the game lasts 60 seconds, and you have 3 actions each turn (if you don't use them, they're lost).  Your city is represented by a deck of cards (each numbered 1-10, with the four suits of Military, Religion, Economy and Diplomacy).  Each player has their own deck of cards as well as three hands - Offense, Defence and Resources.  You start play with 5 cards in your Resources hand, and whenever you lose a card from that hand you automatically draw another.  You begin with no cards in Offense or Defence, and if you lose a card from one of those hands, you do not draw another.  Once you draw the last card from your deck, it is reshuffled and reused.

Once the game begins, you may use the 'war' command to view your Offense, Defence and Resources, as well as your current Offense and Defence rating.  The Offense and Defence rating are calculated in much the same way as poker hands, except that all ranks have equal value - thus having the 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 of Military in your Offense hand counts as a straight flush, giving you a +9 Offense rating, while having three 7s in your Defence hand counts as a triple ('3 of kind' in poker), giving you a +4 Defence rating, and so on.

There are 3 basic commands for manipulating your hands, and each costs 1 action.  These are Offense (moves a card from Resources to Offense), Defence (moves a card from Resources to Defence) and Dismiss (discards a card from any of your hands).  If performing one of these moves reduces your Resources hand below 5 cards, you will draw another card for your Resources hand.

Here is an example of how the information is displayed:

<span style='font-family:"courier"'>> war

This turn will last for another 10 seconds.  You have 3 more actions.

OFFENSE     1234567890   RESOURCES   1234567890   DEFENCE     1234567890
Military  : ----------   Military  : ----------   Military  : ----------
Religion  : ----------   Religion  : ---X------   Religion  : ----------
Economy   : ----------   Economy   : ----X---X-   Economy   : ----------
Diplomacy : ----------   Diplomacy : -XX-------   Diplomacy : ----------
None (+0)                                         None (+0)

> def d2

This turn will last for another 7 seconds.  You have 2 more actions.

OFFENSE     1234567890   RESOURCES   1234567890   DEFENCE     1234567890
Military  : ----------   Military  : ----------   Military  : ----------
Religion  : ----------   Religion  : ---X------   Religion  : ----------
Economy   : ----------   Economy   : ----XX--X-   Economy   : ----------
Diplomacy : ----------   Diplomacy : --X-------   Diplomacy : -X--------
None (+0)                                         Basic (+1)</span>

Note that the above is unusable for blind players - instead, they should type 'config screen reader'.  They may then use the 'offense', 'defence' and 'war' commands to view their Offence, Defence and Resources hands respectively.

Combat consists of performing one of the four offense actions (attack, jihad, mercenary or assassinate) and comparing your Offense rating against your opponent's Defense rating.  Depending on how well you did, one or both of you might take damage, which is represented by the number of cards to be subtracted from the attacker's Offense hand and the defender's Defence hand.  If the defender takes enough damage to reduce their Defence hand below 0 cards, they are wiped out.

There are also four defensive actions (patrol, prayer, bribery and agents) which can be used to improve your protection against one attack type, as well as four special actions (fortify, crusade, invest and spy) which have assorted affects, as follows:

The attack command requires 5 Offense, and at least 2 must be Military.  If you beat your opponent's Defence, each point you win by will be converted into a point of damage.  On a draw, both you and your opponent will take a point of damage.  If you lose, you take a point of damage.

The patrol command requires at least 2 Military Defence.  It increases your Defence rating by 1 against Military attacks for the rest of the turn.

The fortify command requires 5 Defence, and at least 3 must be Military.  If your Defence is wiped out, your fortifications will be used to absorb further damage (although they are only removed after Defence has been wiped out).

The jihad command requires 5 Offense, and at least 2 must be Religion.  This attack automatically gets a bonus of +1 Offense.  If it wins, then each point you beat your opponent's Defence by will be converted into a point of damage, and you do an additional +1 damage afterwards.  If you inflict more than 3 points of damage, you'll take a point of damage, otherwise you'll take 2 points of damage.  Your opponent takes 2 damage on a draw, and 1 damage if they beat you, but in both cases you will also take 5 damage.

The prayer command requires at least 2 Religion Defence.  It increases your Defence rating by 1 against Religion attacks for the rest of the turn.

The crusade command requires 5 Defence, and at least 3 must be Religion.  It will swap your Offense and Defence, and then inflict one damage to your new Defence (although this cannot destroy your city).

The mercenary command requires 5 Offense, and at least 2 must be Economy.  If your attack is 3 or more higher than your opponent's Defence, you will inflict 3 damage.  If you draw or win by 1 or 2, you inflict 2 damage.  You inflict no damage if you lose.  Note that you will automatically take 1 damage, regardless of how successful your attack is - mercenaries don't come cheap!

The bribery command requires at least 2 Economy Defence.  It increases your Defence rating by 1 against Economy attacks for the rest of the turn.

The invest command requires 3 Economy Defence.  Performing this command will cause you to invest all of your remaining actions for use in a later turn.  If you type this command while you have 0 remaining actions, you will retrieve your previously invested actions.  Note that you can only have one investment at a time (i.e., you cannot invest if you have actions AND stored actions).  This command does NOT require any actions to perform.

The assassinate command requires 5 Offense, and at least 2 must be Diplomacy. If your attack wins, then each point you beat your opponent's Defence by will be converted into a point of damage, and your opponent won't know who performed the attack.  On a draw, neither side takes any damage, and the defender only knows that someone tried to attack them.  If you lose, you take one damage, and the defender knows that you sent the assassin.

The agents command requires at least 2 Diplomacy Defence.  It increases your Defence rating by 1 against Diplomacy attacks for the rest of the turn.

The spy command requires 3 Diplomacy Offense.  If your Offense rating exceeds your opponent's Defence, then this command will reveal the details of their current Offense, Defence and Resources.  It will not reveal additional defences or fortifications, nor will it indicate how many actions they have remaining.



Fight your own war...God Wars II:


P.S: Happy 4th Birthday to God Wars II! Coding began exactly 4 years ago today.