The World At War! and more Blog - 003

It is the beginning of another day. Another section of my “amazing” writing skills comes for those with enough taste to appreciate it. ( As for the tasteless folk out there, you can stop trying. The blog won’t be taken down just because some do not enjoy it MUAHAHA) I am writing today out of pure excitement, whether you believe it or not. I got called last night at the last minute to go to work because they had a last-minute call out. Oof, they pulled me right out of bed. I felt like crying. Anyway, enough about me, let’s start with what you all are here for. World At War!

I believe the last section left off right at the description of my first soldiers, but that will have to be pushed back a little bit. It has come to my attention that some of my readers might be fiction lovers, similar to myself. ( said readers seem to also be amongst the people that have jet to try playing World At War! ) Anyway, I have to clarify that there is no time dilation mechanic in the game. That is correct; one hour passes by in real life for each hour you spend in the game. We ( humanity ) have had substantial technological advancements in recent years, but time dilation is still pretty science-fictiony. ( at least that the public is aware of)

The game’s AI is super-advanced (compared with all other current versions of game AI). It also comes incorporated with self-learning abilities. When an adventurer hunts a wolf and fails, that wolf becomes smarter. When a beast levels up, it does not only become more robust but also more intelligent. In conclusion, low-level creatures are simple to kill. Yet, higher-level ones will learn the player’s strategies and will be able to counter them. It applies to a lord’s troops similarly. The difference is that the soldier’s information is heald at their spawn points. Meaning the intellect level of any specific unit is based on the spawn point, not on the unit itself. ( I started with A level 1 castle, so level 1-10 solders / when the castle becomes level 2, the level cap of solders increases even if they die, they will respawn as a level 11-20 unit whatever your last upgrade was - further explanation below )

Now that that tidbit of trivia is out of the way let me get back on topic. My soldiers look like thugs. Hahaha, they indeed look like thugs having no armor or organizational skills. The only valuable thing on them is a sword. Yes, a proper blade ( made of bronze ), I believe it is provided as a bonus, considering they are the troops spawned from the main castle itself. At higher levels, these thug-looking soldiers with their wooden shields and spears ( A long sharpened stick ) should become one of the best available units to the Lords. At this moment, though, they are not much. Still, they are the only defensive and offensive measure available to me. ( a lord himself is useless - at level 1, we have no skill apart from “command,” a passive skill that allows us to control individual units or give commands to unit spawn points, so the teams follow said command as soon as they are spawned )

Understandably, the first thing I did was make my way to the castle and give commands to my units. It is straightforward to do so; all I had to do was approach the castle and then show intent to interact. Ether pointing at it and thinking command or just thinking castle commands. ( No, I will not discuss how the system reads your thoughts, there is a clause in the contract letting everyone know this happens. So if anyone has things to hide, DO NOT play world at war! ) The moment I thought of castle commands, a system window appeared. The system window held basic information about my castle, like its current health, the number of soldiers currently spawned, and the max number of soldiers that may be generated. ( 100% - no actual values are shown for anything, for example, the castle is at 100 % health, and my soldiers are also at 100 % health, but they can each take vastly different amounts of damage) It also showed the cost of leveling up the castle and its units, but I will discuss that another time. My current castle had 250 soldiers and would gain another 100 for each level up, eventually reaching the maximum of 1,150 units at level 10. ( All structures start at level one and cap at level ten - NPC’s start at 1 and cap at 100 - a spawned unit may have ten levels for every level its spawn point has, and when a unit is upgraded, it will always generate at whatever level the unit has been upgraded too on the spawn point )

Jesus, I was distracted for a minute and dumped a bunch of information, all the wail not letting you know what I ended up doing at the castle. Hey, that in itself should be considered a skill. Anyways let me get back on topic. At the bottom left corner of the castle command window, there is a button labeled command, and when you press it, you will be able to command your units. ( the other way to command units is to give direct spoken instructions to the units themselves ) I pressed the button and instructed, “send 200 soldiers to guard the walls and 50 to standby in front of the castle”. Thus from this point onwards, whenever a soldier dies, the newly spawned ones will automatically be sent to fill the fallen soldier’s position until the set command is fulfilled.

The moment I gave my soldiers those instructions, a new system window appeared in front of me. It stated, “as a lord, your mission is to hold the line against the invading monsters from the land of fug. Fulfill your mission and defend against the wave”. No sooner had the window disappeared than I could hear animal noises in the distance and soft vibrations. Immediately I ran to the walls, and from a distance, I could see a herd of rabbits? Some were rather large, about the same as a medium-sized dog ( 30 - 40 pounds ), and the rest varied in size, but the smallest I could make out was still as large as a small dog. ( 15 - 25 pounds ) There were hundreds or more than one thousand rabbits; truthfully, it looked intimidating.

Some of you are probably thinking, what can be so scary about rabbits? The game producers skived on many things, but art and animation were not one of them. The dam critters looked alive - and mad with their glowing red eyes and the copious amounts of froth escaping their mouths. It could scare anyone. Plus, I am not particularly brave myself.

In conclusion, I immediately left the walls and let my soldiers defend automatically. The soldiers at the border would prioritize any enemy that made it to the top of the wall. When no enemy was at the wall, they would prioritize the most significant threat within range.

That was my first mistake; the moment the bigger rabbits approached, my 200 soldiers threw their spears. At my new position atop the castle, I noticed they managed to kill about 40 of the larger rabbits. While crippling another 30 or so. There is no kill notification, so that is only what I can make out from sight alone. Without their spears, my soldiers stand atop the walls staring at the few rabbits that have reached the wall but can’t make their way up. The larger ones that are still alive manage to jump up the wall. Some landed on the wall, others received a shield bash mid-flight, and some made it over the wall touching down within the castle’s premice.

Any rabbit intercepted mid-jump became an easy kill as they fell in a semy stunned state and could not react to the follow-up stab from the bronze swords. On the other hand, those that managed to land on the wall immediately charged my units. With their swift speed and inborn agility, they became a real threat. Many defenders received leg wounds, scratches, and bites, significantly lowering their movement speed. Luckily only around 30 of the critters made the wall landing. They were soon divided, surrounded, and hacked to death.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

The rabbits that made it over the wall were met with a rain of spears. As you all might have assumed, the 50 soldiers I left waiting in front of the castle immediately attacked. Throwing their spears at the nearest threat. ( They did not throw the spears at the wall. Because the other units were close. Only on direct orders from me would they risk hearting another soldier ). They brought down forty-seven rabbits that made it over the wall. Twenty-three of which fell to the spears. I immediately ordered the fifty soldiers to engage the 24 rabbits still alive. The fight was much more challenging than the one on the wall.

To begin with, the rabbits have more maneuvering space allowing them to put their strengths to good use. My soldiers, no longer having their spears, were forced to wait for the rabbits to get very close before engaging. As a result, I often saw a rabbit charge past one of my soldiers, leaving a long bloody wound on their leg and escaping before the soldier had time to react.

Eventually, one of the soldiers could no longer stand due to the many leg injuries. As a result, he managed to land a lucky blow. To be exact, the rabbit did itself in. The rabbit charged the fallen solder, presumably to finish him off. Instead, the rabbit slammed snout first into the fallen soldiers’ shield. The rabbit was stunned by the impact, becoming easy prey for the nearby soldiers. At that moment, the game’s self-learning AI did its thing. My soldiers had a eureka moment, and half of the still-standing soldiers crouched in a forward-leaping posture. ( at this point, there were still 19 rabbits and 43 soldiers standing ) Twenty-one of the soldiers crouched, each facing a rabbit. The two extras simply supported the soldier nearest to them. In the meantime, the remaining soldiers stood right behind the crouching soldiers, ready to spring out and hack the rabbits to death.

On the rabbit’s next charge, their counterpart, a crouching soldier, lept shield first into the rabbits. Not a moment later, the waiting soldiers behind them sprang forward and slashed at the rabbits. Even the fallen soldiers crawled forward in an attempt to stab the dazed rabbits, some managing to do so. After that exchange, most rabbits were killed only four managed to escape. Unluckily those four rabbits managed to kill two of the soldiers that had crawled over. Marking the first troop deaths of the wave. ( No, people, I did not order the fallen soldiers to retreat, first of all, this happened in minutes. Considering all the other things going on, I was distracted. Still, the main reason was that I forgot to adjust the levels of gore shown. I, as an adult, did not have automatic restrictions, so yea, lots of blood and guts were seen. (As a first-time player, I was disgusted on top of distracted so cut me some slack ) The remaining four rabbits received injuries lowering their movement speed. This allowed the remaining soldiers to quickly surround and finish them off.

As the action died down, I came to my senses. The first thing I did was call out the system menu. A quick search later and I found the gore settings, which were set to 100%, and promptly lowered them to 25%. The changes were immediate. All the guts and chunks of flesh lying around disappeared from my eyes. All that was left was the blood that had spilled on the ground. The rabbits’ bodies had visible slashes but nothing more than superficial wounds. As for the bodies slashed in half, both halves grow flesh at a visible speed sealing themselves. That was creepy, but it’s better than a pile of guts lying around. On a side note, while I was looking for the gore settings, I came across the Pain sensitivity settings. They were, of course, set to the maximum allowed, at 25%, which I lowered to the minimum allowed ( 1%) without hesitation. I’m here to play games, not suffer after all.

Once done fiddling with the system menu, I order all the soldiers not currently on the wall to enter the castle to heal themselves. It’s a system setting, any injured unit that makes it back into its spawn point will be recovered in minutes. The dead units will only respawn when the wave ends. Seeing as the action had died down, I made my way to the wall. Ten of the nearby soldiers were ordered to follow and protect me when I reached the wall. What I saw from the wall was frustrating to say the least. The remaining rabbits that could not get to the top of the wall were charging and jumping, attempting to attack the soldiers on the wall. This did no damage whatsoever to the wall. Still, my soldiers did not have the weapons necessary to reach the rabbit, so they received no damage. ( you know those spears they threw earlier on ) Luckily there were still 50 spears within the wall. I ordered the 50 closest uninjured soldiers to go down and grab them. I also ordered them not to throw the spears when they returned to the wall.

When the spear-wielding soldiers returned to the wall, I sent all of the injured soldiers still on the wall to the castle so they could heal up. Leaving only a little over 160 on the wall, including my 10 guards. The 50 spear-wielding soldiers, now under order not to throw said spears made their way to the edge of the wall and started to jab down at the jumping rabbits. ( The AI will most likely update the soldiers so they won’t throw the spears immediately in future waves ) The monster’s self-learning mechanism kicked in two hundred dead rabbits and almost four hundred crippled ones later. Seeing no hope of entering the castle and having no boss monster to command them, the rabbits scattered, ending the wave.

I got a notification congratulating me for surviving the wave. This was the best confirmation that the wave was over and that it was not some monster ploy to destroy my castle. The system notification also asked if I wanted to collect the materials. ( from the dead rabbits ) Instead of accepting, I ordered the remaining soldiers with spears to throw them at the injured rabbits. Killing another forty-plus rabbit from the ones that did not manage to escape. The next order was simple. I ordered the gates to be opened and the soldiers to charge and kill the remaining rabbits. All 248 of my soldiers set forward, making quick work of the remaining rabbit. A small group of about 40 rabbits that had not gone far turned back and attacked my troops. It was a slaughter because the AI already had a way to deal with them, another 40 dead rabbits at the expense of five injured soldiers.

I ordered my soldiers back and, at the same time, collected the materials through the system prompt. The dead rabbits amounted to 640 small rabbits and 204 large ones. I received 1,252 gold coins and 120 rabbit pelts, 100 small and 20 large pelts. The loot was immediately stored at the castle. ( The only currency in the world at war! is the gold coin. And I got one coin per small rabbit and three per large one / if an adventurer killed a monster, they would make 10 times the amount that a lord gets- 10 G per small and 30 G per large ). When the gates were closed, I left the walls and returned to the castle itself. On arrival, I received a system prompt stating that my dead troops would spawn in 30 minutes. That is a wave mechanic. All dead troops will spawn 30 minutes after the wave ends. That’s a good thing because my castle’s regular spawn rate is 1 troop per five minutes. One or two deaths would not matter, but that wait time would be scary if the number reaches the hundreds.

There was no damage to my castle or the castle walls. More likely than not, this very first wave is a gift from the system to let the lord player prepare for what is to come. I, in particular, found it helpful considering the few problems discovered and the fact that we get some easy coins and materials. ( even if the materials are useless at the moment ) Finally, as I prepared to exit the game for the day, I ordered 20 of the soldiers on standby to make two groups of ten soldiers each. Then I sent them to patrol the area outside but not wander further than half a mile from the castle. ( in an attempt to kill the leftover wabbits ) I also instructed that the entire group would return and heal if any soldier received a severe injury. If there are deaths, they will return and incorporate one of the reserve soldiers waiting on standby. Newly spawned soldiers will return to the standby unit or the wall if necessary. My final command was that if the number of soldiers on standby fell under 5, all patrol activities would end until the standby unit was filled to capacity again. ( waves will never start if the lord is not present, but once it starts, it will continue until defeated, even if the lord needs to log out for whatever reason )

That’s going to be all for today, guys. I had a blast of a time with the game today. It was super exciting, even with the complete lack of actual danger. I cant wait to see how things progress. If a battle with a measly 250 soldiers was this exciting, how would it be when there are a few thousand soldiers? From what I have read, the strength of the monster wave will vary, but for the most part, they are usually within what the players can handle. Only under exceptional circumstances will a wave force any one player to the limit. I was about to go at it again, but no! that’s enough, I have work tomorrow. Do not worry; I won’t forget to talk about the building available to me at level one or the new units I will receive. I just got too excited describing my first monster wave and ignored that today, but I will get to it tomorrow. ( PS. Thanks for reading. I might do it for fun, but I do Appreciate having readers. Remember to leave comments and if you have questions, write a comment. I will try to answer them next time )