Atlantis v4.0.6Copyright 1996 by Geoff DunbarBased on Russell Wallace's Draft RulesCopyright 1993 by Russell WallaceLast Change: July 4, 2001Note: This document is subject to change, as errors are found and
corrected, and rules sometimes change. Be sure you have the latest
available copy.
These rules blatantly ripped off from raynet’s site. As of last change, Raynernet is using version 4.0.6 of the Standard Atlantis Ruleset.
IntroductionIt is a new world. An unclaimed world. Your mission? To claim what you can, and build your empire. It's as simple as that.It is up to you to build up your armies, collect taxes from the peasants, build farms, castles, mines, lumber mills etc to provision your armies, and forge your empire. All the necessities of running an empire are at your fingertips. Are you capable? Do you have what it takes to be a Great Emporer? Can you build your armies, alliances, road networks, support economies to rule?
Playing AtlantisAtlantis (as you undoubtedly already know) is a play by email game. When you sign up for Atlantis, you will be sent a turn report (via email). Your report completely details your position in the game. After going over this report, and possibly communicating with other players in the game, you determine your course of action, and create a file of "orders", which you then send back to the Atlantis server. Then, at a regular interval (often one week), Atlantis collects all the orders, runs another turn (covering one month in game time), and sends all the players another report.Factions:A player's position is called a "faction". Each faction has a name and a number (the number is assigned by the computer, and used for entering orders). Each player is allowed to play one and ONLY one faction at any given time. Each faction is composed of a number of "units", each unit being a group of one or more people loyal to the faction. You start the game with a single unit consisting of one character, plus a sum of money. More people can be hired during the course of the game, and formed into more units. (In these rules, the word "character" generally refers either to a unit consisting of only one person, or to a person within a larger unit.)A faction is considered destroyed, and the player knocked out of the game, if ever all its people are killed or disbanded (i.e. the faction has no units left). The program does not consider your starting character to be special; if your starting character gets killed, you will probably have been thinking of that character as the leader of your faction, so some other character can be regarded as having taken the dead leader's place (assuming of course that you have at least one surviving unit!). As far as the computer is concerned, as long as any unit of the faction survives, the faction is not wiped out. (If your faction is wiped out, you can rejoin the game with a new starting character.) Each faction has a type; this is decided by the player, and determines what the faction may do. The faction has 5 Faction Points, which may be spent on any of the 3 Faction Areas, War, Trade, and Magic. The faction type may be changed at the beginning of each turn, so a faction can change and adapt to the conditions around it. Faction Points spent on War determine the number of regions in which factions can obtain income by taxing or pillaging. Faction Points spent on Trade determine the number of regions in which a faction may conduct trade activity. Trade activity includes producing goods, building ships and buildings, and buying and selling trade items. Faction Points spent on Magic determines the number of mages the faction may have. (More information on all of the faction activities is in further sections of the rules). Here is a chart detailing the limits on factions by Faction Points.
For example, a well rounded faction might spent 2 points on War, 1 point on Trade, and 2 points on Magic. This faction's type would appear as "War 2 Trade 1 Magic 2", and would be able to tax 24 regions, perform trade in 10 regions, and have 2 mages. As another example, a specialized faction might spend all 5 points on War. This faction's type would appear as "War 5", and it would be able to tax 100 regions, but could not perform trade in any regions, nor could it possess any mages. Note that it is possible to have a faction type with less than 5 points spent. In fact, a starting faction has one point spent on each of War, Trade, and Magic, leaving 2 points unspent. When a faction starts the game, it is given a one-man unit and 5000 silver in unclaimed money. Unclaimed money is cash that your whole faction has access to, but cannot be taken away in battle (silver in a unit's possessions can be taken in battle.) This allows a faction to get started without presenting an enticing target for other factions. Units in your faction may use the CLAIM order to take this silver, and use it to buy goods or recruit men.An example faction is shown below, consisting of a starting character, Merlin the Magician, who has formed two more units, Merlin's Guards and Merlin's Workers. Each unit is assigned a unit number by the computer (completely independent of the faction number); this is used for entering orders. Here, the player has chosen to give his faction the same name ("Merlin the Magician") as his starting character. Alternatively, you can call your faction something like "The Great Northern Mining Company" or whatever. * Merlin the Magician (17), faction Merlin (27), has:
leader [LEAD]. Skills: none.
* Merlin's Guards (33), faction Merlin (27), has: 20
vikings [VIKI], 20 swords [SWOR]. Skills: none.
* Merlin's Workers (34), faction Merlin (27), has: 50
vikings [VIKI]. Skills: none.
There are different races that make up the population of
Atlantis. (See the section on skills for a list of these.) In
addition, there are "leaders", who are presumed to be of one of the
other races, but are all the same in game terms. Units made up of
normal people may only know one skill, and cannot teach other units.
Units made up of leaders may know as many skills as desired, and may
teach other units to speed the learning process. Leaders and normal
people may not be mixed in the same unit. However, leaders are more
expensive to recruit and maintain. (More information is in the
section on skills.) A unit is treated as the least common
denominator of the people within it, so a unit made up of two races
with different strengths and weaknesses will have all the
weaknesses, and none of the strengths of either race.
A turn is equal to one game month. A unit can do many actions at
the start of the month, that only take a matter of hours, such as
buying and selling commodities, or fighting an opposing faction.
Each unit can also do exactly one action that takes up the entire
month, such as harvesting timber or moving from one region to
another. The orders which take an entire month are
This report gives all of the available information on this
region. The region type is plain, the name of the surrounding area
is Turia, and the coordinates of this region are (11,15). The
population of this region are 500 nomads, and there is $2500 of
taxable income currently in this region. Then, under the dashed
line, are various details about items for sale, wages, etc. Finally,
there is a list of all visible units. Units that belong to your
faction will be so denoted by a '*', whereas other faction's units
are preceded by a '-'.
Since Atlantis is made up of hexagonal regions, the coordinate
system is not always exactly intuitive. Here is the layout of
Atlantis regions:
Note that the are "holes" in the coordinate system; there is no
region (1,2), for instance. This is due to the hexagonal system of
regions.
Most regions are similar to the region shown above, but the are
certain exceptions. Oceans, not surprisingly, have no population.
Some regions will contain villages, towns, and cities. More
information on these is available in the section on the ecomony.
The structure lists the name, the number, and what type of
structure it is. (More information of the types of structures can be
found in the section on the economy.) Following this is a list of
units inside the structure. Units within a structure are always
visible, even if they would otherwise not be seen.
Units inside structures are still considered to be in the region,
and other units can interact with them; however, they may gain
benefits, such as defensive bonuses in combat from being inside a
building. The first unit to enter an object is considered to be the
owner; only this unit can do things such as renaming the object, or
permitting other units to enter. The owner of an object can be
identified on the turn report, as it is the first unit listed under
the object.
When a faction first starts in Atlantis, it begins with one unit,
in a special region called the Atlantis Nexus. This region exists
outside of the normal world of Atlantis, and as such has no products
or marketplaces; it merely serves as the magical entry into
Atlantis.
From the Atlantis Nexus, there are six exits into the starting
cities of Atlantis. Units may move through these exits as normal,
but once through an exit, there is no return path to the Nexus. The
six starting cities offer much to a starting faction; there are
unlimited amounts of many materials and men (though the prices are
often quite high). In addition, the starting cities are guarded by
strong guardsmen, keeping any units within the city much safer from
attack (See the section on Non-Player Units for more information on
city guardsmen). As a drawback, these cities tend to be extremely
crowded, and most factions will wish to leave the starting cities
when possible.
It is always possible to enter any starting city from the nexus,
even if that starting city has been taken over and guarded. This is
due to the transportation from the Nexus to the starting city being
magical in nature.
There are three methods of departing the starting cities. The
first is by land, but keep in mind that the lands immediately
surrounding the starting cities will tend to be highly populated,
and possibly quite dangerous to travel. The second is by sea; all of
the starting cities lie against an ocean, and a faction may easily
purchase wood and construct a ship to
Flying units are not initially available to starting players. A unit can ride provided that the carrying capacity of its horses is at least as great as the weight of its people and all other items. A unit can walk provided that the carrying capacity of its people, horses and wagons is at least as great as the weight of all its other items, and provided that it has at least as many horses as wagons (otherwise the excess wagons count as weight, not capacity). Otherwise the unit cannot issue a MOVE order. People weigh 10 units and have a capacity of 5 units; data for items is as follows: A unit which can fly is capable of travelling over water. However, if the unit ends it's turn over a water hex, that unit will drown.
Since regions are hexagonal, each region has six neighbouring
regions to the north, northeast, southeast, south, southwest and
northwest. Moving from one region to another normally takes one
movement point, except that the following terrain types take two
movement points for riding or walking units to enter: Forest,
Mountain, Swamp, Jungle and Tundra. Also, during certain seasons
(depending on the latitude of the region), all units (including
flying ones) only have half their normal movement points, as
freezing weather makes travel difficult (in the tropics, seasonal
hurricane winds and torrential rains have a similar effect). Units
may not move through ocean regions without using the Units may also enter or exit structures while moving. Moving into or out of a structure does not use any movement points at all. Note that a unit can also use the ENTER and LEAVE orders to move in and out of structures, without issuing a MOVE order. Finally, certain structures contain interior passages to other regions. The MOVE IN order can be used to go through these passages; the movement point cost is equal to the normal cost to enter the destination region. Example: One man with a horse, sword, and chain mail wants to move north, then northeast. The capacity of the horse is 20 and the weight of the man and other items is 12, so he can ride. The month is April so he has four movement points. He issues the order MOVE NORTH NORTHEAST. First he moves north, into a plain region. This uses one movement point. Then he moves northeast, into a forest region. This uses two movement points, so the movement is completed with one to spare.
Note that a unit on board a sailing ship may not MOVE later in the turn, even if he doesn't issue the SAIL order; sailing is considered to take the whole month. Also, units may not remain on guard while on board a sailing ship; they will have to reissue the GUARD 1 order to guard a region after sailing. Ships get four movement points per turn. A ship can move from an ocean region to another ocean region, or from a coastal region to an ocean region, or from an ocean region to a coastal region. Ships can only be constructed in coastal regions. For a ship to enter any region only costs one movement point; the cost of two movement points for entering, say, a forest coastal region, does not apply. Ships do, however, only get half movement points during the winter months (or monsoon months in the tropical latitudes). A ship can only move if the total weight of everything aboard does not exceed the ship's capacity. (The rules do not prevent an overloaded ship from staying afloat, only from moving.) Also, there must be enough sailors aboard (using the SAIL order), to sail the ship, or it will not go anywhere. Note that the sailing skill increases the usefulness of a unit proportionally; thus, a 1 man unit with level 5 sailing skill can sail a longboat alone. (See the section on skills for further details on skills.) The capacities (and costs in labor units) of the various ship types are as follows:
Normal movement in Atlantis, meaning Sailing is handled differently; Atlantis cycles through all of the ships in Atlantis, moving them one at a time. When Atlantis sails a ship, it sails it through it's entire course, and then moves onto the next ship. Note that in either case, the order in which the regions are processed is undefined by the rules. The computer generally does them in the same order every time, but it is up to the wiles of the player to determine (or not) these patterns. The order in which units or ships are moved within a region is the order that they appear on a turn report.
Skills may be learned up to a maximum depending on the race of
the studying unit (remembering that for units containing more than
one race, the maximum is determined by the least common
denominator). The normal maximum skill level is 2, but every race
has a list of skills that they specialize in, and can learn up to
level 3. Leaders can learn every skill up to a maximum level of 5.
Here is a list of the races and the skills they specialize in:
Orcs are something of an exception; they can reach level 4 in
combat, but have a maximum level of 1 in all other skills.
If units are merged together, their skills are averaged out. No
rounding off is done; rather, the computer keeps track for each unit
of how many total months of training that unit has in each skill.
When units are split up, these months are divided as evenly as
possible among the people in the unit; but no months are ever lost.
Most skills cost $10 per person per month to study (in addition to normal maintenance costs). The exceptions are Stealth and Observation (both of which cost $50), Magic skills (which cost $100), and Tactics (which costs $200).
Note that it is quite possible for a single unit to teach two or more other units different skills in the same month, provided that the teacher has a higher skill level than each student in the skill that that student is studying, and that there are no more than 10 students per teacher. Note: Only leaders may use the TEACH order.
Shoemaking 3: A unit possessing this skill may produce
Sooper Dooper Air Max Winged Sandals. Use PRODUCE
Winged Sandals to produce this item.
This fee is generally 10 silver for a normal character, and 20
silver for a leader. If this is not available, units may substitute
one unit of grain, livestock, or fish for this maintenance (two
units for a leader). A unit may use the
All items except silver are produced with the If an item requires raw material, then one unit of material is consumed for each item produced. Thus, to produce 5 longbows (a supply of arrows is assumed to be included with the bow), 5 units of wood are required. The higher one's skill, the more productive each man-month of work; thus, 5 longbows could be produced by a 5-man unit of skill 1, or a 1-man unit of skill 5. (Plate armor is an exception; a unit must have skill 3 to be able to produce it at all, and each man can only produce 1 plate armor per month. Plate armor also takes 3 units of iron to produce.) Only Trade factions can issue PRODUCE orders however, regardless of skill levels. Items which increase production may increase production of advanced items in addition to the basic items listed. Some of them also increase production of other tools. Read the skill descriptions for details on which tools aid which production when not noted above. As noted above, all combat capable tools add 1 to production while all non-combat capable tools add 2, with the exception of lasso's which only add 1. The first 9 items on the list do not require raw material; they are produced directly from the land. Each region generally has at least one item that can be produced there. Shown on the description of a region is a list of the items that can be produced, and the amount of each that can be produced per month. This depends on the region type; thus, mountains are the best places to quarry stone, and herbs are most commonly found in forests and jungles. It also varies from region to region of the same type. If the units in a region attempt to produce more of a commodity than can be produced that month, then the amount available is distributed among the workers.
Trade items are bought and sold only by cities, and have no other
practical uses. However, the profit margins on these items are
usually quite high. Buying and selling of these items in a region
counts against a Trade faction's quota of regions in which it may
undertake trade activity (note that buying and selling normal items
does not).
Size is the number of people that the building can shelter. Cost
is the number of person-months of labor and the number of units of
stone required to complete the building. The material for all
buildings is stone.
There are other structures that increase the maximum production
of certain items in regions; for example, a Mine will increase the
amount of iron that is available to be mined in a region. To
construct these structures requires a high skill level in the
production skill related to the item that the structure will help
produce. (Inns are an exception to this rule, requiring the Building
skill, not the Entertainment skill.) This bonus in production is
available to any unit in the region; there is no need to be inside
the structure.
The first structure built in a region will increase the maximum
production of the related product by 25%; the amount added by each
additional structure will be half of the the effect of the previous
one. (Note that if you build enough of the same type of structure in
a region, the new structures may not add _any_ to the production
level).
Note that structures will not increase the availability of an
item in a region that does not already have the item available.
Also, Trade structures do not offer defensive bonuses (which is why
they do not have a size associated with them). As for regular
buildings, the Cost is the number of person-months of labor and also
the number of units of raw material required to complete a trade
structure. You can use two different materials (wood or stone) to
construct most trade structures.
Roads:There is a another type of structure called roads. They require the building skill and do not protect units, nor aid in the production of resources, but do aid movement, and can improve the economy of a hex.Roads are directional and are only considered to reach from one hexside to the center of the hex. To gain a movement bonus, there must be two connecting roads, one in each adjacent hex. Only one road may be built in each direction. If a road in the given direction is connected, units move along that road at half cost to a minimum of 1 movement point. For example: If a unit is moving northwest, then hex it is in must have a northwest road, and the hex it is morving into must have a southeast road. To gain an economy bonus, a hex must have roads that connect to roads in two adjoining hexes. The economy bonus for the connected roads raises the wages in the region by 1 point. There are six different road structures, one for each direction. They each require 75 stone to build. Unlike other structures, roads will decay over time if they are not maintained. Difficult terrain and bad weather will speed this decay. Maintnenance involves having units with the appropriate level of building skill expend a small amount of stone and labor on a fairly regular basis in the exactly same manner as they would finish building it if it was not completed. In other words, enter the structure and issue the BUILD command with no parameters. Once a road decays, it will give no bonuses until it is repaired.
The capacity of a ship is the maximum weight that the ship may
have aboard and still move. The cost is both the person-months of
labor and the number of units of wood required to complete the ship.
The sailors are the number of skill levels of the Sailing skill that
must be aboard the ship (and issuing the
War factions may also pillage a region. To do this requires the faction to have enough combat trained men in the region to tax half of the available money in the region. The total amount of money that can be pillaged will then be shared out between every combat trained unit that issues the PILLAGE order. The amount of money collected is equal to twice the available tax money. However, the economy of the region will be seriously damaged by pillaging, and will only slowly recover over time. Note that PILLAGE comes before TAX, so TAX will collect no money in that region that month. It is possible to safeguard one's tax income in regions one controls. Units which have the Guard flag set (using the GUARD order) will block TAX orders issued by other factions in the same region, unless you have declared the faction in question Friendly. Units on guard will also block PILLAGE orders issued by other factions in the same region, regardless of your attitude towards the faction in question, and they will attempt to prevent Unfriendly units from entering the region. Only units which are able to tax may be on guard. Units on guard are always visible regardless of Stealth skill, and will be marked as being "on guard" in the region description.
Ally means that you will fight to defend units of that faction whenever they come under attack, if you have non-avoiding units in the region where the attack occurs. You will also prevent stealing and assassination attempts against units of the faction, if you are capable of seeing the unit attempting the crime. It also has the implications of the Friendly attitude. Friendly means that you will accept gifts from units of that faction. This includes the giving of items, units of people, and the teaching of skills. You will also admit units of that faction into buildings or ships owned by one of your units, and you will permit units of that faction to collect taxes (but not pillage) in regions where you have units on guard. Unfriendly means that you will not admit units of that faction into any region where you have units on guard. You will not, however, automatically attack unfriendly units which are already present. Hostile means that any of your units which do not have the Avoid Combat flag set (using the AVOID order) will attack any units of that faction wherever they find them. If a unit can see another unit, but does not have high enough Observation skill to determine its faction, it will treat the unit using the faction's default attitude, even if the unit belongs to an Unfriendly or Hostile faction, because it does not know the unit's identity. However, if your faction has declared an attitude of Friendly or Ally towards that unit's faction, the unit will be treated with the better attitude; it is assumed that the unit will produce proof of identity when relevant. (See the section on stealth for more information on when units can see each other.) If a faction declares Unfriendly or Hostile as default attitude (the latter is a good way to die fast), it will block or attack unidentified units, unless they belong to factions for which a more friendly attitude has been specifically declared. Units which cannot be seen at all cannot be directly blocked or attacked, of course.
Secondly, the attacking unit must be able to catch the unit it wishes to attack. A unit may only catch a unit if its effective Riding skill is greater than or equal to the target unit's effective Riding skill; otherwise, the target unit just rides away from the attacking unit. Effective Riding is the unit's Riding skill, but with a potential maximum; if the unit can not ride, the effective Riding skill is 0; if the unit can ride, the maximum effective Riding is 3; if the unit can fly, the maximum effective Riding is 5. Note that the effective Riding also depends on whether the unit is attempting to attack or defend; for attack purposes, only one man in the unit needs to be able to ride or fly (generally, this means one of the men must possess a horse, or other form of transportation), whereas for defense purposes the entire unit needs to be able to ride or fly (usually meaning that every man in the unit must possess a horse or other form of speedier transportation). Also, note that for a unit to be able to use its defensive Riding ability to avoid attack, the unit cannot be in a building, ship, or structure of any type. A unit which is on guard, and is Unfriendly towards a unit, will deny access to units using the MOVE order to enter its region. Note that to deny access to a unit, the guarding unit must satisfy the two above requirements; namely, it must be able to see the unit, and also be able to catch the unit. A unit using ADVANCE instead of MOVE to enter a region, will attack any units that identify it as Unfriendly and attempt to deny it access. If the advancing unit loses the battle, it will be forced to retreat to the previous region it moved through. If the unit wins the battle and its army doesn't lose any men, it is allowed to continue to move, provided that it has enough movement points. Note that neither of these restrictions apply for sea combat, as units within a ship are always visible, and Riding does not play a part in combat on board ships.
On the attacking side are all units of the attacking faction in the region where the fight is taking place, except those with Avoid Combat set. A unit which has explicitly issued an ATTACK order will join the fight anyway, regardless of Avoid Combat. Also on the attacking side are all units of other factions that attacked the target faction in the region where the fight is taking place. In other words, if several factions attack one, then all their armies join together to attack at the same time (even if they are enemies and will later fight each other). On the defending side are all identifiable units belonging to the defending faction. If a unit has Avoid Combat set, and its faction cannot be identified by the attacking faction, it will not be involved in the battle. A unit which was explicitly attacked will be involved anyway, regardless of Avoid Combat. (This means that Avoid Combat is mostly useful for high stealth scouts.) Also, all non-avoiding units in factions allied with the defending unit will join in on the defending side. Units in adjacent regions can also become involved. This is the exception to the general rule that you cannot interact with units in a different region. If a faction has at least one unit involved in the initial region, then any units in adjacent regions will join the fight, if they could reach the region and do not have Avoid Combat set. There are a few flags that units may set to affect this; a unit with the Hold flag (set using the HOLD order) will not join battles in adjacent regions. This flag applies to both attacking and defending factions. A unit with the Noaid flag (set using the NOAID order) will receive no aid from adjacent hexes when attacked, or when it issues an attack. Example: A fight starts in region A, in the initial combat phase (before any movement has occurred). The defender has a unit of soldiers in adjacent region B. They have 2 movement points at this stage. They will buy horses later in the turn, so that when they execute their MOVE order they will have 4 movement points, but right now they have 2. Region A is forest but fortunately it is summer so the soldiers can join the fight. It is important to note that the units in nearby regions do not actually move to the region where the fighting happens; the computer only checks that they could move there. (In game world terms, presumably they did move there to join the fight, and then moved back where they started.) The computer checks for weight allowances and terrain types when determining whether a unit could reach the scene of the battle. Note that the use of ships is not allowed in this virtual movement. If you order an attack on an ally (either with the ATTACK order, or if your ally has declared you Unfriendly, by attempting to ADVANCE into a region which he is guarding), then your commander will decide that a mistake has occurred somewhere, and withdraw your troops from the fighting altogether. Thus, your units will not attack that faction in that region. Note that you will always defend an ally against attack, even if it means that you fight against other factions that you are allied with.
In each combat round, the combatants each get to attack once, in
a random order. (In a free round of attacks, only one side's forces
get to attack.) Each combatant will attempt to hit a randomly
selected enemy. If he hits, and the target has no armor, then the
target is automatically killed. Chain armor gives a 1/3 chance of
surviving a hit, and plate armor gives a 2/3 chance. Hits inflicted
by a crossbow cannot be deflected by armor; the target is
automatically killed, regardless of armor.
The basic skill used in battle is the Combat skill; this is used
for hand to hand fighting. If one soldier tries to hit another using
melee weapons, there is a 50% chance that the attacker will get an
opportunity for a lethal blow. If the attacker does get that
opportunity, then there is a contest between his skill and the
defender's.
If the skills are equal, then there is a 1:1 (i.e. 50%) chance
that the attack will succeed. If the attacker's skill is 1 higher
then there is a 2:1 (i.e. 66%) chance, if the attacker's skill is 2
higher then there is a 4:1 (i.e. 80%) chance, 3 higher means an 8:1
(i.e. 88%) chance, and so on. Similarly if the defender's skill is 1
higher, then there is only a 1:2 (i.e. 33%) chance, etc.
Possession of a sword confers a +2 bonus to Combat skill. (Troops
fighting hand-to-hand without swords are assumed to be irregularly
equipped with knives, clubs etc.) Possession of a horse, and Riding
skill, also confers a bonus to effective Combat skill equal to the
Riding skill level (up to a maximum of 3) provided that the terrain
is one of Plain, Desert or Tundra. Winged horse are better yet, but
require more basic Riding skill to gain any advantage.
Missile weapons are slightly different. A soldier who has a
longbow and is skilled in its use will use it; otherwise, he will
use a crossbow if he has one, and skill in its use; otherwise, he
will fight hand to hand. The skill check to hit with a longbow is
made against an effective defense of 2; i.e., a longbowman with
skill 1, having made the 50% chance of getting an effective attack,
has a 1:2 chance of hitting a target. A crossbow is an easier weapon
to use, so the chance to hit is calculated against a defense of 0;
on the other hand, a crossbow can only fire every other round (the
first, third, fifth, etc., rounds, including the free round of
attacks if one's side has one). Note that the target unit's actual
skills are irrelevant for bow attacks.
A soldier with a melee weapon attacking a bowman makes his attack
just as if the bowman had a Combat skill of 0, even if the bowman is
a leader who also has Combat skill.
Being inside a building confers a +2 bonus to defense. This bonus
is effective against bows as well as melee weapons. The number of
men that a building can protect is equal to its size. The sizes of
the different types of buildings are as follows:
If there are too many units in a building to all gain protection
from it, then those units who have been in the building longest will
gain protection. (Note that these units appear first on the turn
report.) If a unit of 200 men is inside a Fort (capacity 50), then
the first 50 men in the unit will gain the full +2 bonus, and the
other 150 will gain no protection.
Units which have the Behind flag set are at the rear and cannot
be attacked by any means until all non-Behind units have been wiped
out. On the other hand, neither can they attack with melee weapons,
but only with bows or magic. Once all front-line units have been
wiped out, then the Behind flag no longer has any effect.
Units with the Healing skill have a chance of being able to heal
casualties of the winning side, so that they recover rather than
dying. Each character with this skill can attempt to heal 5
casualties per skill level. Each attempt however requires one unit
of Herbs, which is thereby used up. Each attempt has a 50% chance of
healing one casualty; only one attempt at Healing may be made per
casualty. Healing occurs automatically, after the battle is over, by
any living healers on the winning side.
Any items owned by dead combatants on the losing side have a 50%
chance of being found and collected by the winning side. Each item
which is recovered is picked up by one of the survivors at random,
so the winners generally collect loot in proportion to their number
of surviving men.
If you are expecting to fight an enemy who is carrying so much
equipment that you would not be able to move after picking it up,
and you want to move to another region later that month, it may be
worth issuing some orders to drop items (with the
Regardless of Stealth skill, units are always visible when
participating in combat; when guarding a region with the Guard flag;
or when in a building or aboard a ship. However, in order to see the
faction that owns the unit, you will still need a higher Observation
skill than the unit's Stealth skill.
If the thief has higher Stealth than any of the target faction's units have Observation (i.e. the thief cannot be seen by the target faction), the theft will succeed. The target faction will be told what was stolen, but not by whom. If the specified item is silver, then $200 or half the total available, whichever is less, will be stolen. If it is any other item, then only one will be stolen (if available). Any unit with high enough Observation to see the thief will see the attempt to steal, whether the attempt is successful or not. Allies of the target unit will prevent the theft, if they have high enough Observation to see the unit trying to steal.
Success for assassination is determined as for theft, i.e. the assassin will fail if any of the target faction's units can see him. In this case, the assassin will flee, and the target faction will be informed which unit made the attempt. As with theft, allies of the target unit will prevent the assassination from succeeding, if their Observation level is high enough. If the assassin has higher Stealth than any of the target faction's units have Observation, then a one-on-one fight will take place between the assassin and the target character. The assassin automatically gets a free round of attacks; after that, the battle is handled like a normal fight, with the exception that neither assassin nor victim can use chain mail or plate armor (the assassin because he cannot sneak around wearing metal armor, the victim because he was caught by surprise with his armor off). If the assassin wins, the target faction is told merely that the victim was assassinated, but not by whom. If the victim wins, then the target faction learns which unit made the attempt. (Of course, this does not necessarily mean that the assassin's faction is known.) The winner of the fight gets 50% of the loser's property as usual. STEAL and ASSASSINATE are not full month orders, and do not interfere with other activities, but a unit can only issue one STEAL order or one ASSASSINATE order in a month.
There are two major differences between Magic skills and normal
skills. The first is that the ability to study Magic skills
sometimes depends on lower level Magic skills. The Magic skills that
a mage may study are listed on his turn report, so he knows which
areas he may pursue. Studying higher in the Foundation skills, and
certain other Magic skills, will make other skills available to the
mage. Also, study into a magic skill above level 2 requires that the
mage be located in some sort of protected building (a tower,
fortress, castle or citadel; mines, quarries, etc, do not count). If
the mage is not in such a structure, his study rate is cut in half,
as he does not have the proper environment and equipment for
research.
Secondly, some spells are for use in combat. A mage may specify
that he wishes to use a spell in combat by issuing the The description that a mage receives when he first learns a spell
specifies the manner in which the spell is used (automatic, in
combat, or by casting).
Although the magic skills and spells are unspecified in these
rules, left for the players to discover, the rules for combat
spells' interaction are spelled out here. There are five major types
of attacks, and defenses: Combat, Bow, Energy, Weather, and Spirit.
Every attack and defense has a type, and only the appropriate
defense is effective against an attack.
Defensive spells are cast at the beginning of each round of
combat, and will have a type of attack they deflect, and skill level
(Defensive spells are generally called Shields). Every time an
attack is launched against an army, it must first attack the highest
level Shield of the same type as the attack, before it may attack a
soldier directly. Note that an attack only has to attack the highest
Shield, any other Shields of the same type are ignored for that
attack.
An attack spell (and any other type of attack) also has an attack
type, and attack level, and a number of blows it deals. When the
attack spell is cast, it is matched up against the most powerful
defensive spell of the appropriate type that the other army has
cast. If the other army has not cast any applicable defensive
spells, the spell goes through unmolested. Otherwise, the skill
level of the attack spell, and the skill level of the defensive
spell are matched against each other. The formula for determining
the victor between a defensive and offensive spell is the same as
for a contest of soldiers; if the levels are equal, there is a 1:1
chance of success, and so on. If the offensive spell is victorious,
the offensive spell deals its blows to the defending army, and the
Shield in question is destroyed (thus, it can be useful to have more
than one of the same type of Shield in effect, as the other Shield
will take the place of the destroyed one). Otherwise, the attack
spell disperses, and the defending spell remains in place.
Some spells do not actually kill enemies, but rather have some
negative effect on them. These spells are treated the same as normal
spells; if there is a Shield of the same type as them, they must
attack the Shield before attacking the army. Physical attacks that
go through a defensive spell also must match their skill level
against that of the defensive spell in question. However, they do
not destroy a layer of the spell when they are successful.
Note that the city guardsmen in the starting cities of Atlantis
possess plate armor in addition to being more numerous and are
harder therefore to kill. Additionally, in the starting cities, Mage
Guards will be found. These mages are adept at the fire spell making
any attempt to control a starting city a much harder proposition.
For example, if your faction number (shown at the top of your
report) is 27, and you have two units numbered 5 and 17:
Thus, orders for each unit are given separately, and indicated
with the UNIT keyword. (In the case of an order, such as the command
to rename your faction, that is not really for any particular unit,
it does not matter which unit issues the command; but some
particular unit must still issue it.)
IMPORTANT: You MUST use the correct #ATLANTIS line or else your
orders will be silently ignored.
If you have a password set, you must specify it on you #atlantis
line, or the game will reject your orders. See the Each type of order is designated by giving a keyword as the first
non-blank item on a line. Parameters are given after this, separated
by spaces or tabs. Blank lines are permitted, as are comments;
anything after a semicolon is treated as a comment (provided the
semicolon is not in the middle of a word).
The parser is not case sensitive, so all commands may be given in
upper case, low case or a mixture of the two. However, when
supplying names containing spaces, the name must be surrounded by
double quotes, or else underscore characters must be used in place
of spaces in the name. (These things apply to the #ATLANTIS and #END
lines as well as to order lines.)
You may precede orders with the at sign (@), in which case they
will appear in the Template at the bottom of your report. This is
useful for orders which your units repeat for several months in a
row.
IMPORTANT: Remember that names containing spaces (e.g., "Plate
Armor"), must be surrounded by double quotes, or the space must be
replaced with an underscore "_" (e.g., Plate_Armor).
Example:
Change your faction's email address to atlantis@rahul.net.
Examples:
Move north, then northwest, attacking any units that forbid
access to the regions.
In order, move north, then enter structure number 1, move through
an inner route, and finally move southeast. Will attack any units
that forbid access to any of these locations.
Example:
Assassinate unit number 177.
Example:
To attacks units 17, 431, and 985:
or:
Example:
To cause the unit to attempt to tax every turn.
The Guard and Avoid Combat flags are mutually exclusive; setting
one automatically cancels the other.
Example:
Set the unit to avoid combat when possible.
Example:
Set the unit to be in front in combat.
Example:
To build a new tower.
Examples:
Buy one plate armor from the city market.
Recruit 5 barbarians into the current unit. (This will dilute the
skills that the unit has.)
Examples:
Cast the spell called "Super Spell".
Cast the fourth-level spell in the "Super Magic" skill.
Example:
Claim 100 silver.
Example:
Instruct the unit to use the spell "Super Spell", when the unit
is involved in a battle.
Example:
Tell a unit to use food items in the unit's possession for
maintenance costs.
Examples:
Declare your faction to be hostile to faction 15.
Set your faction's attitude to faction 15 to its default
attitude.
Set your faction's default attitude to friendly.
Example:
Set the unit,s description to read "Merlin's helper".
Example:
Destroy the ship or building the unit is in.
Example:
Enter ship number 114.
Example:
Changing the number of faction points assigned to MAGIC may be
tricky. Increasing the MAGIC points will always succeed, but if you
decrease the number of points assigned to MAGIC, you must make sure
that you have only the number of magic-skilled leaders allowed by
the new number of MAGIC points BEFORE you change your point
distribution. For example, if you have 3 mages (3 points assigned to
MAGIC), but want to use one of those points for WAR or TRADE (change
to MAGIC 2), you must first get rid of one of your mages by either
giving it to another faction or ordering it to FORGET
all its magic skills. If you have too many mages for the number
of points you try to assign to MAGIC, the FACTION order will fail.
Examples:
Assign 2 faction points to WAR, 2 to TRADE, and 1 to MAGIC.
Become a pure magic faction (assign all points to magic).
Example:
Find the email address of faction 4.
Example:
Forget knowledge of Mining.
The FORM order is followed by a list of orders for the newly
created unit. This list is terminated by the END keyword, after
which orders for the original unit resume.
The purpose of the "alias" parameter is so that you can refer to
the new unit. You will not know the new unit's number until you
receive the next turn report. To refer to the new unit in this set
of orders, pick an alias number (the only restriction on this is
that it must be at least 1, and you should not create two units in
the same region in the same month, with the same alias numbers). The
new unit can then be referred to as NEW This set of orders for unit 17 would create two new units with
alias numbers 1 and 2, name them Merlin's Guards and Merlin's
Workers, set the description for Merlin's Workers, have both units
recruit men, and have Merlin's Guards study combat. Merlin's Workers
will have the default order WORK,
as all newly created units do. The unit that created these two then
pays them enough money (using the NEW keyword to refer to them by
alias numbers) to cover the costs of recruitment and the month's
maintenance.
You can refer to newly created units belonging to other factions,
if you know what alias number they are, e.g. FACTION 15 NEW 2 will
refer to faction 15's newly created unit with alias 2.
Note: If a unit moves out of the region in which it was formed
(by the MOVE
order, or otherwise), the alias will no longer work. This is to
prevent conflicts with other units that may have the same alias in
other regions.
If the demand for recruits in that region that month is much
higher than the supply, it may happen that the new unit does not
gain all the recruits you ordered it to buy, or it may not gain any
recruits at all. If the new units gains at least one recruit, the
unit will form possessing any unused silver and all the other items
it was given. If no recruits are gained at all, the empty unit will
be dissolved, and the silver and any other items it was given will
revert to the lowest numbered unit you have in that region.
If the target unit is not a member of your faction, then its
faction must have declared you Friendly, with a couple of
exceptions. First, silver may be given to any unit, regardless of
factional affiliation. Secondly, men may not be given to units in
other factions (you must give the entire unit); the reason for this
is to prevent highly skilled units from being sabotaged with a GIVE
order.
There are also a few restrictions on orders given by units who
been given to another faction. If the receiving faction is not
allied to the giving faction, the unit may not issue the ADVANCE
order, or issue any more GIVE
orders. Both of these rules are to prevent unfair sabotage tactics.
If 0 is specified as the unit number, then the items are
discarded.
Examples:
Give 10 swords to unit 4573.
Give 5 chain armor to the new unit, alias 2, belonging to faction
14.
Give control of this unit to the faction owning unit 75.
The Guard and Avoid Combat flags are mutually exclusive; setting
one automatically cancels the other.
Example:
Instruct the current unit to be on guard.
Example:
Instruct the unit to avoid combat in other regions.
Example:
Valid directions are:
1) The compass directions North, Northwest, Southwest, South,
Southeast, and Northeast. These can be abbreviated N, NW, SW, S, SE,
NE.
2) A structure number.
3) OUT, which will leave the structure that the unit is in.
4) IN, which will move through an inner passage in the structure
that the unit is currently in.
Multiple MOVE orders given by one unit will chain together, so:
is equivalent to:
Note that MOVE orders can lead to combat, due to hostile units
meeting, or due to an advancing unit being forbidden access to a
region. In this case, combat occurs each time all movement out of a
single region occurs.
Example 1: Units 1 and 2 are in Region A, and unit 3 is in Region
B. Units 1 and 2 are hostile to unit 3. Both unit 1 and 2 move into
region B, and attack unit 3. Since both units moved out of the same
region, they attack unit 3 at the same time, and the battle is
between units 1 and 2, and unit 3.
Example 2: Same as example 1, except unit 2 is in Region C,
instead of region A. Both units move into Region B, and attack unit
3. Since unit 1 and unit 2 moved out of different regions, their
battles occur at different times. Thus, unit 1 attacks unit 3 first,
and then unit 2 attacks unit 3 (assuming unit 3 survives the first
attack). Note that the order of battles could have happened either
way.
In order to rename a settlement (city, town or village), the unit
attempting to rename it must be the owner of a large enough
structure located in the city. It requires a tower or better to
rename a village, a fort or better to rename a town and a castle or
mystic fortress to rename a city.
Example:
Name your faction "The Merry Pranksters".
If multiple units are on one side in a battle, they must all have
the NOAID flag on, or they will receive aid from other hexes.
Example:
Set a unit to receive no aid in battle.
Set a unit to not permit itself to cross water.
Note: standard Atlantis has an OPTION TIMES command, which sets it so that your faction receives the times each
week, and OPTION NOTIMES to set it so that your
faction is not sent the times. This is irrelevant in Raynernet, as
all Times are viewed over the Website. The OPTION TEMPLATE order toggles the length of the Orders
Template that appears at the bottom of a turn report. The OFF
setting eliminates the Template altogether, and the SHORT, LONG and
MAP settings control how much detail the Template contains. The MAP
setting will produce an ascii map of the region and surrounding
regions in addition other details.
For the MAP template, the region identifiers are: (use a fixed
width font)
IMPORTANT: The PASSWORD order does not take effect until the turn
is actually run. So if you set your password, and then want to
re-submit orders, you should use the old password until the turn has
been run.
Example:
Set the password to "xyzzy".
Example:
Produce as many crossbows as possible.
Example:
Promote unit 415 to be the owner of the object that this unit
owns.
Examples:
Show the unit to all factions.
Show the unit and it's affiliation to all factions.
Cancels revealling.
Example:
Sail north, then northwest.
or:
Example:
Sell 10 furs to the market.
Example:
Show the skill report for Mining 3 again.
Get some information about Iron.
Example:
Steal silver from unit 123.
Steal wood from unit 321.
Example:
Study horse training.
Example:
Attempt to collect taxes.
is equivalent to
Example:
Teach new unit 2 and unit 5 whatever they are studying.
Your units in the Current Status section are flagged with a "*"
character. Units belonging to other factions are flagged with a "-"
character. You may be informed which faction they belong to, if you
have high enough Observation skill.
Objects are flagged with a "+" character. The units listed under
an object (if any) are inside the object. The first unit listed
under an object is its owner.
If you can see a unit, you can see any large items it is
carrying. This means all items other than silver, herbs, and other
small items (which are of zero size units, and are small enough to
be easily concealed). Items carried by your own units of course will
always be listed.
At the bottom of your turn report is an Orders Template. This
template gives you a formatted orders form, with all of your units
listed. You may use this to fill in your orders, or write them on
your own. The OPTION
order gives you the option of giving more or less information in
this template, or turning it of altogether. You can precede orders
with an '@' sign in your orders, in which case they will appear in
your template on the next turn's report.
Always have a month's supply of spare cash in every region in
which you have units, so that even if they are deprived of income
for a month (due to a mistake in your orders, for example), they
will not starve to death. It is very frustrating to have half your
faction wiped out because you neglected to provide enough money for
them to live on.
Be conservative with your money. Leaders especially are very hard
to maintain, as they cannot usually earn enough by WORKing
to pay their maintenance fee. Even once you have recruited men,
notice that it is expensive for them to STUDY
(and become productive units), so be sure to save money to that
end.
Don't leave it until the last minute to send orders. If there is
a delay in the mailer, your orders will not arrive on time, and
turns will NOT be rerun, nor will it be possible to change the data
file for the benefit of players whose orders weren't there by the
deadline. If you are going to send your orders at the last minute,
send a preliminary set earlier in the week so that at worst your
faction will not be left with no orders at all.
Commands in Red are NOT RELEVANT to Raynernet, as the function is done
directly from the Website. Do NOT try sending these commands as they MAY BE
IGNORED. New players can join through the Join page on the Raynernet
Website. This command made redundant by the member's pages on the website.
Log in the the members section, and you can view all your orders and
reports for any Raynernet game. This will be implemented in the near future. Geoff Dunbar designed and programmed Atlantis 2.0 and 3.0, and
created the Atlantis Project to freely release and maintain the
Atlantis source code. See the Atlantis Project web page at |