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| Website | www.godwars2.org |
| Telnet | godwars2.org 3000 |
| MUD Genre | Fantasy |
| Codebase | Custom |
| Focus | Player killing and goal-oriented play |
| Status | Open beta |
Introduction[]
God Wars II is a fast and furious PK mud, designed to test player skill in terms of pre-battle preparation and on-the-spot reflexes, as well as the ability to adapt quickly to new situations.
Command shortcuts, detailed help files and context-specific hints are available to guide the newbie through the game, while staff and players are usually available to help answer questions - however the learning curve is still steep, and will take time to get used to. A skilled player must learn to simultaneously control and fight with four separate body locations (head, left hand, right hand and feet). Over eleven thousand fighting techniques are available, divided among dozens of weapons and fighting styles, providing a vast range of possible tactics.
Movement uses true-coordinates instead of rooms, and descriptions are generated dynamically on the fly to indicate your current position. Monster lairs are scattered around the world, and can be used to gather minor magical items by anyone with the skill to do so.
Character creation[]
Every character in God Wars II begins with 50 points distributed among their 8 stats, 250 points distributed among their 10 weapon skills and 5 magic colours, 250 points distributed among their 25 fighting styles, and 3 talents. However there are three different ways that you can choose to distribute these points:
Quickstart[]
The mud assigns you a well-rounded starting character, capable with both weapons and magic.
Concept[]
Select a themed character concept from a list of 32 choices. It's important to note that these are not classes, but instead represent starting templates each based around a specific theme or style of play.
Customised[]
Manually customise your starting attributes and abilities. It is possible to create exactly the same character as a quickstart or concept build, but there are also many other ways to build a character - for example, while you can begin the game as a green, red or white Dragon Hatchling by chosing the appropriate concept, the blue and black Dragon Hatchlings can only be created through customised creation.
Should you be unhappy with your build, you can travel to the gym and redo character creation. Nothing is fixed except your name (and your class, once you select one).
Character advancement[]
Prior to classing, characters can improve their abilities through use. After classing, it is possible to earn primal points for killing opponents, which can then be spent on training stats and raising powers.
Stats[]
There are 8 primary stats in God Wars II, and these are used to determine your secondary stats as follows:
- Brawn: +2 Damage, +1 Power, +1 Attack, +4 Health and +1 thrown range.
- Grace: +4 Attack, +3 Defence, +1/3 Speed and +3 Ascendancy.
- Mettle: +2 Resistance, +1 Defence, +3 Protection, +1 Mana and +6 Health.
- Size: +1 Damage, +1 Resistance, +2 Attack, +2 Defence and +8 Health.
- Wits: +4 Defence, +2/3 Speed, +1 Protection, +1 Ascendancy and +1 Power.
- Tenacity: +4 Ascendancy, +3 Attack, +1 Power, +1 Damage and +1 Mana.
- Discipline: +4 Protection, +2 Resistance, +2 Health, +1 Damage and +1 Mana.
- Aura: +2 Power, +2 Ascendancy, +2 Protection, +3 Mana and +1 spell range.
The total of your base, class and trained stats is referred to as your age, which represents the approximate power level of your character.
Base stats[]
You begin the game with 50 points distributed among your 8 stats, and these initial stats are referred to as your base stats. Your base stats can be modified during play, but they must always add up to a total of exactly 50 points. In your score sheet, your base stats will be displayed separately from the rest of your stats, as they are important for calculating things such as talent requirements and weapon penalties.
Class stats[]
When you first join a class, you automatically gain an additional 50 points worth of stats, with the distribution of points depending on which class you selected. Later in the game you can select a subclass, and this may change your class stats once again. Like base stats, your class stats always add up to a total of 50 points.
Trained stats[]
After classing, you are able to spend primal points to train up your stats, with the exception of Size and Aura. Each time you train a stat, the mud will automatically raise another stat at the same time, randomly selected depending on your current class or subclass. The free stat train may include Size or Aura, although this will depend on your class (for example dragons can get bigger, but mages cannot).
Skills[]
There are 20 different skills, each of which increase with use, up to a maximum of 100 (or equal to your age, if that is higher).
Core skills[]
There are 5 core skills, 4 of which are currently used by the mud. Combat represents your general fighting ability, and is added to all of your weapon skills when calculating their bonuses. Athletics represents your physical fitness, is applied to your health as a percentage, and also increases your movement speed. Riding represents your skill at riding mounts, working like a weapon skill for your mount and like Athletics for movement speed. Meditate works like Combat except for spells, and also counts as a percentage modifier to your mana. Lore is not currently used.
Weapon skills[]
There are 10 weapon skills, which cover all the possible weapons in the mud. The attack, defence and damage modifiers of your weapons gain a percentage modifier based on your appropriate weapon skill. You also gain an additional percentage modifier to your own attack and defence values based on your combined weapon and combat skills.
Magic colours[]
There are 5 magic colours, representing the different types of spell: red spells are offensive, blue spells aid the target, green spells only affect the caster, yellow spells should be cast on objects, and purple spells cover anything else. As these skills improve, the range and power of the appropriate spells will increase.
Styles[]
There are 25 different fighting styles, named after different animals, each of which increase in much the same way as skills. Each style gives a fixed bonus to your character, and also unlocks a range of combat techniques for certain weapons - for example the lion style is particularly good for falchions, viper works well with most straight swords, bull has some strong attacks with the morning star, etc.
Basic styles[]
The 5 basic fighting styles each give a single bonus: Crane increases your defence, Mongoose increases your attack, Bull increases your damage, Crab increases your resistance and Viper increases your speed.
Advanced styles[]
The 10 advanced fighting styles each combine two of the basic styles, splitting their bonus equally between the two. In order to learn an advanced style, you must first get the two appropriate basic styles to 100 - for example, the mantis style splits its bonus between defence and speed, so you are required to first raise both your Crane and Viper styles to 100.
Super styles[]
The 10 super styles each combine three of the basic styles, splitting their bonus equally between the three. As well as training up the three appropriate basic styles, you must also train up the three advanced styles that sharethe bonuses - for example to use Hawk (attack, damage and defence) you must first train up Bear (attack and damage), Monkey (attack and defence) and Eagle (damage and defence), as well as Mongoose (attack), Crane (defence) and Bull (damage).
Talents[]
One of the main ways that characters make themselves unique is through their selection of the 170+ available talents. Talent don't have a rating - you either have them, or you don't - although many of them will unlock additional bonuses based on other attributes or powers.
You begin play with three talents, and earn a fourth by getting any five skills to 100 and a fifth by getting one super fighting style to 100. You can also an extra one, two or three talents by mastering five, eight or all ten weapon skills respectively, but these extra slots can only be used for Weapon Mastery talents.
When you get classed, you immediately get an extra free talent. Every 100 age also gives you an extra two talents, one of which will be specified by your chosen subclass, the other of which you can choose for yourself.
Classes and powers[]
God Wars II has 5 classes, each representing a different type of supernatural creature. These classes are built around the idea of flexibility and variety; each supports many different character builds. These classes are broken down into 166 subclasses, allowing players to further specialise in different aspects of their class as they progress within the mud.
Each class has at least 22 powers, and each character can have 3 of these at maximum rank as their primary powers. In addition, each player can allocate sufficient ranks to maximise 1-3 extra powers, or instead scatter those ranks among a wider range of powers, as they see fit. Some powers are shared between 2 or more classes, although most are unique to a single class.
Vampire[]
These are a parasitic form of Revenant who feed from the blood of the living, either for sustenance or, more often, to increase their power. As creatures of the night, Vampires can control the shadows and shape them to their will or use them to hide their presence. They have power over night creatures, such as bats, wolves or rats, summon them and are even known to assume their shape. According to legends, Vampires are weakened by garlic and sunlight.
Click here to read more about the Vampire powers, talents and subclasses
Werewolf[]
The most common form of werebeast, the Werewolf is able to assume the form of a wolf, either partially or completely. Although no longer bound by its phases, they preserve special ties to the moon and can weave moonlight into fabric or forge it into a metal called moonsilver. Their affinity with nature makes them excellent shamans and allows them to call upon animal spirits for assistance.
Click here to read more about the Werewolf powers, talents and subclasses
Mage[]
In the same way as a carpenter can take a piece of wood and craft it into a chair, or an architect can take a pile of bricks and build a house, Mages can twist and manipulate the magic in the air and earth around them. Although any Supernatural possesses the potential to use magic, only those dedicated to studying the elements can master all its complexities.
Click here to read more about the Mage powers, talents and subclasses
Demon[]
A race from a different dimension, Demons are Supernatural souls born of irrational fears and as such can assume numerous shapes, each more horrid than the next. Their plane of origin, Hell, is a harsh, scorched desert, and maintaining a link to it lets them breathe flames, use fire magic and summon infernal creatures such as imps, hellhounds or warbeasts.
Click here to read more about the Demon powers, talents and subclasses
Dragon[]
Over the ages, this ancient race has developed many forms and pedigrees. The large scaled dragons, wyverns and multi-headed hydras draw power from their treasure hoard, the hybrid draconians rely on their hightened speed, natural immunity and various infusions. Some dragons even choose to adopt a fully humanoid form, to command lesser dragons and use them as their mounts.
Click here to read more about the Dragon powers, talents and subclasses
The world and movement[]
God Wars II uses true coordinates instead of rooms. You can still navigate by means of the more traditional 'north', 'south', 'east' and 'west' commands, although it's also possible to directly target your desired destination. Your movement rate will then determine how long it takes you to reach your destination, depending on whether you're walking, jogging or running.
The mud uses generated dynamic descriptions alongside ASCII maps to display what your character can currently see, and this will take into account numerous external factors; the sun rises and sets, seasons change, weather patterns shift and rotate across the landscape, tides rise and fall, rivers flow from springs out to the ocean or into lakes or swamps, and so on.
The mud contains three types of world:
Home planes[]
Every player has their own small world (4 square miles) which they can customise by means of the 'terraform' command. While on your home plane you have access to various godlike commands such as 'slay' and 'restore'.
The Realm[]
This is where new characters start. It is a non player-killing zone that is essentially a 36 square-mile continent in the middle of a vast world, and contains ten different monster lairs or "tasks" scattered around the landscape.
The Nexus[]
This world is only accessable by classed characters, and it has no PK restrictions. The monsters here are far tougher than the Realm, making this a requirement for character advancement.
Combat and magic[]
The combat in God Wars II is non-automated, based primarily on player skill, and typically requires the simultaneous control of four separate body locations (left hand, right hand, head and feet). Characters without psionics or bite attacks are unlikely to use their head, while those using two-handed weapons won't need to use both hands, and a demon who customises his true form to be like that of a serpent won't have any hand locations at all. On the other hand, certain supernatural forms can have up to six separate locations (adding tail and familiar to the four locations cited previously).
There are over eleven thousand fighting techniques, divided among dozens of different weapons, fighting styles, skills, talents and powers. Any object in the game can be used as a weapon - even living creatures, if they're small enough - just as anything can be the target of an attack; you can kill a rat by hitting it against the wall of a building.
The combat system has been thoroughly integrated with movement, with each weapon having its own reach and (for missile weapons) range. Magic also uses the same system, so that mages will rarely bother using melee attacks, instead summoning creatures to fight for them and blasting from a distance, using forcefields and other protective spells to keep opponents at bay.
Minigames[]
God Wars II utilises three minigames. War is currently a standalone game, while the other two are tied in to the main game itself, but all of the minigames are based completely on player skill.
War[]
War is a complex minigame that can be played while on your home plane. It works a bit like poker, with each player using a 40 card deck. The suits are Military, Religion, Economy and Diplomacy, and each suit has cards numbered from 1 to 10. Each player has three separate hands - Offence, Defence and Resources - and has 3 actions per turn. These actions can be spent to shift a card from Resources into Offence or Defence, to discard a card from any hand, to temporarily buff up your Offence or Defence, to launch an attack or to perform some other special activity (such as spying on other players' hands if you've got a good Diplomacy Offence, fortifying your city if you've got a good Military Defence, etc).
Lock picking[]
Sometimes players come across chests while exploring a monster lair. These chest can be picked by targetting them and then using a lockpick set, allowing you to gain a magical item. A lock has 5 separate tumblers, each in the range 1-9, and in order to open the lock you must align them up so that they are all set to 5 - however you cannot see what state each tumbler is at, only whether it is too high or too low, and most of the lockpicking moves modify more than 1 tumbler at a time. The player has 3 different lockpicks available, each with a different set of options.
Maps[]
Maps work in much the same way as lockpicking, except that you have to utilise both hands at the same time in order to decypher them. Maps are considerably more difficult than locks, but when solved they can then be used to find a magical node (each time you examine a completed map, it'll tell you roughly how far in which direction you need to move). Within the magical node you must defeat a guardian spirit, who will be automatically modified to be the same strength as you. If you kill him, you will earn a bonus depending on which type of map you used.
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