1. BUILDING AN ARMY
This first phase consists of Generals building their armies using player auction.
1.1. GENERALS
War will have 12 Generals, one for each element. Masters are the Generals of their element by default. If a Master is unable to join War, he or she will appoint a replacement General (Sr. Member or above). If one or more elements don't have a Master, a General will be picked by the Council.
Generals are given 1000 electrum coins. These coins will be used as currency when recruiting players during the next phase. Later they will be used to buy items.
1.2. PLAYER AUCTION
Players who want to join War will each start their own War application topic where they include important information about themselves like their score and the number of rare cards they have. Players pick up to 10 elements they refuse to work with (feel free to choose 0-9). Generals from these elements cannot make bids on the player, other elements can. Bids for players start at 1 coin plus two coins for the first ban, and one coin for each additional ban (i.e. no bans = 1 coin, 1 ban = 3 coins, 2 bans = 4 coins... 10 bans = 12 coins).
Players also select their 3 favorite elements. The Generals of these elements receive small advantages when bidding on that player in the auction.
Both banned and favorite elements cannot change once bidding starts.
Note: Player auction is a big part of War event, so unfortunately there are no guarantees that you will get to join the team you want. Players who later refuse to fight for the element that bought them, or who become inactive and fight with zero motivation, will be removed from the event and banned from the next War. Only way to get to join a specific team is to convince the General of that element to bid high on you.
Bidding lasts 4 days and consists of a 1-day blind auction and a 3-day open auction (plus overtime). Each General recruits 6 players from the auction.
Blind Auction
The blind auction will last 24 hours. During this time generals may resend their bids at any time. Only the last PM received from each General will be considered.
All generals are to send a list of bids to all three of the Warmasters. Generals may blind bid on up to 3 players, as long as they are not on the player's ban list.
All blind bids are limited to the lowest possible bid (e.g. No bans = 1 coin, 1 ban = 3 coins, 2 bans = 4 coins, etc). If there is a tie, the general higher on the player's favorite elements list will be considered to have the higher bid. If none of the tied generals are on the player's favorite elements list, these generals have a minimum raise of 2 on that player in the open auction.
Open Auction
The open auction lasts for 3 days. At the beginning of the open auction the Warmasters will reveal all bids from the blind auction and the general who placed them. Generals will bid using the following template:
Code: [Select]
[color=yellow ][ size=72pt]X coins[/ size][/ color]
Once a bid has been posted, it is final. Editing or removing a bid is strictly prohibited and will lead to a penalty.
The minimum raise is 2 coins, plus 1 coin if the previous bid was from the blind auction, plus 1 coin for each overtime phase, minus 1 if the Generals is on that player's favorite elements list or the General is equal first (i.e. no General has a winning bid for that player) from the blind auction. Generals may bid 50 coins at any point during auction, regardless of the previous bid.
Generals can only bid on a maximum of 15 different players throughout the entire auction. Generals can bid on these players as many times as they like. This limit is irrespective of whether you are winning or losing (or have lost) the auction.
Maximum bid is 50 coins. If a player gets bid on 50 coins, he or she has two options:
1. Instantly join the team that made the 50 coins bid.
2. Wait for someone else to make the same 50 coins bid (50 coins is maximum so you don't need to bid any higher), and join that team instead. You can wait as long as you want (waiting others 50 coins bids), even make the decision after the auction has closed.
There is one universal auction clock during the open auction. When the clock is running, Generals can bid on anyone. When the clock stops and there were no new bids made during the last 24 hours, the auction is over. If there were new bids made during the last 24 hours, we go to overtime, the clock gets reset back to 24 hours, and the minimum raise increases by one card. When minimum raise increases, starting bid also increases. This means that during the the 1st overtime, starting bids are 1 higher (0 bans = 2 coins, 1 ban = 4 coins… 10 bans = 13 coins).
Generals win 6 players for whom they bid the most AND they were the highest bidder. If there is a tie for highest bidder leftover from the blind auction, the general higher on that player's favorite elements list wins the player. If neither general is on that player's favorite elements list, the player decides which team to join.
Bidding is basically a choice between buying expensive veteran players and starting with a coin disadvantage, buying cheap newbies but having a coin advantage, or anything in between.
If a General fails to win the required 6 players, he/she is forced to buy one or more remaining players with a price of 50 coins each. It is very important to bid on multiple different people to ensure that you will be the highest bidder in at least 6 occasions.
2. GETTING READY FOR WAR
Next, teams get ready for War by coming up with a strategy, delegating tasks, and building their decks.
2.1. SECRET FORUM SECTION
Each team has their secret forum section only visible to team members, Warmasters and the forum Administrators which aren't participating in war. All discussions held in this secret section are to be kept a secret. A player who gets caught telling team secrets to anyone outside his or her own team will be permanently banned from all Elements community PvP Events. Just to be safe, don't publicly talk about anything that goes on in that section.
There are specific topics that all teams are required to start. On top of that, any team member can start any topic when needed, but needless spam should be avoided.
2.2. MEMBER ROLES
Each team has a total of 7 members:
1. General
General is the leader of the team who makes sure that other team members are doing their jobs and fighting their battles. Generals should be aware of team absences, and if a team member is unable to fight a duel the General should coordinate a replacement. General also communicates with Warmasters. A General begins the war with 18 HPs and can use up to 9 upgraded cards in each deck.
2. Lieutenant
Lieutenant is second in command. Lieutenants should be the first to fill in for the General if they are unable to complete their duties. Lieutenants begin war with 15 HPs and can use up to 6 upgraded cards in each deck.
3. Scout
Scout performs reconnaissance and other support duties. Before each duel he can ask to his opponent to reveal last 15 cards of his deck. Scouts begin war with 12 HPs and can use up to 3 upgraded cards in each deck
4. Assassin
The abilities of an assassin are aimed to kill and they are skilled at dealing unexpected damage from sneak attacks. Assassins deal 1 more damage for every match won. They begin war with 12 HPs and can use up to 3 upgraded cards in each deck.
5. Thief
A versatile character, capable of sneaky combat and nimble tricks. When he won a match, a Thief can steal coins from his opponent‘s team; 30 coins (for a 3-0 victory), 20 coins (3-1) or 10 coins (3-2). A Thief begins war with 12 HPs and can use up to 3 upgraded cards in each deck.
6. Cleric
Owner of a large number of healing and curative magics, a Cleric at the end of every round can heal up to 2 teammates for a total of 2 HPs. Clerics begin war with 15 HPs and can use up to 3 upgraded cards in each deck.
7. Warrior
A weapons-oriented warriors who fight using skill, strategy and tactics. They can use two decks for every match. A Warrior begins war with 15 HPs and can use up to 3 upgraded card for each deck.
2.3. THE GOLD RESERVE
The gold reserve is the amount of coins of a Team. It’s a very important resource because with coins a Team can purchase stuff during the war.
3. STARTING A ROUND
War consists of multiple rounds. Each round consists of three phases:
Determining Opponents
Deckbuilding
Duels
(Time for deckbuilding and duels = as the actual one)
3.1. DETERMINING OPPONENTS
Opponents will be determined randomly by Warmasters using an online randomizer, with the constraint that no team will play another team more than once within a given round if possible. If there are an uneven number of players fighting during a round, the team which has to field the lowest number of players will have a bye, meaning one player in that team will skip the round. If there is more than one team which must field that number of players, then the bye will go to the team which has had the fewest byes so far out of those teams. If there is a tie for the team which has had the fewest number of byes, it will go to the team with the fewest coins out of those teams.
Duels pairings will be made public by the Warmasters. The same topic will also have one or more Event Cards. Event Cards have a positive or negative global effect that will affect all teams during that round. Event Cards are designed by the Warmasters.
In Rounds 2 and 4, teams are intentionally seeded against teams they did not play in the previous round.
3.2. DECKBUILDING
Teams will build one deck for each player who is fighting during the round.
Deckbuilding rules:
- Any mark
- At least 50% of your cards have to be from your element
- Generals can use up to 9 upgraded cards.
- Lieutenants can use up to 6 upgraded cards.
- Other classes can use up to 3 upgraded cards.
- Warriors can use 2 decks each round.
- Each Team can use same non-pillars/non-pendulums cards of their elements only twice in a round, and other elements cards only once in a round
Example: Fire team can use Fire Shield in only 2 decks (no matter how many copies), and any non-fire card (for example Momentum) in only 1 deck.
3.3. DUELS
Players will contact their opponent and try to find a time that suits both. If the fight does not happen both players lose by default unless one player is clearly more active in trying to find a suitable time. Warmasters will determine who the most active player is and their word is final.
We are using a "best-of-five" method, which means that each battle consists of up to 5 matches with the winner being the first player to get 3 wins. Remember, you have to play all duels with the same deck and the same mark.
3.4. INACTIVE PLAYERS
If it looks like a team member won't be able to fight during a round, the team has various options:
1. Temporarily replace a team member with any other team member. Temporary replacements use the same exact deck, number of upgrades, and mark as recorded for that player.
2. Permanently replace a team member with a player who submitted an application but didn't end up on a team (cost: 25 coins).
3. To permanently replace a General (as leader of the team), every other team member must agree that the General needs replacing and a consensus must be reached on who the new General will be. Warmasters will remove the General from the team at no cost. If a new player needs to be added, see above.
Note that a substitute may not use Mark or Nymph cards the player they are replacing does not have.
3.5. DISCONNECTS AND DESYNCS
A player who is disconnected during a duel, for any reason, will receive a loss for that individual match. The remaining duels (if any) will be played as normal.
Desyncs will result in both players playing against the AI. In the event both players win or lose, and can present screenshots, a rematch will be ordered. If the Desync causes strange things to happen, take a screenshot and the duel will be replayed.
4. AFTER A BATTLE
Winning Thieves steal coins from opponent Team.
Clerics can heal their teammates.
Each players lose an amount of HPs equal to the number of matches they have lost. When the number of HPs goes to 0, a player is dead and he’s removed from the war.
Generals and/or Lieutenants can purchase stuff to the Emporium.
4.1. EMPORIUM
The Emporium is the place where Generals/Lieutenants can purchase stuff to front next round. Each Team can buy only up to 2 items per round.
Item for sale:
- Healing potion: heals a player up to 2 HPs (Lasts 1 round!)- costs 15 coins
- Greater Healing potion: heals a player up to 4 HPs (Lasts 2 rounds!)- costs 35 coins
- Philosopher's stone: can be used to upgrade two extra cards (Lasts 1 round!)- costs 25 coins
- Scroll of curse: can be used to curse an opponent (Lasts 1 round!) - costs 25 coins
Effects:
General can use only up to 3 upped cards.
Lieutenants can use only up to 1 upped card.
Scouts, Thieves, Assassins, Clerics and Warriors cannot use their special ability.
- Greater Scroll of curse: can be used to ban an element Team card. A Team can be cursed once per turn. (Lasts 1 turn!) - costs 50 coins
5. ENDING A ROUND
After all the battles have been fought, the round ends and a new one begins.
War continues until there is only one team in the game.
6. WINNING THE WAR
The winning team of War gets:
- Cool forum award icons
- The forum "Reigned by" image will be changed to show which element won.
- If the winning team General is also a Master of that element, he or she will be crowned a Grand Master.
7. OTHER RULES
7.1. PENALTIES
Penalties are issued when a team somehow breaks the rules or disrupts the event, either knowingly or by mistake. When a team gets a penalty they have to, at the end of the round, remove a number of cards from their Vault. They can remove any cards they have in the Vault at that time, including the ones they salvaged during that round. Note that the following is only a guide, and the Warmasters will determine penalties on a case-by-case basis.
Minor penalty
5 coins
Small and harmless things like posting an illegal deck by mistake.
Medium penalty
10 coins
For bigger infractions like not doing what they are supposed to do because of inactivity.
Major penalty
25 coins
For major infractions like seriously disrupting the whole event.
Penalties are easy to avoid by paying attention to details and double-checking everything before posting. Hopefully there won't be any need to issue penalties.
7.2. BACKROOM DEALS AND SHARING OF INFORMATION
Conspiring with another team in any way is forbidden (unless it’s explicitly stated on an Event Card). Even discussing information that is already public ruins the spirit of the event and makes everything less fun for everybody.
