Fort Battles

Fort battles are a player-versus-player turn based flash game within The West. Two teams comprised of tens to hundreds of players, the attackers and defenders, fight over a series of rounds to complete a victory condition. The only way to take over a fort owned by another town is achieve victory as the attacking town.

Before the battle

To initiate a fort battle, a town’s councillor or founder must travel to an enemy fort and click the declare button in the lower right corner, scheduling a battle in 24 hours’ time. Declaring a fort battle has a base cost of $1500 for a small fort, $5000 for a medium fort and $10000 for a big fort, doubled for every battle already declared within the previous three hours. This money is automatically deducted from the attacking town’s treasury. Once this has occurred, a report will be sent to all players involved alerting them that the hatchet has been dug up, requesting their assistance at the battle.

Joining the battle

You must join before a battle to participate in it. To do so, open the fort screen and click the attack or defend button in the lower right corner. Since Version 2.08, all players can sign up without being physically present at the fort and also participate in fort battles regardless of whether they belong to a town. If you are not an alliance member of the attacking or defending towns then you must pick which side to fight for.

Before the battle begins you can continue to move around the map and perform other tasks as normal. However, your character must be present at the fort for the start of the battle, or they will be excluded from it. Once the battle has commenced, you cannot do any other jobs, complete quests, use consumable items, change clothes or join other battles; you also cannot leave your town or be kicked out. You must then wait until the battle concludes.

Positioning

After joining a fort battle, you will be shown the pre-battle screen, allowing you to choose your starting and target positions. Although this is not necessary, it is highly advisable, as the default behaviour is to select a random starting location and move attackers towards the flag. Attackers can only select a starting position in the red area (surrounding the edges of the map) and similarly the defenders can only select a starting position in the blue area (inside the fort). Click a valid location once to select a starting position and again to choose a target location. These positions can be edited later by clicking and dragging the markers. Once the battle begins, if two players have requested the same starting position, one will be moved to the nearest free position. Priority is given to players from the attacking and defending towns, otherwise the first player takes the position.

Rankings

Before the battle, generals and captains can assign ranks to all players that have joined on their side. If the number of players on one side exceeds the server limit, players with a lower ranking will be randomly removed before players with a higher ranking.

General - Automatically assigned to founders of the attacking town and fort owners as well as the attacking town's councillors. Generals can talk in the fort chat, assign lower ranks to captains and below and cannot be demoted.
Captain - Automatically assigned to remaining councillors and founders of the other defending towns. Can talk in the fort chat by default and assign lower ranks to privates and below.
Private - Can talk in the fort chat by default.
Recruit - Automatically assigned to players joining a fort battle. They can talk in the fort chat by default.
Reservist - Cannot talk in the fort chat by default.
Traitor - Cannot access the fort chat at all.

The map

The battle map is divided into sectors (the larger regions) and fields (individual squares). Sectors can only hold one team at a time whereas fields can only hold one player at a time. The ability to ‘control’ sectors by positioning one or more comrades in them, blocking it to the enemy, is an important aspect of battle strategy. Some sectors provide advantages or disadvantages to aiming and dodging.

The towers

The towers offer the highest bonuses on the map. They contribute strongly to both aiming (attack value) and dodging (defend value), with increasing effect at higher building levels. Each tower belongs to a specific class: NW is dueller, SW is worker, SE is soldier and NE is adventurer. When standing on your class' tower, you receive an additional bonus to both aiming and dodging.

<spoiler text="Show Bonuses">{| border="1px" cellpadding="2px" cellspacing="0"

! Build Stage
! Attack Value
! Defend Value
! Height
! Class Bonus
|-
| Unbuilt
| 8
| 6
| 7
| 6
|-
| Level 1
| 15
| 11
| 8
| 11
|-
| Level 2
| 21
| 15
| 9
| 15
|-
| Level 3
| 25 (24)
| 18
| 10 (9)
| 18 (15)
|-
| Level 4
| 27
| 20
| 11
| 20
|-
| Level 5
| 28
| 21
| 12
| 21
|}</spoiler>

The walls

The walls offer the next best bonuses on the map. They also contribute to both aiming (attack value) and dodging (defend value), with increasing effect at higher building levels. Each section of the wall provides the same bonuses, to all classes.

<spoiler text="Show Bonuses">{| border="1px" cellpadding="2px" cellspacing="0"

! Build Stage
! Attack Value
! Defend Value
! Height
|-
| Unbuilt
| 3
| 5
| 3
|-
| Level 1
| 5
| 9
| 4
|-
| Level 2
| 7
| 12
| 5
|-
| Level 3
| 8 (7)
| 14 (12)
| 6 (5)
|-
| Level 4
| 9 (8)
| 15 (14)
| 7 (6)
|-
| Level 5
| 9
| 15
| 7
|}</spoiler>

The gate

The centre-south two fields of the wall form the gate. The gate provides the same type of bonuses as the wall but in lesser quantities. Both fields are at ground level, ie the height is zero, extending nearby players' line of sight through the fort.

<spoiler text="Show Bonuses">{| border="1px" cellpadding="2px" cellspacing="0"

! Build Stage
! Attack Value
! Defend Value
|-
| Unbuilt
| 0
| 1
|-
| Level 1
| 1
| 2
|-
| Level 2
| 2
| 3
|-
| Level 3
| 3 (2)
| 4 (3)
|-
| Level 4
| 4 (3)
| 5 (4)
|-
| Level 5
| 4
| 5
|}</spoiler>

The buildings

The barracks, resource stock and headquarters are shown on the battle map. They contribute slightly to both aiming (attack value) and dodging (defend value), with increasing effect at higher building levels. The location of each building roughly matches its position on the fort window: the headquarters to the west, the barracks in the north-east and the resource stock in the south-east.

The flag

The sectors surrounding the flag are the only areas to offer a penalty. The fields adjacent to the flag apply a penalty of -20 to both aiming (attack value) and dodging (defend value), while the surrounding sectors apply a smaller penalty of -10. This area also has a small height, so it can be seen from the towers over the inner buildings.

Basic concepts

Fort battles are organised into rounds, with approximately a minute between them. Each round every living player has the opportunity to shoot and then move, performed automatically by an AI for offline participants. The attackers can win by holding the flag for five consecutive rounds or eliminating the defenders; the defenders can win by surviving for 55 rounds or eliminating the attackers.

Order of events

Players shoot, if they can, and then move once per round. The player order is determined as follows:

1. All defenders have their turn before the attackers.
2. Higher ranked players have their turn before lower ranked players.
3. Alliance members have their turn before freelancers.

When two players have the same priority, the tie is broken by giving way to players with higher leadership, then higher stamina, then higher dodging and finally the lower player ID.

Movement

Each round, it is possible to move into any free field in your current sector or an adjacent sector that is not controlled by the enemy; any longer distances will take multiple rounds to travel. Online players can target a field by clicking on their character’s icon and then clicking on any field, even if occupied. Until the target field becomes reachable, the AI will continue to move players randomly in the direction towards it, using the shortest distance possible. If two friendly players both target the opposite’s field, the arrow indicating the movement path will turn green and the players will swap during the next round, even though neither field is free.

Shooting

When shooting, players automatically direct their fire at the closest enemy visible to them. Alternatively, if they have targeted their movement to an enemy controlled sector, they will instead shoot at the closest enemy visible within that sector. This allows for a degree of choice in aim. Friendly fire is not possible.

Visibility

Areas of the map shown in grey are outside the player’s line of sight. They can continue to see what is happening in these areas, however they cannot shoot at or be shot by enemies within them. Visibility is not blocked by other players but by structures such as walls and towers that have height. The height is shown in the pre-battle tooltips, however this value is only used for calculation and does not apply directly.

Exchange of fire

Several factors influence whether you hit or miss your target, and how much damage is then dealt. These include your skills and clothing, your target’s skills and clothing, your positions, any sector bonuses and some luck.

Aiming

Each round, every player has an ‘attack’ and ‘defend’ bonus calculated for them. The greater the attack value, the more likely one is to hit their target and similarly the greater the defend value, the less likely one is to be hit themselves. (In other words, these values do not correspond to the attacking and defending sides.) When calculating whether a hit is landed successfully, the number used is randomly taken between zero (inclusive) and the corresponding value (exclusive). The higher of the randomised attack and defend values wins.

Skills

Three of five possible skills contribute to the attack and defend values. These are:

• Leadership, used always.
• Stamina, used always by the attackers.
• Hiding, used always by the defenders.
• Aiming, used only for the attack value.
• Dodging, used only for the defend value.

However, although not contributing directly, health remains the most important skill by allowing you to survive longer.

Since Version 2.05, leadership, stamina and hiding have become significantly more influential than aiming and dodging, thus should be used in relatively greater amounts. This can be seen in the table below, where the skill points required for the same in-battle bonus are shown on the same row:

Bonus	Leadership	Stamina / Hiding	Aiming / Dodging
+1	1 point	1 point	1 point
+2	4 points	3 points	6 points
+3	9 points	6 points	16 points
+4	16 points	10 points	32 points
+5	25 points	15 points	56 points
+6	36 points	20 points	88 points
+7	49 points	26 points	130 points
+8	64 points	32 points	181 points
+9	81 points	39 points	243 points
+10	100 points	46 points	316 points

Generally, each further point placed in a single skill is slightly less effective than the one before it. Detailed information on how these numbers are calculated can be found below in the Detailed formulas section.

Distance

When aiming, a penalty to accuracy is applied based upon the number of fields between the shooter and their target. The closer the shooter is to their target, the greater the chance of hitting. Distance has no impact on the damage inflicted.

• -1 penalty at a distance of 1 field
• -2 penalty at a distance of 2 fields
• -4 penalty at a distance of 3 fields
• -5 penalty at a distance of 4 fields
• -7 penalty at a distance of 5 fields
• -9 penalty at a distance of 6 fields
• -10 penalty at a distance of 7 fields
• -12 penalty at a distance of 8 fields
• -14 penalty at a distance of 9 fields
• -16 penalty at a distance of 10 fields
• -18 penalty at a distance of 11 fields
• -19 penalty at a distance of 12 fields
• -20 penalty at a distance of 13 fields
• -22 penalty at a distance of 14 fields
• -24 penalty at a distance of 15 fields

Other bonuses

The attack and defend values can also be boosted by direct bonuses. These can come from special sectors, such as the fort towers, walls and buildings, as explained earlier. Additionally, some items and buffs offer bonuses to individuals and/or the entire sector. The adventurer's, soldier's and worker's character class bonuses also affect the calculations. Finally, the attack value receives a default bonus of 25 and the defend value receives a default bonus of 10.

Damage

The damage dealt per shot depends primarily on the gun that the shooter wields. A weapon inflicts a random number from within the stated range, but no more than one third of the opponent’s maximum health points. Additionally, this damage can be increased through direct bonuses and skills and likewise reduced from the opponent’s resistance. For example, a player with 1200 health points cannot receive more than 400 damage from a single hit, although they can still be knocked out in one round if they are hit by multiple players.

Skills

Unlike aiming, only one skill influences each players' damage and resistance values at a time. These are:

• Leadership, used when shooting.
• Stamina, used when dodging by attackers.
• Hiding, used when dodging by defenders.

Like skills contributing to aiming, each further point placed in a single skill will be slightly less effective than the one before it.

Unlike skills contributing to aiming, each point placed in a single skill will have equivalent effect, no matter how many are added. Detailed information on how to calculate precise values can be found below in the Detailed formulas section.

Health points

Your final damage and resistance values are divided by the number of health points your character has at full health. For example, a character with 2000 damage from skills and their weapon with 1000 health will resist 20 damage per shot, however a similar character with 5000 health will only resist 4 damage per shot. Keep in mind, however, that having higher resistance will not necessarily allow you to survive longer than having high health points. Similarly, sacrificing health points for greater damage will minimise the number of rounds you can survive to target enemies.

Other bonuses

Unlike aiming calculations, there are no sectors on the map that provide a bonus to damage or resistance. However, items and buffs are available that offer bonuses to individuals and/or the entire sector. The dueller's critical hit bonus as well as the soldier's leadership bonus (to a lesser extent) both contribute to overall damage too. There is no minimum damage; if a player enters a battle with no fort weapon equipped, they fight with the Stone that has a damage range of 50-110.

Detailed formulas

All values are calculated internally to twelve decimal places, then rounded or truncated as needed for display. Differences will frequently arise where class bonuses affect the calculations. For a summary of these, please visit the character classes page.

Attack Value

Leadership^0.5 + Aiming^0.4 + (Stamina OR Hiding)^0.6 + Sector Attack Bonus + Special Bonuses + 25

Where:

• Stamina is used by the attackers and hiding is used by the defenders.
• Sector Attack Bonus is the aiming bonuses provided by the structures (if any).
• Special Bonuses are additional bonuses provided by structures (ie Tower Class Bonus).

Defend Value

Leadership^0.5 + Dodging^0.4 + (Stamina OR Hiding)^0.6 + Sector Defend Bonus + Special Bonuses + 10

Where:

• Stamina is used by the attackers and hiding is used by the defenders.
• Sector Defend Bonus is the dodging bonuses provided by the structures (if any).
• Special Bonuses are additional bonuses provided by structures (ie Tower Class Bonus).

Damage

Weapon Damage + (Weapon Damage × Leadership ÷ MaxHP)

Where:

• MaxHP is the amount of health points the shooter has at full health.

Resistance

300 × (Stamina OR Hiding) ÷ MaxHP

Where:

• Stamina is used by the attackers and hiding is used by the defenders.
• MaxHP is the amount of health points the target has at full health.

After the battle

Once a battle is over, all characters will be updated to reflect their new health and knocked out players sent to the hotel. A battle report is then sent to all players. If the attackers won the battle, provided the fort was not under administrator takeover protection, fort ownership will transfer immediately. The defenders will no longer be able to access the fort and the attacking town gains full founder rights. Other towns that participated in the attack do not automatically receive a membership slot in the fort.

Individual Rewards

Everybody who participated in the battle receives bonds and experience points. The amount of experience depends on your level, the damage you caused, the duration you survived and whether you won or lost the battle. You even receive points if you passed out. Additionally, and on-hand cash lost by players that passed out during the battle is randomly distributed amongst the survivors.

Bonds Criteria

Each battle report shows how many bonds you earnt and for what reason. The following factors all contribute:

• 1 bond for attending the battle.
• 1 bond if your team wins.
• Up to 9 bonds for having the highest count in certain statistics.
• Up to 10 bonds for achieving certain secret accomplishments.
• 0.1 bonds per hit.
• 0.1 bonds per dodged shot.
• 0.0005 bonds per damage point inflicted.
• 1 bond per knocked out opponent.
• 0.1 bonds per round online, up to 6 bonds.

Even if you qualify for more, you never receive more than 26 bonds.

Manoeuvres

Manoeuvres fort battles can be initiated by councillors and founders of any town that owns at least one fort. These manoeuvres can be used for fort battle practice, testing or just for fun.

Calling a manoeuvre

To call a manoeuvre, a councillor or founder of a town that is in ownership of a fort simply opens the Fort's Headquarters, brings up the "Management" section and clicks the "Manoeuvre practice" tab where they will be prompted through the final steps.

Joining a manoeuvre

Currently active manoeuvre battles can be viewed via the Fort Overview's "Manoeuvre" tab. In order to sign up for the manoeuvre, click the "Register" button and choose whether you want to join the attacking or defending side.

Participating in a manoeuvre

Once the manoeuvre begins, it will appear exactly the same as a regular fort battle. All aspects of regular fort battles are replicated in manoeuvres. However, you are not required to be situated at the fort in order to participate in a manoeuvre. You will not lose any health points, energy or on-hand cash. You can still change your clothes while the manoeuvre is taking place and no assignments in the job queue will be interrupted.