Adventures
Welcome to the starting screen of our newest and grandest feature, adventures! Adventures are live turn-based multiplayer battles played on an isometric map. Unlike fort battles, there is a variety of game modes to enjoy and the gameplay is far more diverse than moving and shooting once per round. Greenhorns and veterans alike will also appreciate the “3D” view compared to the top-down icons. Before diving into your first match, this guide will cover the basics of adventures.
Before diving into your first match, here is a quick summary: adventures are organised into a series of rounds. Each round, every player has the opportunity to use abilities to move, heal, shoot or block their opponents. Abilities may consume one or both of your two stamina points, limiting how many you can perform in one round. Depending on the game mode, players fight to fulfil a victory condition within a round limit.
Getting Started
There are two ways to join adventures: through the matchmaking queue or joining a custom game. (Custom games are currently disabled.) To join the queue, simply choose a map from the dropdown menu on the starting screen and click join queue. When enough suitable opponents have been found, you will be automatically placed into a lobby and alerted via a browser notification.
When grouping players into lobbies, each player has a matchmaking ranking (“MMR”) calculated for them. If there are enough players in the queue, those with dissimilar MMRs will not be placed in the same lobby. Currently, MMRs correspond exactly to your player level, but in future may take into account your personal statistics. In other words, winning or losing a match does not affect your MMR.
The Lobby
The lobby screen shows both teams and allows you to prepare for the match. If you are not equipped with a fort gun, a ‘no weapon’ indicator is placed beside your username. Between your username and ready status indicator, you will see three empty boxes under the column “Abilities”. Clicking any of these boxes allows you to select an ability to use in the match. Hover your mouse over each row to see a detailed description of the ability. When you are ready to begin, click the “I’m Ready” button in the lower right corner. When enough players are ready, an auto-start countdown timer will commence.
Note: if any player leaves the lobby, it will be automatically closed and all players returned to the starting screen. Please be mindful of other players and do not quit frivolously!
The Map
Like fort battles, the map is divided into small squares called fields, which can hold one and only one player at a time. Although there are no fixed sectors limiting movement, there are a number of shaded areas across the map, with different meanings:
- Vacant areas are non-shaded; you can walk and shoot through them.
- Valid spawn locations for your team are shaded in green.
- Valid spawn locations for your opponents are shaded in grey.
- Obstacles block areas shaded in yellow; you cannot walk or shoot through them.
In game modes where territory or objectives can be captured, there are three additional types of areas:
- Uncaptured, neutral territories are shaded in white.
- Areas captured and held by the Dalton Gang are shaded in red.
- Areas captured and held by the Cook Gang are shaded in blue.
Internally, the x-axis spans southwest to northeast and the y-axis spans northwest to southeast.
Basic Gameplay
As previously mentioned, adventures are organised into a series of consecutive rounds. Each round lasts just under thirty seconds, giving players time to use as many abilities as their stamina points allow. When the round timer reaches zero, the actions of the round will be animated and then the next round begins.
Stamina & Event Order
Every player has two stamina points to use each round. They are reset at the beginning of each round, and cannot be accumulated for use in future rounds. Abilities may consume one or both available stamina points, allowing you to use up to two 1 point abilities or one 2 point ability. If you cancel an ability, you will receive back the associated stamina points.
Each team takes turns performing one ability each, in the order they were scheduled. For example, if a player from the Dalton Gang moves and then shoots before a player from the Cook Gang uses area heal, these abilities will be performed in this order: move, area heal, shoot. This pattern applies even if there are an uneven number of abilities used by each team, so remaining abilities of the team who scheduled more will all be performed in a row once the other team has finished their turns.
Abilities, Movement & Shooting
Down the bottom of the adventures screen you will see two to five abilities, depending on what you selected in the lobby screen. This will always include walk, attack and three others of your choosing. Be careful of the direction you shoot in -- friendly fire is enabled!
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To walk, click this icon, then click a field on the map within the shaded area surrounding you. You will walk there on your next turn! |
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To attack, click this icon, then click an enemy on the map. You will shoot in their direction next turn! |
Optional Abilities | |
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Heal: heal your target by 5% of their maximum health. [Stamina: 1; Cooldown: 3; Range: 5] |
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Area Heal: heal all nearby units by 10% of their missing health. [Stamina: 2; Cooldown: 5; Range: 5] |
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Quick Shot: fire two distinct shots with 75% damage. [Stamina: 1; Cooldown: 3] |
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Inspire: buff the damage of all nearby friendly units by 5%. [Stamina: 1; Cooldown: 3; Range: 5] |
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Barrel Roll: spawn five barrels in a direction of your choice, absorbing one shot and blocking movement. [Stamina: 1; Cooldown 3; Duration 1] |
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Eagle Eye: your next shot will have 25% greater accuracy and 10% greater critical hit chance. [Stamina: 1; Cooldown: 3; Duration: 1] |
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Snake Shot: fires one regular shot and bleeds 10% of your target's health for the next three rounds. [Stamina: 1; Cooldown: 3; Duration: 3] |
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Snare: there is a 50% chance your target is rooted so they cannot move for the rest of the round. [Stamina: 1; Cooldown: 5; Duration: 1; Range: 3] |
Critical Hit
There is a small chance that any shot will hit critically, inflicting 25% more damage than usual. The damage shown for a critical hit during the round animation is coloured yellow, in contrast to a regular hit shown in white.
Victory Condition
The victory condition depends on the game mode. In some game modes, this requires knocking out all enemy units. In other game modes, such as domination, you respawn into the game upon being knocked out and must race to a different victory condition. If a game sees no activity for several rounds, it will be closed even if the victory condition has not been met.
Skills and Bonuses
There are two primary factors that influence your adventure stats: your character level and your fort battle weapon. Unlike fort battles, two players with the same level and weapon will have the same effectiveness, even if they have differing health and skills.
Character Level
Your character level determines your base health. This type of health does not penalise your effectiveness in other areas.
Fort Weapon
Only the damage and attributes of fort weapons improves your adventure stats, not the skills or other bonuses.
Strength
Strength determines your bonus health. This type of health penalises your hit and dodge chances.
Mobility
Mobility provides the primary bonus to your chance to dodge.
Dexterity
Dexterity provides the primary bonus to the damage you inflict.
Charisma
Charisma provides the primary bonus to your chance to inflict a critical hit.
Distance
The further you are from your target, the lower the chance you will successfully hit and the less damage you will inflict.
Reward System
As your team makes progress towards the game mode's victory condition, you reach reward stages. Reward stages mark progress intervals towards the victory condition, such as reaching 7, 14, 21, 28 or 35 of 35 points in domination mode. As its name suggests, reaching a higher stage provides a greater reward to the participants of the adventure. You are rewarded irrespective of whether your team wins or loses, even if the victory condition is not reached within the round limit or the game is closed due to inactivity.
Veteran Points
Veteran points are a new game currency created specifically for adventures. After an adventure concludes, you will receive a number of veteran points depending on which reward stage you reached. (If you quit the adventure early, you will not be rewarded.) This scales from 250 veteran points, for reaching the final reward stage, to none at all if no stage is reached.
Veteran points can be spent in the Union Pacific Shop. From the main tab, click the adventures/veteran points banner on the right hand side. If you see an empty frame where the banner should be, you need to add an exception for the domain *.the-west.net in your adblock whitelist.
Currently, your veteran points are only shown in the UP Shop.
Loot Chests
Loot chests are a new item created specifically for adventures. They contain a variety of buffs as well as a brand new item set. Loot chests are awarded for reaching the final reward stage of an adventure, plus they can also be purchased from the UP Shop using veteran points.
Game Modes
Adventures offers a variety of game modes, but currently only one is enabled, domination.
Domination
In domination, players must capture three strategic points: the bank, the saloon and the oil well, then hold them as long as they can. Every building your team controls at the end of the round will provide your team with one point. The team that accumulates 35 points first is the winner, or if this is not achieved within the round limit, the team in front. You can see the scores and building control status in the top central bar.
Capturing Buildings
All buildings start in a neutral state. To capture a building, stand in the shaded area that surrounds it. The more of your team in the area, the faster the building is captured. Once your team has captured a building, you do not need to remain in the area; you will only lose control of a building if your enemy moves in to capture it in the same way.
The current control status is shown in the top central bar. The background colour of the large outer circle represents the current team that has captured the building, if any. If the building is in the process of being captured, an inner circle will be shown, representing the control level. There are two levels between neutral (±0) and captured (±3), one represented by a small circle (±1) and another by a medium-sized circle (±2). Specifically, each player in the area influences the level by one point. Upon turning neutral, however, the control level will not continue rising in your favour until the next round. This means that outnumbering your enemies by more than three people is always ineffective, and it always takes at least two turns to capture an enemy building from scratch.
Respawning
Unlike other game modes, if you die in domination mode, you will respawn three rounds later. However, during this cooldown time, your team will be at a disadvantage with one less fighter!
Victory Condition
The team that reaches 35 domination points first is the winner. If both teams reach this amount at the same time, or neither team reaches this number within 35 rounds, the tie is broken in this order:
- The team with the highest number of domination points wins.
- The team that knocked out the most opponents wins.
- The team that inflicted the most damage wins.
Available Maps
- Rush on Tombstone