The ManualThe Objective: The objective of the
game is to crush your enemy, and laugh and point once the dust settles. Or to expose your opponents as
sissies. Or to dish out major ownage. Or all of the aforesaid. Basic Rules: This is a combat strategy game, so expect to be attacking a lot of enemy territory or defending allied sectors. The basic rules are: Turn Length: This is the time window within which you must deploy and move your battalions to enemy or allied sectors. Turn length is typically set between 24 to 12 hours. This length of time has been decided after careful consideration of how prolific a college student's schedule could be, and what amount of time would fairly give everyone ample opportunity of logging in for a couple of minutes and playing the game. Infact, it is precisely in this spirit of being fair to every team that Varsity Heroes does not allow users to execute their moves in real-time like other strategy games. Having a generous amount of time to finalize your move means you have one less deadline to worry about and can play the game at your own convenience. All in all, everybody gets ample chance to do their part, especially since it virtually takes only 2 minutes to play the game. Turn Processing: All tactical deployment, and offensive and defensive moves are 'processed' by the system when a turn expires. 'Processing' here specifically means the following chain of events: Combat Fundamentals: Combat takes place when two battalions from opposing teams
come face to face. The combat engine is essentially the same as the combat engine in other strategy games,
except that it is chiefly 'outcome-oriented' (i.e. combat takes place offscreen and only outcomes are
displayed). Basically the lesson is that unless you have upgrades, attacks work best when carried out in large numbers. Heroes and Elections: Heroes are users who their peers feel are good enough to
lead the war effort. This could be because of their superior strategic thinking, or Obama-like charisma, or
engaging mass popularity, or any other reason for awesomeness. Heroes have special privileges of being able
to edit the battle order window and propogate their strategic ideas to every user in
their army. Control System: This enables the user to control their battalions. It is hence advisable for all new users to master this feature first and foremost. A component-by-component description can be found in the section here. Game Mode: This is a special feature designed to give you increased flexibility when devising war strategies. Please read the details in the special features section here. Morale Meter: This is essentially a visual representation of how high your army's morale is. The higher it goes, the deadlier your battalions become. Please note that morale only increases offense and does not make battalions better defenders. Click here to read how morale can be increased. Battle Order: This is where heroes advertise war tactics to the users. Any hero can edit the battle order window at any time - however, users will only see the changes after they have pressed the refresh order button. Clan Chat: This is a chat tool which helps you in communicating with all those members of your army who are currently logged into the system. Heroes and administrators appear with the symbol '@' preceding their nicks. Commentary Box: This window briefs users about the outcome of battles from the previous turn. Hints & Tips: This in-game prompt gives users advice on the do's and don'ts of Varsity Heroes. You can find tips here which, if adhered to, can single-handedly turn the tide of the war. Timer: This counts down the time left till the end of the turn. Turn Number: This shows the current turn number. For instance, turn 15 would mean that 14 turns have passed since the start of the war. You can use the arrows right below turn number to navigate between the current and previous turns. This is a great tool to view the history of the war, and helps newcomers understand what went on before they enlisted. My Updater: This window gives a description of every strategic move confirmed by individuals in your team (including yourself) during the current turn. It is updated every second. The Pointer button: Use this as a general purpose pointer for ease of clickability when maximizing the battle order, clan chat, commentary box and hints & tips windows. The Zoom button: Use this to zoom in and out. All controls remain functional with the map fully zoomed out. The Pan button: Use this to drag or pan the map across. The Move button: Use this to order your battalions to move from one sector to another sector of the map. Moving into an allied sector reinforces it, whereas moving into an enemy sector attacks it. Remember that unless your team has the aerial attacks option under its belt, you will only be able to move battalions to adjacent terrorities. Lastly, please note that the move feature only works once battalions have been deployed on the map. The Deploy button: Use this to deploy battalions on the map. Once deployed, battalions are ready to fight and can then be ordered to execute various moves. The number displayed next to the deploy pointer represents the number of deployable battalions you have for that turn (various bonuses can increase this number). Lastly, please note that you can only deploy in allied sectors. The Fortify button: Use this to assist in the fortification of a sector against enemy attack. The Refresh Order button: Use this to refresh the battle order window. Remember that whenever a hero updates battle order, users do not see the update until refresh order is clicked. Keep refreshing battle order often so you can remain up-to-date with all hero communication. The Confirm/Cancel order buttons: Use the 'confirm' button when you are done with battalion deployment and movement. Press 'cancel' to reset orders and start over. Once 'confirm' is pressed, game controls will be disabled till the next turn. Aerial Attacks: This special weapon allows you to attack non-adjascent enemy
sectors. Its secondary use is transporation of battalions to far-off allied territory. Up to 200 battalions
can be involved in aerial attacks and slots are filled according to a first-come, first-served
basis. Battalion Upgrades: Any army can upgrade the offensive capabilities of its
battalions through increasing its morale level (defensive ability remains the same). Morale in Varsity
Heroes is proportional to the % of total registered users of an army logging in and deploying battalions in a particular turn (logging in but not deploying
is not counted). So for example, if every member of an army logs in and deploys battalions within turn 10,
all battalions in this army will be upgraded to God battalions for turn 10. On the other hand, if 90% of the
total users log in and deploy battalions, the army will be upgraded to only the Super battalions level for
that turn (and so on). Please
remember that the morale meter is updated in real-time as a turn progresses, but that users must refresh
their window to view updated morale levels at any point in the game. Fortification: This special feature can be exercised to magnify the defensive
capability of battalions. Enemies find it very hard to conquer a fortified sector and typically suffer a lot
of casualties before they can break through. Alliances: This special weapon enables you to recruit people from outside your university. It will be unlocked later on in the game. Bonuses: A bonus is something which increases the number of battalions a user gets at the start of every turn. There are 3 types of bonuses in Varsity Heroes: Game Mode: There are two modes Varsity Heroes can be played in: User List: This page is a list of all members in the allied army. It gives date of joining and last login information about each user, alongside the option of nominating this user as a hero or marking them as a spy. User Profile: This page displays details you entered while enlisting for the war-campaign. These details can also be edited from here. Voting for Heroes: Users who receive 10 nominations via the user list page have their names put on the ballot here. Voting lasts 24 hours, after which the the will of the people is executed. If made a hero, the said user then attains privileges to propogate their recommended strategy to everyone on their team via the battle order window. Voting for Spies: Users can be marked as spies via the user list page and have their names put on the spy ballot immediately thereafter. The majority vote then decides whether to excommunicate them or exonerate them of all charges. Please note that a minimum level of 30% of total recruits must vote for these results to hold. Voting to Impeach Heroes: Heroes who receive 10 impeachment nominations via the user list page have their names put up for impeachment. A majority vote then decides their fate. View Games: This is a listing of all current and past war-campaigns fought on Varsity Heroes. |
Rules of Engagement:The Objective HUD Components:Control System Game Controls:The Pointer button Special Features:Aerial Attacks User Info:Voting:Voting for Heroes Game Info: |
