How To Play
From Mysqlgame
Contents |
New Player
Basically, you need a google account to sign in with, then you give yourself a name that will be shown whenever you do anything in the game, for example 'Attack me please'. The server will give you a brand new shiny row to play with.
Navigation, Help
You start the game with a single row, possibly surrounded by the rows of other players.
To see where you are in the table, click the 'Scanning' tab header in the lower left panel, which will show underneath it the default scanning query that lets you see your home row when you click 'go'. Notice the blue question mark next to the go button. Clicking this will display the help topic for that command. You can click on a help popup to close it after you've finished reading it.
You can view other groups of rows by picking the row number that goes into the scanning query yourself, or by using the links above the row view in the top right panel (which you will see after you have done your first scan). Those links let you scan forward and back 10 rows at a time when you click on them. Each time you use a scanning query, it uses up 1 fuel. Fuel? See the next section.
Buying Things
In the lower left panel, there are various sections you can click on to see what they do (remember the help popups for each query). Scanning, Upgrades, Units, Transfers, Rows, Cliques, Chat. The ones that you will mainly use are Upgrades and Units.
It's pretty simple to buy something. Just click 'go' next to what you want to buy. If you have the money, it will be added to your row. You can even buy more than one of something if you have the money to pay for it all. For example if you wanted to buy 50 attackers, instead of buying them one at a time, which is frowned upon by other players and moderators since it wastes server time (and your time), you can enter 50 in the units -> attackers box, click 'go', and if you have the 1000 money they will all be added to your row in one query. There is no limit to how much you can buy at once, provided you have the money to pay for it. Also, rows have effectively no upper limits to the numbers that they can hold (they do, but they are so high enough that no player will reach them - prove me wrong).
War
From the very second you start, you can be attacked by other rows, and if you don't buy defenses, you will be attacked. Especially if you hoard money and fuel.
You may be wondering what the fuel you get is really for. By now it should come as no surprise that you use it mainly to attack other rows. But it can also be used to transfer attackers, money and fuel between rows, which is useful for when you get more than one row, or you have friends nearby.
Now, to attack other players, first buy attackers (see the units tab), then issue an attack query (also in the units tab) by putting in the row number of a nearby row. It will cost a certain amount of fuel to send your attackers over there. Since this is your first attack it will probably go badly.
Firstly, they could've had attackers, which directly block the way of your attackers. If your and their attackers are of equal power, they cancel each other out 1-to-1.
Secondly, they probably had defenders. They are very good at defending, as it takes 4 attackers to take down a single defender of the same power (the minimum number of defenders a row can possibly have is 3, and once they get to 3 defenders you can't kill any more of them. So Just keep attacking over the top of them).
Thirdly, They may have attack modifier or defense modifier upgrades which boost the strength of their troops. For example it would take two attackers with Attack-Modifier-1 to take down an Attack-Modifier-2 attacker of a defending player. Defense modifiers are even better value for money, as it takes 8 AM1 attackers to take down a single DM2 defender.
At the end of combat, depending on how many attackers remain alive, they steal money and fuel from the defending row.
Also, notice the bottom right panel, which contains a log of your previous actions. You can switch back and forth between the queries you have performed, and the queries that everyone has performed.
Note, if you are logged out for a certain amount of time, your row will become vulnerable. That time directly depends on the number of upgrades you have bought. If you start a new game, buy nothing and then log out, you have 4 days before your row becomes vulnerable. Logging in 'resets' the clock until you next log out. If another player attacks your vulnerable row and a certain number of their attackers survive (1000), your row will be DELETED/wiped out. You will be given the option to buy back your row(s) (the first one for free, others you can get back at a discount) if you log in and find your rows deleted due to being attacked.
If you delete another person's vulnerable row, you will get x*1000 money and x*1000 fuel in addition to what you took, where x is the total number of upgrades the row had before it was deleted. As rows start with 1MF, 1FF, 1AM, and 1DM, you can earn at least 4000 money and 4000 fuel from deleting a row that has no further upgrades.
The Math
For those keeping score, following is a listing of all necessary formulas to figure out if a particular action is worth while:
Givens
Defense Bonus = 4
Attacker Cost = 20
General Stats
Attack Modifier = Floor[Abs[<Attack Level> - 2] / 3]
Fuel Usage = (1 / 2) <Attack Modifier>
Carry = 10 * (<Attack Modifier> + 1)
Fuel Break-even Distance = Floor[<Carry> / <Fuel Usage>]
Costs
Distance = Abs[<Row ID> - <Opponent Row ID>]
Available Attackers = Min[Floor[<Fuel> / (<Distance> * <Fuel Usage>)], <Attackers>]
Attackers Lost to Attackers = Min[Ceil[<Opponent Attackers> * <Opponent Attack Level> / <Attack Level>], <Available Attackers>]
Attackers Lost to Defenders = Min[Ceil[<Opponent Defenders> * <Opponent Defense Level> * <Defense Bonus> / <Attack Level>], <Available Attackers> - <Attackers Lost to Attackers>]
Attackers Lost = <Attackers Lost to Attackers> + <Attackers Lost to Defenders>
Gold Lost = <Attackers Lost> * <Attacker Cost>
Ideal Returning Attackers = Ceil[Max[<Opponent Gold>, <Opponent Fuel>] / <Carry>]
Returning Attackers = Min[<Ideal Returning Attackers>, <Available Attackers> - <Attackers Lost>]
Attackers To Send = <Returning Attackers> + <Attackers Lost>
Fuel Lost = Ceil[<Attackers To Send> * <Distance> * <Fuel Usage>]
Gains
Returning Gold = Min[<Returning Attackers> * <Carry>, <Opponent Gold>]
Returning Fuel = Min[<Returning Attackers> * <Carry>, <Opponent Fuel>]
It's just a game
Keep your head screwed on. If something breaks or you keep getting attacked for all your money, it's not the end of the world, and there are lots of other cool sites you can visit on the internet. [citation needed]
