Combat and growth
The part of the game that the manual never explains and that everybody guesses wrong.
How a blow is resolved
- A base number comes from the attacker’s own attack and the target’s defence.
- If the attacker holds a weapon, the game adds the weapon’s bonus for that kind of target from the weapon row.
- If the target holds a shield, the shield’s value is subtracted, read from the attacker’s weapon row. Damage never drops below one.
- Buildings take damage differently: past half health they start losing extra points, which is why a building collapses faster the more broken it is.
Two-handed bows drop the shield, and a shot in flight is a separate object, so an archer can miss a target that walks away. →
Experience
Experience is not a level counter, it is a currency. Kill something and you get points equal to the square of the sum of its five stats divided by four, plus whatever experience the victim had saved up. Killing a trained veteran is worth far more than killing a fresh commoner.
gain = (HP + MP + OP + DP + SPD)² ÷ 4 + victim’s experience
The unit then spends that currency by itself, one point of a stat at a time. Raising a stat from v to v+1 costs:
cost = v² ÷ 2 + 10
So the first points are cheap and the last ones are brutal: going from 20 to 21 costs 210, going from 60 to 61 costs 1810. Which stats grow is controlled by the five toggles in the side panel, so you decide whether a fighter becomes tough or fast.
Two thresholds change a unit outright: a commoner with 70 health becomes a muscle man, and a commoner with 70 attack becomes a warrior. Whichever comes first is what he turns into.
Magic
Magic users spend mana and need a minimum magic stat before a spell unlocks. Mana regrows over time; the magic stat only grows through experience like any other stat.
| Spell | Caster | Power | Needs MP | Mana | Effect |
|---|
| Patient ? | Elf | 20 | 30 | 15 | лечение цели |
| Patient ? | Elf | 15 | 50 | 20 | лечение группы |
| Who protect ? | Elf | 0 | 70 | 40 | регенерация цели |
| Who protect ? | Elf | 0 | 90 | 60 | полное лечение цели |
| Who resuscitation ? | Elf | 0 | 110 | 80 | воскрешение трупа под свой флаг |
| Framing-Ball target ? | Wizard | 10 | 30 | 18 | самонаводящийся огненный шар |
| Roaring-Sound target ? | Wizard | 20 | 45 | 25 | отложенный урон 20 |
| Lighting target ? | Wizard | 30 | 65 | 40 | отложенный урон 30 |
| Ice magic target ? | Wizard | 0 | 90 | 60 | паралич |
| Poison-Gas locate ? | Warlock | 1 | 30 | 18 | ядовитый газ 3x3 |
| Fire-Dance | Warlock | 15 | 50 | 32 | шары по всем врагам вокруг |
| Earthquake | Warlock | 30 | 90 | 70 | землетрясение |
| Self-destruction | Warlock | 50 | 100 | 5 | самоподрыв (бьёт и своих) |
| Small Mapping Magic | Ranger | 0 | 30 | 20 | малая разведка |
| Grand Mapping Magic | Ranger | 0 | 50 | 30 | большая разведка |
| Space Shift locate ? | Ranger | 0 | 70 | 30 | телепорт |
Resurrection is the strongest thing on the island and the built-in computer never casts it, which is one of the reasons a learned opponent is worth building.
Food
Food is the only resource. A carcass is carried to a store, and everything a tribe builds or trains is paid for in food, step by step, so production visibly stalls when the hunting stops. →