Cyber Wars

Cyber Wars was a game inspired by Julian Gollop's Chaos: The Battle of Wizards (1985 ) hosted on Games Domain. Interestingly it had many similar graphics to DeviousMUD and Classic RuneScape. On the side it also has many skills that are similar to those of RuneScape. There is rumour that it may be a bit related to MechScape however this is just because they both use mechs and Jagex have confirmed there will be no relation. A fan made remake can be found here.

Description[]

The description on the Jagex website read:

Cyber Wars

Beams down the creatures from your ship and fight the enemy commanders in this multiplayer game. Has 55 different creatures, and effects! Use Alien-blobs, probes, laser-robots, battlemechs, forcefields, jetpacks, tentacles, tanks, droids and much much more!

Gameplay[]

Aim of the game[]

The aim of the game is to destroy your opponents commander whilst defending your own. To do this you must call upon the resouces of your ship in orbit. Each turn You can beam down additional units to fight with, or use your ships other abilities.

Very quick guide to playing![]

The game basically consists of 3 stages.

First is the action-select stage where you choose what you want to transfer from your ship in orbit, different actions have different probabilities of working successfully! For details of each action click on the animating pictures.

Once everyone has chosen an action, the game enters the action phase. Here the players take it in turns to perform the action they just selected. When it is your turn, indicate the target by clicking on the grid. Most actions can only be performed on a square near your commander, so move the mouse around until the cursor indicates a valid square. Your commander will be indicated with a flashing red+yellow outline.

Finally is the movement phase. Here you can move your commander and any creatures you have beamed from your ship. When it is your turn click on the creature you want to move to select it, and then click on the destination square until you run out of movement points. To attack enemy creatures just move your creature into them! When you have finished click on the text to the top middle of the screen. Once everyone has moved the game goes back to the action-select stage.

Be sure to pay attention to the symbols which appear beneath your mouse pointer, as they tell you what you can and can't do! If things aren't behaving as you expect then check it is your turn, then type 'help' into the chat window and you read the text which tells you what you're supposed to do next.

Full instructions[]

Action-select phase: You will now find yourself on the action-selection screen. Here is a list of all the creatures you can beam from your ship in orbit, and the other actions your ship can do. You can only choose one action each turn. For more information on each action click on the animating pictures. Once you have decided which action you want to use, click on the 'select' icon next to it.

Hologram or Beam-down: If you have selected a creature ,then you will now be asked if you want to project a hologram, or beam it from your ship. If you beam it from your ship there is a certain chance that the transporters will fail, and the creature will be destroyed in transit. The probability depends on the creature, and can be found by clicking on the creatures picture. If you choose to project a hologram, then the creature is bound to work! However any other players who suspect it to be a hologram can destroy it by using the HoloDetector action. Real creatures aren't affected by the holodetector. This is the only difference!

Action phase: Once everyone has selected an action, the players must take it in turns to indicate which square they want to target the action at. Creatures can only be beamed down to squares adjacent to your commander, whilst other actions may have a longer range. The symbol under your mouse pointer will indicate if a square is a valid target or not. If you change your mind and decide you don't want to use the action up yet, then you can cancel it by clicking on the text to the top middle of the screen. Before each commanders turn all his/her pieces will flash red so you know who owns what!

Movement/Combat phase: Now the game enters the movement and combat phase. Here you can move all of your creatures. Wait until it is turn. Before your turn all of your creatures will flash yellow, to remind you what belongs to you. To select a creature click on it with your mouse. Now point at the square you wish to move to and click. Land-based creatures can only move one square at a time, and will have to fight any creatures in the way. Flying creatures use all their movement at once, just click where you want to land. If during your move your creature goes adjacent to an enemy it becomes engaged in combat, and must fight it, (or cancel the rest of the move). Combat

To fight an enemy creature or commander just move your creature into it, and it will attack. Depending on your creatures strength, and the other creatures defense you may destroy it. There is no risk of damage to your own creature, but if it isn't successful then your opponent will probably attack back on his/her own turn!

Ranged Combat: Some creatures have a ranged-combat ability. If so, then once you have finished moving it you will be given the option of shooting at a target within a certain number of squares. Just click on a target to take a shot at it! The target must be in range, and there must be no obstacles between the 2 creatures.

Dead Creatures: If you successfully kill a creature then it will leave a body behind on the ground. This is important as the Resurrect spell can be used to bring dead creatures back to life! However, creatures which were holograms don't leave bodies.

Killing Commanders: Commanders can be killed in exactly the same way as other creatures. If a commander dies, then that player is out of the game, and all his/her creatures and building vanish from the board, leaving the remaining players to fight it out. Therefore it is vital to keep your commander well protected.

Transportation: One way of protecting your commander is to hide on some sort of transport. Some pieces have the ability that they can be used to transport your commander. This protects the commander, as the transport has to be killed first, and also enables you to move faster and get away from impending attacks! To use this, just move your commander onto a piece with transport ability. This uses up both pieces move. To move your commander back out of the transport on a later turn, you must select the transport, and then click on the little arrows which appear at the top of the screen. It is a good idea to try and get onto some transport (if you have any) as quickly as possible!

Slime creatures!: Some creatures have a 'slime' ability. This is particularly powerful, as it means creatures which don't have the slime ability can't attack them for risk of contamination! They are however still suspectable to attacks from other slime creatures, and ranged attacks. If you find one of your creatures engaged in combat with a slime creature, you will either have to attack someone else, or abort the rest of your move. Getting information during the game If one of your opponents beams down a creature, or building and you don't know what it does, simply click on it with the right mouse-button to get the information screen.

World Alignment!: Each action in the game has one of 3 alignments - Alien, Mechanoid, or Neutral. Each time an action is successful, it changes the overall world alignment in it's direction. So if lots of alien actions succeed it makes the overall alignment more alien. This then affects how likely actions are to succeed in the future. The more strongly the world alignment is in favour of a particular action the more likely it is to succeed. For example the Alien-Queen only has an initial probability of 10%, but if lots of alien actions are successful this probability will increase.