Race War Kingdoms
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Race War Kingdoms (RWK) is a web browser-based massively multiplayer online game.
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[edit] Overview
RWK in its current form has existed since September 9, 2001. It is owned and operated by Glitchless. The game is level-based but uses ingame skills and items as time-savers, gameplay enhancers, and tools for unlocking other aspects. The other large aspect of the game is kingdoms and their control, running, and associated warfare. There is neither initial cost nor any subscription cost; however, upgrades can be purchased via an a-la-carte system that greatly affect gameplay aspects such as levelling speed, skilling speed, and increased map access. A monthly tournament, called the Acumen Inquest, is held to determine the best fighter and best kingdom complex. Large USDollar rewards are given for both.
A second server was opened on December 25th, 2004. Dubbed S2, the new server was completely independent of the first, meaning all kingdoms and characters were wiped. The only carryovers were the rules and any reserved names (an option available to S1 characters for a time prior to the grand opening).
[edit] Gameplay
Being a browser-based game, the majority of time spent playing RWK is spent clicking a mouse button. A delay is added between actions. All players exist on a 300 x 300 space map, called a plane. Each space is a kingdom, and there are 5 planes (Hell, Dungeon, Surface, Sky, and Heaven). Surface is the only plane available to play free from the beginning. Players have the option to kill generic monsters for experience and gold, duel other players present in the kingdom, craft and enchant items, trade items to other players, and, in a server-chosen and -announced random kingdom, battle Beasts. Role-play is essentially non-existent, typically present only in character names.
[edit] Leveling
A character's level starts at 0 and progresses to the level cap, which increases by 10 every month. As of March 1, 2007, the cap is 1,800. Contrary to most games, experience gained is only represented by a bar. Numbers are never given. There are 70 monsters to kill (only their name changes between planes) each with increasing amounts of stats (thus increasing the difficulty of killing them) and gold rewards to be earned. There is a 'two step' procedure for levelling: filling the top (yellow) experience bar, at which point the character is granted stat points, and then filling the bottom (purple) experience bar. Once the top bar is filled, the bottom bar is incremented and the top bar is cleared; once the bottom bar is filled, the character's level is incremented and the bottom bar is cleared.
Once a character reaches the level 'softcap' (level 750), experience needed to fill the top bar is tripled.
Once a character reaches the level 'hardcap' (10 levels before the maximum), experience needed to fill the top bar is multiplied by 100.
Instead of levelling, experience from monsters can be put towards skills. 0 to 99% of experience can be applied in this manner; however, skill gains are completely random - a higher percentage applied only means a greater chance of gaining a skill. Before level 50, one may only select the amount of experience going towards skills from 0 to 20%. Skills range from more accuracy in melee/magic attacks to decreased delay time to regenerating more health after every attack.
[edit] Classes
Several classes are available while playing RWK, including Bloodletter, Master of the Arcane, Master Armsman, Monk, Archer, and Theurgist. A character's class is determined by its stats and equipment. For further information on player classes please visit Jimcav's Player Class Guide.
[edit] Kingdoms
Any character above level 10 can settle an unsovereigned kingdom at any time. The cost of defending a kingdom is exorbitantly high to a new player and is generally left to the well-established. There are 'aspects' of kingdoms that can be bought at a 1:1 ratio with gold; therefore, for every one point of an aspect the cost will be one gold piece. The cap of any aspect is 2 billion. A kingdom's aspects increase every hour based on the king's skill in Kingsmanship.
Kingdoms are often used as banks because of their unique ability to generate money without any player involvement. A delicate balance of all things related to kingdoms is maintained through active observation and frequent tweaks by the administrator.
If a kingdom has a total value less than 10 billion, it will be unable to sustain itself. Therefore, the player must walk on such a kingdom at least once every 24 hours. For every hour after 24 that the player does not walk on the kingdom, the kingdom will lose 1% of its morale. This will continue until morale reaches 0%. At this point, the king is 'removed' and anyone may settle the kingdom.
[edit] Beasts
Beasts are unique to RWK in that there is a set list, but each character can only kill one of each every month. Beasts are enhanced monsters that have high stats and skills. The rewards for killing Beasts are also suitably significant. When a Beast spawns, its location is announced in the chat area to the entire server; thus, a race ensues and any character with access to the location can try to kill the Beast. Only the person who scores the killing blow receives credit for killing the Beast and any rewards. The slayer's name is announced server-wide in the chat area as well as any significant rewards.
[edit] Character Upgrades
Known ingame as 'access' because, originally, purchasable items were only for accessing planes other than the freely available Surface plane. Over time, the administrator has added different purchasable upgrades that fulfill specific roles. For example, character upgrades can either reduce the time delay between clicks, unlock new features of the game, raise or remove existing character limits, or are simply very powerful items.
Upgrades to a character can only be bought through the website itself. The administrator has set very specific guidelines about buying upgrades, among other rules; to view them, please visit terms of use page, the purchase page, and finally the announcements page for continually updating rules.
[edit] Acumen Inquest
The tournament takes place near the end of the month, with the top (in terms of character level) 128 logged-in characters competing. Each server has its own tournament, and the players of that server will be randomly paired off to compete in a 7 round event. The first 4 rounds are single-elimination after which only 8 players will remain. The next round is best 2 out of 3 fights after which 4 players will remain. Those 4 players are guaranteed at least $100 game credit. The next round is also best 2 out of 3 and the winners are guaranteed at least $150 game credit. The final round is best 3 out of 5 and the winner gets his or her choice of a number of prizes with considerable monetary values. Because of the value, victorious characters are not allowed to compete for 12 months.
In addition to the tournament there is a brawl on each server in which all players may participate. The last character standing is the winner of the brawl assuming he or she has eliminated at least 5 other players in attack (not defense). The prize is $100 game credit. Winners of the Acumen Inquest are allowed to compete for this prize during their 12-month impetus from the tournament.
Although rare, players who create "skins" for the game's interface and submit them to RWK become eligible for the RWK skins contest in which the winner receives a computer (no monitor) or $250 game credit; the runner-up will receive a 1GB RAM or $100 game credit, and any other host-worthy skins will be awarded a $50 game credit.
The final monthly prize goes to the person on each server who has the biggest and cleanest kingdom complex. The reward is a staggering $500 game credit. There is a limit on this prize, however, as the same complex, regardless of the owner, cannot win two months in a row.
After both Inquests have completed and the winners have received their credit prizes, a Beast invasion occurs. Beasts spawn by the dozen and chaos ensues. After the mass spawning ends, the Beast lists are reset for the new month (meaning any character is now able to kill any Beast) and the cap level is raised by 10.
[edit] Player Base
The player base in RWK is extremely active, and its ability to thrive is key to the success of the game. Players have created numerous help sites for the game, forums, and even support an active real-world economy by selling items, characters, and gold for money, usually through PayPal. However, with such an economy there are risks: several players in the past have used PayPal to scam others, either by reversing payments after receiving the goods they were purchasing, or by not sending goods they sell, even after receiving payment. While most players are legitimate people and can be trusted, it is often advised that players ask in the game's chat whether or not people are trustworthy, especially when dealing with real-world currency.
As far as the general attitude of the players is concerned, new players should be advised that some players can be quite mean, especially when players ask questions that can be answered by visiting one of the many helpsites created for the game. Generally, players will be well received if they take the time to learn about the game, and avoid trying to act superior to others in Race War Kingdoms. A system has been implemented that allows new players to request the help of guides, who are more experienced players. The guides are there to teach new players about RWK, and when players reach level one, they can reward a helpful guide with a special command.
[edit] Related Links
- http://www.racewarkingdoms.com - RWK Server 1.
- http://rwk2.racewarkingdoms.com - RWK Server 2.
- http://www.jimcav.com - A well-written fansite, frequently updated.
- http://www.ehlmaris.com - Another fan-written helpsite, updated regularly.
- http://www40.brinkster.com/RWKnoob/ - Yet another fan-written helpsite, updated frequently.
- http://www.freewebs.com/rwkhelpsite - And another fan-written helpsite, updated often.
- http://www.rwkforums.info - Unofficial forums of RWK.
- http://www.ehlmaris.com/forum - The Officially Unofficial forums of RWK.
