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/                 *** WOW 2.0 BATTLE SIMULATOR - VERSION 1.0 ***              /
/                                                                             /
/                     Programmed by: Korneel Duyvesteyn                       /
/                     Date: 29th of August 2000                               /
/                                                                             /
/                     Copyright reserved for: Korneel Duyvesteyn              /
/                     Battle System created by WoW Games                      /
/                     Copyright protected.                                    /
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CONTENTS OF THIS README FILE:
 1. Introduction and uses of this battle simulator.
 2. How to use this battle simulator.
 3. Description of the battle system used in WoW 2.0.
 4. Preview of Version 1.1 of the battle sim.
 5. Contact me

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Ad 1.: Introduction and uses:
This wow battle simulation program has been programmed in C++ and is about 1200 
lines of code, where about half of the code deals with the visual aspects of 
the program. 
You can use this version of the battle simulator for different purposes:
 1. When facing a foe, you can calculate which units you need to beat his
    units, and in which amounts. You can add and remove units and see what kind 
    of results that will give.
 2. You can try to find out the stats of wandering creatures. You can run 
    a battle from your report in this simulator and change the stats of the wandering
    creatures until you get the same battle report in the sim as in your report.
 3. You can actually see the strength of units that have multiple hitpoints/attacks, 
    like dragons. Try out a battle between 5000 militia and 100 black dragons, 
    and you can see that these units are pretty heavy.




Ad 2.: How to use this battle simulator:
Most of the functions are explained in the program itself. The easiest way 
to change armies is to use the pop-up menu on the army display of both armies. 
That way, the ID of the wizard number is allready entered and you only need to 
fill in the other things. If you do something that is not allowed (eg, changing 
hitpoints to 0) you will get warned, but you cannot enter these units in your 
army. So most mistakes are taken care of by the program. Also, abbreviation 
checks are not case sensitive, so it does not matter if you enter them with 
capital letters or not. 

However, in some cases the program may crash. Large battles with lots of archers 
cause much trouble as well as simulations with many troops. My advice is not to 
run battles with more than 20k troops, unless there are no archers among them. 
Simulation can go to about 300 but be cautious when having more units. These 
problems will be solved in the next version of the battle simulator.




Ad 3.: Description of the battle system used in WoW 2.0:
My program works slightly different than the WoW battle system. This is 
because WoW Games used a different approach than I did. The differences 
are only minor though and will be solved in a next version. The differences 
are:
 1. In this simulator "behind units" cannot be hit in the ranged round.
 2. In this simulator "behind units" cannot shoot in the ranged round, even though 
    they have Ranged offense, like wizard apprentices.
 3. In this simulator it is possible to have several units with the same abbreviations.

Here follows the battle system as used in the simulator:

Initiative: If there is no side with heroes, then each time someone is going to attack, 
initiative is determined. Who gains initiative depends on the presence of troops able to 
fight, and troops that have allready fought. So, in the ranged offense phase, only ranged 
units who have not fought yet and are still alive contribute to the chance of being able 
to attack.

Round 1:
RANGED:
Round 1 starts with the shooting phase. Units with a ranged offense of greater than 
0 attack. First initiative is determined and then a randomly chosen shooter from 
the attacker shoots at a randomly selected unit that is not a behind unit. This 
process continues until all shooters have shot or are dead.

GO ANYWHERE:
After the ranged phase, the units with battle position: "G" can attack. The same 
procedure is used, except that when a unit misses, a retaliation is possible. A unit 
can retaliate up to the number of attacks he has each round. Both ranged units and 
behind units cannot be attacked in this phase.

MOUNTED:
Mounted follows exactly the same procedure as GO ANYWHERE except that the mounted 
units strike. Ranged units and behind units remain protected in this phase.

FOOT:
This phase is the same as mounted and go anywhere attacks. Units who are FOOT can 
attack now, and retaliation is possible. No archers and behind units can be hit.

Round 2 - End:
Now, each unit that is not behind can attack and can be attacked. Retaliation is 
also possible. Once all normal units are died, behind units take in their places 
and fight on. These rounds continue until one side is completely wiped out.



Ad 4.: Preview of Version 1.1
As you might understand from the combat system archers are quite tough to handle 
(one phase they cannot be hit, and the other they can). In the next version, there 
will be a better algorithm to deal with archers, so that large battles with archers 
cannot crash anymore. Also, heroes will be implemented and general features, like 
defender boni, terrain boni etc. Races will also be part of the simulator. 

My goal is that this simulator becomes part of a greater interface that can
read reports and load them into another program, where you can click on regions, 
to see battles etc. Sort of report interpretor.

Note though that you can manually add magic items and spells to the game. When IML 
is cast, you just multiply all hitpoints by 1.5. Same goes with magical swords and 
dragon armours etc.



Ad 5.:
If you find any bugs or have any suggestions about this battle simulator, then please 
contact me or a person from WoW Games. My email address is: grimnir@dds.nl
WoW Games: admin@wow.pbemgame.com





 




 

