Fortress

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Revision as of 11:20, 23 October 2008 by Hoop (talk | contribs) (→‎Positions)

Fortress is a game type in Armagetron Advanced. It is a team based game which usually consists of two Zones, one for each team.

History and About

Proof of concept of Fortress game type was created by Z-Man, (the game creator.)

Objective

Such as 'Capture the Flag' and 'Sumo', the idea of Fortress is to capture your enemies Zone(s) while defending your own from the enemies attackers. You may win by capturing the enemies Zone(s) or if all of your enemies suicide or get core-dumped.

Rounds, Matches and Scoring

On most common Fortress servers, the first team to reach 100 points wins the match. Core-dumping your enemy, you receive 2 points which also adds 2 points to the overall team score. Hole points have been recently introduced to some Fortress servers and seems to becoming a standard setting which gives you 1 point which also adds 1 point to the overall team score.

Note: Settings vary from server to server, so this may not be exactly how it is on the server you are playing on. You can try asking an Administrator of the server for more information or use the ` console button and type in the setting to get the variable.

The Grid

Add here. Example.jpg

Zone(s)

The Fortress game is what is referred to when a map is built around the concept of a fortress zone. A fortress zone is an area that one team is supposed to defend against the other team--Flex 11:40, 12 August 2008 (PDT)s, while trying to capture the other teams' zones.

Conquering times:

  • 1 attacker, 0 defenders: 5 seconds to conquer.
  • 1 attacker, 1 or more defenders: not conquerable.
  • 2 attackers, 0 defenders: 2 seconds to conquer.
  • 2 attackers, 1 defender: 3.3 seconds to conquer.
  • 2 attackers, 2 defenders: 10 seconds to conquer.

'reference - http://forums.armagetronad.net/viewtopic.php?t=2529&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0'

Terminology

  • to sweep:

The role of the sweeper. He stays close to the defender and helps him. The sweeper has to kill the enemies and let some place to the defender at the same time. It's not an easy work.

  • to grind:

To go along a wall to gain speed. The starting grind is NOT an option.

  • binding (single, double, triple):


Add here.

Positions

Positions in classic fortress are assigned so:

      1
    2   3
  4       5
etc...

You can change your position using the chat command:

/shuffle n

where n is the number of the position you wish to take. Using it without argument will just shuffle you out.

When you join a fortress server you will be placed outside, so the others players' position won't change the next round. Usually you're not allowed to shuffle "up" (i.e. to a lower pos.). The most common way to be "promoted" to a lower position is waiting until an inner player shuffles out (he may be tired of attacking) or until someone simply leaves the server. Recently, in some updated servers, you're allowed to shuffle up only once you have logged in through the Armathentication mechanism. However, it is a commonly accepted rule that you will ask for your mate's consense before taking his/her actual position.

Note: expecially for newbies, the inner position the harder it is, since you need to have a bit of experience to know when it is time to split out safely (without killing yourself or, int the worst case, your mates)... This doesn't mean that starting from outside is "easy": the outmost player is partially responsibile of letting the defender build the zone protection succesfully.


  • Defender

Usually starts from the outmost position, drives along the closest mate's wall until he/she reaches the zone limit. Then begins drawing a square around the zone, as fast as possible. The defender holds the most stressful role in forress. If he dies the round is usually lost. Though sometimes he will be bored while the opponents cannot attack, being attacked themselves by his team.

  • Sweeper

There are usually two sweepers, one for each side: e.g. in a team of 8 players, the defender takes position 8, while sweepers take 7 and 6.

Sweepers are those who at start help the defender building the zone protection. After that, they will try to block the enemy attackers, giving their own mates more time to attack the other base. Sweepers' role is very stressful too, because angry-aggressive attackers will try everything to kill them: a defender being attacked by 2 (or more) attackers is easily going to fail without the support of (at least) one sweeper.

  • Attacker

Attackers start from positions 2 and 3. It is a good practice to try killing opponents' sweepers before attempting to break their defence. A good attacker is able to let his team win very quickly (when his base is well protected, of course). At start they can double grind, a technique that lets them gain a lot of speed, sometimes enough to surpass opponents' sweepers and to reach their base before the defence is completely built. An attacker must have a good timing either to split well after the start, either to beat the enemy defence.

  • Centre

As you might have guessed, centre (or middle) player starts from position 1. The initial phase, after splitting, is quite complicated for him: he has the chance to attack the opponents grinding through their attackers' walls, but he will have to prevent the opponent middle player from doing the same thing... Usually acting in a very tight space. In matches where both teams have 6-7 or more players it can become very hard to survive more than 10-15 seconds.

Strategies

* Use one or more players to defend your base looping around it and generally keeping the other team(s) out.

  • If theres more then 3 people on your team and your off to the side try turning off earlier so the guy in the center isn't stuck and will not end up plowing into an enemy wall.
  • Try bulldozing through the other teams offense using yourself as a kamikaze, you can blow a hole in the other teams defense and let another player on your team get through easier.
  • If the server has the team chat code use it (/team secret message here) using this is helpful for building strategy and keeping your enemies in the dark.

There is a more detailed discussion of Category:Fortress Tactics available.

Different maps

A map that is referred to as Fortress is built around the concept of two Zones. Each team is assigned one zone to guard and one zone to attack. Most fortress maps are for two teams fighting one another, however there are also three and four team maps. Some Fortress game types have expanded into having more zones for each team.

Screen shots

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Settings on a standard Fortress server

INCLUDE examples/cvs_test/fortress_complete.cfg

Setting up your own Fortress Server

This is all you need to set in your configuration file (autoexec.cfg, preferably) to set up a basic fortress server:

include examples/cvs_test/fortress_complete.cfg
SERVER_NAME <your name>
SERVER_PORT <desired port>
TALK_TO_MASTER 1

With this, it'll try to be an exact clone of "CVS Test Server: Fortress". You're advised to rummage through the included file here and the other recursively included files. Copy those you want to adapt into your configuration file and modify them there.

You'll no doubt notice there's a great deal of customization available. Think of the fortress as a primitive game object, and these settings are how you'll define its behavior. Between these settings, other game rules settings, and good map design, there are virtually limitless possibilities available. You don't have to limit yourself to Fortress play, you can use the fortress however you'd like!