Leagues are the ultimate in online gaming experiences. The idea of a league is to create an immersive
simulation where different groups compete with each other for conquest of that gaming universe. The basis of leagues is a territory
system where ownership of territory is decided on the outcome of a game that the league is based on. League play is for the hardcore
gamer who wants a more meaningful experience, not the casual gamer. MechBattle is a game within a game. These are rules for all gaming
leagues. Each league has additional league specific rules in the league configuration for the game the league is based on.
(If you haven't already, register with MechBattle before signing up for a league or unit.) The first
thing you need to do is to fill out the form to join a league. Once you have joined a league, the next step is to find a unit to join.
Once you enroll in a league you will be on the recruitment lists available to team leaders until you join a team. Team leaders can
fill out a form to invite you to join their team, at which point you can confirm or deny the offer. If you don't want to wait on a
team leader you can fill out the form to apply for a team. Then depending on the team's recruitment policy you can be automatically
accepted or denied or they may decide on a case by case basis. If it is a case by case basis then you will be notified once the team
leaders make a decision. You can apply to multiple teams until you enroll in a team. Once you join a team you remain a member of that
team until you quit or a team leader removes you from the team.
To create a team you first need to fill out the team creation form. There are no waiting lists, you
can create a team at any time. Now that the team is created other players can join that team. The team stays inactive until enough
players join the team that it can be activated. When the team has enough players, use the team activation form to activate the team.
When the team is first activated, teams will be given their starting assets depending on the type of class the team belongs to. There
are major team classes (standard teams) which can possess territory and minor team classes (mercenary or raider team classes) which
cannot possess territory. If the team type team involves owning territory as part of the starting assets, destinations are placed on
the map dyanmically. For more information on specifics of the classes a team counld choose, refer to the league configuration for your
that specific league.
To continue to exist a team must keep a number of active players above the minimum. If the number of
players falls below the minimum required for a team of that class, that team will have 2 week to bring it up to the minimum or their
team will be removed. A team must also meet a minimum activity requirement to continue to exist. A team must post results for at
least one battle every two weeks. This minimum activity is required for teams not engaged in combat, actual activity is usually much
higher. If this does not happen that team is on probation for the next month and will receive a warning. When on probabation the team
must schedule and fight at least 1 battle per week on probation. If the team on probation does not meet this requirement they will be
removed from the league. The team remains on probation until the team has been on probation for one month.
When a team is removed from the league all their destinations are processed. If there are any
destinations without another group present, these will be removed from the game system completely. For those which have any other
groups present will have the group being removed replaced by the "Independent States" which have same amount of forces as the removed
group. Then the battles are all resolved with equal losses for both sides. The destinations where the "Independent States" win will
be removed from play. Those destinations where another group wins, the destination will be moved to a random spot in the sector of the
group which now owns the destination. Then the square sector that the group inhabited becomes a warp zone and all remaining
destinations in the sector are redistributed into the home sector of the groups which own them.
How a team accepts and recruits new members varies widely. The Recruitment Policy Editor is a TKZ tool
to simplify this process. Using the Recruitment Policy Editor you can set how new recruits applications are handled. The possible
settings are:
- Automatically accept all applicants
- Automatically deny all applicants
- Take no action (confirm or deny on case by case basis)
- Send recruitment message (confirm or deny on a case by case basis)
Another tool available to help team leaders with recruitment is the Recruitment Manager. It has three lists of players:
- List of players who haven't joined a team yet
- List of players who have applied for your team who need to be confirmed or denied
- List of recent applicants and their outcomes
What you see in these three lists will depend on what you have selected for your team recruitment
policy. The list of those who haven't joined a team is the same for all policies. From this list you can select players and extend
an offer to join your group. The list of recent applicants will only be available if you have one of the two recruitment policies
that depends on a case by case basis. In those cases, you check the confirm or deny checkboxes to determine which applicants are
accepted and which are denied. The last list is available for all recruitment policies. It is a log of the latest recruits and the
final outcome. For many of the policies the outcome will all be the same. Between teams offering membership to teams and players
applying to join a team, it should be fairly painless to find a group to join in the league.
A large part of being in a team is the chain of command. To make this easy to manage, TKZ provides
the Security Clearance Editor and the Rank Editor. A rank determines what type of position you fill in the team. Most teams pick
normal military ranks like Corporal or General. Using the Rank Editor the names and associated security clearance of a rank can be
changed. Please avoid the use of profanity in your rankings scheme. Using the Security Clearance Editor you can change what team
members with a certain security clearance are allowed to do or even create new clearances.
When a team is first started, the player creating the team is given the rank of 'Main Leader'. The
Rank of Main Leader is a default rank that is associated with the default security clearance of 'Main Leader'. All those members
joining after will be given the default rank and security clearance which are both called 'Team Member'. This will continue until
the default rank is changed to something else. These defaults are provided for teams which do not want to use the ranking system to
its full advantage. You could even make specific security levels and associate it with a rank like recruitment officer or Tactical
Specialist. This system allows leaders to be able to delegate tasks without making a team member a full leader.
Following is a list of permission settings that comprises a security clearance:
- Notification of Movements
- Access to Movement Logs
- Access to Money Transfer Logs
- Allowed to Skirmish
- Delete a Member
- Add a Member
- Change Recruitment Policy
- Issue Recruitment Offers
- Confirm Recruitment Applicants
- Email all Group Members
- Delete Leader
- Add Leader
- Add Rank
- Delete Rank
- Modify Rank
- Add Security Clearance Level
- Delete Security Clearance Level
- Modify Security Clearance Level
- Assign Member Ranking
- Change Default Ranking
- File Movement
- Input Skirmish Results
- File or Confirm a 'Complete Attack Set'
- Transfer Money
- Update Group Information
- Schedule Combat
- Schedule Availability
- Set Friend or Foe
- Put up Items for Auction
- Buy Items on Free Market
- Buy Items from an Auction
To maintain a war effort requires money and lots of it. In TKZ leagues, the monetary system is
known as credits. To create an income of credits, a team can develop destinations for commerce and then invest in the commerce
production capabilities of those destinations. To improve the effectiveness of this investment, bazaars can be built on
destinations developed for commerce. Up to 100,000 credits can be invested into destinations developed for commerce without
bazaars, with a return on investment of 1 credit profit per accounting period for each 10 credits invested. A destination
developed for commerce with any bazaars has a return of 1 credit profit per accounting period for each 5 credits invested. For
each bazaar on a destination developed for commerce, the maximum credits that can be invested is raised 100,000 credits. Normally
there can only be one bazaar per commerce capable destinations, but teams with the mass marketing technology can build further
bazaars. All monies are stored in a central bank and withdrawals can be made to any destination.
Maintaining a war effort also takes lots of military items to carry out the combat. While
military items can be purchased either via auctions or the open market, the easiest way to guarentee a steady supply of weapons
is to build your own. To create an income of military items, a team can develop destinations for military and then invest in
the military production capabilities of these destinations. In TKZ leagues, the military production capibilities of a team are
measured in points of resource value. To improve the effectiveness of this investment in the military, factories can be built on
the destinations developed for military. Up to 100,000 credits can be invested into destinations developed for military without
factories, with a return on investment of 1 point of resource value of production per accounting period for each 10 credits
invested. A destination developed for military with any factories has a return on investment of 1 point of resource value of
production per accounting period for each 5 credits invested. For each factory on a destination developed for military, the
maximum credits that can be invested is raised 100,000 credits. Normally there can be only one factory per military capable
destination, but teams with the Robotics technology can build further factories. All military production is redeemed for military
items that can then be used for combat. Military items that are produced begin where they were created.
Your inventory is a list of these military items and their locations. You can get items to add
to your inventory from production of your destinations developed for military production, items you bought on the open market
or auctions. Each item has to be moved to attack. Items can be scrapped for a percentage of their resource value. The default
is 50% and can be increased with the use of Salvage technology. Even with salvage percentages over 100%, not more than the
resource value of the military item can be received for salvaging it. Minor classes of teams(mercs and raiders) start with
their military items in their inventory without a location. This is known as the garage. From there, those group types spawn
them to a location with restrictions based on the class of team. See your league configuration for more information.
Technology is a resource that can be vital to winning the league, both as a victory condition
in itself as well as by giving a technological advantage that can impact other factors in the game. One of the main disadvantages
new teams face in joining an established league is the higher levels of technology their opponents have already amassed.
To create an income of technology research, a team can develop destinations for technology and
then invest in the technology research capabilities of these destinations. In TKZ leagues, the technology research of a team is
measured in "tech points". To improve the effectiveness of this investment in technology research, research labs can be built on
destinations developed for technology. Up to 100,000 credits can be invested into destinations developed for technology without
research labs, with a return on investment of 1 tech point for each 10 credits invested. A destination developed for technology
with any research labs has a return on investment of 1 tech point for each 5 credits invested. For each research lab on a
destination developed for technology, the maximum credits that can be invested is raised 100,000 credits. Normally there can only
be one research lab per technology capable destination, but teams with the Defense Spending technology can build further research labs.
There are a number of technologies which each require a specific number of tech points to
acquire. The first time you are successful, you acheive Tech Level 1 for THAT technology. Each technology has multiple Tech
Levels which represent greater proficiency with that technology and allow greater use of the technology. There are 4 Tech Levels
for each technology. As you progress in levels at a technology the amount of research required for each successive technology is
greater and greater.
You can't just research any technology. Before you research a technology you may have to study
other technologies first. These are called technology dependencies. You will ALWAYS have to study the lower level of the same
technology before going to the next level. In many cases a second or third other technology will also be required. For example
to get Level 3 Stealth Detection, you have to learn Level 2 Stealth Detection and Level 1 Stealth Attack first. See the technology
reference for more details for each technology.
The tech points a team receives are stored up in a central bank and can be redeemed for a
technology at any time, as long as the team has enough tech points to pay for the new technology and they have fulfilled all
dependencies for the technology. If they attempt to get a technology for which they have not researched the required technologies
or have insufficient tech points to pay for it, the automation will explain the problem.
The TKZ league maps are split into square sectors. Each of these sectors represents the home
territory of a team which can possess territory. When the team is activated, their territory is comprised of a specific number
of destinations they are given to place on the map. They have a capital placed at the very center of the square, with one more
destination placed in each of the 4 major directions, i.e. west, east, north, south. The rest of the destinations are placed
randomly inside the sector for that unit. The map is wraparound, so if your team goes beyond the edge of the map, they can come
out in the opposite side of the map. When a sector becomes empty from the removal of a group, this is known as a warp zone. Movement
can be done as if that sector did not exist, warping right through it. To make all this simple to understand, maps are available
for each sector, with the 8 surrounding sectors, which if there are less than 8 total sectors can have multiple copies of the same
sector. Look at the maps and you will eventually catch on. You can use the imagemap capabilities of the map to see ALL the
destinations in range.
Destinations are the key for major group classes to win the league, as they are the source of
resources in the game. All destinations start out undeveloped and uncapable of producing resources. An unpinned destination can
be developed at any time by using the Development Form. When you develop a destination, you choose which of the three different
types of resources it will produce. You can develop the destination for commerce, to produce money. You can develop for military, to
produce the weapons to fight your opponents, or develop for technology, to gain advantages of new technologies. A destination can be
redeveloped for another type of resource, but all investments are lost when this is done, so usually it is a good idea to liquidate
your investments before redeveloping a destination. There is one exception, the capital, which can simultaneously develop all three
types of resources. Thus the capital is as valuable as three normal destinations. Capitals from sectors that have been removed keep
their power even when moved to another sector. A destination that has been developed actually has an instrinsic value of resource
production of the types it is developed for, which is in addition to any return on investments made into resource production.
Once destinations have been developed, you can start investing to produce resources on them. For
each type of resource there is a corresponding Destination Improvement that can be constructed. Each of these improvements doubles
the return on investment in the resource as well as increases the maximum that can be invested on the destination where they are
built. Whenever a destination changes owners in combat, the improvement takes 25% damage. If the improvement take 50% or more damage,
then it will no longer function. In situations where an improvement is damaged, it can be repaired for a price, if the destination is
unpinned (although it can be flagged). If the damage ever reaches 100% the improvement is destroyed and can not be repaired, and an
entirely new improvement would have to be built.
Destination improvements have maintenance costs to continue to use them that are charged automatically
during the accounting periods. Maintenance costs are required even if the improvement is too damaged to function. These costs are
seperate from the costs to repair a damaged destination improvement. If improvement.
Technology maintenance fees are charged at each accounting period. So if you don't want to keep a
technology in effect, shut it off before the next accounting period to avoid further charges. See the technology reference for more
detail on the technologies.
At regular intervals, the destinations which have been developed for the various resources in the game
will produce their output, wether it be money for commerce, military items for military or technology research for technology.
Following is the order of events:
- Maintenance costs for all existing military items is subtracted from the group's main bank. Maintenance costs for any technologies
in use is also subtracted from the group's main bank.
- All destinations developed for commerce are processed with all the profit going to a group's central bank(including intrinsic value).
- The maintenance costs for all bazaars are then subtracted from the group's central bank. If there is not enough money, bazaars
are liquidated until the balance is at least zero or there are no more bazaars.
- All destinations developed for military items are then processed. The costs for resource value are subtracted from the group's
central bank and the newly created military items are placed where they were produced for major team classes or placed in the
"garage" for minor classes of teams. If there is not enough money to pay the resource costs, the military items are NOT produced.
Any military items produced are immediately available.
- Now the maintenance costs for factories are paid from the team's central bank. If there is not enough money, factories will be
liquidated, until the balance is at least zero or there are no more factories.
- All destinations developed for technology now produce their tech points which the group accumulates and can use immediately to
redeem for new technologies (if they have enough points).
- All maintenance costs for the research labs are subtracted from the team's central bank. If there is not enough money, research
labs will be liquidated, until the balance is at least zero or there are no more factories.
Normal accounting periods are once per month. If the accounting period is another interval, it will
be noted in the league configuration.
While it is possible to build factories and produce your implements of war, you will sometimes want more.
You may not have the proper technology to build more advanced items or your production is maxed out. That's where the free market can
come in handy. With the open market your actions directly influences prices in a dynamic environment. Any group can purchase items for
sale on the open market. Timing is everything on the open market. At regular intervals there will be more of each item available. If all
of an item are bought by groups in that time, there will be none available to buy until more are added. You can only buy up to 10 of an
item at a time. You can fill out the form to buy another 10 items, if that item has not already sold out. It may sell out before you
finish filling out the form if it's a popular item. Each time some of the item is bought the price will go up. At regular intervals all
prices will be reduced. Items come on the market much more often then the interval at which the price is reduced, so what happens is that
less popular items will be cheaper than more popular items. It can be a good idea to assign a purchasing officer to buy items on off-peak
hours if you are trying for a choice item. If the item is bought it will appear at the shipping destination picked. The shipping
destination chosen must be unpinned, so nothing can be bought if the team does not have any unpinned destinations. For leagues with a
variety of different military items that can be purchased, not all of them will be available. The average tech level of advanced
manufacturing rounded up is the tech level which will be available on the open market.
It is also possible for a team to put items located on UNFLAGGED destinations up for auction. The auction
items are available to any team to buy. There is an auction manager to place an item or to buy an item on auction. Only military items
can be put up for auction, not destination improvements.
Selling in an auction
There are several things you need to fill out on the form to sell an item. First you have to input
the location and what item you are selling. If there are multiple of the same item in the same location you can sell up to 10 as a
single unit. Once you have finalized what you are selling, you need to fill in the relevant items
- Deadline
- Minimum Price
- Comments
- Minimum Raise
Once you submit it, the items will be up for sale until the deadline. Once up for sale, the only
way the item will come back is if no one makes an offer on the item or if you buy the item yourself. Once the item is sold, it is
shipped to shipping destination that the buyer has selected and the selling group gets the purchase price minus a 10% commission to
the auctioneers and shipping costs.
Buying an item on auction
When you go into the Auction Manager you can see a list of the items for sale and their current
bid, minimum price, minimum raise, comments, which group currently has the winning bid and the deadline to sell the item. Before
you can make bids you must give a shipping destination which is unpinned at the time when you place the bid. If the shipping
destination becomes pinned before a group wins a bid, or if there or hostile forces, the military items arrive as an extra attack,
even if this would place that team over one of the attack limits. The purchase price is subtracted from the team's central bank.
You can select an item and fill in a bid for any of the items on sale and submit your bids up to the amount of the money in your
team's central bank. You must bid at least the current winning bid plus the minimum raise amount, or the minimum price if there
have not been any bids on the item yet. Someone else can bid a higher amount. If they bid higher they will now show as the winning
bid and the price will increase to the value of their last bid. This cycle of bidding continues until whoever has the winning bid
at the deadline ends up buying the item. Each time the current bid is beaten, the person who made the bid is emailed and notified
that their bid was not high enough. When you buy an item in the auction it arrives at the group's shipping destination. For minor
classes of teams (merc and raider classes), the shipping destination is their "garage".
Since the open market and auctions are open to all groups, you will sometimes want an
alternative method of transfering resources so that you can choose who gets the resources. How this is done depends on the type
of resources you are transfering.
Changing Ownership of Military Items
To change ownership of military items from one group to another, a military item of the group
which is gaining ownership must be on an unflagged sector which contains the military items that are being taken possession of.
So if Clan Yang wants to give military items to Clan Yin, they both have to meet on an unflagged sector and then the military
items can become property of Clan Yin.
Changing Ownership of Destinations
To change ownership of destinations, the group taking possession of the destination must first
have military items worth at least 20,000 resource value on the destination. The destination must also be UNFLAGGED (NOT unpinned)
for the transfer to take place.
In previous TKZ automation systems a concept called Free Passage was used to convey the ability
of allowing other groups to move through a destination owned by an ally without hostilities. This is being replaced by a new system
called Friend or Foe.
The main purpose is to determine which groups are allies of each other and what permissions
they give to each other. This comes in handy to determine just how much trust another group places in them. The most important
consideration is if two groups are friends. For two groups to be considered friends they must both list each other as friends. If
either one has foe listed, the two groups are not friends. One of the most important ways this information is used to find the
amount of enemy troops for the purpose of determining if a destination is pinned.
If both groups list each other as friends, then the permissions settings come into affect. If
the two groups are not considered friends, the permissions will not be in affect, even if they are checked. You can set your Friend
or Foe information towards another group in the Diplomacy Editor.
Note that if the status of another group changes from friend to foe, all destinations where the
two groups were peacefully co-existing are flagged, attacks are sent for the amount of troops on that location and those troops will
now count towards pinning the defender. If two groups who were foes become friends, all places where they were fighting will have
those attacks resolved and they will peacefully coexist. Any time there is a change to friend or foe settings, the group towards
which the settings were changed is notified.
Following is a list of friend or foe configurations.
- Friend or Foe
- Allow friend to move freely through sectors you own
- Allow friend to access money transfer logs
- Allow friend to access movement logs
- Allow friend to fill out battle results
In previous versions of TKZ automation flagging and pinning were the same thing. These two
concepts are now seperate.
A flag is set whenever there are non-friendly troops in the same destination. The flag simply
means there is a battle there to be fought. Pinning is seperate. A battle flag has an icon which shows where the destinations are
under attack. Whenever there is a pin, there is a flag, but not all flags correspond to a pin. A pin occurs by finding the total
of forces friendly to the owner of the sector (the owner and allies according to Friend or Foe). If there are at least half as many
non-friendly troops, then in addition to the battle flag, this is also a pin. When there is a battle flag, but not a pin, troops
from the larger side can be moved out up to the number which would make it a pin. This is all automatically enforced by the
automation. The automation will not allow you make a mistake on this and will notify you of any mistakes before accepting your
movements. The amount of troops is calculated by the automation using the resource costs of the military items to determine how
much an attack counts towards a pin. If the destination is only flagged and not pinned, it is possible that the destination could
produce military items. In that case, the items are placed as an attack, even if this would place the group over an attack limit.
The same is also true if military items arrive from a winning bid or the open market.
If either side has more than twice the troops of their opponent they can break those extra
troops away as a seperate attack to another destination within jump range as long as they will still have more than twice the
troops of their opponent without those troops. When such an attack is used to overcome a flagged destination and attack a further
target, this is known as an overwhelming attack. While pinning is determined by the ratio of the sector's owner and allies against
others, wether a group can stage an overwhelming attack is calculated on a group by group basis. To determine if a group can make
an overwhelming attack, add the resource value of the team and all their allies from both attack sets and compare it to the
resource value of non-allies for the team from both attack sets. If the total of non-allies is less than half, an overwhelming
attack is possible. If an overwhelming attack is possible, the resource value of the team and allies minus twice the resource value
of foes is the resource value of military items that can be broken off in an overwhelming attack. An overwhelming attack must be
broken off from the most recent attack on a destination. The overwhelming attack can be to any destination within jump range. Of
course, like any attack the range can be even farther if the team uses special movement technologies like skip jumping.
Here is an example to illustrate:
Example:
Clan Stewed Sausage owns an destination and holds it with 50 mechs(giant warrior robots) with a resource
value of 30000 points. The opponent attacked with 30 mechs with a resource value of 10000 points. Clan Stewed Sausage can move
some of their troops off the sector to attack elsewhere as long as they keep 20001 points or more of resource value there. So
Clan Stewed Sausage takes 8 mechs with the resource value of 9900 and attacks somewhere else. Note that the important item to
consider is not the number of items, but their resource value. The resource value varies with the item. This is an issue for all
league which have more than one type of item. Specifics for items and their resource value can be found in the league configuration.
Below is a table with the types of development for a destination and the result a pin has on that destination:
| Commerce |
No profit from investments for the entire sector (other than the use of the black market technology) |
Military Production
(Factories) |
No weapons output for that destination |
| Technology |
No research output for that destination |
Each time a movement is done, there are movement costs that are subtracted from a group's
central bank. Standard movements cost 3% of the resource value of the military items being moved. For special moves it is even
more expensive. Normal moves take 4 hours for the forces to arrive. When you make a move, if there are non-friendly forces
when the troops arrive, the move becomes an attack. You cannot move to a capital destination unless you own 3 destinations
within the same square sector.
For the higher cost for movement, a group can use special attacks if they have the
technology to do so. The special moves cannot be combined, you may only choose one. A quick move lets your forces arrive in
less than 4 hours. This can give you a tactical advantage if time is of the essence. If you need to escape a pin you can try
to use the stealth move. If you want to try to attack a capital directly, you can use a stealth attack to do this. A skip jump
is used to get farther into enemy territory. Movements are critical to your tactics!
Any time a military item is placed anywhere, including being produced on the destination,
bought and shipped to a destination, or arrived from another destination, is considered to be an attack force. The list of
attack forces for a group is the same as the total inventory of a group. Following is a table of attributes for each attack force:
| Group |
This is abbreviation for the group which is in control of the attack force. |
| Deployment Date |
This is the date when the military items were produced or bought and started at that location, or the date an attack force arrived at this location. |
| Schedule Status |
This is either Required, Pending or a Date when a battle is scheduled to take place. The automation will update the status on the scheduling as appropriate. The status for attacks in the active attack set start as Required and when both principals confirm a date, changes to the date of the battle. The status for attacks in the pending attack set is always pending. |
| Total Forces |
This is a complete listing of the type and number of each military item that were present when this attack force was deployed or since the last change of strength from reinforcements or an attack force breaking off into a seperate attack force. |
| Current Forces |
This is a complete listing of the type and number of each military item that are present. Comparing this to the total forces will quickly show combat losses up to this point. |
| Attack Set |
This is which attack set the attack force is part of. This is always either active or pending. |
| Principal Status |
This is for listing if an attack force is a principal whick is vying for ownership of the destination, an auxillary, who is an ally aiding the associated principal attack, or pending for pending attacks. |
| Fallback |
This is a hidden field only viewable by the group in charge of an attack. The fallback position is where the attack force will move to in the case of a retreat, which is always the destination where the attack was placed from. |
The automation handles the entire process of attack sets and principals for you, so while
you are not required to understand the system, it is presented here so that you can understand the process and so when you have
a behavior different than what you expect that you will understand why.
To understand that attack system, you must first understand the roles of principals and
auxillaries. Principals are the main players in a battle and auxillaries are the other teams involved that choose to take one
of the two sides on behalf of one of the two principals. In simple terms, principals are the two guys that start the fight and
auxillaries are anyone else getting involved with the fight. The principal defender is the owner of a destination. The principal
attacker is the first team to attack the owner. Once the principal attacker arrives, there is a 24 hour time limit and at the end
of the time limit, the active attack set is closed and no more teams can get involved in the fight. The one exception to this is
a the mercenary class of teams (if they exist in your league), who can become part of an attack set after it is closed (up to 24
hours before a match is scheduled to be fought). One exception to the time limit is an attack by a raider class of team (if they
exist in your league) which close off the active attack set when they attack.
Any attackers that arrive after the active attack set closes are placed in the pending
attack set. Before the time limit expires and the active attack set closes, the attacks are processed. Any forces friendly to
the principal defender which were already on the destination are processed as the attacks are. If the team placing the attack
is an ally of one of the two principals, they become an auxillary of that alliance. If a team is an ally to both principals OR
is not an ally to either side, the team will be placed in the pending attack set. All these checks are done using the friend or
foe status for each team. Note that anytime an attack is by a team who already has an attack force in the active attack set, the
attacks are combined into a single attack with the deployment date changing to the most recent of those attacks.
Attack sets are a way of organizing battles into groupings. Attack sets are used to make sure
there are always 2 sides in a battle, not several unrelated foes. There are two attack sets. The active attack is attacks that are
grouped to be part of the next upcoming battle. The pending attack set is sort of like a waiting room for the next attacks. The
active attack set is where battles take place and the pending attack set is a place to hold any other attacks until it is their
turn to be placed in the active attack set. Once a battle has taken place, the winning alliance now owns the destination, with the
owner of the destination being the principal defender. Then the first attack (based on datestamp) from the attack set is processed.
If the attack is by a foe of the principal defender, that team becomes the principal attacker. If the attack is by an friend of the
principal defender that team becomes a defensive auxillary. This process continues until someone becomes the principal attacker.
Once that happens, a 24 hour time limit is taken from the time of the attack. If 24 hours has already passed, as for an attack that
has been in the pending attack set for a while, the datestamp is used to determine when the 24 hours expires. This works just like
above. After each battle, the attack sets are re-evaluated again. This is an ongoing process as long as there are attacks and is
handled automatically for you. A re-evaluation may also be forced if teams in the active attack set change diplomacy. This can make
for quite eventful changes in diplomacy.
Whenever there is a change in status, the active attack set is recalculated based on order of
deployment date. This dynamic change happens when a team with attacks in the active attack set changes it's friend or foe settings,
a battle is completed, an attack is fully retreated, or a team with an auxillary attack did not confirm the battle date. Regardless
of deployment date, principal attacks are never bumped to the pending attack set by re-evaluation based on dates.
If re-evaluation of the active attack set results in only one principal, the automation will
begin processing the attacks from the pending attack set. If there are no further attacks in the pending attack set and there is
still only a single principal, then the battle flag is removed and that sector is at peace. However, if a second principal is found
in the pending attack set, the automation will process the pending attacks set. A deadline will be determined for closing the active
set based on taking the newest deployment date of the two principals and adding 24 hours. All attacks within that time limit will
be processed, unless there is an attack which would qualify as a third principal, which also closes the attack set. Note that anytime
the requirement that the auxillaries of a principal only be an ally with one and only one principal are re-assessed at any time there
is a new principal. In a case where an auxillary of one principal turns out to be an ally of the new principal, that auxillary is
bumped to the pending attack set.
In leagues which have a mercanery class, a mercanery team can actual insert themselves in the
active attack set from the pending attack set if they are an ally of one and only one principal and their employer is either that
principal or an auxillary of that principle. A mercenary's ability to join the active attack set overrides the raider ability to
close it.
There are various levels of retreats which have different consequences. If an attack is in the
pending attack set and has filed no results, not even a single skirmish, then the attack can be retreated to the fallback position
with no losses. Normal movement fees apply.
If an attack is in the active attack set and has filed no results, not even a single skirmish,
an attack can be retreated with 25% losses.
If an attack is in the active attack set and has had results filed, even a single skirmish, then
the retreat will have to wait. When such a full retreat is done from the active attack set, the actual retreat will not take place
until the attack set completion is confirmed by the principals in the combat and will be subject to appropriate modifiers.
For an attack that was bumped from the active attack set into the pending attack set after some
results had been filed, even one skirmish, then the attack can be retreated at 25% losses or can wait in the active attack set. This
most often happens when someone changes their friend or foe status after they are already in the active attack set. There are a
number of cheap tactics one can use by doing this, which are sure to make enemies. For instance, an auxillary could turn on their
principal and switch to the other side, or more likely, try to escape by no longer being friends with their principal so they can
get bumped to the pending attack set. People tend to remember those that desert them!
Skirmishing is the alternative to large scale combats. If you give your men permission to,
they can fight part of an attack on their own. Wether you fight the battles in large scale combat or in individual skirmishes or
a combination of the two, it will still calculate the numbers the same for player counts. Player counts has a positive advantage
for retreat losses and salvage in favor of the larger team. This is an incentive to recruit larger team and also compensation to
a larger team in large scale combat for the longer wait for drops.
Scheduling is related to the principal status as well. When scheduling a battle for the active
attack set, only the principal defender and principal attacker are involved in setting up the date in the automation. Any input by
teams with auxillary attacks for a battle date should be done informally. However, it is recommended that principal teams attacks
ask their auxillary of a good time. Principals have a responsibility to pick a battle date as quick as possible. Once the two
principals have set a battle date, the teams with auxillary attacks are prompted to confirm the date. If a team with an auxillary
attack does not confirm the date decided by both principals, that team will be bumped to the pending attack set.
The scheduling interface is made to simplify the difficulty of scheduling a combat as well as a
way to settle disputes on what time a combat is scheduled and help distribute the information. Scheduling also has effects on
tactics. There are a number of guidelines that the automation enforces on scheduling to avoid stalling and to make things run as
smoothly as possible. A team can only make an attack if they have more availabile schedule slots in the next month than unscheduled
battles. To prevent possible loopholes and abuse to bypass this limitation, a team cannot remove availability slots, only move them
within the same month. There are 4 main functions that you can perform:
| Schedule Availability |
Set what times are best for your team to schedule combats on a weekly schedule. This aids teams offering a date in selecting a good time that is more likely to be selected. |
| Offer a date |
Keeping in mind the availability of the other team, and their list of scheduled combats, you set a date you want to schedule a combat and 2 alternate dates. For a very busy team you may have to schedule a month or more in advance. At least one of the dates must be in the availability of the opponent. |
| Accept a date |
choose one of the dates that was offered to you by the other team and accept it. If you do not accept any of the dates, you MUST make a counter with 3 dates of your own. |
| Withdraw a date |
If done more than 24 hours before the time, you MUST make a counter with three new dates of your own. If it is less than 24 hours before then you will automatically be forced to retreat your troops with normal penalties, forfeiting the battle. In all cases of withdrawing a date, each military item of the battle force which withdrawing the date has a 10% chance of being lost as they reposition themselves. |
TKZ leagues are meant to be active. To accomplish this a series of incentives are part of the
system to encourage attacking. There are a number of things that happen when you attack:
- victory points are awarded to the victor towards being the winner of the league. Only Principals and Mercenary classes of teams get victory points. Normal auxillaries get no victory points for the battle.
- a small percentage of salvage monies are awarded. (1/5th of the group's scrap percentage of the resource value of the items)
- If the defender lost at least a minimum amount of troops on the sector in the battle, there is enough information that the victor will learn the least powerful technology that the loser had that the victor does not. If the victor has all the technologies of the loser, nothing is awarded.
- Economy for the victor is stimulated because the new victory points increase the profit for the next month.
- Unfortunately, there is a 25% standard damage done to the sector improvement as a result of the fighting.
Technologies Listed (order taken)
- Robotics (first)
- Mass Marketing
- Defense Spending
- Stealth Detection
- Patents
- Black Market
- Engineering
- Standardized Experiments
- Trade Routes
- Salvage
- Industrialization
- Discount Broker
- Stealth Mode
- Skip Jumping
- Quick Move
- Stealth Attack
- Plagorism
- Scavenge
- Advanced Manufacturing (last)
TKZ leagues are meant to be long term, but there must be a winner at some point. It is the intention
of TKZ that a winner be determined about once a year or so. Much of the design factors are calculated with this in mind.
There are several ways to win, depending on the style of a group and their group leader.
Winning by Diplomacy
If a group does not think they have a chance of winning by force, they can try to win in a
diplomatic matter. To win diplomatically EVERY group in the entire league must list you as a friend. As long as a single group
in the league does not have you listed as a friend you cannot win diplomatically. With any reasonable sized league, it's a great
feat to pull this off. In leagues with a raider class, raider teams are not included, since they are automatically a foe of any group.
Winning by Technology
To win by technological means you must learn EVERY technology. That doesn't mean just level 1,
but all the way to level 4 in every technology. That means you may have to learn technologies which are not even useful to your
team or even ones that are irrelevant in your league to win in this manner.
Winning Through Victory Points
This is winning the old fashioned way, taking your opponents territories by force with a small
influence from your economy. If a team totals 1000 victory points they win the league. As you can see this will take quite some
time and a lot of victories to amass such a total. Following are how to earn victory points:
- adds 5 points for each destination taken from an enemy
- adds additional 5 points if a destination taken is a capital
- subtracts 1 point for each destination taken from you by an enemy
- subtracts additional 3 points if a destination taken from you is a capital
- adds 1 point for each 1,000,000 points of commerce profits at time of ranking
- adds 1 point for each 5,000,000 points of money at time of ranking
In leagues with a Mercanery class, a mercanery team must use the contract system to find an
employer or accept bids from employers. Note that the amount of a contract is predetermined, as described in the description of
mercenaries in leagues where they exist. Other side arrangements are beyond the scope of the automation. Such arrangements can
be covered by money and other types of transfers.