Armageddon
| Spell Attributes | Lists of Simple, Average, Complex, Ultimate & Ancient Spells |
NOTE: PLAYER-CAST ARMAGEDDON CURRENTLY ENABLED ON BETA, LIGHTNING, AND GUILDWAR SERVERS
ON ALL OTHER SERVERS ARMAGEDDON STARTS AUTOMATICALLY IN THE LAST WEEK OF THE GAME ROUND
The Research
Individual-cast version:
- Research follows all other spells
- No increase to spell level
- Casting sequence can be started at any time after research
Guild-casted version:
- You can only learn the spell when you are in a guild and have sufficient power.
- Researching this mother of all spells will not boost your spell level.
The Casting
Guild-casted version:
- The minimum required force starts at 2000 and drops by 30 per day
- After successfully casting Armageddon, it is an enchantment that demands upkeep until the 7th seal is broken.
- the idea is that you pay upkeep for all the days leading to Armageddon (about 6 days if you are the first caster and your guild coordinates breaking next seals well),
- the idea is you don't pay upkeep during the last 24h of Armageddon itself.
- this has never worked properly yet (most guild-armageddon-casters dispell Armageddon after 7th seal was broken)
- Variation: On Guildwar, casters still can receive damaged status, but the percentage required increases with each seal
- Currently on Beta and Lightning, casters can be attacked infinitely until death, with no damaged protection
- Variation: On Guildwar, Armageddon does not have an upkeep
- If players manage to break all seven seals and start Armageddon, all casters are included in a separate HoF list
Server-casted version:
- it comes at an announced day and hour (see portal), 2 or 3 months after the game round started
- it counts down for 7 days. The last of these 7 days is armageddon day.
Guildwar version
-May be ported to other servers in future. (July 29, 2014)
Player castable Armageddon mechanics:
- Mages may break seals of Armageddon by casting the Armageddon spell. Seals must break on intervals of at least 24 hours.
- There are seven seals in total. Each successful cast of the Armageddon spell breaks one seal. When the seventh seal is broken, Armageddon begins.
- A mage can only break a single seal per casting sequence.
- In order to cast Armageddon, a mage must be a member of a sufficiently powerful guild, and be authorized by the guild's leader to do so. Unguilded mages cannot cast at this time.
- Only a single player-controlled Armageddon sequence exists; all mages/guilds break seals in the same sequence.
- The guild that breaks the first seal of any casting sequence is considered to be the "owning" guild of that sequence.
- Members of the owning guild may cast Armageddon again immediately after a seal has broken. The corresponding seal will then break exactly 24 hours after the previous one. This is known as "pre-casting".
- If the owning guild does not pre-cast within 24 hours of the last seal, any qualifying (guilded) mage regardless of guild affiliation may cast Armageddon, causing the next seal to break immediately. This does not change the ownership of the casting sequence.
- If any caster dies before the seventh seal breaks, the casting sequence is aborted and all seals are restored.
- Once the seventh seal breaks and Armageddon begins, it may not be halted in any way.
- If Armageddon is started as a result of player casting, all seven mages that successfully broke seals in that casting sequence will be rewarded with a place in the Hall of Immortals. Caster halls are separate from rank halls, and will be awarded even to casters who die after Armageddon begins.
- Armageddon casters can be attacked by anyone, regardless of relative kingdom size.
- Armageddon casters can receive damage protection ("D"), but it becomes increasingly difficult (+8% damage per seal) as the casting sequence progresses. The increased protection threshold applies equally and immediately to all casters, regardless of which seal they broke. Exception: if a previous caster is already in damage protection at the moment a later seal is broken, that mage will not be affected by the increased threshold until the time at which he is due to leave protection.
- The amount of Volcano Eruptions a mage can be targeted with in a 24 hour period also increases (+1 per seal) as more mages cast Armageddon.
- Pre-casting mages will only be affected by the increased protection thresholds from the time their seal breaks, and not from the time they cast the spell.
- Once Armageddon proper begins, no protection (except apprentice) is available for anyone, caster or not.
- Once cast, Armageddon can neither be cancelled nor dispelled. Serenity, Cancellation, Minor Indulgence, Indulgence from God and Spell Strike will also not affect it. However, Orb of Protection, when used by a caster, will remove the spell and cancel the current casting sequence.
Example:
The Orcs guild is in a strong position, and decides to cast Armageddon to end the set early. After Grok, the leader of Orcs, has set the appropriate permissions in the Guild Manager, he casts Armageddon, immediately breaking the first seal and raising his damage threshold from the normal 30% to 38%. This happens at 21:00 game time. One hour later, at 22:00, Orcs member Wark also casts Armageddon. Nothing happens immediately, but at 21:00 the following day, exactly 24 hours after Grok broke the first seal, Wark's casting breaks the second seal. At the same time both Grok's and Wark's damage threshold is raised to 46%.
Orcs had planned for their member Smak to break the third seal, but he's mysteriously absent, and Orcs fail to pre-cast the third seal. Instead, at 21:02 on the third day, Tippletoes, a member of rival guild Faeries, casts Armageddon and immediately breaks the third seal. As she does so, raising her own damage threshold as well as those of the previous orc casters to 54%, Orcs are faced with a decision of whether to kill Tippletoes and restart the casting sequence, or to let Faeries keep the third seal and continue with their casting. Because Grok is an impatient orc, he decides not to break off the casting sequence, instead seeking out Smak and chastizing him for being late. As a result, Smak immediately proceeds to pre-cast the fourth seal, which he can do because Orcs are still the owning guild for the current casting sequence, despite Faeries breaking the last seal.
At 21:02 on the fourth day, Smak's earlier casting leads to the breaking of the fourth seal, immediately raising the damage threshold of Grok, Tippletoes and himself to 62%. Wark's threshold would have similarly gone up, were it not for the fact that he is in damage protection with 60% damage suffered when the fourth seal breaks, with his status report showing he will come out of D at 02:30. Because of this, the damage threshold does not affect Wark until 02:30, and he avoids being dumped out early, in conflict with what his status report had told him.
At 04:00 on the fifth day, Orcs member Plonk (pre-)casts Armageddon and begins preparing his mage's defenses for the breaking of the fifth seal, due to take place at 21:02 the same day. However, his preparations are in vain since a few hours later, the Treant Hill Mob, who like elves but can't really stand faeries, kill Tippletoes. Because a successful Armageddon casting requires all seven casters to survive until the seventh seal is broken, the death of Tippletoes breaks the spell, restoring all previously broken seals, and dispelling all existing instances of the Armageddon spell. If Orcs wish to get their mages into the caster Hall of Immortals, they will have to start over from the beginning. If there is a new casting sequence, whoever breaks the first seal will be its owner.
Armageddon day
- A lot of players play, all at the same time - at times this makes the server very slow ('lag').
- Anyone can attack anyone. You will take land if you win, even when that mage is below 50% of your power.
- It lasts 24 hours (12 hours on Lightning) - thereafter the set ends, and no players can log onto the server.
- HoF usually automatically updated immediately afterwards.
- Creating a new mage is no longer possible (you get a 0 turn mage, just to watch the ranklist)
- Cage that still were apprentice mages (first 120 turns) are frozen too - they are at 0 turns, no new ones gaining.
Terra Destroyed
For a few days the server is closed to clean it up, update it, and prepare it for a new terra. Thereafter, at an announced time, Terra is open for reincarnation again (for starting a totally new mage, with no memory of the past)