2.1 Joining the Game | 2.2 Objectives | 2.3 Game Interface | 2.4 Turn Processing | 2.5 Error Handling | 2.6 Bug Reporting

2.1 Joining the Game

If you are interested in joining the Storm World Campaign, it is a very simple process. On almost all web pages, the left border of the page will have a navigation menu and a link to create a new member account. All members can participate in the Campaign of Scandiaca, including Basic members (free, but certain restrictions apply in-game). A link to the new membership page can be reached here.

If you are already a Gemynd Online member (or once you become one), you can login using the navigation form on the left (click the submit button). Once you login, your navigation bar on the left should now show the text "If you would like to participate in the Campaign of Scandiaca CLICK HERE". By clicking the link, you are brought to the new Dominion Signup Page.

From here, you enter in a unique dominion name and a unique name for your initial Realm Character. For dominion names, remember to keep it in line with a title for a guild or organization (such as the "Free Trade League" or "Black Knights"). Your dominion name will be associated to all of your realm characters and creations. Click the submit button to continue.

From this realm character creation page, select your initial Realm Character's gender (male or female) and species (Human, Brun, Dwarf, Elf or Lizardman). You also select the allocation of your initial three attribute points (which are discussed in Chapter 3.4 of the online reference manual). Click the submit button when finished.

On the navigation bar - when logged in - you will see a link to your Dominion Home Page. If you click that link, you should be brought to that home page, and a list of information about your dominion should be displayed. You will also see links to individual realm characters you have so that you can get to their realm character turn submission/retrieval page. By clicking on that link and using the turn submission form, you will be submitting actions for your realm character for the upcoming turn (which equates to one month - 40 days in Scandiaca - of game time).

2.2 Objectives

Although most games have specific objectives which should be accomplished, the Storm World Campaign has no such requirements. In fact, this game was created to allow you to pursue any number of adventuring options in this campaign setting. The skills and abilities of your realm character(s) can be tailored for any objective you wish.

Outside of generic objectives such as gaining fame, fortune and power (which can be done in so many ways), you can choose to follow a life of dungeon exploration, lair hunting, creature killing, merchant activity, exploration, various forms of craft pursuits (such as weaponsmithing, jewelry or even entertainment), and many more.

For Premier members (who can control multiple realm characters within their dominion), you get the luxury of pursuing different career paths with different realm characters.

To facilitate so many adventuring options, the game is setup in a way that rewards many types of activities. To advance your character's abilities, your RC gains Campaign Points (CPs) for various actions which are loosely divided into gold production, combat, exploration and discovery, and general adventure. All actions your character performs falls into one of those categories, and all of them combine to produce CPs for your realm character to use to increase their Attribute scores (discussed in Chapter 3.4).

Having a high set of attribute scores increase your effectiveness in various tasks, namely skill use. Also, a high reputation (see Chapter 3.6) and a favorable amount of either Fame or Infamy (Chapter 3.7), depending on which road you choose, is also beneficial toward interactions with Independent Realm Characters (IRCs - realm characters which are controlled by the game and not by a player).
Increasing your gold allows you to purchase more beneficial armaments and other equipment as well. It also allows you more luxurious lifestyle.

2.3 Game Interface

The game is played entirely from the website itself (www.storm-world.com). The game is setup this way because it was meant to be played from anywhere you have an internet connection.

The website is intended to look good when viewed through either Microsoft's Internet Explorer v6.0+ or Mozilla's Firefox v2.0+ (since it is viewable in Firefox, it should be viewable in any other browser - Netscape, Safari, Opera, etc.). The site utilizes JavaScript for player interaction and avoids ActiveX controls. There are no pop-up advertising windows anywhere in this site, however, there are a few links which - when clicked - open up a new small window used for player input. You may wish to exclude www.storm-world.com and www.gemynd.com from your block list to allow those windows to open (I do not recommend doing this unless you experience problems though). The recommended display setting for your PC is a 1024x768 resolution using 16-bit color.

This site does use a non-persistent cookie to track the player for security reasons (through the use of a session object), but no personal information is stored, and the cookie expires when you close your browser. Please make sure your browser accepts cookies.

When you view your realm character's turn, you are also viewing your turn order page. For ease of use, the turn reports are on the same page as the form for submitting your turns. The top of the page shows you your realm characters basic statistics (health, magic, intent, etc.). Under that is your equipment list, then your vitals reports. Under that is the turn submission form, and then the event log from the previous turn.

To send in a turn, use the drop-down boxes on the left to choose either an action, a movement, other order, or a mystical action (if the realm character has mystical abilities). To submit it, click on the appropriate button ("Add Action" for an action order). If the order you select requires a parameter, then a message box will appear asking for the appropriate information. On the right hand side, a textbox will "store" your orders in an Order Queue. The format for the order queue may be strange-looking for new players, but experienced players will recognize the format eventually.

If you make a mistake, you can click on the "Clear Orders" button and clear out the entire order queue. Note that this would force you to enter all actions again. It may be simpler to delete the items individually (see below!).

The order queue stores information that is used for the game engine. For example, if you submit an EXPLORE order and click "Add Action", you will see the order queue add "[EXPLORE] " into the textbox. As you add orders, you will see them added to the order queue, surrounded by brackets. For example, an order queue may show an order string such as the following...

[INTENT:PASSIVE] [EXPLORE] [PURCHASE:C0001|X1000|1] [PLYTRADE:10]

Note that each individual action is surrounded by brackets "[]". If the action requires one or more parameters, then the action is separated from the parameters by a colon (":") and each parameter is separated by the pipe symbol ("|"). For example, the second action, [EXPLORE] requires no parameters, it is performed from the location you are in when the action is started. The first order "[INTENT:PASSIVE]" does require a parameter, and in this case the parameter "PASSIVE" is following the colon. Notice the PURCHASE action. It has three parameters, "CURRENT", "X1000" and "1" These are separated by a pipe symbol. If more parameters were needed, more pipe symbols would separate those parameters.

Once the game engine finishes the [INTENT:PASSIVE] order (which may or may not advance the game day), the next order in the queue is performed "[EXPLORE]". The game engine continues this process for all 40 days of the game month. Any actions not performed are stored in the order queue for next time (you can edit them between turns though). If an action is a zero-time order, meaning it takes less then one day to perform, then the realm character performs that action and then when it is his/her turn again later that day, the next order is used. During this time, actions from all other realm characters may be processing, executing, or completing. All events happen simultaneously in Storm World!

Please note the following! The order queue is nothing more then a textbox, and as such, can be modified by the players directly. In other words, you can simply type in the textbox provided for your turn orders. This can seriously mess up your turns if you do not know what you're doing! The order queue has very specific formatting and can cause havoc on your turns if it is messed with. Do not edit the order queue if you do not know what you are doing! Please use only the dropdown boxes provided to the left of the order queue.

So, why do we allow you access to the order queue if it could be potentially dangerous? Of course, we could simply restrict data change from the user; however, there are reasons why we do not wish to do this. Simply put, it is for ease of use for experienced gamers. For example, let us say that the above orders were queued for a realm character for the month. If the player decides that they did not want to change his/her INTENT, they would have to click the "Clear Orders" button and start over again.

However, if we allowed you to manually correct the change directly (in this case by deleting the order altogether) then you would not have to start over. Take care when doing this! All orders must begin with an open bracket ("[") and end with a closing bracket ("]"), even if it is the last order given. The amount of "white-space" (tabs, spaces or carriage returns) is ignored between the ending of one action and the beginning of the next. However, within the brackets, white-space is taken literally. If in doubt, do not manually correct your order.

NOTE! The order queue is case insensitive! In other words, [INTENT:PASSIVE] is equivalent to [intent:passive] and even [IntEnT:PaSsiVe]. The game engine immediately converts the entire order queue into a uniform uppercase format. This is why the online manual displays all entries into the order queue as uppercase.

2.4 Turn Processing

Once the turn deadline is reached, all orders are then processed by the game engine. It is important to know what actually happens when turn orders are processed, as it affects your game results. The most important aspects of the game are action time, and realm character precedence.

All actions in the game are measured in terms of how long it takes them to complete. Actions could take several days, or even weeks, or they could take no time at all. You should always be aware of how long your actions will take. Certain actions take a variable amount of time, and can be difficult to gauge.
For a realm character, his/her list of actions from the action queue is processed individually. The best way to describe this is by taking you through an example.

Kessler, a realm character belonging to the dominion "Red Legion", has the following actions queued...

[INTENT:PASSIVE] [EXPLORE] [PURCHASE:C0001|X1000|1] [PLYTRADE:10]

The first order "[INTENT:PASSIVE]" (set INTENT to "passive") is processed on the 1st day of the month once it is his turn. This is a "zero-time" action, so the game will not advance the date. Once the action is processed, the next action will be placed in line for processing. The realm character must wait until it is his turn again before the next action is performed though. Any number of other realm characters may be processing actions during this time as well. When it is Kessler's time to go again, it then processes the action "[EXPLORE]" (Explore the current location). Since Kessler is currently in location C0000, the city of Three Rivers, this action takes one full week (8 days) to complete. The game engine processes 1 day of this action and then advances the date. Kessler's day is done, but other realm characters may still be performing actions.

Since Kessler cannot do anything else while performing an action, then game engine will skip over the action queue through the next several days, processing each day of the current action through the time required. Once all 8 days have been processed, the game engine picks up where it left off, at action "[PURCHASE:C0001|X1000|1]". This action makes Kessler purchase 1 item, X1000 (a dagger) from his current location (presumably, a weapon shop), another action which requires 0 days to complete. Therefore, the action is immediately processed without changing the date. Note that between each action the game skips to the next realm character. Even zero-time actions switches to the next realm character. However, before the day changes, your realm character will get through all actions for the current day.

The next issue is with realm character precedence. All actions are governed by the time required to complete them, however, it is also important to know the order of processing between realm characters. For example, if two realm characters issue the same action from the same location on the same day, who executes their action first? After each day of processing, realm characters are randomly "seeded". This governs who goes first on the following day.

If your actions issued for a given month are more then 40 days in total time, then the last action being processed is carried over - all other actions are queued for the following month, and will be displayed in the order queue next turn.

For example, if your actions process and it turns out that your EXPLORE action started on day 37 (and would process for 8 days), then the monthly processing completes in mid-action. In other words, you get 4 days processed on the EXPLORE action (days 37, 38, 39 and 40), and then the remaining 4 days gets processed right away the next month (days 1, 2, 3 and 4). The action "interrupted" by the end of the month is carried over to the next month and processing continues. Any other action which was queued after the interrupted action is retained in the action queue. You are free to alter them or let them stand when you send in your next turn.

To give another example, if you queue 12 actions in a month, and only the first 8 complete, leaving the 9th action halfway done, then the remaining actions are carried over to the next month (with the 9th action still to be completed).

Note that actions which prompt for a duration (such as HUNT, FISH, FORAGE, PLYTRADE, etc.) automatically end at the end of the game month. So, if you execute HUNT for 20 days starting on day 31, then only 10 days are processed (31 - 40) and the action discontinues. It is assumed that if you really wanted to continue the action, you could submit that action again the next turn.

2.5 Error Handling

The online forms allow the game engine to limit errors create by the users, however, it does not eliminate them. Take care when entering actions manually (in other words - by not using the dropdown boxes and command buttons), as the errors created become more frequent.

Some actions which are not available to you are not displayed. This will help to eliminate some problems about trying to perform tasks which cannot be done. However, user input is required for many actions, so make sure you are careful about how they are entered.

If a nonsensical action or parameter is issued and it is not captured by the forms, then the game engine will throw the action out altogether and continue processing with the next action. Most of the error handling of the game is performed by the game engine, not the online form (there is only so much programming which you can do with HTML), so you may not even know that you submitted an improper action until you get the results.

To help reduce errors while inputting turns, the turn submission form displays the text you just submitted. Please look through those actions and verify it is really formatted correctly.

It should be said that the game engine is not perfect either. As with any large, complex program, it is subject to errors in programming when processing turns. Everything has been play tested in an effort to weed out all potential problems; however, users have an uncanny knack of finding problems which were not quite recreated by the play testers and some game features cannot be tested against all scenarios.

In the event that a problem does arise during processing, the user can simply email the realm administrator (campaign@gemynd.com) and every effort will be made to correct the problem. Most small errors can be simply corrected or compensated, but large errors which could affect multiple players may require re-processing of turns (which is used only as a last resort).

We will attempt to correct all problems immediately, in hopes of never recreating the same problem again. Since the game is always going to be added new features, the possibility of errors may come and go with each change. The game creator is only human (unfortunately), so we ask that you please be patient and understanding when errors occur.

2.6 Bug Reporting

Bugs are an annoyance, and if they are picked up quickly and corrected, then it helps the game as a whole. Because of this, I would like to offer rewards for bugs found in the game. Depending on the severity of the bug, and the number of bugs discovered, the rewards can be nice.

Minor Bug: This includes typos, reporting issues and small errors which do not cause large interferences with the game. It may be something which is so specific that it requires the right circumstanbces. Rewards for minor bugs usually include small amounts of gold or items.

Moderate Bug: This includes something which affects gameplay in a notable way. For example, anything that affects timing of orders or something that negates effects of items or powers falls into this category. It usually warrants an item of some value, perhaps a nice temporary magical item.

Severe Bug: This is a bug that makes the game cease to work properly. It causes the disruption of an entire turn perhaps, and is rewarded with a nice item or selection of items.

Note that bugs encountered for advance or new features are usually lowered due to the relative small scope of those affected (unless its a new feature which affects all people). Likewise, bugs which cause "loop-holes" in the game are especially valuable, as closing those bugs maintain game balance.

Thanks for anything you can contribute to make the game better!