Chapter 7 - Exploration and Movement 

7.1 Time Keeping | 7.2 Terrain |7.3 The Wilderness  | 7.4 The Sea | 7.5 Locations | 7.6 Exploration | 7.7 Dungeons, Lairs and Towers | 7.8 Weather

---

7.1 Time Keeping

The entire game is based on the Storm World calendar. It is 400 days long, and has 10 months of 5 weeks (8 days each). Each turn consists of exactly one month worth of actions, so your realm character(s) have exactly 40 days of work to do. Most actions either are 0-time (meaning they do not take a full day to complete) or they last a number of days depending upon your turn submission (such as the HUNT, FISH, FORAGE and GATHER actions). Others are either fixed (RESEARCH takes exactly 4 days every time) or have some random element (like moving up and down a dungeon level). The random time commitment actions are very few so that you can attempt to synchronize your orders.

Actions which carry past the end of the turn are continued the next month, so it is not critical that you complete all submitted actions within one game turn.

7.2 Terrain

Storm World has a variety of terrain to traverse. Each has different qualities and resources and have different movement modifiers. Grassland and plains are the most common types of terrain, and the easiest to travel across (1 day per terrain square). Forests and hills are also abundant, though harder to navigate through (movement cost is 2 days per terrain square). Swamps and marshes offer similar movement penalties. Mountains and Glaciers are the most difficult terrain to cross, requiring 3 days per terrain square.

Terrain also has an effect on some orders. Foraging and Gathering have different results depending upon the terrain. For example, when Gathering in a forest terrain square, you will likely collect a number of Timber[T1200], however, your chances of finding Coal[T3000] are non-existent. However, when in a dungeon, those chances are reveresed.

7.3 The Wilderness

The "wilderness" is a term used to designate all terrain not inside of a city or stronghold, nor at sea, nor in a dungeon. In other words, all grassland, plains, hills, mountains, forests, swamps, marshes, glaciers, tundra and wasteland is a part of the "wilderness".

7.4 The Sea

The waters around Storm World come in four forms. Rivers flow through the inland areas and can be navigated by a boat. River terrain can also be crossed on foot. Out at sea, the water is based on depth. From inland going outward, there is Shallow Water, Deep Water and Ocean.

You are required to have a boat to navigate over these water terrain squares (although if you are flying, you can cross Shallow Water). Also, you need the correct boat to travel over these waters as well. Small boats can cross only Shallow Water. Medium-size boats can cross Shallow and Deep Water, while only the large boats can cross Ocean.

Note that boats can occupy any terrain square which borders the open sea. This way, you can navigate a boat to a terrain square and "dock" the boat by using the EXIT:ALL action. You may return to this location on foot later to ENTER the boat and cast off. Note that Mountain terrain squares cannot be used to dock a boat.

7.5 Locations

On the map, there are a number of different types of locations to visit. Cities, dungeons, lairs, ruins and other special locations exist all across the map. To enter any of these, you simply need to be in the correct terrain square, and issue the ENTER action. When entering a location from the wilderness, it always takes one day to perform that action.

Note that some locations may have locations within (called sub-locations). For example, every city or town has shops inside which sell various items. You can enter these sub-locations using the ENTER action, but entering them takes 0-time.

However, entering sub-locations from within a dungeon or tower takes a variable amount of time (see section 7.7 below).

The leave a location, you issue an EXIT action. EXIT always moves you closer to the wilderness, no matter what location you are in. So if you are in a dungeon, you are effectively attempting to climb one level up. If in a tower, you are climbing one level down. The EXIT action can be done in one of three ways...

[EXIT:ONE] This is the default, and it exits you from the location only one level. So, if you are in a shop that is within a city, you exit to the city itself. If in a dungeon, you exit to the next level up from the dungeon. This may exit the dungeon entirely if you are at the first level. If in a city, it exists you from the city.

[EXIT:TOP] This action exits you all levels up the the last level prior to exiting to the wilderness. For example, if in a shop within a city, it only exists you one level, returning you to the city. If in the city already, this action has no effect since any EXIT would bring you to the wilderness. If in a dungeon, it returns you to the first level. This order is especially useful in sewers, as it returns you all of the way out of a sewer to the city, but does not bring you out to the wilderness. It is recommended that when navigating through various city sub-locations, that EXIT:TOP be used so that if an error occurs where you cannot enter a sub-location, then you issue EXIT:TOP, then you will not exit the city accidentally.

[EXIT:ALL] This action exits you from whatever location you are currently in to the wilderness. It exists you all of the way out of a dungeon or city (even if in a sub-location or the sewer).

In cities or towns, there may be several sublocations to visit. To make the job easier, you may use theENTER_ALL action. When submitted, the game engine automatically breaks this down into seperate ENTER, EXPLORE, EXIT:TOP actions. It is optional whether you wish to explore as well as enter. This allows you to quickly "refresh" the list of citizens you converse with.

7.6 Exploration

A large part of this game is exploration of locations. It is important to use the EXPLORE action in every spot you can to determine what information can be found there. There are several locations to explore: (1) Cities and Towns; (2) Dungeons; (3) Special Locations; (4) The Wilderness; (5) The Sea.

The time required to EXPLORE a given location is different depending on the location in questions. All wilderness and sea terrain squares take 1 day to explore. Most special locations and inner city locations (such as shops or homes) take 1 day as well. Cities take 8 days to explore, while towns only require 4 days. (Note that Three Rivers[C000] and Brendis Ban[C0900] are the only cities on the main continent, while the other 8 locations are all towns.) Dungeons require a variable amount of time (see section 7.7 below for more information on dungeons.

Note that once a location is explored, it will only take 1 day to explore it again from then on. For example, if you EXPLORE Three Rivers, it takes 8 days. However, it is then in your exploration history, so any time you EXPLORE it again, it only takes 1 day (the city cannot change much between EXPLORE actions).

7.7 Dungeons, Lairs and Towers

Dungeons and Towers are somewhat special in that they have several levels. A "Dungeon" is any location which has several levels, including all dungeons in the game, sewers and towers (towers actually are above ground structures with several levels up, but they are treated as dungeons for movement purposes). For these locations, you can use the EXPLORE_ALL action. EXPLORE_ALL actually is a series of EXPLORE and LEVELDOWN actions which continue until you can no longer continue (typically indiciating the bottom of the dungeon or the top of the tower).

The first opportunity to adventure through a dungeon comes in the form of the Three Rivers sewer system (location [G0000]).

7.8 Weather

Weather plays an important part of the campaign of Storm World. Much of Storm World is made up of rain forest and wetlands. Because of the wild unpredictability of the weather, storms occur often. On any given day, a terrain square may experience one of the following weather effects: