Rules of War

The basics

Avatarverse is a player-run server at its core, and rules of war are necessary to avoid excessive harm to any nation or players. Here are the basics of our war system.

Battlefields

Each nation in war suggests one battlefield for each of their provinces to serve as locations for battles. If the Roleplay Council considers a battlefield suggestion a realistic battle location—meaning it is a plausible (not necessarily fair) location for a battle in the Avatar world—the battlefield is approved and can be used as the key to its surrounding territory, meaning if a battle is won at that battlefield, the victor will occupy the province.

The best battlefield nominations are often fortified buildings such as forts, castles, citadels, etc. Because the owning nation nominates the battlefield, they have the opportunity to choose the most strategically defensible locations in their country. However, open plains or natural fortifications aren’t necessarily poor nominations; it’s all about what strategy works for you.

The path of war

Wars are fought in battles and are turn-based. One side of the war is either on the offensive or defensive, depending on who won the previous battle. If no formal battles have been fought, the nation who declared war is on the offensive. For the rest of this document, the nation(s) on the offensive is/are called “the attacker,” and the nation(s) on the defensive is/are called “the defender.”

The side that wins the previous battle becomes the attacker and gains the privilege of proposing the next battlefield if they wish. If, three days after the previous battle (or the declaration of war if no battles have been fought), the attacker does not attempt to schedule another battle, they forfeit the offensive, and the other side becomes the attacker.

A battle cannot be scheduled on the same day (24-hour period) as the previous battle or declaration of war.

Each side of the war has a war leader, a nation that serves as the leader of its side. Only the war leader can propose times and battlefields for battles; any other nations involved in the war (allies, etc.) should be consulted for these negotiations but cannot make proposals. The nation that initially declared the war is the war leader, and the nation on whom they declared war is the other side’s war leader.

Preparing for battle

The attacker proposes to the Roleplay Council a time and province to invade for the battle. The province must be in some way accessible to the nation on the offensive, meaning the province is either along the coast (for an invasion by sea) or adjacent to the attacker’s current holdings (including official and occupied territory).

The Roleplay Council decides if the battle proposal satisfies the above criteria; if it does, the battle is approved. Then, the RPC facilitates a negotiation between the attacker(s) and defender(s) to decide the time of the battle. If one side fails to propose any time that works for them within three days of the beginning of negotiations, or neither side can reach a compromise, the RPC should collectively choose a time.

Once the battle has been scheduled, all that’s left is to actually fight the battle. See the “Battle mechanics” section for information on how battles work.

Formal and informal battles

When two nations are in a state of war, it’s common for their soldiers or even civilians to come to blows spontaneously. This type of battle is not discouraged, and it can have strategic purposes. However, the only battles that result in the acquisition of territory are those fought at a designated battlefield, following the aforementioned battle preparation process. These are called formal battles, and any other type of battle or skirmish can be called informal battles.

Informal battles do not follow the same rules as formal battles; they actually have no specific rules other than the Avatarverse server rules. For this reason, anyone who is knocked out can simply get back up and continue fighting. With the handcuffing/shackling feature, they could still be in danger of being dragged into a jail, stripped of all possessions, or even murdered.

Informal battles can occur between anyone at any time, except for people who are currently engaged in a formal battle; those individuals are obligated to follow the rules of formal battles.

One example of a strategic informal battle is preventing the attacker nation from getting to a formal battlefield on time. The attacker will need to land in enemy territory prior to the scheduled battle, and the defender may defend their coast or borders by fighting back against the attacker’s disembarkation or border crossing. The battle will open for participants at the time it is scheduled, and it will start five minutes afterwards, so anyone who hasn’t entered the battle (which requires them to be on the battle site) by the time it starts will not be able to participate in the battle. So the attackers will have to approach the battle site and enter the battle, and the defenders will have to fend them off so they can’t get close enough to the battle site. One way for the attacker to prevent this is to land their military close to the battle site long before the scheduled battle, and the defender’s counter to this would be to watch for this preemptive invasion and alert the military to repel them. A preemptive invasion would work best when the attacker is very well-coordinated because the defender will not know when you’ll attack and therefore their counter-force will be smaller than when the formal battle is scheduled, giving the attacker the advantage.

Battle mechanics

Battles are fought with soldiers. The quantity and quality of a nation’s soldiers are important factors into who wins battles, but so are the tactics, cohesiveness, and morale of a nation’s military.

Victory conditions

To achieve victory, one side must satisfy one of the victory conditions:

  1. The opposing side’s participants amounts to 0.
    • If all participants on one side are knocked out/killed/removed from battle, that side loses.
  2. The battle has continued for 30 minutes, and the opposing side has fewer participants.
    • If neither side is wiped out after 30 minutes, the side that has the most participants at this time wins.
  3. The battle has continued for 30 minutes, and the two sides have equal participants, but one side wins the sudden death match.
    • If neither side is wiped out after 30 minutes, and the two sides have equal participants at this time, the next side to lose a participant loses the battle.

Objective

The objective is to knock out as many enemy participants as you can in order to completely wipe out their force.

The battle command

The /battle command is used to regulate battles. At a battle’s scheduled time, a staff member goes to the center of the battlefield site and opens the battle, starting a 5-minute countdown until the battle officially begins, in which time each side’s participants should enter the battle queue with /battle join. If they are close enough to the center of the battlefield (within a radius of 50 blocks) and have no illegal items (see "Rules and nuance" no. 2) in their inventory, they will be allowed into the queue.

During the queue and throughout the battle, picking up and otherwise obtaining illegal items will be impossible. If you leave the server while in the queue, you will be removed from the queue, so if you rejoin you will need to use the join command again. Leaving the battlefield during the queue or battle will also remove you as a participant. If you want to manually remove yourself from the queue or battle, you can do /battle leave.

Once the countdown is over, the battle begins automatically, and each participant will be messaged. Non-participants won’t be able to attack you or be attacked by you, so if you’re attacking someone but they’re not taking damage, they aren’t a participant. It is forbidden for non-participants to try to obstruct the battle, and staff will try to prevent this. If you get knocked out, you will be placed into spectator mode but won’t be able to leave the battlefield area.

The command /battle will give you updated data on how many participants each side has; this command can be run from the moment you join a battle up until the end of the battle.

Fallen in battle

If you get knocked out in battle, you are extremely susceptible to being killed. For the next 60 seconds, any other participant in the battle (even your own teammates) will be able to punch your body and choose whether to land the final blow or spare you in a menu that opens. If they choose to land the final blow, your character is killed. If they choose to spare you, you remain lying there, and it doesn't mean someone else won't choose to kill you. If you leave the game while in this state, your character is killed automatically. The good news is that after 30 seconds, you will be able to use /battle leave to find your way to safety. If you don't take this option for whatever reason, you will remain in danger of being killed until the 60 seconds are up; after that, you will be removed from the battle automatically and regain consciousness.

Declaring a winner

The opposing parties may settle their differences with a peace treaty at any moment and come to their own agreements, but a forced victory is declared upon seizure of the final territory. Under a forced victory, the victorious nation can be granted a single demand within reason. The demand must fall into one of the following categories:

  • The relinquishment of a certain amount of the defeated nation’s territories as determined by the following formula
    • The victorious nation has 100 points they are able to use up. Each province costs 12 points as a base, plus 10 points for each settlement the province contains. The victorious nation can annex as many provinces as they wish until they can no longer afford to annex provinces. The annexed provinces must also be adjacent to the victorious nation, other annexed provinces, or the ocean.
  • The execution, demotion, stripping of titles/positions, and/or banishment of up to 3 individuals in the defeated nation
  • The revision or abolition of a single law or regulation, or set of laws or regulations if the set as a whole is a problem for the victors
    • If laws are written poorly or redundantly, multiple laws can be revised or abolished if they fall under a similar umbrella. These cases will be subject to the review of the Roleplay Council.

Declaring war

The only way to declare war on a nation is to do so when they are not at war. Upon declaring war, it does not matter whether or not the opposing leader is active or accepts. A battle may be requested as soon as 24 hours after the war declaration. After requesting a battle and declaring a battlefield to attack, an unrelated and nonpartisan RPC member will declare the date and time of the battle after discussing preferable times with both sides.

Rules and nuance

  1. Rebel groups declaring war on a nation are exempt from most of the mechanics that attacking nations are beholden to. If a rebel group loses the first battle, they lose the war and may have each of their characters banished.
  2. In battles, a player’s inventory must be entirely empty with the exception of food provisions, bending materials, and a dyed leather helmet signifying your allegiance. A completely empty inventory and empty helmet slot are valid.
  3. The use of glitches, exploits, or otherwise breaking any of these rules during battle results in an automatic loss. Leaders are responsible for each of their soldiers’ education of the rules.