Introduction

What is the Lord of the Rings Fanatics Battle Arena?

The Battle Arena is a realtime Battle Game that any two members of the Lord of the Rings Fanatics Plaza can play. In short it is an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons style game system that uses a member’s Rank, Fanatic Points and Number of Posts to calculate basic Battle characteristics such as Hitpoints, To Hit, Damage and Armour Class. These characteristics can be modified by purchasing items that can be bought with Plaza Credits. The basic objective of the game is to reduce your opponent’s Hitpoint total to 0. The player who manages this first is the winner of a Battle. After a Battle, players’ Hitpoints are restored. In the current Olympic Edition no Credit, Fanatics Points or Items are gained by the Winner nor lost by the Loser

Starting a Battle

How do I start a Battle?

First of all it is pretty essential that you know all rules described in this FAQ before starting your first battle. So make sure to read this entire document before running of and starting a fight! The Battle Arena lets one member fight one other member, in a so-called Battle Arena. There are 10 Arena available for fights and spectators. If all 10 are occupied then you will need to wait for an arena to become vacant before you can reserve it. To battle someone a Battle Arena must be reserved especially for you and your opponent. Before reserving an Arena, you must find someone who wants to do battle with you. Possible opponents can be found in the Battle Arena Forum (or with your friends using Instant Messaging of course). Every fighter can only fight in 1 arena at the same time and only Members with active accounts can use the Arena. Once you have found an opponent, one of you must reserve the actual Arena (note that only one Arena is needed per battle. People can only be in one Arena at a time). Reserving is done by clicking the “Start a new Battle>>” button, and following the on-screen instructions. You will need to enter your opponents Member ID, which can be found in his/her profile Once the Battle Arena has been reserved, both players need to enter the Arena, whereafter the fight can commence. Ongoing Arena reservations are diplayed in the Battle Arena main page. In this list you will see the arena's fighters, the status of the fight and the Enter button that can be used for entering the Arena.

Battle Rules

How does the system basically work?

The actual battle is fought inside a separate window which looks like the screenshot on the right. Click on the image for a full screenshot that will show you all details. The screen is divided in a 3 sections: The two players’ sections (on the left and right), the battle status section (in the middle) and the refresh counter bar at the very bottom of the screen. The 2 player’s section consists of a player’s Battle Statistics (Hitpoints, Armor Class, ToHit, Damage), his food/drink supply, and an icon of his opponent with possible attack targets (only visible for the player whose turn it is). The top of the battle section shows a little flash movie, displaying the last move made, and its result. Below that are the actual results of the last action taken in full details. On the bottom of the Arena is a little counter, which counts backwards from ten to zero seconds. Each time this counter reaches zero, the Arena will refresh. The Fighters basically take turns in making a move. The system will check every 10 seconds if an move has been made by your component thus refreshing the screen. A counter in the bottom left of your screen shows the countdown to the next refresh.

What do the Battle Statistics mean?

Each member has Battle Statistics that are a measure of his/her general battle strength. The statistics of each member can be found in his/her profile. Understanding these characteristics is vital for understanding which items to purchase, judging your enemy's strength and making battle action decisions. In this section we will look in full detail how Battle Statistics are calculated by the System. Rank Level A very important modifier that is used to determine a member's basic battle characteristics is Rank Level. Rank Level is determined as follows: Rank Rank Level Eru 15 Administrators 12 Rulers 10 Kingdom Ranks The number of the Rank so 1-8 New Souls 1 These are the four Battle Characteristics and how they are influenced by a member's Rank Level, Points and Number of Posts. Hitpoints Hitpoints signify your fighters health. When you begin the battle you are in full health having full hitpoints. If you are hit during battle you loose hitpoints and once your hitpoints drop to zero you are dead and you will have lost the battle. Hitpoints are calculated for each fighter using the following formula: Base hitpoints:    4000 Modifiers:    + 1000 for each Rank Level    + Number of Posts / 10 Armor Class Signifies your armour and your resistance to attacks by your opponent. The lower your armor class the more difficult it will be for your opponent to hit you. Base Armor Class:    13 Modifiers:    - 1 for each Rank Level Accuracy Accuracy signifies the chance that you will hit your opponent when you try to hit him. The Accuracy value signifies the roll you would have to make with a 20-sided dice to hit your opponent if his Armor Class would be 0. We know this sounds complicated so this will be explained in more detail later on. Base Accuracy:    19 Modifiers:    - 1 for each Rank Level Damage Damage sifnifies your strength and the number of hitpoints of damage that you would do if you where to hit your opponent. The number in the statistics is your base damage number. The actual base damage that is done will be 25-35x this number. This will be explained in full detail in the next section. If you hit your opponent the damage is subtracted from his hitpoint total. Base Damage:    5 Modifiers:    + 1 for each Rank Level

How are these Stats used in Battle

Now that we know how the basics are calculated we can see how these stats are used in Battle. Hitpoints Determine how much life you still have left. Hitpoints are subtracted everytime your opponent hits you and added everytime you consume a Food Item. Armor Class & Accuracy Accuracy of the Attacker and Armor Class of the Defender determine if an attack hits or not. This is how the system works: The attacker rolls a 20-sided dice thus coming up with a number between 1 and 20. The result of the dice is checked with the attackers Accuracy and the defender's Armor Class. The accuracy is the number that the Attacker must roll with the 20-sided dice to hit an opponent with a 0 Armor Class. The hit or miss is determined as follows: Needed to Hit = Accuracy Attacker - Armor Class Defender If (the result of the 20-sided dice) > (Needed to Hit) then Hit else Miss Thus if an hit is made is determined by Luck (the 20-sided dice) and the statistics of both fighters. Damage The Damage statistic is just a basic number indicating the battle strength of the attacker. When a Hit is made the damage is determined as follows: The attacker rolls a 11-sided dice thus coming up with a number between 1 and 11. The results of the dice is added with 24 thus coming to a number between 25 and 35 The Base Damage done is the Damage Statistic of the Attacker multiplied of the Damage multiplier

What are the Basic Moves that I can make

When it is your turn, you can do one of two things: Try to hit your opponent by clicking on one of the ‘body part buttons’. Depending on chance, your Attack Accuracy (called the ‘ToHit’ attribute), and your opponent’s Defense Strength (called the ‘Armor Class’ attribute), your attack will be either a Miss, or a Hit. If you miss, nothing happens. If you Hit, a number of Hitpoints will be subtracted from your opponent’s Hitpoint total. This number depends on your ‘Damage’ attribute. Eat/Drink some food, by clicking on it, in the Inventory window. This will restore a certain amount of your Hitpoints. In each turn you have to choose one of those actions. You can only take 1 action per turn. After you have done one of these things, your turn ends, and your opponent has the same choice.

The Attack System in full Detail

In the previous sections we have explained how battle statistics are calculates and how they are used in attacks and defends. There are a couple of things that can alter these statistics: Weapons & Items Weapons and items can add bonuses to your Hitpoints, Armor Class, Accuracy and Damage. Items influence your base statistics. How much effect they have can be seen in the Item details in each Kingdom Shop The Target of the Attack You can attack your opponent's different body parts. As you can image a hit on a leg or arm will do less damage than a Head Attack but of course arms and legs are easier to hit then an opponents head. The Target Modifiers are determined as follows: Target Accuracy Modifier Damage Modifier Back - 5 + 50% Head - 3 + 30% Torso 0 0 Arms + 3 - 30% Legs + 5 - 50% Critical Hits Critical Hits when the Attacker throws a very high ToHit dice. Critical Hits always hit the defender independant of his Armor Class and do +50% damage. This is how a critical hit is determined: Rank Critical Hit Eru 19 or 20 Administrators 19 or 20 Rulers 19 or 20 Kingdom Ranks 7-8 19 or 20 Kingdom Ranks 4-6 20 Kingdom Ranks 1-3 No Critical Hits possible New Souls No Critical Hits possible We can imagine that you are a little confused about how this works out in practice. An example might help. Take the following example: An Elven Elder, with 2500 posts made, the Plate Armor of Mirkwood (AC+3), Metal Cap (AC+2) and The Sword of Gondolin (ToHit +4, Damage +120%). Lets do the Basic Math: Rank Level = 5 Hitpoints = 4000 + (5x1000) + (2500/10) = 9250 HP Armor Class = 13 - (5x1) = 8 AC Accuracy = 19 - (5x1) = 14 TH Damage = 5 + (5x1) = 10 DM (250-350 in actual damage) Now let's see how the items influence these stats: Hitpoints = 9250 HP Armor Class = 8 - 3 -2 = 3 AC Accuracy = 14 - 4 = 10 TH Damage = 10 DM + 120% (550-770 in actual damage) Now let's imagine he is in a battle against a Dwarven Elder with an Armor Class 4. He decides to attack the Dwarf's Head: Result from the 20-sided ToHit Dice: 15 No Critical Hit was made so determine hit or miss... Target Modifier for Head -3 so ToHit Dice = 12 Needed to Hit: 14 TH - 4 AC = 10 To Hit Dice > Needed to Hit ---> A Hit has been made Result from Damage Dice: 6 Damage Modifier: 30 Base Damage: 300 Target Modifier for Hear + 30% so Damage = 300 x 1.3 = 390 The Dwarf takes 390 HP Damage Now let's do the Critical Hit scenario: Result from the 20-sided ToHit Dice: 20 Critical Hit so Hit Made Result from Damage Dice: 6 Damage Modifier: 30 Base Damage: 300 Target Modifier for Hear + 30% so Damage = 300 x 1.3 = 390 Critical Hit Modifier +50% so Damage = 390 x 1.5 = 585 The Dwarf takes 585 HP Damage

When is a Battle Over?

The Battle in an Arena is over once one of the fighter's hitpoints are reduced to 0. That fighter is then defeated and the battle is over. Once a final blow is dealt out both fighters will see an overview of the Winner and the Looser and the Arena is cleared.