Action Rules

This document is not meant as a game guide but as documentation for the current action game rules.

# Quick Links

* Action Game
* Squads

# Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it sometimes the battles seem very lopsided?

If you are joining through the auto queue system, you will sometimes be sent into a campaign match where the generals and officers have put a lot or very little assault teams on that specific city map.
What is the difference between a Training mission and a Campaign mission?

A training mission yields the same rewards as a campaign mission, however it does not affect the outcome of the overall war. In a training mission, the number and type of assault teams are equal on both sides. In a campaign mission the number and type of assault teams is completely dependent on what the players put there (generals and officers).
Why cant I spawn on a point we own sometimes?

The closest spawn point to the enemy spawn point can become contested. This means that if an enemy player triggers the capture of that point or if one of your teammates dies within proximity of that point, there will be a short time period in which your team cannot spawn on that point. This mechanic is put in place to allow for the attacking or defending team to push to the next point without having an indefinite amount of re-spawning players at the point they are trying to take.
Why is it sometimes I spawn in a different location?

Objective points and access points have secondary spawn locations. An objective point is noted by the star behind it. An access point is the starting point on the supply line. These are points A1, B1, C1, D1, E1 if applicable. When you are attacking or defending up to these points, you can still spawn on them as they are key points, but will be placed at the secondary spawn location if they are being contested. It is often a wise tactic to understand where the secondary spawn locations are on these points to aid your team in taking key points by camping them.
 - Objective Point
 - Access Point
# Game Modes

The game is built with two categories of game-modes. A Player or group of players either participates in a staged battle (Encounter/skirmish/assault) or a war battle.

 War

This means that you can join a training mission which will have the same number of available assault teams for players to join/switch between on both sides making for a more balanced match in terms of AT (assault team) selection. When joining a campaign map mission, you can have varied results. The game can be unbalanced in terms of assault team selection because it is controlled by the generals as part of the RTS portion of the game. This is important to understand when joining matches to understand why sometimes you join games that are balanced, sometimes not. If you see eUS or eGE assault team names when looking at the tab screen, you are in a training mission.

* There is no difference in terms of rewards and experience gain between training and campaign missions.

## Assault Gamemode

The Assault gamemode is used to determine the outcome of a battle for a City. The game mode is broken down into either the defensive team or the assaulting team in which you must protect or capture the primary points (noted by the star icons). The layout between the different maps can vary and the number of objective points which must be captures varies between 2 and 3 currently.

### Layouts

The layouts of the map can vary, but there are 3 basic formats for the primary capture points.

* 2 Primary Objectives Connected
* 3 Primary Objectives Connected
* 2 Primary Objectives Connected between an Access Point

### Victory Conditions

1. Primary objectives
	1. Attackers capture all objective capture points, shown as stars, there can be between 2 and 3 primary objectives.
2. Defense Timer
	1. Defender hold all objective capture points for 30 minutes + attackers capture bonus time. If the assaulting team owns one of the primary objective points the game will continue on until either the assaulting team takes the rest of the primary objective points or the defending team retakes ALL of the primary objective points.
3. Access Points
	1. If the assault team loses all of its access points, meaning the defending team pushes them off the map, the game will end and the defending team will win the match.
4. Assault Teams
	1. Assault teams have limited lives. If those lives run out and there are no additional assault teams to spawn in on, the game will start to remove players from the match on the side that no longer has assault teams. This can eventually lead to one side running out of assault team spawns leading to a victory for the other team due to running out of lives.

### Spawn Rules

* Spawn Delay
	+ Spawn time = Base Delay - Underdog Pool
	+ Base Delay
		- The spawn delay countdown starts from the moment the player died.
		- If the player is spawning in a mobile spawn, such as a Halftrack, there is a delay of 20 seconds.
		- If the player is spawning in the air with a plane, there is a spawn delay of 15 seconds.
		- If the player is spawning at a capture point as a soldier, there is a delay of 10 second plus 0.5 seconds for each link out to his assault teams access point (rounded up).
		- If the player is spawning at a capture point in a tank, there is a delay of 10 second plus 2.5 seconds for each link out to his assault teams access point (rounded up).
		- If the player is spawning at a capture point in all other vehicles, there is a spawn delay of 10 second plus 1.5 seconds for each link out to his assault teams access point (rounded up).
	+ Underdog Pool
		- Whenever a team has fewer player than their opponents they subtract time from their spawn delay.
		- The pool is filled with (0.25 seconds \* underdog ratio) every second
		- When spawning either the amount left in the pool is subtracted from a players delay or the amount the player is missing

### General Spawn Rules

* General spawn rules
	+ In general a player can spawn at any capture point that is connected to their assault teams access point, unless one of the following exceptions is triggered
		- The enemy is capturing the point. If the capture point is an access point or an objective point then they will still be able to spawn at the point. However, they will spawn further away than normal.
		- Something is blocking the spawn point
		- There is no spawn point of the type needed, e.g. Tank spawn
		- If a member of the capture points owner team has been killed during the last 10 seconds and within 80 meters of the capture point. Additionally there needs to be a neighbor capture point owned by the opponent team.

### Mobile Spawn Rules

* Mobile spawn is a type of spawn that enables a member of the assault team to spawn directly in a vehicle already located on the map
* If the assault team does not have a vehicle on the map a player can choose to spawn with one. The amount of active vehicles is unique per assault team
* A vehicle can be lost if it is destroyed, an opponent has entered it, or a member of another assault team has entered it while it was empty
* So in order to be able to spawn directly in an already active vehicle the following must be fulfilled, free seat, not stolen by the enemy and not stolen by a member of another assault team

### Assault Team Spawn Rules

* Infantry, Anti tank Infantry, Recon
	+ These assault teams follow the general spawn rules
* Mech Infantry
	+ Can either use the general spawn rules or mobile spawn rules
	+ For mobile spawn they can atmost have one active halftrack at a time
* Armor, Tank Destroyer
	+ Can only spawn following the mobile spawn rules
	+ They can at most have three active tanks at a time
* Fighter Squadron
	+ Can either spawn on a runway in their plane or in the air, in both cases the general spawn rules apply
* Paratrooper
	+ If they have paratrooper planes they follow the mobile spawn rules, they can have no more than one active paratrooper plane at a time
	+ Their plane can spawn directly in the air
	+ If their paratrooper plane resources are depleted they follow the general spawn rules

### Capture Rules

1. Capture points
	1. It is only possible to capture a point that is connected to a friendly point and unlocked.
	2. Capture points are first captured to neutral and then captured by the capturing side.
	3. The capture to neutral time is 30 seconds.
	4. The capture to team time is 30 seconds.
2. Objective Points
	1. Objective capture follows the capture point rules
	2. The capture to neutral time is 45 seconds
	3. The capture to team time is 45 seconds
3. Access Points
	1. Access point capture follows the capture point rules, except they are captured directly to the captures side
	2. The capture to team time is 90 seconds
	3. Access points are point such as A1, B1, C1, D1, and E1.

### Capture Mechanics

Exploring the mechanics of capturing points, you will find out they are mostly linear. Using the example below here is one scenario.

1. First Captures
	1. Assaulting team Captures point A2 from A1
	2. Assaulting team Captures point B2 from B1
	3. Defending team Captures point A4 from O2
	4. Defending team Captures point B4 from O2
2. Second Captures
	1. Assaulting team Captures point A3 from A2
	2. Defending team Captures point B3 from B4
3. Third Capture
	1. Assaulting team Captures point A4 from A3
	2. Defending team Captures point B2 from B3
4. Fourth Capture
	1. Assaulting team Captures point O2 from A4
	2. All Points along the B line turn neutral and the defending team can no longer spawn on them.

The reason for this mechanic is simple. There are objective points (O1/O2/O3) and access points (A1/B1/C1/D1/E1). If you own the access point and the objective point to a connecting line, it trumps any owned points from the other team. This allows for teams to utilize multiple access points neutral a whole line of capture points between the access point and the objective point.

## Skirmish

The Skirmish gamemode is used whenever two assault teams meet on a road or there is a battle for an access point.

### Victory Conditions

* One side reaches 100
	+ Each side has a slider which moved up with their current points.
	+ If a side has 2 more zones than their opponent than their counter will count double as fast, and so on...
	+ The speed at which it counts is determined by two things, the ratio as explained above, and the total count of contested zones. The more zones that there are the the slower it will count
* Timeout
	+ This case should very rarely be needed, but in the case where a match has run for 3 hours the victory is given to the defenders.
* Out of lives
	+ One side runs out of lives and all players are dead.

### Spawn Rules

* Spawn delay
	+ Follows the same rules as the Assault gamemode
* General spawn rules
	+ A player can in general only spawn at their access point
* Assault Team Spawn Rules
	+ Follows the same rules as the Assault gamemode

### Capture Rules

* Zones
	+ It is possible to capture zones in any order at any time.
	+ Zones are first captured to neutral and then captured by the capturing side
	+ The capture to neutral time is 30 seconds
	+ The capture to team time is 30 seconds
* Access point
	+ Access points can not be captured.

# Special Weapon Rules

## Weapon Mods

* Weapons can be modified to suit players personal tastes using Weapon Modifications
* In the case where a weapon with mods is picked up by another player, the owner of the modified weapon will not have to pay any repair cost for its use.

## Weapon Special Rules

* Mines
	+ At any given point a player can have no more than 3 active mines, if a fourth mine is placed the oldest of his mines will despawn. Mines stay in the game after he disconnects.

## Damage Model

* Vehicles: See http://www.heroesandgenerals.com/community/5578/vehicle-armor-model
* If you hit another player with f.ex a handgun that does 36 damage at close range, the damage will be modified by where you hit the enemy.
	+ Head is 4xDamage (144 in the example, 1-shot kill)
	+ Body is 1xDamage (36 in the example, 3 hits needed to kill)
	+ Legs are 0.8xDamage (28 in the example, 4 hits needed to kill)
	+ Arms are 0.5xDamage (18 in the example, 6 hits needed to kill)

# Combat Badges & Ribbons

* Unlocking and equipping one (or two if you're a Veteran member) Combat\_Badge will give your character specific bonuses.
* Combat badges are unlocked by acquiring ranks in different Combat Ribbons.

# Misc

## Score

* The purpose of a players score in the action game is currently only used to define their place on the scoreboard, which in turn unlocks ribbons
* Score is based on
	+ 5 for every enemy killed
	+ -1 for suicide
	+ -10 for team kill
	+ 5 for a capture point capture, this is however split out among the players who contributed to the capture based on how much they contributed with
	+ 28 for an objective capture, this is however split out among the players who contributed to the capture based on how much they contributed with

## Combat XP

* Combat XP is used to unlock combat ranks for a character
* Combat XP is based on
	+ 0.007 for every second in an action game
	+ 1 for every kill
	+ 2 for every battle
	+ 15 for every armor kill
	+ 40 for every plane kill
	+ -0.1 for every death
	+ 10 for every savior kill
	+ 0.03 for every damage dealt
	+ -10 for every team kill

## Tactical XP

* Tactical XP is used to unlock tactical ranks for a character
	+ Tactical XP is based on
	+ 5 for every capture point capture
	+ 3 for every capture point capture assist
	+ 0.02 for every capture influence
	+ 10 for every kill of an enemy who is capturing
	+ 20 for every resource capture
	+ 0.25 for every resource capture influence
	+ 3 for every battle won

## Earnings

* Currently a player earnings are based on the following
	+ Infantry kills
	+ Armor kills
	+ Plane kills
	+ Captures
	+ Capture points defended
	+ Time played
	+ Win/Defeat
	+ Premium bonus
	+ Bonus for first battle of the day

## All Players Leave

* In the case where a server is empty, either because everyone left or crashed, a timer will count down from 2 minutes and if no one joins before the time runs out the server will shutdown without resolving the battle. Either the strategy game will auto resolve it or players must start it again.