Ballerium
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
|
POSSIBLE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT |
| If you have just labeled this page as a possible copyright infringement, please add the following to the bottom of Wikipedia:Copyright_problems/2006_December_16/Articles * {{subst:article-cv|Ballerium}} from [http://www.ballerium.com/community/thegame/2l_page.php?id=90&ln=en&cat_id=29&main_id=9]. ~~~~ |
 The previous content of this page appears to infringe on the copyright of the text from the source(s) below and is now listed on Wikipedia:Copyright problems: Do not edit this page until an administrator has resolved this issue.
Unless the copyright status of the text on this page is clarified, it will be deleted one week after the time of its listing. |
|
|
|
 |
This article or section reads like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view per Wikipedia policy. Mark blatant advertising for speedy deletion with {{db-spam}}. (help, talk) |
Ballerium is a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) game in development by Majorem. Ballerium had been in beta testing when in November 2004 Majorem suspended funding. Interplay signed on as publisher in December and planned to launch the game in summer 2005. However, with Interplay's descent into insolvency, the date was posponed as of June 2005. Ballerium is a "free 2 play" game with the option to "donate" (when the game releases it'll be called a subscription) to advance your army.
Contents |
[edit] Background
The game is always "on," with players connecting and disconnecting (through the internet) whenever they want. Even while players are offline, the world around them continues to exist and evolve. Also, any players' assets that were in it at the time of disconnection, continue to fight, walk, and produce resources almost as if the player was there.
Realtime-Strategy (or RTS) means that the gameplay resembles that of the well-known RTS Genre, in which each player recruits and commands a number of units, with whom he or she tries to, well, take over the world (or something like that). Such a game usually involves the obtaining, management and allocation of resources, and waging war. RTS games rely on realtime rather than turn-based decision-making.
Ballerium also includes strategy "ingredients" that make the game unique. Possibilities and concepts such as managing the army through commanders, squadron composition planning, and long-term affecting target selection, are among the possibilities that Ballerium offers as a strategy game.
Like most MMORPGs the goal of this game is to survive the chaos and develop your group. This includes raiding and capturing cities as well as defending your own territories. Mines are very important for they give you the necessary resources to improve your hero/group.
[edit] Story
Ballerium is a world with a single sun that frequently changes colour (phases). Seven sentient races inhabit this particular world. Each races favors one colour above all, and have certain advantages when fighting under this colour.
In the year 9900, certain anomalies appeared on the suns surface. With them appeared prophecies of the apocalypse. The Great Assembly decided to reactivate the massive dimensional gates that stood still across the land. Almost immediately, the different factions attempted to seize control of the gates. Panic spread over the world, great armies were raised, and wars raged for years. (Taken from the Ballerium manual). Eventually the wars cooled down, as the populace could no longer finance them on such a massive scale. When peace seemed to be possible, when all the warlords were prepared to put down their weapons, a new threat loomed in the horizon. The gates were, accidentally or on purpose, activated before their time, and they shattered, the pieces dispersed all over the land, from these shards came Shard Rifts, and brought great danger along with them.
[edit] General Concepts
These are the rules and explanations of the world of Ballerium
[edit] Sunpower
Sunpower is required in order to use skills. Like the Life score, the Sunpower score is in fact made up of two numbers – the maximum score, and the current score. When a unit uses a skill, it loses sunpower (the exact amount depends upon the skill used). A unit cannot use a skill the cost for which will make its current sunpower drop below 0. Sunpower regenerates at a rate modified by the current sun phase (just like Life points): during the unit’s preferred sun-phase, the rate is double, while during its least-favored sun (the opposite one), the unit does not regenerate sunpower.
[edit] Avatars
Ballerians have been worshipping Avatars since time immemorial. An Avatar is the spirit of a great, now departed hero, who can guide his or her followers through mental visions, and even manipulate the physical world through the use of Flux, or mystical energy. In ages past, newly formed Avatars (spirits of recently departed heroes) usually merged into existing Avatars, adding their spiritual essence to that of the older, stronger Avatar, creating Great Avatars. However, many Avatars now prefer to try and gather followers on their own, and there are now countless Avatars roaming across Ballerium. As a player in Ballerium, you play such an Avatar, and a band of heroes who follow you.
[edit] Races
Ballerium consists of 7 playable races, each with their own unique personality. The Seven sentient races (also known as "The Seven Children of the Sun") inhabit the world of Ballerium – one for each phase of the sun, and one for the time of darkness. Each race embodies a philosophy, or discipline that is unique from one another.
[edit] Konkrateeka
School: Materialism (Nothing but the physical)
Children of the Yellow sun, the short and stocky Konkrateeka believe that physical matter is the essence of the universe. Thus they reject all notions of spirituality or mysticism, regarding all those who believe there is anything beyond the material to be deluded fools. Always serious, somber some may say, they prefer to follow vocations which reflect this philosophy, and are thus usually concerned with the accumulation and management of Fuzzz (Ballerian currency) – for it represents the interest in the material and practical, the real. They have a tendency to sometimes complain of the hardships of life – and the inevitability of physical existence. In fact, many adopt a rather fatalistic view of life, in exact opposition to the cheerful Ealthai, whom they consider to be extremely annoying – they see them as little more than foolish children, who have not yet learned what is truly important in life.
Konkrateeka Units The Konkrateeka mainly prefer to fight hand-to-hand, even though they aren't well suited as frontline units. They are better used to guard trade routes and for combat-support rolls. Their one ranged unit, Thrower, can be deadly in combination with any good melee units, with the Konkrateeka Soldier unit being able to Soldify any front line units for additional support. Konkrateeka Fuzzifiers can be good for emergency subtitution of a dead caravan unit, as it can immediately turn raw resources into cash.
[edit] Chiki-Kah
School: Polemics (Honor through Conflict)
Children of the Orange sun, the Chiki-Kah are a race of warriors, who above all appreciate prowess in combat. Every Chiki-Kah adult must participate, in the course of his lifetime, in at least two or three battles, for it is the only way in which a person can fulfill himself, according to their belief. They practice mostly with melee weapons, preferring to meet their opponents face-to-face, the more to prove their courage. Loyalty is important to the Chiki-Kah, as is honor, which serves as the measure of any man. Success in combat brings honor, while failure brings dishonor. And for a Chiki-Kah, dishonor is often worse than death. They consider the Nee, their hated enemies, to be untrustworthy.
Chiki-Kah Units The Chiki-Kah are probably the best hand-to-hand combat race. They use swords, maces and whatnot to inflict damage onto their opponents. Their Skills include mostly individual attack buffs. Their strength in combat makes them ideal as frontline units for your army.
[edit] Olligar
School: Industrialism (Build and Improve)
Children of the Red sun, the Olligars are the most common of all Ballerian races. They like, above all, to build - they are hard working and diligent, and serve as the world's leading builders and manufacturers of goods. Their works, though crude and lacking in aesthetic refinement, are strong and durable – their houses, their weapons, their armor – all are of the best quality. Olligars are big and strong, and have long purple snouts, and while a single Olligar tends to be slow and passive, a nest of them, led by a hive queen, can accomplish amazing feats of engineering, and can also defend itself ferociously. They sneer at the Groguans’ obsession with the preservation of nature, and often come to conflict with them over patches of wild country which the Olligars wish to develop.
The Olligar are essential to have in any city related battle. The Builder can keep a city standing, while reinforcements arrive. The Demolisher can raze an unprepared city within minutes. The Olligar can take enormous amounts of punishment, making for a good addition to your frontline units. Olligar miners are the only basic unit capable of utilizing mines for resource mining, and are therefor a must for any economy-run empire.
[edit] Ealthai
School: Enlightment (Spirit Over Matter)
Children of the Purple sun, the Ealthai are a short, slender, gentle folk, who love to explore, play and learn. They believe that spirit is more important than matter, and that mind rules over body. The Ealthai are expert in manipulating and using light – they can create illusions and images with it, and can even harness its power in combat. Always optimistic, they love practical jokes, telling stories and exploring new places. When they speak, it sounds almost as if they are in fact singing, or laughing, or both – their voices are high and rolling, and they like to speak a lot, usually very fast. It is always difficult to tell whether an Ealthai is being serious or not. Of course, the Konkrateeka say that since they never say anything serious anyway, and even if they did, it would be foolish and unimportant.
Ealthai Units The Ealthai are ranged, support type units. They come with powerful offensive, defensive and scouting skills. The Ealthai are an indispensable component to any serious army.
[edit] Nee
School: Politics (Expansion through Compromise)
Children of the Blue sun, the Nee are natural-born leaders. Thought their bodies are not particularly fitted for combat, the Nee are excellent warriors, owing among other things, to their ability to strike from a distant with deadly accuracy, and more importantly to their ability to influence (the Chiki-Kah would say manipulate) others into following them. Experts in understanding the motivations of others, and knowing how to use that understanding, some say a Nee could talk anyone into doing anything. They easily become leaders, and know when and how to "pull the strings." They consider the Chiki-Kah to be brutish warmongers.
Nee Units The Nee are mainly ranged combat units with very effective group-support and enemy demoralize skills. Their melee unit, Intimidator, is extremely effective in player vs player skirmishes and the Encourager has the ability to heal large numbers of your troops.
[edit] Groguan
School: Environmentalism (All Things are One and the Same - Nature)
Children of the Green sun, the Groguans like to think of themselves as being one with nature. They believe that all races should live in harmony with the nature around them, and that plant and animal life should be respected, sometimes even worshipped. That is why they have developed a dislike of the Olligars - the Olligars build all the time, changing and manipulating nature. They see the Olligars with their zeal for industry as defilers of the land, and themselves as its defenders – nature's champions. The Groguans believe that all things are linked to each other, and that together these links create nature, which is everything.
Groguan Units The Groguans have mainly hand-to-hand combat units. Their skills range from the defensive supporting healing and reinvigoration, to the offensive Storm, raining over an enemy unit, damanging and slowing it down.
[edit] Kablaz
School: Existentialism (Secrets of Life and Death)
Children of the darkness, the Kablaz are the most ancient of the Ballerian races. They are different than the others, as they are older and wiser, and enjoy a much greater lifespan. During their ages of development, the Kablaz have discovered many of the secrets of life and death, which they call "Existence." They consider the other races to be too young to understand these secrets, and so do not share them with anyone else.
Consequently, they would rarely be found to join other armies, but would in most cases stay almost uninvolved.
Kablaz units know how to suck and transfer life, and have access to other skills as well.
[edit] Various Animals
Throughout the Ballerium field there are various animals roaming around. This includes a beast of burden that is assigned to your group
[edit] Structures
There are multiple structures in Ballerium. Many of them are vital to your survival.
[edit] Town Hall
The point of interaction between the player and the city, forms the city core. A city always has a Town Hall, and a Town Hall cannot be destroyed. The town hall is where one can take control over the city, having enough points controlled in the city itself. As a patron of a city a player can receive taxation from the city according to its population, as well as view the city’s statistics like all other players.
[edit] Control Points
Control Points are strategic locales within a city, and are used for taking control over a city, in order to become its patron Avatar.
In order to take control of a city, you need to control at least three control points yourself, and have a subtotal of at least five points between you and your allies. In order to take a control point, you need to bring a follower or hero unit within a short distance of it, and then right-click it.
A counter will then start, letting you know how much time is left before the point becomes “yours” - if the unit trying to take control strays too far from the point, or is killed before the timer reaches 0, the counter is reset and the takecontrol attempt fails, so make sure you wait long enough before giving the unit involved another command! (a common mistake, for example, is to have a unit under the command of another unit try to take control, and then give the commander another order while being in “group command” mode – this will result in the commander's entire group performing whatever it was the commander was ordered to do, and will override the unit's original order of taking control).
When you try to take over a control point you are actually declaring hostilities on: 1. the city; 2. the player who controls the point (if it is not the city); 3. the city's current patron, and all his or her other cities. Now, taking into consideration that cities are usually well-defended, with powerful guard towers and militia, and that players controlling cities are usually strong and experienced players, novice players should be weary of trying to take over cities!
[edit] Marketplace
A city keeps a stock of tradeable resources in the marketplace, where other players can trade with it resources mined or elsewhere found. Only a trader unit (Dolom or Nubis) can trade with the marketplace. Prices can differ between the cities based on the supply, demand, and city population.
[edit] Residential
The number of residential buildings in a city is proportional to its population. When a residential building is destroyed, it means that some of the citizens of the city are also killed. The city will try to reconstruct residential buildings if it has enough resources for doing so.
[edit] Parnasium
This is where players recruit new units. To buy a new unit, the player needs to bring one of his fighting units to the Parnasium. Units' prices change according to availibility in the city and in general.
[edit] Academium
This is where Heroes can learn new skills, assuming they have any available glory points.
Heroes can learn all kinds of abilities, although naturally Race-oriented skills could preform better based on the units' stats.
[edit] Sanctuaries
Throughout the world of Ballerium, you will find sanctuaries. These are vaulted caves, where Ballerians can use specially prepared potions in order to hibernate. These were used in ancient times for mystical experiences, but are now used as shelters from the never-ending wars. You can insert units into a sanctuary by telling to go into it (right clicking on the sanctuary with the unit selected), and later take it out by selecting it in the Sanctuary expanded view, and clicking the "exit" button. Your units are safe while inside a sanctuary, however they do not heal whenever inside.
[edit] Mines
Mines are the general name given in Ballerium to all resource spots utilized by players to produce goods.
Ballerium's land is rich with resources such as Metallix (used for weapons), Constrix (Used for construction), Food (Well, you know what that's for) etc. In order to extract those resources, one should build a mine using an olligar miner, then put in some Doloms to collect the goods. Later those goods can be sold in the cities and used for producing weapons and special units, as well as for strengthening the city itself.
[edit] Shard Rifts
Shard rifts are places out of which monsters (animals) come into Ballerium.
The first rifts were opened after the failed attempt to build a gate to another world, and ever since they keep being created. The only solution to the rift problem is destroying it completely, a process not easily preformed by a single militia, and that which only serves as a temporal solution, until the next one pops out.
