Help

Note: you are recommended to also see the FAQ and the Forums - in particular the Tips forum.

Overview

Army of Earth is a team strategy game. There may be between 2 and 6 teams and up to several hundred players.
The goal of the game is to defeat the other teams by destroying their bases. They in turn will be trying to destroy your base, so you must also defend and develop your own base. When your team is defeated, all other teams score points, and you are assigned to another team. The game ends when one team remains.
It features drop-in/drop-out gameplay. You can join any server or configure and host your own. Note that during the early stage of Beta testing you will only be able to play in official servers hosted by Fundictive.
Your base is made up of a number of buildings of different types. You are provided with a few buildings at the start of the game and may subsequently build at any location. However, undefended buildings "out in the open" are likely to be quickly destroyed by opposing teams.
Buildings, players, explosions, damage, and HUD objects in the game are all colored according to team color.

Players

The player representation is shown in the accompanying image.

On the left side you can see the turret.

The green band in the middle is the health indicator. Here the player is at 100% health. At low health the band appears black. Player health points is server configurable.

This player presently belongs to the Orange team, but was originally on the Purple team, as indicated by the top part of the avatar.

This player is named CodeMonkey and is presently ranked 93 out of all ranked players worldwide.

Buildings

The buildings presently available are listed here. The numbering matches the image below. You can see similar information ingame when using the Build dialog (click the "Build" button).

Cannon - a defensive weapon that fires projectiles at nearby enemy players.
Laser - a defensive weapon that destroys nearby enemy projectiles.
Power Plant - provides power to other buildings. Without power, buildings do not function. All buildings have a moving component, so you can see which buildings are not powered. Note that buildings also do not function when severely damaged.
Repairer - repairs nearby damaged buildings and players. Buildings are repaired as first priority. Note that the Repairer can repair itself, as long as it is powered. Note also that on some Servers, Repairers will not repair humans; this is a server setting.
Radar - provides radar coverage for a fixed radius. To reveal the entire map you would need several radar buildings. It is important to have at least one radar because you can click on the radar display for convenient movement.
Respawner - players always respawn at the nearest functioning Respawner (for their team). If there is no Respawner, the player will respawn at a random location on the map, and will also lose any Credits - so it is important to always have at least one functioning Respawner.
Mine - harvests metals from the earth and provides Credits, which are distributed among your team. Generally you should build Mines on the golden patches of ground, which are richest in the important metals. Note that Mining is a server setting, and may be disabled on any particular server.
Teleporter - teleports player to a random map location. Enter the teleporter to be teleported.
Summoner - calls a Bot to the Summoner location. Use Summoners to promote an assault on an enemy base, or to support construction of an outpost. Summoners are indestructible digital constructs and are generally only visible to your team. They self-destruct after a period of inactivity. Note that the Summoner is the only building that may be constructed during War of Attrition.

The green band in the vertical center of each building is a health indicator. When this is totally black, the building is destroyed. Note that you may heal your team's buildings by shooting at them.

Buildings may be placed in any clear area. There is a global limit (server-configurable) on the number of buildings that can be created. The Build dialog shows this limit and the current global building tally. When the building limit is reached, a War of Attrition is automatically invoked (see below).

Controls

Left mouse button - set a movement destination for the location indicated by the crosshairs. A vertical white cylinder marks the destination point.
Right mouse button - fire a projectile at the location indicated by the crosshairs.
Spacebar - stop moving.
A/D - look left/right. You can also use the left/right arrow keys. Alternatively, you can look left or right by moving the crosshairs to the far left or right edge of the screen.
C - toggle camera view. A "Sky Camera" is provided in addition to the first-person camera.
Enter - bring up an editbox for sending text to all players. Press Enter again to send the message.
Shift - bring up an editbox for sending text to your team only. Press Enter to send the message.
P - bring up an editbox for sending text to one particular designated player. Press Enter to send the message.
Tab - switch to the next player list format. You can display basic or detailed lists of all human players, or of just the players on your team. You can also hide the player list completely.
F5 - take a full screenshot.
F6 - take a screenshot of just the 3D scene; do not include the GUI and 2D elements.

The most important screen button is "Build" which allows you to build any building that you can afford. It is built as near as possible to your present player location. You can also use the B key to bring up or dismiss the Build dialog.

Screenshots

The screenshots taken with the F5 and F6 function keys are in BMP format and are saved into a screenshots subdirectory of the Application Data directory where Army of Earth is installed.

For XP this is normally: C:\Documents and Settings\yourusername\Application Data\Army of Earth\screenshots
For Vista this is normally: C:\Users\yourusername\AppData\Roaming\Army of Earth\screenshots

A console command is provided for opening this location; press F3 to bring up the console, and type screenshots as the command. Press F3 again to hide the console.

When taking a screenshot, you'll see a pause and then hear a beep if the screenshot was successfully taken.

HUD

The ingame HUD (Heads Up Display) comprises the following elements. The numbering matches the image below.

Menu buttons - Buttons: described below.
Chat / announcements area - Chat messages and minor announcements show here.
Points - Your current points in this game. In ranked games, points affect your Rating and Rank. You may also see "Session Points" shown below this, which is simply all the points you have earned in the current play session (i.e. since you started up the game).
Time remaining - The time remaining in the game. Note that most games end naturally with a victorious team before the time limit runs out.
Credits - Your money, which you can use to purchase buildings, or transfer to other players on your team.
Performance indicator - Shows your framerate, the framerate of the server (sfps), and the ping to that server (in ms).
Team and player count - Shows how many teams remain, and how many players are present, including Bots.
Defeated teams - A tombstone symbol shows for each team that has been defeated. The number on the tombstone shows the position achieved. For example, in a 6-team game the first team defeated is numbered "6".
Score indicator - A pie-chart showing the relative base strengths of the remaining teams. Base strength is computed as the sum of credits spent on a teams remaining buildings. The score indicator is sorted clockwise on base strength. Note that you can hover the cursor over a team's slice to see the list of players on that team.
Power indicator - This shows your team's current power supply (the colored bar) and demand (the white outline). When supply is insufficient (i.e. supply is less than demand), the indicator will flash and one or more team buildings will not be functional.
Health indicator - Your player's health. When your health reaches zero, you die and are queued for respawn.
Shots remaining - Your ammunition supply auto-regenerates over time. It is best to conserve your shots! Note that left-clicking to move also costs a shot.
Music indicator - The status of the live radio feed. You may configure music in the options dialog.
Major announcements - Important announcements are shown mid-screen; such as when a team is defeated.
Radar - This shows whenever you have at least one powered radar building. You can click anywhere on the radar to set a movement destination. Note that human teammates (as opposed to Bot teammates) blink on the radar indicator.

Please note that HUD elements such as the health indicator, power indicator, Points value and Credits value are all colored according to your current team color. Look at these elements if you are unsure which team you are on.

The Player List shows below the Score Indicator. It is not shown in this image. Press the Tab key to step through the different Player List views.

Army of Earth - HUD elements

The menu buttons at the top left of the screen are:

Quit - Quit back to the lobby area.
Minimize - Minimize the game to the taskbar. This also disables audio.
Settings - Access the settings (i.e. options).
Help - Shows a single screen summarizing objectives and controls, as well as a button linking to this help page. You can also access this screen with the F1 function key.
Change Team - Only visible with the "Free-Team" mode (see below). During Intermission, this brings up a dialog allowing you to select the team you wish to play on.
Transfer - Use this to transfer credits to your teammates. This can help your team win!
Build - Build one of the buildings described earlier. The build screen also displays an image of each building and summarizes its purpose (when you hover over the corresponding button). You can also bring up the build dialog by pressing the "b" key.

Economy

Near the top right of the screen you can see how many Credits you have. You can use these to purchase buildings (click the "Build" button) or transfer to other players (click the "Transfer" button).
Whenever a team is defeated, that team's credits are distributed among the players on the remaining teams.
You also receive credits periodically from your team's Mine buildings.
You will sometimes receive donations from Bots, if they have Credits to spare.
If you respawn and your team does not have a functioning Respawner building, you will lose all your credits.

Damage

Building and player health are indicated by a green band in the vertical center of the building / player. Bright green indicates full health; black indicates zero health.
Construct Repairer buildings to repair your team's damaged buildings and players. Note that the ability of Repairers to repair players is a Server setting, and may be disabled.
Note that buildings do not function when severely damaged.
If you fire your weapon at a team member or team building, it will heal rather than damage.

Team Defeat

When the last building owned by your team is destroyed, your team is defeated. All your team's Credits are reassigned to the other teams, and all players score points; your team scores negative points. You are then randomly reassigned to one of the remaining teams. Consequently, you remain active throughout the entire game, and you can still score points by helping your new team to defeat the remaining teams.
The top part of each player's avatar shows his original team color.

Teaming Modes

Several teaming modes are supported:

Auto-Team - This is the standard teaming mode. Players are teamed randomly, but with numeric balancing. New players are generally assigned to either the smallest team, or to the weakest team if all teams are the same size. However, players are never assigned to a team that is in critical condition (i.e. very likely to be soon defeated).
Free-Team - This mode gives players the option to change to the team of their choice, during Intermission (the interval between games). With Free-Teaming, players are only ever re-assigned when their team is defeated. Free-Teaming allows participating players to determine the exact team assignments. Use the "Change Team" button during Intermission.
Co-op - This teaming mode places all human players onto the same team. If the human team is defeated, all humans are assigned to a different team. This mode is suitable for players who prefer co-operative play. It is also suitable for new players who are not ready to play competitively against experienced players.
Co-op Extreme - This is a more challenging co-op team mode, in which all the non-human teams are allied against the human team.

War of Attrition

When no teams are defeated for a certain amount of time, the game is considered to be in stalemate, and War of Attrition is declared. This simply means that no further buildings may be created, with the exception of the Summoner. This will tend to quickly resolve the stalemate.
War of Attrition is also declared if the building limit is reached.
War of Attrition deactivates when a team is defeated.
A countdown timer shows before War of Attrition commences.
War of Attrition is server-configurable; it may be customized or even disabled.

Points

Your points are shown near the top left of the screen.
You score points only when a team (base) is destroyed. If your team is defeated, you will be randomly reassigned to another team, so you will always be active, and will always be motivated to fight for the team you are playing on (because you still have the opportunity to score points, by destroying the remaining teams).
Players who started out on the undefeated team - the last team standing - will consequently score the most points.
Scoring is scaled to the number of players present, and to the skill levels of the participating players (via Elo-based calculations).
Human players affect scoring much more than Bots; your best opportunity for ranking up is to play with many human players.

Rating and Rank

Games can be ranked or unranked. This is a server setting.
At the end of each ranked game, Points are reported for each player and added to your Rating value. Player ranks are recalculated once a day, based on your current Rating.
Points are reported for all players who participated in a game; leaving a game early because it is not going well will only hurt your Rating and Rank. It is always best to do your best and play the game to completion. It is also considered unsportsmanlike to abandon a game without good reason.
Rank is displayed in several places: on the player lists, in text messaging, and in the 3D view when a player is in view and nearby. Ratings are shown only on the leaderboard.
The lower the number, the better the Rank. Rank #1 is World Rank Leader.

Music

Army of Earth plays live music streamed from the Internet via SHOUTcast, Icecast or http streaming. You can enter your own preference for the music source in the Audio Settings dialog. You can also set the music and master volumes on this dialog.

How to Win

Army of Earth is a team strategy game. Teams that work together will usually defeat those that do not. You will need to coordinate and communicate strategy and resources among your team members.
High Rank is only earned by winning many more games than you lose. Therefore the best strategy is to listen to and learn from players who outrank you. This will provide you with the best opportunity to improve your own rank.
Personal glory is reflected only by Rank, and Rank depends purely on your team's performance.
Team assignments are (generally) random. It is up to you to become a good player and to lead your team to victory.
During Beta we plan to add support for Clans.
When the leading team is very large, smaller teams are recommended to verbally ally against the strong team.
Remember: Rank well, learn to lead, and Army of Earth will find you.

Child Safety

The Army of Earth installer allows you to install the game with some restrictions that you may find suitable for younger players:

No ability to send or receive chat messages.
Live Internet music is disabled.
Links to the forums are removed.

Army of Earth is installed separately on separate Windows user accounts. Hence, you can install the game for another player on a separate Windows user account on the same computer.