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Everything About AtD

Level 18
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
1,612
Contents:

I.About the Game
II. Doom
III. Influences
IV. Game Systems
V. Heroes
VI. Shops
VII. Quests
VIII. Game Modes
IX. Items


I. About the Game: Against the Darkness is a Hunter vs. Hunted Survival game. A Player may choose to be part of a team of Death Hunters or play alone as the Death Knight. The primary goal of the hunters is to defeat the Death Knight before he is able to reign Doom upon Azeroth. This can only be achieved by working together to quest, creep, and limit the knight's opportunities until the team is strong enough to destroy him. The Death Knight need only survive until the Nether Portal is secured and Doom is completed to win the game. However, his survival can only be guaranteed with a swift eradication of those who have been sent to stop him.

II. Doom Doom will initiate at the end of the 23 minutes standard game time if the Death Knight is still alive and has not yet killed all of the Death Hunters. This phase of the game provides the Death Knight several regiments of Necrofiends led by Nether Demons. Each regiment is strategically spread throughout the map, allowing the Death Knight to cordon off specific areas to trap and finally defeat the Hunters once and for all. Although this will give the Death Knight a heavy advantage, it does not guarantee victory.

Doom is a challenge that can be overcome by a strong group of allied Death Hunters. Hunters that have leveled sufficiently and collected powerful items to aid them in battle will find this to be true. If the Death Knight outlasts the additional 7 minutes of Doom or defeats all of the Death Hunters, that Player wins the game. At any time in the game the Death Knight is killed or if the Nether Portal is destroyed, the entire force of Death Hunters wins the game.

III. Influences The game is influenced by several styles of maps, one being the RPG. There are a few areas of the map where your Hero must be a certain level to enter. These areas have higher level creeps that drop better treasures and give more expensive bounties but in turn are very powerful. One of these areas is the Forest of Deception which requires your hero to be at least level 4 and another is the Sunchief's Camp which includes the heaviest creep camp in the game. You must be level 7 or higher to enter here, but the reward beyond this Razormane creep camp is far beyond worth the risk of getting there. These level-specific areas are intended to serve as bonus area that still present a challenge to experienced players.

AtD also draws influence from the Hunter vs. Hunted genre, including maps like Vampirism and Island Defense. Whereas the "Vampire" or the "Titan" are the ultimate evil force in these two types of maps, the Death Knight is the antagonist that players battle in Against the Darkness. He is very powerful and can withstand prolonged attacks from ill-equipped or low-level Death Hunters. The Death Hunters are a team devoted to stopping this ultimate evil Hero from his destiny. The Hunters have been dispatched to a small village to prevent the Death Knight from opening a demonic portal and will do so at any cost, even if it means sacrificing themselves to ensure their victory.

IV. Game Systems Introduced in Version 2.67 is a Spectator System that allows for players who's Hero has been defeated in Death Match mode to continue to watch the rest of the game. The system does not allow the Observer to type, but does allow them to scroll through living Heroes by pressing the right arrow key. This system was designed to provide a way for defeated Players to be able to view the game without cheating through whispers or chat messages while waiting for a remake.

Respawn System: If you are killed by Neutral Hostile creeps any time before Doom arrives, you will respawn at 3/4 health after a 30 second wait. This applies for both the Death Knight and Death Hunters. If you die to your opposing team, however, you are dead for the entire game.

Creep Respawning: An older system that has been around for a while in Against the Darkness is a creep respawn system, which respawns creeps across the map at pre-determined time intervals. This system is 100% leakless and lagless, efficiently redistributing creeps into the game without causing any disruptions to the gameplay.

V. Heroes At the beginning of the game, the Death Hunters are able to choose from 8 Heroes, while the Death Knight is, by default, given to the Death Knight. The Death Hunter Heroes include an Architect, Nature Mage, Frozen Archer, Scientist, Medicine Doctor, Battle Mage, Hunter, and Warden Sorceress each having their own set of specific abilities and traits. The maximum level for Heroes in the game is level 13, and only the Death Knight has 2 Ultimate Abilities. Each Player controls one (1) Hero for the entire game, but is also able to buy mercenaries and Architects can even train units to fight for them. If the Player's Hero is killed outside of the 8 minute respawn time window, or by the opposing team, the game is over for them and they are only able to stay and watch the rest of the game. Death Hunter Heroes and Death Knight Heroes.

VI. Shops There are various shops for the Death Hunters in different locations around the map, one being the Dragon Merchant in the swamps, and another is the Totem of Riches which also regenerates mana. A Mercenary Chapel can be found in the middle of the town center which can be used by both sides, and also gives off a healing aura. The Death Knight's shop is the Obelisk of the Damned at the top left of the town center, and is invisible to all but the Death Knight. There are also two other shops located in other positions in the map that can be used by both sides as well--the Deceiver Shop of Goods and the Merchant Ship of Treasures (Ultimate and Elite items only.)

VII. Quests There are a few quests to be found in Against the Darkness. Each is unique and challenging in its own way, requiring a different set of skills to complete. Quests can be discovered by walking up to NPC units with exclamation units over their head. Upon completion, each Quest will reward the Player with experience and gold. These rewards may often by very advantageous to the Player, particularly in tightly contested games when little creeps remain available. Go talk to the Elder Farseer or Ancient Mariner to get started!

VIII. Game Modes In Version 2.5, Against the Darkness branched out and implemented two new types of game modes, All Random (AR) and Death Match (DM), on top of the already popular Players Choose Heroes (PCH) mode. In All Random mode, the gameplay is exactly the same as in PCH spare the fact that Death Hunters will not get to choose their Heroes but instead will be randomly assigned them. Death Match mode on the other hand is not quite as simple.

In DM mode the Death Hunters have been called to the village to hunt the Death Knight, only to find out that the call was a fake. The Hunters soon suspect that one of them must have been behind the false alarm. No one can be trusted. Death Hunters have to fight in a Free For All battle against one another for 27 minutes of game play, being able to choose to have either a 12 minute or Full-Game respawn time for dying to another Death Hunter. At the end of the 27 minutes game time, the Death Hunters are all transported into a Battle Arena where they must fight each other to the death. There can be only one victor.

IX. Items Click the "Items" link to be redirected to the Complete Against the Darkness Item List.
 
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