This documentation applies to version 2.6.5 of the game (November 2007).

Check out the !wordbattle stats!

The skill rating shown in the stats is a measurement of relative success in the game. A rating of 0 indicates an average player, while positive numbers indicate better-than-average players, and negative numbers indicate worse-than-average.

In a series of rounds consisting solely of average players, every player wins at the same frequency. 2 average players will each win 50% of the time. 3 average players will each win 33% of the time, and so on. Your skill rating is a measure of how much better you do compared to these frequencies. If you won more than 50% of the time in 2-player rounds, your skill rating will be positive.

When using the practice mode (!word), only previously-seen words are used. New words are always used for !wordbattle, though. To get more words in the !word mode, battle more!

There are no inflected, conjugated or declined words in the game, but there are derived forms.

You will see words like "love", but never "loves", "loving" or "loved", but you might see "lover" or "lovable".

You will see words like "boat" and "goose", but never "boats" or "geese".

You will see nominalized forms of verbs, such as "building" and "establishment".

Basically, only words that have primary entries in a dictionary will be included.

This is the classic "unscramble the word" IRC game, but with many enhancements. A word is displayed with its letters mixed up. To win, be the first to type the proper order of letters that make up the unknown word. As time goes on, and no one has correctly identified the word, clues are given by the bot. The sooner you guess the word, the more points you get. Points are awarded as follows:

Table 1: Point Values Per Clue

Shorter words are given reduced value. By default, 4-letter words are worth 60% of normal value, 5-letter words 80%, and 6-or-more-letter words are worth the normal amount (as per Table 1).

Two distinct gameplay modes are available: Practice (or warmup), and battle.

In practice mode, anyone in the channel can take a guess, and be awarded if correct.

In battle mode, only players that explicitly join the battle can be awarded for correct guesses. Furthermore, point awards are adjusted by several factors which essentially amount to a handicap for skilled players and a bonus for poorer players.

This system encourages more or less equally-skilled players to battle each other, instead of beat up less-skilled players.

At present, there are two battle modes: "rounds" and "lms" (short for Last Man Standing).

Rounds mode is simply a series of rounds. The winner of the battle is the one with the most wins. In case of a tie, the winner is the one with the most points.

LMS mode has no tangible number of rounds, but instead proceeds until only one player (or team) remains. At the start of battle, players are attributed with some hit points (HP) proportional to their level (5 HP per level at time of writing). When you solve a word, you strike one of your opponents. An immediate solve strikes for 10 HP worth of damage. Solving later does proportionately less damage. When your HP is reduced to 0 or less, you are knocked out of the battle.

Greater damage is inflicted when striking someone who is engaging someone else; see the Targetting section, below.

The target command (!w t) is used to specify your striking priority in LMS battles. For example:

!w t Pistos 10
!w t nvidhive 5

Entering these two commands will make you prioritize striking Pistos instead of nvidhive, in battles where they are available to be struck. Players that are specified are prioritized over those not specified. The game will choose among untargetted players by striking the one deemed to pose you the greatest threat.

You can enter as many targetting commands as you want, and change values by reassigning a new priority to a player, or a new player to the same priority. Any integers are allowed, even negative ones.

In addition to hit points (HP), characters have power points (PP). Every round, all characters in battle gain 1 PP. Characters also gain 1 additional PP for each word solved. Characters may only have a maximum PP equal to their level.

During battle, a player may elect to suffix their guess with a space and an exclamation mark. Example:

transmogrify !

This makes the strike a power strike. If the guess is correct, then the strike is successful. The damage done is increased by 1 for every PP the character currently has charged up, and the character's PP drops back to 0. On a wrong guess, all PP are discharged with no further effect.

Quests are adventures which you can go on, alone, or working with others. Quests can range from a short series of words, to drawn out adventures with narration, decisions and multiple endings of success and failure.

Initiate a quest with the !wordquest command.

(more documentation to come)

All players who participate in a battle are given a Participation Award (5 gold) for every fight, whether or not they win or lose.

The player winning a round gets additional gold in proportion to the points scored (25%). The player winning a battle also gets 10 more gold per battle round.

In the middle of any round, any player (with sufficient funds) may elect to use the buy command ("!w b") to purchase clues ahead of time. The clues are given in private to the purchasing player, whether or not the clue has been given in public yet. The cost of the clue is proportional to the reduction in points (as per Table 1, above).

cost = initial word value - value at time of clue

For example, if the initial point value in the round were 100, then the cost of clue 5 (the last letter) would be 60 gold, because by the time clue 5 would be shown, the value of the word would have degraded to 40 points.

Table 2.1: Clues Available for Purchase

Table 2.2: Items Available for Purchase

(at present, there are no items available yet)

To purchase an item, use the "!w b" command with the item code. For example:

!w b 4

to purchase the first letter clue.

Weapons and armour can be purchased to increase damage done or decrease damage taken. See the store for a list of available items and their prices. If you already own a weapon or armour and you purchase a different one, you are reimbursed half the value of your old piece of equipment.

As with most other games, it is possible to cheat in !word. First infractions will be met with stern warnings, but repeated and deliberate cheating will result in bans, penalties and/or complete deletion. Cheating includes, but is not limited to:

• use of scripts or bots to: automatically give the answer; or give hints; or complete partial answers
• using spellchecking abilities of IRC or IM clients
• use of external dictionaries, thesauri, spell checkers, anagram solvers, or other language tools or helps
• using multiple IRC connections to simulate fake players
• changing one's nick for the purpose of benefitting one nick or another
• assisting or being assisted by other players via the transmission of answers or hints, whether in public or in private
• Using robots (even those whose primary purpose is something else) to act as fake players, or assist a player in gaining an advantage

In short: The purpose of the game is to test and exercise human ability to (1) recognize patterns, (2) consider possibilities, (3) recall vocabulary and (4) type quickly. The use of ANY external means beyond normal human faculties (eyes to see, brain to think, fingers to type) gives an unfair advantage and is cheating.

So please don't cheat. Be fair. Be honourable.

Table 3: Commands

Table 4: Setup Commands

Table 5: !w Commands

Go to the Subversion repository and download these files from any version:

• word2.rb
• word.sql
• word-titles.sql
• word-ar-defs.rb
• spider-words.rb

1. Ensure that ActiveRecord is installed. This can usually be installed simply with

   gem install activerecord

2. Create a Postgresql user and database for the game. For simplicity, call both the user and the database "word".
3. Run word.sql.

   psql -f word.sql -U word word

4. Run word-titles.sql.

   psql -f word-titles.sql -U word word

   Don't worry about any errors shown from the title SQL.

5. Run the word spider.
6. Follow the standard procedure for installing a new Reby script.

This section is designed for ideas and suggestions for improving and expanding the !wordbattle experience. Feel free to suggest new features, modifications to existing ones, extra gameplay elements, statistics to keep track of, etc.

• Fans / Crowd : Enable a "cheer <player>" option that does not include a player in the game, but allows him to cheer on the player of his choice. These crowds are recorded in the player's profile and will count towards his popularity rating. This isn't really useful at the current stages, designed more for when the game gains popularity for fans to show support during tournaments.
• Decay : A champion that does not continue fighting will be quickly forgotten! Over time, all scores slowly decay to the 500 point mark or so. Although this can be one way of determining a former fighter that's simply "had enough," it can also be a spectacular comeback waiting to happen!
• Combo System : Those of us who are familiar with fighting games will easily recognize the word "combo," which is essentially a successful strike that is followed by a succession of unavoidable hits. Since these combination maneuvers are quite reliant on speed and accuracy, the ability to continue a combo is lost if the player does not get the word correct before the third clue or does not get the word correct on the first try. A combo can only be started by a successful guess before a word's definition is given.
• Special (Super) Attacks : The details of these are quite uncertain, so feel free to add your own thoughts. In order for a special attack to succeed, it must be declared and immediately followed up with a correct answer. If successful, a special attack's effects activate the next round. The effects of these special attacks can vary greatly in nature - please feel free to list any suggestions. The use of special attacks will be limited (number of rounds / 3 or so) and may be disabled completely when setting up a !wordbattle. Furthermore, it may be possible that these attacks must be "charged" through victories in normal !word games or simply victories in !wordbattle as well - e.g. you gain 1 special point for each victory, and you spend these on special attacks (which may have different costs for activation). Keep in mind that if a special attack is declared but does not succeed, the special points will still be lost, so they must be used wisely.
• Player Rankings might determine the minimum maximum length of words. If lower ranked players are competing, the words might be 4-6 letters long. If it's the best of the best, then 8+ letter words only.
• Turn-based strategy
• Betting: Ability to bet gold (or other things), where winner takes the pot of items that are bet.