Difference between revisions of "Category:Games"

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=== Hunger Bar ===
 
=== Hunger Bar ===
 
[[Image:HUD_Hunger.jpg|right]]
 
[[Image:HUD_Hunger.jpg|right]]
The hunger bar is a thin orange bar under the health bar that represents how much food you have in your belly.  Eating [[:Category:Food|Food]] is important, as it fills up your hunger bar.  When you have food in your hunger bar, it will slowly heal you when you're hurt.  Healing with food is the slowest -- but '''MOST''' efficient way to heal in the game.  As long as you're not starving, one of the other benefits of having food available is that you have a chance to reduce the time that a DoT will affect you.  But if you ever begin to run out of food, you'll start to starve.  In the past you used to slowly die from hunger, but now there are three categories of being hungry.
+
The hunger bar is a thin orange bar under the health bar that represents how much food you have in your belly.  Eating [[:Category:Food|Food]] is important, as it fills up your hunger bar.  When you have food in your hunger bar, it will slowly convert food to health if you're ever hurt.  It also decays at a much slower rate if you're not hurt.  You must not be flagged for combat, and you must not be running to heal naturally.  Healing with food is the slowest -- but '''MOST''' efficient way to heal in the game.  As long as you're not starving, one of the other benefits of having food available is that you have a chance to reduce the time that a DoT will affect you.  But if you ever begin to run out of food, you'll start to starve.  In the past you used to slowly die from hunger, but now there are three categories of being hungry.  None of them are lethal.
  
 
====Hungry====
 
====Hungry====
Line 47: Line 47:
  
 
=== Built-in Limiters and Automatic Rules ===
 
=== Built-in Limiters and Automatic Rules ===
We have a Pre-HUD script and height check. Hard script limits are in place to help you with region crossings while wearing the HUD. A lot of people don't know that the more scripts you wear, the more taxing a region crossing is for your avatar. Since most of this game consists of running across the 10+ regions of our estate, a smooth region crossing is super important. The limits for scripts are 150 scripts and 2.5mb. [http://www.the-wastelands.org/2014_Public/Find_Your_Lag.png You can find out what script heavy items you have here.]  Our height limit for avatars is 1.32 meters or about 4 feet 3 inches.  For some aspects of the game, extremely short avatars had a very unfair advantage, and that is why the limit is in place now. It's not because we hate child avatars; we have some regular child avatars on the estate.  Like all other limiters, it's there for the sake of game balance.
+
We have a Pre-HUD script and height check. Hard script limits are in place to help you with region crossings while wearing the HUD. A lot of people don't know that the more scripts you wear, the more taxing a region crossing is for your avatar. Since most of this game consists of running across the 10+ regions of our estate, a smooth region crossing is super important. The limits for scripts are just 75. [http://www.the-wastelands.org/2014_Public/Find_Your_Lag.png You can find out what script heavy items you have here.]  Our height limit for avatars is 1.32 meters or about 4 feet 3 inches.  For some aspects of the game, extremely short avatars had a very unfair advantage, and that is why the limit is in place now. It's not because we hate child avatars; we have some regular child avatars on the estate.  Like all other limiters, it's there for the sake of game balance.
  
 
To keep the game fair the HUD keeps track of certain rules and automatically applies limitations or penalties. Certain interactions, including combat, will cause your HUD's hovering text to become red. When your HUD's hovertext is red, is it NOT safe to remove your HUD without an automatic game suspension. When you're suspended, you'll just have to wait until the suspension is over before you can play the game again.
 
To keep the game fair the HUD keeps track of certain rules and automatically applies limitations or penalties. Certain interactions, including combat, will cause your HUD's hovering text to become red. When your HUD's hovertext is red, is it NOT safe to remove your HUD without an automatic game suspension. When you're suspended, you'll just have to wait until the suspension is over before you can play the game again.
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Secondly, there's the run limiter. If you exceed the normal run pace in SL, you're probably using a movement assist or teleporter -- both of which are strictly forbidden in our games. The run limiter helps to keep your avatar's speed in check, but if you consistently go faster than it allows, it will disable your HUD.
 
Secondly, there's the run limiter. If you exceed the normal run pace in SL, you're probably using a movement assist or teleporter -- both of which are strictly forbidden in our games. The run limiter helps to keep your avatar's speed in check, but if you consistently go faster than it allows, it will disable your HUD.
  
Thirdly, there's a teleportation limiter. Certain game interactions, such as dying or entering Aeg's Cave, have game scripted teleports, and the HUD handles these just fine. Personal teleports including double click teleports aren't allowed. If you teleport, your hud will be DETACHED from you, not just disabled.
+
Thirdly, there's a teleportation limiter. Certain game interactions, such as dying or entering Aeg's Cave, have game scripted teleports, and the HUD handles these just fine. Personal teleports including double click teleports, or sitting on objects far away (sit-teleporting) aren't allowed. If you teleport, your HUD will be DETACHED from you, not just disabled.
  
 
Finally, there's the fly limiter. Flying while playing the game is also strictly forbidden, and if you fly your HUD will be disabled. I should mention that sometimes if you're in Build mode and you right click something, it'll cause you to fly. It's a strange SL quirk that can't be accounted for through scripts, so try not to enter Build mode in your SL client while wearing the HUD.
 
Finally, there's the fly limiter. Flying while playing the game is also strictly forbidden, and if you fly your HUD will be disabled. I should mention that sometimes if you're in Build mode and you right click something, it'll cause you to fly. It's a strange SL quirk that can't be accounted for through scripts, so try not to enter Build mode in your SL client while wearing the HUD.
Line 67: Line 67:
 
== Role Play Helpers ==
 
== Role Play Helpers ==
 
Even though role play isn't mandatory while wearing the HUD, we've built in a few immersive features to make things more interesting and help keep everyone on the same page. You can get a general idea about the weather and time by looking at the big block on the right side of the HUD. Any time you equip a HUD or click it, it'll spit out a short blurb about the time and current weather conditions. What started out as just a novel idea has caused many regulars to "dress up" for the weather that day. There are plans to incorporate weather into more game stuff when SL has more features, and when there's time to work on it.
 
Even though role play isn't mandatory while wearing the HUD, we've built in a few immersive features to make things more interesting and help keep everyone on the same page. You can get a general idea about the weather and time by looking at the big block on the right side of the HUD. Any time you equip a HUD or click it, it'll spit out a short blurb about the time and current weather conditions. What started out as just a novel idea has caused many regulars to "dress up" for the weather that day. There are plans to incorporate weather into more game stuff when SL has more features, and when there's time to work on it.
 +
 +
=== In/Out of Character ===
 +
A line of text appears under your health % text.  This indicates whether or nor you're "In Character" or "Out of Character".  As mentioned in the [[:Category:Role_Play|role play]] section of our wiki, the way you show that you're "In Character" is to enable a group tag with the word "Ruin't" in it.  This little bit of text is just an extra reminder to show your current status.
  
 
=== Role Play Time and Temperature ===
 
=== Role Play Time and Temperature ===
Line 75: Line 78:
 
[[Image:HUD_RP-Weather.jpg|right]]
 
[[Image:HUD_RP-Weather.jpg|right]]
 
RP weather and temperature data is sourced from a historical location in the real world many decades ago, and then translated into generalized RP weather and time terms. You'll never find exact temps or times, just generalized terminology. The square icon in the HUD shows what the current weather conditions are like. The weather isn't 100% perfect because the equipment used to record the weather had occasional downtime. For the most part, weather is usually recorded correctly, and there are very few incidents of incorrect weather. There have been some witnessed incidents where weather will go from HOT to FREEZING and back to HOT again.  But this is only intended to help your immersion: if the data it gives you just doesn't make sense for the season or time, feel free to simply not acknowledge it.
 
RP weather and temperature data is sourced from a historical location in the real world many decades ago, and then translated into generalized RP weather and time terms. You'll never find exact temps or times, just generalized terminology. The square icon in the HUD shows what the current weather conditions are like. The weather isn't 100% perfect because the equipment used to record the weather had occasional downtime. For the most part, weather is usually recorded correctly, and there are very few incidents of incorrect weather. There have been some witnessed incidents where weather will go from HOT to FREEZING and back to HOT again.  But this is only intended to help your immersion: if the data it gives you just doesn't make sense for the season or time, feel free to simply not acknowledge it.
 +
 +
===Swimming and Drowning===
 +
When you enter a body of Second Life water, your avatar will begin to “swim!”  You will swim slower than walking, and will tend to float to the surface and bob up and down near it.  You can very slowly descend and stay underwater if you hold the space bar.
 +
 +
If you stay under water for too long (30 seconds or more,) you’ll start to take damage from drowning.  All you need to do to stop this is to get to the surface and breathe some air.
 +
 +
Jumping into water from heights still can cause falling damage.
 +
 +
Swimming with the game HUD on is probably not compatible with any available swim animation override HUDs, because most swim HUDs control their animations by having you fly underwater – and, with The Wastelands’ game HUD, you’re not flying.  For now, the HUD plays a very basic swimming animation until I can acquire a better copy/transfer one.
  
 
=== Falling Damage ===
 
=== Falling Damage ===
 
We have falling damage in our game. Rather than put out some chart showing what damage percent correlates to what falling height, the best way to learn about it is to experience it first hand. You'll get a good idea of what is and is not an acceptable distance to fall. Falling damage CAN be lethal, so don't jump from anywhere particularly tall.
 
We have falling damage in our game. Rather than put out some chart showing what damage percent correlates to what falling height, the best way to learn about it is to experience it first hand. You'll get a good idea of what is and is not an acceptable distance to fall. Falling damage CAN be lethal, so don't jump from anywhere particularly tall.
 
=== In/Out of Character ===
 
As of late September 2017, a new line of text appears under your health % text.  This indicates wether or nor you're "In Character" or "Out of Character".  As mentioned in the [[:Category:Role_Play|role play]] section of our wiki, the way you show that you're "In Character" is to enable a group tag with the word "Ruin't" in it.  This little bit of text is just an extra reminder to show your current status.
 
  
 
== Staying Alive ==
 
== Staying Alive ==
Line 131: Line 140:
 
:*If you buy an item from a shop, make sure you right click and select “Take” to bring it into your inventory.
 
:*If you buy an item from a shop, make sure you right click and select “Take” to bring it into your inventory.
  
==== Do Not Trade or Buy Items From Banned People ====
+
==== <span style="color:#FF0000">Do Not Trade or Buy Items From Banned People</span> ====
 
In the unlikely event that an individual is banned from the estate, all of their game items are flagged for deletion.  Which is why you should demand that they show up in person for a trade.
 
In the unlikely event that an individual is banned from the estate, all of their game items are flagged for deletion.  Which is why you should demand that they show up in person for a trade.
  

Revision as of 20:40, 20 October 2019

Google Translation: English Deutsch French Italiano 日本語 Türkçe 中文 Nederlands Portugués Español
WL177 HUD.jpg

In The Wastelands we have our own game system simple known as "The Game". Our game has evolved very slowly for as long as the estate has been around (Since Jan 2007). As it stands now, the game is far more than looking for salvage, building stuff with your scrap, and using the things you've build to clobber people who want your scrap. But that's how it all started; and hopefully this wiki article will cover all the bases of playing the game. If you haven't already tried our inworld tutorial, please click any tutorial sign at any arcade machine and give it a try. It covers all the very basics of playing the game, and will get you playing in no time!

The game's development doesn't advance too quickly, but it typically advances faster than the Wiki updates. So please be sure to check out the Game Updates wiki article.

Pre-Preface: Please RTFM

READING INSTRUCTIONS IS ESSENTIAL TO THIS GAME! I know that this is A LOT to read for someone brand new to the games, but I am 100% not sorry for such thorough documentation. This single page alone just scratches the surface of how complex our games are; the other pages it links to are where it gets really in-depth. If you need help or have questions, don't be afraid to ask in group chat -- but keep in mind that if you ask something that's probably covered on this page here, people are going to snicker. So do your homework and read it here first, rather than asking and reading about it in group chat.

Preface: An OPT-IN Game

The HUD is vital to everything you do in our games. You can acquire and equip a HUD by clicking any of the arcade machines at any of the main telehubs on our estate. You can choose to start playing any time you want, and you can choose to stop playing any time you want, simply by detaching the HUD. When you're not wearing a HUD, you cannot be affected by weapons, Critters, hunger, environmental hazards, or any other game mechanic -- but you also can't participate in any portion of the game. This makes our game system completely OPT-IN. It's all fairly simple: put the HUD on and you can play, take it off and you cannot. That being said, if you're wearing the HUD, anyone can attack or kill you anywhere, any time, for any reason or no reason at all. People never need an RP reason, or even any excuse, to attack you. "Dying" happens; it's part of the game. If you can't roll with the punches of the occasional killing out of the blue -- or the occasional fall to your death, starvation, poisoning, irradiation, or immolation by lava -- this may not be the game you want to play -- but I encourage you to keep reading, because there's so much more that this game offers than PVP.

Interestingly and ironically enough, Wastelanders are highly cooperative and outgoing. I think they're more worried about other game-powered environmental dangers and hunger than someone on a killing spree. Wastelanders have a VERY strong sense of community, and as such I feel obligated to warn people who come in to just kill others for little to no reason at all. You WILL NOT make friends this way. You will not even make enemies this way. Most likely, you will simply be snubbed by oldbies and regulars, and probably killed on sight by a few. The people you're venting your aggressions on have years of experience and better equipment and resources. Can there be villains and bad guys? Yes, people have pulled it off very successfully in the past! The trick is to at least introduce yourself to the people you're fighting before you kill them, or maybe put some LEGIT roleplay behind it. Hell, be friends! Try to be someone that players will love to hate, not someone that they'll hate to acknowledge. I'm absolutely not saying you need permission to kill people, or an RP reason -- I'm just saying that actions have consequences.

The HUD

As mentioned earlier, you can get a HUD by clicking any arcade machine at one of our main telehubs. Every time you want to wear a HUD, this is what you need to do. The HUD never is a part of your inventory, it just equips. If you're brand new, it'll ask if you want to join our Wastelands Experience. Once you click yes, it'll never bother you again for a permission unless you revoke it at some point. A HUD will equip and then you'll then be asked to take the tutorial. Hopefully the tutorial brought you to this wiki article, and not the other way around. If you haven't gone through the tutorial yet, I suggest you do! Completing it with a HUD equipped will get you your first newbie weapon, and it has rezzed examples of the things you'll want to be on the look out for, as well as covering all the basics of the game. Without further ado, let's discuss the visual aspects of the game HUD.

Health Bar

HUD Health.jpg

The most prominent part of the HUD is the health bar. It actually has two parts, the "plain numbers" hovertext and the bar itself. Obviously, the fuller the bar is, the more health you have. The hovertext conveys various information: they tell you your percent of health you have left, along with any other important game-related messages about your health status. Also, any time you interact with certain components of the game the "combat timer" is flagged, and the numbers turn red. If the numbers are ever red, it is NOT safe to take your HUD off - you'll get a short game suspension. This punishes people for hudding up, grabbing salvage, and immediately removing the HUD - or hudding up, attacking someone, and immediately removing the HUD. Typically, you have to wait a minute or more before the text turns green again.

Hunger Bar

HUD Hunger.jpg

The hunger bar is a thin orange bar under the health bar that represents how much food you have in your belly. Eating Food is important, as it fills up your hunger bar. When you have food in your hunger bar, it will slowly convert food to health if you're ever hurt. It also decays at a much slower rate if you're not hurt. You must not be flagged for combat, and you must not be running to heal naturally. Healing with food is the slowest -- but MOST efficient way to heal in the game. As long as you're not starving, one of the other benefits of having food available is that you have a chance to reduce the time that a DoT will affect you. But if you ever begin to run out of food, you'll start to starve. In the past you used to slowly die from hunger, but now there are three categories of being hungry. None of them are lethal.

Hungry

If your hunger bar is below 30% you will become Hungry, and your maximum health will be reduced by 10%.

Starving

If your hunger bar is below 15% you will become Starving, and your maximum health will be reduced by 30%.

Emaciated

If your hunger bar is at 0% you will become Emaciated, and your maximum health will be reduced by 60%.

Learn more about food here.

DoT Status Indicators

HUD Dots.jpg

DoT stands for Damage Over Time. There are tons of hazards across the Wastelands, and some weapons and environmental effects pack an extra punch. When you get damaged by one of these types, you'll continue to take extra damage for a short while. The status indicators will light up if and when you're under these effects. As long as you are not considered Hungry, Starving, or Emaciated, every time a DoT ticks you have a 5% chance to reduce the duration of the DoT for the cost of 5% of your food. If you're under the effects of a Medkit, your chances are doubled to 10%. If you have one of any type of DoT it will probably be negated on any resist. A stack of the same type of DoTs will reduce the duration, but not the damage.

Heal Button

On the HUD there's a big red button. This button is the "Heal Button". When you click it, and if you have any Medkits loaded in your HUD, it will consume one to heal you. All new players start with a few Medkits. Medkits are the most expensive way to heal -- but they heal instantly. These instant heals are best used mid-combat to prevent death.

Utility

If you click the health bar a small dialog menu will pop up. In this menu it'll say how much food and how many Medkits you have left. The Help button will bring you to this Wiki page, and the Players button will list all other active players in the region. The HUD will also say what the current RP date, time, and weather is like in your local chat.

Built-in Limiters and Automatic Rules

We have a Pre-HUD script and height check. Hard script limits are in place to help you with region crossings while wearing the HUD. A lot of people don't know that the more scripts you wear, the more taxing a region crossing is for your avatar. Since most of this game consists of running across the 10+ regions of our estate, a smooth region crossing is super important. The limits for scripts are just 75. You can find out what script heavy items you have here. Our height limit for avatars is 1.32 meters or about 4 feet 3 inches. For some aspects of the game, extremely short avatars had a very unfair advantage, and that is why the limit is in place now. It's not because we hate child avatars; we have some regular child avatars on the estate. Like all other limiters, it's there for the sake of game balance.

To keep the game fair the HUD keeps track of certain rules and automatically applies limitations or penalties. Certain interactions, including combat, will cause your HUD's hovering text to become red. When your HUD's hovertext is red, is it NOT safe to remove your HUD without an automatic game suspension. When you're suspended, you'll just have to wait until the suspension is over before you can play the game again.

The HUD also has a few built-in movement limiters to help make the game a bit more realistic, and to prevent cheating. You can avoid most of these by running or walking everywhere normally.

First, there's the jump limiter. Normally, SL allows you to jump very, VERY high -- and for our game that's both unrealistic and dangerous. Instead of these high moon jumps, you can think of our jumping abilities as something more like parkour. It would still be an impressive jump height, if you saw someone do it in real life - but you're not going to be jumping onto the roof of a single-story building in a single bound. The jump limiter mostly keeps all that in check -- primarily because we have falling damage.

Secondly, there's the run limiter. If you exceed the normal run pace in SL, you're probably using a movement assist or teleporter -- both of which are strictly forbidden in our games. The run limiter helps to keep your avatar's speed in check, but if you consistently go faster than it allows, it will disable your HUD.

Thirdly, there's a teleportation limiter. Certain game interactions, such as dying or entering Aeg's Cave, have game scripted teleports, and the HUD handles these just fine. Personal teleports including double click teleports, or sitting on objects far away (sit-teleporting) aren't allowed. If you teleport, your HUD will be DETACHED from you, not just disabled.

Finally, there's the fly limiter. Flying while playing the game is also strictly forbidden, and if you fly your HUD will be disabled. I should mention that sometimes if you're in Build mode and you right click something, it'll cause you to fly. It's a strange SL quirk that can't be accounted for through scripts, so try not to enter Build mode in your SL client while wearing the HUD.

If your HUD ever becomes disabled, you can just click it to re-enable it, unless you're suspended; you'll just have to wait that out. If your HUD becomes disabled and your hovering text was red, it's exactly the same as incurring a suspension.

When you equip or reactivate your HUD, you can't loot anything for the first 90 seconds.

Role Play Helpers

Even though role play isn't mandatory while wearing the HUD, we've built in a few immersive features to make things more interesting and help keep everyone on the same page. You can get a general idea about the weather and time by looking at the big block on the right side of the HUD. Any time you equip a HUD or click it, it'll spit out a short blurb about the time and current weather conditions. What started out as just a novel idea has caused many regulars to "dress up" for the weather that day. There are plans to incorporate weather into more game stuff when SL has more features, and when there's time to work on it.

In/Out of Character

A line of text appears under your health % text. This indicates whether or nor you're "In Character" or "Out of Character". As mentioned in the role play section of our wiki, the way you show that you're "In Character" is to enable a group tag with the word "Ruin't" in it. This little bit of text is just an extra reminder to show your current status.

Role Play Time and Temperature

HUD RP-Time.jpg

Our RP time takes real world seasons and folds them into six fictional Wastelands seasons. For each real world year, we call it a "span". Our spans started the year the estate was created in 2007. On the HUD, the little round dial will show the position of the sun in the sky, based on SL time. Temperature is just a general feel for how comfortable or uncomfortable the current weather is. Temperature is visually displayed by a generic thermometer on the HUD.

Role Play Weather

HUD RP-Weather.jpg

RP weather and temperature data is sourced from a historical location in the real world many decades ago, and then translated into generalized RP weather and time terms. You'll never find exact temps or times, just generalized terminology. The square icon in the HUD shows what the current weather conditions are like. The weather isn't 100% perfect because the equipment used to record the weather had occasional downtime. For the most part, weather is usually recorded correctly, and there are very few incidents of incorrect weather. There have been some witnessed incidents where weather will go from HOT to FREEZING and back to HOT again. But this is only intended to help your immersion: if the data it gives you just doesn't make sense for the season or time, feel free to simply not acknowledge it.

Swimming and Drowning

When you enter a body of Second Life water, your avatar will begin to “swim!” You will swim slower than walking, and will tend to float to the surface and bob up and down near it. You can very slowly descend and stay underwater if you hold the space bar.

If you stay under water for too long (30 seconds or more,) you’ll start to take damage from drowning. All you need to do to stop this is to get to the surface and breathe some air.

Jumping into water from heights still can cause falling damage.

Swimming with the game HUD on is probably not compatible with any available swim animation override HUDs, because most swim HUDs control their animations by having you fly underwater – and, with The Wastelands’ game HUD, you’re not flying. For now, the HUD plays a very basic swimming animation until I can acquire a better copy/transfer one.

Falling Damage

We have falling damage in our game. Rather than put out some chart showing what damage percent correlates to what falling height, the best way to learn about it is to experience it first hand. You'll get a good idea of what is and is not an acceptable distance to fall. Falling damage CAN be lethal, so don't jump from anywhere particularly tall.

Staying Alive

Now that you know all about how to keep an eye on your health and the basic layout and functionality of the HUD, you're probably interested in learning how to restore your health when it inevitably goes away. Fortunately, there are quite a few ways to heal yourself, and the "efficiency" of converting game items into healing stuff depends on how fast you want to be healed.

Food

Eating food is by far the most efficient way to heal in The Wastelands. It is also the slowest way to naturally heal your wounds. Staying well fed is very important. Our food system is a bit complex and is deserving of it's own category -- so check it out.

Healing Masheen

Healing Machine.jpg

The Healing Masheen is the second most efficient way to heal yourself. It is an archaic salvager relic that has been haphazardly repaired, but which doesn't function as it once did. To activate the Healing Masheen, simply rez any salvage on top of it. It will consume the rezzed item and start up. The duration of its activation is based on the rezzed item's Barter Value: the higher the BV, the longer the Healing Masheen will heal. If the salvage is rezzed by a land owner who has the Wastelander group tag on, the Healing Masheen will stay active for twice as long as it would if rezzed by someone without that tag on. While active, it will heal anyone in the vicinity: friends and even potential enemies. It should be noted that while the machine accepts any sort of object rezzed on top of it, it is less effective at healing than eating food is -- unless you're healing a large group of people. There are several healing machines located in the estate; search around to find them. One is located hereThe Wastelands.

Unwritten (Now Written) Masheen Rules

Starting a fight at the Healing Masheen or Salvage Masheen is not allowed. That said, the Healing Masheens and Salvage Masheens are not a "safe spot". That means if you're fighting someone and run to a masheen expecting combat to suddenly end, it's not going to happen: nobody is obligated to stop fighting you because you're there. On the other hand, starting fights at the Healing Masheen is REALLY frowned upon, so don't do it. Also, don't camp near the masheen for weakened players: it's a public resource, and no individual or clan is meant to be able to control who can use it, or when. If I have to come deal with any starting-fights-at-Masheens shenanigans, I'll suspend you for a day or so.

Medkits

Medkit.jpg

Crafting and healing with Medkits is the most expensive way to heal damage, but it is also instantaneous. All new players start with a few Medkits for free. Once you use them, you'll have to craft more and load them into your HUD. To load them into your HUD, make sure your HUD is equipped and rez one near your feet, then click it. It's as simple as that.

You can only use a Medkit every 10 seconds if you're not flagged for combat or every 30 seconds if you're are. When you use a Medkit a few things will happen, but only while the medkit is on cooldown (10 or 30 seconds):

  • Using a medkit will flag you for combat.
  • You will have 10% damage resistance to incoming damage.
  • Your chances of reducing a DoT effects duration is doubled.
  • You will get 5% food.

Dying

Even though there's a lot of ways to help you stay alive, you will inevitably die. In The Wastelands, we call it "going unconscious," because we feel it's up to the player if they want to have a permanent death. When you go unconscious you'll be teleported to the nearest quasi-safe area, typically an NPC or Healing Masheen. While there, you won't be able to move or interact with anything for 90 seconds, during which your health will regenerate fairly rapidly. Once your health reaches 25% you will enter what is called the "Grace Period". During the Grace Period, you can move around freely or remove your HUD if you're done playing, but you still can't interact with anything - nor can you take damage. Once Grace Period is over, you'll go back to playing the game as normal.

Getting Loot

In the Wastelands, it's all about the items and knowledge you possess. The larger the diversity of items and equipment you own, the more potential you have to discover new recipes. All equipment, weapons, food, Medkits, everything is crafted or found through natural gameplay. By now, you're probably wondering how you acquire Medkits and food. Fear not, brave adventurer! We've got you covered! You don't have to spend a single Linden dollar to play the games in the Wastelands. (Though there are still opportunities for people who wish to spend, or earn, some cash...)

Crates

Salvage Crates.jpg

The oldest, most tried and true method of acquiring stuff is by looting crates. Crates spawn across all of the estate at a regular pace, but only on public infrastructure land, never on resident owned land (unless it's a fully owned homestead. The owners of those homesteads and I have an agreement. ;) ) Crates hang around for a long while before eventually disappearing on their own, so the cycling of salvage stays fresh. There are three types of crates that spawn on the estate, Common, Uncommon, and Rare. These typically denote the scarcity of the loot you can acquire from them. However, looting crates can be dangerous: the contents of the crates could be very old and explosively unstable. It's not common, but they do sometimes explode!

NPCs

Various NPCs across the estate will offer you to do Tasks for them, and as a reward for completing the task you'll get some loot. Alternatively, they might be able to barter items you have for other items you may want. Check out each NPC in the NPC category to find out more.

Harmful Plants

Salvage Plants.jpg

Currently there are two plants that spawn on the estate that require special care to loot. They spawn very slowly, but stay around for a full 24 hours or until someone loots them. However, you simply cannot run up to them and loot them, as they're deadly sharp. In order to safely loot them, you will need to hit them once with a WL: Flayer or WL: Machete, then immediately rez a WL: Chemical A on top of it to prevent it from dying, and finally hit them one more time to actually pick it up.

Micro Economy

The Wastelands has its own very successful and long standing micro economy based on supply and demand of game items. Simply put, "Player X has item B. You want Item B. He will sell or trade it to you for XYZ". Almost all of the items in the Wastelands game have transfer permissions. This lets players create their own markets and shops specifically to sell the things they find and craft in the Wastelands. All current items with a "WL:" prefix have a Barter Value associated with them -- BV for short. This number is primarily used for game calculations, but is a good indicator of an item's scarcity, or the sum of its parts. Typically, when you craft something, the resulting BV is near the sum of the parts, but this isn't guaranteed. BV also does not dictate the price another player will sell or trade items for. BV is just a good way to eyeball an item's worth and rarity. But if you really want to know how much something is worth, check out the player run markets scattered across the estate. Interested in setting up your own shop to sell salvage in? Buy some land!

Buyer Beware

We're unable to help in any way with 3rd party sales. 99% of all established salvage stores and player trades in all the history of the estate have been operated by upstanding and honest players. However, there have been one or two occasions where people have scammed other residents. To avoid these issues, here's a few tips:

  • When buying items with Linden Dollars from a person you don't know, it's okay to ask them to rez the item and set it for sale – rather than just pay them money directly.
  • A common thing many shop owners do is box up the more primmy items, such as weapons, into a single prim. It's up to the buyer to inspect the contents of these boxes and determine whether they're legit items or not. Remember, all legit items have a WL: prefix, and are made by one of the Developers.
  • If you buy an item from a shop, make sure you right click and select “Take” to bring it into your inventory.

Do Not Trade or Buy Items From Banned People

In the unlikely event that an individual is banned from the estate, all of their game items are flagged for deletion. Which is why you should demand that they show up in person for a trade.

Items Disclaimer

This game is free, and because of that we're not obligated to replace any item for any reason. As time has gone on, we've put in more checks and better error reporting, and for the most part we'll do what we can to help, when we can see the problem. But there are times when we just can't or won't replace things.

Crafting

Salvage Masheen.png
Doktor Aeg.jpg

Once you loot a lot of salvage, you'll want to do something with it. This is where the crafting stations come in: the Salvage Masheen and Doktor Aeg. Crafting items is easy!

  • Make sure you have a game HUD on and active.
  • Get close to the the crafting station and click it to turn it on.
  • DON'T CLICK CRAFT ITEM YET
  • On the table, rez a few items that you think will combine into a new item.
  • Click Craft Item and (maybe) receive that new item!
  • If the combination you've rezzed doesn't work, the items will be returned to you. Make sure to Keep each one.
  • Try new combinations! Many items you've crafted can be used as crafting components, as well.

You might be asking, "What recipes work?!" That is entirely up to you to find out through experimentation! People who experiment are bound to find certain recipes first -- which means that, if they keep the recipe a secret, they can resell the finished products before anyone else. Or, better yet, wield superior items against their foes! There are a few Public Recipes that every newbie should take time to get to know. They'll help you survive out there a little better.

Crafting Tips

  • The knowledge of a recipe is worth far more than any piece of salvage or completed item. Don't expect to trade a WL: Hunk of rubber for the recipe of a WL: Slugthrower.
  • Don't share recipes you know with anyone but your utmost trusted best friend ever! If you've found something unique, you are in control of that information, and if you ever share it, consider it shared with everyone. You have no control of that recipe once it leaves your hand. Keeping secrets is good for you in this game.
  • Buying and selling of recipes for L$ is strictly taboo, and perhaps the highest affront to the everyone who plays the game. People are far more willing to trade recipes for other recipes, a nice pile of salvage, or even some good role play. Even asking about it... oh my god... just... don't. You'll regret it forever.
  • Most but not all recipes on the Salvage Masheen are 3-item combos, while Doktor Aeg's recipes vary from one to five items.
  • Not all recipes create single items; some recipes create multiple items.
  • Learn to sort your Second Life inventory. All game items are prefixed with "WL:" for easy inventory searching.

Weapons

Now that you've finally got stuff, you probably want to know how to protect yourself, your stuff, and all those crates that OBVIOUSLY belong to you. A little violence - or sometimes a lot - helps keep things in check. Whether you're keeping other players' stench away from your general vicinity, or clobbering a buzzard for its delicious meats, you're going to need a weapon to accomplish this. The Wastelands has plenty of weapons that you can craft, buy, or trade from other players and NPCs.

Currently there are three primary classes of weapons, and each class of weapon is associated with a different primary play style. Even though each primary play style is different, weapons of the same play style handle differently. Some people have crafted the WL: Training Dummy, and have them out for public use. They're pretty responsive to most game weapons, but not entirely accurate with classic weapons. It's best to just experiment with each weapon as you acquire it, to get a feel for which weapon you like best. Try sparring with others!

Some particularly nasty weapons can apply DoT effects to your foes. Many classic weapons have a built-in ability to deal DoTs, though usually infrequently. Non-classic weapons typically apply DoT effects more frequently, but require a component to enable the DoT effect to happen. Moreover, that DoT-dealing enhancement will only last for a limited number of hits or shots.

All weapons require you to enter mouselook (Just press M) and left click to use them.

Classic Melee

Classic Melee weapons are very easy to use. Put your HUD on, wear your weapon, enter mouselook (default m key), and left click to attack. You can hold the left mouse button down to keep trying to attack: you'll keep swinging until you let go of the button. However it is much more advantageous to click just once and strike when your target is close. Since these old weapons use the old pseudo-ray casting (created before actual LL raycasting existed), it's best to aim for the face to hit your opponent. You'll have a lot more solid hits.

Classic Ranged

Classic Ranged weapons work much the same way as Classic Melee weapons, except that you can shoot people from a distance. Classic ranged weapons also require ammo, which is a scarce and finite resource. A lot of players consider ranged weapons to be a luxury, as they're pretty costly to use. To reload a ranged weapon, look at its description for the required ammo it needs, then find or make some. Once you have the ammo required...

  • Rez your weapon on the ground.
  • Click your weapon to set it to reload mode.
  • Rez your ammo on the weapon.

Known Classic Issues

Classic weapons suffer from a strange bug introduced into SL Server years ago around the time Mono was introduced. Basically, the weapon just stops working. It seems to be triggered by serious region lag while region crossing or teleporting. Since the initial bug, I haven't had time or willpower to update all the classic weapons. If the weapon is intact but not working, I'll replace it for free without hassle. However I can't replace any ammo it had loaded into it. :\

Pugilistic Weapons

We sometimes call these "finesse weapons," as it takes great player skill to use them properly. Pugilistic weapons are typically fistwrap-style weapons that you wear and box people with. They differ from classic melee weapons in that one click always equals one hit. They use proper ray-casting to cast the path your fist will travel. You can use your movement keys to throw different types of punches, and the more solid your hit against your foe, the more damage you do. They have a wear-and-tear system that degrades over use. You can repair the items, but they will never be as good as the day you got them. Your avatar size, hunger, and the condition of the fistwraps affects your damage output and reach. Your newbie fistwraps are Pugilistic weapons.

Bow Weapons

Bows are a lot like the Pugilistic Weapons in certain ways: it takes player skill to use them, they cast rays of where the arrows are travelling, and they have the same wear and tear system. The differences are primarily in that you click to pull and hold the bowstring back, before releasing your shot. Movement, hunger, and crouching affect how accurate your shots are. Staying still, with a full belly, sniping people from a distance is best. Like other ranged weapons, bows require ammo, and some additional high-end items can be used to poison your arrows. The primary caveat of bows is that you can't see the arrow you've shot -- and, since it's affected by gravity, it may not strike where you'd expected. Therefore, it takes a great deal of time to learn how to use them properly. An area has been set up in Cormac with a few targets that rezz arrow impacts to help players visualize the bow's velocity and gravity arc.

The Kitchen Sink

Here's the rest of the stuff that just doesn't really fit anywhere else:

Do Not...

The automatic rules can only prevent cheating and exploits to a certain degree on the versatile platform of Second Life. For the most part, everyone plays fairly, but there have been instances in the past where some people still insisted on testing the boundaries and patience of the game administrators. While this isn't a comprehensive list, here are some things you definitely should NOT do.

  • Do not use any form of vehicle, movement assist, or gravity aid. If it makes your avatar move in a speed or direction that you couldn't have achieved in your very first minute as a noob, it's not allowed.
  • Do not use any form of outside weaponry. This is against the covenant and the law of the land.
  • If people are fighting, and you do not have a HUD on, stay out of the way. It is both confusing and unfair to all participants for a non-player to intervene. Do not be an unhudded meat shield for your friend.
  • Do not take off your HUD mid-combat. While there is an automatic suspension in place, if you repeatedly do it, you will find a much lengthier or permanent ban if you keep it up.
  • If you are a resident of the estate, NEVER use your land powers as leverage against another player who is playing fairly. That is, I do not want to see people freezing people to kill them, banning them so they can shoot them from their property, or any other such shenanigans.

All of these rules carry a minimum of a two day suspension if Management needs to get involved. Repeat offenders will be suspended longer, or may be banned from gameplay. If things get really out of hand, they could also be banned from the estate.

Douchebag

Although we cannot foresee every possible scenario involving gameplay, or all the changing features Second Life might have in store, we like to think that if what you're doing is offensive to the spirit of the game, it could become a suspendable or bannable offense. This is the "Don't Be A Douchebag Clause." Play fair and be nice, and all should be well.

New Player Tips

  • If you're starving, visit Doktor Aeg to see if his Cinderblock Stew is available.
  • If you're still starving, consider trading at least 3 or more pieces of scrap to the NPC trader Saul. He'll offer you some food.
  • Learn how to spot crates normally before you attempt any of Alden's Quests.
  • Questing is a good way to earn trader scrit, and in turn items and food from the traders.
  • When in doubt, ask for help from other players. Some players sometimes task new people with RP errands in return for game items!
  • The Outland and Homestead regions are much easier to spot salvage in, but those with a keen eye will reap the rewards of the Main Regions.

FAQ

Q: Can you script up my weapon / armor / item to work with your game?
A: No. The games in the Wastelands are a "closed system". That way we can keep it a fair playing ground for everyone.


Q: I own my own region someplace else on the grid, can you install your game there?
A: Nope. The games here are a Wastelands exclusive.


Q: Can I use the scripts from a game object in my own object?
A: Nope, they simply will not work, and will permanently damage the object you're pulling the scripts from. You may be automatically perma-banned, too.


Q: Why is everything no modify? This doesn't fit my avatar!
A: For game balance reasons. Most items are made to fit a humanoid avatar with average proportions.


Q: Other than bludgeoning everyone to death what else is there to do with the HUD?
A: There's plenty to do in the estate!

Credits

Game Creators:

Special Thanks:

  • All the players of the games, residents of the wastelands, and their feedback.

Subcategories

This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.

Pages in category "Games"

The following 11 pages are in this category, out of 11 total.