User:Katastrophecy/sandbox

Setting
War Wind takes place on the fictional planet Yavaun, a hostile alien world with many biological, ecological, and geographical similarities to Earth, with creatures and elements that resemble living quadrupedal and bipedal organisms, rocks, water, flora, and snow. Yavaun also has unusual differences from Earth, such as apodous, tripedal, and hexapedal mammals, magic, animated constructs, bottomless tectonic chasms, and sentient plant-based lifeforms. Crystalized rocks and coniferous forests are mined and felled to provide the resources necessary to construct buildings, vehicles, machinery, and other structures on Yavaun. They also provide a resource that can be used as a type of currency between the races.

Yavaun is inhabited by four primary sentient races: the Tha' Roon, Obblinox, Eaggra, and Shama' Li. Little is known about their origins other than they were each once a part of a greater, whole being, known as NagaRom, the Original One. Each race has its own unique appearance, characteristics, history, behavior, and society.

The ecology of Yavaun is also similar to that of Earth, with similar practices of ethology and zoology, even using instances of scientific binomial nomenclature by Tha' Roon ecologists to classify Yavaun wildlife. Bonca, scientifically known as Bovinoceridea primigenius, are large, docile, hexapedal rhino-like mammals and are one of the most common forms of wildlife on Yavaun, often gathering in large herds. They are recognized as being social creatures with a diet primarily consisting of rocks and minerals. They are also sometimes used by the Shama' Li as a form of war mount because of their incredible natural resiliency. Bonca offspring, called fledglings, resemble rabbits and feed on synthetic materials, which is conveyed through gameplay by fledglings being prone to attacking buildings. Other notable forms of wildlife include snipethorns, a plant-like pack animal capable of firing internally grown quill-like thorns from its proboscis; slinck weeds, known as Plantae Vicionidea, a chameleon-like beast resembling a headless Komodo dragon that camouflages itself as flora to viciously ambush unsuspecting prey; dinge vermin, known as Khyroptera Rlattuiea, a small, translucent, rat-like insectoid with kleptomaniac tendencies; ionic brakus, a tiny, copper-colored, tick-like insectoid with a valuable and versatile carapace that radiates a constant ionic pulse capable of disabling mechanized equipment within its radius; and Mondra'Harth, a massive, powerful, unassertive, and fabled hexapedal drake with regenerative capabilities and an affinity for inhabiting ancient sites and runic caves of great spiritual importance.

Story
For a millennium, an era referred to as the Thousand Years, Yavaun has been under the oppressive control of the Empire, a merciless regime erected by the despotic Tha' Roon. Once feared for their cruel and ruthless combat prowess, which they utilized to conquer both the Obblinox and Eaggra, the Tha' Roon have since grown complacent. With the Obblinox serving almost exclusively as the Empire's military wing and the Eaggra as slave labor used to forge the foundation of the Empire and expand its territories, Tha' Roon self-sufficiency has progressively deteriorated over the centuries.

The millennium of subjugation faced by the Eaggra finally sparked revolt after two Eaggra, Prime Maker Colonel Khorn and Tywald Chainbreaker, began inspiring other Eaggra workers with their fervent speeches on freedom. An Eaggra uprising began at a labor camp, where several Eaggra workers, Khorn, and Chainbreaker turned their picks against their Obblinox overseers. In the wake of the camp's destruction, the Eaggra constructed a base of their own, then branched out to liberate neighboring labor camps. They were then able to acquire munitions from an Obblinox military base, which helped them bolster and stabilize their footing against the coming retaliation from the Empire. The initial successes of Eaggra insurgency further inspired Eaggra rebellion across Yavaun, as Eaggra continued freeing slaves. The Eaggra revolution and the approaching battles ahead marked the start of the First War of Yavaun. With the Empire's labor force now crippled, the Tha' Roon had to rely on their own sweat and blood, loyal Obblinox, and a waning Eaggra labor force to maintain their dying Empire. Soon after Eaggra insurgency, the Eaggra began a journey to find and reclaim their forgotten homeland, a place once inhabited by them before their slavery of the Thousand Years. Once found, Eaggra migrated to what they called the Land of First Memories, and began building communities and establishing Eaggra independence.

Once word of the violent uprising of Eaggra slaves reached the Tha' Roon, the Tha' Roon ordered Obblinox to help violently suppress all rebellion without mercy. The Obblinox, priding themselves as an honorable and noble race, found an absence of honor in the pitiless culling of Eaggra slaves. With this dishonor and perceived misuse of their training came the Obblinox's first real doubts, after a millennium, of the legitimacy of Tha' Roon rule and the Empire. With the continued rebel suppression, some Obblinox began to separate themselves from the Empire in protest of the slaughter of Eaggra innocents. The Tha' Roon, viewing any and all mutiny as inexcusable and punishable by death, then began commanding Obblinox still loyal to the Empire to kill both rebel Eaggra and Obblinox alike, which only further radicalized Obblinox to turn against the Empire. Obblinox started feigning loyalty as they plotted against the Empire, delving heavily into espionage and reconnaissance. They initiated a covert mission to steal Tha' Roon plans as attempts from the Empire to quell rebellion continued. After securing plans, the Obblinox set up a public assassination attempt against the Tha' Roon High Elder Mim'Nin. If playing as the Tha' Roon, this attempt is preemptively thwarted by a Tha' Roon ambush; if playing as the Obblinox, the successful assassination of Mim'Nin sparks civil war amongst Tha' Roon ranks.

The Tha' Roon believed the ideation of revolution to have been spearheaded by the Shama' Li, and so they sought for the Empire to eliminate them entirely. The Shama' Li, neutral bystanders up until now, began devoting their efforts during the revolution to mediation between the races, safeguarding the weak and injured, protecting visionaries whom possess unique wisdoms, and preserving ancient spiritual sites. They soon found their ancient sites in danger of desecration from Obblinox (AND EAGGRA?) military occupation. Attempts to mediate with the Tha' Roon and Obblinox led to mediators never returning. Even some encounters with the Eaggra would erupt into conflict, although they would eventually find common ground with the Eaggra and band together against the Empire. The Shama' Li would assist the Eaggra in achieving freedom and establishing independence, caring for wounded Obblinox, taking in Tha' Roon sympathetic to their cause, and protecting others caught in the crossfire of war and rebellion. They ultimately sought out the Place of Dawning, a spiritual site that housed tablatures known as the Tablets of Unity, able to physically and spiritually unify the races back to their original form—NagaRom.

Gameplay
War Wind is a real-time strategy game with a strong single-player gameplay focus, having four unique campaigns for each of the four races. Each race also has three additional custom scenarios that can be played, separate from their main story campaign. Each campaign consists of seven scenarios, and completing each scenario rewards the player with a 3D pre-rendered cinematic cutscene, expositional dialogue for the next scenario, and story progression towards that race's ultimate end goal. Basic gameplay has been likened to that of other real-time strategy games, such as the Warcraft and Command & Conquer real-time strategy series. Each scenario begins with a clan leader, with anywhere from no additional units to several workers and offensive units, as well as any additional units brought over from the Hall of Heroes, a feature that lets you carry over select units from the previously completed scenario. To win scenarios, the player must mine resources, build structures, hire and train units, destroy opposing units, retrieve key items, and safely escort key units to different locations. Some scenarios restrict the types of research you can conduct and structures you can build, which affects which units you ultimately have access to in that scenario.

Some unique features differentiate War Wind from other games in the genre, such as how you acquire workers and other units. In games like Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, StarCraft, and Command & Conquer, workers and other units are acquired by simply producing them at a certain building for a cost, whereas in War Wind, they cannot be produced but instead must first appear at an inn before being hired by expending resources. Some units can also be found in the wild and join the clan by hiring them with resources or by simply approaching them. To acquire a unit other than just a worker or mercenary (units that generally only appear at inns), a worker must be trained at a specific structure; for example, a worker can train to become a mage at an arcanery structure. For a lower level unit to become a higher level unit, such as a warrior becoming an advanced warrior, a player first needs a specific amount of warriors; then, they can promote one of them at a war college structure. Additionally, individual units can be physically augmented with "bio-upgrades" to speed, strength, resilience, stealth, and vision, which grants characteristics such as regenerative health, invisibility, and stealth detection. This all leads to much smaller but more consequential armies compared to that of other real-time strategy games, since the process of hiring, training, researching, promoting, and upgrading units is slower and more time-consuming than the typical mass unit production of the genre.

Features in War Wind that are generally present in other real-time strategy games are the fog of war and finite harvestable resources, the latter of which can be exhausted within the game world and require resource management to utilize optimally. The fog of war only partially obscures the map's natural terrain and discovered structures with a dark, translucent filter, as opposed to having a completely opaque fog of war that obscures everything. Units can also visually enter structures, which is necessary for units to train and conduct research appropriately; this means that if there is not enough room in a particular structure for a unit to enter, it cannot train or conduct research there until another unit leaves to make space.

Stealth
Another unique aspect of War Wind is its stealth mechanics. Many units possess the ability to conceal themselves from the opponent in different ways, both inherently and through stealth bio-upgrades. "Masked" units do not appear on an opponent's minimap. "Disguised" units appear as friendly units to an opponent but appear as normal on their minimap. "Hidden" units look translucent and do not appear on the opponent's minimap. "Invisible" units appear entirely invisible to an opponent and do not appear on their minimap. Stealth is progressive in nature, meaning that upgrading a masked unit's stealth would make it a disguised unit and upgrading a hidden unit's stealth would make it an invisible unit. Scouts can easily achieve the highest forms of stealth for a race, with scouts being inherently disguised and able to become hidden, and advanced scouts being inherently hidden and able to become invisible.

A unit's stealth is always broken when it attacks or is attacked but will be restored when out of combat for a period of time. Additionally, clan leaders and units with vision bio-upgrades can see through stealth. Certain spells can also grant temporary stealth to your units or remove stealth from enemy units. A commonly encouraged tactic is to steal the gathered resources from an enemy courthouse, which can easily be achieved with hidden or invisible units.

Spells
Each race has exclusive spells that its mage units can research, learn, and cast with a slowly regenerating pool of mana. Worker units can train to become mages, and mages can train to become advanced mages. Both mage types have the ability to research and learn new spells, although only advanced mages have access to researching and learning high-level spells. Tha' Roon spells manifest as a form of psionic mental magic that is used to both mentally cripple opponents and even control them entirely and indefinitely. Obblinox spells, considered to be one of the rarest and most elusive manifestations of magical power, revolve around the destruction of organic life and artificial structures. Eaggra spells embody the forces of nature and restoration, and are used to influence both the earth of Yavaun and its fauna to Eaggra will. Lastly, Shama' Li spells center around the concepts of omniscience, rejuvenation, and evocation, allowing Shama' Li mages to dispel stealth, conduct research, heal injuries, and conjure indigenous wildlife.

Multiplayer
War Wind supports multiplayer gameplay with DirectPlay over a modem connection, Winsock IPX, or Winsock TCP and can have up to eight total players. War Wind used to have built-in online multiplayer support with the MPlayer network. Multiplayer features several game types, including free-for-all, rabbit (free-for-all with a time limit), seven vs. computer (a player with up to six allies versus a powerfully established AI), and scavenger hunt (retrieve and return key items to an end marker). The host of the game can adjust certain parameters, like computer AI behavior and starting race. A chat feature is also available, allowing players to talk with each other in-game, and custom maps and scenarios are supported for online play.

Map and scenario editor
The map editor allows players to create fully featured maps on a 192x192 grid using the various unit, structure, and biome assets of War Wind. The map editor first loads in with a blank map with no terrain features whatsoever, but the player can load in a blank premade map (of which many are used for War Wind's campaign and custom scenarios) with included terrain features otherwise not placeable in the map editor, such as bodies of water, shores, lily pads, and chasms. Units and structures placed can be assigned to one of eight players or no clan, in which case the unit or structure can be hired upon discovery or join upon being approached. Monsters can also be placed and assigned a player or no clan, in which case the monster will be neutral and function like a wild monster.

All unit types can be placed, including hero units, with the exception of three units specific to the main scenario: the Obblinox sorcerer Adonna Bruehil, the Eaggra druid Dui'Green, and NagaRom, the Original One. Placing an advanced warrior, scout, or mage unit will give it a random mix of bio-upgrades when playing in-game. Walls, roads, and weaponry can also be placed and assigned a player. Trees, rocks, and crystal shards can be placed on the map in a 1x1, 3x3, or 6x6 grid. Additional objects, such as vehicles, treasure, armor, and end markers, can also be placed. Once a map has been saved, it can be loaded and assigned in the scenario editor, which takes into account the player number given to the units, structures, and monsters in the map file, allowing the potential for eight players.

The scenario editor allows players to adjust parameters for a scenario, such as what map is used, what the game type and victory condition are, which players may have an alliance, how much influence and how many resources each player starts the scenario with, and how any computer AI will behave in terms of production and aggression.

Appearance and demeanor
Tall, purple-skinned, and legless, the Tha' Roon are a serpentine race that possess long Nāga-like tails as their lower body. Their heads are vertically elongated and resemble the shape of a xenomorph skull. Most have beakish oral cavities; small, black, beady eyes; an aged, wrinkled complexion; and intricate, organic, and unique markings on the flesh of their long heads. Other notable features of the Tha' Roon include large, hunched, and protruding upper backs; thick, oval forearms; and three spindly fingers on each hand. The overall build of the Tha' Roon is generally slender and frail, although agile, and is considered physically inferior to the other three races; however, their intellectual (and, by extension, technological) proficiencies vastly surpass those of the more rudimentary capabilities of the Obblinox, Eaggra, and Shama' Li, making them master tacticians in combat. Their scientific advancements have also led to the development of technologies such as energy swords, plasma weaponry, semi-organic cybernetic body augments, and advanced hovercrafts—technology decades, if not centuries, ahead of the other races.

The Tha' Roon are widely regarded as cruel, remorseless, prideful, and merciless. Any dissent against their imperial rule is considered unacceptable, and rebellion is often met with death. Their innate and exceptional intelligence leads them to believe themselves ultimately superior to all other lifeforms on Yavaun and inherent pedagogues, leaders, and rulers. The Tha' Roon are either oblivious to the tyranny of their dominion or wholly unconcerned with it and believing it necessary to lead effectively. Because of this mindset, the Tha' Roon are convinced that Yavaun is theirs to dominate as they see fit, and that the other races are incapable of governing themselves without their leadership.

History and culture
A millennium earlier, the Tha' Roon established a reigning superpower christened as the Empire, the length of its rule commonly referred to as the Thousand Years. A brutally merciless and authoritarian government, the Empire's purpose is to preserve the Tha' Roon as the pinnacle of. The beginning formation of the Empire was likely achieved due to the Tha' Roon's vastly superior strategical planning and access to technologically advanced weaponry and vehicles. They likely overpowered, persuaded, or coerced the Obblinox into hegemonizing as their acting military force. In return for Obblinox loyalty, the Tha' Roon granted them knowledge of and access to purposely inferior and crude technologies, most notably painful biomechanical amputations. Then conquered through either Tha' Roon force or by use of the Obblinox, the Eaggra were soon subjugated and purposed as little more than slave laborers to the Empire. Over the age of the Thousand Years, an overreliance on an Obblinox military and Eaggra laborforce weakened Tha' Roon self-sufficiency, leaving large vulnerabilities to the Empire once it started to lose the loyalty of its Obblinox defenses and Eaggra laborers whom maintained the structural foundation of its civilization.

Relationship with other races
The Tha' Roon see the Obblinox as loyal, physically formidable, and dependable, but also unintelligent and physically slow. Because of this, the Tha' Roon have conditioned the Obblinox into believing that their purpose is to serve as force of arms and little more, and that they need intelligent leaders (i.e., the Tha' Roon) to command them. The Tha' Roon believe the Eaggra to be fruitful and masterful architects, although inferiorly weak and wayward miscreants when not brought under control. They believe the Eaggra have a life purpose as laborers and servants and thus not deserving of freedom. The Tha' Roon have a similar view towards the Shama' Li as Adolf Hitler had towards Jews and other minorities. They erroneously consider the Shama' Li ultimately responsible for the revolutionary ideation conceived by the Obblinox and Eaggra, similar in concept to the big lie, and see them as ferine, primitive, abominable, and insects undeserving of mercy and needing to be wholly exterminated without exception (quote "It is the Shama' Li, they who for so long seemed nothing more to us than insects, concealing from us an evil, savage intelligence, are the true root of this world-spanning revolution. Therefore, trust not the Shama' Li. . . . Accept no aid. Let nothing deter you from your course, we must point our resources and equipment towards the immediate elimination of these abominations. Destroy without question any Shama' Li. For it is they who stand between you and your ultimate goal, your ultimate good–the restoration of the Empire.").

Appearance and demeanor
Obblinox are large, stocky, rigid, and elephantine creatures with scaly, dark-peach hides. They are tripedal, possessing three bulky elephantine legs—one front facing and two back facing. Their faces are similar to that of a Komodo dragon or ornithopod dinosaur, and they tend to have either some underbitten canines or a set of full molars. They can grow both head hair and facial hair, similar to that of a human. Both the size and hide of an Obblinox make them incredibly tough and resilient.

The Obblinox are considered to be incredibly loyal, dependable, and steadfast, as well as stolid and patient, two traits that allow Obblinox to excel at espionage and reconnaissance. Obblinox are mistakenly seen by the other races as less intelligent and sometimes foolhardy. Obblinox consider themselves as noble, holding honor as the pinnacle ideal. From the start of the Thousand Years, up until the beginning of the Eaggra rebellion, the Obblinox were unquestioning and unwavering in their support of and confidence in Tha' Roon rule. The Tha' Roon order to mercilessly hunt down Eaggra laborers struck hard at the Obblinox ideals of honor and nobility, and introduced the first real seeds of doubt against the judgment of their Tha' Roon overlords.

History and culture
At the start of the age of the Empire, the Obblinox found themselves at the heel of the Tha' Roon, becoming their force of arms.

Obblinox society is heavily matriarchal, with virtually all political, social, and military positions of leadership dominated by its females. Grunt work, labor, and soldier duties are performed by Obblinox males. Obblinox are also highly militaristic in nature and control numerous military bases and munition depots. For a time, not all Obblinox males were content with matriarchal society and its perceived limitations, leading some to self-exile and start small, claustral societies dedicated to learning the art of sorcery, an exceedingly rare Obblinox practice. The practice was so rare that only a handful of Obblinox mages still exist, of which almost all are male. Records of the short-lived age of Obblinox magus societies are almost nonexistent, and Obblinox scholars believe the magical origins that sorcerers were able to tap into have roots in dark magic emanating from the void.

Relationship with other races
stolid

Appearance and demeanor
The Eaggra are a plant-based lifeform, made up of leaves, vines, underbrush, ivy, weeds, and vine-like eyestalks. Sometimes, the leaves of an Eaggra appear as disembodied from them and float around them. Most Eaggra sclera have strong yellow, golden, and—more rarely—silver or blood-orange tints, and they can have two to four eyestalks. Their innate plant-like nature also makes them incredibly maneuverable in forested areas, and excellent scouts and hunters.

Eaggra are considered to be incredibly passionate, emotional, and heartfelt creatures. They are creative and kind beings, making them very skilled as architects, poets, writers, animal tamers, and bards. With their powerful emotions comes fervent feelings of hatred towards the Tha' Roon and Obblinox after a millennium of subjugation.

Relationship with other races
The Eaggra, over the course of the Thousand Years, have grown to utterly despise both the Tha' Roon and Obblinox for their ruthless and unmerciful suppression of their freedoms and liberties, to the point where the words "Tha' Roon" and "Obblinox" in Eaggra tongue are synonyms for "evil." While Eaggra have contempt for the Tha' Roon, the bulk of their hatred lies with the Obblinox, whom have been at the direct forefront of the Eaggra's bondage and slavery, often supervising their labor and quelling unrest. Many Eaggra also have a hesitant and even animus relationship with the Shama' Li, as they believe them to be bystanders whom have not actively helped, freed, or fought for Eaggra liberation over the course of the Thousand Years and thus have facilitated Eaggra oppression. As revolution progressed, however, many Eaggra were able to reconcile their differences with the Shama' Li and form alliances to fight back against the Empire.

Appearance and demeanor
The Shama' Li are generally pale beings that have a resemblance to a stereotypical extraterrestrial. Shama' Li have three eyes, a feature that both literally and symbolically represents their inherently mystical and spiritual nature. Their bodies are often covered in earthy, spiritual markings, and sometimes have earthy roots, bark, stones, branches, and even antlers emerging from their heads and bodies. The Shama' Li also tend to wear loincloths and martial-art headbands. They have two toes and four-fingered zygodactyl hands.

The Shama' Li are empathetic and docile beings, resorting to passivism and mediation whenever possible, although they can fall back on violence when necessary or forced upon them. They follow traditional ways, have heavy ties to mysticism and spiritual, and possess a strong sense of altruism, never faltering to put themselves at risk for those too weak to protect themselves.

Development
The gameplay of War Wind was designed around similar concepts to chess and Go, and with similar aesthetics to tabletop miniature wargaming in mind.

Sources to comb through
TEST: The brontosaurus is thin at one end. Then it becomes much thicker in the middle.

https://oldpcgaming.net/war-wind-review/

√ https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/war-wind-review/1900-2531768/

https://dreamforgemagazine.com/about-scot-noel/

https://landofsand.net/Article-War-Wind-Forgotten-Unconventional-RTS.html

https://pokemaniacal.com/2018/03/25/a-paean-to-an-obsolete-and-underloved-game/

https://wordybastard.livejournal.com/709.html

√ https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/cdrom-review-war-wind-mindscape-pounds-44-99-1313809.html

√ https://www.csoon.com/issue19/warwind.htm

http://www.homeoftheunderdogs.net/game.php?id=2804

https://web.archive.org/web/20020425010357/http://www.pcgameworld.com/reviews/w/warwind2/

√ https://web.archive.org/web/19991010112704/http://www.pcgameworld.com/reviews/w/warwind/index.htm

http://www.homeoftheunderdogs.net/game.php?name=War%20Wind

√ https://www.gamerevolution.com/review/33310-war-wind-review

http://www.thecomputershow.com/computershow/reviews/warwind.htm (other references in post to track)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Reliable_sources