Rules

Can I cheat?
Duh. This is a multiplayer game. You are not alone. Cheating in a multiplayer game is so lame, that you should not be surprised to find yourself unable to log in if I suspect it.
If I catch you trying to cheat, whether successful or not, I will delete your bot.

So what is cheating to you?
It varies from hacking my server to using any kind of script which makes life easier for you. I bet you have a pretty good idea what I mean. If you're in doubt: don't.

What about building a second bot?
I can understand that somewhere after, say, level 30, you have gained some knowledge as to build a better bot. Or you are level 120 and sick of training and fighting the same people. So I won't call you a cheater if you have more than 1 bot. But do NOT log in more than 2 bots at the same time.

So multiple bots are allowed?
As long as you use it to play 'normally', yes. If you use it for the sole purpose of having it milked by your other bot, no. If I notice you milking your other bot, I will feel very free to delete a random one.

I care so much about my ratio, what if I don't use 2 decent weapons and cannot be attacked?
I consider that cheating. You will be punished accordingly / randomly.

What if I equip the bot in a way that it can't win, so as to help my friend get a lot of wins?
You're not the sharpest tool in the shed, are you? Whether you do it to help them level, to help them win a rape day, or simply to help them keep up a fake ratio, I'll punish you and your friend. Double if you are the same.

Bitchin'. What about wielding 2 shields then?
Do it and risk losses on your bot or the loss of the bot completely.

Can I use strong language?
As long as you don't mess up the page layout/display, I don't give a fuck. Some kids seem to think that racial stuff is the same as strong language and that they are now officially encouraged to call people names, based on their colour of skin. Let me assure you, it's not. Act like an immature prick, and be treated like one.

I want a star. I see people with a lot of stars. Shall I ask them to give me one?
Begging, you mean? No. Imagine, would you ask a stranger for 10 euro? That's what it costs to get a star. If I get complaints that you're begging, I will lock your account for a random period of time.

Any more rules?
Probably. Just use your common sense. Anything that you wouldn't like to happen to you, don't do it.

What are mods?
Mods are players with very limited administrative privileges. They are a select few, who can moderate the forums (including muting players) or observe certain player behaviour. For security reasons and as a means to properly do their job, they can also see your IP address. Since this is personal/private information, the mods (or I) will not share this information with other players.

Known problems

The following is not a list of known problems with the game, but problems with the client. Just so you know ;-)

All links from the menu open in a new browser window. Microsoft bug?
Yes. 98% of these cases can be solved by closing all your browser windows and trying again.

Nothing I do seems to really do anything. Stats don't update, that kinda stuff.
In most cases, if you clear your cache (temporary internet files) it will work again. It appears that sometimes Exploder caches PHP pages, which is a really silly thing to do.

After I log in I get a blank page with 4 numbers. What is that?
There have been reports of that happening. I have no idea why the numbers are there, but I suspect that some proxy or firewall puts those numbers there. If you would look at the source of the page, you would see there everything is there, plus those numbers. The numbers represent the hexadecimal size in bytes of that page, so if anyone has a clue as to why and how... let me know.

My fights and training sessions are not showing. Why not?
There are some other cases involving firewalls (Norton Personal Firewall for instance). Disable "privacy control", changing the "referer field" to 'allow' and see if it helps. If not, there's not much I can do about that.

No man, it's giving me an error in red text, saying stuff about blocking...?
Ah right. Either you lost your typing abilities or you actually don't exist anymore. That might be because of a bug or too long period of inactivity. Or I have purposely blocked or deleted you, in which case you don't have to worry because it was PURPOSELY. So cya.

Nah, I'm a good person. And so are my friends who have my password.
Sounds like you're not very skilled at picking friends. I have news for you: your bot has been stolen. You shared your password, your fault, not my responsibility. Learn from it.

Hey, I'm pretty sure I got insurance last time I logged out... but I'm not getting anything!?
I notice in the logs that indeed insurance is sometimes not payed out. Probably due to the browser's inability to correctly handle cookies, resulting in that the game can not identify you at login time. I'm still looking for a way to avoid that, even though I'm convinced it's a browser issue. Close the browser and try again. This will probably fix it.

When I log in, it says on the front page 'No bot ID'.
Although that's not a question, I will give you the solution that will probably fix it: Close your browser and try again.

I get a white page yelling something about missing HTTP_REFERER.
Without getting too technical, this might be because you are behind some firewall. I can not fix that, because I don't know where you live so I can't turn it off.

The fight list isn't showing. Fix it.
I'm making extensive use of Javascript for displaying tables (this saves me up to 300% of the bytes) so perhaps there's something bugging with your browser. If you have it enabled and if you have at least MSIE5.0, it should work. Someone had the impression that it was solved by setting his encoding from Unicode to Western Europe. Perhaps this had something to do with weird characters that people use for their bot names.

I get all these weird errors, what can I do?
Hmm, this is not cool. Please b-mail me about it. And don't forget to be as specific as possible. I don't like guessing.

General

I'm too lazy to read the entire FAQ, but my question is very simple, shall I e-mail you?
NO! If you have a question about the game, read the FAQ or post in the forum. If your question remains unanswered, you can botmail me about it. But never, NEVER send a mail to my e-mail account. I will just ignore you.

Oh man, I got this great idea for your game, wanna know?
Yeah sure! Post it on the forum so all can brainstorm about it and I'll see what I can do.

What will happen to my bot when I don't come back?
If I'm ever in a cleaning mood, you can expect your bot to be removed after <level> days. So if your bot is level 20, I might delete it after 3 weeks. If your bot is of high level, I might put it up for auction and invest the money in the game.

Why is there a max online limit?
I am hosting the game at home, so my ISP has a data traffic limit. With 150 players, this limit is very closely approached. And it means I can not use the connection for much personal use :-( The second reason is that my server can't handle much more than 150 players and still run smoothly.

150, huh? Then how come I saw 155 online?
Because I don't want to discourage new players (you need the fresh opponents), new players can log in up to 160. Also, some players have login priority, allowing them to log in even when the max player limit is exceeded.

What do the stars next to people's name mean and can I get one?
The stars are an indication of how the player contributed to the game. Some people donate money to support me and get stars, depending on how much they donated. With one or more stars, you will have loads of non-combat advantages.

How do I get a picture in my or my clan's profile?
You need to have access to a website, upload a picture to that website (typically with FTP) and put the URL (http address) in the logo field of the profile-edit form. What many players do, is find a picture on the internet and just crosslink to that existing website. To find out that URL, right-click on the picture and choose 'properties' (in whichever language your browser uses). The URL should start with 'http://' and end with '.jpg' or '.gif'.

How do I make text in mail and forum messages bold or italic?
You can use normal HTML tags, so <i>italic</i> will result in italic and <b>bold</b> will result in bold. You could even try to center text, using <center> and its closing tag </center>. And for the artists, you can use colours, by typing <font color=yellow>red</font>, which will be displayed as red.
Remember to close all your tags.

Are all our base belong to you?
Yes.

Equipment

Skills / stats

Fighting

I just started and was sensible enough to read the FAQ, but I don't see any opponents. Why?
You just started, so you're probably level 1. You can not challenge bots at that level yet.

I want to kill everyone, why can't I?
You may only challenge those bots, which are of the same or higher experience level as yours up to 1.35 times your bot's level. Unless you are in a clan, then you might be able to attack lower levels.

I want to kick this big bot's ass. Should I worry about revenge?
You can only challenge bots which are of the same or higher level (with an upper limit). The same goes for your opponents. If you are of lower level than they are, they can not challenge you. Unless you have challenged them and actually won. They get as many attempts to beat you as the number that you have beat them. So if you challenged this bot 10 times and won 2 of those challenges, the big bot can try 2 times to beat you. If he only beats you 1 of the 2... well, too bad for him, he had his tries.

Players can challenge other players' bots when they're not online. What happens?
If you are challenged to a fight when you're not online yourself, your bot will fight. You will not lose your bot, and any damage to your equipment will be repaired. Not entirely of course, just to the same status as they were once you started the fight. Whether you win or lose, you will get experience points. Of course, if you win, you will get a considerable amount more. However, if you lose, you will lose a third of your money to your opponent. If you win, you will receive a third of the other's money.
If your bot got attacked while you were offline, next time you log in, you will see a small report of the fight, showing vital data like who won and how much you gained or lost.
To prevent that you will be completely broke when you log in, you can buy insurance. At a certain price of course, but it is still recommended to get insured.

What happens if my bot levels while offline?
Your bot will use the undistributed skills temporarily (when attacked) as constitution. This is only the case for the defending bot.

Can players attack a bot that is online at that time?
This is a multiplayer online fighting game, so yes. But there is a penalty to discourage it, because it is not a very social thing to do. For an online attack you receive only 50% of the normal amount of xp and only 20% of the normal amount of kudos.
If someone attacks you while you are online, it is their right, so don't come crying to me and do not threaten the other player that you will get his bot deleted. Instead, I might just surprise you and delete you.

It says here in red that my bot is fighting right now, how come?
This means that either someone is fighting you at that moment, or you are cheating. If you have started a fight (both training and challenge), the outcome of the fight is already calculated and stored in the database. To prevent your bot being fought more than once at any time, and to prevent cheaters from starting multiple training sessions to quickly gain experience, the game stores the time that your bot has officially finished fighting.

Sometimes when I try to fight someone, I see a message instead. What do the different messages mean?

No! Your bot is still fighting!
You are attempting to fight before your previous fight is over. That can also happen when you are under attack.

Unfortunately, your opponent is fighting at this moment.
Your opponent is fighting.

Fuck off, your bot is too high a level!
Your bot is a higher level than your opponent.

That bot is way too big for you!
Your opponent is out of your challenging range.

Your opponents ass is still sore from your raping!
You have attacked this bot beyond the rape limit.

Your opponent can not hit you in the shape he is in.
Your opponent does not have the required skills for the weapons he is using.

Your opponent does not have weapons. It would not be a fair match.
Your opponent does not have weapons.

Your opponent does not have decent weapons. It would not be a fair match.
Your opponent has crappy weapons. He is attempting to be an xp cow.

Your bot does not have decent weapons. It would not be a fair match.
You have crappy weapons. You are a wannabe xp cow and I will delete your bot.

Your opponent is in no shape to fight. Please allow it to recover.
Your opponent's weapons are too damaged to fight with.

Your bot is in no shape to fight. Please allow it to recover.
Your weapons are too damaged.

You were fighting a special battle. No rewards.
To prevent self-rape, you can't attack a bot with the same IP address. You get this same message for fighting someone of your own clan.

Something is not right. There is something fishy about your bot.
You should never see this. This means you have too many skill points for your level.

Something is not right. Your opponent has been disqualified.
You should never see this either. It means your opponent has too many skill points.

That is weird... You suddenly feel all limp etc. Something is REALLY wrong with you! Are you doing something evil?
Neither should you see this. When you see this, you are a training bot.

What happens when I close the page while my bot is fighting?
Your bot will keep fighting. There is no way for you to stop the fight.

Are you sure there are enough training bots, even for high level players?
Quite sure. There are 36 training bots, some of which are too strong for you right now. They will be accessible to you when you reach a higher level.

Infant, level 1 bot, available to all
Trainmate, level 1 bot, available to all
T50.5, level 7 bot, available to all
T101, level 10 bot, available to all
T202, level 20 bot, unlocked at level 3
Terminator 2000, level 30 bot, unlocked level at 5
Terminator 2002, level 45 bot, unlocked at level 10
Terminatrix, level 60 bot, unlocked at level 15
TX-Guard, level 75 bot, unlocked at level 20
X-TerminA, level 90 bot, unlocked at level 25
X-Machine, level 105 bot, unlocked at level 28
TVR Demon, level 115 bot, unlocked at level 30
Kamikaze FX, level 125 bot, unlocked at level 33
TX 666, level 140 bot, unlocked at level 35
Super GX, level 160 bot, unlocked at level 40
X-Professional, level 180 bot, unlocked at level 45
Turbo X, level 200 bot, unlocked at level 50
X-Telligence, level 220 bot, unlocked at level 55
Terror TX, level 240 bot, unlocked at level 60
X-GF, level 260 bot, unlocked at level 65
Titan XL, level 280 bot, unlocked at level 70
X-Terminator, level 300 bot, unlocked at level 75
X-Bot, level 325 bot, unlocked at level 80
XTC, level 350 bot, unlocked at level 85
X-Terminal, level 375 bot, unlocked at level 90
El Terrores, level 400 bot, unlocked at level 95
X-Man, level 450 bot, unlocked at level 100
EL TERMINATORE, level 500 bot, unlocked at level 115
X-Factor, level 550 bot, unlocked at level 130
Terror Inc, level 600 bot, unlocked at level 150
The X, level 750 bot, unlocked at level 175
Cyborg LX, level 1000 bot, unlocked at level 200
Triple X, level 1200 bot, unlocked at level 225
X-Extreme, level 1500 bot, unlocked at level 250
Ultra X, level 1800 bot, unlocked at level 275
Scorpion X, level 2100 bot, unlocked at level 300

If I can beat TX 666 at level 100, does that mean I 0wnz?
Not really. The training bots have high stats, but not very good equipment.

I beat a bot with a 5:1 win/loss ratio! Are you impressed?
Not really. Ratio doesn't mean much if you're under level 50. You can build a bot with a 5:1 ratio yourself, just by attacking 'weak' bots. So what it means is, you got more xp than you would normally get.

You depressed me. So why is there such a thing as xp-related win/loss ratio?
I implemented that to prevent that people would rape and continue raping weaker bots for exp. Beating a bot with a 1:5 ratio gives you 20% of normal xp, whereas beating a bot with a 3:1 ratio gives you 300%.

Uh heheh you said rape. Isn't that a Bad Thing(tm)?
From the victim's point of view, yes. There is a limit as to how often you may attack a bot and that rape limit is set at 50 for levels 1-49, 100 for levels 50-99, 200 for 100-149, 300 from 150 up, and 400 at 200. The rape counter (I have a word for everything) is reset after 23-47 hours, depending on when you last raped the bot. Rapes are reset at a set time each day.

Clans

What is jans index?
Jans index is a way to rank clans. The exact formula is:
jans index = (clanscore+100) * ((wins+losses/2)/(losses+wins/2+1)) * ((avglvl / 100-1)/2+1)

So what about those clans?
Clans are teams, which hope to fight together for a cause, for instance, haunting another clan.

I want to start one! Good plan?
Depends, it is hard work but it could be worth it. Keep in mind that there are already over 500 clans at the time of this writing. Try joining an existing clan if you just want to play with a team. To start your own clan, you need to leave the one you're in first, of course. By the way, the price for starting a clan is 100000 kudos.

100000 kudos? Why so much?
It's rather cheap I think, actually. I put a price on it to prevent every n00b from starting their own clan.

I got an invitation to join a clan... Now what?
Depends. If you like the clan for what they represent or if you like their ranking or whatever, by all means, join them. There are advantages as well as disadvantages.

I like advantages, what are they?
Ask about diplomacy first.

Uhm... sure. What is this diplomacy thing?
Good question. Not all clans get along, that's why I've implemented the diplomacy thing. Setting the diplomatic relations toward other clans not only lets you express how you feel about those bastards, but it also affects the amount of experience you gain when fighting a member of the other clan. You can only set the diplomacy for a maximum of 3 other clans and you can only choose between hostile or friendly. Default is neutral. The relation between clans depends on both their diplomatic settings. For instance, 2xhostile=war, 2xfriendly=alliance, hostile+friendly=neutral. Diplomacy is a form of strategy. If a strong clan is hostile toward your clan, you might consider setting your diplomacy to friendly to discourage a serious beating.
You can not change diplomacy twice in 6 hours.

How exactly do the diplomatic settings affect experience?

alliance	-50 %
friendly	-25 %
neutral	0 %
hostile	+25 %
war	+50 %

Apart from that, the clan has to consist of at least 3 people to get the diplomacy bonus.

I've looked at the clan toplist. How does a clan get points?
If a clan member beats a bot which is in a hostile clan, the clan receives 1 point. The score for beating a bot of a clan which is at war with this clan, is 2 points.
Also with clan points is the rule that the clan has to consist of at least 3 people.
To beat a bot from a friendly or allied clan results in 1 (friendly) or 2 (allied) points being subtracted from the clan score.

I see I can also challenge lower levels of a clan at war. Isn't that unfair?
Whoever said war is fair? There is a huge bonus for being at war so a few risks are logical. War is war and in war, people are not so strict about age, race and level. If you are at war, you can attack bots who are 20% lower than you. You will not get the full 2 clan points, but either 1 point for bots who are less than 10% within your level or 0 points for lower levels. There is also a cash penalty. You will only get half of the normal loot. If the lower level bot wins, though, he will get the normal amount of kudos. And there is also a penalty in experience points for attacking a lower level. You will get 0-100% of normal war-xp, depending on the level of the opponent.

I'm attacking a weakling from a warring clan, but I don't see an increase in clanscore. Huh?
To prevent milking crappy bots, you don't get clanscore for someone with a ratio of less than 0.1.

Okay, I guess those are the advantages and disadvantages. Any more disadvantages?
Yes. You don't get any gains (xp or money) from fighting a member of your own clan. And the bigger your clan, the less targets there will be for you.

Once I join a clan, will I be able to one day form my own clan?
Yes, you can leave your clan any time you want. Of course the clanscore you have gained for you soon-to-be-ex clan, will be reset to 0.

I have got my own clan, but no friends. What now?
You can invite people to your clan who are not in a clan yet. However, it costs money to send invitations, 100*level. So if you want to invite a level 50, it will cost you 5000 kudos. These costs are deducted from the clan treasure.

I can't invite all clanless bastards. Why is that?
Because not all clanless people want to be bothered by dozens of bastard clan leaders, spamming their mailboxes with invitations. For those sensible people, there is a toggle option in the workshop to prevent invitations being sent to them.

Hmm, I better start bothering n00bs then, the moment they log in.
Yeah, or not. The minimum level requirement to join a clan is level 20. And if you mass-mail every clanless player, I might consider fiddling with my mute button.

Damn this clan sucks. How do I quit it?
If you're a regular member, click the "Quit clan" button on the clan page. If you're a leader, go to "clan members and invitation", resign as leader, and then press the "Quit clan" button.

I do get to keep my clanscore when I leave my clan, right?
Wrong. You got the points for the clan, so since you are not with that clan anymore, you lose that score. The score is also deducted from the clan's total score.

On the Clans Finance page you talk about treasure and tax. What is the clan tax?
Every clan has a daily tax to pay. The amount of tax depends on the size of the clan and the levels of its members. The main reason for this tax is to prevent small and inactive clans.

Does the clan treasure have anything to do with it?
Yes. The clan tax is deducted from the clan treasure. People in the clan contribute to their treasure and must see to it, that there is enough money in the treasure. There are no specific rules about who should contribute. That's a matter of internal clan management.
The costs, needed to send invitations, are also taken from the clan treasure. All finances are logged in the clan journal, so every can see how the clan is managed.

What's that link about 'merging'?
The owner of the clan can merge with another clan, to make a new clan. Both owners negotiate about a new name and who will be the owner of the new clan. The members will all lose 33% of their clanscore though, so keep that in mind.