Game Play

1. Basic terms

2. Start of a game

• Every human player starts with a balance of 512.
• In modes with a free start position, every player selects a start position on the map during a countdown. The countdown has 30 intervals with up to 2 human players, 40 intervals with 3 to 50 human players and 50 intervals with more than 50 human players. 1 interval is 392 milliseconds.
• A player who does not take part anymore is replaced by a bot. During the selection of start positions, the player is removed instead.

3. Income

The balance increases through exactly 2 kinds of income: interest income and territorial income.

3.1 Maximum balance

The balance can never be larger than the maximum balance:

maximum balance = territory × 150

Income above the maximum balance is not added. Example: a player with a territory of 1,000 pixels has a maximum balance of 150,000.

3.2 Interest income

Every 10 game steps (0.56 seconds), every player receives interest:

interest = balance × interest rate, but at least 1

The interest rate depends on 3 values: the share of all land that the player owns, the time since the start of the game and the balance.

Step 1: Rate by share of land

Step 2: Minimum rate at the start of the game

During the first 1,920 game steps (107.52 seconds), the interest rate is at least a minimum rate. The minimum rate starts at 7.00 % and decreases linearly to 1.00 %:

Step 3: Reduction for a high balance

The interest limit is territory × 100. If the balance is larger than the interest limit, the rate is reduced:

rate = rate × (1 − 2 × (balance − interest limit) ÷ interest limit)

At a balance of territory × 150 (the maximum balance), the rate is 0 %. The largest interest per payment is therefore reached at a balance of approximately territory × 100.

• The interest rate is never larger than 7.00 % and never smaller than 0 %.
• A bot that replaced a human player receives no interest.

3.3 Territorial income

Every 100 game steps (5.6 seconds), every player receives 1 per pixel of territory. Example: a player with a territory of 2,500 pixels receives 2,500 every 5.6 seconds.

3.4 Example

A player owns 1,000 pixels. The game is older than 107.52 seconds. The player's share of all land is 10 %, so the rate is 1.50 %.

4. Land attacks

A land attack conquers pixels next to the player's territory. The target of a land attack is either neutral land or exactly 1 other player.

4.1 Strength of an attack

• The percentage bar sets the attack strength as a part of the balance.
• The attack strength and a fee of 1.17 % of the balance are removed from the balance when the attack starts (see Costs of actions).
• A new land attack against a target that the player already attacks adds its strength to the running attack.
• A human player can run at most 12 land attacks at the same time. In games with 16 or more human players, the limit is 8. A bot can run at most 4.

4.2 Attack steps

A land attack advances in attack steps. In every attack step, the attack tries to conquer all target pixels that touch the attack front. The interval between 2 attack steps depends on the attacker's territory:

4.3 Cost of conquering pixels

Let n be the number of target pixels in 1 attack step.

• The cost is removed from the attack strength.
• When a player is attacked, the defender's balance decreases by n × defender's balance ÷ (1 + defender's territory × 0.625). This is half of the second part of the cost.
• A player with a high balance per pixel is expensive to attack. A player with a low balance per pixel is cheap to attack.
• If the defender runs a land attack against the attacker at the same time, the strength of the defender's attack is added to the cost. The 2 attacks reduce each other.

4.4 End of a land attack

A land attack ends in exactly 3 cases:

1. No target pixel touches the attack front anymore. The remaining attack strength is added back to the balance.
2. The attack strength per target pixel is 2 or less. The remaining attack strength is added back to the balance.
3. The attack strength is smaller than the cost of the attack step. The remaining attack strength is used up against the defender and the attack ends.

A player can also cancel a running land attack.

5. Costs of actions

Every action costs a fee. The fee is removed from the balance in addition to the strength that the action uses. The fee does not go to another player.

There are no other fees in a game.

6. Supporting allies

In modes with teams, a player can send a part of the balance to a player of the same team. This is called support.

• The percentage bar sets the amount.
• The sender pays the amount and a fee of 6.25 % of the balance.
• The receiver cannot receive more than the difference to the receiver's maximum balance.
• During the first 4,284 game steps (239.9 seconds) of a multiplayer game, the amount of support that 1 player can receive is limited. After 4,284 game steps, there is no limit. Bots can always receive support.

7. End of a game

A game ends in exactly 1 of these ways:

7.1 Complete conquest

The game ends with a winner when all 3 conditions are true:

1. 1 player owns all land. In modes with teams: 1 team owns all land.
2. No land attack is running.
3. No boat of an enemy is on the water.

7.2 Peace vote

A peace vote lets the players end the game before all land is conquered.

• A peace vote can be called by a player who has rank 1 to 10 on the leaderboard of the game or who is 1 of the 10 best human players.
• In multiplayer games, the first peace vote can be called after 1,607 game steps (89.99 seconds). The next peace vote can be called 100 game steps (5.6 seconds) after the previous peace vote ended.
• When 1 player or 1 team owns at least 96 % of all land, a peace vote starts automatically after at least 535 game steps (29.96 seconds), but only if the leading player is human. The same applies when only 1 player is left.
• A peace vote lasts 360 game steps (20.16 seconds).
• Only human players vote. Every vote counts with the voter's territory.

The peace vote is accepted when the territory of all "yes" voters reaches the required share of the territory of all human players:

Example for teams: the strongest team owns 75 % of all land. The required share is 160 % − 1.2 × 75 % = 70 %.

• After 180 game steps (10.08 seconds), the peace vote is cancelled if the territory of the "yes" voters is less than 1/3 of the required territory.
• The peace vote fails when the "no" voters own so much territory that the required share cannot be reached anymore.

7.3 Stalemate

An accepted peace vote ends the game in a stalemate (no winner) if all 3 conditions are true when the peace vote starts:

1. At least 3 players are still in the game.
2. The leading player owns less than 50 % of all land.
3. The leading player (in modes with teams: the leading team) has less than 50 % of the balance of all players.

Otherwise, an accepted peace vote ends the game with the leading player or team as winner. 1v1 and Zombie games never end in a stalemate.

7.4 Surrender and leaving in 1v1

In 1v1, the game ends immediately when 1 player surrenders or leaves. The other player wins. In all other modes, a player who surrenders or leaves is replaced by a bot.

8. Game modes

There are exactly 4 kinds of multiplayer games:

A contest is a game with doubled Gold rewards. See Gold.

9. Logs

These public logs show the results of finished multiplayer games:

• territorial.io/log/team-games: the last 48 Team games, with map, player count, winning clan, clan points and Gold payouts.
• territorial.io/log/br: the last 64 Battle Royale games.
• territorial.io/log/1v1: the last 64 1v1 games, with winner, loser, Elo and rank.
• territorial.io/log/zombies: the last 64 Zombie games.