23.2.3 Obelisk Capturing

Generator energy
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Generator energy is required to activate chargebombs, which are used to attack obelisks and outposts (AB ENGINEERING CHARGEBOMB), and also to built new outposts on power nodes (HELP OUTPOSTS).

The power generator has two limits - the overall energy that it can hold, and the amount of energy that it can produce per an Imperian month. CITY OUTPOST ENERGY lists the currently stored energy, both daily and total one.

The generator can be fueled using corpses of mobiles, or using gold. When using gold, the generator is capable of generating by 25% more than the usual daily energy. If you wish to maximize the generated energy, the most cost-efficient method is to fill the generator with mob corpses up to 100% efficiency, then use gold to bring the efficiency to 125%. 100,000 gold is required to bring the generator from 100% to 125% efficiency, and any excess gold is returned to you.
The command to put corpses or gold in your organization's generator is PUT <amount> CORPSE/GOLD IN GENERATOR. The generator can also be probed to determine its current efficiency. 

When operating at 100% efficiency, the generator outputs 200,000 energy in the Imperian month - increasing efficiency to 125% therefore provides you with 250,000 energy. The maximum amount of energy stored in a generator is 1,500,000. Each controlled obelisk and outpost requires 10% of this energy in upkeep, which is 20,000 energy. Charging up a chargebomb costs 800,000 energy, and building a new outpost requires 1,500,000 energy.

If the cities and/or councils in the circle that control the obelisk do not have enough energy to cover the maintenance cost at the start of an Imperian month, obelisks and outposts that didn't receive the maintenance energy revert to unclaimed status. If this happens and it is an obelisk that is reverted back to unclaimed status, any circle can capture it by disrupting the shield with a chargebomb and controlling the structure for 1 minute. The same process can be performed if an outpost is reverted to unclaimed, but the outpost in question would be destroyed not controlled. If your circle has enough energy to cover the maintenance cost of some of its structures, but not all of them, obelisks receive the maintenance energy before outposts do.

The current energy status and maintenance costs can be viewed using CITY OUTPOST ENERGY.


Capturing Obelisks and Outposts
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When your circle has accumulated enough energy to charge a chargebomb, anyone with the war citypower can activate it. Any member of the circle can then use the chargebomb to destabilize the protective shield around the obelisk or outpost of their choice. The syntax is detailed in AB ENGINEERING CHARGEBOMB. If the shield around a structure is being strengthened, the chargebomb cannot be used. You can PROBE OBELISK/OUTPOST to check if the structure is being protected, which outpost is invoking the protection layer, and a rough estimate regarding its duration.

Once the shield has been disrupted, the whole island becomes restricted to members of cities and councils within the attacking and defending circle. All other players, as well as any players under effects of the Divine Grace, will be removed from the island to their home city or council, or to Caanae if they do not have one. Travelling to the island will also be possible only for members of the two involved circles. If there are any other obelisks or outposts on the same island, they will not be able to be attacked until the existing attack is resolved. Structures on other islands can still be attacked normally.

The capture process requires maintaining control of the structure, as well as capture nodes. Capture nodes can be detected using the Powernodes ability in Perception, and they are only available if an obelisk or outpost is under attack on the island.

While the structure is under attack, members of the attacking and defending city can ENTER OBELISK/OUTPOST [NORTH/EAST/SOUTH/WEST/CENTER], and will be moved to the specified room within the structure. If they don't specify a room, they will be moved into a random one. Attackers attempt to disrupt the owner's control to bring it under their control, while the defenders try to stabilize the shield to negate the attack.

Control of the structure is maintained automatically, as long as at least one member of the attacking circle and no member of the opposing circle are present in the structure. Graced, phased, blackwinded and astralformed individuals do not have any effect on this.

Control of the capture nodes is gained by being in the room where a node is located (as determined by the Powernodes ability) and using CAPTURE NODE. This process takes six seconds, during which no other action can be performed. All involved players will be given a generic notification about node capture attempts. Once controlled, the node remains under control of the player's circle until the a member other involved faction captures it.

There are four capture nodes on each island, and their location is determined randomly when the attack is initiated. Each island consists of two separate areas, and each of them will always contain two of the capture nodes.

Once the shield has been destabilized, the attack timer is set to 59 minutes. If the attacking circle controls either all four capture nodes, or the structure and three capture nodes, the timer will be ticking down. Similarly, if the defending circle controls either of those, the timer will be ticking up. If neither circle controls enough nodes, the timer will not tick. The timer will tick at a double speed if the defending circle maintains control, as long as the attackers require less than 45 minutes to win.

While the structure is under attack, all members of the defending city/council who have enabled the CONFIG OBELISKREPORT option will be receiving periodic warnings about the attack. The attackers and the defenders can also see the current status of the attempt using the OBELISKS command.

If the timer reaches 0 minutes, the attackers win and the obelisk becomes theirs or the outpost is destroyed. If the timer reaches 60 minutes, the defenders win and they retain control of the structure. If 8 RL hours pass with neither side winning, the attack is cancelled. In all these situations, the shield is restored and everyone is removed from inside the structure.

See also: HELP OBELISKS, HELP OBELISK POWERS, HELP OUTPOSTS, HELP WAR