Atwar History

Cita:

What was Atwar like in the beginning? Was there this divide between Scenario/RP/and "competitive" players?

In the beginning, I am talking early 2011, everything was a mess. It wasn't until like April 2011 that the first semi-competitive clans were being formed. Even then it was only three of them. Back then 5k Europe 2 minute turns was the standard setting for all our games, and the top picks were Greece, Ukraine and Austria. Sometimes Portugal SM or something crazy like that. I think Aristo and I were pretty much the only people even interested in 1vs1 games back then. Ironail would play from time to time, and then there were people like Pera and Hugosch, as well as some other guys from Warborn, KANKER and BiteMe! who would join in occasionally. Again it was mostly Greece GW vs Ukraine PD and some variations, with Austria IF becoming hot as time went on.

Cita:

How was EU+ found to be the most balanced map? UK/Germ or UKR/Turk standard duels?

As i wrote above, Europe 5k was our standard setting in 2011. For some reason, I think it was for the sake of diversity, after the first 1v1 tourney was over some people started messing around with the 10k funds instead, which became standard afterwards. We found that the additional units provided way more possibilities for our opening turns, but required more time as well. So we changed to 3minute turn time as the new standard. The '+' in EU+ was added because it provided more overall balance and because in 10k Ukraine was too weak, with Turkey emerging as the new OP country. So we got Militia Russia Central which made Ukraine stronger again.

Cita:

I have heard things like Russia Central being militia back in the day, when was this changed and have their been any other significant balance changes?

See the above point. Ukraine was now strong again, but too strong because of the massive boost through Russia Central. So Infantry was put there as a countermeasure.
Everything always depended on Ukraine, it's were all balancing efforts went.

Cita:

Clans, the rise of SM, why did Bonk create it ,how have they managed to be so strong for so long while other clans have fallen apart.

I will leave that to b0nks. Also this was not really the beginning of AW. It was 2012.

Cita:

Dalmati,Ily, just old dead clan in general that were OP, what happened to them and what was it like CWing back in their times?

I won't speak about Illy, because Illy is new af. I could write five 100 page essays about this topic, but I wan't to keep this really short: SRB (Kanker) and Dalmati were too strong for everybody else, but both became less active with time because people lost fun and interest. A huge factor here for many of us was the implementation if the new tb system though, this really ruined the game mechanics to a large extent. It's not noticeable for players who started playing under the new system of course.

Cita:

Dueling, how had the standards for duels changed, as well as dueling ethics?

There were no duelling ethics in the beginning, everything was ok. The first significant rule that we established was that there would be no more first turn tbs. This was still under the old turnblocking system and first turn tbs could be game deciding. While wallglitching was still possible (old tb system and no wfs possible), this became also frowned upon. Those techniques weren't very widespread though.
Wallglitching became irrelevant after the new tb system through the introduction of wallfucks, where you could just prevent wallglitching by breaking a wall and placing a unit next to it. What people nowadays call rewalling is the legitimate version of the old wallglitch and a completely legal tactic. Everybody who says otherwise has no idea about how to play this game and is a newfag. Let me say this to you as probably the oldest former duelist who still logs in from time to time: I know what glitches are and I know what unfair play is, rewalling is neither.

Cita:

OP players, I know of Tophats, Chess, but what other names are old legends? What kind of strategies and picks did they like to play?

TopHats and Chess weren't active/the players they later would become at this point. SRB and Dalmati were pretty stacked with players who were the actual best, BiteMe! and Warborn also had their fair share of extremely good players. Then some of the serbs like Pera. Impossible to list them all.
Anything PD, Anything GW, Anything IF. The rate of people discovering new OP picks as well as of the implementation of strategy killing nerfs was so fast, that I couldn't list them all chronologically anymore. Ukraine PD, GW was always a classic, and after IF became popular IF Germany and UK were literally unbeatable if played by a skilled player. But it all changed fast and we hadn't figured anything out still. I'm talking end 2011-2012 here. For everything after that I would need to make a separate post altogether, so I will keep limiting myself to that time period.

Cita:

progression and balance of strategies, I have heard that Tophats helped with balancing, then Lao did, any other big balance changes?

No way I could tell you about all the fine-tuning even in this short period I'm talking about. It was a back and forth.

Cita:

personal player histories? Much like what Pavie wrote if anyone wants to write about how they found Atwar, what clans they joined, who taught them, what games they like to play etc.

I found this game by accident, stayed with BiteMe! and SRB pretty long, after that I helped a bit out in early (Desu-)Stalins and lately had some fun with Illy. When I was active I played 1v1s until I was either feeling nobody could possibly beat me anymore (pre Elo) and one more time until I was rated #1 after that. I also want to greet TopHats: eternal 3-2. Cwing as well of course, became #1 with BiteMe! as well as with Kanker Elysium and its follow ups. Later again with Illy, but I joined them after they were already well established. So there is nothing left for me here but pushing for the implementation of rated team games and trying to make Elo legitimate.
Nowadays I just come here to claim back Germoney from lazy Greeks in clanchat, ask people for the newest expands (which aren't new at all), and try to keep some overview about the Elo progress and rating balance. Then I go inactive again and/or delete my current acc. It's the Cow life.

PS: I think what b0nks said about the shift from priorization to attrition based playing is very important to understand if one is interested in the history of this game and indeed the thing that ended the 'golden age' as somebody called it earlier.
I actually loved the old tb system, it was an entirely different gaming experience. A skilled player had the freedom to make a lot of picks viable which under the new system just aren't playable anymore. I tried to keep it implemented, but there was a bit of a general dislike for it at this given moment in time, since learning about priorization was an additional point that all new players, and especially those that intended to become competitive, had to add to their list. I have to say though that after the change was put in place a lot of people realized that it had been an integral part of the game and changed their mind, agreeing with my position.
If you ever have the possibility to talk to some of those pros from the first hour, most of them will tell you that it was indeed the implementation of the new tb system that eventually made them quit the game. I know it is not what people who joined later want to hear, and no doubt are there a lot of good players in the newer generations, but the old game mechanics just required a lot more thinking and hence, skill, than do the new ones. The attrition aspect that is prevalent today was always there, but it was shifted more towards the late game where by the sheer number of stacks turnblocking priorization became more difficult. It was just a more well rounded mix of different skills needed to excel.
But this is a general trend in this game which is kind of unsettling to me, that people would rather change the game mechanics to make something easier to start with (e.g. the tb system), or rule out parts of it that they aren't comfortable dealing with (e.g. rewalling) and thereby sarifice a lot of depth in the later stages of competitive gaming, instead of accepting that you have to make a difficult journey until you understood the mechanics, but then get rewarded by much more interesting games against players who are equally on top of the game later on.
What I like more about Afterwind/atWar today though is that the competitive scene grew significantly, and that the things I proposed, above all Elo and duel games, got implemented in the end. This is what I wish would have existed when I was in my early days and still had motivation for this game.

Vagineer and tdfall were my best mates when i started this game

I'm not a pivotal player, an "old timer" account, nor a huge presence in the forums - however, I want to add my history here simply because it's an example of a Casual player, which seem to be a small minority, and an example of how the game can get out-of-hand to the point of addiction, where it compromises real life. I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I joined at the end of December of 2013 as tra115. Love the casual format - pretty much all I play. I learned a lot from playing public games and also from a sharp group of players that I knew from real life that got me started. None of us were part of a coalition. We were huge fans of Risk and Axis & Allies, of course, but often wondered if something was better and online, and here it is!! I got to know some other good, ethical players on the battlefields of public games, and really had a good time. Unfortunately, one by one, the guys that I started with stopped playing. Nobody got higher than r7. I still had a good group of regular casuals that would join each others' games - sometimes on the same side, sometimes not. No offense taken, just good, clean competition!

Played like mad, became a full-fledged addiction. By early 2015, I had to quit cold-turkey because I had 10-12 casual games going at a time, it was taking 3-4 hours every night (most were 48hr, but some were 24hr)! Tons of fun, but not healthy - poor life balance. I left just as I reached r7, with a 2:1 win ratio, and left behind some fun HoW scenarios that require some tweaking, and some fun team-based World of Eben presets.

[[As an aside, my abandoned percentage of 25% is all due to restarting games that I host, when I realized that I forgot to change a game parameter, or forgot to select a strat, etc., as well as solo explorations of custom maps. I do not time out from a game (at least, not on purpose, like so many selfish, crybaby players do). If I'm losing, then I keep playing or surrender. If I have to leave for some other reason, then I surrender. I don't hold up the game at everyone else's expense.]]

Anyway...then, out of the blue, atWar came up in conversation with a few of those old players over the winter. I remembered how much fun it was, and by spring of this year (2016), I picked back up, changed my name to RatWar (a takeoff of the comic strip Pearls Before Swine ), and started winning some games and losing a bunch more, getting back into the swing of it. It's been great making new friends and reconnecting with players I knew before.

I have since joined one of the few Casual Coalitions out there - Casual Ties, invited by an alias of Columna Durruti, whose map-making skills and whose calm, steady and reasonable presence in the forums have always impressed me.

Since I've been back, I've had as many as 8 casual games at a time, but not for more than a few days. Usually, one or two games are just starting, so they don't take long, and you have to wait for the early rash of timeouts (just quit, assholes!!! ), and another one or two games are usually on the verge of victory/defeat. It's manageable, so I can have a life and still have fun on the battlefield and in the forums.

And, as some of you know, I have since come up with a World Map clone that attempts to provide a unit for every unit type defined by the creators. It's a work in progress. It's not easy keeping balance with all the strats and upgrades, to avoid accidentally nerfing some and OPing others, but I think it has worked out pretty well, so far. People seem to enjoy playing, and it fills up pretty quickly. Plus, who doesn't want medals for destroying units that you rarely come across anywhere else?

That's my story. Curious if any of it resonates with others here.

yay I'm still remembered : )

Idk really but i remember when clovis said RP was balanced lol!

Escrito por Guest, 12.09.2016 at 11:31

Idk really but i remember when clovis said RP was balanced lol!

you do know a long time ago Clovis was the biggest troll on AW .. some say he hasnt really changed a lot from then ...

Escrito por Ghostface, 12.09.2016 at 11:35

you do know a long time ago Clovis was the biggest troll on AW .. some say he hasnt really changed a lot from then ...

Big words there... there have been so many trolls in this single game that it becomes hard to categorize someone as the biggest troll! Certainly Death would not agree on that one.

Regarding the second sentence, no one really knows the truth, not even clovis himself

Huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time and given responses, there have been some really awesome ones!! Special thanks to Bonkers, Helly, SuperiorCow, Joed, Cold Case who either wrote extra great posts or provided me with good links to read.

Taking a step back from all the drama and such it really is cool how this game has brought people from all over the world together, and how it has developed and progressed over the years. Love to keep reading about it so keep the responses coming if anyone wants to add more! With time I might even put something together, a little post about the history of Atwar if their is interest and I decide to take the time.

One other question I have is, how exactly did re-wall become looked upon so negatively? From a player's perspective I get it, I hate when someone re-walls. But only because it provides and unfair advantage if one person re-walls and the other does not, if everyone did it i'm not sure I would have an issue with it. With old players, and super respected guys like Aqui being proponents for re-walling, how did it fall out of favor?

Escrito por Ghostface, 12.09.2016 at 11:35

Escrito por Guest, 12.09.2016 at 11:31

Idk really but i remember when clovis said RP was balanced lol!

you do know a long time ago Clovis was the biggest troll tard on AW .. some say he hasnt really changed a lot from then ...

Escrito por Permamuted, 12.09.2016 at 18:02

Escrito por Ghostface, 12.09.2016 at 11:35

Escrito por Guest, 12.09.2016 at 11:31

Idk really but i remember when clovis said RP was balanced lol!

you do know a long time ago Clovis was the biggest troll tard on AW .. some say he hasnt really changed a lot from then ...

Escrito por Prometheus, 12.09.2016 at 16:27

Huge thank you to everyone who has taken the time and given responses, there have been some really awesome ones!! Special thanks to Bonkers, Helly, SuperiorCow, Joed, Cold Case who either wrote extra great posts or provided me with good links to read.

Taking a step back from all the drama and such it really is cool how this game has brought people from all over the world together, and how it has developed and progressed over the years. Love to keep reading about it so keep the responses coming if anyone wants to add more! With time I might even put something together, a little post about the history of Atwar if their is interest and I decide to take the time.

One other question I have is, how exactly did re-wall become looked upon so negatively? From a player's perspective I get it, I hate when someone re-walls. But only because it provides and unfair advantage if one person re-walls and the other does not, if everyone did it i'm not sure I would have an issue with it. With old players, and super respected guys like Aqui being proponents for re-walling, how did it fall out of favor?

Could you please synchronise this project with ATN team, we need to bring some activity to it.

Escrito por Prometheus, 12.09.2016 at 16:27

One other question I have is, how exactly did re-wall become looked upon so negatively? From a player's perspective I get it, I hate when someone re-walls. But only because it provides and unfair advantage if one person re-walls and the other does not, if everyone did it i'm not sure I would have an issue with it. With old players, and super respected guys like Aqui being proponents for re-walling, how did it fall out of favor?

It used to be an actual glitch in the game mechanics called "wall glitch". I don't really remember what it gave an unfair advantage to the player doing it. Now it's not a glitch but a simple robotic part of the game strategy. Some of the arguments still stand about rewalling being anti-beneficial, such as it adding to the # of processes needed in a turn that don't require much strategy, but others (from old times till now) think it's as viable as walling because it's a part of the game that can be utilized to one's advantaged fairly/without it being a glitch.

Escrito por Guest, 13.09.2016 at 20:50

Remember that time Aetius, Tunder.. and idk who else started a map maker strike where they'd all unpublish their stuff but eventually stopped as soon as they realized no one cared.

They did it to get the ban list introduced and they won

Here is my story:

I joined Atwar mid-2013. Right at the beginning, I would basically play any map, slowly (about by r5), I started playing UN. I made my two friends in the game; JosherV and Assydius, both of whose have been inactive for a long time. Around r8 still with very few friends and a few sexual predictors (... Puma), I decided to take a look into competitive play. I thought,
"1.If all the best players are in a competitive clan
2.Make a competitive clan
3.Become a best player"
So I made a clan, and called it Petra. The name had no meaning to me, but it was a good learning experience. Players such as Tigro, TheFuehrer, Kord, StartingFlame, and others were in my clan... The Fuehrer won us all our cws (we didn't win many though), and we really weren't a true competitive clan. I do say though, I was extremely organized. After a while, a rogue officer kicked all the players, and I called it quit. I then decided to join El creyente, soldier, and deviL in their clan... It saddens me, but I don't remember quite how I met them, but I did know them before I joined SA. It was the best experience. They never judged me for my noobness, but consistently encouraged me to become a better player. They helped me foster my ancient world skills, and other such things. I loved SA. After a good while, about 10 months or so after joining, SA died. It was very traumatic for me, almost like losing my family... I mean, everyone was still in the clan at the time, but no one was active. I remembered that deviL has always asked me to help in anyway to the growth of Atwar, so I tried xD. Most at first were fails, but eventually, I assisted in making a successful program; the Adopt-A-Newb program with Flaming Spaz. I would occasionally pick trainees out of the plethora of selections, one of the ones I selected was prometheus2. It was able to I've him basic training and advice, it really filled the void of just losing my clan. Eventually, later on, Prometheus became a mod. So back to my clans.... After SA I joined many clans, such as EC, and Wth. Wth was very bad for me, not necessarily the people in it, but I was still down after SA died. EC was a little bit after,it was a new friendly group of people, most of which I enjoyed. One day I received a message from deviL (after he had been inactive for much a time) "SA will reunite in Enigma". So I left SA and joined enigma. The guys there were very friendly. I loved Mia, Dino, Heat, Leo, Krypt, Darth, and others. I even have. Special part in my heart for gow <3. While in Enigma, I tried to cultivate my skills. I worked on Eu, and ancient world. I was there for several months. After a while, I was invited to join Bermuda Triangle, and that is where I am now.

Cheers. Thx for reading

Ps. Some of my besties are not mentioned in this story, because some of us met In s very messed up kinda way... But it ended up all cool xD

Escrito por Google, 14.09.2016 at 10:22

I loved Mia

Escrito por Google, 14.09.2016 at 10:22

Here is my story:

but I don't remember quite how I met them, but I did know them before I joined SA. It was the best experience.

Dude how can you forget how we met! we met while... , nvm god works in mysterious ways and made us forget i gues, hahaha. SA till the grave were our memories of it are already waiting for our body's to join them

Reading all this makes me sad that I was too big a narb to discover this game earlier

Escrito por Azula., 14.09.2016 at 14:34

Dude how can you forget how we met! we met while...

You got me so excited for a second there... xD

Roleplay used to be fun, not as many noob leavers, and generally friendly community

Escrito por Riches321, 20.09.2016 at 14:35

Roleplay used to be fun, not as many noob leavers, and generally friendly community

Rp still is fun... And there has always been leavers in rp.

Escrito por Permamuted, 12.09.2016 at 18:02

Escrito por Ghostface, 12.09.2016 at 11:35

Escrito por Guest, 12.09.2016 at 11:31

Idk really but i remember when clovis said RP was balanced lol!

you do know a long time ago Clovis was the biggest troll tard on AW .. some say he hasnt really changed a lot from then ...

Escrito por Guest, 20.09.2016 at 18:59

Escrito por Permamuted, 12.09.2016 at 18:02

Escrito por Ghostface, 12.09.2016 at 11:35

Escrito por Guest, 12.09.2016 at 11:31

Idk really but i remember when clovis said RP was balanced lol!

you do know a long time ago Clovis was the biggest troll tard on AW .. some say he hasnt really changed a lot from then ...

Escrito por Google, 14.09.2016 at 10:22

I loved Mia, Dino, Heat, Leo, Krypt, Darth, and others. I even have. Special part in my heart for gow <3.

Thanks....

Escrito por PleaseMe, 09.09.2016 at 15:17

Prom, at one point in history, high ranks actually played RP because it was fun. That's all you need to know.

This here is soo full of shit lol.

Competitive play died by and large and so high ranked players settled for the next SP farm

I joined this game towards late 2011. In those days the game was lot different than what it is now. Getting capped turn 1 was the norm as was allying other and back stabbing 2 turns later. 2012 onwards the competitive side of game(cws) became standard and got better in 2013 and 2014. Since then the game has got stagnant. No new updates but servers have got lot worse than it ever was.

Escrito por PleaseMe, 09.09.2016 at 15:17

Prom, at one point in history, high ranks actually played RP because it was fun. That's all you need to know.

And then abuses came and the majority of players abuses and not being cooperative ruined it

Escrito por PleaseMe, 09.09.2016 at 15:17

Prom, at one point in history, high ranks actually played RP because it was fun. That's all you need to know.

xa, the first time I ever played RP was because back then there was a thread bashing RP players. I defended them and decided to play RP by myself following my theory that you do learn certain "skills" better in a map than in another. I remember Jared was Egypt and was asking what the hell I was doing there. I went Russia, there was a Germany with nearly the rest of the continent except for a rank 8 that had UK. That R8 guy was very hostile to me and we started to fight over northern Scandinavia (the region near the north pole) for almost 15 turns.

I was impressed that a noprem r8 was actually beating me when I had more reinfs, supposedly better economy and such, so I realized that his walls were messing my moves a lot (apart of theses unrealistically OP UK tanks). After I started to use his tactic I managed to recover almost all scandi, but then we (me and jared) discovered that Germany was funding the hell out of him. I think I left once Germany backstabbed me. Theses wall tricks were, perhaps, the biggest addition to my gameplay and improved it dramatically.

Then I came to forums and popularized the term "RP walls" for theses type of walls tactics.

Everyone talks about history as if this game has died. RIP

Escrito por Dragon, 21.09.2016 at 18:54

Everyone talks about history as if this game has died. RIP