The Killing Zone:
NetMech
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| Q: What is the Missile Boat Rule? |
A: Many of the teams in the Netmech Zone have come from the registry, which is why the vote narrowly won for this over a hybrid GC/registry missile boat rule. So here it is in full splender written by our very own Knockmore when he founded the registry. This rule has stood the test of time. That's right, you can't have a full-fledged missile boat. A legal mech may have a maximum of three missile racks total (LRM and SRM together). Your mech cannot be capable of doing more than 30 points of damage with each "type" of missile (LRM or SRM). This is NOT to be construed as to mean that if you use chain fire as opposed to group fire, you are allowed to carry more missiles. The only exception to this rule is unmodified, standard configs that came with the game. If you so much as move a heat sink, your mech becomes a custom config and is subject to the missile boat rule. Because this rule has been so widely misunderstood in the past, we have included below a partial list of legal configurations under this rule.
Examples of some legal mech configurations:
Even if both parties agree to certain rules,
the missile boat rule overrides that. Only in the Tournament Zone can people
agree to other conditions. This is to prevent confusion on the large scale
battles that take place in the Netmech Zone. The tournament Zone is however
smaller scale battles, where it is less likely to cause confusion to allow
such lattitude.
| Q. Can you play with missile boats in the Tournament Zone? |
A. Why yes, didn't I just say that in answer
to the last question? But remember that BOTH sides must agree, otherwise
the missile boat rule applies.
| Q:How can merc groups work for someone? |
A. Yes you can only work for one side or the
other on each battle. Just show up to the server with several guys. Be sure
to negotiate for payment BEFORE the battle. Organizing battles is enough
work without haggling with mercaneries during the battle. Use the mercanery
employment pay to state standard rates. Work for as many groups as you can
get contracts from.
| Q:I have a brother that shares my email and wants to play, why can't I enter him in the Player Zone? |
A: Each player has to have a unique email address.
You can get a free email account through hotmail or others on the net, so
get your brother another email address and have him register.
| Q:Can a merc work for clans? |
A: A merc can work for ANYONE, clan or inner
sphere alike. That is up to the mercanery group and their employers. It is
a personal preference, plus a matter of what work is available. All the merc
group has to do is show up to the battle. Any payments to the group can be
handled with a transfer to the merc groups account.
| Q: Are troops moved immediately when I fill out a movement form? |
A: YES!! This is real-time, so if you get an
attack movement, that means that most likely your opponent is logged on now
issuing attack orders. If you can beat your opponent to the punch, you might
even place reinforcement before they finishing attacking a certain planet.
Timing and tactics are very important.
| Q: I'm new to netmech and I shot at my opponent and he never took damage |
A:This is probably a result of what is know
as lag. It takes a certain amount of time for information to get from your
computer to your opponents. So you need to lead your target. A higher ping
means you have a lot of lag. When your ping is high you can try reconnecting
in case you had a bad connection. You can also move to a server with less
people. If your modem is anything less than a 28.8 then your modem is slow
enough that it is affecting gameplay in most cases and some people will not
even be willing to play with you as a result.
| Q: I played against someone that was cheating what should I do? |
A:Check the codes of
conduct for instructions.
| Q. When someone ejects or presses Ctrl+Q, what happens to their mech? |
A. With Regens for both sides, this is not such
a heated issue. If they eject or press Ctrl+Q, it is a lost mech. If someone
is dropped for any other reason, besides running out of mechs, then everyone
else should also exit netmech, reconvene on the kali server, grab the same
players and continue with the HUD count as the number of mechs lost. If the
kill does not show up on the HUD, then it doesn't count.
| Q. How often can a unit attack? |
A. A unit can attack continuously as long as
it has mechs and pilots to fight with them. They can even attack all planets
on a border simultaneously, and then fight battles everyday for a while.
The group leader just has to keep filling out the movement form for each
attack.
| Q. How do I totally destroy another group? |
A. Well you can kill them to the last man and
take all their planets. This means tracking down their men if some of them
are hidden in someone If you take their last planet, you get 25% of their
resources. They have one week to find a group willing to give them planets
or they will be pronounced dead.
| Q. The top 5 of what are prohibited from merging? |
A. There is a page with rankings. There are
overall rankings and also rankings by group type in three different categories,
total production, total planets, and standing armies. If either group is
in the top 5 on ANY of these lists, then the merger is prohibited. Remember
the owner of terra can make such an exception to the rule
| Q. Is location a factor or can we attack from anywhere? |
A. There is a limit of how far you can move.
This is called jump distance and the automated system will calculate this
for you when doing a movement. You can use the imagemap starmap to find what
planets are in range.
| Q. How many battles can a member participate in? How often? |
The only limits you have are time and money(like
in real life). All mechs used on an attack are available. The ratios are
recalculated every round. Both sides can regen until they run out of
mechs.
| Q. Will anyone die, be taken bondsman, etc? |
A. No way! This ladder is meant to be fun and
not being able to play is not fun for the person taken bondsman. A person
can role-play this, but that is entirely up to the individual and is beyond
the scope of the game system.
| Q. Can I change planet names? |
A. Generally no, because it can be a lot of
work, but in extremely rare instances maybe. :)
| Q. What happens if my group falls before the minimum number of people? |
A. Why haven't you been recruiting? This is
a fun ladder, surely you can find some people to play for your group. If
this is your first deadline or you just dropped below, I'll give you a another
week to go on kali and ask for members. After that, you're history, time
to turn in your spot and the next person on the waiting list gets to take
your place.
| Q. Can I borrow funds from someone? |
A. Funds can be transfered from another group
only from their main bank and this is done using by group leaders using the
groupedit form.
| Q. I want to start a group, what do I do? |
A. This is mentioned in the rules. Didn't you
read the rules? Go to the first section of the netmech zone area. Start reading
there and while you're at it you may as well all the rules. hehehe
| Q. Help I just started getting a bunch of attack messages from my neighbor. Hurry, what can I do to stop him? |
A. Timing is everything. Good thing I'm here.
OK log on to the automated system right now and send an attack force from
one of your planets without a battle flag sent onto a planet you expect him
to launch an attack from. That will stick his men there. If your opponent
sent in just a few mechs, he is probably scoping you out. If you have a weak
planet that he found, send in reinforcements now, before he launches his
main attack(s) onto that planet. Seconds could count here.
| Q. I'm going to be away from email for a week, what should I do? |
A. Well this is a fast paced ladder, so make
sure that someone is on your leader list who WILL be around. If not, FIND
someone and ADD them to the list. That is why many groups have several people
that get attack messages.
| Q. You said jumps are instanteous, so you could keep jumping and go behind the front line troops. So doesn't that meant that I would have to place mechs all my planets? |
A. No! You can't jump behind front line planets,
but every planet within jump distance of an enemy planet is a front line
planet. Once you are on an enemy planet a battle flag is set by the automation
system. Once a battle flag is set, no one can leave that planet and further
points cannot be placed directly there and production cannot be changed.
So effectively, until the battles on that planet are resolved and the battle
flag has been removed, your jumping is effectively halted until you can hold
the planet long enough to attack from it. Troops can still be sent to the
planet from adjacent planets which are not engaged in warfare.
| Q. What is the correct way to declare an attack on a planet? |
A. Go to the automated system and fill out the
movement form. Everything else like figuring wether it is in range is done
automatically. The people with mechs on the planet are informed of your attack
and all forces there are listed. The planet conditions are also listed. The
only information not listed is it's production. Now you need to decide how
you are going to spend your points for mechs and schedule the battle. Oh,
yeah! You have to fight the battle too.
| Q. All the slots on The Killing Zone are filled. What can I do to get in? |
A. Get placed on the waiting list. Periodically
we will make room for waiting list units to play! While you're on the waiting
list you can make deals with registered groups and fight under their banner,
but remember you can still be in only one group at a time, so your group
would technically be part of their group. Your patience will be
rewarded.
| Q. Just Great! I'm surrounded by pacifists! We're at peace all my neighbors. What can I do to play? |
A. Get someone to give you a planet elsewhere
and freepassage to the battle front. Then you attack somewhere completely
unrelated to your main location and play a new opponent.
| Q. I tried to move through our allies space and it told me I couldn't without attacking them? What can I do? |
A. Get them to give you free passage. You can't
go into someone else's space without being welcomed. For free passage, you
are given a single point on the planet that acts as a marker. If you take
that point with you when you move through, you will have to be given free
passage to move through that planet again.
| Q. There is a large backlog of attacks on this planet. I don't understand how many points the defender has on the planet. |
A. The defender group has the total amount of
points on the planet MINUS the total of points for unresolved attacks, since
they have not arrived yet. The attacking groups have the number of points
for their attack available. Attacks are done for individual planets in order.
If the attack is successful, they take the planet and become the defender.
If they are unsuccessful, the remaining forces retreat. If the next wave
is a defending force or their ally, they become reinforcements.