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Quick Play Guide

A brief explanation of how to play Naked War

This page should tell you everything you need to know to play your first Naked War turn, or issue your first Challenge. For a more comprehensive guide to the whole game, read the Officer's Manual. If you need help finding or installing the game, or getting it running for the first time, read the Getting Started guide.

Altough we've provided this guide for new players, we hope that you won't need it! There may be some unfamiliar concepts in this game, but we've worked hard to make the game as self-explanitary as possible. It should be possible to work things out for yourself, even on your first go, and it might be more interesting for you if you try. Certainly, don't be put off if this page makes the game look over-complicated. Its actually very easy to play.

If you are unsure what any button does, just hover your cursor over it and a 'tool-tip' explanation will appear.

Have fun!

How Naked War is played

The main way to play Naked War is against a friend, over email. Each of the two players in a game take it in turn to 'set-up' a turn, then send it to their opponent as an email. When a player receives a Naked War email they run the attached file containing the turn data to watch their opponent's turn, then set-up their own turn in response and send it back.

When responding to a turn you don't need to launch Naked War by double clicking its icon; the game is launched automatically by opening the turn file attached to the email. When launced in this way Naked War starts in a special mode just for playing this particular game, with no main menu, and once turn set-up and play-backs are completed the game automatically exits.

If you launch Naked War maunally by double clicking its icon, the game launches in default mode for doing anything other than continuing an existing game. The game starts with a Main Menu containing the options to either Register or issue a New Challenge (only available to players who have registered already) and others, such as to play in the 2 Player Local or Sandbox modes, or to create a new island with the Map Editor.

If you want to continue playing an exisitng game of Naked War there is no need to launch the game itself by clicking its icon, you simply need to open the file attached to each email which arrives in your Inbox. You only need to launch Naked War manually to Register or start a new game by issuing a Challenge, or to mess about in Sandbox or Local modes, or to create your own island.

The aim of the game

Naked War is a strategic battle between two squads of soldiers belonging to different teams (shown by uniform colour), each commanded by a human player, fought on a small faraway island. Each soldier starts the game with a 'doofer', a yellow spinning blob which follows the soldier around. Whenever a soldier is defeated - when their health bar is empty - the attacking soldier receives their doofer in reward. The game is won when all the doofers are collected by one squad.

Each soldier starts as a Private, but can earn promotions during a game to rank up as high as Sergeant Major. With each higher rank the solider becomes more powerful, with greater attack power, and greater defence, each of which are shown by the two bars above and below the health bar.

Soldiers can make use of any unoccupied military vehicles or equipment on the island. Tanks, helicopters, boats and more may be available, to be used by whichever soldier jumps in them first, all of which alter the movement and attack range of the occupying soldier. When inside a vehicle a soldier of whatever rank takes on the attack and defence power of the vehicle they are in, overriding their own attack and defence power. There are limits to what a soldier can do when inside a vehicle, other than moving and attacking, so they aren't neccessarily always a better option than fighting on foot.

Crates are dotted around the island which contain useful power-up items - health packs, promotions, ammo etc., which can be picked up by any solider on foot by walking up to them, but will be destroyed by any soldier in a vehicle who tries the same move.

Each hit a soldier receives causes damage, shown by their health bar (in their team's colour). The health bar is refilled by promotions, entering vehicles, or using special power ups, but is decreased whenever the solider is hit. When the health bar is empty the solider is defeated. This doesn't mean that they die though - they are just demobbed!

A demobbed soldier is stripped of all rank and uniform (ending up naked!), and if they had a doofer it is passed to the soldier who got the last hit. Naked soldiers - well, civillians - remain under the player's command, but without a weapon they can no longer attack enemies, and no longer have the right to use military equipment. They can, however, still open crates and collect power ups, and if they use a promotion power up they are promoted back to Private, and can rejoin the battle.

Starting an new game

To start a new game of Naked War against a friend, launch the game by double clicking on the Naked War icon on your desktop, or selecting Naked War from your Start Menu, and select New Challenge from the main menu to create a new game.

If your game shows the Register option on the main menu, you will first need to register before you can issue a Challenge (don't worry, this is free). To register you first need to create a Zee-3 account on this website, which also gives full access to the forums, then you select Register on the main menu and type in your Zee-3 user name and password. You'll only have to do this once, and now your copy of Naked War is registered, and you will get the option to issue Challenges.

Challenge set up

There are a number things you need to select on the Challenge set up screen before you can issue the Challenge. Your opponent and the island you wish to play on are required, and you may have the option of sending a message along with the Challenge.

You select your opponent by clicking on the Address Book icon. This takes you to the Address Book screen where you can select an opponent from your existing list, or add a new player to your Address Book, whom you can then select. Alternatively, you can type in the email address of an opponent who isn't an existing Naked War player (games against opponents identified by email address are always 'friendlies', as the opponent cannot yet be a member of one of the Naked War teams).

You select the island you wish to play on by clicking on the Map browser icon. This allows you to select and download any island maps from the Zee-3 server which you are eligable to play.

Issuing the Challenge

When you've selected your options you still have one more decision to make - three icons appear at the bottom of the screen allowing you to make an opening gambit in the form of a scissors / paper / stone game. The winner of this mini-game will get to take the first turn. Click on one of these icons to issue your Challenge.

You connect to the Sending Turn screen where you Challenge turn is sent to your opponent, and that's it!

Playing a turn

Whenever you receive a new Naked War email in your Inbox, open (or double click) the attached turn file to continue this game. Naked War will automatically launch and take you through the five stages listed below.

Challenge and Acceptence turns

Challenge and Acceptence turns are created at the beginning of a game, and are played slightly differently to ordinary turns.

If the turn you open is a Challenge, instead of starting with a play-back of your opponent's previous turn you will instead be invited to play the Scissors / Paper / Stone game. Click the icon for your selection and your Acceptance turn will be sent to your Challenger through the Sending Turn screen, then your Scissors / Paper / Stone gambit will be compared against your Challenger's.

If your opponent wins then they get to take the first proper turn, and your Acceptence is complete. The game will now exit, and you need to wait for your opponent to reply with the next turn. If you win, then you get to take the first turn, starting with Inspection below.

If the turn you open is an Acceptence of a Challenge you sent previously you will get to see the results of the Scissors / Paper / Stone game. If you won, you then get to make the first turn, starting with Inspection below. If you lost, the Acceptance is complete and the game will now exit. Your opponent's first turn email will follow very soon.

Note

If when checking your email you receive both an Acceptance email and a Turn 1 email, for the same game, in response to a Challenge, this means that your opponent won the Scissors / Paper / Stone game and took the first turn. In these cases its perfectly safe to ignore the Acceptence turn and jump straight into Turn 1.

1. Opponent's play-back

(This stage is ommitted if you are starting the very first turn in a game.)

The first thing you see when you open the turn file attached to a Naked War email is the Incoming Turn Status Screen. Here you are given a reminder of who your opponent is and what team colour you both are, and you get to see the soldiers in both squads, showing how many doofers each one has and their health bar. When you are ready you can press the big orange arrow at the bottom of the screen to begin play-back. This will show you the moves your opponent chose for his soldiers, and their results, in the form of a short movie.

You can watch the turn being played back in one of four different camera modes. The four buttons at the bottom left of the screen are used to switch between camera modes. Camera modes can be switched at any time during play-back, as often as you like.

While you are watching the play-back you can use the time control buttons to pause the action, or watch in fast-forward or slow-motion modes. You can also restart the play-back from the very beginning at any time using the replay button. You don't need to worry about missing any details of your opponent's moves as you are free to rewatch the play-back any number of times, fast or slow motion, in any camera mode you like.

When the turn's play-back is complete you are presented with three final options on the Turn Completed screen. You can have a look around the whole island by using the central eye button, surveying the damage done and the positions of all the soldiers and vehicles etc. You can review the whole turn again from the beginning using the replay button to the left. When you are satisfied you can press the big orange arrow button on the right to progress to the next stage.

Whenever any soldier is attacked and damaged during a turn play-back, a Damage Card appears for that soldier. The Damage Card shows the solider involved, the changes to that soldier's Health Bar, and describes the result of the attack. Succesful attacks are described as 'Enemy Attacks', accidental damage to soliders on the same team is described as 'Friendly Fire', and attacks which defeat a solider are described as 'Demobbed'. Single attacks can attack multiple soldiers; one attack could potentially damage every soldier on the map, which would result in damage cards appearing for all soliders.

At any point during play-back of a turn a message may be spoken by the active soldier, in the form of either text, or speech, or both. When this happens the action pauses and the buttons at the bottom of the screen are replaced by the message bar, which consists of a picture of the soldier speaking, the text of the message (if any - some messages may be audio only), and two buttons - one to replay the message, and one to skip past the message.

When the message has been spoken a timer will tick down on the skip button (the big orange arrow on the right), after which time the game will automaticall return to the action. The message can be replayed any number of times by pressing the replay button (the blue play button on the left), or cancelled at any moment by pressing the skip button.

2. Your Inspection

Before you begin to set up your own turn you are given the opportunity to inspect your squad. The Inspection Screen displays the state of your troops after the attacks of the previous turn, before showing the soldiers receiving refreshment before the next turn.

Each solider in your squad is viewed in a mini-cam with their name below, and above each soldier is their Energy / Inventory block - a series of bars showing the solider's status, ammo, and pickup items available. One by one each soldier is called to attention, and they automatically receive one extra unit of ammo, and a 25% increase in their movement range for the next turn. The orange arrow button can be used to skip straight to the end of the inspection, and then to progress to turn set-up.

3. Your set-up

Setting up a turn involves surveying the island then selecting each solider in your squad and giving that soldier a series of orders (or 'moves') - primrily moving and attacking - before finally executing the turn. All solider's execute their moves simultaneously during the turn, so care and planning are required to synchronise each solider's moves for maximum effect, and to avoid soldiers getting in each others' way.

Navigating the island

The set-up screen shows a 3D view of the island, with rotation and zoom controls in the top left hand corner. At the bottom right hand of the screen is the timeline, showing each solider in your squad, and any moves you have set-up already. If you have a soldier selected, a mini-cam appears on the bottom left of the screen showing that solider in close up surrounded by command buttons, and that soldier's Energy / Inventory block above.

In addition to the rotation and zoom controls on the screen, the view of the island can be changed by holding down the left mouse button to drag the view, or holding down the right mouse button to rotate the view, or using the mouse wheel to zoom in and out.

Soliders in your squad are marked with a faint, square, yellow target. Soliders can be selected by either clicking upon them in the field, or by clicking the icon for that solider on the timeline. The selected soldier is marked by a larger, flashing, red square target.

Issuing commands

To give commands to a solider you need to select that solider first, which will bring up a mini-cam at the bottom left of the screen, surrounded by command buttons. Each of these buttons can be used to issued a command to a soldier. Each command will be executed in sequence and each command uses up one move, up to a maximum of seven moves per solider per turn.

Blue buttons indicate commands which can be issued more than once per turn. Purple buttons indicate commands which can only be issued once per turn, and which end the turn of that solider once executed. Grey buttons indicate game-system or user-interface commands. The command buttons available change according to the circumstances of the soldier.

Most commands require you to make further decisions (such as move and fire commands which require you to select a destination or target), bring up sub-menus of further commands (such as the crate button) or other input screens (such as the message button), before the set-up of that command is complete.

Target range and arrows

The Move / Attack / Jump and Enter Building commands all require you to select a destination or target point for your soldier. In each case once the command button has been selected an area around the solider becomes highlighted on the island with coloured stripes. You must now select a cell position within the highlighted area as the destination or target point (or in the case of attacks, you may select an enemy solider within range). An arrow is then drawn on the island showing the route the solider or shell will take, and a marker is drawn at the target point (in the case of attacks the target maker is sometimes larger than a cell, indicting a large damage range), and a number appears above the target point corresponding to the move number on the timeline.

Normally only the arrows for the currently selected soldier's moves are visible while you are selecting a new destination / target point, but holding the space bar down at any time during turn set-up will display the arrows for all the moves of all your soliders. It may be useful to study the island with all arrows and move numbers visible in this way to make sure you've avoided setting up a turn where soldiers block each other's routes. If a blockage occurs during playback any soldier who is blocked will give up, and all their subsequent moves for that turn will be cancelled.

The Timeline

As you issue commands to your soldiers, an icon for each command appears next to that soldier's icon on the timeline, at the bottom left of the screen. There is space for up to seven moves per soldier per turn. A number representing the move number appears above each column of command icons. When the turn is executed all the commands in each move's column will execute simultaneously, and the next move will not begin until all the commands of the previous move have completed.

At the end of each soldier's row of moves is a delete icon. Pressing this deletes the last move from that solider's timeline. You can also click on any command icon on the timeline to add a message to that move, or edit an existing message. Any move with a message attached shows a little speech bubble, either before or after the command icon.

There is no need to use all seven moves for each solider, or issue commands to every solider in your squad, each turn. The only requirement is that at least one soldier makes at least one move before the turn can be executed.

When all soliders are de-selected (by pressing the return button at the bottom their mini-cam), and at least one command has been issued, the big orange complete button will appear to the right of the timeline. Pressing this completes the set-up and sends the turn to your opponent.

4. Send turn

After completing your turn set-up the turn data is sent to your opponent, via the Zee-3 server. You must be connected to the internet for this stage to succeed. The game connects to the server, uploads the turn data, then reports back the successful sending of the turn. The whole process usually takes just a few seconds, after which the turn play-back stage will begin.

If no internet connection can be found, or there is a problem finding the server, then the turn will fail to be sent. The and the game ask if you want to retry sending the turn, or quit. Don't worry, even if you quit your turn won't be lost. It will be stored on your hard disk in a queue ready to be re-sent, and the game will automatically try to re-send the queued turn the next time you run the game.

You won't be able to watch the play-back of this turn until it has been sent to your opponent.

Very rarely the game will successfully connect to the server to send the turn, but some error will occur (perhaps a warning that you need to upgrade to a newer version of the game). The warning message will give an explanation of the problem and instructions on what to do next.

5. Your play-back

Now that the turn has been safely sent to your opponent, you get to watch the results of the turn you have set-up. You may even be watching the turn play-back at the same time as your opponent, if they happen to be sat at their computer checking their email. Your play-back works in exactly the same way as the opponent's play-back, back at stage 1, with one small difference.

What your opponent will see whenever your soliders walk into a crate is an icon of a crate appearing above that solider. What you will see is an icon appearing above the soldier showing you what item they found in that crate - a Medikit, a Sheild, an extra piece of Ammunition, or a Promotion.

Whatever your soliders find in crates, and the contents of their inventory bars, is always hidden from your opponent.

During the play-back of the turn you will see that the commands you issued to your soliders for their moves are visible, both to you and your opponent. The layout of these comman icons differs according the camera mode you are watching the play-back in. In single camera mode the remaining command icons appear above each solider's head as each move begins, before fading out. In mini-cam mode the command icons appear in a dial formation around the mini-cam, with the active command at the bottom, rotating clockwise each move. In split screen mode the command icons appear at the bottom of each soldier's screen.

When play-back is complete, after you've watched replays and surveyed the island, click the big tick button to complete the turn and exit the game.

Completing a game

When one team gains possession of all the doofers the game is over and the winner is declared. This will occur sometime during play-back of the final turn of the game. At this point both players get a chance to rate the game. To rate the game just click the buttons for either OK, Rubbish or Exceptional. The game will connect to the Zee-3 server in the same way as when a turn is sent (so you will need to be connected to the internet) and record your rating for this game. The rating given for the game will contribute towards your opponent's overall player rating, and the rating of the island map you played on.

It is important to rate every game you finish as this marks the game as 'complete' on the server, contributing towards your player stats, and removing this game from your active games list.