Playing a map
The Aqua IV engine plays .a4m maps and map folders. You can start it from the editor's Play button, or on its own with w4-engine. The map plays the same either way. If you start it from the editor, keep w4-editor and w4-engine in the same folder, because the editor looks for the engine next to itself.
What a game looks like
You see the map from a fixed angle, as in League of Legends. You can zoom and slide the camera, but you cannot turn it. You select units with the mouse, give orders with the right button, and watch them on the minimap in the bottom left corner. Buildings train units from the command card, and workers place new buildings. Everything you can do is something you can also do over a network later, because every order is a command that goes to the simulation. See the simulation and multiplayer.
Gold is the only resource for now. It starts at the map's start gold, which you set in the editor's Players module. Income and mines are not built yet, so gold only goes down. While you test, /gold 500 gives you more.
Pages in this section
- Start screen and lobby: choosing a map, the Players page, loading.
- Controls: camera, selecting, orders, training, building and fog.
- The interface: every panel on the screen and what it shows.
- Chat and commands: chat channels, slash commands and cheats.
- Settings: gameplay, video, sound and hotkeys.
- Online service and W4 ID (the account name stays "W4 ID" for now): accounts, lobbies, history, leaderboard, chat, spectating and the HTTP interface.
- You can always come back: how rejoin works.
- Host a dedicated server: every flag, restarts, metrics and backups.
- Network settings: which road the game takes to a server, the bandwidth budget, and what is planned.
- Online HTTP interface: every route of the online service, generated from the OpenAPI file.
- Ranked queue and parties: finding a ranked match alone or with friends, ratings and fairness rules.
- Tournaments: making, entering and running a bracket.
- Network roadmap: what works online today, what is coming, and what waits on the engine's network client.
- Under the hood: the simulation, models and effects, the command line and environment variables.
Not built yet
A lobby with computer players, joining other people's games, a result screen, save and load, abilities, items, and an economy with income. The roadmap lists what the script API still lacks.
In this section
Start screen and lobby The start screen, choosing a map, the Players page, the loading screen and what happens with older maps.Controls Camera, selecting units, orders, control groups, training, building and fog of war.The interface Every panel on the screen in a game: top bar, minimap, unit panel, command card, hero bar, inventory, allies, quests, chat and the message log.Chat and commands Team and all chat, every slash command with its arguments, cheats, and the commands a map adds.Hero control, aiming and bars Hero focus and the camera modes, casting modes and aim indicators, the utility slot, floating combat text, health bar tick marks, the players overlay and the pointer sets.Settings Every setting of the engine: gameplay, video, sound and the hotkeys, with the defaults and where they are stored.Under the hood The simulation, models and effects the engine supports, the debug overlay, the command line and environment variables.Online service and W4 ID The W4 ID account and settings, game tokens, lobbies and rejoin, servers and ping, game history, leaderboard and ratings, chat, spectating, moderation, shared maps and assets, and the HTTP interface the engine uses.Game history Finished games on the official servers, what is recorded about them, and how replays will work.Global chat The public chat all players share, how guests are marked, how long it is kept, and how to read it on the web.Why is my game laggy? What "lag" can mean in an online game, how to tell which kind you have, and what you can do about each.Network settings What decides how your game connects (transport, bandwidth), what you can change today, and what the server decides for you.Play a campaign The campaign picker, the chapter briefing, retrying a lost mission, the statistics page, and the campaign.toml fields a campaign is made of.You can always come back How rejoin works: what happens to your seat and your army when your connection drops, you close the game or the server restarts, the Rejoin card on your W4 ID page, and how to get back from any computer.Campaign scenes and choices The story screens between missions: dialogue scenes, decisions and your party.Fair play, chat rules and your data How W4 keeps online games fair, the rules for chat and uploads, and exactly what the online service stores and for how long. A plain-language draft.Host a dedicated server Run w4-dedicated for other people: every flag, TLS and QUIC, checkpoints and restarts, draining, spectators, metrics and the time series, backups, and a service file for systemd or FreeBSD.Online HTTP interface Every route of the online service, one line each, generated from the OpenAPI file in the repository.Run a bot load test Fill a dedicated server with fake players and read what it costs: the bot client, its flags, how to read its table, and numbers we measured.Ranked queue and parties How to find a ranked match alone or with a party of up to four, what the rating does, and the rules that keep ranked games fair.Tournaments How single-elimination 1v1 tournaments work: making one, entering, seeding and byes, how matches are played and decided, and what the owner can do.Network roadmap What works online today, what is coming, and what waits on the engine's network client. A short version of the internal network plan.Sending feedback How to send a bug, an idea, praise or a question from the website, what is sent with it, and how to keep parts of it back.Items Items and shops in the simulation, how a map defines them, and what is not built yet.Match statistics and the grade What the game records about a match, and how the performance grade is worked out from it.Joining a game in progress How you take a free seat in a game that is already running, what you start with and what is not built yet.