B ★ O ★ T

• The Story So Far
  • The Prime Edict
• Playing the Game
  • The Selection Screen
  • The Battle Screen
• Tips and strategies
  • Bot Tips
  • Weapon Tips

The Story So Far

Fifty-four years have passed since the founding of the Star Alliance, the mightiest political organization in history. Thanks to the Alliance's vast resources and knowledge, mankind has colonized a hundred worlds across a hundred different suns. But all has not been peaceful: since the earliest days after its founding, the Alliance has constantly been dogged by the spectre of war.

It started with the Rebellion. Led by the free-thinking colonists of Vega, a group of malcontents on the fringes of inhabited space broke free to establish their own territory. The battles at first were hot, bitter, and bloody, but once it become clear that neither side could completely overcome the other, the situation simmered into an uneasy detente, stoked by the occasional skirmish.

Meanwhile, war itself began to evolve. It was more than forty years ago that the first Bot was invented. These versatile, all-terrain, fusion-powered humanoid vehicles were originally intended to help mankind colonize hostile worlds, but they quickly proved to be more useful as battle platforms. It was not long before all sides realized that the best way to defend territory from Bot encroachment was with more Bots, so these killing machines now see deployment far and wide.

The Prime Edict

No one is quite sure how the force now known as the Prime Edict broke away from the Rebel faction. All we know is that the Rebels were unprepared. Half of their stars fell within months, and by now even the once-mighty fleets of Vega teeter on the edge of defeat.

Named after the supposed order that drives all of its forces to battle, the Edict proved to be skilled and relentless. Bots were their hammer and lightly-defended worlds were their nail. Each planet or colony taken over by the Edict has cut off all communication with Earth, separating countless families from their loved ones. It is known that some of these colonists now fight for the Edict.

A mysterious, taciturn entity known only as The Overseer appears to be the spiritual leader of these forces. All efforts to reach it through diplomacy have proven fruitless. It will not listen to reason. It is driven by one purpose and one purpose only: the complete takeover of the planet Earth, which by definition requires the liquidation of the Star Alliance.

And that is why we fight.

Playing the Game

The Selection Screen

During this screen, human players get an opportunity to choose their forces for the upcoming battle and to see a brief preview of the computer forces they will be attacking (if any.) All players are allotted a set of points known as the Combat Strength; each Bot a player selects subtracts from this total, and the total may not be exceeded. Computer players normally follow the same rules, but human players wishing for a challenge can increase or decrease the computer players' point totals by selecting a new Computer Difficulty.

Each player that is added to the game is assigned to a Faction. You may change the faction at any time, but no two players are allowed to belong to the same faction, and there are no faction alliances in this game. The factions are (mostly) fungible, and none have any advantage over another.

Use the - and + buttons to add or remove Bots and players. Removing a player or changing its type to Computer discards whatever Bots that player has currently selected.

The Battle Screen

During combat, the game selects a Bot from each side in order of speed (faster Bots go first.) The player controlling this Bot must click on the weapon they intend to use and on a foe that they intend to attack. The order in which these two selections are done does not matter, but once both items are chosen, the attack is committed and the game generates a Damage Report dialog showing the damage that the attack caused. Damage dealt during combat is always rounded up if it is fractional; damage prevented during combat is always rounded down.

A bot with 0 or fewer hitpoints is instantly destroyed. A bot running out of ammo will skip its turn; most Bots have at least one weapon with limitless ammunition, making this a rare occurrence. When a Bot on your side has been destroyed, you can click on the x button to close that Bot's view.

Victory is achieved when only one faction still has functioning Bots.

Tips and Strategies

Bot Tips

• A jump-capable Bot effectively has 40-50% more hitpoints than a Bot without jump capabilities. The usual trade-off is that these sorts of Bots have low armor ratings.
  However, at least one jump-capable Bot also has high armor ratings.
• Under harder difficulty levels, expect to face more heavily-armored assault-class Bots. You should have at least one Bot with strong weaponry that can pierce that kind of armor.
• Scarabs are only useful when they are paired with Bots too dangerous to ignore.
• Gang up on enemy Bots. Try to kill one before your next turn starts.

Weapon Tips

• When a Bot has more than one weapon of the same type, firing any of those weapons will fire all of them at once. This multiplying effect can make weak weapons much more dangerous.
• Carefully observe the weapons that the computer players use when attacking you. The computer players are aware of the laws of probability and will usually attack with weapons that deal the highest damage in the long run. These are not necessarily the weapons that deal the highest theoretical damage on paper.
• To draw the fire of computer-controlled Bots, you need a Bot that can withstand punishment and which possesses a dangerous weapon which is likely to cause a kill on the CPU's side. You may wish to keep one powerful shell in your arsenal just for that purpose instead of pummelling someone with it the first chance you get.
• It seems fairly obvious, but if your Bot has a powerful weapon, don't waste its limited ammunition on Bots that don't pose a threat to you.