Double click on the Shadowbane patcher.exe icon to use the patching utility and update your copy of the client. Once patching is finished, click the “Play” button to proceed to the login screen. At the login screen, you will be prompted for your login name and password, which have been supplied with your copy of the game. These are case-sensitive, so copy them exactly.

If you’d like to save the login name, select “Save Account Name.” Once this information has been entered, click the right/forward-pointing arrow to proceed to the login screen, your gateway to the world of Shadowbane.

1.2: The Login Screen

The starting point of any Shadowbane playing session, the login screen allows you to create and delete characters, and to begin play.

The right half of the screen displays a column of five character slots – initially, these will simply be blank fields (marked [EMPTY SLOT]) between two blank shields. Once a character slot is occupied, the name of the character is listed in the slot, along with their level, race and class. The shields on either side of the slot will display that character’s Guild and Nation emblems (see Section 6.0 – Guilds for more about Guilds and Nations). Clicking a character slot selects it, highlighting the displayed information and displaying that character in the center of the screen.

The left side of the screen contains a column of four buttons:

q New – This begins the character creation process (see Section 2.0 – Creating Characters). The created character will fill the currently selected character slot.

q Play – This logs you into the game server, beginning play with the currently selected character.

q Delete – This empties a character slot, permanently deleting the character within it. You will be prompted to confirm your decision. Deleted characters cannot be recovered.

q Quit – This terminates the Shadowbane client, returning you to your desktop.

Once you reach the login screen, select an open character slot and click “New” to begin character creation. If characters are available, click the desired character, then click “Play” to begin.

1.3: Starting Points

Every character has a login point, the place where the character’s avatar first appears when you log in to the game. Initially, the character’s starting point is at a Safehold, a non-player city built into one specific game world. You will choose your character’s starting server world and their home Safehold during character creation.

During the course of play other buildings (Inns, for example) or objects (Trees of Life) can serve as new or temporary starting locations. There is a distinction between where your character begins play after logging out and where they can “respawn” after death – some starting points are good for logins but not respawning. More information about Inns and Trees of Life can be found in Section 10.0 – Buildings and Building Management.

Section 2.0 – Creating Characters

On the initial roster screen, you will notice that five character “slots” are available (blank fields bounded by a pair of shields). Initially, these will be blank. Once a character is generated, the character’s name, race, level and class will appear in the field. You can have a total of five active characters in the world of Shadowbane, although you may only play one of them at a time.

To begin the character creation process, click on any one of the character slots to highlight it. Then click the “New” button at the left side of the screen.

2.1: Step One – Game World Selection

As soon as you click the “New” button, a menu of available game worlds will appear. For the purposes of this test, choose (Aerynth). Once you have made a selection, click the check-marked button at the bottom of the menu to approve your choice.

2.2: Step Two– Name

When prompted, enter the character’s first and last names. Both names are required. Spaces are allowed within the last name only (thus, “the Mighty” would be an acceptable last name). The maximum letter count for each name (first and last) is 15 characters each, including spaces.

Once you have entered your character’s name, click the forward arrow button to proceed to the character generation screen. The button marked “x” will return you to the login screen.

2.3: The Character Generation Screen

This screen has seven tables of buttons and fields, each pertaining to an aspect of your Shadowbane character. As you proceed through the character generation process, your character’s model will appear in the center of the screen. The choices you make will affect the model, giving you a preview of how your character will look when you begin play. There are two important features of the screen that you should keep track of during character generation. They are:

q Attribute Points: At the bottom of the right side of the screen is a field labeled “Points.” This indicates how many character creation points you have to spend on your character’s race, talents, and attributes.

q Runestones: At the lower left hand side of the screen, beside the “Traits” menu, you will find your character’s runestone inventory. Most important aspects of characters are defined by runestones: small, oval stones marked with an arcane glyph. Race and class are signified in this way, and any innate Traits or Talents your character possesses (purchased during character creation or earned later) will also garner a runestone in this inventory. Over the course of gameplay, your character will have the opportunity to acquire other runestones that can grant access to various Classes, Professions, Disciplines, and Traits or Talents.

Although you may adjust any of the items in the character generation process at any time, we recommend that you proceed through the fields in the following order.

2.4: Step Three - Gender

At this time you should select a gender for the character by clicking the appropriate box. Male and female characters are considered equal in the game system. Though there are no gender-based modifications to attributes or powers, three races (Dwarves, Half-Giants, and Minotaurs) and the Warlock class are not available as female characters, and two classes (Fury and Huntress) are unavailable to male characters.

2.5: Step Four - Race

Select the race you wish your character to be by clicking in the appropriate field. Mousing over any of the race names will display a brief description. Your character point total will decrease based on the cost of the race you have chosen. Humans cost 0 points to play, for example, while Elves cost 25 points. These points are reflected in different attribute maximums and bonuses to appropriate skills.

When you select your race, three things will happen: the appropriate model will be displayed at the center of the screen, your character’s attributes (in the upper right portion of the screen) will be adjusted to the racial averages for that race, and a runestone (a small colored oval) will appear in the runestones inventory at the bottom left corner of the screen.

Here is a quick list of the different races available to players of the Shadowbane beta test, along with a general note about how their primary attributes are modified:

q Aelfborn: The sterile offspring of Human and Elf unions, these beings are distrusted by both Man- and Elf-kind. They are often driven to madness by the nature of their birth, and thus are marked with ritual tattoos to preserve their sanity. Aelfborn are a little more agile and intelligent than Humans, and their ancestral madness makes their starting Spirit attribute lower.

q Aracoix: Fierce avian humanoids from another world entirely, the Aracoix arrived in the world of Shadowbane through the mysterious runegates, and have waged war upon the other races of the world ever since. Although they seem to lack any magical or spiritual aptitude, Aracoix have matchless agility and make vicious opponents in battle. Their great wings give them the ability to fly. These will be a restricted race in the final game, but are presented here in the beta test for anyone to play.

q Centaurs: Proud and strong fusions of horse and man, the Centaurs are the largest and swiftest of the races of the world. They are fearsome opponents, with enormous appetites for song, good food and drink, and a zest for life unequalled by any others. They are stronger and far hardier than Humankind, but are less dexterous or intelligent. They are the most spiritual-minded of all the races, however. These will be a restricted race in the final game, but are presented here in the beta test for anyone to play.

q Dwarves: Shaped from raw stone itself, the Dwarves were once the servants of Thurin and the All-Father beneath the earth. They excel in the arts of carving stone, forging steel, and building great halls and citadels. All Dwarves are male. Because of their stony forms, they are stronger and far hardier than Humankind, but are both physically a bit less dexterous and less intelligent.

q Elves: Onetime masters of the world, the Elves’ power was broken long ago, their empires scattered and destroyed, yet they retain their arrogance. Immortal and inhuman, they are outcasts, wanderers, and excel in the arts arcane. Less sturdy in terms of both Strength and Constitution, they are significantly more agile and more intelligent than Humans.

q Half-Giants: Mortal men born with a touch of the blood of Giant within them, these folk grow to massive size – half again the height of a normal Human – and they are as strong and hardy as they are tall. All Half-Giants are male. Their massive strength and vast endurance is countered by the fact that their Intelligence, Spirit, and Dexterity are less than that of average Humans.

q Human: Most common of the races in Shadowbane, Humans are the children of the All-Father and believe that they are the rightful inheritors of the world. They are the most adaptable and versatile of races. Human racial traits are the average by which all of the other races are judged. Humans begin with no significant strengths or weaknesses in their physical, mental, and spiritual attributes.

q Irekei: Strange crimson-skinned inhabitants of the mighty deserts, the Irekei are fearsome raiders and nomads. They are famous for their contempt for other races, and react violently to the suggestion that they are related to Elves in some distant past. In terms of their beginning attributes, they are similar to Aelfborn, yet are more agile, which is balanced by additional weakness to their spirituality.

q Minotaurs: Half-man, half-bull, the Minotaurs are the product of a sorcerous experiments by Elves upon Humans. In past ages the slow-witted but powerful creatures were used for labor and as shock troops. Free now, they are fearsome warriors. All Minotaurs are male. They are monolithically strong, even greater than Half-Giants, and their constitution is a thing of legend. Regrettably, they are generally clumsier, less intelligent, and far less spiritual than other races. These will be a restricted race in the final game, but are presented here in the beta test for anyone to play.

q Shades: Damned souls, or a bizarre form of living dead, Shades are cursed by all, and feared by most. Pale and cold, with coal-black eyes, Shades are thought to bring ill luck to those they meet. Somewhat weaker than Humans, but much more dexterous, the Shade is also a bit more intelligent than Humankind. However, they are virtually soulless, and they rarely have high Spirit attributes.

For more information about each race, along with their culture and history, read the appropriate section of our web site at http://shadowbane.ubisoft.com/gameinfo/races.html.

2.6: Step Five – Base Class

Select a class for your character by clicking the appropriate class name. Remember that not all classes are available to each race or gender. Mousing over each choice will display a short description of the class and its benefits.

As with race, choosing a base class for your character will modify the character’s attributes and skill ratings. Skills and skill levels are not displayed in this window, but the information will be available to you once your character has been created. Modifiers to starting primary attributes and skill benefits from race and class are cumulative, with maximum values defined by race. Traits and Talents are described in Section 2.8: Step Seven – Traits and Talents.

When you select your class, the character model display will be outfitted with a basic equipment kit based on your choice, and another runestone will appear in your character’s Runestone Inventory. As your character grows in wealth and experience, they will be able to afford new equipment, and will begin to look more distinct. Note that not all classes are available to every race.

A short description of each class follows.

q Fighter – The most direct of the classes, these individuals are concerned with honing skills both practical and deadly. They are skilled in using most weapons, and have a wide range of tricks and battle-powers that make them deadly foes.

Races: Any

q Healer – Drawing miraculous powers from their faith in one of the many Gods, these priests are blessed with many beneficial powers. They can aid the ailing and the dying, and can bring the wrath of their deity down upon their foes.

Races: Aelfborn, Centaur, Dwarf, Elf, Human

q Mage – “Pure” spell-casters, Mages represent the most intellectual aspect of magic use, with their powers drawn from magic formulae, incantations, and enchantments. A Mage’s spells are useful for both defense and attack.

Races: Aelfborn, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

q Rogue – Stealthy and unscrupulous, these characters excel at arts of stealth and dishonorable combat. They look out for themselves, and are usually trying to figure out how to get wealth without fighting or working for it.

Races: Aelfborn, Aracoix, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

Mousing over each class rune will display a listing of both attribute and skill modifiers gained by choosing the appropriate class, as well as a list of the starting equipment for that class. (NOTE: implementation of this feature is not yet complete, and will continue over the course of testing) These are not all of the skills and powers a character can gain over the course of play, merely those your character begins with. For more information about character development, skills, and powers, see Section 8.0 – Character Development and Section 9.0 – Skills and Powers.

The following chart shows the base classes and professions open to each race:

Races	Base Classes Available	Professions Available
Aelfborn	Fighter, Healer, Mage, Rogue	Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Channeler, Crusader, Druid, Fury (female only), Huntress (female only), Prelate, Priest, Ranger, Scout, Thief, Warlock (male only), Warrior, Wizard
Aracoix	Fighter, Rogue	Barbarian, Ranger, Scout, Thief, Warrior
Centaur	Fighter, Healer	Barbarian, Bard, Channeler, Crusader, Druid, Prelate, Priest, Ranger, Warrior
Dwarf	Fighter, Healer	Crusader, Prelate, Priest, Warrior
Elf	Fighter, Healer, Mage, Rogue	Assassin, Bard, Channeler, Crusader, Druid, Fury (female only), Huntress (female only), Prelate, Priest, Ranger, Scout, Thief, Warrior, Wizard
Half-Giant	Fighter	Barbarian, Crusader, Ranger, Templar, Warrior
Human	Fighter, Healer, Mage, Rogue	Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Channeler, Confessor, Crusader, Druid, Fury (female only), Huntress (female only), Prelate, Priest, Ranger, Scout, Templar, Thief, Warlock (male only), Warrior, Wizard
Irekei	Fighter, Mage, Rogue	Assassin, Bard, Channeler, Fury, Scout, Thief, Warrior, Wizard
Minotaur	Fighter	Barbarian, Ranger, Warrior
Shade	Fighter, Mage, Rogue	Assassin, Bard, Scout, Thief, Warlock (male only), Warrior, Wizard

If you’d like to know more about each class, visit our website at http://shadowbane.ubisoft.com/gameinfo/classes/index.shtml for further information.

2.7: Step Six - Attributes

As you select your character’s race, the average primary attributes for that race (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Constitution, and Spirit) will automatically appear in the Attributes window on the upper right hand side of the screen. Your choice of race and class will adjust these values, so be sure to pay attention to them as you make your choices.

You can also adjust each primary attribute by spending character points. Adjacent to each attribute you will find a “+” and “-” button. Clicking on these buttons will either raise or lower that attribute by one point per click. Each point added to an attribute costs one character point, while lowering an attribute adds points to the available total. You can use your cursor arrow for a mouseover of each attribute’s maximum value, which is the highest amount your character can attain in that attribute without additional runes (such as from Traits and Talents, below).

Here are the five primary attributes:

q Strength (STR) – A character’s physical strength and brawn. Stronger characters do more damage in combat, and can carry heavier loads. If you want your character to do a lot of damage when you hit, you should concentrate on Strength above all else. Many weapons and armors require a minimum Strength to equip, and additionally, Strength governs how much weight (or encumbrance) your character can carry.

q Dexterity (DEX) – This attribute measures raw speed, agility, and general coordination. Characters with high Dexterity will hit their foes more often in combat, and are better at dodging incoming blows. Though this is best for sneaky and fast types like Thieves, any class will benefit from a high Dexterity because basic Attack and Defense values are based on this attribute. Some weapons require a minimum Dexterity attribute as well.

q Constitution (CON) – A measure of toughness, resilience, and fortitude, a high Constitution ensures that a character can endure more punishment before dying. Your character’s initial Health and Stamina are based on Constitution; so slighting this attribute means that your character is more likely to be killed in combat, or might run out of energy while running or fighting.

q Intelligence (INT) – The Intelligence attribute covers reasoning, memory, and education. A high Intelligence attribute will mean quicker skill advancement for that character, and allows characters to learn skills at higher levels (or the various skill masteries). This attribute is a must for spell-users, though it is useful for all types of characters.

q Spirit (SPI) – Spirit defines how attuned a character is to the inner workings of the universe. A high rating indicates acute sensitivity to divine or supernatural influences, making Spirit an essential attribute for magic users of all sorts, as it directly affects a character’s initial Mana score.

The secondary attributes of Health, Mana, and Stamina are also provided on the character display. You cannot affect these directly – they are derived from the five primary attributes, and can be modified by Trait and Talent runes (described below), or by increasing the base attribute (each level, you will gain some new attribute points to spend). The derived secondary attributes are described fully below:

q Health – This total is a measure of the amount of damage you can endure before death. The more of these your character has, the better. This attribute is based off your character’s starting Constitution score and character class. Each character class gets a specific amount of Health points per level.

q Mana – This indicates the amount of magical energy your character can manifest before needing to meditate and recharge. As spells get more powerful, so does the Mana cost. This is based initially from the character’s initial Spirit score. Magic-using character types gain a lot of Mana as they increase in level, while warriors gain very little (if any).

q Stamina – This represents the amount of physical effort your character can expend running, fighting, or using powers which require some level energy. Non-magical powers often use Stamina rather than Mana. This attribute is based on your character’s starting Constitution, and increases slightly as your character progresses in level.

At this time, you might wish to consult Section 8.3: Professions and choose a character Profession you will eventually want your character to promote to. This could affect your initial character Class selections, as well as how you spend your initial characteristic points and what initial Traits or Talents you select (see Section 2.8: Step Seven - Traits and Talents). This small amount of planning might help ensure that you do not slight your character in some attribute (for example, reducing a Fighter’s Spirit to the minimum if you intend for the character to progress to be a Warlock, a class which will need some Mana – which is based on Spirit). However, each level a character gains means that they will be awarded some new attribute points to spend, so you will have plenty of opportunity to increase a weak attribute later.

2.8: Step Seven – Traits and Talents

If you have any character creation points remaining in the field beneath the character display model, you can spend them to purchase Traits and Talents. These are unique quirks that improve your character’s potential in various ways and also help define your character’s background. To access the list of available Traits and Talents, click on the “Traits” window next to the runestone inventory.

Once the menu is open, select the Traits and Talents you want for your character by clicking on the desired item. You can scroll through the menu using the slider control. Clicking on a rune on it will highlight its name. Selecting the rune purchases it: the rune will appear below in your runestone inventory, next to the runes you’ve selected for race and class. You are limited to the purchase of ten Talents or Traits during character creation, although the finite number

Note that some Traits and Talents have race, gender, class, or attribute prerequisites: any Trait or Talent your character is not eligible for will appear with a red border. Mousing over each Trait or Talent item will display a description of the benefits it confers to your player. There are many of these to choose from, and the effects are cumulative in most cases. For example, you can take more than one Trait or Talent that raises your maximum in a particular attribute, making your character’s potential for that attribute quite high.

Trait and Talent runestones can provide a number of effects, including increases to attribute maximums; bonuses to secondary attributes; bonuses to certain attributes at the expense of other attribute maximums; or even increased proficiencies with a specific type of skill or general weapon class. Some Traits and Talents support each other, while others can cancel each other out, so be careful when picking them.

If you don’t want a particular Trait or Talent you’ve selected, just click on it again in the Trait and Talent menu, which will make it disappear from your runestone inventory.

2.9: Step Eight – Appearance

Once your character’s race and gender have been selected, you can customize their appearance using the controls directly under the attribute window on the right side of the screen. Five options are available: Skin Tone, Hair Style, Hair Color, Facial Hair Style, Facial Hair Color, and Kit. Adjust any of these features by clicking the arrow button on either side of each feature. Each click will move through a range of options based on your character’s race and gender. Kit changes your character’s starting equipment – if you’ve purchased a Trait that grants sword skill, switching to a kit equipped with a sword will give your character a head start in play.

Some races cannot have beards, some can have only certain hairstyles, and others have a limited range of skin tones. For example, Elves cannot have beards, while Shades cannot have hair or beards. It is not necessary to have matching hair or beard styles or colors, or to even have any hair at all. Also, for Aracoix, Centaurs, and Minotaurs, the feature buttons reflect different options more specific to the race. Skin Tone for Aracoix means different feather patterns and colors, and Facial Hair Style and Facial Hair Color change the shape and color of their beak. Centaurs have a variety of coat and skin colors for Skin Tone, Minotaurs have no hairstyle selections – the Hair Style option adjusts the shape of their horns.

2.10: Finishing Touches

Once all of your selections have been made, make sure you have spent all of your character points. To change any item, simply click on what you want the new choice to be. To go back and revise your character’s name, click Cancel, but if you do so, all the choices you made in the Character Generation screen will be lost.

Once you are finished with your character, press the “Finish” button at the bottom right. Any unspent character points are merely stored and can be applied to primary attributes at any time.

Once you have clicked Finish, you will return to the opening character slot screen (also called the Roster screen), where your new character’s name will now be displayed in one of the five character slots.

You can create other characters by highlighting a new slot and clicking “New,” or you can eliminate unwanted characters and free up their slots by highlighting a character slot and clicking “Delete.”

2.11: Entering the World of Shadowbane

Once you have a character ready, it’s time to play. To begin, highlight the name of the character you just created and click “Play” at the bottom of the screen. A menu will appear, displaying a list of starting city Safeholds on the game world you chose in Step One of character creation. The lower part of the window displays a list of Safehold names and emblems, while the information fields at the top provide the name of the city’s ruling Guild and its type of government. Look over your options and pick the city that appeals to you most. Click the city’s name to select it, and then click the “Submit” button at the bottom of the menu to proceed.

In this testing cycle, there is only one initial Safehold to choose from – King’s Cross. King’s Cross is a lower-level area, designed to support characters of any class until they reach Rank 2 (20th level), with easy proximity to several adventuring zones.

If you do not want to start at a Safehold, click the Player Cities button on the City Selection Window – it will open a list of player-built cities that have been designated “open” (allowing new players to begin play there). Note that these cities are NOT Safeholds – player vs. player combat is perfectly legal in them, and these cities may be built in areas that are too difficult for a beginning character to compete in.

When first getting started, we recommend your character begin play at King’s Cross. Note that new game worlds and Safeholds may appear as this beta phase progresses. More information about the beta game world can be found in Section 13.0 – The World of Shadowbane.

Section 3.0 – Interface

Welcome to the world of Shadowbane! Be patient while the world loads, otherwise things will look a little strange and all the buildings and characters might not be loaded yet. One way to tell when the world is through loading is by looking at a small bracket at the bottom center of the screen, next to another bracket containing “[Playing]”. The number in the bracket is how many objects (characters, landscape, buildings, etc.) are still loading. Don’t move until the number reaches [0]. As you move around the world later, you will notice items loading and this number jumping. You can move at these times, but in the beginning, it’s best to wait until everything is loaded and the number is [0].

Now that you’re here, the following sections will describe how you can use your mouse and keyboard to interact with the virtual world around you. Descriptions of all game menus and windows can be found in Section 4.0 – Game Windows and Menus. Information about manipulating and customizing game menus can be found in Section 4.9: Interface Customization.

3.1: Mouse Commands

Most of your character’s basic interaction with the game world will be driven by the mouse.

Left-Click:

q selects the object you click upon. This selected object will serve as the target for any attacks, spells, or actions your character initiates. Additionally, selecting a character, NPC, or mobile causes their name to appear on the Selection Window, along with additional information, as described in Section 4.1.1: The Selection Window.

q activates the function associated with any button.

Double Left-Click:

q executes the applicable interactive action for the object double-clicked:

· Attacks the target if your character is in Combat Mode (see Section 7.0: Combat)

· Opens a door or container

· Opens the Vendor Window of a shopkeeper or Trainer (see Section 3.7.4: the Vendor Window)

· Opens the Hireling Management Window of any Hireling or Vendor your character owns (see Section 10.7.5: the Tradesman Control Panel)

· Opens the Loot Inventory of a corpse (see Section 3.7.5: the Loot Window)

· Opens the Building Management Window of a building your character owns (see Section 10.5.1: The Building Control Panel)

· Displays the Building Information Window of a Building your character does not own.

· Gets an object that can be owned or carried (see Section 3.4.1, Interacting With Objects)

Control+Left-Click:

q Opens the context sensitive menu for the object clicked. See Section 3.4.1: Interacting With Objects, 3.4.2: Interacting With Mobiles, or Section 4.9.2: Customizing Windows for more information, as applicable.

Shift+Left Click:

q Allows dragged movement of a window or custom-placed button (see Section 4.9.1: Window and Menu Management, and Section 4.9.3: Button Customization for more details.

Mouse Wheel Roll Up or Down (if available):

q Zooms game camera in or out. See Section 3.5.1: Camera Movement Controls for more information.

Center Button (or Mouse Wheel) Click and Hold (if available):

q Activates mouse look camera control. See Section 3.5.2: Additional Camera Functions for more information.

Right-Click:

q Selects the point clicked upon as the movement destination of your character. See Section 3.3: Movement, for details.

3.2: Keyboard Commands

Many game functions can also be accessed through keyboard commands. A list of keyboard-based commands follows. Many of these commands double the function of a button in the game interface, while others deal with movement. These commands are the default hotkeys for the Shadowbane interface. To set your own custom hotkeys, see Section 4.9.4: Hotkeys.

Key	Function
A	Attack selected target (and toggle to Combat Mode, if needed)
C	Toggle Combat Mode on/off
D	Drop selected object
E	Open Equipment Window
F	Interact with selected object (same as double left-click)
G	Get (pick up) selected object
I	Open Inventory Window
K	Open Skills Window
M	Toggle Mouse Look on/off
Control + M	Minimize (close) all open windows and menus
N	Toggle Show Names on/off
Control + N	Toggle Show Crests on/off
O	Open selected object
P	Open Powers Window
Control + P	Take a screenshot
Control + R	Reply to last Tell received (successive)
T	Begin a Tell communication
U	Use selected item
Control + U	Toggle Run Mode on/off
W	Open Who Window
Z	Toggle Sitting on or off
End	Select self as target
Home	Select next mobile as target
Insert	Select next character as target
Right arrow	Rotate character facing right
Left arrow	Rotate character facing left
Page Up	Climb one altitude level if flying
Page Down	Dive one altitude level if flying
4 (Keypad)	Rotate camera left
6 (Keypad)	Rotate camera right
8 (Keypad)	Rotate camera up
2 (Keypad)	Rotate camera down
Plus (Keypad)	Zoom camera in
Minus (Keypad)	Zoom camera out
Alt (held)	Activate mouse look camera movement
Tab	Move to next field in a menu
Shift+Tab	Move to previous field in a menu
Shift+Up arrow	Move up one item on an open list
Shift+Down arrow	Move down one item on an open list
F8	Previous Chat window
F9	Next Chat window
F1	Open Help window
/ (forward slash)	Begin command string input in a Chat Window
Escape	Open the Command Bar
Return/Enter	Enter Chat Mode
Delete	Junk selected object

3.3: Movement

Getting your character from one place to another is a vital part of game play. Shadowbane offers several movement options.

q Normal Movement – In combat or non-combat mode, right-click at any point on the ground to mark that point as a movement destination. As soon as you click, your character will begin moving toward the destination. To run, click the Run Button on the Status Window or hit Control+U. Your character’s speed and the amount of stamina expended while moving varies greatly based on whether they are running or walking, or in combat or non-combat mode.

q Map-Based Movement – On long journeys, you can use the Local Map window to move your character directly to faraway destinations. Right click at any point in the map display to set it is your character’s destination. See Section 4.8.4: Local Map for more information.

q Flight – Aracoix characters, and users of some spells and items, can fly. If your character is capable of flight, two flight buttons will appear at the top center edge of your Status Window: they’ll look like an up and down arrow bracketed by a pair of wings. Press the “Up” button (or hotkey [Page Up]) to take off and rise one altitude level (about 10’) above the ground. Clicking the button additional times will cause your character to climb to higher altitudes. Clicking the “Down” button (hotkey [Page Down]) will cause your character to descend one altitude level (or land if they are only one level off the ground). To move laterally, simply right-click on the ground – your character will fly over that spot as if they were walking or running.

A flying character cannot enter combat mode, and may be unable to use some powers while in flight. Flying characters can be targeted by grounded characters or mobiles with missile weapons or ranged spells. Flying characters that run out of stamina or flight power duration will descend to the ground immediately. Finally, flying characters can land on wall tops and balconies, but not necessarily on roofs. As a general rule, if an ordinary character could walk there, a flying character can land there.

q Swimming – Entering a body of water deeper than your character is tall will automatically switch them from walking or running movement to swimming. Two altitude buttons will appear at the top center edge of your Status Window: they’ll look like an up and down arrow bracketed by a pair of wings. Press the “Up” button (or hotkey [Page Up]) to swim up one altitude level (about 10’). Clicking the button additional times will cause your character to swim toward the surface. Clicking the “Down” button (hotkey [Page Down]) will cause your character to descend one depth level. To move laterally, simply right-click on the ground – your character will swim over that spot as if they were walking or running. A swimming character cannot enter combat mode, and may be unable to use some powers while in the water. Swimming characters that run out of stamina or flight power duration will begin to suffer health damage as they begin to drown – too long of a swim can doom a character.

3.4: Context Sensitive Menus

Your character can interact with nearly every mobile or object they encounter in the world of Shadowbane by using the specialized commands available in Context Sensitive Menus. To open a context sensitive menu, Control+left-click an object, mobile, or game window. Depending on the type of object you’ve selected, a range of options will appear.

3.4.1: Interacting with Objects

Left clicking on an object will select that object. The name of the object will appear in description field of the Selection Window, along with a red indicator showing the object’s durability. In addition, Control+left-click opens an object interaction menu, displaying the following commands:

q Get – Clicking this action will move an item from the game world into your character’s inventory. Double-clicking an item has the same effect. Hotkey: G

q Use – Clicking this option immediately makes your character attempt to use the selected item. Trying to use objects that are not actually equipment or devices of some kind is usually futile. Hotkey: U

q Equip – This option will immediately transfer an object from your character’s inventory to an appropriate equipment slot on the equipment screen (see Section 4.6.3: The Equipment Window). This option only appears if the selected item is in your character’s inventory.

q Unequip – This option will immediately transfer an object from one of your character’s equipment slots to your character’s inventory (see Section 4.6.3: The Equipment Window). This option only appears if your character has the selected item equipped.

q Open – This action will immediately attempt to open whatever object is currently selected. Only doors and containers can be affected. Hotkey: O

q Destroy – This action destroys the selected item. You will be asked to confirm that you want to destroy the item. Once an item is destroyed, it is removed from the game world forever.

Some objects are designated as “stackable” –a single icon in the game interface might represent a number of identical small things grouped together. Gold pieces are the most common example, though there are others. Every time you seek to manipulate a collection of stacked objects, you will be prompted to select how many of them you wish to manipulate.

3.4.2: Interacting with Mobiles

Left-clicking on a mobile or other character selects that character, and their name (if displayed on screen) will turn yellow for easier identification. Double clicking a mobile or character while your character is in combat mode will immediately initiate combat. See Section 7.2.1 – Combat Mode for more details.

When selected, the mobile’s name appears in the description field of the Selection Window, along with a line of Rank icons (if the mobile is Rank 1 or higher). These icons display the mobile’s class, with a number equal to the tens digit of that mobile’s level.

Control+left-clicking on a mobile or character will immediately open a Mobile Interaction menu, and will also identify that mobile in the Selection Window. The Mobile Interaction menu has the following options:

Option	Mobile	Effect
Attack	Player/Non-Player (any)	Initiates combat with selected target
Loot	Player/Non-Player Corpse	Opens the corpse’s looting window
Trade	Player	Opens trading window (see below)
Guild Info	Player	Displays target’s Guild information
Invite to Group	Player	Invites target to join your Group
Invite to Guild	Player	Invites target to join your Guild
Hail	Non-Player	Prompts a brief verbal message
Shop	Non-Player Vendor	Opens Vendor Window
Train	Non-Player Trainer	Opens Training Window
Promote Class	Non-Player Trainer	Opens Promotion Window
Promote Discipline	Non-Player Trainer	Opens Promotion Window
Bank	Non-Player Banker	Opens Banking Window

Instead of Control+left-clicking a vendor and selecting “Shop,” double clicking an NPC vendor will open the shopping widow directly.

The display color of a selected mobile also gives an indication of the relative prowess of the mobile compared to you. See Section 7.1.3: Considering Your Foe for more information.

3.4.3: Interacting with City Assets

Left clicking on any City Asset (building, wall, Tree of Life, or other structure) will select that object. The name of the object will appear in description field of the Selection Window, along with a red indicator showing the object’s durability and the Guild and Nation crests of the asset’s owner. In addition, Control+left-click opens an asset interaction menu, displaying the following commands:

q Manage – this option only appears if your character is the owner of the asset, or has been granted management privileges over the asset. Selecting it opens the Asset control panel, described in Section 10.5.1.

q Claim – this option only appears if the selected asset has no current owner. Selecting it immediately grants your character full ownership over the asset. See Section 10.5.1 for more details.

q Abandon – this option only appears if your character owns the selected asset. Selecting it immediately renounces your claim to the asset, leaving it open to the first character who claims it. See Section 10.5.1 for more details.

q City Command – this option opens the City Control Panel, as described in Section 11.5.

You can learn more about Buildings and City assets in Section 10.0 – Buildings and Building Management. See Section 11.5 for a detailed description of the City Control Panel.

3.5: Camera Controls

A clear field of vision is essential in battle, and Shadowbane offers players a high degree of camera control. Many other games feature an exclusively first-person view, but Shadowbane’s emphasis on group conflicts and mass warfare makes an exclusive character’s eye view impractical. The in-game “camera” that regulates your view of Shadowbane comes with a highly flexible set of controls and commands.

3.5.1: Camera Movement Controls

The game camera will always be pointed directly at your character, but which side of you it shows is entirely up to you. The game camera can be rotated through any horizontal or vertical axis, allowing you to view your character from head on, behind (often the easiest for travel and combat), profile, and even from on high or down low. You can also set the camera’s distance from the character, pulling in for tight details or zooming out to take in more of the landscape. Remember that the farther out you zoom, the more objects come into your field of view, and the more your computer has to work to render them. The amount of landscape displayed around your character can have a definite impact on game performance.

Various keyboard commands can move the camera, and the Camera Controls menu (accessed through Settings in the Command Bar) offers buttons that serve the same purpose. Finally, positioning the mouse cursor at a screen edge will also move the camera. A complete guide to camera control appears in the table below.

Camera Move	Keyboard Command	Control Button	Cursor Position
Rotate left	4 (keypad)	Camera Left	Left edge
Rotate right	6 (keypad)	Camera Right	Right edge
Rotate up	8 (keypad)	Camera Up	Top edge
Rotate down	2 (keypad)	Camera Down	Lower edge
Zoom in	Plus (“+”)	Zoom In	Mouse wheel up
Zoom out	Minus (“-“)	Zoom Out	Mouse wheel down

3.5.2: Additional Camera Functions

Two other options appear on the Camera Controls menu (accessed through the Setting option on the Command Bar):

q Auto-track – This command will “lock” the camera’s position relative to your character when the command is clicked. Once set, if your character turns or changes direction the camera will automatically rotate to keep the set angle on your character. If you change the camera’s position manually after auto tracking is toggled on, the new camera position will become the default locked position.

q Reverse Panning – Clicking this control reverses the direction of all camera rotation controls, without changing the command itself. Thus, pressing and holding 6 on the keypad will actually spin the camera counterclockwise. To turn reverse panning off, toggle the setting again.

3.5.3 Mouse Look

The Shadowbane game camera can also be placed in Mouse Look mode, offering players a high degree of control and response. While in Mouse Look mode, moving the mouse will pan and tilt the camera, allowing for rapid changes in POV. There are three ways to activate Mouse Look:

q Mouse Wheel – If your mouse has a center button or mouse wheel, hold that button down to engage Mouse Look – the camera will follow mouse movement as long as the button is held.

q Keyboard Command – Hold down the Alt key to switch to Mouse Look mode – the camera will stay in Mouse Look as long as the key is depressed

q Keyboard Toggle – Press the M key to toggle mouse look on or off.

3.6: In-Game Communication

Shadowbane is a massively multiplayer game, so you will find yourself sharing the virtual landscape with hundreds, perhaps even thousands of other players. Communication with friends and enemies is an essential and integral part of the Shadowbane experience. Like every other aspect of the interface and gameplay, Shadowbane allows you to customize its communication settings to best fit your style of play.

3.6.1: Chat Windows

The Chat window (as introduced and described in Section 4.2) is the key to communication in Shadowbane. The default screen configuration contains two Chat windows, but you can open additional Chat windows by clicking the Chat Window option on the Command Bar (as described in Section 4.2: Chat Windows). You can resize, move, and adjust the transparency of Chat windows as described in Section 4.9.2: Window Customization. You can have up to 16 chat windows open on your screen at the same time.

3.6.2: Composing and Sending Messages

You must enter Chat Mode before you can compose or send a message, otherwise keystrokes will be interpreted as keyboard or hot-keyed commands. To enter Chat Mode, either left-click on the command line of any Chat Window or simply hit the Enter/Return key. Either option will place a cursor on the Chat Window command line. While in Chat Mode, any simple keyboard commands or custom hotkeys (that is, key commands that do not use Shift, Control, or Alt) are disabled.

Once in Chat Mode, type the message you want to send out, and hit [Enter/Return] to send it. The second Enter/Return brings you out of Chat Mode back to normal play. Any message you send from a chat window will be broadcast into the game at large on a specific channel, which determines who will receive it. There are 11 channels to choose from – each will be described in detail below. If you want to send a message on a different channel, be sure to include the proper channel tag at the beginning of the message. See Section 3.6.3: Default Channels and Channel Tags, for more information.

3.6.3: Default Channels and Channel Tags

Every Chat window has a default communication channel – messages typed on the command line are automatically sent out on the default channel, with no special modifications required. You can set a different default channel for each Chat window, as described below.

Each channel has a special prefix, usually a slash (/) followed by the channel’s name (the tag for the Guild channel is </guild>, for example). Remember, messages without a tag will automatically be sent on that chat window’s default channel.

Example: A player has a chat window configured with the Group channel as its default. If they type the message <Now! Kill them all!> and hit return, it would immediately be received by all his Group mates. To send the same message to his Guild mates using the same window, the player would have to type

</guild Now! Kill them all!>.

3.6.4: Communications Options

To customize your communication settings for a given Chat window, control+left-click on that window. The standard Window Options menu will open, although a few new options appear:

q Channels – This opens a menu listing all communications channels, allowing you to choose the channels that the selected chat window will receive and display. To enable a channel, click the round silver button next to the channel name. A description of each channel can be found below.

q Channel Colors – This button allows you to modify the display color for that channel, as described in Section 3.6.6: Color Coding Channels.

q Default Channel – This button opens a list of the 11 communications channels. The current default channel is marked with a silver circle containing an “x.” To select a new default channel for the selected Chat window, click the desired channel.

3.6.5: Communication Channels

Name	Tag	Received By
Leader	/leader	All Guild Leaders of sender’s Nation
Shout	/shout	Everyone in a large area (use costs stamina)
Guild	/guild	All members of the sender’s Guild
Inner Council	/ic	Inner Council members of sender’s Guild
Group /group	/group	All members of sender’s Group
City-State	/city	All within a radius of a local city
Say	/say	All within a close area (text appears over sender’s head)
Emote	/em	All within a close area
Tell	/tell <receiver name>	Character named as receiver

Other channels exist, but player messages cannot be sent or received on them.

3.6.6: Color Coding Channels

Selecting the Channel Colors option after right clicking a Chat window opens a window containing a list of all available communications channels. Click on the channel you wish to alter to open the color modification window. The color modification window is divided into two areas – one sets the color for all messages received on that channel, the other sets the display color of the name of message senders. Each section title is displayed in the default color for that channel. Below the channel and name labels are three slider bars: one for red, one for green, and one for blue.

To set the color, adjust the color sliders as you wish: the “name” and “channel” tags will change color in real time as you move the sliders. When you have reached the desired color, click the “Confirm” button to make the change. “Abort” closes the window, disregarding any color adjustments.

3.6.7 Communications Hotkeys

If you are using several different Chat Windows with different default channels (a Guild window vs. a Group window, for example), use the F8 and F9 keys to toggle your cursor to the command line of the previous or next Chat Window.

Typing T automatically begins a “/tell” communication on the currently active Chat Window. Tells to specific characters can be hotkeyed by creating a macro, as described in Section 4.9.4: Hotkeys.

Control+R begins a reply to the last character that sent a Tell to your character. Hitting Control+R a second time will begin a reply to the next most previous Tell, etc.

3.7: Equipment and Treasure Management

Though your character’s level, skills, and powers provide the ultimate measure of how effective they are in battle, equipment also plays a very important role. The following section explains how you can utilize, hold, store, and acquire your character’s equipment in the game interface.

In all of the following windows and menus, you can mouse over an object to display a brief description of the object’s name and properties. All objects can be manipulated and interacted with as described in Section 3.4.1: Interacting With Objects.

3.7.1: The Inventory and Equipment Windows

As described in Section 4.6.2: the Inventory Window and 4.6.3: the Equipment Window, these 2 windows display every object your character is wearing, holding, or otherwise keeping on their person. You can open or close the Inventory and Command windows by selecting the Character Info button on the Command Bar and then clicking the appropriate button, or by hitting the ‘I’ or ‘E’ key (for Inventory and Equipment, respectively).

Objects can be transferred between the Inventory and equipment menus by double-left clicking them, clicking and dragging the items from one window to another, or by Control+left-clicking the item and selecting the appropriate option on the context menu (see Section 3.4.1: Interacting with Objects). Objects dragged out of the Inventory or Equipment window onto the ground are dropped.

3.7.2: Limits on Equipment Ownership

Every item in Shadowbane is assigned a weight value. Your character has a maximum carrying capacity, defined by their Strength score. Once the total weight of all objects equipped and held by your character approaches the weight limit, they can become overburdened – if the weight of a desired object exceeds the limit, your character will be unable to pick the object up.

3.7.3: Item Trading

Clicking the Trade option after control+left-clicking on another player will send the selected player a message indicating that your character wants to trade with them. If another player decides to trade with your character, you will receive a message indicating the offer and the name of the interested party. You have the option to decline. Once the target of a trade request agrees, the Trade window opens for both parties.

The Trade Window – This window is divided into three parts: on the left and right are areas identical to a character’s Inventory window. These are where offered objects are displayed. In the center of the window, both parties are listed, each with a “Committed” button to the left of their name. The “Cancel” button is at the bottom of the center section.

Trading – To trade items, open your character’s Inventory window and drag items (including gold) from the Inventory into the left half (and only the left half!) half of the Trade window. You will see items appear in the other player’s display area as they drag inventory items into the Trade window. You can mouse over any item to display a description of that item and verify what they’re offering. When you’re happy with the terms of the trade, click the “Committed” button to accept the deal. When both parties click this button, all items are transferred into the inventories of the appropriate character. It is possible to give something away (trading it for nothing) if both parties agree.

Dragging an item back out of the Trade Window will cause any pressed Commit buttons to reset. Additionally, if the items in either window change after one party has committed, then the Committed button resets. If either party clicks Cancel, all trading is suspended, and the Trade window closes.

3.7.4: The Vendor Window

Double clicking (or clicking the “Shop” option after control+left-clicking) a non-player character vendor will open up the Shopping window, which presents three options: Buy, Sell and Repair. Clicking any of these buttons will open the Vendor Window in the appropriate mode, as described below. The Vendor Window incorporates all 3 options as buttons in its upper left corner, allowing your character to switch from buying to selling without having to go back to the Shopping Window.

q Buy: In this mode the Vendor window displays a list of everything the Vendor has to sell, along with their prices and your character’s current gold total. Some items will appear in red on the list: these items are unusable for your character, due to Rank, Class, or other restrictions. You can still buy them, however, if you have sufficient funds. To buy an item, select the item desired on the list then click the “Buy” button. A pop up window will appear to confirm your purchase.

q Sell: In this mode, a list appears of every item in your character’s inventory that the vendor is willing to buy. Each entry includes the price the vendor is willing to pay. To sell an item, click the desired item on the list then click the “Sell” button. A pop up window will appear confirming your sale. Remember, items your character has equipped will not appear on the sell list.

q Repair: Every item in Shadowbane has a durability rating, that item’s “hit points.” Opening the Vendor Window in Repair mode displays a list of every item your character owns, equipped or unequipped, that has sustained durability damage through wear. Every entry lists the amount of gold required to repair the item. Repair costs are based both on the original value of the item and its current durability rating: expensive items cost more to fix, and all repairs grow costlier as the item gets more damaged. To repair an item, click the desired entry on the list then click the repair button. A pop up confirming the repair will appear.

3.7.5: The Loot Window

Double- or control+left-clicking on any corpse will display the “Loot” option, which opens a small inventory window displaying any items that can be found on the corpse. Double-click on any displayed object to get the item and place it into your inventory. Alternately, you can right-click the item and select “Get,” or select the item and type G. A fourth method is to click and drag the items into your character’s inventory window or the game world.

3.7.6: Banking Items

There may come a time when your character amasses more wealth and treasure than they can carry, or when some of their equipment becomes obsolete but valuable enough to keep. Shadowbane offers players the option of creating a cache of treasure and equipment, a sort of “bank account.” This is also an invaluable option if you’re adventuring in dangerous areas, and don’t want to run the risk of losing any unbound possessions and cash when you are killed.

To begin a bank inventory for your character, seek out a church in any Safehold or player city. Churches usually host a type of tradesman called a Bursar, who can grant your character access to a secure inventory where they can place items into “cold storage.” Your character’s bank inventory is identical, no matter where the Bursar is who opens it. For more information about tradesmen, churches, and cities, see Section 10.0 – Buildings and Building Management. Bursars can be found in some other places around the world of Shadowbane.

To open your Bank Inventory, double-left click a Bursar NPC or control+left-click the Bursar and select the Bank option. The Bank Inventory is identical to the character Inventory described in Section 3.7.1 and Section 4.6.2, although its capacity is unlimited.

3.8: Stopping Play

All good things must come to an end. There are two ways to stop playing Shadowbane and exit the game world – note that each has potential consequences for your character. Both options can be found on the Command Bar (see Section 4.3: the Command Bar for more information).

3.8.1: Leave World

This option logs your character out of the game world and returns you to the Shadowbane entry screen. You cannot execute this command while your character is in combat, and depending on the circumstances, your connection to your character (and your direct control of them) will end, but the character may remain in the world for an additional minute. See Section 3.8.3: The Logout Timer, for more details.

3.8.2: Quit Game

This command immediately quits the Shadowbane client, returning you to your computer’s desktop. Note that your character does not log off their world’s server when you quit: your character will remain, vulnerable, until the server notices your connection has been terminated (usually this takes only a few seconds, but it can take longer). The Logout Timer, mentioned above and described in Section 3.8.3: The Logout Timer, also applies.

3.8.3: The Logout Timer

As a player, you can terminate your Shadowbane session instantly by opting to Leave World or Quit Game. Depending on the circumstances, however, it may take a while for your character to get all the way out. If you Leave World, Quit Game, or otherwise lose connection with the game server, your character’s exit is subject to the completion of the Logout Timer. Basically, anytime your character leaves combat mode, the timer begins ticking: after one minute elapses, your character is eligible to leave the game immediately. If the connection ends before the Logout Timer expires, the character will stand in the world for one full minute, lingering in place.

Lingering characters will not move or take any action on their own. If attacked, they will automatically counterattack using their equipped weapon, but cannot use any Powers or Items in their own defense. If a lingering character is attacked and manages to kill its attacker, the Logout Timer will begin anew at the end of the combat, and a full minute must pass before the character will leave the world. Attempting to Quit in a populous or dangerous area can lead to a state of perpetual lingering and almost certain death. If your lingering character is killed, you will resume play at your spawning point, suffering from all of the effects of character death. See Section 7.4: Death, for details.

3.9: Resuming Play

A Shadowbane session can end for a number of reasons: connection loss, character death, or you might just Leave World or Quit Game to take a break. When you resume play, sometimes your character’s starting point can be critical. The location where your character logs back into the world of Shadowbane depends on several factors:

q Death: if play ended because your character died, you will log back in with that character at their Bind Point (see Section 3.9.1: Spawn and Bind Points, for more information). The character’s corpse will remain where they fell until it decays, and the character will suffer from the effects of death (see Section: 7.4: Death, for more information).

q Link Loss/Logout: if you Quit play or lose server connection, but resume play within 15 minutes of connection loss (or if the character’s Logout Timer has not expired), your character will begin play at the same location where they were when the session ended. After 15 minutes, characters resume play at their Bind Point.

q Inns/Bedrolls: buying lodging from an Innkeeper or using a Bedroll item immediately logs the character out of Shadowbane. Using these items or services, however, creates a temporary Bind Point for the character, allowing them to log back in at the place play stopped no matter how much time passes. If the Inn is destroyed before you can log back in, your character will revert to their Bind Point.

3.9.1: Spawn and Bind Points

Every character in Shadowbane has a permanent home base, the place where they are born again after death or begin their adventures anew after a long rest. This place is called a character’s Bind Point (or Spawn Point), and its geographic location can have a tremendous impact on their adventures. Several factors determine what a character uses as their Bind Point, as detailed below:

q New Characters (Ranks 0-2) use the Tree of Life in their starting city (chosen at the end of Character Creation, see Section 2.11 for details). Once the character reaches level 20, they lose this Bind Point – they must either found or join a Player Guild or live as errant wanderers. See Section 6.0 – Guilds for more information on Guilds and errantry.

q Guilded Characters (any Rank) who have founded or joined a Sovereign Guild (or whose Errant Guild has sworn fealty to a Sovereign Guild) use the Tree of Life in their Guild’s City as their Bind Point. Characters who are members of a Nation (a city-owning Guild that has received oaths of fealty from other city-owning Guilds) can also choose the Tree of Life of any affiliated province Guild as their bind point. See Section 6.0 – Guilds for more information about Nations and Guild relationships. For more information about switching bind points, see Section 6.4.1: Changing Cities and Section 11.x: . EXCEPTION: if a Guilded character is slain within the zone of influence of their Tree of Life, they respawn as if they were errant. See Section 6.0 – Guilds for more information on Guilds and errantry.

q Errant Characters (any Rank) who have no Guild, or who belong to an Errant Guild, respawn at a broken Tree of Life in one of the Ruins scattered throughout the game world, chosen at random. Each death or extended logout will result in play resuming in a different location.

Section 4.0 – Game Windows and Menus

Five control windows will initially appear on your screen – the information and options they provide will facilitate nearly every aspect of Shadowbane gameplay. These five windows are:

q The Status Window, which offers important information and controls pertaining to your character’s state and condition

q The Selection Window, which displays information about whatever character or mobile you currently have selected.

q The System Chat window, which displays incoming server messages

q The Player Chat window, which displays chat messages from and between other players

q The Command Bar, which offers access to a wide range of game controls and settings

q The Effects window, which displays all powers or spells currently effecting your character

Bear in mind that nearly every button and feature within the interface is equipped with a brief description that is displayed when you mouseover a given button or field. These should be enough to get you going, but if you need more information, each of the screen windows is described in detail below.

Shadowbane’s interface is extremely customizable, offering users the ability to alter the configuration or appearance of the game screen to an unprecedented degree. For more information about these features and about window and menu management, see Section 4.9: Interface Customization.

4.1: The Status Window

An essential feature of the user interface, the Status Window’s indicators and controls show how healthy your character is, let your character engage in combat (or flee from it), and also allow your character to discern important information about other characters and objects. Mousing over each feature of the window to reveal its name or function. To move or reposition the Status Window, hold down the Shift key and then left-click and drag the window to the desired position. The Status Window contains the following controls and indicators:

q Minimize/Maximize All – Located in the Upper left corner of the window, clicking this button will close every window on screen except for the Status Window itself (and the Group Information Window, if open). Clicking it a second time will open them again.

q Combat Mode – Positioned at the center of the left side of the window, this button either places your character into or out of combat mode. In combat mode, your character’s stance changes, their walking and running speeds slow down considerably, and a health bar appears next to them indicating their relative health status (green means good, yellow means moderate and red means critical). Your character must be in combat mode to attack any other character, mobile, or object, and some spells and powers will only function in combat mode. More information about combat can be found in Section 7.0 – Combat. Default Hotkey: C

q Character Info Button – Located at the lower left just under the Combat Mode button, this button opens the Stats Window of the character sheet, as described in Section 4.6.1: The Stats Window. Default Hotkey: S

q Flight Buttons – These two controls, located at top center of the Status Window, allow a flying character to increase or decrease their altitude. The Up button climbs, the Down button dives. See Flight in Section 3.3: Movement for more information. Note: these buttons will only be usable if your character is able to fly (via race, powers, or item effects).

q Health Bar – The red bar in the center column displays the current health status of your character. Whenever your character is injured, some of the red will drain from the bar, giving you a general idea of the player’s condition. The exact number of health points your character has is displayed over the bar followed by your character’s maximum health.

q Mana Indicator: – The blue bar in the center column displays your character’s Mana level. Whenever your character casts spells, uses powers, or has their Mana drained, they will lose Mana and some of the blue color will drain from the bar. The exact amount of Mana your character has is displayed in the middle of the shield, followed by your character’s maximum Mana total.

q Stamina Bar – This golden bar in the center column indicates how much Stamina your character currently has left. Running, fighting, or using some powers will cause the color to drain from the bar. When all Stamina is depleted, your character’s actions are slowed immensely. Numbers inside the bar also display your character’s current and maximum Stamina values.

q Experience Bar – The gray horizontal bar in the center column indicates how close your character is to raising a level. It begins solid gray and the color drains away as the number of experience points needed to reach the next level decreases. On the edge of the next level, the bar should be nearly solid black. Numbers inside the bar indicate the exact number of experience points needed to increase in level.

q Close Button – this button in the upper right corner closes the Status Window. To re-open it, Control+left click anywhere on the ground, or hit the Escape key.

q Run Button – Clicking this button (located center right in the Status Window) will switch your character between walk and run mode. In run mode, your character runs instead of walks as their default movement. Moving in run mode allows your character to cover ground quickly, but it also costs more stamina than walking. Default Hotkey: Control+R.

q Sit Button – Clicking this button sits your character down cross-legged on the ground. While seated, your character enters “rest” mode, vastly increasing the recovery rates for health, mana, and stamina. Your character can speak and chat while seated, and can use powers, but any powers use will cause the character to stand up before casting. If attacked, your character will rise and enter combat mode automatically. To stop sitting, click the Sit button again, use a Power, or left-click on the ground nearby – your character will return to his feet and walk to the new destination point. Default Hotkey: Control+Z.

4.1.1: The Selection Window

A companion to the Status Window, the Selection Window displays important information about any item you select during play. To select a mobile, character, or object, simply left-click on it, as described in Section 3.1: Mouse Commands. Once an object is selected, many of its characteristics will be displayed in the following fields:

q Nation Shield – The gold-rimmed shield at the right edge of the window displays the crest of the highest ranking Guild in the selected character or mobile’s Nation hierarchy. If the character or monster’s Guild is not part of a Nation or if they have no Guild affiliation at all, this shield will be empty.This crest can be dragged into your character’s Heraldry List. See Section 6.1: Forming a Guild for more information about nations, and Section 10.9.1: Creating a Kill on Sight List for more information about saving heraldry. For more information about Nations and Guild alliances, see Section 6.9.

q Guild Shield – The gray-rimmed shield at the left of the window displays the guild crest for the selected character or mobile. This crest can be dragged into your character’s Heraldry List. See Section 6.0 - Guilds for more information about guilds and heraldry, and Section 10.9.1: Creating a Kill on Sight List for more information about saving heraldry. If the character or monster is errant (does not belong to any Guild), this shield will be empty.

q Name Field – Running across the top of the window, this field displays the name of the selected character or mobile. The color of the name indicates how powerful the character or mobile is, relative to your character. See Section 7.1.3: Considering Your Foe, for more information.

q Health Bar – This red bar, directly under the name field, displays the health or durability level of the selected object. As the selected object takes damage, the color will drain from the bar. The exact number of health or durability points is also displayed over the bar.

q Rank Icons – A row of icons under the health bar appears for mobiles and characters. Each icon indicates that the character or mobile has attained one Rank (10 levels) in a given profession. The icon itself reveals the character’s Profession, or the general classification of any mobile, NPC tradesman, or building. These icons can give important hints as to the power and capabilities of any character or mobile. See Section 8.1.2: Rank for more information about Rank, and Section 8.3: Professions for more information about professions.

4.2: Chat Windows

These two windows are similar in function and appearance. Each Chat window consists of a large, open field where incoming messages are displayed, and a command line at the bottom of the window where you can type in commands or messages of your own. In its default configuration, the two chat windows have different functions.

You can open more chat windows by clicking the “Chat Window” button on the Command Bar. Control+left clicking on any Chat window will allow you to customize the window’s channel setting. See Section 3.6.4: Communication Options for details.

The Character Chat Window allows characters to engage in chat-style communications in game. Messages are displayed in the upper window. You can send messages by pressing Enter (or Return) to enter Chat Mode, or left clicking directly on the command line to bring up a cursor. Shadowbane has a wealth of communications channels and options available. See Section 3.6.5: Communication Channels for details.

The System Chat Window shows incoming server messages, and is used primarily by developers for diagnostic and troubleshooting. Although most players will find little use for the window, it does allow you to monitor what’s being loaded into the game, as well as following events like attack and damage messages. All communication commands may be entered on the command line of this window, just as with the Character Chat window (above).

4.2.1: Text Commands

At certain points, you may need to enter text commands for testing or other purposes. To enter these commands, type them into the command line of any Chat window. Be sure to type a slash [/] in front of the command, without any spaces. Typing a forward slash [/] will automatically input the slash into the command line and move your cursor there.

4.3: The Command Bar

This menu contains 9 buttons that offer access to nested menus of commands or open different gameplay and settings windows. You can resize the Command Bar by clicking and dragging the tab in the lower right hand corner of the menu. A listing of the Command Bar buttons follows, along with a description of each button’s function and where to look for more information about the menus or functions available. To move from a sub-menu back to its parent menu, click the arrow tab in the upper left corner of the Command Bar.

Button	Function	More Info?
Close Window	Minimizes the Command Bar
Info/Help	Opens Information and Help Menu	Section 4.5: Information and Help
Character Info	Opens the Character Sheet Menu	Section 4.6: The Character Sheet
Actions	Opens the Actions Menu	Section 4.7: Actions
Windows	Opens the Windows Menu	Section 4.8: Game Windows
Group Options	Opens the Group Options Menu	Section 5.0 – Groups and Grouping
Guild Options	Opens the Guild Options Menu	Section 6.0 – Guilds
Pet Options	Opens the Pet Command Window	Section 4.7.6: Pet Commands
Settings	Displays the Settings Menu	Section 4.10: Game Settings
Leave World	Logs character out, returns to Roster screen	Section 3.7.1: Leave World
Quit Game	Logs character out, terminates Shadowbane	Section 3.7.2: Quit Game

Close the Command Bar by clicking the Close Window Button, clicking the X button in the upper right hand corner, or Control+left-clicking the window and selecting the Destroy option. To reopen the Command Bar, simply Contol+left-click anywhere on the ground or simply press the Escape key.

4.4: The Effects Window

Faded to the point of near invisibility, the Effects window’s default position is in the upper left corner of the game screen. Whenever your character’s attributes or abilities are modified by a magical effect, whether from an item, spell, power, or other source, a glowing icon will appear in the effects window for each effect your character is under. Green icons indicate “buffs” (bonuses to one or more vital attributes), while red icons indicate “de-buffs” (lowering a vital stat). Other colors have different meanings. A mouseover of the effect icon itself provides information about how your character is being affected. NOTE: not all mouseover information has been implemented yet – as effects change over the course of beta, implementation will be ongoing.

4.5: Information and Help

The first button on the Command Bar opens a nested menu with the following features, which will help you gather information about your server or find help if you run into any problems:

4.5.1: Help

Clicking this option opens an in-game Help window. The window is currently empty, but in the future this document will be presented there, hyperlinked for ease of use.

4.5.2: Message of the Day

When you first log into the game world, the current Message of the Day will be displayed in a large window in the upper portion of the screen. These messages serve as a means of communicating issues, offering hints, showcasing new game content, alerting players of upcoming events, or offering special instructions to the entire player community. The Message of the Day window can be moved or closed like any other Shadowbane window. This option reopens the Message of the Day if it has been closed.

4.5.3: The Who List

Clicking the Who option opens the search window, where you can input a Search Set and a Search Filter to narrow the list of characters down to a more informative and manageable size. The Search Sets available are “All” characters (the default), all players in your character’s “Guild,” and all players in your character’s “Nation.” Search Filters allow you to make specialized searches by “Race,” “Class,” “Rank” (a minimum and maximum Rank must be entered), “Name” (a specific name must be entered), “Stranger” (characters not native to the server), or “None” (the default setting). Note that each search can only have one Search Set and one Search Filter. Once your search parameters are set, click the check-marked button to open the Who listing. The Who listing displays the name, race, class, and Rank of every character on the server that meet the search criteria. NOTE: Not all search criteria are functional at this time – implementation will be ongoing.

4.5.4: Petition CSR

This option opens a specialized window with commands that allow you to contact or petition a Customer Service Representative for assistance or information.

For more information, refer to Section 13.0 – In-Game Customer Support.

4.5.5: Cancel Last Petition

Immediately cancels your last CSR petition, removing it from the customer support process.

4.6: The Character Sheet

The character creation screen let you map out your character’s attributes and abilities. The interconnected windows that make up the Shadowbane character sheet let you see those attributes in action.

The Shadowbane Character Sheet consists of five separate component windows. A button on the Command Bar opens each of them, and each component window also contains buttons that provide access to the other windows, allowing you to move quickly between them. The five character sheet windows are:

q Stats – Displays the attributes of your character.

q Equipment – Displays the equipment slots of your character and the items they contain.

q Runestones – Displays all runestones bonded to your character.

q Skills – Displays a list of your character’s skills and their ratings.

q Powers – Displays a list of your character’s powers and their ratings.

4.6.1: The Stats Window

This window displays the primary and secondary attributes generated during character creation: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Spirit, Health, Mana, and Stamina. There are also many other items here worth your attention.

q Description – Just below your character’s name, this wide field lists your character’s name, gender, and class as a description (“Male Human Fighter,” for example). Beneath this descriptor is another row to display the names of any disciplines your character has acquired.

q Experience – This field displays the total number of experience points the character has accumulated since their creation.

q Shield – This field to the right of the name and description fields displays the emblem of your character’s Guild, if any. See Section 6.0 – Guilds for more information.

q Primary Attributes – Each primary attribute is displayed in its own field. Mousing over each attribute will display the base and maximum values for that attribute. Next to each attribute is a round “plus” button to raise attributes after leveling – see Section 8.2.1: Attribute Gains for more information. Finally, each attribute is assigned a descriptor based on its current rating, from “Feeble” to “Heroic.”

q Attribute Points – This field shows the number of attribute points available to your character. Attribute points are gained each time your character rises in level, and can be spent to raise an attribute on a point-for-point basis.

q Attack Rating – This field displays your character’s Attack rating (sometimes called OCV – for Offensive Combat Value). This is used to determine how often your character can hit a foe when attacking. The higher the number, the greater chance your character’s shot or swing hits the target. There are two Attack rating fields: the upper field is for the weapon held in your character’s right hand, while the lower field pertains to the weapon held in your character’s left hand (if any).

q Damage – Each damage field displays the damage for the weapon linked to the Attack rating field above it. These values are modified for your character’s skill ratings and ability scores.

q Defense – This field displays your character’s Defense rating, a value that measures how difficult your character is to hit in combat. Sometimes this is called DCV (Defensive Combat Value). The higher the value, the more likely a foe will miss you in melee combat or with missile fire. This value displayed is modified by armor, shield, and your character’s abilities.

q Resistance – Three values are listed here (Slash, Pierce, and Blunt), followed by a percentage. The percentage indicates what proportion of incoming damage of a specific type your character will resist. Higher is better. This is based on armor primarily, though race and other factors may play a factor.

4.6.2: The Inventory Window

This window displays everything your character currently has in their possession that they are not currently wearing or have equipped. Items actually in use are displayed in the Equipment window (see above). Double-click on an item in your character’s inventory to try and equip the item. If you don’t have something of the same type already equipped, it will automatically equip in that slot. If there’s something already there, the item you’ve selected won’t be equipped.

Dragging an item out of this window and onto the game screen drops the item on the ground at your character’s feet. All objects can be dragged from the inventory window into other equipment windows, like the Trade or Banking windows (see Section 3.7.3: Item Trading and Section 3.7.6: Banking Items).

4.6.3: The Equipment Window

The majority of this window is occupied by a display of your character’s eleven equipment slots (head, chest, arms, legs, feet, left ring, right ring, amulet, gauntlets, left held, and right held). Each slot features an image of the item held or worn.

Bonding Buttons: Each slot also contains a “bonding” button. This is the small round button in the upper left slot corner. To bond an item, simply click this button. Bonded items will not be lost upon the death of your character. You can only bond a number of items equal to your character’s Rank + 3. If you click an item when you have no more available bonding slots, it will deselect a moment later. If you remove an item from your Equipment window, you will lose the bonding to that item and must re-bond it. NOTE: for testing purposes, ALL equipped items are currently bonded automatically. This may change as testing continues.

For more information about equipping items, transferring items, and bonding items, see Section 3.7: Equipment and Treasure Management.

4.6.4: The Runestones Window

This window displays a list of every runestone currently bonded to your character. The selections you made during character generation (Race, Class, and any Traits or Talents) will all be displayed. Mousing over a runestone will display its effects. Characters can bond new runestones they acquire in play by “using” them (type U or the Use action).

4.6.5: The Skills Window

This window displays a list of every skill your character has some proficiency in, along with your character’s rating in that skill. Skill ratings are expressed as a percentage – the higher the rating, the better your character is at the given skill. At the bottom of the window is a field showing your character’s available practice points, which are used to improve skills. For more information about skills and skill improvement, see Section 9.0 – Skills and Powers.

4.6.6: The Powers Window

This window displays a list of all of the powers your character currently has access to. To use a power, click the power’s icon button. The icon serves as a general description of the powers effect (healing, attack rating bonus, or area of effect fire damage), while the power’s name, your character’s current rating in that power, the skill (if any) that that power depends upon, and the level at which the power first became available are displayed nearby. Note that these buttons can be fully customized, like all other interface buttons. See Section 4.9: Interface Customization for details.

As your character rises in level and improves their skills and powers, new powers will become available to them. Qualifying for a power, however, does not grant automatic access to it. New powers will appear in this the powers window until your character has acquiring the power by spending at least one practice point on that power with a trainer. See Section 9.2.3: Improving Powers and Spells for more information.

For more information about powers, see Section 9.0 – Skills and Powers.

4.6.7: Effects

This option toggles the Effects Window open or closed. See Section 4.4: The Effects Window for more information about the Effects Window.

4.7: Actions

During play, your character will continually be interacting with the world around them. Many basic actions your character can undertake are presented in the Actions Menu, and several of these have keyboard shortcuts as well. Additionally, your character can also perform other actions, communicating non-verbally through gesture and movement. The options that appear on the Actions Menu are:

q Interactions – commands that manipulate objects in the virtual world

q Use Equipment – commands that activate equipped items

q Movement – specialized movement commands

q Socials – brief emote animations

q Targeting – commands that aid combat

q Pet Commands – issues commands to any summoned or purchased pet

q Screenshot – saves an image of the game screen

4.7.1: Interactions

Clicking the “Interactions” option on the Command Bar will display the following menu of actions, each of which is described below. Keyboard commands for those actions with hotkeys are also listed, when available.

q Utilize Selected – This option immediately prompts the default interactive action for whatever is selected: Opens doors, Loots corpses, Attacks mobiles, Shops with vendors, etc. Essentially, this option is identical to double-left clicking on an object, as described in Section 3.1: Mouse Commands.

q Use Selected – Clicking this option immediately makes your character attempt to use whatever item on the screen is highlighted, whether it is actually in your character’s possession or not. Note that trying to use objects that are not actually equipment or devices of some kind is usually futile. Hotkey: U

q Attack Selected: This option initiates combat with whatever target you have selected, provided that your character is currently in Combat Mode. For more information, see Section 7.0: Combat. Hotkey: A

q Open/Loot Selected: This option opens a selected door or portal, or opens the Inventory Window of any container, including corpses. Hotkey: O

q Get Selected– Clicking this action will move an item from the game world into your character’s inventory. Double-clicking an item when your character is outside of combat mode has the same effect. Hotkey: G

q Drop Selected– This action drops any selected equipped item or removes a selected item from your character’s inventory. Dropped items are placed at the ground at your character’s feet. Clicking and dragging an item out of your character’s equipment window or inventory has the same effect. Hotkey: D

q Junk Item – This action destroys a selected item either equipped by your character or held in your character’s Inventory. You will be asked to confirm that you want to destroy the item. Once an item is destroyed, it is removed from the game world forever.

q Trade With Selected – This action sends a trade request to the currently selected NPC or character. Trading is described in detail in Section 3.7.3: Item Trading.

4.7.2: Use Equipment

This option allows your character to use an item they currently have equipped. Clicking it will open a menu of all of the equipment slots displayed in the Equipment Window of the Character Sheet (right-held, left-held, helm, chest, sleeves, gauntlets, right-ring, left-ring, amulet, legs, boots, etc). Clicking the appropriate slot will initiate an attempt to Use the item equipped there. Hotkeys can be assigned to these slots, making item use a quick operation. See Section 4.9.4: Hotkeys for more information about hotkeys, and Section 4.6.2: The Inventory Window and Section 4.6.3: The Equipment Window for more information about equipment slots and character inventory.

4.7.3: Movement

This option opens a menu of specialized movement buttons. For more information about the various movement modes and how to move, see Section 3.3: Movement. Current options are:

q Turn Right – This action causes your character to turn in place to the right, rotating about one sixth of a full turn. Hotkey: Right Arrow

q Turn Left – This action causes your character to turn in place to the left, rotating about one sixth of a full turn. Hotkey: Left Arrow

q Fly Up – If your character is able to fly, either through race or magic, this action will cause them to rise one altitude level. Hotkey: Page Up

q Fly Down – If your character is able to fly, either through race or magic, this action will cause them to descend one altitude level, landing if necessary. Hotkey: Page Down

4.7.4: Socials

Clicking the “Socials” option on the Action Menu will display an entire menu of Socials, short gestures or movements that your character can perform at any time, most lasting only a few seconds. There are dozens of Socials available, ranging from the polite and heroic to the insulting and silly. Some Socials are unavailable to some races; if a prohibited social is attempted the character will either perform a similar Social or shake their head “no” and revert to their idle position.

4.7.5: Targeting

This option opens a menu of commands that allow you to automatically select yourself, nearby mobiles, or nearby characters, saving you the trouble of having to click on them to target attacks or spells. Hotkeys for these commands are also listed.

q Target Next Mob – Selects the a nearby mobile (monster). Hitting this option again will move selection to the next-nearest, and so on. Hotkey: Home

q Target Next Character – selects a nearby character as a target. Hitting this option again will move selection to the next-nearest, and so on. Hotkey: Insert

q Target Self – Selects the user’s character. Hotkey: End

q Clear Target – Clears the current target selection, as if the user has left-clicked on the ground.

4.7.6: The Pet Commands Window

In Shadowbane, Pets are monsters or devices (usually Siege Engines) that follow your character through the virtual game world and follow specific orders given in play. Most pets will defend their master, automatically attacking any monster or player who engages their master in combat. Your character can acquire a pet through the use of specialized pet summoning powers or by purchasing a pet from an appropriate vendor. See Section 9.3: Pets and Pet Behaviors and Section 12.2: Siege Engines for more information.

Selecting the Pet Options option on the Command Bar opens the Pet Command Window, a small window with a field listing the pet’s name, along with status bars showing the current health, mana, and stamina of the pet. Buttons along the bottom of the window implement the following commands:

q Pet Attack: the pet immediately attacks the currently selected target. Be advised that some kind of pets may not be able to attack any kind of target.

q Pet Stop Attack: the pet immediately disengages from combat against its current target. Be advised that most mobiles will not stop attacking a pet simply because the pet has stopped attacking them.

q Dismiss Pet: Instantly dispels the pet, removing it from the game world.

q Pet Sit: the pet sits down to regenerate health and stamina more quickly. Selecting this command a second time toggles sitting off.

Each of the pet command buttons can be moved or hotkeyed, as described in Section 4.9.3 and Section 4.9.4. Pet commands can also be entered into the Command Line of any Chat Window using the following strings:

q /pet attack

q /pet stopattack

q /pet dismiss

q /pet sit

4.7.7: Screenshot

Clicking the “Screenshot” option takes a snapshot of your current game screen and saves it to the screenshots directory of your Shadowbane folder. All screenshots are saved as Targa (.tga) files; an appropriate software tool will be required to view them.

4.8: Windows

The Windows sub-menu offers users several ways to change their screen configuration and aid with navigation in the virtual world of Shadowbane. The options offered here are:

q Minimize All – closes every window on the screen except the Status Window and Group Window.

q Status Bar – toggles the Status Window open or closed.

q Chat Window – opens a new Chat Window.

q Local Map – opens the Local Map.

q World Map – opens the World Map.

4.8.1: Minimize All

This option closes every window on screen except the Status Window and Group Window (if open), making a larger area viewable. Once all windows have been closed, Control+left clicking on the ground or hitting the Escape key will open the Command Bar, from which all other windows can be opened.

4.8.2: Status Bar

This toggles the Status Window open or closed. See Section 4.1: The Status Window for more information about the Status Window and its contents.

4.8.3: Chat Window

This option opens a new Chat Window. See Section 4.2: Chat Windows for more information. You may have up to sixteen Chat Windows open at a time.

4.8.4: Local Map

Clicking the Local Map button of option on the Command Bar will open the Local Map window on your screen. This window displays information about your character’s position and immediate environment, and contains the following features:

q Coordinates – Near the top of the window, the character’s global position is given using a set of three coordinates (latitude, altitude, and longitude). These numbers will change as your character moves through the world.

q Zoom Buttons – These two buttons magnify or reduce the scale of the local map display.

q Map Display – This large area displays a stylized map of the character’s immediate environment. Terrain features (trees, shifts in ground color, mountains, and buildings) are all displayed, as are any characters or mobiles (monsters and non-player characters). Your character is represented by a white arrow, and always occupies the center of the map. As your character changes facing and direction, the arrow will spin in the map display, allowing you to better make your way toward distant features or landmarks. Other player characters are represented by yellow dots, tradesmen and other non-player characters are green dots, and guards and monsters appear as red dots.

q Zone Name – The name of the zone your character currently occupies is listed under the map display. These names range from nearby settlements (the city of New Brellamere) to geographical or legendary names (the Black Fens of Viriang). As your character moves from one region or zone to another, the name field will update automatically.

Map Movement

You can use the local map to move through the game world, guiding your player directly to a feature or landmark too distant to be visible. Right-click in the Map Display to set your character’s destination. This option only works with the Local Map, and only works if the Local Map is at 100% opacity.

4.8.5: World Map

Useful as a guide for long journeys and as a tool for monitoring the political situation on a server, this large-scale map can be accessed through the World Map option on the Command Bar. The map displays a diagram of the entire server world your character occupies, marking your character’s position on it with a red circle. An arrow sticking out of the circle indicates your character’s facing, and changes as your character moves.

q Zoom Controls – Two buttons in the upper left corner of the World Map zoom in or out on the image, showing features and city information in more detail. The magnification centers within a white box that appears on the map. Initially, this box is centered on your character’s position, but clicking elsewhere on the map will move the box, allowing you to closely examine other parts of the game world.

q Refresh Control –The “Refresh City Info” button at the bottom of the window will update all Guild and city representations on the map, making positions, ownership, population, and all other data for all in game cities current.

q City Information – Every city on the server is represented on the world map by a shield-shaped icon. These shields are emblazoned with the emblem of the Nation that controls that city. The shields are sized based on the population of that city. New city shields might too small to read without zooming in. The name of the city appears beneath the shield.

Clicking on a shield opens a special City Information window, containing specific information about the selected city.

For more information about Guilds, cities, and Nations, see Section 6.0 – Guilds.

4.9: Interface Customization

The amount of information and the number of command options available in Shadowbane might be overwhelming for a novice player. For this reason, Shadowbane’s interface is highly flexible, allowing you to organize and customize your game screen to best suit your style of play.

To save any changes you make to the configuration of your game screen, type “/saveconfig” in your Chat window. Eventually, all changes will be saved automatically when you leave the game (this functionality is forthcoming). If you do not want interface adjustments saved, toggle the “Autosave Windows” option off in the System Settings menu. See Section 4:10: Game Settings for more information.

4.9.1: Window and Menu Management

Nearly every window or menu in Shadowbane can be closed in different ways. To close a window, you can either left-click the round “x” button in the upper right hand corner (similar to closing a Windows or Mac window), or you can Control+left-click anywhere in the body of the window and then select the “Destroy” option on the Window Options menu (see below for more information).

You can minimize every open window (except the Status Window and Group Window) by left-clicking the “Minimize” button on the Status Window, or the Minimize button in the Command Bar. Left-clicking the Status Window Button in the Command Bar will minimize the Status Window, making it invisible.

If you happen to minimize both the Command Bar and the Status Window, you can Control+left click anywhere on the ground in the game world to maximize the Command Bar. From there, left-click the Status Window button to bring the Status Window back on screen.

4.9.2: Window Customization

To resize most Shadowbane windows or menus, click and drag the small tab in the lower left corner of the menu or window (note that the Status Window and some other windows cannot be resized). All windows can be moved to any position on the screen – to reposition a window, left-click and hold near the top of the window or hold down the Shift key and click anywhere within the body of the window, then drag it to the desired position. Left-clicking again will “release” the window, dropping it in its new position.

Control+left-clicking in the body of any window will bring up a Window Options menu that allows you to customize windows even further. The options available are:

q Transparency – Selecting the “Transparency” option in the Windows Options menu displays a slider bar that allows you to set how transparent the window is compared to the game screen behind it. At 0% a window is invisible, while at 100% the window is completely opaque. Once a window’s transparency has been set, moving the mouse cursor over the window will cause it to fade back to full visibility unless its transparency is locked (see below).

q Lock Transparency – Clicking this option locks a window’s transparency at its current level. Even if the cursor passes over it, the window will stay faded. Note that once a window’s transparency has been locked, you may “click through” it. Only buttons or fields in a locked window will respond to your cursor – otherwise, you can select objects or move destinations “behind” the window as if the window wasn’t there at all.

q Font – This option displays a menu of various typefaces. Selecting one will change the default font used in all windows and displays.

q Font Size – This option displays a list of font sizes. Selecting any of them resets the size of the fonts used in that menu, window, or display.

q Destroy – This closes the window, removing it from the screen.

4.9.3: Button Customization

Rather than navigating through a variety of menus, Shadowbane’s interface also lets you customize button placement and function, placing critical or often-used buttons directly on the game window, or on other menus.

Left-clicking and holding on any button will allow you to drag that button to any position on the screen and leave it there, regardless of what windows or menus you currently have open. This allows you to build your own control panel of favorite powers, skills, socials, or game commands. To move a button again once you’ve dragged it off of its menu, hold down the Shift key and left click and drag the button to its new position.

Control+left-clicking any button will also display a Button Customization menu with the following options:

q Activate – This option activates whatever function or power is associated with the button, as if you had left-clicked on it.

q Assign Hotkey – Clicking this button allows you to assign a keyboard shortcut for the selected button. See Section 4.9.4: Hotkeys, for more information.

q Destroy – This option removes a button from the screen. Only buttons that have been dragged into a custom position are affected by this option. You cannot delete a command from its home menu.

4.9.4: Hotkeys

As another shortcut through various command menus, the Shadowbane interface allows you to set a custom keyboard shortcut for any button on the game screen. There are several ways to set and manage hotkeys in Shadowbane. However you set it, any custom hotkey is specific to the current character you have logged in: if you log in with a different character, previous custom hotkey assignments will no longer apply. There are ways to copy a set of custom hotkeys from one character to another, described in Section 4.9.4.3: Hotkey Sets, below.

4.9.4.1: Assigning a Hotkey

This is the most direct method. Control+left-click on the button you want a shortcut for and then click the “Assign Hotkey” option on the Button Customization menu. A Hotkey Assignment window will appear on screen. There, you can enter the key you want to link to the command. Buttons nearby allow you to combine that key with the Control, Shift, or Alt key (only one per hotkey, though). Once you’ve assigned your hotkey, click the check button to proceed or the “x” button to cancel.

4.9.4.2: Hotkey Mapping Screens

Select Settings on the Command Bar, then Select Hotkeys to open a sub-menu of mapping options:

q Bind General Key – used for general keyboard commands

q Bind Socials – used to map specific social actions

q Bind Powers – used to bind a hotkey for any power in your character’s Powers Menu

q Bind Macros – used to create a hotkey for any text command line entry.

Selecting any of the above options will open a menu of the appropriate commands (general actions, socials, powers etc) listing the command name, the current hotkey (in blue) and two options: Map and Clear. Selecting Map opens a popup window allowing you to input a new key. Selecting the buttons to the right of the key field lets you combine the key with Control, Shift, or Alt (only one of the three options is allowed per hotkey). Clear deletes the current binding.

The Bind Macro list has some additional features: an Add button to the left of the menu creates a new entry on the Macro list, and the Edit button on each entry allows you to directly input the text command you want to hotkey. Enter the command using the same format you would if typing on the command line of a Chat Window: See Section 4.2.1: Text Commands, for more information. Note that specific communications (like “Surrender or die!”) can be hotkeyed using macros – see Section 3.6: In-Game Communication for more information about formatting and sending messages in game.

4.9.4.3: Hotkey Sets

Once you’ve established a set of hotkeys you’re comfortable with, you can import the set to another character using the Hotkey Management commands in the Settings menu, which is accessed through the Command Bar. To find these options, click Settings on the Command Bar and then click Hotkeys. Two options at the bottom of the Hotkey sub-menu pertain to hotkey sets:

q Restore Defaults will remove all custom hotkey settings for the current character, restoring the default key commands (see Section 3.2: Keyboard Commands for a complete listing).

q Import Hotkeys will display a list of all the characters currently saved on your client. Click the name of the character to import that hotkey set to the current character.

4.9.4.4: Removing Hotkeys

If you decide to change or delete a hotkey, assign the appropriate button again to a new value, assign that button a new value or its former default using either procedure above, or use the Restore Defualts option to eliminate all custom key mappings.

4.9.5: Interface Skins

In addition to previously described interface flexibility, Shadowbane allows users to change the interface skin, altering the appearance of every window, menu, and button in the game. As of this test cycle, two skins have been fully implemented (the default, or “High Ethyrian” skin and the optimized Minimal Skin). More skins will become available as the game nears completion. To set the interface skin, click the Settings option on the Command Bar and then click “Interface Skin” to open a list of available skins. Clicking the desired skin on this list will switch the interface to that skin.

4.10: Game Settings

Clicking the Settings button on the Command Bar (as described in Section 4.3: The Command Bar) opens a menu of the following options:

q Camera Controls – Camera control options, described in Section 3.5: Camera Controls.

q Hotkeys – Advanced hotkey and hotkey mapping options, described in Section 4.9.4: Hotkeys.

q Interface Skin – Displays a list of available interface skins, as described in Section 4.9.5: Interface Skins.

q Show Names – displays the name of every mobile or onscreen character (within a close range) over their heads.

q Show Crests – displays the Guild and Nation crest of every mobile or onscreen (within a close range) over their heads.

q System Settings– Various system settings that can adjust game appearance and performance, described below in Section 4.10.1.

q Video Options – Graphical settings that can adjust game performance, described below in Section 4.10.2.

q Diagnostics – Opens an advanced diagnostic window on screen, described below in Section 4.10.3.

4.10.1: System Settings

This large menu contains various items that define gameplay in Shadowbane. Some of the options available are purely cosmetic, while others can have a drastic impact on game performance. Click any toggle to switch it between on and off.

q Account Name: The account name currently held in the client’s memory. If the “Save Account Information” item on the login screen is not toggled on, this information will not be saved.

q Account Password: The password associated with the current account name. This field is always bulleted out for security reasons.

q Fullscreen Mode: This determines whether Shadowbane will occupy the full computer screen or display in a smaller window. Running the game in “Windowed” mode can have an adverse effect on computer performance, and is not recommended. This option will not be present in the final version.

q Software Cursor – This determines whether or not the Shadowbane cursor (a small, gray blade) is displayed instead of your system’s default mouse pointer.

q Mouse Overs – This enables or disables all mouse over information displays.

q Autosave Window – This determines whether or not any changes to the game screen configuration are saved. Game interface customization is described in Section 4.9: Interface Customization.

q Sound Effects – This determines whether in-game sounds are on or off.

q Music – This switches all in-game music on or off.

q Health Bars – This determines whether or not color-coded health bars are displayed next to both parties in combat. See Section 7.2.2: Beginning Combat for details.

q 3D Combat Damage – This determines whether or not damage figures rise from the heads of avatars in combat. See Section 7.2.3: The Combat Sequence for details.

q Selection Arrows – This determines whether or not four small, gray arrows appear on screen surrounding any object or mobile currently selected.

q Terrain Fine Detail – This determines whether or not in-game terrain displays with optional layered textures. Depending on your system’s graphics card, changing this setting can have a direct impact on performance.

q Profanity Filter – This automatically filters profane and vulgar language from character name choice and all communications.

q Blood Filter – This determines whether or not blood spray particles issue from avatars when they are struck in combat.

q Texture Compression – This enables or disables compression of textures in the game engine. Depending on your system’s graphics card, changing this setting can have a direct impact on performance.

q Snap to Grid – This determines how much all game windows and menus will attempt to automatically align with each other when moved. An invisible grid on screen adjusts window placement, bringing window edges in line. The higher this slider is set, the less likely a window is to stay exactly where you place it.

q Music Volume – This slider control lets you set the volume of all game music.

q Screen Resolution – This slider lets you set your preferred screen resolution. Changing this setting can have drastic effects on game appearance and performance.

q View Angle – This slider lets you configure how wide the game camera’s viewing angle is – the higher the setting, the more “peripheral vision” your character gains. Note that the upper end of this setting can produce a fish-eyed lens effect. Changing this setting can have drastic effects on game appearance and performance.

q Terrain Texture Detail – This slider lets you adjust the resolution of all ground textures. Changing this setting can have drastic effects on game appearance and performance.

q Refinement Range – This slider sets the distance at which objects in-game revert from 2D decals to 3D objects. Depending on your system’s graphics card, changing this setting can have drastic effects on game appearance and performance.

q Open GL Lighting – This control toggles in-game lighting on or off.

q Video Bit Depth – This control sets the amount of colorand alpha information that is encoded per pixel on the game screen. There are 2 settings available: 16 bit and 32 bit. Your system’s graphics card will determine which setting is best for you.

q Z-Buffer Depth – This control sets the amount of resolution between rendered objects. Most systems will run at16 bit, though high-end systems can use the 32 bit setting.

4.10.2: Video Options

This window contains several controls that regulate the behavior of shadows in the game engine. Depending on your system’s graphics card, any adjustment of these settings can have a drastic impact on game performance.

q Realtime Shadows on Terrain – This determines whether or not characters, monsters, or non-player characters cast animated shadows on the in-game terrain.

q Realtime Shadows on Terrain Objects – This determines whether or not characters, monsters, or non-player characters cast animated shadows on in-game terrain objects (trees, bushes, boulders, etc.).

q Realtime Shadows on Buildings – This determines whether or not characters, monsters, or non-player characters cast animated shadows on buildings and structures.

q Distance – This determines the distance away from your character at which characters, monsters, or non-player characters begin to cast shadows, and therefore the number of real time shadows on screen.

4.10.3: Diagnostics

This option opens a small window in game that displays a number of performance and diagnostic information. This window is included for developmental and testing purposes only, and will not be included in final release. Information provided in this window includes:

q Frame Rate – The current video performance, expressed in number of frames per second.

q Poly Count – The number of polygons currently being rendered on screen.

q Objects – The number of objects currently displayed on screen.

q Texture Mem – The amount of texture memory currently available to your computer.

q Comp Texture – Displays the amount of texture compression happening on screen.

q Load Req – The number of objects currently waiting to load on screen.

q Bytes Sent – The size of the data stream going from your computer to the server.

q Bytes Received – The size of the data stream coming from the server to your computer.

q Ping Time – The amount of time it takes to send a ‘ping’ message to the server.

Section 5.0: Groups and Grouping

As the old saying goes, there is safety in numbers. By working together, players become much more effective in combat or quest than they would have been on their own. In Shadowbane, there are two different types of organizations for characters to join: Groups and Guilds. Each type of organization has its own benefits and requirements, but both are definitely worth your character’s time and consideration. Groups are described below, and Guilds later in this manual (see Section 6.0 - Guilds).

5.1: The Group

The “party of adventurers” is a classic staple of both fantasy fiction and adventure gaming, and Shadowbane is no exception. A Group in Shadowbane is defined as a fellowship or band of characters, usually few in number, who have agreed to fight alongside each other on adventures and quests, sharing the risk as well as the reward. By grouping with other players, your character will be able to communicate privately with other group members, share acquired experience, and split the gold gained through combat. Groups also provide players with a means to tactically organize themselves on the battlefield, and provide an experience bonus to every member based upon the size of the Group: watching their companions in action is an ideal way to learn and hone one’s own skills.

Groups are intended to be far more temporary and transitory than Guilds (see Section 6.0 - Guilds). Characters will join together in a group for an afternoon or evening of play, or perhaps to accomplish a certain task, then disband and go their separate ways. Groups are, in the end, just that: groups. Cliques, societies, and political units are a different matter entirely, and fall firmly under the heading of Guilds.

5.1.1: Who Can Join a Group?

There are no restrictions on what characters may or may not join a given group. Conceivably, any combination of Races, Classes and Professions can band together, regardless of character level. Note, however, that the method used to calculate experience will make it profoundly inefficient for high-level heroes to group with low-level beginners (see Section 5.5: Benefits of Group Membership), and that Shadowbane’s in-game history makes certain kinds of alliances profoundly unlikely. Characters may still group as they will, and there is only one limit to Group formation: a group may have no more than ten members.

5.1.2: Leaving a Group

Once your character has joined a group, there are two ways to leave: either left-click the Leave Group option in the Group Menu (described in Section 5.2: Group Commands), or die. Character death immediately removes your character from their Group.

5.2: Group Commands

All of Shadowbane’s Group functionality can be accessed through the Group Menu (part of the Command Bar menus), the Group Status Window, or both. Clicking the Group option on the Command Bar brings up the following list of commands. Each is described in turn. Underlined buttons also can be found of the Guild Status window.

q Form New Group – this button creates a new group (of one), and designates your character as the group leader. It also automatically opens the Group Status Window (see Section 5.3: The Group Status Window for more details).

q Toggle Info – This button toggles the Group Status Window on or off.

q Invite New – A character cannot opt to join an existing group on their own – they must be invited. Click this button to invite another character to join your current group. When selected, you will be prompted to target the character you wish to invite. The invited character has the option to accept or refuse the invitation. A character can only be a member of one group at a time: accepting a second invitation will automatically eject a character from their first Group. Note that only the Group Leader can invite new members into the group.

q Leave Group – This button removes your character from your current group. To re-join, your character must be re-invited. If your character is the leader of the group, another character will become default leader as soon as your character leaves.

q Remove Member – This option ejects a member from the group. Once selected, you will be prompted to either target the undesired character or select their entry in the Group Status Window to eject them. Only the Group Leader has the authority to dismiss group members.

q Disband – Selecting this option destroys the group, ejecting every member. You will be prompted to confirm your decision before the group disbands. Only the Group Leader can disband a group.

q Appoint Leader – This option allows you to appoint a new Group leader. You will be prompted to either target the desired character or select their entry in the Group Status Window. Once completed, Leader status will transfer to the selected character. Note that only the Group Leader can initiate a change of leadership.

q Split Gold – Toggles gold sharing on or off (see Section 5.5.2: Gold Sharing for more details).

q Following Toggle – Toggles following on or off (see Section 5.6: Formations and Following for more information).

q Formations – this option opens a sub-menu of available formations:

q Column – This option causes all group members to assume this formation.

§ Line – This option causes all group members to assume this formation.

§ Box – This option causes all group members to assume this formation.

§ Triangle – This option causes all group members to assume this formation.

§ Circle – This option causes all group members to assume this formation.

§ Ranks – This option causes all group members to assume this formation.

§ Wedge – This option causes all group members to assume this formation.

§ Inv. Wedge – This option causes all group members to assume this formation.

§ T – This option causes all group members to assume this formation.

5.3: The Group Status Window

The core of Shadowbane’s Group system, the Group Status Window gives you access to most of the group commands without needing to go through the Command bar, and displays important information about every member. The window automatically appears on your screen whenever your character forms or joins a Group, and can be toggled on or off using the Toggle info option in the Command bar group menu.

Command Buttons – A column of seven command buttons can be found at the left edge of the group Status Window. All of these buttons are the same as buttons found on the Command bar Groups menu – see the descriptions above for their functions.

Character Information Bar – A Character Information Bar for every member of the Group appears in the Group Status Window. If a Group member dies, their information bar will vanish from the window. These bars can be used to monitor each member’s status, and also serve as an easy means of selecting a character outside your character’s field of view. Each information bar consists of the following items:

q Name – Lists both the first and last names of the Group member.

q Status Indicators – These bars display the relative status of the Group member’s Health, Mana, and Stamina, expressed as a percentage of the character’s full value.

q Following Indicator – This control stud shows by its color whether or not the Group member is in Following mode and participating in Group Formations.

Minimize Button – This button shrinks the Group Status Window, stripping away all of the Group Leader-based command buttons and slimming the window down to a minimalist format. Minimizing the Group Status Window can help improve visibility in your game window, and each member entry can still be clicked to select them.

5.4: Group Leaders

The founder of a group is designated as its Leader. Group Leaders have direct control over the functioning of the group – most of the commands on the Group Options List will only work for the Group Leader. Only the leader can disband the Group, eject a Group member, or appoint a new Group Leader. If your character doesn’t like the group’s leadership, they don’t have to stay: membership is voluntary, and a character can leave their group at any time by clicking the Leave Group button.

5.4.1: Changing Group Leader

If, for some reason, the Group Leader suddenly becomes unavailable (the character is slain, exits the game abruptly, or quits the group without disbanding it), the next character listed in the Group Status Window will automatically be designated Group Leader, and all members will receive a message to that effect. Sometimes a Group may decide to change its leader: perhaps the Group Leader has some warning of their imminent departure, or perhaps the Group needs to automatically Follow a different character to reach a destination. To designate a new Group Leader, the current Leader simply clicks the Appoint New Leader button, then selects the new leader (see Section 5.2 – Group Commands, above).

5.5: Benefits of Group Membership

5.5.1: Group Experience Bonuses

Group membership provides a bonus to earned experience. In a group, experience becomes a collective effort - all members of a group receive experience points whenever any member of the group kills a foe. The amount received is modified by the group experience bonus. Grouped characters will, therefore, get more experience points per kill, and will receive more kill awards than they could on their own. Groups can also defeat higher level monsters by working together, opening themselves to even greater experience awards. See Section 8.0 – Character Development, for more information about experience points.

There is one limit to the amount of experience characters can gain by grouping. Every character has an experience cap, a maximum number of experience points that can be gained per kill. Lower level characters, therefore, will receive less experience than their fellow group members, and are less able to contribute to combats. Groups function most efficiently when all members are of equal or nearly equal level.

5.5.2: Gold Sharing

Groups can also share the wealth. If the Group Leader toggles the Split Treasure option to “on” (this is done by clicking the Gold Sharing button on the Group Status Window or the Command Bar group menu), any treasure earned by the group will automatically be divided equally between all members. If the amount of treasure does not divide evenly, the character actually picking up the loot receives any remainder. In other words, if member of a Group of six characters picks up 21 gold pieces, each member receives 3 gold (21 divided by 6), with an additional 3 for the character who grabbed the treasure.

5.5.3: Group Communications

Finally, Group members have access to a private communications channel, available only to members of their group for organizing and coordinating their efforts. To send a message only Group members will hear, type </gsay> before the body of the message in the command line of a multi-channel Chat Window. For instructions about how to configure a Group-exclusive chat window, and for more information about game communications in general, see Section 3.6.4: Communications Options.

5.6: Formations and Following

Groups also have access to various formation options, allowing them to automatically follow the group Leader and assume optimal configurations in combat. When Following is toggled on, all members of a group will automatically follow the group leader wherever he goes, assuming their place in the current Group Formation when their movement ends. Following defaults to “off”, so the leader must toggle following to “on” if they wish to have Group members automatically follow them. With following on, Group members can sit back and relax as the Leader steers the entire party.

If you decide to have your character move independently, click the Following button on the Group Status Window and your character will break formation, returning to your direct control. Click the Following toggle again to rejoin the Group and resume your place in formation. You can also break formation merely by clicking a destination as you would normally. Your character will break formation, and every other Group member will receive a message to that effect.

Following is a good way to ensure an entire Group gets where it wants to go quickly and efficiently – while following, characters will not get tremendously separated or lose sight of the leader, and connection lag will not be a factor. However, each character’s movement speed does not change, so slower members might trail behind their Group, while faster ones might run ahead of the Group Leader.

Also, as long as one member of a Group knows the way to the Group’s goal, you don’t need to worry about confusing directions. The Group Leader should appoint a character that knows the way to be the new Group leader, and the group will follow them unerringly.

When the Group Leader activates Following, the members of the Group will automatically assume a position in the Formation: based upon their current location, they will move to the nearest open “slot” in the formation. If you have a very specific or detailed formation in mind (pike men at the point, archers left, wizards rear right), your Group may need to practice falling in and out of formation to get a feel for running to the right spot.

5.6.1: Formation Benefits

Falling into a specific formation does not impart any specific bonus or benefit to a character other than any incidental tactical advantage that might arise from the character’s position. By holding ranks instead of rushing off to fight, multiple characters can easily attack a single opponent, striking from several angles. Certain situations will make one formation more useful than another.

Certain spells and powers (particularly those granted to Fighters and Warriors) allow a character to take up a defensive stance and actually become a collision object (characters and monsters cannot move through them). Groups that feature such characters should always put them in front – attackers will be unable to run through them to get to weaker spell-casters or support characters in the rear. In such cases, organization and a good formation can overcome a vastly superior opponent.

Section 6.0 – Guilds

A guild is a large association of characters with similar outlooks or goals, banded together to build cities, pursuing common goals, and interacting with other guilds – peacefully or otherwise. Because guilds provide players with the power and methods they can use to permanently change the world, player-character guilds form the heart of the world of Shadowbane.

6.1: Forming a Guild

In order to form a guild, you need to acquire a Guild Charter. There is a shopkeeper who sells them – seek him or her out when you are ready. Note that when you conduct business with this shopkeeper, you will see that 13 different types of guild charters are available. Each charter corresponds to one of the guild types. More information about each Guild type can be found on our website, at http://shadowbane.ubisoft.com/gameinfo/guilds.shtml. A brief description of each type follows:

q Amazon Temple – Fierce bands of warrior women who venerate their own queens and goddeses.

q Barbarian Clan – Brutal clans of Northmen bent on plunder, loot, and glory.

q Church of the All-Father – An ancient church devoted to unity and brotherhood.

q Dwarf Hold – Enclaves of Dwarves struggling to understand the ways of the surface world.

q High Court – Grim Elvish factions working to rebuild their lost empire.

q Mercenary Band – Soldiers for hire hoping to seize power in the age of warfare.

q Military Legion – The remnants of the great armies of years past, fighting for power.

q Noble House – Human families trying to revive the glory of the Ten Kingdoms.

q Ranger’s Brotherhood – Secretive orders of Druids and Rangers working to restore balance.

q Temple of the Cleansing Flame – Militant congregations striving to purge the wicked.

q Thieves’ Band – Gangs of cutthroats and villains hoping to earn some dishonest gold.

q Virakt – Savage tribes of Irekei who constantly war with all non-Irekei and each other.

q Wizard’s Conclave – Aloof colleges of lore and magic, struggling to uncover lost secrets.

In addition to type, every guild is also defined by its status:

q Errant Guilds – Every newly created Guild is errant – which means that they have not sworn fealty to any other Guild, and do not yet own a city.

q Sovereign Guilds – These Guilds own a city.

q Sworn Guilds – These Guilds have sworn an oath of fealty (service and support) to a Sovereign Guild.

q Nation Guilds – Any Sovereign Guild that has another Sovereign Guild swear fealty to it. The lead Guild in any multi-City alliance.

q Province – Any Sovereign Guild that has sworn featly to another Sovereign Guild, making that Guild a Nation.

More information about these Guild types can be found on the Shadowbane website (http://shadowbane.ubisoft.com/gameinfo/Guilds.shtml).

Once you have purchased a Guild Charter, open you character’s Inventory, click once on the Charter to select it, then click the Use action (under Actions in the Command Bar) or type U to use it. Once you activate the Charter, the Guild creation sequence will begin.

6.2: The Guild Creation Sequence

On the first section of this sequence, you will be prompted to enter the Guild name, its motto, and its government system. The government system determines who has the authority to call votes of “no confidence” in the Guild Leader, and should be fairly self-explanatory. Once all of these choices have been defined, click the “Forward” arrow at the bottom of the window to proceed. Wolfpack Studios and its publishers reserve the right to alter or reject inappropriate or offensive Guild names.

Next, you must design your crest, the coat of arms for your Guild. Each crest has six elements: foreground color, background color, symbol color, background pattern, symbol set, and symbol. Click on the studs at either end of the item to move forward and backward through a range of choices. Each symbol set contains a variety of unique symbols within it. Click through each of these items until you find a crest that suits your Guild, and press the “Forward” arrow when finished.

Once your crest is designed, all of the Guild information you have entered will be displayed for your review. If everything meets your approval, press the “Forward” arrow to finalize your Guild and return to the game world. If you want to change something, press the “Backward” arrow at the bottom of the window.

6.3 Membership Benefits

6.3.1: Basic Memebrship Bonuses

Why should you found or join a Guild? Firstly, all Guild members receive a bonus to earned experience, but without the drawbacks of sharing found in Groups. Secondly, characters that have joined a Guild benefit from increased recovery rates. Health, Stamina, and Mana regenerate faster for Guild members. The extent of this bonus is based on the current status of the Guild.

6.3.2: Preferred Membership Bonuses

Every Guild type also has a preferred membership, tied either to a race or a pair of classes. Preferred members gain an additional bonus to earned experience above and beyond the bonus they gain for simply being members. This additional incentive is designed to form Guilds that mirror Shadowbane’s world background. In the end, however, Guilds are like Groups when it comes to restrictions: any character, of any race, can serve in a Guild with any other character. Some Guild types are more beneficial to some characters than others.

Guild Template	Preferred Members
Amazon Temple	Furies, Huntresses
Barbarian Clan	Barbarians, Bard, Fighters, Warriors
Church of the All-Father	Crusaders, Healers, Prelates, Priests
Dwarf Hold	Any Dwarf
High Court	Any Elf
Mercenary Band	Fighters, Healers, Mages, Priests, Rogues, Thieves, Warriors, Wizards
Military Legion	Fighters, Healers, Mages, Priests, Rogues, Thieves, Warriors, Wizards
Noble House	Any Human
Ranger’s Brotherhood	Druids, Rangers
Temple of the Cleansing Flame	Confessors, Templars
Thieves’ Band	Assassins, Rogues, Scouts, Thieves
Virakt	Any Irekei
Wizard’s Conclave	Channelers, Mages, Warlocks, Wizards

6.3.3: Communications

Guilds also have their own independent communications channel. Typing “/guild” as the command before the body of a message in the Chat window will send the message on that character’s Guild channel, and all who are allowed to hear it will receive it in the appropriate color. See Section 3.6: In-Game Communication for more details.

6.4.4: Other benefits

Once a Guild begins building a city, Guild members receive privileged access to a wide variety of goods and services. Guilds also provide many intangible benefits: backup in times of trouble, a forum for sharing information and resources, and a social identity to help define your character. Finally, Guilds also serve as the means of helping to determine your character’s bind point, their “home address.” See Section 3.9.1: Spawn and Bind Points and Section 6.4.1: Changing Cities for more details.

6.4: Joining or Leaving a Guild

Like Groups, a character must usually be invited to join an existing Guild. If a character founds a Guild, he is designated the Guild Leader by default, and can invite new members. A character can only be a member of one Guild at any time. You can also join any Safehold or open player Guild by re-pledging to that Guild’s city, as described in Section 6.4.1 below.

If you grow dissatisfied with your Guild, click the “Leave Guild” button in the Guild Options list on the Command Bar to drop out (see below for more information). Conversely, if your Guild leadership or fellow Guild members grow dissatisfied with you, you can be banished from the Guild. Remember, going errant will have some immediate, drastic effects on your character’s virtual life: all experience and regeneration bonuses will be lost, and your character will lose the default spawn and bind point.

6.4.1: Changing Cities

Before leaving your Guild (and, by extension, your character’s home city) it’s always a good idea to have a new home lined up. Your character can re-pledge their Guild and city affiliation at any time by double-clicking a Steward or Runemaster in their home city and selecting the “Re-pledge” option on the appropriate Tradesman’s Vendor Window. This option opens a list of all available open cities on the character’s current game world. If the character is below level 20, Safehold cities will be included on this list. If they have already reached rank 2, only player-run open cities will appear. You can always refer to the World Map (as described in Section 4.8.5) to check the player population and location of any given city. Your character cannot re-pledge their Guild affiliation via a Herald or Runemaster until they attain Rank one (10^th level).

To re-pledge your character to a new city, simply select the desired entry on the list and click the check button. Your character will automatically teleport to the new city, bind to that city’s Tree of Life (using it as their new spawn and bind point), and join the Guild that controls that Tree as a petitioner. See Section 6.6: Guild Member Status for more information about the conditions and restrictions of petitioner status. While this offers a short cut around the usual means of joining a Guild, bear in mind that your character must still meet any requirements set by that Guild to become a full member, and that your new Guild mates are well within their rights to banish you from their City (or even kill you on sight) if you wear out your welcome. Also, changing Guild affiliation will not change the fact that any character who has your character’s Guild Shield on their Heraldry or Death Lists can still use your character’s name to hold them accountable for their actions. See Section 6.7: Other Uses for Heraldry and Crests for more information.

6.5: Guild Options

The Guild option on the Command Bar displays an array of Guild-based commands, as follows:

q Invite to Guild– This command allows you to invite another character to join your Guild. You will be prompted to select the character you wish to invite.

q Leave Guild– This command removes your character from their current Guild. You will be prompted to confirm your choice.

q Promote, Demote, Banish – This option opens a list of all Guild members, displaying their name and Rank (the names of members currently on line appear in yellow). The Guild leadership uses this window to change the standing of their Guild members. See Section 6.6: Guild Member Status for more information.

q Disband the Guild– This command disbands the Guild completely, ending Guild affiliation for all members. Only the Guild Leadership has access to this command, and they will be prompted to confirm this choice if it is selected.

q Invite a Guild to Swear Under You – This command allows the officer of a Guild (Guild Leader or Inner Council) to invite another Guild to swear fealty to your Guild. You will be prompted to select a character from the Guild you want to swear allegiance to yours.

q Sub Guilds and Sovereigns – This option opens a menu of all the Guilds in the character’s Guild alliance, displayed in a hierarchy of Nations, Provinces, and sworn Guilds. Additional functionality allows Guild Officers to review, ratify, or dissolve Guild alliances.

6.6: Guild Member Status

Every Guild has a status that defines its place in the world in terms of its relationship to other Guilds. Characters can also be defined by their position within a Guild. There are five levels of character guild status in Shadowbane:

q Errant characters are not affiliated with any Guild. Whether they are renegades, outcasts, outlaws, or merely loners, they gain none of the benefits of Guild membership. Errant characters are severely handicapped when compared to Guild members in terms of earned experience and security. Most Errant characters have either left their Guild, been exiled from it, or are survivors of a Guild’s destruction. Alone in the turmoil of the Age of Strife, Errant characters usually seek to found or join a Guild as quickly as possible.

q Petitioner status is conferred upon a character whenever they accept an invitation to join a Guild. Petitioners occupy the lowest echelons within any Guild, and enjoy all of the benefits of Guild membership, as described in Section 6.3: Membership Benefits. Petitioners, however, are still considered “probationary” members, and this status lacks security. The votes (or “white marks”) of a small group of Active members can promote a Petitioner to Active status, but a small group of votes (“black marks”) can also banish the Petitioner. As trial members, Petitioners are also excluded from all political voting within the Guild. See Section 6.6.1: Guilds, Government, and Voting for more information on this.

q Active members of a Guild are full-fledged members of the Guild, enjoying all of its benefits. Unlike Petitioners, their position within the Guild is more secure. Only the Guild Leadership (as determined by the Government type) has the power to expel an active member.

q Inner Council members are active members who share the administrative powers of the Guild Leader. Inner Council members can manage the healing and defensive capabilities of a Tree of Life, and can invite or render oaths of fealty from other Guilds. A Guild Leader can grant Inner Council status to Guild members, or this honor can be earned by popular vote, depending upon the Guild’s system of government. See Section 6.6.1: Guilds, Government, and Voting, and Section 6.9: Guild Alliances and Nations for more information.

q Guild Leader status is automatically conferred upon the founder of a Guild, but can be transferred to others or removed depending upon the Guild’s governmental system. Guild Leaders wield ultimate administrative power within the Guild, although their powers and functions may be limited by the Guild’s government system. See Section 6.6.1: Guilds, Government, and Voting for more information on this.

In addition to the various levels of status that membership in a Guild can convey upon a character, every Guild also has a ranking system. The Guild leadership (either the Guild Leader, the Inner Council, or both depending upon the Guild’s system of government) has the power to assign ranks to members, and may promote or demote members as they see fit. Certain ranks are only available to Guild Leaders of Sovereign Guilds or the leaders of Nations.

A character’s status and Rank within a Guild has nothing to do with character level or Rank. While it might seem logical for a Guild to place their most powerful members in positions of leadership, some prefer to keep lower level figureheads in positions of authority, since titles often serve as targets.

6.6.1: Guilds, Governments, and Voting

Every Guild has a government type, selected during Guild creation. The style of government determines which members of a Guild (the Guild Leader, the Inner Council, or the body of Sworn members) have the authority to vote on important issues. Currently, government style is mostly a cosmetic choice: more functionality in this area is forthcoming.

6.6.2: Voting to Affect Guild Member Status

Any Sworn member of a Guild can voice their opinion about any other Sworn or Petitioner member by placing a white mark (favorable vote) or black mark (negative vote) on that character’s “record.” When a character accepts an invitation to join a Guild, five white marks are required from different Sworn members to promote that character to Sworn status. Conversely, five black marks will banish a Petitioner or Sworn member from a Guild, turning them Errant.

To view a character’s vote record and place a mark upon their record, control+left-click the desired character and select “Guild Info” from the menu. A window displaying the character’s Guild Information will appear (Guild name, rank, etc.). If that character is a member of the same Guild as your character, a second window will appear displaying the vote record of that character. A list of all black and white marks is displayed, along with the name of the character who cast the vote, the date of the vote, and any comments.

To add a vote of your own, select the Black Mark or White Mark button at the left edge of the voting window. A small window will appear where you can enter a brief comment (about the character, the vote, or anything you like). Click in the text field, and then type your comment. Click the check-marked button to submit your vote, or the “x” button to cancel.

The Guild Leader and members of the Inner Council have the authority to banish, promote, and demote members at will, bypassing the vote system.

6.7: Other Uses for Heraldry and Crests

Every character’s Guild and Nation affiliation are displayed over their heads if Show Crests is toggled on. To toggle Show Names on or off, select Show Crests on the Settings sub-menu, as described in Section 4.10.1: System Settings. Selecting any character or mobile will also display the Nation and Guild crests in the Selection Window (as described in Section 4.1.1: The Selection Window. Heraldry serves as an instant indicator of a potential friend or foe’s Guild affiliation, but Shadowbane incorporates other features that allow you to save any Guild or Nation crest and put them to various in-game uses.

6.7.1: Heraldry Options

The first two items on the Guilds sub-menu (accessed by selecting Guild Options on the Command Bar) allow you to save heraldry that you encounter during play:

q Heraldry List: This serves as a list of some of the vital statistics (name, guild and nation) of any character encountered in game.

q Death List: This automatically records the name, Guild, and Nation of any character that kills your character. Your character’s last ten killers are displayed here, as if they had been added to the Heraldry List.

6.7.2: Opening and Maintaining the Heraldry List

The Heraldry List has two basic components: the actual list of crests at the bottom of the window, and an information block at the top. The list displays every crest icon your character has collected over the course of play. Left-click a crest on the list to display its statistics in the information block: the name of the character you took the crest from, that character’s Guild name, and their Nation name will all be displayed. The Heraldry List holds a maximum of ten crests.

To add a new crest to your Heraldry List, left-click or control-click the character to select them, open the Heraldry List by selecting Guild Options and then Heraldry List on the Command Bar, and then drag the character’s Guild Shield icon from the Selection Window into the open field of the list. To delete an entry from the list, left-click the crest to select it and then press the <Delete> key. Remember that the Heraldry List, like all buttons in Shadowbane, can be dragged onto the screen or hotkeyed as described in Section 4.9: Interface Customization.

6.7.3: The Death List

The Death List option opens a window that is essentially identical to the Heraldry List. Rather than having to drag a combatant’s crest onto the list, the heraldry of any character that kills your character in combat is automatically transferred onto the Death List at the point your character dies. If a rival character kills your character more than once, their heraldry will not be duplicated, and killers’ crests are not saved in the order that they killed you.

6.7.4: Using Saved Heraldry

Every Building and City Asset in Shadowbane has two lists that depend on stored crests: the Kill-on-Sight List and the Friends List. You can drag a stored crest off of your character’s Heraldry or Death Lists and onto the Kill-on-Sight List or Friends List of any Building or city asset your character owns or can manage. See Section 10.9.1 for more information about Kill-on-Sight Lists, and Section 10.9.2 for details about building management and the Friends List.

It will eventually be possible for characters to trade crests from Heraldry, Death, Friends or KOS Lists between themselves. This functionality is forthcoming.

6.8: Guild Cities

In order to build a city, a Guild must first lay claim to a Tree of Life. Trees of Life grow from Guild Seeds. These are white, acorn-shaped stones imbued with powerful magic. Once you have acquired a Guild Seed, move to the place you want to start your city, then “Use” the Guild Seed. The Tree of Life will sprout from your present position. It appears as a tall, white willow made of stone.

Once the Tree of Life has been placed, left-click it once to select it, and then “use” the Tree. A window will appear asking whether your Guild wants to lay claim to the Tree (you should say “Yes”). You will also be asked to name the Tree. The Tree’s name becomes the name for the city you will be building around it.

Once you have claimed and named the Tree of Life, all Guild members automatically make the new city their designated starting point. From now on, Guild members will reappear at the Tree of Life after they are killed instead of the default starting point. City building options are described extensively in Section 10.0 – Buildings and Building Management.

6.9: Nations and Guild Alliances

Just as individual characters in Shadowbane can band together to form Guilds, individual Guilds can group together in alliances and Nations. Generally speaking, there are two types of Guild alliances that can directly impact game play:

q Sworn to Sovereign Alliances: an alliance in which a Guild that does not own or have access to a Tree of Life swears fealty to a City-owning Guild. The City owners are the Sovereign Guild, the client organization is the Sworn Guild.

q Province to Nation Alliances: an alliance between two City-owning Guilds. The Guild that swears fealty to the other City becomes a Province, while the Guild in charge of the alliance is designated a Nation. Nations and the Provinces can also serve as the Sovereign to one or more Sworn Guilds, incorporating both kinds of Guild alliance into the same political unit.

Beyond the acceptance of the Guild leadership (as described below), there are no hard-coded conditions to a Guild alliance: players are free to devise their own and enforce them as they see fit. Racial or factional makeup, gold tribute, mutual defense pacts, non-aggression treaties, oaths of neutrality, or even preferred hunting rights within a given adventuring zone are all possible, but are left entirely to player discretion. The same is true for alliances that do not fit either model listed above: two player Cities might come to terms over a piece of territory without either party swearing fealty, or an entire host of errant Guilds could band together for a specific cause. Again, these kind of arrangements do not require specific game mechanics to support them, and are left to players to create or abandon at their whim.

6.9.1: Forming a Guild Alliance

Guilds join alliances with other Guilds much the same way that individual characters become members of Guilds (as described in Section 6.4). In order for two Guilds to join together in either type of alliance, a Guild Officer (either the Guild Leader or a member of the Inner Council) of the dominant party (the future Sovereign or Nation) must invite a Guild Officer of the other party (the future Sworn Guild or Province) to swear an oath of fealty. To do this, left-click the desired officer, then select “Invite a Guild to Swear Under You” from the Guild Options sub-menu, as described in Section 6.5.

As soon as the invite option is selected, the invited officer will receive a pop-up message notifying them of the offer, and giving them the option to accept or decline. If the officer accepts, both parties will receive notification of the choice and the new Province or Sworn Guild will become a provisional ally of the dominant Guild, a status similar to that of a character who is a Petitioner in their Guild. Provisional Sworn Guilds are known as Petitioner Guilds, while provisional Provinces are known as Protectorates. At this stage the alliance exists in name, but members of the Province or Sworn Guild will not receive full benefit from the alliance until a Guild Officer of the dominant party ratifies the alliance using the Sub-Guilds and Sovereigns Menu.

6.9.2: The Sub-Guilds and Sovereigns Menu

Clicking the Sub Guilds and Sovereigns option on the Guild Options sub-menu of the Command Bar opens a menu of every Guild in the character’s Guild alliance structure. Guilds on this list are sorted by status: the Nation (if any) is always at the top, followed by Provinces (if any), then Sovereign Guilds (if any) followed by Sworn Guilds. The character’s Guild always appears at the top of its appropriate section of the list. The menu displays the Guild’s crest and name, with each Guild name color-coded according to the Guild’s status:

q Nation Guilds names appear in gold.

q Sovereign (City owning) Guild names appear in red.

q Province Guild names appear in red.

q Protectorate (provisional Province) Guild names appear in orange.

q Sworn or Errant Guild names appear in blue.

q Petitioner (provisional Sworn) Guild names appear in light blue.

Guild officers (Guild Leader or Inner Council members) can click on any entry on the Sub Guilds and Sovereigns menu except their own to review that Guild’s status within the alliance. Left-clicking an entry opens a pop-up window displaying the Guild’s name, crest, status (nation, province, sworn, etc) and controls that allow the user to adjust their Guild’s relationship with the selected Guild:

q Dismiss – allows a Nation or Sovereign Guild to sever ties with an underling Province or Sworn Guild.

q Swear In – allows a Nation or Sovereign Guild to ratify an alliance, turning a Protectorate or Petitioner Guild into a full Province or Sworn Guild.

q Break Fealty – allows a Province or Sworn Guild to sever ties with its liege Nation or Sovereign.

6.9.3: Benefits of Guild Alliance

Sworn Guilds gain a host of tangible benefits from swearing fealty to a Sovereign Guild: access to a fixed bind point (their Sovereign’s Tree of Life), special Nation pricing rates, and a share of their Sovereign’s earned experience and regeneration bonuses, as described in Section 6.3.1. Additionally, Guild Officers of Sworn and Sovereign Guilds can communicate using the Leaders Channel. In return for these benefits, members of Sworn Guilds must display their Sovereign’s Guild crest (or the crest of their Sovereign’s Nation) as their Nation shield. Sovereigns may make other demands as well – military service, monetary tribute, or other factors. No hard coded commands exist for these, but a Sovereign can always terminate an alliance if they feel a Sworn Guild is taking advantage of them.

At the inter-City level, there are fewer direct benefits – each Nation or Province receives most of its Guild bonuses from owning its own Tree of Life. Nation pricing applies to every Guild within an alliance, including Sworn Guilds of the Nation or any Province. The largest benefit members of Nations, Provinces, and their Sworn Guilds receive is mobility: any member of the larger political unit (Nation, Province, or any Sworn Guild) can designate the Tree of Life of the Nation or any Province as their default spawn and bind point. Section 11.2.3 details exactly how to do this. See Section 3.9: Resuming Play for details about spawn and bind points.

6.9.4: Breaking Guild Alliances

Just as every character is free to leave their Guild at a moment’s notice, either party of any Guild alliance (Sworn to Sovereign or Province to Nation) can terminate that alliance at any time, using the controls described in Section 6.9.2. Severing relations between Guilds will always affect the status of both Guilds, and some status shifts (Sworn to Errant, for example) may have drastic effects on a Guilds entire membership.

Of course, a Guild alliance can also be terminated involuntarily: destroying or seizing a City’s Tree of Life in a siege will instantly sever any and all alliances of the Guild that formerly owned the Tree. See Section 12.4 for more information.

6.9.5: Limits of Guild Alliances

There is no limit to the number of Sworn Guilds that can swear fealty to the same Sovereign, or to the number of Provinces that can swear fealty to a Nation. Sovereign Guilds can serve as either Nations or Provinces in inter-City alliances. Nations, however, cannot swear fealty to other Nations; if two player Cities already bound in an alliance wish to ally themselves to a third, either the third city must swear fealty to the existing Nation (becoming a second province) or the first two Cities must dissolve their alliance and both swear fealty to the third City as new provinces.

6.9.6: Alliances and Heraldry

The most visible effect Guild alliances have on Shadowbane play is a character’s Guild crests. The Nation Crest that displays over a character’s head or in the Selection Window will always display the crest of the ranking Guild in that character’s alliance; a member of a Sworn Guild will show their Sovereign’s crest, while members of a Sworn Guild whose Sovereign serves as the Province to another Guild will show the Nation’s crest. Also, the city icon displayed on the World Map (as described in Section 4.8.5) shows the crest of that City’s Nation. Guilds who have won the fealty of multiple Provinces will see their colors spread across the game world, and every player on that world can see the extent of their dominion.

The political power of dominant Guilds is, therefore, on visible display throughout the Shadowbane game world, and the honor of spreading a Guild’s crest is one of the primary benefits of being in charge of an alliance. Fame and glory can cut both ways, however; Nations should always be careful who they choose as friends. Their status results in plenty of “free advertising,” but other factions may hold a powerful Nation responsible for the actions of its subordinates.

Section 7.0 - Combat

7.1: Combat in Shadowbane

Armed conflict is the driving force of Shadowbane: by engaging in (and winning) battles, your character will gain experience, becoming more powerful, and will also earn the gold needed to purchase better equipment, build buildings, and forge empires.

There are two basic types of combat your character can experience: Player versus Environment/Monster (PvE) and Player versus Player (PvP). Of the two, the latter type is far more dangerous.

7.1.1: Fighting Monsters

Wandering monsters are distributed throughout the game world, while in certain places large numbers of monsters congregate in inhuman villages or around ancient ruins. Typing N will display the names of monsters over their heads (just as with characters), and left-clicking on any monster will display its name and Rank information on the Selection Window.

Every monster has a level that measures its prowess in combat. As a general rule of thumb, any character should be able to defeat a monster of their level, though they should expect a tough battle. Attacking higher-level monsters by oneself is a dangerous proposition. Forming a Group (see Section 5.0 – Groups and Grouping) is a good way to tackle high-level monsters and gain more experience and treasure. However, monsters can form groups too, acting quickly to defend themselves and their allies.

When meeting an unfamiliar creature, make sure you check its level before attacking it – there’s no guarantee that similar-looking creatures will have similar power levels. Some monsters can vary as widely in level as player characters.

7.1.2: Fighting Players

Players have more skills, powers, and spells at their command than the average monster, and are far smarter than any computer. Your fellow players, therefore, constitute the “most dangerous game” in Shadowbane’s virtual world, and any PvP conflict is oftentimes more dangerous than attacking even the deadliest of monsters.

With the exception of Safeholds (the areas immediately surrounding starting cities) there is absolutely no restriction on Player versus Player combat. Players of any level may freely attack players of any other level.

Before attacking a fellow player, consider the potential consequences. They may have allies in the form of a Group or Guild, and may appear to be much weaker than they actually are.

Furthermore, while monsters will not always pursue their prey to the end of the world, and will frequently forget any hostility towards a player-character, other players will not be so forgiving. If a monster is killed and a new one respawns, the new monster might not be aggressive towards a player-character. Players are sure to remember who dealt the killing blow, and will likely seek vengeance.

As each player has five character slots available to him or her, killing one character could mean the player will immediately log on with a more powerful character intent on revenge.

What’s to prevent Shadowbane from devolving into a non-stop bloodbath? While PvP combat may not be restricted, it does have its limits, designed to impose accountability for your character’s actions:

q Actual advancement from PvP combat is negligible – players never receive any experience from the killing of other characters.

q An “anonymous kill” is nearly impossible in Shadowbane. Even if a target player chooses to ignore damage messages and attack information displayed in their chat or system window, their character’s Death List will provide the name and heraldry of their murderer. This way, every victim in PvP combat can easily learn the name and Guild affiliation of his or her killer.

q Though killing other players can be a good source of treasure, bonded items cannot be looted. Victors in PvP combat will always be limited in what spoils they can collect from their victims.

q The Guild system is designed to provide any player with a large group of allies to help provide backup, get revenge, or apply political pressure to the Guild of a notorious or especially obnoxious player-killer.

Shadowbane’s entire Guild system (see Section 6.0 – Guilds) is designed to steer the game towards conflicts between Guilds and factions instead of endless vendettas between individual players. Random brawls, duels or attacks, while fun, will usually have severe repercussions.

7.1.3: Considering Your Foe

When you select another character or monster, your character “sizes them up,” judging how powerful the potential opponent is. The name of any selected character or monster appears in your Status Window, and the color of the name gives a hint of how easy the mobile will be to defeat, and how much your character could gain from it. The assessment compares the mobile’s level with your character’s level to determine the level of danger. There are seven different “threat levels,” as described below:

Color	Threat Level	Experience
White	Beneath your notice and dignity	None
Green	Easily beaten	Meager
Blue	An even match	Good
Yellow	Expect a tough fight	Very Good
Orange	Difficult to beat alone	Excellent
Magenta	More than your match: bring a Group	Superb
Red	It is a good day to die…	Glorious

Experience is estimated for monsters only, as killing players awards no experience.

7.2: Combat Basics

The following section provides a brief guide to combat in Shadowbane.

7.2.1: Combat Mode

In order to engage in combat, your character must be in Combat Mode (as opposed to Normal Mode). You can enter Combat Mode by clicking the Combat Mode button on the Status Window (see Section 4.1: The Status Window for details). Clicking the button a second time returns you to Normal Mode.

In Combat Mode, your character assumes an aggressive stance and draws their weapon. Combat Mode affects more than your character’s appearance: their movement rates for running and walking are both considerably slower, and the character’s recovery rates both Health and Stamina are diminished. While it is technically possible for your character to stay in Combat Mode all the time, these limitations make it highly impractical to do so.

7.2.2: Beginning Combat

Once your character is in Combat Mode, double left-click on your target to commence hostilities or click the Attack option on a Context Sensitive Menu (see Section 3.4.2: Interacting With Mobiles). [A] will also initiate an attack on a selected target, switching your character into combat mode if necessary. The Attack hotkey or menu option can be set to a custom hotkey as described in Section 4.9.4: Hotkeys. If necessary, your character will close with the target and then begin automatically attacking with any equipped weapon or weapons. If a missile weapon is equipped, your character will either begin firing or you will get the message “The target is out of range.”

As soon as combat begins, color-coded Health bars appear next to your character and your target, giving you a visual indicator of your and your target’s physical condition. The Health display bars are color-coded based on the character’s condition: green indicates that your character is healthy, yellow means they are somewhat wounded, and red indicates that they are in critical condition and near death. The targeted character or monster’s Health level will appear in a red bar below their name in your Status Window, a handy alternative to the Health bars. If you don’t want Health bars cluttering up your display, toggle off the “Health Bars” option in the Settings menu (as described in Section 4.10: Game Settings).

7.2.3: The Combat Sequence

Once combat begins, all involved parties will attack their target automatically until combat ends. Every attack has an associated amount of time that must pass before the attack repeats. Dexterity, skill, level, and the weapon itself all determine the length of time between attacks. If an attack hits, the amount of damage the target takes rises over the head of the target. The amount of damage your character does with any given hit is based on the weapon, your character’s skill, and their Strength rating. Damage taken by monsters and other mobiles displays in yellow numbers, while damage your character takes appears in red numbers. If you do not want these numbers to appear, click the “3D Damage” option off in the Settings menu. See Section 4.10: Game Settingsfor details.

While in combat, you can use skills and powers to give your character an edge. See Section 9.0 – Skills and Powers for details on activating spells and powers. Note that spells and powers have timers of their own, and inserting them into your attack sequence will delay your next normal attack until after the spell or power has been triggered. Some spells and powers cannot be used in Combat Mode. Skills and powers are the trump cards of Shadowbane combat –they can easily turn the tide of a battle if used effectively.

7.2.4: Ending Combat

Combat continues until one party dies or is able to flee. If you try to disengage and flee, though, your opponent is likely to get in a free attack or two at you while you turn your back and run. If they have a missile weapon, they can continue to attack you until you are out of range. Slipping out of Combat Mode to run away faster is a good idea, though you are unable to defend yourself in this mode. Most monsters will only pursue your character for a limited distance, but other players will chase you for as long as their patience holds.

If you are desperate to get out of the combat, you can quit the game entirely (either by selecting Quit Game on the Command Bar or setting a Hotkey for that option). This option carries a heavy price: your character will remain rooted to the spot for 60 seconds, unable to move. The character will use their base attacks to defend themselves if attacked, but cannot activate spells or powers. This one-minute delay is usually more than enough time for opponents to finish your character off.

7.3: Injuries and Healing

Damage can come from many sources, and can take several forms. Certain spells and attacks are designed to injure their targets, lowering their Health value, while others can diminish Stamina or even Mana. Some activities (like running or casting spells) can also sap Stamina and Mana, limiting your character’s ability to move, attack, or cast spells.

Your character automatically begins to recover any lost points of Health, Stamina, or Mana as soon as they are lost. Different classes and races recover these at different rates, and a character’s recovery rate is also affected by their attributes. Finally, your character’s activity level (running or walking, Combat Mode vs. Normal Mode) can also affect the speed of their recovery from injury or fatigue.

7.4: Death

If a foe reduces your character to zero Health, your character will die, and the “crimson fog of death” will fill the screen. At this point, you should select Quit Game to exit the game. You can then log in again, either as the same character or a different one. Before leaving, you are able to stay and watch the subsequent events that transpire around your corpse. For example, if you are part of a Group, you might want to see how they fared in the remainder of the combat, or you can watch to see who looted your body.

Death is not the end of your character’s existence in Shadowbane. As mentioned above, when you log back in, your slain character will still be available to you. If you enter with the previously slain character, you’ll return to the game world at your original starting place, unless you have founded or joined a Guild that claims a Tree of Life.

Later in the development of the game, you will be able to reappear at Inns and even tents, meaning you can reappear at one of these temporary locations as opposed to your home city and Tree of Life.

See Section 6.0 – Guilds for details about these and player-built communities. Upon your character’s rebirth, they will only possess whatever items were previously bonded to them (see Section 3.7: Equipment and Treasure Management) – the rest of their inventory (including gold) will be gone.

You should try to get to your corpse as quickly as you can, so that you can recover your old possessions. Act quickly – if your corpse decays, all of your equipment will be lost. Or, some other player might have looted your corpse in the meantime. If either of these happens, your character will have to begin earning gold the hard way once more – or seek out the person who looted their body and take their belongings back by force. It’s always a good idea to have a fellow Group or Guild member watch over your corpse or collect your items and hold them for you.

Alternately, you can open an account with a Church in a local city, “banking” a store of items and cash to use in case of emergency. See Section 5.0 – Groups and Grouping and Section 6.0 – Guilds for information on these subjects.

7.4.1: Effects of Character Death

In addition to losing some or all of your character’s possessions, death has two other drawbacks:

q The amount of experience points your character needs to reach their next level increases. Although your character’s level will never change, they have in effect lost some experience points for dying. The amount of experience “lost” for dying depends on the difference between your character’s level and the level of what killed them – being slain by a vastly superior foe minimizes the penalty, while dying to a weaker foe can be much more painful. The only way to offset this is to re-earn the missing experience points.

q Your character suffers a penalty to all attributes. The effects of this “death shroud” are temporary, but they are cumulative – if your character perishes several times in rapid succession, the penalties can accumulate and be fairly devastating. See Section 8.0 – Character Development for more information about experience and level.

Section 8.0 – Character Development

Over the course of play, your Shadowbane character will grow more powerful, and learn many new skills and powers. While initially your character’s options were rather limited, with time and experience a host of options opens for your character.

8.1: Defining Character Progression

Shadowbane uses three means to measure character development: level, rank, and experience.

8.1.1: Level

Every character and monster in the world of Shadowbane is defined by their numeric level. Higher is always better. For monsters, level is used to measure their raw power and destructive potential. Among characters, level defines how effective they are as members of their class. While other characters can easily determine your character’s Rank (see Section 8.1.2: Rank), your actual level remains secret to everyone but your character, unless you decide to divulge that information.

Certain Powers, Professions, Disciplines, and pieces of Equipment have a minimum level requirement before your character can acquire or use them. Getting access to these items and benefits is one of the primary motivations for raising level and rank.

8.1.2: Rank

A by-product of level, Rank measures the status that comes along with reaching higher levels. A character or monster’s Rank is 1/10th their level, rounded down. Characters spend levels one to nine at Rank 0, and both a 39th level Wizard and a 33rd level Druid would both be considered Rank 3. Every time you select a character or monster, their Rank will be listed as part of the information appearing on the Status Window, in the form of a number of symbols appropriate to the creature type or character class. Rank provides a good means of assessing a foe’s power, but it can still be deceiving. A ninth level monster, for instance, is much deadlier than a level one beast, though both read as Rank zero.

8.1.3: Experience

For every monster your character kills, your character will gain a number of experience points based on the level of the defeated foe. As your level increases, the amount of experience points your character needs to rise to the next level increases steadily. In order to keep honing your character’s skills, you’ll need to seek out more challenging opponents. You can always keep track of how far or close your character is to achieving the next level by checking the Experience Bar on the Status Window. Once your character earns the necessary amount of experience to raise their level, the Experience Bar will reset, refilling with color.

Affiliation with a Group grants an experience bonus to all members. Guild membership also provides an experience bonus based on Guild type, character profession, and other factors. See Section 5.0 – Groups and Grouping and Section 6.0 – Guilds for complete descriptions of these organizations.

Again, players never gain any experience points from killing other players.

8.2: Character Improvement

Leveling (raising your character’s level) brings several distinct benefits to your character.

8.2.1: Attribute Gains

As soon as you gain a new level, your character’s Health, Mana, and Stamina all increase by a fixed amount based upon your character’s level, class, race, and attributes. These gains will decrease gradually as your character’s level rises, becoming negligible by the time you attain Rank 7 (level 70 or higher).

8.2.2: Statistic Gains

From levels 2 to 19, your character will receive five new attribute points each time they gain a new level. Allocate the points by opening the Character Sheet window. Click the small “+” buttons next to each attribute to raise the selected attribute by one point. Once allocated, these new points cannot be taken back, so choose wisely. As your attribute values rise, other derived attributes (Attack, Defense, Damage, and others) will automatically update. With each new Rank after 2, the number of attribute points decreases by one.

8.2.3: Skill Gains and Training

Finally, your character receives a number of practice points (determined by race, class, and other factors) every time they raise a level. Practice points are used to increase skill and power ratings. Your character cannot simply spend new practice points on their own – they must seek out a Trainer and pay for training. Trainers are a specific type of specialist non-player character commonly found in Safeholds and Guild cities. Not every Trainer is qualified to teach every skill or power, and different Trainers may charge different rates for their services. Additionally, Trainers have limits on how high they can raise a given skill or power: true masters who can teach the pinnacle of a skill or technique are very rare.

Double left-click any trainer to open a menu showing a list of advancement services the Trainer can provide: Train, Promote Class, and Promote Discipline are all possible examples. Control+left-clicking on a Trainer also provides the “Train” option among the standard context sensitive menu options, which also opens the Trainer’s advancement menu. To expend prac points training up skills, click the Train option on the advancement menu to open the Training Window.

The Training Window displays all of the skills and powers the Trainer can teach that your character is qualified to learn. Your character’s current skill or power ratings are displayed beside any appropriate skills or powers. The number of practice points available and the amount of gold your character has to spend are listed at the bottom. Select the skill or power you wish to train up, and then click the “Train” button at the bottom. You will be automatically charged for the training, if you can afford it.

Some skills and powers have minimum Rank, level, or attribute requirements (or all three) that must be satisfied before your character can train in them, and that many skills and powers are class-specific. When training, you will not see any skills or powers you are not qualified for (and thus unable to train in).

For every practice point spent, your character’s skill or power rating will increase based upon your character’s attributes and current skill rating. Smarter characters gain more from each practice point spent, but the size of the improvement lessens as the skill rating approaches 100%. Once a practice point has been spent, it cannot be recovered.

In theory, there is no limit to the number of practice points you may spend on any one skill or power during any one training session. Note, however, that trying to learn more about a skill or power than your character’s level warrants is profoundly difficult. The cost of training a skill or power expands geometrically as you train past the appropriate mastery level (based on your character’s current level). If training a skill or power seems too expensive, wait a level or two and come back to it – the prices will be reasonable again, and the point of expense will be appropriately higher.

8.2.4: Improvement Limits

As your character rises in rank, the benefits that come from raising their level will gradually decline. Gains to Mana, Health, and Stamina grow smaller, and the number of bonus attribute points decreases as Rank increases. The number of practice points your character earns with each level stays constant, but the skill gain from spent pracs decreases as skill ratings grow higher, and there is a limit to the number of skills and powers your character can develop, even with disciplines.

These diminishing returns (combined with the increase in the amount of experience points needed to gain a level) set a near-limit on leveling for it’s own sake. Once characters hit the plateau of diminishing return (also known as the “soft cap”), they should probably switch from monster hunting to Guild intrigue and factional struggles. Shadowbane has lots of activities to occupy the time of rich, high level characters – whether city building, starting Guilds, or waging war with other player characters.

8.2.5: Gold and Equipment

Improving your character’s equipment will also improve their performance in combat. Armor and shields improve a character’s Defense rating, while magical items can boost character attributes in many different ways. Just as with skills and powers, equipment and magical items often have class, attribute, or level requirements that may prohibit their use.

8.2.6: Advanced Character Options

Besides level, training, and gold, there is one other way to improve your character. Once your character becomes more seasoned through adventure, new career options become available that will give your character access to a wider array of skills and powers, allowing you to make your character both more distinct and more powerful. Some allow you to specialize in a particular activity, while others can serve to round out your character, giving them access to skills or powers they otherwise would never gain. There are two kinds of advanced options to consider: Professions and Disciplines.

8.3: Professions

Professions are advanced, more specialized careers that heroes can follow in the world of Shadowbane. Your character’s Profession replaces the base Class chosen during character creation, and brings with it a new variety of skills and powers. Your character’s base Class limits which Professions they can choose, as detailed in Section 8.3.2: Master Progression List.

Some Professions are available to more than one base Class (both Fighters and Rogues, for example, can train to be Barbarians), while others are exclusive to a single base Class. Some Professions also have racial requirements that bar some races from choosing them. Aracoix, for example, are not spell-casters, so they are not allowed to be Channelers, Confessors, Furies, Priests, Prelates, Wizards, etc.

Every Profession has its own list of available powers and skills, described in detail in Section 8.3.2: Master Progression List. Your character must choose their Profession once they reach 10th level and before they can advance to 11th level. If you decide not to decide, your character will be unable to advance in level until they promote – their experience points will be held in reserve until they do so.

8.3.1: Promoting Into a Profession

In order to join the ranks of a Profession, your character must find a Trainer who can promote characters to that profession. Seeking out a Trainer who can induct your character into a desired profession can be an adventure in itself. When you double left-click on any non-player character, check its advancement menu to see if it contains the “Promote Class” option. If it does, click that option for a list of Professions or Disciplines that non-player character can provide. Your character is limited to one Profession, and once you bond a Profession rune, you cannot remove it. Like it or not, your character’s Profession is a part of them until you delete that character.

8.3.2: Master Profession List

Base Class	Professions Available (racial restrictions also apply)
Fighter	Barbarian, Crusader, Huntress, Ranger, Templar, Warlock, Warrior
Healer	Channeler, Confessor, Crusader, Druid, Priest, Prelate
Mage	Assassin, Bard, Channeler, Fury, Warlock, Wizard
Rogue	Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Huntress, Ranger, Scout, Thief

q Assassins – Skilled in the arts of dealing death, Assassins are users of poison and stealth. They wield the mysterious power of Shadowmastery, which allows them to shape and use living shadow to accomplish their nefarious schemes.

Races: Aelfborn, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

q Barbarians – These Northern warriors are hardy and fierce, tough and competent in battle. Barbarians worship the spirits of their ancestors and wild animals, and can evoke these spirits to accomplish powerful feats.

Races: Aelfborn, Aracoix, Centaur, Half Giant, Human, Minotaur

q Bards – Keepers of lore and wandering musicians, Bards are gifted with magical powers evoked when they play their instrument. Their songs can bring victory to a Group just as easily as it can bring woe upon the Bard’s enemy.

Races: Aelfborn, Centaur, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

q Channelers – Magic-users specialized in the elemental forces of fire, water, wind, and earth; these spell-casters wander the world, and their only allies the natural forces they have learned to command.

Races: Aelfborn, Centaur, Elf, Human, Irekei

q Confessors – Priests of the Temple of the Cleansing Flame, these clerics are charged with seeking out and eliminating the sin in the world. In the course of their sacred duties, they bring healing to the ill and fiery death to unbelievers.

Races: Human

q Crusaders – Defenders of the Church of the All-Father, these blessed warriors have taken up arms and defend the weak and those who would threaten the Church’s power. These soldiers of faith are found across the world, earning redemption in holy battle.

Races: Aelfborn, Centaur, Dwarf, Elf, Half Giant, Human

q Druids – Attuned to the forces of nature and the wild, these woods-priests are the keepers of secret knowledge and lore. Druids are allies to those who live in harmony with the wild, and who would learn from its ways.

Races: Aelfborn, Centaur, Elf, Human

q Furies – Amazonian warrior-witches, these women are children of storms – wild and untamable, with command over lightning and tempest. Fierce and proud, Furies are as rare as they are unpredictable.

Races: Aelfborn, Elf, Human, Irekei

Gender: Females only

q Huntresses – Women who have merged the traditions of the Amazons and the Rangers, the Huntresses are at home upon battlefield and forest. They often are found with great cats for allies, and have mystic powers connected to nature and storm.

Races: Aelfborn, Elf, Human

Gender: Females only

q Prelates – The spiritual arm of the Church of the All-Father, these servants of higher powers are found spreading the gospel of the All-Father as well as ministering to the needy and the weak. Though they are less aggressive than Crusaders, Prelates are not pacifists.

Races: Aelfborn, Centaur, Dwarf, Elf, Human

q Priests – Healers who stay true to their faith become Priests, living conduits of their deity’s divine will. The powers of blessing, healing, and cursing the unworthy come easily to priests, who have such a close affinity for their god that they can work true miracles.

Races: Aelfborn, Centaur, Dwarf, Elf, Human

q Rangers – Rough and independent travelers of the wilderness, Rangers are at home in the wild. These secretive and solitary wardens of the forest are fine trackers, woodsmen, and hunters. They walk a line between defending innocents from savage nature, and defending the wilderness from assaults from the other races.

Races: Aelfborn, Aracoix, Centaur, Elf, Half Giant, Human, Minotaur

q Scouts – Charged with path finding, battlefield reconnaissance, and guiding others through long-hidden ways, the Scout is a combination of Ranger, Rogue, and Warrior, working as mercenaries, explorers, or soldiers.

Races: Aelfborn, Aracoix, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

q Templars – Created as the militant wing of the Temple of the Cleansing Flame, the fanatical, armored knights of the Order of the Templars is feared among unbelievers, and even distrusted by their fellow worshippers.

Races: Half Giant, Human

q Thieves – The masters of the Rogue’s art, Thieves are specialists in stealth and evasion. In battle they are elusive, yet full of dirty tricks that can humble even the mightiest of Warriors if used well.

Races: Aelfborn, Aracoix, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

q Warlocks – These combat-oriented magic-users have learned to harness the power of their mind, and to manifest their will upon the world. All Warlock magic is based on psychic powers that affect themselves, their environment, and their enemies.

Races: Aelfborn, Human, Shade

Gender: Males only

q Warriors – The pinnacle of martial achievement, Warriors represent the ultimate extension of the Fighter’s path. A Warrior’s discipline and mastery of weapons and fighting techniques makes them deadly in battle.

Races: All

q Wizards – Magi who cling to their studies eventually learn that true magic is the bending of physical law to the will of the spellcaster. A Wizard’s magic plays with the building blocks of reality, making these spell-casters potent and formidable.

Races: Aelfborn, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

If you’d like to know more about each Profession, visit our website at http://shadowbane.ubisoft.com/gameinfo/classes/index.shtml for further information.

8.4: Disciplines

Disciplines are less restrictive than Professions, and represent an additional area of expertise that your character can pursue. Some Disciplines focus on specific styles or types of combat, while others represent membership in specific political, cultural, or social organizations; study in a particular school of magic; or even represent innate special abilities awakened through the application of the runestone. While every character has only one Class or Profession, they may acquire up to three Disciplines.

8.4.1: Acquiring a Discipline

To begin following a particular Discipline, your character must have already attained Rank 1, and have chosen a Profession (see Section 8.3: Professions). They must also have an empty runestone slot available. As with their Profession, a character must seek out an NPC Trainer and see if their advancement menu contains the “Promote Discipline” option. If it does, click that option for a list of Disciplines the Trainer can provide. A character may only promote to a maximum of three disciplines.

Even if your character has a rank, a runestone, and an open slot, they still may not be able to qualify for the desired Discipline. Just like Classes and Professions, Disciplines have race restrictions that may prohibit a given character from attuning to that Discipline’s runestone. Additionally, most Disciplines have Profession restrictions on top of racial restrictions, and can use other factors to limit their membership. A character might have to have reached a minimum Rank (Rank 1), or rating with a skill or power before they can attune to the Discipline runestone. Attribute restrictions are also possible. Your character might finally acquire a runestone, only to learn that they have to wait a few levels before they qualify to actually use it.

8.4.2: Discipline Benefits

All Disciplines convey some sort of benefit to their members. Many provide immediate skill rating and attribute bonuses that take effect as soon as a character joins, and all Disciplines give members access to specific skills and powers that might otherwise be unavailable to members of their profession. However, your character will always receive the same number of practice points each level they gain, no matter how may Disciplines they have.

8.4.3: Discipline Descriptions

q Animator – Animators learn, through intense study and meditation, how to create living statues, automatons called murgolems that exist to do their creator’s bidding. Animators apply their art to dead flesh, stone, and even iron.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Channeler, Prelate, Priest, Wizard

q Archer – In addition to honing their bow skills to uncanny levels, Archers learn how to call upon the wind itself to make their arrows fly faster and strike harder, and can infuse potent magical effects into their missile fire.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Half Giant, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Huntress, Ranger, Scout, Thief, Warrior

q Berserker – Every Berserk learns how to hear “the Calling,” a tugging in their mind that serves as the conduit for their rage. Once the fury is upon them, Berserkers become feral, mindless killing machines that thrive on slaughter.

Races: Aelfborn, Elf, Half Giant, Human

Classes: Barbarian, Huntress

q Black Mask – Masters of disguise, Black Masks specialize in infiltrating the home or organization of their target then striking and escaping unscathed. Black Masks pride themselves on killing their targets with daggers and short blades only.

Races: Aelfborn, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Bard, Fury, Huntress, Scout, Thief, Warlock

q Blade Master – They call themselves “Jen’e’tai,” an ancient word meaning “the Path of Truth.” The finest swordsmen the realms of Humans have ever produced, Blade Masters learn to strike with uncanny speed, and can become whirlwinds of steel.

Races: Aelfborn, Human, Shade

Classes: Crusader, Ranger, Templar, Thief, Warlock, Warrior

q Blade Weaver – Though Elves are far mightier in the arts of Magic than they are the arts of warfare; millennia of trial and practice have produced the Blade Weavers, specialists in swordplay who may well be the finest swordsmen in the world.

Races: Elf

Classes: Assassin, Bard, Crusader, Priest, Ranger, Scout, Thief, Warrior, Wizard

q Blood Prophet – Purified by trials of ordeal and long vision quests, some Irekei come to hear the voice of the dragon. The Irekei call them “Khanarch’alarl,” or Blood Prophets. By embracing dragon magic, these magi learn to use their powers to heal and provide for their tribes.

Races: Irekei

Classes: Channeler, Wizard

q Bounty Hunter – The kings and knights of old can no longer provide justice to the people of the world, but a new breed of hunter has emerged: Bounty Hunters, callous mercenaries who stalk criminals for money, ferreting out wrongdoers so the wronged can take their vengeance.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Half Giant, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Confessor, Crusader, Druid, Huntress, Ranger, Scout, Templar, Thief, Warlock, Warrior

q Commander – Every Age has produced its great Commanders, masters of strategy and tactics who fight their duels with armies instead of swords, and whose skills and intuition determine the destiny of Nations.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Half Giant, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Barbarian, Bard, Channeler, Confessor, Crusader, Huntress, Prelate, Priest, Ranger, Templar, Thief, Warlock, Warrior, Wizard

q Dark Knight – Dark Knights believe that Cambruin’s Code is as dead as Cambruin himself, and that brute force is the only source of power in the war-torn world. The greatest of them become warlords, whose greed and ambition keep the survivors of the Turning locked in endless war and suffering.

Races: Aelfborn, Half Giant, Human, Shade

Classes: Bard, Templar, Warlock, Warrior

q Duelist – Duelists favor light blades, fast and keen, and rarely wear armor any heavier than quilted cloth. Most live like Rogues or vagabonds, hiring their blades, pursuing ancient vendettas, or testing their skills against other masters.

Races: Aelfborn, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Bard, Ranger, Scout Thief, Warlock, Warrior

q Enchanter – While trying to find a way to fashion new runestones, mighty spell-users discovered that certain materials could store arcane energies if constructed and treated properly. Sorcerers draw and enchant sigils, magical signs that serve as temporary traps of magical power, turning mundane objects into magical items.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Bard, Channeler, Confessor, Druid, Fury, Prelate, Thief, Warlock, Wizard

q Giant Killer – Masters of the hammer and axe, Giant Killers learn many techniques particularly suited to fighting giants. In the ages since the War of the Stones, they have discovered that their techniques can give them an edge in battle against anything larger than themselves (note that all of the children of the world fall into this category).

Races: Dwarf

Classes: Crusader, Confessor, Prelate, Priest, Warrior

q Gladiator – Gladiators quickly learn how to use any kind of weapon or armor, and know a wide variety of special moves and maneuvers designed to disarm, disable, or exhaust their opponents. The crowd must get its money’s worth: Gladiators always try to prolong their fights rather than go for the quick kill. The bloodier the fight’s end, the better.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Half Giant, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Barbarian, Crusader, Huntress, Ranger, Scout, Warlock, Warrior

q Huntsman – There are some who come to love the chase so much that they devote themselves to Kenaryn, God of the Hunt. Those who prove worthy join the ranks of the Huntsmen, and pledge themselves to the Long Hunt in return for Kenayrn’s boons.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Half Giant, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Crusader, Druid, Huntress, Ranger, Scout, Templar, Thief, Warlock, Warrior

q Knight – The rise of Cambruin brought with it a new breed of Warrior, the Knight. Masters of arms and battle, Knights are renowned for their might on the battlefield and their personal honor.

Races: Aelfborn, Human

Classes: Bard, Confessor, Crusader, Ranger, Templar, Warrior

q Rat Catcher – Rat Catchers are expert hunters and killers of rats and other vermin. They can lure swarms of rats into their traps, and know how to seek out and kill vermin of all kinds. Rats, giant rats, Skrell, and other horrors all teem in the sewers of the major cities, and the Rat Catchers wage a constant, unseen war with them.

Races: Aelfborn, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Bard, Channeler, Druid, Ranger, Scout, Thief

q Rune Caster – Rune Casters learn the shapes of the ancient runes and the forgotten chants that give them power. A properly carved rune holds its power in check until the Rune Caster breaks it, and then the rune’s power is released to change the caster and the world.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Half Giant, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Barbarian, Bard, Channeler, Crusader, Druid, Fury, Ranger, Scout

q Storm Lord – A Storm Lord can bring the winds down from the heavens, and call bolts of lightning to smite their enemies. Mightiest of the Barbarians, Storm Lords often rise to positions of prominence in the Clans of the Northmen.

Races: Aelfborn, Half Giant, Human

Classes: Barbarian

q Summoner – By learning the true name of an animal or beast, Summoners can call a specimen of that animal into being. Most summoned beasts are naturally hostile or aggressive, although Summoners know a host of chants and techniques that can bind them to their will.

Races: Aelfborn, Elf, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Barbarian, Channeler, Druid, Fury, Huntress, Prelate, Priest, Thief, Warlock, Warrior, Wizard

q Sun Dancer – Called Dervishes by the peoples of the Green Lands, Sun Dancers are the strangest and deadliest of all Irekei. The true pinnacle of strength, the Sun Dancers teach, can only be reached when an Irekei casts off all weapons but his flesh and spirit, becoming like unto the Dragon itself.

Races: Irekei

Classes: Assassin, Scout, Thief, Warrior

q Traveler – Impossibly ancient, the enigmatic runegates predate even the birth of the Elves, and have always been shrouded in mystery. A new group of mystics, the Travelers have learned how to open these ancient portals, allowing travel between the fragments of Aerynth or to entirely new worlds.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Half Giant, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Bard, Channeler, Confessor, Druid, Fury, Prelate, Priest, Thief, Warlock, Warrior, Wizard

q Undead Hunter – Using ancient secrets and techniques developed long ago and preserved by the Holy Church, Undead Hunters can seek out and track undead creatures, protect themselves from their blighted touch, and bless their weapons with the power to kill even the dead.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Half Giant, Human, Irekei, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Confessor, Crusader, Druid, Fury, Huntress, Prelate, Priest, Ranger, Scout, Templar, Thief, Warrior, Wizard

q Werebear – Werebears are mighty shapechangers who can put their Human skin aside and hunt the forests in a Bear’s shape. Tales tell of the limitless strength of these mighty beasts, and the care they show for the natural World around them.

Races: Half Giant, Human

Classes: Barbarian, Druid, Warrior

q Wererat – The greediest, most unscrupulous of souls learn to tap into the beast that lurks in their hearts – the Rat, a grim and greedy survivor. They learn how to unleash the rodent within them, transforming themselves into giant rats or terrifying fusions of Human and rat.

Races: Human, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Scout, Thief

q Werewolf – Werewolves are the most monstrous shapechangers of all. They believe that the meddling of Human and Elves have ruined the World for all time, and have appointed themselves the instruments of nature’s vengeance.

Races: Aelfborn, Human

Classes: Bard, Channeler, Crusader, Ranger, Warrior

q Wyrmslayer – Wyrmslayers have, through painful trial and error, amassed an arsenal of tricks and techniques to give them an edge against the mightiest of monsters. Wyrmslayers have learned to brew ointments that protect them from a drake’s flame, and know how to strike a drake where its scales are thinnest, wounding the beasts as much as possible.

Races: Aelfborn, Dwarf, Elf, Half Giant, Human, Shade

Classes: Assassin, Barbarian, Bard, Crusader, Healer, Priest, Ranger, Templar, Thief, Warrior, Wizard

If you’d like to know more about each Discipline, visit our website at http://shadowbane.ubisoft.com/gameinfo/disciplines/index.shtml for further information.

Section 9.0 – Skills and Powers

Skills and powers define what your character can do, both in and out of combat. Whether they represent a mastery of a specific weapon, a special maneuver in combat, or a magical spell, your character’s skills and powers make Shadowbane fun and exciting, and can be the difference between life and death in combat. There are three broad categories of special abilities available to all Shadowbane characters. Depending or your race, Class, and Profession, your character will gain access to some or all of them.

9.1: Skills

Skills represent areas of specialized training or knowledge that your character has studied, or special aptitudes your character has developed. Some examples include Sword, Axe Mastery, or Stormcalling. Every skill has a percentage value, running from 0 to 100% (or beyond). Higher numbers indicate a greater aptitude with the skill.

9.1.1: Identifying Skills

You can see your character’s current skill values by clicking the Skills option on the Command Bar or any of the Character Sheet screens, as described in Section 4.6.5: The Skills Window. The Skills window lists every skill known by your character, and displays the skill’s current value as a percentage.

9.1.2: Using Skills

Skills are passive and do not need to be activated. Your character’s rating in a given skill always determines how likely they are to succeed at certain actions, and the skill itself is never triggered on or off. Weapon skills, for instance, help determine how likely your character is to hit something with the appropriate weapon. To hit something, your character doesn’t need to activate their weapon skill; they just select a foe and attack, as described in Section 7.0: Combat.

9.1.3: Improving Skills

Skill ratings are raised by spending practice points (pracs), as described in Section 8.2.3: Skill Gains and Training. Some classes are limited in the skills they can learn. Eligibility for training in some advanced skills can also depend on character rank, level, or rating in other skills (a high Sword skill, for example, is a prerequisite of the Sword Mastery skill). In some cases, your character may have to improve other skills before they qualify to learn advanced skills.

9.2: Powers and Spells

Powers and spells are special abilities that are activated by a player, create a specific effect (either instantaneous or for a fixed duration), and then terminate, usually with a fixed interval before the power or spell can be used again. Powers are generally bursts of effort, advanced maneuvers or supernatural abilities used by your character, while spells refer to magical incantations designed to produce a specific effect. While most in-game references make a clear distinction between spells and powers, the two are so similar that the differences are purely semantic. Combat-oriented classes (Fighter and Thief variants) usually refer to their special abilities as powers, while magic-based classes (Mages and Clerics) call their special abilities spells.

9.2.1: Identifying Powers and Spells

The initial list of powers available to your character depends entirely upon their base Class and race, as selected during character creation. To see a list of your character’s powers, click the Powers option on the Command Bar or any windows of the Character Sheet (as described in Section 4.6.6: The Powers Window). Each power in the window appears as a button marked with an icon.

The icon serves as a general description of the powers effect (healing, attack rating bonus, or area of effect fire damage), while the power’s name, your character’s current rating in that power, the skill (if any) that that power depends upon, and the level at which the power first became available are displayed nearby.

9.2.2: Using Powers and Spells

To activate a power or spell, simply click the button for that power. All power buttons can be customized or hotkeyed as described in Section 4.9.4: Hotkeys. Using most powers or spells is similar to attacking with a weapon: there is a chance that the power or spell will successfully activate. For most powers and spells, this chance is determined by your character’s rating in a skill known as a focus skill.

Whenever a power is activated, any player affected by it will see an appropriate icon in their Effects window for the duration of the spell or power. Every power also has a recharge timer, a mandatory delay that must pass before your character can try to activate the power or spell again. In the Powers window (or on the Power button if it has been moved to the game screen), the button will become colored red, and will “drain” as the recycle timer counts down.

9.2.3: Improving Powers and Spells

Like skills, players can improve powers by spending practice points with a Trainer non-player character (as described in Section 9.1.3: Improving Skills and in Section 8.2.3: Skill Gains and Training). Unlike skills, players can improve skills and powers in two ways: by spending practice points on a power’s focus skill, or by spending practice points on the power itself. The first option makes the power more likely to activate successfully, while the second improves the performance (damage, duration, etc) of the power itself.

As your character advances in level and promotes into various Professions and Disciplines (see Section 8.0 – Character Development), new powers will become available for use. Most powers have prerequisites that must be met before your character can acquire them: minimum level requirements, a minimum rating in a focus skill or associated power, attribute score minimums, or a combination of any or all of these. Once your character qualifies for a power, the power will not automatically appear in their powers window – they must learn to use it from a Trainer. Trainer menus will always display all of the powers and spells that your character qualifies for – be sure to check with a Trainer for new powers each time your character raises their level.

9.3: Pets and Pet Behaviors

Falling somewhere between minions and monsters, pets are special mobiles that will follow, protect, and (to a limited extent at least) obey the character they designate as their master. Some powers will allow your character to summon a pet, and certain specialized Tradesmen will also sell pets. Some pets will be monsters, others look like Humans or other NPC henchmen. However your character acquires a pet, once acquired the pet will behave as follows:

q Following – all pets will follow their “master” automatically, as if they were grouped with their master and toggled to follow.

q Protection – all pets (except Siege Engines) will automatically attack any character or mobile that attacks their master. Your character will receive full experience for any mobiles slain by their pet.

Your character can also give their pet specific orders by using the Pet Command options listed in Section 4.7.6: The Pet Commands Window.

9.3.1: Losing Pets

Most pets, whether summoned or purchased, will serve their masters for a set duration, and then vanish from the game. Death also severs the bond between master and pet: a slain character will respawn to find that their pet has departed. If slain in combat, pets will not respawn. Pets can also be dismissed at any time by using the Dismiss Pet option, described in Section 4.7.6: The Pet Commands Window.

Section 10.0 – Buildings and Building Management

Once your character has amassed a large amount of gold, an entirely new realm of options becomes available. In Shadowbane, players can build and own every basic type of building and structure found in Safeholds, and can populate their buildings with non-player Tradesmen, Thralls, and Minions. Guilds of players are expected to put down stakes, founding, building, and expanding entire cities.

However, what one player can build, other players can tear down. The struggle to gain and defend territory is the true core of Shadowbane, and the potential value of player-built cities is what gives that struggle focus and meaning.

10.1: City Building Basics

Shadowbane’s city system, economic system, and siege system all interlock with each other to add an entirely new dimension to the game. By forming Guilds, founding cities, and waging sieges and Guild wars, your characters will be engaging in a strategic game that mixes traditional fantasy role-playing with elements of real time strategy (RTS). Each element of Shadowbane’s strategic component is extensive and complex in and of itself.

Following are some brief definitions of these game elements to demonstrate how each game system fits into the “big picture” of Shadowbane’s strategic combat.

q Building – A large structure that serves as a base for non-player character Tradesmen who create goods and services.

q City – A collection of buildings, usually owned by the members of a specific Guild or Nation, clustered around a Tree of Life and managed by a Guild or coalition of Guilds. See Section 11.0: Cities and City Defense for more information.

q Friend – any character that has been granted management powers over a building that they do not own.

q Guild – An organization of allied characters that has a distinct political identity. See Section 6.0 – Guilds for more details.

q Hirelings – Non-player characters, usually Tradesmen (see below).

q Owner – The character that controls a building and all of the Tradesmen assigned to it. The character that actually builds a building is designated as its owner, although they have the option to transfer ownership to other characters.

q Structure – Any asset that player characters can build and place in the game world that is not a building.

q Town – See City, above.

q Tradesmen – Non-player characters whom players can assign to buildings, and who create goods or services in game. These are also called Hirelings.

q Tree of Life – A mystical artifact that stands in the center of any city. These massive stone trees serve as anchor points for the spirits of any characters who have bonded to the Tree, and thus serve a critical function to the Guilds or Nations that claim them. Trees of Life can also channel restorative energy into buildings and structures, making them indispensable in a siege. See Section 11.2: Trees of Life for more information.

10.2: Building Attributes

Cities, in the end, are made of buildings, and ambitious players have a wide variety of potential structures to choose from. Each building has a specific purpose, providing city dwellers with specific goods or services and their owners with wealth. A ghost town of empty buildings is practically useless, of course – in order for the masters of a city to gain profit or advantage from their buildings, they will need to assign Tradesmen to work in each building (see Section 10.7: Tradesmen in Shadowbane for more information about these specialized non-player characters).

Every building can be classified by three basic attributes: Type, Rank, and Stage. Some other important building characteristics to consider are the building’s upgrade cost and maintenance cost, and the Building Strongbox that functions as its gold reserve. Finally, every building also has an Integrity rating (analogous to a character’s Health points) and Resistance ratings to certain forms of attack, but these two characteristics will only become important during a Guild war or siege.

q Type refers to the building’s ultimate purpose, and determines which types of Tradesmen can be assigned to it. A Weaponsmith can’t produce his wares in a Tavern, for example – he requires a Forge.

q Rank is similar to the Rank characters have: a rough measure of a building’s “level.” Rank measures how well equipped the building is. All of the basic characteristics of a Building improve each time its Rank increases. All buildings begin at Rank 1, and take time and money to upgrade. A building can hold one Tradesman for each Rank it has, and as the Rank of a building increases, the Tradesmen within it will work more quickly and efficiently.

q Stage is a byproduct of Rank, and along with the Type determines the actual appearance of a building. Most buildings in Shadowbane have three distinct Stages, and at each successive Stage the building grows larger and more ornate. Buildings change to Stage 2 at Rank 3, and transform into Stage Three buildings at Rank 5. Guild Halls are the only buildings that lack distinct Stages: they are built at the peak of their beauty, and their appearance never changes, regardless of their Rank.

Other features of building creation and maintenance that are important include the following:

q Upgrade Cost – The amount of gold required to improve a building Rank by one. Upgrades are not instantaneous. Once the cost is paid, a timer and Status Window measure the progress of the upgrade. As described above under Rank, upgrading a building will eventually change its appearance. Improving a building’s Rank allows more Tradesmen to be assigned to it, and improves those Tradesmen’s productivity.

q Maintenance Cost – Once built, a building cannot stand unattended for very long. Much like any other item of equipment, Shadowbane buildings require steady investments to keep them fully furnished and functioning properly. Rather than worry about every bit of cracked plaster or loose plank, Buildings will simply incur a cost to their owners on a regular basis. The cost is normally deducted from the building’s strongbox (see Strongbox below for more details), and owners can always check to see when the maintenance payment will be due, and how much it will cost them. Should the owner fail to pay, the building’s Rank will degrade by one step, and will continue to degrade by one step per real week if their strongbox is not replenished with sufficient funds. Once a building falls below Rank 1, it is reduced to a useless ruin: it cannot be upgraded, has no owner, and any Tradesmen assigned to it will be dismissed.

q Strongbox – Every building’s menu has a position that annotates its strongbox. The strongbox represents the gold reserves available to that building. Note that strongboxes are not actually physical objects within the building – they are presumably well hidden and defended. A building’s owner is the only player who can deposit or withdraw funds from a strongbox – they are entirely immune to theft. When a building is first constructed, the owner must place a reserve of gold into its strongbox to cover the building maintenance costs and the wages of any Tradesmen attached to it. The base costs of any items manufactured at that building are also deducted from the strongbox (for more information, see Section 10.8: Tradesmen and Item Production). For all trade buildings, the income gained from items sold is transferred into the building’s strongbox, where it can be used to pay future costs or withdrawn by the owner and spent elsewhere. Buildings that do not produce sellable goods (the Guard Barracks is the most obvious example) will need steady infusions of gold into their strongboxes to keep them and their Tradesmen at full efficiency.

q Integrity – A Building’s Integrity represents how intact it is, and how much damage the structure can sustain before it is destroyed. Buildings can sustain damage from attacks and spells just like characters or monsters can. Damaged buildings can be repaired (“healed”) either by channeling healing energy to them from a Tree of Life or the owner of the building can spend gold to effect repairs. See Section 11.2: Trees of Life and Sieges for more information about Trees of Life.

q Resistance – Buildings have Resistance ratings to specific types of attacks, similar to the benefits imparted to characters by armor, powers, and items. Resistance is always expressed as a percentage against a certain form of attack, and that portion of incoming damage is automatically subtracted from the total before the Integrity of the target building is reduced. For example, if a Keep has an 80% fire resistance, a Fireball spell that does 60 points of damage to a character will only reduce the Integrity of the Keep by 12 points.

10.3: Where Should You Build?

The question is not where can your character build a structure, but where is it best to do so. Any patch of ground that lies outside of a Safehold or primary adventuring zone and does not interfere with the “footprint” of another structure is open for real estate. The only exceptions to this rule are Trees of Life: each Tree defines a zone of control, and these areas cannot overlap. Zones of non-control ensure that a minimum distance separates player-created cities from each other.

Most buildings and structures will be associated with a city – that is, within the influence of a Tree of Life. They need not be – an isolated Inn at a distant crossroads is perfectly valid within the system. Players may call any collection of buildings a city, but without a Tree of Life to define its influence, such cities will not appear on the interactive World Map or receive their own regional designation on other players’ maps. That kind of anonymity might sound appealing, though isolation can be dangerous. Your character, as owner, will be bound to a particular Tree of Life, and will have to trek all the way back to their building every time they log out or return to play after death. A well-placed Inn might mitigate the login problem, but your character will always have to pay for the service, and death will always mean a trip back to your bonded Tree.

Trees of Life have another, far more critical purpose: the regeneration of damaged structures. Remote buildings or cities, deprived of a Tree’s energies, are much more vulnerable to attack, and will always be costly to repair. The depredations of wayward monsters and players will probably make isolated buildings and cities extremely tenuous in the long run.

There are no restrictions to building within an established city (that has a Guild-owned Tree of Life). Guild affiliation of the building owner is not a factor – your character is perfectly able to walk into the midst of a thriving city and (space permitting) open up a new building. Such a move, however, will always have consequences. Will the local Guild be offended by your intrusion? Will other owners who produce the same products or services welcome the competition?

In order to receive energy from the local Tree of Life, you’re going to have to negotiate a settlement with the local Guild Leader. Of course, if the local Guild is offended, they’re perfectly within their rights to put your character on their guards’ “Kill on Sight” list, and rouse their members to destroy your Building!

Politics plays an important role in Shadowbane, and success is measured as often by the cunning of a diplomat’s words as by the edge of a sword.

10.4: Purchasing and Placing Buildings

10.4.1: Buying Buildings – Building Deeds

In order to build any kind of building or structure, your character must find, purchase, or otherwise acquire a specialized item known as a Deed. Deeds are produced and sold by Builders, non-player character Tradesmen who can be found in most Safeholds or player-built cities. Each Deed will only generate one specific building – a Barracks Deed cannot be used to build an Inn, no matter how hard you try. The Deed itself represents all of the labor and materials used to create the building, and it’s all your character will need to purchase to obtain the structure itself. Deeds can be quite expensive, and every building can be costly to maintain, as described in Section 10.2: Building Attributes.

Trees of Life are purchased and placed in a similar manner, save that a Tree of Life grows from a Guild Seed (a magical stone acorn) instead of a Deed. Guild Seeds will (for the purposes of this beta) be available for purchase from special vendors. Crucial to sieges, Trees of Life will have much more functionality added as testing proceeds.

10.4.2: Placing Your Building

Once you have found a suitable location for your building, activate the Deed by using the object inside your character’s inventory. The Building Placement window will immediately open, displaying your placement options.

10.4.3: The Building Placement Window

q Asset – This vertical field at the left edge of the window displays a list of all buildings or fortress assets that are available for placement. A building icon identifies each building or structure. Note that in most cases, only one icon will appear in the menu. To select the asset you wish to place, left click on the appropriate icon.

q Name – This field at the bottom of the window displays the name of any building selected in the Asset menu.

q Asset icon – This small field at the lower left of the window displays the map icon for the building or structure that is currently displayed in the Asset menu. Click on the icon and drag it into the Map window to begin building placement.

q Map – An overhead display of the local area, with all buildings and structures displayed. The icon from the Asset icon field can be positioned in the map by clicking on it and dragging it around the map. If the icon’s location is acceptable, a rectangular green footprint will appear around the icon. The footprint box will turn red if the terrain will not permit building placement, or if the icon’s footprint overlaps the footprint of another building or structure. The footprints of fortress assets appear as blue boxes in the map window.

q Place – This button implements building placement. The Placement window will close, and the building will appear in the game landscape at the appropriate location.

q Close – Clicking this button closes the building Placement window and aborts the entire construction process. The character will retain possession of the building Deed, and can activate it at some other location.

q Rotate – These two buttons will rotate the building and its footprint 90 degrees clockwise or counterclockwise per click, as appropriate.

10.4.4: Using the Building Placement Window

Maneuver your potential building by clicking and dragging the icon into the Map window and rotating the building as needed. When the footprint outline turns green, the building is ready for placement. Click the Place button to “drop” your new building onto the terrain. Once your building is placed, it cannot be moved, short of destroying it and building another structure of the same type someplace else.

When you click the Place button, your building will instantly appear in the game world at the place you have selected. The Deed object for the building is consumed, and a Master Key to the Building is automatically placed in your character’s inventory. See Section 10.5.2: Keys and Locks for more information.

Note that all city assets do not appear fully functional: buildings are placed in a half-finished ‘under construction” state, and take some time to upgrade to Rank 1.

10.5: Using Buildings

Once your building has been placed, simply right click on any building your character owns to access the Building Control Panel. In order to begin production of specific items or services, you will need to employ non-player character Tradesmen and put them to work inside the building. See Section 10.7: Tradesmen in Shadowbane and Section 10.8: Tradesmen and Item Production for more information about these processes.

10.5.1: The Building Control Panel

The Building Control Panel offers a concise display of important building information, as well as offering access to key functions. Each item on the menu is explained below:

q Close – This closes the Building Control Panel.

q Name – This displays the name of the building,. At creation, each Building carries the name “Rank 1 (appropriate type).” To change the name of a Building, the owner can double-click the name field and then enter the new name. Note that Wolfpack studios and Shadowbane’s publishers reserve the right to prohibit or change offensive names.

q Ownership – This displays the name of the building’s current owner.

q Nation – This displays the Guild Crest of the owner’s Nation.

q Guild – This displays the Guild Crest of the owner’s Guild.

q Rank – This displays the Rank of the building, expressed as a line of symbols. Each type of building (Inn, Forge, etc.) has its own unique symbol, and the number of symbols equals the building Rank, from 1 to 7.

q Repair – This initiates repairs of the building. An associated field next to it displays the amount of gold required to restore the building to full Integrity.

q Upgrade – This begins a Rank upgrade for the building. An associated field next to it displays the upgrade cost required for the next Rank.

q Health – This displays the Integrity of the building, using a color-coded bar to indicate the building’s status. The current Integrity of the building is also expressed as a percentage of the building’s maximum Integrity.

q Info – This opens a sub-menu that displays the maintenance and upgrade costs of the building, as well as describing any taxation agreements that currently affect the building.

q Abandon – This allows the owner to renounce their ownership of the building. The building will remain intact (until its strongbox runs out or it is destroyed), but any player who selects the abandoned building can claim it for their character.

q Strongbox – This displays the amount of gold currently held in the building’s strongbox. “+” and “-” buttons beside the field allow the owner to deposit or withdraw gold.

q Cost – This displays the maintenance cost of the building, as well as the real date when the next maintenance payment is due.

q Transfer – This allows the owner to pass ownership of the building or structure to another player character.

q Destroy – This destroys the building, severing the owner’s claim of ownership in the process.

q Patron/Maintenance – This button opens a window displaying all wage and maintenance information for the building, as well as the terms of any patronage agreements with a local Tree of life. See Section 12.4: Victory Conditions for more information.

q Hirelings – This menu displays the Name, Rank, and Vocation of every Tradesman assigned to a building. Owners can access each Hireling’s Information and Production menus by double-clicking on the appropriate entry.

q Activate KOS List – This opens the KOS list. See Section 10.9.1: The Condem/Kill on Sight (KoS) Lists for more information.

q Activate Friends List – This opens the building’s Friends List. See Section 10.9.2: Friends Lists for more information.

10.5.2: Keys and Locks

Every time a City or Fortress asset with doors is created, a Master Key object keyed to that Building is automatically given to the owner, and can be found in their inventory. The key allows whoever holds it to lock or unlock any door in the Building the key was made for.

To lock or unlock a door, Cotrol+left-click on the door, and then select Lock/Unlock from the Context menu. If your character has that asset’s master key in their inventory, the door will toggle either into or out of locked mode. Locked doors cannot be opened, save by characters holding the key to that door. NOTE: Because keys are currently placed in the owner’s inventory, they are freely lootable – all Building owners are encouraged to bank their Master keys with a Bursar to prevent theft. See Section 3.7.6: Banking Items for more information.

More functionality for keys (including the duplicating and sharing of keys and the changing of a Building’s locks) is forthcoming.

10.6: Shadowbane Building Types

A comprehensive listing of Shadowbane buildings follows, broken into two categories: general buildings and Guild Halls. Other types of structures and city-related assets are described in Section 12.0: Cities and Sieges. Some of these buildings are not yet included in this phase of testing. They will be introduced as the test cycle proceeds.

10.6.1: General Buildings

q Barracks – These stout structures serve as lodging, headquarters, and training facilities for a community’s guards and militia. Depending on what types of Officers are assigned to a barracks, a city can hire warrior guards, archers, or even crack units of magisters to serve as constables and defenders.

Tradesman Types: Guard Captain, Master Archer, Magister, Bodyguard

q Church – As the great religions have withered or fragmented, smaller, local Churches have arisen to tend to the needs of their communities. No matter which deity a Church is consecrated to, they are all considered holy ground by all but the most reprehensible folk. As a result, funds or treasures left in a Church’s keeping are almost guaranteed to remain there, safe and sound, until their owner returns for them.

Tradesman Types: Healer, Bursar, Bodyguard

q Forge – Once these were shops where humble blacksmiths made horseshoes, nail, and plough blades. In the chaotic days since the Turning, Forges have shifted to a new primary purpose: the production of the weapons and tools of war.

Tradesman Types: Weaponsmith, Armorer, Bodyguard

q Inn and Tavern – Providing food to any customer, lodging for weary travelers, and a place for social gatherings, Inns and Taverns have long been mainstays of civilization. Taverns offer a hotbed of gossip and rumor, and are places where Tradesmen often congregate while seeking employment.

Tradesman Types: Innkeeper, Barkeep, Bodyguard, Builder

q Magic Shop – Many students of the arcane have gone into business for themselves, enchanting minor magical items and brewing potions that they then sell to whoever can afford them. The trade has proven immensely lucrative, and even the most superstitious Guilds have come to realize the edge that a well-stocked Magic Shop can give them in a struggle.

Tradesman Types: Enchanter, Alchemist, Bodyguard

q Mercantile – The great markets and fairs of bygone ages have given way to the rise of the Mercantile, a shop that serves as a storefront for both imported goods and local cottage industry. Part general store and part trading post, Mercantiles offer adventurers a place to buy gear and sell items gained through adventure.

Tradesman Types: Quartermaster, Fence, Bodyguard

10.6.2: Guild Halls

Though they may look quite different from Guild to Guild, all Guild Halls serve the same two essential purposes. First, Guild Halls provide a place for Guild members to meet, exchange information, and leave messages. Secondly, they serve as centers of learning, with skilled Trainers who can impart new techniques and secrets to Guild Members and help them hone their skills. Guild Halls are among the largest buildings in any city, their size and grandeur standing as constant reminders of the power and glory of the Guilds that built them. Unlike other buildings, upgrading a Guild Hall will not change its appearance. Each upgrade, however, will increase the number of Tradesmen the Hall can support.

q Amazon Temple – Austere, impressive structures of alabaster, Amazon Temples hearken back to the great white cities of Delgana, and are the only reminder most Amazons ever see of their vanished homeland. The interior of the Temple features a huge shrine to Phaedra, the First Huntress who led the Amazons out of the lands of Men and Elves, to found a hidden empire.

Guild Type: Amazon Temple

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Master Archer, Builder

q Cathedral – Triumphs of masonry and engineering, the first great Cathedrals appeared early in the Age of Kings. Cathedrals serve a double purpose: not only do they provide the devout with a place of worship, they also serve as administrative centers within the Church hierarchy, places where bishops, archbishops, and cardinals help shape and advance the grand designs of the Holy Church.

Guild Type: Church of the All-Father

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Healer, Builder

q Dwarf Hold – Imposing structures of stone that lack windows of any kind, most “Roofless Folk” (as the Dwarves call surface dwellers) are awed by the sheer size and scope of Dwarf Holds. Thurin’s Sons have only built structures above ground since the Turning, but their staunch adherence to tradition ensures that the interior of a surface hold is identical to the ancient delvings the Dwarves built of old in the deeps.

Guild Type: Dwarf Hold

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Healer, Armorer, Weaponsmith

q Elvish Palace – The majestic, shining towers of the Deathless Empire have all long since fallen, but the Elves still cling to the memory of their vanished greatness, raising massive crystalline palaces through ancient magic and craft. Designed to tower over the dwellings of the lesser races, Elvish Palaces are grown rather than built, shaped into their final forms by powerful spells.

Guild Type: High Court

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Magister

q Forest Sanctuary – In recent years the Rangers have returned from their long exile in the wilderness, and small but fiercely loyal bands have managed to rise to positions of authority in some towns and cities, acting as protectors to the common folk. The sanctuaries the Rangers build as their headquarters are simple, elegant structures based on the tents and humble dwellings of forest folk.

Guild Type: Ranger’s Brotherhood

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Healer, Master Archer

q Great Hall – Built in the style and fashion of the great mead halls of the infamous Northmen, these massive structures are built entirely of timber, with high, slate roofs and thick walls. Comfort and beauty are barely a consideration in the design of a great Hall: they require only a fire pit and a space large enough for the Thane and all his henchmen to feast and revel in.

Guild Type: Barbarian Clan

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Guard Captain, Builder

q Irekei Temple – These ancient structures serve as the focal points of Irekei culture. Built of sandstone and richly ornamented, every Irekei temple contains a great arena, where the Dragon and the Sun are venerated in lengthy ceremonies, and where disputes among rival Irekei are settled with blades in highly ritualistic duels.

Guild Type: Irekei Virakt

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Guard Captain

q Keep – Stout stone fortresses with tall towers and reinforced gates, Keeps are the most utilitarian and the most defensible Guild Halls. The last scions of the once great pre-Turning royal houses and the commanders of renegade armies all build keeps for their strongholds, which serve as both rallying points for their soldiers and followers, and as a formidable last line of defense against their enemies.

Guild Type: Noble House, Military Legion, Mercenary Company

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Guard Captain, Builder

q Temple of the Flame – Equal parts fortress and house of worship, these imposing structures perfectly express the militant philosophy of the Temple of the Cleansing Flame. The faithful gather here for worship and defense, and the upper levels house Templar barracks, armories, and extensive sparring rooms. The main hall boasts a massive statue of Saint Malorn the Just, and a fire pit where a portion of the eternal Cleansing Flame burns for the benefit of all.

Guild Type: Temple of the Cleansing Flame

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Healer, Builder

q Thieves’ Den – There are some kinds of business best done in secret. Rather than build vast, imposing halls to announce their presence to the world, associations of Rogues, Thieves, and Assassins hide in plain sight, taking over an Inn and turning it to their use. Hidden rooms and secret basements serve as meeting chambers, offices, and training halls for Guild members.

Guild Type: Thieves’ Den

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Fence, Bursar, Builder

q Wizard’s Tower – The architecture of these massive towers is inspired by the ancient towers and citadels of the Elves, and would be structurally impossible without powerful magic spells that reinforce and support the upper works. Every Wizard’s Conclave contains an assembly hall, several laboratories, and well-stocked libraries to help further the researches of its members.

Guild Type: Wizard’s Conclave

Tradesman Types: Trainer, Bodyguard, Alchemist, Magister, Builder

10.7: Tradesmen in Shadowbane

Not everyone in Aerynth is born to lead a life of grueling quest and high adventure. There are some industrious folk who, armed with skill and determination, manage to work their way through arduous apprenticeships and master a trade. Tradesmen are the lifeblood of any successful city. The dour Blacksmith who forges keen steel blades, the retired soldier who musters and commands the Town militia, and the eccentric Alchemist who distills wondrous magical potions are but some of the sample Tradesmen. Their labors make the exploits of adventurers possible.

Without the proper Tradesmen to work in them, most buildings are little more than shelters. Conversely, without the proper store, workshop, or headquarters, a Tradesman is just a commoner. When the two are brought together, however, a new world of political and economic opportunity becomes available to your character and Guild.

Tradesmen, also known as Hirelings, are a special form of non-player character. Like monsters that your character can encounter while questing around Aerynth, Tradesmen are computer-controlled entities that inhabit the virtual world of Shadowbane. Unlike most monsters, however, Tradesmen are designed to interact with player characters, performing business transactions, providing services, and following the orders of the character that employs them.

10.7.1: Tradesman Characteristics

Like any other character or monster, a Tradesman will have a set of attributes, powers, and skills. Most of these are relatively unimportant in the course of standard game play, with one exception. Tradesmen are classified by their Rank, similar to the values used for Buildings and characters. For Tradesmen, Rank does not measure levels achieved through adventure, but is instead an indication of the Tradesman’s professional aptitude and skill. The items a craft-oriented Tradesman can produce, the final quality of those items, the speed at which they work, and the number of projects a Tradesman can manage at once, all depend upon their Rank. A Tradesman’s Rank also is a key factor in determining the cost of their employment contract, as well as their wages. Characters can spend gold to upgrade their Tradesmen to higher ranks, as detailed below.

No matter their Rank, each Tradesman assigned to a building occupies one of that building’s slots. A Tradesman’s performance is limited by the Rank of the building they work in, A player is free to assign a highly Ranked Tradesman to a low Rank building, but the Tradesman will not function at full efficiency until the building’s Rank can be increased through upgrades.

10.7.2: Supporting Tradesmen

Tradesmen in Shadowbane don’t work for nothing: every Tradesman has a wage (based upon their profession and their Rank) that their employers must pay them on a regular basis to keep their services. Like the maintenance costs of buildings, Tradesman wages are automatically deducted from the strongbox of the building that serves as the Tradesman’s workplace. If a Tradesman’s wages are not paid, the Tradesman’s effective Rank will decrease by one step for each pay period they go without pay. The Tradesman does not actually lose any skill, but rather works below his peak abilities out of protest. If a Tradesman falls below Rank 1, they desert their employer and are lost forever.

10.7.3: Upgrading Tradesmen

Just like the buildings they work in, every Tradesman has an upgrade cost. When the Tradesman’s employer opts to pay this amount, a timer for the upgrade goes into effect. The Tradesman’s Rank will increase by one step when the timer expires. Note that an employer must also spend the Tradesman’s upgrade cost to restore any Ranks lost to delinquent wages. Again, the Tradesman is not re-learning lost skills, but instead their employers must win back their confidence by showering them with gold and attention.

10.7.4: Hiring Tradesmen

In order to secure the services of a Tradesman, a character must purchase or acquire a specialized item called an Employment Contract. A given Contract will only produce one specific type of Tradesman (you cannot use an Builder contract to hire a Guard Captain, for example). Barkeeps, Tavern Keepers, and Stewards in Safeholds will be able to draw up Contracts for most basic Tradesmen, and characters looking to form their own cities are advised to recruit and place one of these Tradesmen as quickly as possible.

Once your character has an Employment Contract, proceed to a building that you own, and open the Building Control Panel for that Building. Then you can activate the Contract within it by dragging any employment contract from your character’s inventory to an empty slot on the Tradesman menu at the bottom of the Building Control Panel. A specialized menu will open displaying every employment contract in your character’s possession. Click the contract you wish to activate, and the Tradesman will automatically appear inside the building, ready to work.

As buildings upgrade in Rank, the number of Tradesmen they can hold increases. Having multiple Tradesmen of a given type in a building allows owners to produce a wider variety of items or services more quickly, though certain types of Tradesmen can only work in certain types of buildings. Once a Tradesman has been assigned to a building, they will remain until they are dismissed, they resign (from unpaid wages), or if the building is destroyed. Should the ownership of a building change (through conquest or legal transfer), the new owner will also take ownership of any Tradesmen assigned to that building.

10.7.5: The Tradesman Control Panel

This menu offers employers access to the basic functions of their Tradesmen, as well as displaying important information about them. Characters can access the Tradesman Control Panel by opening the Building Control Panel of the building a Tradesman is assigned to, then left-clicking that Tradesman’s entry on the Tradesman Menu at the bottom of the control panel. A description of each button and control follows:

q Name – This displays the name of the Tradesman, randomly generated when their Employment Contract is activated.

q Rank – This displays the Rank of the Tradesman, expressed as a line of symbols. Each type of Tradesman (Alchemist, Blacksmith, etc.) has its own unique symbol, and the number of symbols equals the Tradesman’s Rank, from 1 to 7.

q Upgrade – This initiates an upgrade of the Tradesman. The adjacent field displays the amount of gold required to upgrade to the next Rank, as well as the progress of any current upgrade.

q Salary – This displays the current wages of the Tradesman.

q Inventory – This opens the Tradesman’s inventory, giving the employer direct access to any items the Tradesman has produced or acquired.

q Profit Bars – These controls allow the employer to set the profit margins for any goods or services that the Hireling produces. Profits are expressed in terms of a percentage of the base cost of the item or service, which is then added to the base cost to determine the Tradesman’s asking price. Employers can set three different profit margins: one for transactions with fellow Nation members, one for Guild mates, and one for all other characters.

q Dismiss – This terminates the Employment Contract between the Tradesman and the employer. The Tradesman immediately leaves the building, never to return.

q Project Bars – These display the tasks that the Tradesman is currently engaged in, and serve as progress bars showing how far along each task is. Clicking on an empty project bar (labeled “None”) will allow the Tradesman’s employer to order another task. For more information about item production and tradesman services, see Section 10.8: Tradesmen and Item Production. Tradesmen gain more project bars as their rank increases.

10.7.6: Tradesmen

Following is a list of all the Tradesmen currently planned for Shadowbane. Some of these are not currently incorporated into this phase of the testing, while others will be introduced as the testing cycle progresses.

q Alchemist – The potions and elixirs Alchemists brew can speed the healing of wounds, temporarily increase the drinker’s magical potential, or bring a host of other benefits.

Preferred Buildings: Magic Shop, Wizard’s Tower

Products: Potions, magical items

q Armorer – The rising tide of war and conflict has driven many blacksmiths to specialize in producing armors of all types, and a decent Armorer will also know the crafts of tanning, curing, and leatherworking.

Preferred Buildings: Forge

Products: Armor, shields, armor and shield Repair

q Builder – A hired Builder draws the plans for a specific building, generates the Deed, and then coordinates the actual construction, requiring funds to cover their fee and the building supplies. Any Guild that would build an entire city should be quick to hire an Builder into their service.

Preferred Buildings: Inn/Tavern, Guild Hall

Products: Building Deeds

q Bodyguard – Tradesmen often are glad to call upon the help of skilled armsmen to protect their strongboxes, the products of their labor, and even their lives from theft or harm.

Preferred Buildings: Any

Products: None

q Bursar – As Churches began to serve as safe houses for parishioners’ worldly possessions, a new breed of Clark emerged – the Bursar, responsible for notating each and every item entrusted or taken from a Church.

Preferred Buildings: Church, Thieves’ Den

Products: Banking, item storage

q Enchanter – Students of sorcery and other arcane arts, enchanters are powerful spell-users who can craft magical items, permanently binding eldritch magic and effects into well-wrought rings, amulets, talismans and jewels.

Preferred Buildings: Magic Shop, Wizard’s Tower

Products: Rings, jewels, amulets, talismans

q Engineer – These mainstays of the battlefield combine a master carpenter’s skill at building with a wizard’s understanding of calculation and reckoning. Years of training enable them to rapidly turn a pile of logs into a working trebuchet, and their skill at calculating ranges makes the machines they build the bane of any fortified city.

Preferred Buildings: Siege Tent

Products: Siege engines

q Fence – Fences buy anything of worth, no questions asked, and then proceed to sell their purchases to others (at suitably profitable prices, of course). One man’s litter, as they say, is another man’s loot.

Preferred Buildings: Mercantile, Thieves’ Den

Products: Pawned items

q Guard Captain – Guard Captains are entrusted with the safety and security of their town or city, and do their jobs in earnest. Able fighters and administrators, Guard Captains recruit, train, and command the Guards that form the bulk of any town’s militia.

Preferred Buildings: Barracks, Keep

Products: Guards

q Healer – Whatever faith they profess, the Healers who preside over local Churches and serve larger religious institutions are all enjoined by their faith to offer aid and renewal to those in need.

Preferred Buildings: Church, Cathedral, Temple of the Flame, Forest Sanctuary

Products: Heals, cures, dispels

q Innkeeper – The undisputed master of the house, it’s the job of every Innkeeper to make sure that their establishment runs smoothly. Hopelessly busy, the average innkeeper hasn’t much time for conversation, and most patrons will only deal with them when booking or room or settling their tab.

Preferred Buildings: Inn/Tavern

Products: Lodgings, meals

q Magister – Magisters serve as potent defenders of cities and towns, magical counterparts of Guard Captains. While most will never become archmages, The Adepts they command, while expensive to train, form an invaluable part of a city’s militia.

Preferred Buildings: Barracks, Wizard Tower

Products: Adepts

q Master Archer – These supreme bowmen rarely defend their city directly, but instead pass on what they have learned to loyal recruits, training Archers to serve in a town’s militia.

Preferred Buildings: Barracks, Forest Sanctuary, Amazon Temple

Products: Archers

q Quartermaster – Equal parts merchant and rogue, are able negotiators with a talent for finding and procuring just about anything an adventurer could ever need. The advent of runegate travel has made their work much easier, and some predict that the ancient merchant houses will soon rise again.

Preferred Buildings: Mercantile

Products: Sundry items

q Runemaster – Through a strange mix of ancient druidic rites and arcane magic, Runemasters are able to tap into the potent energies that course through Trees of Life, and direct that energy along invisible channels to distant Trees of Life or to buildings in the immediate area.

Preferred Structure: Tree of Life

Products: Tree of Life management

q Steward – A good Steward makes it a point to know the folk that come and go in their town, and Tradesmen looking for work make it a point to leave their names at the local Tavern, making Barkeeps essential go-betweens for anyone looking to employ a skilled Tradesman.

Preferred Buildings: Inn/Tavern

Products: Employment Contracts

q Weaponsmith – Years of training give every Weaponsmith a fine eye for iron and steel, and most are eager to buy used wares, hoping to resell them, learn from their design, or destroy them and re-use the metal.

Preferred Buildings: Forge

Products: Weapons, weapon repair

10.8: Tradesmen and Item Production

Once your character has built an appropriate building and hired a Tradesman to man it, you can use these critical assets to interact with the in-game economy, producing goods and services that can improve life in a city or enrich your character and their Guild. Tradesmen can perform one of three basic activities based on their occupation: production of equipment items, providing service to other characters, or helping ensure the security of the community in which they live and work.

10.8.1: Managing Tradesman Services

Some Tradesmen don’t produce physical items, instead providing intangible services to characters. Trainers, Healers, and Innkeepers all fall into this category. These Tradesmen have a roster of services they provide. Owners can set the prices that Tradesmen will charge for these services by using the Tradesman Control Panel, as described in Section 10.7.5: The Tradesman Control Panel.

The types and quality of services any Tradesman can provide are defined by their Rank. A Rank 5 Warrior Trainer, for example, would be able to improve a character’s weapon skill more than a Rank 1 Trainer. Owners can upgrade their Tradesman’s Rank using the Tradesman Control panel. The only other interaction with their service-oriented Tradesman that owners might require would be to reap some of the profits of their business. Owners can gain access to their Tradesman’s earnings by withdrawing from the building’s strongbox, accessed in the Building Control Panel (described in Section 10.5.1: The Building Control Panel).

10.8.2: Managing Tradesman Production

Many Tradesmen can actually produce items of equipment: Armorers, Weaponsmiths, and Alchemists are three examples. Owners have far more control over the activities of these Tradesmen, directing the production of shop inventories.

All Tradesmen producers deal with two different types of items:

q Stock Items – this list of specific item types is determined by the Tradesman type, and are what appear first whenever anyone opens the Tradesman’s Shopping Menu. All stock items, if purchased, are automatically replaced without having to order production or pay gold. The number and types of a Tradesman’s stock items is determined by their Rank – as Tradesmen improve, they worry less and less about having to produce mundane items.

q Production Items – these items must be produced by the Tradesman to appear in his Shopping Menu. If a production item is sold, the owner must order production of another to replace it. As a Tradesman advances in Rank, some of their production items will revert to stock items, and better production item options will become available. Typically, a Tradesman’s best items are production items, and all enchanted items are.

To assign a task to a Tradesman producer, open the Tradesman Control Panel. At the bottom of the panel is a list of all tasks (if any) that the Tradesman is currently working on. Double-clicking an empty task slot (labeled “none”) will open the Tradesman Production window, where new tasks can be assigned.

10.8.3: The Tradesman Production Window

The Tradesman Production window offers owners complete access to all production decisions and functions. The parts of this important window are described below:

q Item Description – This displays information about the item currently selected from the item list.

q Illustration – This displays a small picture of the item described in the Item Description Section.

q Name – The name of the selected item is displayed here.

q Price Range – The amount of gold the Tradesman will charge for the item in question.

q Quantity – This displays how many items of the selected type the Tradesman will produce. Clicking inside the field will allow you to input a number (from 1 to 100).

q Magic – Clicking this makes the Tradesman construct a magic item rather than a normal item. The nature of the magic enchantment(s) is random and cannot be predicted or controlled.

q Begin – Clicking this sends the Tradesman to work, producing the specified number of the selected item. The Tradesman Control Panel will be updated to show the new task, along with a slider bar indicating progress.

q Item Menu Section – The lower section of the Tradesman Production window displays a list of all items the Tradesman is able to produce. The extent and content of the menu vary based upon the Rank of the Tradesman.

q Item – These fields display the name of a single type of item the Tradesman can produce. Clicking on the field will cause the information for the selected item to appear in the Item Description section at the top of the window.

q Scroll Bar – This slider control allows you to scroll down through the list of available item options.

10.8.4: Item Crafting and Completion

Once the requested items have been selected (by selecting an eligible item of the production menu and then selecting Begin), the Tradesman begins work. The amount of time required to finish the task depends upon the complexity of the item, modified by both the Rank of the Tradesman and the Rank of the building they work in. On the Tradesman Control Panel, the name of the item being produced is superimposed over one production bar at the bottom of the window. Enchanted items are displayed with blue names. The bar begins colored black, but gradually fills with gold color as the item nears completion. Note that while an item is being built, no mouse-over information is available for it: the exact enchantment on a magical item will not be revealed until crafting is complete. Once an item is finished, however, your character can mouse over the item to view its statistics and capabilities.

Double clicking on a project bat while an item is in production presents your character with two additional options: abort production to begin a new item (returning to the Production Menu to make your choice) or Abandon production altogether, freeing up the project bar.

Item production is not free: in addition to the costs an owner pays to maintain both the building and the Tradesman, each item to be produced incurs a base cost, paid when production is finished. Once the production timer expires, the owner will be notified and given the option to either pay the base cost and complete the item or junk it, losing nothing except the Tradesman’s time.

When it comes to item production in Shadowbane, sometimes an owner will get more than what they asked for. Item creation contains a random element similar to the system used to determine the treasures held by slain monsters. Sometimes a Tradesman will be inspired as they work, and create products of surpassing quality and power. Thus, if a tradesman’s owner requests a long sword, there is a small chance, based upon the Rank of the Tradesman, that when the timer expires they will have created a sword of quality or even an enchanted blade by selecting the Magic button. The chance of making a special item increases as the tradesman increases in Rank. While such items have much higher resale values than the mundane items originally commissioned, they also cost far more to produce than mundane ones. Owners may find their gold reserves to low to pay for the enchanted weapon their Hireling just forged, forcing them to junk it. There is always a chance, however, that the Tradesman could produce it again later.

Once an item has been produced an paid for, it automatically inserts itself into the Tradesman’s Shopping Menu so that other characters can purchase it. All produced items are also listed in the Tradesman’s inventory, where owners can manipulate them further, as described in Section 10.8.5.

10.8.5: Manipulating Tradesman Inventories

Greedy owners might decide they don’t want to sell the items their Tradesmen produce, but rather just keep them for themselves. Owners can access a Tradesman’s inventory by clicking the Inventory button on the Tradesman Control Panel. All items that the Tradesman has produced but not yet sold will be listed in a menu. Left-clicking an item will cause its pertinent statistics to appear in an information block at the top of the window. Double-clicking an item on the Tradesman’s inventory opens a popup menu of three options:

q Take – Transfer’s the item from the Tradesman’s inventory to the owner’s inventory.

q Price – Allows the owner to enter an exact price for the selected item.

q Junk – Immediately destroys the item, and refunds the base gold cost (spent upon completion) to the building’s strongbox.

As with service-oriented Tradesmen, owners upgrade the Rank of a Tradesman producer by using the Tradesman Control Panel, and can gain access to the Tradesman’s profits on the Building Control Panel.

10.8.5: Item Production Sequence Recap:

q Step One – Open the Tradesman Control Panel

q Step Two – Double-click on an open task slot. The Tradesman Production window will open.

q Step Three – Scroll through the Item menu until you find the item you want the Tradesman to produce. Click “Magic” if you want a magic item. Click the item to display its information.

q Step Four – Input the desired quantity of items to be produced.

q Step Five – Click “Begin” to initiate production. The new task will appear on the Tradesman Control Panel.

q Step Six – When the required production time has elapsed, you will be notified, and asked whether or not you wish to pay the production cost for the item. Click “Accept” to finish production.

q Step Seven – The finished item appears in the Tradesman’s Shopping Menu and inventory. From there it can be sold to customers (for a set price or the profit margin set by the owner), destroyed for a refund of the base cost, or transferred to the owner directly.

10.9: Building Heraldry Lists

Each Building assets has two lists of player or Guild crests associated with it that define the behavior of all Tradesmen in that Building, as well as which characters may manage the it. They define who the owner’s allies and enemies are, and are both accessed through the Building Control Panel.

10.9.1: The Condemn/Kill-on-Sight (KOS) List

The Condemn List, also known as the Kill on Sight (KOS) List offers guilds and asset owners a means of punishing their enemies and defending their interests, and is critical to the security of any building or city. Guards associated with any city or structure will attack characters, guild members, or nation members listed on the KOS List as soon as they detect them. Every city asset has its own KOS List, accessed by clicking the Activate KOS button on the lower left side of the Asset Management window. Guards assigned to an asset will attack anything on the KOS List, and any Tradesmen or Hirelings will refuse to do any kind of business with Guilds, Nations, or characters on the list.

Managing a Kill on Sight List

Your character fills and edits the entries on the KOS list for any structure they own by transferring crests from their Heraldry or Death Lists to the asset’s KOS List. See Section 6.7: Other Uses for Heraldry and Crests, for more information about the Heraldry and Death lists. To add an entry to an asset’s KOS list, open the character’s Heraldry or Death List, open the building’s KOS List (by clicking the Activate KOS List button on the Building Control Panel), then drag the desired crest from the character’s list to the building’s list.

At this point, a pop-up will appear prompting you to either save the Character information, Guild information, or Nation information associated with the crest. Click the desired button, and the building’s list will update with the new entry. You can only add one piece of information to the KOS List at a time – saving a character’s name, Guild, and Nation would require three separate operations.

In most cases, adding a character’s Nation is enough: that character, all members of their Guild, and any members of any Guild politically affiliated with their Guild all become targets. Placing both a character and their Guild on the KOS List, however, will ensure that the character remains on the list even if their Guild affiliation changes. The same goes for Guilds: if both a Guild and its Nation are on a Kill on Sight List, the Guild will stay on the list if it leaves its Nation.

Once the desired data has been added to the KOS List, clicking that list entry will display the information at the top of the KOS List window, along with a blank check box. Click the box to activate Guard and Hireling hostility. Should the offending party come back into favor, clicking the box again will toggle non-player character hostility off. To remove an entry from the KOS List, click on the list entry and then hit [Delete].

Sharing KOS Lists

In exchange for providing them with healing energy in times of siege, the owner of the Tree of Life can demand that the protected building share the Tree’s KOS List. If the owner of the building accepts, all Guards and Tradesmen will also enforce the KOS List of the local Sovereign Guild. However, the Sovereign Guild’s list will not appear in the building’s KOS List: the Hirelings will enforce it sight unseen. Because a Sovereign Guild’s Tree of Life can draw energy from the tree of their Nation’s capital, the Nation leaders can also demand that all sworn Trees observe the nation’s KOS List. That Nation’s list will then trickle down to the local Tree of Life and any buildings it protects, provided that all parties agree to do so.

10.9.2: The Friends List

Managing a City Asset in Shadowbane can be a demanding and time-consuming task, and players may decide to take on partners to assist them with the full-time maintenance and management of a city asset. Additionally, the unpredictability of crises and sieges make it very desirable to grant owner-level access to any city asset (but especially fortresses or Barracks) to a Guild’s authorities. The Friends List, accessed through the Building Control Panel, allows the owner of any city asset to define a list of partners, each of whom has full access to the asset’s control panel and Tradesmen.

Managing a Friends List

Your character fills and edits the entries on the Friends List for any structure they own by transferring crests from their Heraldry or Death Lists to the asset’s Friends List. See Section 6.7: Other Uses for Heraldry and Crests, for more information about the Heraldry and Death lists. To add an entry to an asset’s Friends List, open the character’s Heraldry or Death List, open the building’s KOS List (by clicking the Activate KOS List button on the Building Control Panel), then drag the desired crest from the character’s list to the building’s list.

At this point, a pop-up will appear prompting you to either save the Character information, Guild information, or Inner Council associated with the crest. Click the desired button, and the building’s list will update with the new entry. You can only add one piece of information to the Friend’s List at a time – saving a character’s name, Guild, and Inner Council would require three separate operations. Also, the owner’s own crest, dragged from the Selection Window after selecting themselves, can serve to add the owner’s Guild or Inner Council to the list.

Section 11.0 – Cites and City Defense

While any cluster of player-built and managed buildings might loosely be called a “city,” In Shadowbane the term has a much stricter definition. Cities in Shadowbane are distinct territorial regions: they appear on the World Map, and their name will appear on the Local Map of any character who passes near them. Cities are allowed to encircle themselves with walls, towers, and other fortress assets, and can make alliances with other cities, forming virtual nations and empires. A city is the most valuable possession a player-created Guild can own or acquire in Shadowbane: defending it and managing it efficiently are critical to a Guilds success.

11.1: Definitions

Most of the following terms were also defined in Section 10.1, but many bear repeating.

q Building – A large structure that serves as a base for non-player character Tradesmen who create goods and services. See Section 10.0: Buildings and Building Management for more information.

q Closed City – The standard mode for player-built Cities, closed Cities are not available as starting points to new characters, and characters cannot freely join them by re-pledging. See Section 2.11: Entering the World of Shadowbane for details about starting cities, and Section 6.4.1: Changing Cities, for more information about re-pledging. Only a Guild Leader can change a City’s status from closed to open, or vice versa.

q City – A collection of buildings, usually owned by the members of a specific Guild or Nation, clustered around a Tree of Life and managed by a Guild or coalition of Guilds. Cities have three primary defensive mechanisms: the Tree of Life, NPC Minions, and Fortress Assets. See Section 11.2, 11.3, and 11.4 for more details.

q Fortress Asset – towers or wall segments that a Guild Leader can build to fortify a city. See Section 11.3: City Walls for more details.

q Guild – An organization of allied characters that has a distinct political identity. See Section 6.0 – Guilds for more details.

q Hirelings – Non-player characters, usually Tradesmen (see below).

q Minion – Non-player characters recruited by specialized Tradesmen who contribute to the security and defense of a city, Nation, or Guild. See Section 11.4: Minions and City Defense for more information.

q Nation – A Sovereign (city-controlling) Guild that has brokered oaths of fealty from one or more other Sovereign Guilds. Nations are coalitions of allied city-states, with one Guild recognized as the leader. See Section 6.5: Guild Options for more details.

q Open City – A player built and player managed City that allows newly made characters to begin play or freely re-pledge there, as an alternative to using a Safehold. See Section 2.11: Entering the World of Shadowbane for details about starting cities, and Section 6.4.1: Changing Cities, for more information about re-pledging. Only a Guild Leader can change a City’s status from closed to open, or vice versa.

q Safehold – A “GM City” owned, managed, and maintained completely by NPCs. Safeholds exist as starting points for new Shadowbane characters, safe havens where fledgling heroes can climb through their opening levels and Ranks. Player vs Player conflict is forbidden in Safeholds. Whenever a character achieves Rank 2, their affiliation with their Safehold automatically ends; they must either seek citizenship in a Player City, found one of their own, or continue as an errant character. See Section 2.11: Entering the World of Shadowbane for details about starting cities, and Section 6.4.1: Changing Cities, for more information about re-pledging.

q Siege – A military action whereby an attacking force tries to overwhelm a fortified defending force. In Shadowbane, any assault intent on destroying or taking over a player-built city is classified as a siege. In any siege the primary goal is to overcome all defensive structures and either neutralize or destroy the defenders’ Tree of Life. See Section 12.0: Cities and Sieging for more information.

q Structure – Any asset that player characters can build and place in the game world that is not a building.

q Town – See City, above.

q Tradesmen – Non-player characters whom players can assign to buildings, and who create goods or services in game. These are also called Hirelings.

11.2: Trees of Life

Trees of Life (often also called ToL’s) are, quite literally, the beating heart of any guild city: they place the City on the World Map, provide their owning Guilds (and all sworn sub-Guilds) with a fixed respawn point, after death, and they can also heal buildings and city assets damaged during a siege. A Guild’s fortunes and destiny are tied to the fate of its Tree of Life. Section 3.9: Resuming Play describes the role of Trees of Life in character bind points and spawning, and Section 4.8.5: The World Map describes how Trees help define a city’s global location and prestige. The following sections explain the role of a Tree of Life in city management and defense.

11.2.1: Acquiring a Tree of Life

Trees of Life offer Guilds the chance to build true cities and literally leave their mark on the face of the Shadowbane game world. Like all other buildings and city assets, players can plant a Tree by activating a Guild Seed, a magical stone acorn. Guild Seeds are available for purchase from some vendors, or can be found through adventure. Bear in mind that Guild Seeds are Shadowbane’s most precious commodity, however, and will never be common or easy to acquire.

11.2.2: Placing a Tree of Life

Trees of Life, like any other asset, cannot be placed just anywhere: terrain and some zone-level restrictions apply. Unlike other city assets, every Tree of Life has an influence radius surrounding it, and the influence zones of two Trees cannot overlap. Additionally, while any character might acquire or hold a Guild Seed, only the Guild Leader of an Errant or Sworn Guild can activate the seed and turn it into a fully functioning Tree of Life. See Section 6.1: Forming a Guild for more information about Guild status, and Section 6.6: Guild Member Status for details about the position of Guild Leader.

Activate a Guild Seed by double-clicking the Seed to or Control+left-clicking the Seed and selecting Use on the Seed’s context menu. Either action will open the Asset Placement Window, and described in Section 10.4.2: Placing Your Building. Placing a Tree of Life follows the same procedure as placing any other asset, with two notable exceptions.

As soon as you drag the Tree icon onto the Map area in the Asset Placement window, a popup message will appear asking if you wish to see a map of all valid Guild zones. Clicking the check button will open a specialized version of the World Map (the basic version is described in Section 4.8.5). Areas shaded red on the Tree Placement Map are invalid locations for a Tree of Life. As with the basic World Map, your character’s position is clearly indicated, telling you at a glance if your current location is valid. Sometimes, even an unshaded area may not be suitable – remember that the Tree’s entire influence zone must also be clear. When planning Tree placement, you can click on any location on the Tree Placement Map to reveal if that location is valid. To continue with the placement process, close the map and return to the Asset Placement Window.

In addition to the standard bounding box, Trees of Life also have a shaded circle around their icon on the placement map, representing the Tree’s area of influence. If the shaded circle is green, the location is valid – if red, the location is not valid and Tree placement is prohibited. Once placed, a dialogue window will open prompting you to give your Tree and the city around it a name. Choose wisely: this is the name that will appear on every player’s world map! Wolfpack studios and Swhadowbane’s publishers reserve the right to modify or prohibit offensive city names.

11.2.3: Using a Tree of Life

Any character can double left-click a Tree of Life to open the Tree of Life Information Window, which displays the name and Guild affiliation of the Tree. Other options may also appear, dependent upon the character’s Rank, Guild affiliation, and Guild Status:

q Join Guild: This option immediately inducts the character in the Tree’s owning Guild as a petitioner, and sets the Tree of Life as the character’s default bind point. Note that re-pledging a character’s Guild affiliation via a Herald or Runemaster (as described in Section 6.4.1: Changing Cities) has the same effect. This option only appears in player cities that have been designated “open,” and will only appear in Safeholds to characters who have not yet attained 2^nd Rank (level 20). Also, only errant characters receive this option. See Section 6.6: Guild Member Status for more information about errantry, and Section 3.9: Resuming Play for details about spawn and bind points.

q Bind to Tree: This option only appears to characters whose Guild whose Guild recognizes the City in question as either a Province or Nation. Selecting it shifts the character’s spawn and bind point to the allied Tree. The character’s Guild affiliation does not change. Having easy access to multiple bind points is the primary advantage gained from building inter-City alliances. See Section 6.9: Nations and Guild Alliances for more details about Nations and Provinces, and Section 3.9: Resuming Play for details about spawn and bind points.

q Open City Toggle: This option only appears to Guild Leaders whose Guild owns the Tree of Life in question. Clicking the check box will confer Open status to the City: newly made characters can opt to begin play at this city as petitioner level Guild members, and characters of appropriate level can freely re-pledge their affiliation to the City, as described in Section 6.4.1: Changing Cities. The Guild Leader may change the City’s status at any time by clicking this toggle on or off.

11.2.4 Managing Trees of Life

As with any other city asset, Trees of Life have a standard Building Control Window featuring upgrade controls, repair and integrity options, heraldry lists, and a strongbox. See Section 10.5.1 for a more complete description of all of the available controls and commands. Only the owning Guild Leader and the entire Inner Council of the owning Guild has initial management privileges; these entries are automatically placed on the Friends List of the Tree of Life when it is placed, and the list cannot be altered. To remove a specific character from a Tree of Life’s Friend’s List, that character must be demoted from Inner Council status. See Section 6.5 and 6.6 for more information about Guild member status and how to alter it.

11.2.5: Tree of Life Healing Pools

Every Tree of Life has a quantity of energy that can, when properly directed, restore integrity to damaged buildings and city assets. The amount of damage a tree can restore every second is based on what proportion of its energy (expressed as a percentage) that the tree is sending to a given asset. A Tree of Life could, in theory, extend 1% of its power to 100 buildings, healing them slowly, or concentrate all its power on one asset, rendering it virtually invulnerable. As a Guild prospers and the Rank of its Tree of Life increases, the amount of integrity healed by each percentage point also increases. The degree of fine control a Guild has over its Tree’s energy depends on the rank of the Tree and of the Runemaster NPC assigned to it. Trees of Life can only repair buildings within their zone of control, and will only heal buildings if properly managed and controlled. Note that Bane Circles (described in Section 12.3) can drain a Tree’s healing energy during a siege, crippling the Tree’s defensive abilities. Destroying any Bane Circle erected by the attackers should always be the first priority of the defenders in any siege.

To visually monitor the status of a Tree of Life’s healing pool (assuming that your character has management privileges for it) open the Tree’s Building Control Panel (Control+left-click the Tree, then select the Manage option on the context menu). On the Tree of Life’s Building Control panel, the Tree’s healing pool is located dead center, just under the Tree’s integrity bar. The Healing Bar shows what percentage of the Tree’s healing is available – at full capacity the bar is solid red, and the red color drains as more healing energy is diverted to other structures. Text listing the exact percentage is displayed over the bar.

In order to use a Tree of Life’s healing pool, the Tree’s owner must assign a Runemaster to it. Runemaster hirelings are described in Section 10.7.6: Tradesmen. The owner of the Tree of Life can manage the Tree’s healing pool by opening the Hireling Management Window for the Runemaster. Instead of production slots, the bottom of the Runemaster’s Management window contains energy allocation slots. Click one of the slots to view the details of an existing healing arrangement, or click an empty slot to create a new arrangement. For more information about healing contracts, see Section 11.2.6 below.

City builders should beware: Runemasters have a finite number of contract slots, based on their Rank, and the Tree of Life itself can only supprt a finite number of Runemasters, based upon the Tree’s Rank. Therefore, there is a maximum limit to the number of assets that can receive healing at any one time. Cities that grow without upgrading their Runemasters and Trees do so at their peril.

When an empty allocation slot is selected, a list opens of every building within the Tree’s Zone of control. Select the desired building and click the check button to open the Patronage Allocation window. Alternately, the healing control functions of the City Control Panel (described in Section 11.5.2) grants Tree managers the capability to assign Tree Healing graphically, adjusting the Tree’s output to adapt to emergencies quickly and easily. No matter how many characters have management privileges for the Tree of Life, only one character may control the Tree of Life at a time.

11.2.6 Healing Contracts

While a Tree manager can decide to give away the Tree’s energy and protection for nothing, they are never required to do so. Each allocation is, in effect, a contract where the Tree owner pledges the Tree’s healing energy in return for something from the recipient. The Patronage Allocation window offers several forms of “payment,” any or all of which can be demanded in return for the Tree’s protection:

q Enforce KOS List: clicking this button requires the recipient of the Tree’s patronage to enforce the Tree’s Kill On Sight List. If the owner of the recipient agrees, all Hirelings and Minions will enforce the Tree’s list in addition to their own. See Section 10.9.1: The Condem/Kill on Sight (KOS) Lists for more details.

q Regular Tax: this entry allows the Tree manager to set a monetary value that the recipient must pay in tribute at a regular interval, similar to the Building’s maintenance cost. All transferred funds will move from the recipient building’s strongbox to the Tree’s strongbox. This option is normally used for buildings and assets that do not produce or sell items (like Barracks or Inns).

q Profit Tax: essentially a sales, tax, this option automatically deducts a percentage of the profit gained from any sale made at that building or asset.

Offering the Tree’s protection is not enough: the owner of the recipient building must agree to the deal. To view the terms of a patronage offer, the building owner must click the “Patron/Maintenance” button in the Asset Management window. If the terms are agreeable, click the “Confirm” bubble to cement the arrangement.

Towers (and by extension, all city walls) are owned by the Tree owner, and do not require a contract for the Tree to protect them.

11.3: City Walls

The most obvious defensive structures a city can obtain, wall assets are also the most useful. Tougher than most buildings, city walls can endure an enormous amount of punishment before collapsing, and directly restrict an attacker’s access to a city. Characters with missile weapons or ranged offensive powers can also stand on top of walls and rain death down on the enemy. City builders should keep in mind, however, that Aracoix and other flying characters can easily bypass walls – city defenders should always be sure to keep enough Guild members and Guards on hand to give landing flyers a rough welcome.

11.3.1 Building Walls

Only the Guild Leader of a Sovereign Guild can place city walls, and they can only be placed within the zone of control of a Tree of Life. The Guild Leader must acquire a Deed object for each wall asset they wish to build from a Builder Hireling, then use the Deed by right clicking it and selecting “Use Item” or selecting the item and pressing [u]. As with placing buildings, activating a deed opens the Building Placement window.

The actual placement process is nearly identical to building placement, as described in Section 10.4.2: Placing Your Building. There are some notable differences: in the building icon menu on the left edge of the window, icons will appear for every wall asset in the Guild Leader’s inventory (saving them the trouble of activating each one individually. Secondly, each wall segment has a set of locking tabs at the ends of the segment to join it to the next section of wall – when placed in proximity to each other, wall segments will merge, creating a new bounding box around them. Unlike other buildings, wall segments do not appear instantly: they first manifest as “under construction,” and do not reach full strength for a period of time. Guilds cannot wait until the last minute to fortify against a siege.

Any Fortress Asset containing a door or gate automatically grants its builder a Master Key, allowing them to lock or unlock the doors at will. See Section 10.5.2: Keys and Locks for more information.

11.3.2 Maintaining Walls

City wall assets have no maintenance cost: once built, they do not generate any expenses for the Guild that owns them. By the same token, wall assets have no Asset Management window, and cannot be repaired through expenditures of gold. Only Tree of Life healing energy can repair walls. Towers provide a conduit for this healing energy, offering a Guild the means of keeping their walls at full strength.

Each tower incorporated into a city’s walls can receive healing energy from the city’s Tree of Life, just like any ordinary building (see Section 12.4: Victory Conditions, for more information). Towers automatically direct half of the energy they receive to nearby wall segments, “healing” them as they heal. The range of a tower’s benefit is limited: city architects should be careful how long they make the spaces between towers!

11.3.3 Wall Segment List

Deeds for all of the following wall segments are available in Shadowbane. A separate deed is required for every individual segment a Guild Leader wishes to build. Outer walls are tall, massive walls with battlements that face the outside. Inner walls are much shorter and less durable. Inner walls can form a corner without a tower, but outer walls cannot. More wall segments will be forthcoming.

Outer Walls

q Gatehouse: the largest wall asset, a gatehouse consists of a long stretch of outer wall with a large gate, flanked by towers. Inner walls extend inside, creating a courtyard that must be crossed before entry can be gained through a second, inner gate.

q Outer Wall Gate: An outer wall segment with a large wooden gate at center.

q Outer Wall Straight: A simple section of outer wall, the basic wall segment.

q Outer Wall with Stairs: A straight outer wall segment that incorporates a long staircase on the inside. The critical segments allow defenders to climb to he tops of walls and man the battlements.

q Outer Wall with Inner Wall Junction: A straight segment of outer wall with a short section inner wall that forms a ‘t’ at center. Stairs lead down form the top of the outer wall to the top of the inner wall.

Towers

q Concave Tower: Two short outer wall segments that meet at right angles, with a tower at the intersection. Most of the tower’s circumference faces the outside.

q Convex Tower: Two short outer wall segments that meet at right angles, with a tower at the intersection. Most of the tower’s circumference faces the inside.

q Convex Tower with Inner Wall: A convex tower with a short section of inner wall also intersecting the tower, forming a “t”.

q Convex Tower with Two Inner Walls: A convex tower with two short sections of inner wall also intersecting the tower, forming a cross.

q Straight Tower: A straight section of outer wall with a tower at center.

Inner Walls

q Inner Wall Straight: A straight section of inner wall.

q Inner Wall with Arch: A straight section of inner wall with an empty arch at center.

q Inner Wall with Gate: A straight section of inner wall with a wooden gate at center.

q Inner Wall Corner: Two sections of inner wall meeting at an angle and forming an “L”.

q Inner Wall Junction: Two sections of inner wall meeting at an angle and forming a “T”.

q Inner Wall Intersection: Two sections of inner wall meeting at an angle and forming an “X”.

11.4: Minions and City Defense

The lowest tier of Hirelings that can be found in a town or city, Minions are recruited and trained by specialized Tradesmen. Most Minions serve in their city’s militia, where they enforce the law, keep the peace, and defend against invasion. The Tradesman who recruited the Minion (and, by extension, the player of the character who employs them) can give various assignments to their Minions, and the soldiers will follow them to the letter. While certainly not as formidable as a powerful character, Minions are competent in a fight, and in large numbers they can prove tough enough to give any would-be invader or criminal pause. All minions will fall inot one of the following categories (NOTE: not all of these categories are currently available – more will be brought online as testing proceeds).

q Adept – The rarest and most expensive militia troops, Adepts are lesser mages trained for battle, who engage the enemy with destructive spells. Like Archers, Adepts work best when acting in concert with a force of Guards or other defenders.

Recruited By: Magister

q Archer – Able marksmen, Archers offer support to the town’s Guild members and the Guards on the front line by loosing a rain of arrows upon enemy forces.

Recruited By: Master Archer

q Guard – Soldiers who keep the peace with brute strength and cold steel, Guards form the bulk of any town’s militia. Most Guards are little more than fodder in a siege, but with training and sufficient numbers, a unit of elite Guards can become a force to be reckoned with.

Recruited By: Guard Captain

11.4.1: Minion Characteristics

Like any player character, mobile, or NPC, all Minions have a Rank that defines their offensive and defensive prowess in battle. The number of Minions a city can field is directly limited by the number of Recruiter Tradesmen and Barracks assets present in the city: each Recruiter’s command capacity is limited by their Rank. It is not currently possible to give minions specific items, weapons, or equipment. Whenever a Minion is killed in battle they do NOT respawn. Their Recruiter, however, automatically begins training a new Minion of equal rank to replace them, requiring the same amount of time it would to recruit that minion “from scratch.”

11.4.2: Recruiting Minions

Players whose characters manage a Barracks can create Guard Minions by ordering their Guard Captains to produce Guards, a process that follows the same general course as the crafting of items described in Section 10.8: Tradesmen and Item Production. Instead of a list of items, the Recruiter’s Production Window will display a range of Minions with Ranks that they can produce. Once the Minions have been trained, they will appear at their Barracks. Once created, all Minions can be given orders as described in Section 11.4.3: Minion Management and Behavior.

It is impossible to upgrade an existing minion. Instead, the manager of the Barracks must dismiss an existing Minion (using the controls on the recruiter’s Management window) and then recruit a new, higher-rank minion.

11.4.3: Minion Management and Behavior:

Every Minion in Shadowbane has a set of “default behaviors” that they will perform without being ordered to:

q All Minions will attack any character or monster that attacks their home Barracks.

q All Minions will attack any character or monster that attacks any city asset owned by the Guild or Nation that the manager of their Barracks belongs to.

q All Minions will attack any monster or foreign character (not in the same Guild as the Barracks owner) that attacks a member of their Barracks’ controlling Guild.

q All Minions will attack any individual, Guild member, or Nation member that corresponds to an entry on the KOS List for their Barracks. See Section 10.9.1 for more information.

q More automatic Minion behaviors may be forthcoming.

Additionally, players who can manage a Barracks can give specialized orders to the Minions associated with that Barracks by using the City Control Panel, described in Section 11.5, below.

11.5: The City Control Panel

This specialized window gives the managers of Barracks and Trees of Life a high degree of fine control when managing Minions and Trees of Life. To open the City Control Panel, any character can Control+right-click any city asset in a city owned by their Guild. The City Control Panel has the following controls and features:

q Map – the window is dominated by a large map of the local city, similar to the Local Map or the map that appears on the Building Placement Window. Every building in the city is displayed. Buildings that are appropriate to the Panel’s current mode (Barracks for Guards mode, Tree of Life for Healing mode) and that your character can manage are marked by an icon indicating the building’s basic type. Users can select any local city asset by left-clicking on its symbol on the map. Selected buildings are highlighted purple in Guard mode.

q Name Field – this field at the top of the window displays the name of the currently selected asset.

q Mode Buttons – these two buttons, labeled Guards and Healing, determine whether or not the commands available will be used for ToL Healing or Minion Management.

q Options Menu – this column on the left edge of the window displays various command option buttons that can be triggered by the user, based on the Control Panel’s current mode.

q Point Icons – these buttons, located at the upper right edge of the window, can be dragged on screen to set Patrol and Sentry points for minions. They will only appear if the Control Panel is in Guards mode, and if the proper command options are available.

q Clear Button – this button clears all commands or points for the currently selected asset.

q Contract Bar – this area at the bottom of the panel is only useful in Healing mode. It displays the contract details or options for the currently selected asset.

q Save Button – this button implements and Tree Healing commands or Minion Behaviors set by the Control Panel.

q Zoom Buttons – these two controls allow the view in the map to be expanded or reduced in scale.

q Close Button – this control closes the Control Panel.

All city assets displayed on the Map are automatically overlaid with the appropriate building icon (Church, Barracks, etc) for ease of reference. Mousing over any asset will open a popup window displaying that asset’s name, the name and rank of all Tradesman slotted to that asset, and the current percentage of the Tree of Life’s healing pool that asset is receiving.

11.5.1: Using the City Control Panel for Minion Management

To assign specific behaviors to Minions, a character that owns or has management privileges on a local barracks must first open the City Control Panel (by Control+right-clicking any city asset). Then, select the Guards button at the top of the control panel to set the mode, and select a Barracks the character can manage by left-clicking on its icon on the map. Once these steps have been taken, all appropriate command icons (based on the rank of the most senior Guard Captain Tradesman slotted to the selected Barracks) will appear in the left margin of the control panel, and a list of available Guard commands will appear in the Options Menu. Any Patrol Points previously set for that barracks will also appear on the map. All Sentry points for every Barracks in the city also appear on the map, but all Sentry Points used by non-selected Barracks will be tinted red.

To give a command to the Minions associated with a Barracks, simply click the command option on the Options Menu. Note that not all Minion commands are automatically available – the Rank of the highest ranked Recruiter NPC in the selected Barracks determines which commands will appear. The following commands are available for Minion management, in the order that Recruiters acquire them:

q Set Sentry Point – allows the user to drag a sentry point on to the map and place it. One Minion from that barracks will proceed to that sentry point and stand there, never moving unless their automatic behaviors trigger an attack. Once placed, a sentry point can be moved by clicking the existing point on the map and dragging it. A Barracks cannot maintain more sentry points than it has Minions associated with it. Once placed, sentry points can only be removed by pressing the Clear button, which removes ALL sentry points associated with that Barracks. Sentry points have a limited range from their home barracks, based on the Rank of the Recruiter and the Barracks asset.

q Patrol Barracks – all Minions not assigned to a sentry point or given other orders will march in a circle around their home barracks, deviating from their rounds only if given other orders of if their automatic behavior triggers an attack.

q Patrol Owned Assets – all Minions not assigned to a sentry point or given other orders will march around up to ten buildings owned by the same character that owns the Minions’ home Barracks, deviating from their rounds only if given other orders of if their automatic behavior triggers an attack. The assets patrolled must be within a minimum range of the home Barracks, as determined by the Rank of the Minions’ recruiter and the Rank of the Barracks asset.

q Random Town Patrol – all Minions not assigned to a sentry point or given other orders will march around up to ten randomly selected buildings within the same city as the Minions’ home Barracks deviating from their rounds only if given other orders of if their automatic behavior triggers an attack. The assets patrolled must be within a minimum range of the home Barracks, as determined by the Rank of the Minions’ recruiter and the Rank of the Barracks asset.

q Patrol Tree – all Minions not assigned to a sentry point or given other orders will march to the Tree of Life of their local city, and will march in circles around it, deviating from their rounds only if given other orders of if their automatic behavior triggers an attack. The Tree of Life must be within a minimum range of the Minions’ home Barracks, as determined by the Rank of the Minions’ recruiter and the Rank of the Barracks asset.

q Set Patrol Points – allows the user to drag a patrol point on to the map and place it. Every placed patrol point will be given a number, in ascending order. All Minions from that barracks not assigned to a sentry point or given other orders will march between the listed patrol points in order, returning to the first point when they reach the last point. They will not deviate from their patrol unless their automatic behaviors trigger an attack. Once placed, a patrol point can be moved by clicking the existing point on the map and dragging it to the new location. Once placed, patrol points can only be removed by pressing the Clear button, which removes ALL patrol points associated with that Barracks. Patrol points have a limited range from their home barracks, based on the Rank of the Recruiter and the Barracks asset.

After selecting all of the desired orders, be sure to press the Save button to transmit the instructions. You will be prompted to confirm your new orders. Minion behaviors will not change and sentry or patrol points will not be remembered unless the Save button is pressed. More command functionality is forthcoming.

11.5.2: Using the City Control Panel for Tree Healing

As with every other aspect of Tree management, only the Guild Leader and Inner Council members of the Guild that owns a Tree of Life are able to manage its healing pool on the City Control Panel. Select the Healing button on the City Control Panel to access the panel’s Tree of Life functions.

When in healing mode, all buildings currently receiving healing energy from the Tree of Life are shaded blue on the Map, inside blue bounding boxes. Mousing over each building will display exactly how much of the building’s name, the number of integrity points the Tree is giving the building every minute, the overall percentage of the Tree’s healing pool the building is receiving, and whether or not the selected building is enforcing the Tree’s Kill-on-Sight list. Note that Walls cannot directly receive Tree healing, but draw healing energy off of Towers (as described in Section 11.3.2). Walls will never appear inside a blue bounding box on the map, but mousing over a wall will reveal how much healing that wall section is receiving from its nearest tower. Be sure to mouse over your city walls to check for gaps in your City’s defenses!

As soon as the Control Panel is toggled into Healing mode, a list of all Runemasters slotted to the local Tree of Life will appear in the left margin of the Control Panel. Left-click a Runemaster to select them. Any new contracts created using the City Control Panel will automatically use a contract slot on the currently selected Runemaster. Higher Ranked Runemasters can transform a portion of a Tree’s healing pool into more integrity points, and have more contract slots to fill, so choose carefully!

Selecting a building causes several controls to appear in the Contract Bar at the bottom of the Control Panel, and Tree managers can use these controls to create, adjust, or terminate healing contracts quickly and easily. The controls are:

q Healing Slider – this slider control determines how large a fraction (express as a percentage) of the Tree’s pool will be granted to the selected building. This control can be used to set the amount offered in a new contract, or to adjust the terms of an existing healing contract.

q Junk Support – this button only appears if a healing contract already exists for the selected building. Clicking it will immediately terminate the healing contract with the selected building, ending all Tree healing and emptying a contract slot on one of the Runemasters attached to that Tree. See section 11.2.6 for more information about healing contracts.

q Accept Guild’s Condemn List – clicking this check box requires the selected building to enforce the Tree of Life’s Kill-on-Sight list in return for healing, as described in Section 11.2.6.

q Regular Tax – clicking this check box requires the selected building to pay a flat tax in return for healing, as described in Section 11.2.6.

q Profit Tax % – clicking this check box requires the selected building to pay a portion of all sales income as a tax in return for healing, as described in Section 11.2.6.

As described in Section 11.2.5, the number of buildings in a City that can receive Tree healing at one time is limited to the number of contract slots on the Runemaster or Runemasters associated with that Tree.

Section 12.0 – Cities and Sieges

When diplomacy fails, Guilds and Nations in Shadowbane will frequently turn to war to get their way. As described in Section 7.4: Death, characters in Shadowbane cannot suffer permanent death: they return to fight another day until their player deletes them. How then, can a Guild wage war against their enemies if they can’t kill them? The answer is simple: characters are invincible, but their holdings are not. Destroying or taking an enemy Guild’s city quite literally wipes their emblem from the face of the game world, as well as destroying their economic base and ruining some very expensive investments. Cities are easy to fortify and hard to destroy, however, so most Guild wars in Shadowbane will consist of long, protracted sieges.

12.1 Attacking Buildings

A character can attack any building or city asset by entering combat mode, selecting the asset, and either clicking the “Attack” option or pressing [a]. Keep in mind that buildings and other structures are a lot harder to break than a monster is to kill – astronomically high integrity values and strong resistance to most damage will ensure that it will take an mob of attackers a very long time to demolish a building using mere weapons and spells. Siege engines, and Bane Circles, described in Section 12.2 and Section 12.3, offer a more effective offense against city assets, and are the keys to a victorious siege.

Also, bear in mind that a City Asset’s Rank also determines how difficult that asset is to destroy – bringing a city or fortress assets health bar to zero does not automatically destroy the asset – instead, it reduces that asset’s Rank by one. All city and fortress assets are finally destroyed only when the integrity is completely depleted at rank 1. This applies to walls, towers, buildings, and Trees of Life as well – the more time and money the defenders have invested, the harder their possessions are to pull down.

12.2 Siege Engines

Any Guild hoping to conquer or destroy a city will need siege engines to batter down walls and destroy buildings. Siege engines are specialized assets, part mobile, part equipment, that follow their owners through the virtual world and follow their owners’ instructions. Shadowbane currently offers besiegers two siege weapons: the trebuchet and ballista (both, however, use the same model). More siege engines, each with their own specialized purposes, are forthcoming.

12.2.1 Producing Siege Engines

Any character can, with the proper means, produce and acquire siege engines through a process similar to item production as described in Section 10.8: Tradesmen and Item Production. As with any other item, siege engines require a specific Tradesman to build them and a specific structure where they can be built. To build siege weapons, a character must first acquire a deed for a Siege Tent and an employment contract for an Engineer.

Activate the deed and place the Siege Tent normally, then activate the contract and assign the Engineer to the tent. Once the tent has been build and staffed, the owner can direct the Engineer to produce engines using the Hireling Management window. As with other items, each engine will require an interval of time to produce. Once finished, the owner authorizes the payment of the engine’s cost, and the engine is placed in the Engineer’s inventory.

At this point, any character can acquire a siege engine by double clicking or right clicking on the Engineer and then selecting the “Siege” option. The Siege option opens a menu of available siege engines. Obtain an engine by clicking its entry on the menu and then clicking the “Activate” button at the bottom of the list. The Siege Engine will appear in the game world, and slowly move to follow its owner.

Siege engines can be attacked in combat by mobiles and other characters, and are destroyed if they take damage that exceeds their durability rating.

12.2.2 Using Siege Engines

Once a character has acquired command of a siege engine, they can direct it in battle using the Pet Commands, as detailed in Section 4.7.6: The Pet Commands Window. Siege engines differ from other pets in two significant respects:

q Siege engines will not protect their owners: they attack only when ordered.

q Siege engines cannot attack mobiles, NPCs, or characters – only buildings and city assets.

12.2.3 List of Siege Engines

Following is a list of the siege engines, which are available to players in Shadowbane. More siege engines are forthcoming.

q Trebuchet: a larger, more advanced version of a catapult, the trebuchet uses a long arm to hurl boulders or flaming pitch at its target. Trebuchets use a heavy counterweight (typically a basket full of stones) to pull the arm and impart more force to the missile, giving the weapon both extraordinary range and damage in a siege.

12.3: Bane Circles

Formidable as the offensive power of a well-coordinated army and a phalanx of Siege Engines may be, the defenders in any siege will always have one huge advantage: the healing capacity of the city’s Tree of Life, which can repair assets faster than even a squadron of trebuchets can destroy them. Bane Circles serve as a counterbalance to a Tree of Life’s healing, giving attackers in a siege the chance to neutralize a Tree’s powers and even take the Tree away from the defending Guild if the assault goes well.

12.3.1: Creating a Bane Circle

Bane Circles are magical objects created through the use of specific spells and powers. The Enchanter discipline gains access to Bane Circle creation, as do other spell-casting Professions. To create a Bane Circle, activate the power as you would any other spell or power (as described in Section 9.2.2: Using Powers and Spells). Bane Circles have a maximum range limitation: they must be triggered within a specific radius of any Tree of Life to take effect. Also, only one Bane Circle can affect any given Tree of Life at a time – once a Tree has been linked to a Bane Circle, all attempts to create additional circles will fail.

The Guild affiliation of a Bane Circle’s caster can have a dramatic impact on what happens if a defending Tree if Life is overcome. See Section 12.4: Victory Conditions, for more information.

12.3.2: Bane Circle Effects and Characteristics

Bane Circles drain the energy from a Tree of Life’s healing pool, effectively “poisoning” the Tree. Initially the Circle reduces the Tree’s healing pool by a small percentage, but its draining effects grow over time until the drain reaches 100% and the Tree of Life is incapable of providing any healing whatsoever. An inert Tree gives the attackers free reign to smash their way through a city’s defenses, and keeping the Circle safe until it reaches full power should be the primary goal of any attacking force. Note also that Trees of Life are virtually impossible to destroy without the use of a Bane Circle.

Bane Circles are physical objects, and as such are vulnerable to attack from players, minions, and mobiles. Like siege engines, they are also rather fragile: even the most offense-minded attackers must devote some of their forces to defending the bane Circle at all costs. If a Bane Circle is destroyed, the drain on the defending Tree’s healing stops increasing, but the Tree will take some time to recover its lost healing capacity. Of course, attackers are free to create a replacement Bane Circle if their first is destroyed…

12.4: Victory Conditions

The ultimate goal of any siege is the destruction of the defenders’ Tree of Life. If a besieging army can batter or sneak their way through a city’s walls and hack their way through the defending Guilds guards and Minions, they can attack their opponent’s Tree of Life directly, as described in Section 12.1: Attacking Buildings. Given the fact that the Tree can spend all of its healing energy on itself and that a Tree has essentially it full integrity for each Rank it has been upgraded, destroying a Tree of Life is a monumental undertaking. It is possible, however, to destroy a Rank 1 Tree of Life through the use of Siege Engines, Bane Circles, and tenacious attacks. If a Rank 1 Tree is overcome, what happens next depends upon the circumstances, and the caster of the Bane Circle (if any) active at the moment of the Tree’s destruction.

12.4.1: Destroying a Tree of Life

If the defending Tree is reduced to zero integrity at Rank one and the caster of the active Bane Circle is a member of a Sovereign Guild (see Section 6.1: Forming a Guild for definitions of Guild status), or if no Bane Circler is active at the moment the Tree is overcome, the Tree of Life is destroyed. Destroying a Tree has the following effects:

q The City is immediately removed from the World Map, and the local name reverts to the previous Zone Name.

q The Guild that owned the Tree of Life is immediately reduced to Errant status (see Section 6.1: Forming a Guild for definitions of Guild status).

q All Sworn Guilds that have sworn fealty to the Tree owning Guild are immediately reduced to Errant status (see Section 6.1: Forming a Guild for definitions of Guild status), and all formal alliances between the two Guilds are dissolved.

q All Fortress Assets associated with the city and its Tree of Life are immediately destroyed.

q All City Assets owned by members of the Tree-owning Guild remain, but are deprived of healing.

12.4.2: Taking a Tree of Life

If the defending Tree is reduced to zero integrity at Rank one and the caster of the active Bane Circle is a member of an Errant or Sworn Guild (see Section 6.1: Forming a Guild for definitions of Guild status), or if no Bane Circler is active at the moment the Tree is overcome, the Tree of Life is taken. Ownership of the Tree of Life immediately switches to the Guild that cast the Bane Circle, and the Tree immediately heals to full integrity (although it remains at rank one). Taking a Tree has the following additional effects:

q Ownership and direct management of the Tree jumps to the Guild Leader of the Guild that cast the Circle – the Guild Leader is allowed to rename the City, as if they had just planted a Guild Seed themselves.

q The City’s crest on the World Map instantly changes, and the name associated with the city also changes to the new name (if any).

q Ownership of all fortress assets in the city jumps to the Guild Leader of the Guild that cast the circle.

q The conquering Guild is immediately elevated to Sovereign status (see Section 6.1: Forming a Guild for definitions of Guild status), and any formal alliances that Guild had with other Sovereign Guilds are instantly dissolved (they can be renegotiated after the siege, however).

q The Guild that previously owned the Tree of Life is immediately reduced to Errant status (see Section 6.1: Forming a Guild for definitions of Guild status).

Section 13.0 – In-Game Customer Support

Sometimes during play you will run across a technical issue or encounter a problem that detracts from your enjoyment of Shadowbane (or even makes the game unplayable). Finding these issues is precisely the point of this testing cycle, and the Customer Service options included in the client provides you with the means to communicate these issues to the development team and solve any problems that have derailed your Shadowbane experience. Any and all feedback, reports of problems, or other issues that you need to communicate to the development team should be sent via the CSR Petition System. To access the Petition Menu, left-click the Petition CSR button on the Info/Help sub-menu, located in the Command Bar. See Section 4.5: Information and Help, for more information. Once generated, a petition can be cancelled using the Cancel Last Petition option on the Info/Help sub-menu (see Section 4.5.5 for more information).

13.1: The CSR Petition Menu

The CSR Petition Window contains a menu of options, each of which will open a specialized petition window. The option buttons tag the petition, ensuring that it is sent to the correct place. The options available are:

q General Help – a request for hints or game information

q Feedback – opinions about gameplay and requests for enhancements

q Stuck – a request to be freed if trapped inside an object

q Harassment – files a “formal complaint” about another player’s actions

q Abuse/Exploit – reports a system bug that, if used, will give an unfair advantage

q Bug – reports all other system or game problems

q Game Stopper – reports a cataclysmic fault or problem

q Tech Support – a request for help dealing with computer-related issues

13.2: The Petition Window

Selecting a petition type on the Petition Menu opens a Petition Menu, where you can enter the details of your comments or problems. Petition Windows have the following features:

q Name – your character’s name is recorded automatically

q Location – your character’s current location (in world co-ordinates) is recorded automatically

q Zone – the name of the Zone your character occupies is recorded automatically

q Instructions – a brief statement indicating how likely or how quickly a CSR is to directly respond to the problem. Response varies based on the type of petition and other circumstances.

q Description Field – input a detailed description of your problem, comments, etc. in this area. Left-click in the field to place a cursor, then type your description. The more descriptive and detailed the information is, the more able the development and support team will be to assist you or solve the problem.

q Submit Button – the check-marked button at the bottom of the window submits your petition.

q Cancel Button – the x-marked button in the upper right corner closes the Petition Window and cancels the petition.

13.3: Additional Information

The Abuse/Exploit and Tech Support Petitions have additional information buttons, used to categorize the petition:

Abuse/Exploit

q Duping – any bug or exploit that results in the duplication of gold or items

q XP/Leveling Exploit

q Skill Gain Exploit

q Kill Exploit – any bug or exploit that allows a character to unfairly kill a monster

q Policy Violation – reports of any player misconduct

q Other Abuse/Exploit

Tech Support

q Video – display and video difficulties

q Sound – sound or music issues

q Network – connection, bandwidth, or server communication difficulties

Section 2.0 – Creating Characters

Professions Available

2.8: Step Seven – Traits and Talents

2.11: Entering the World of Shadowbane

3.1: Mouse Commands

3.2: Keyboard Commands

3.3: Movement

3.4.1: Interacting with Objects

3.4.2: Interacting with Mobiles

Effect

3.5: Camera Controls

3.5.1: Camera Movement Controls

3.5.2: Additional Camera Functions

3.6: In-Game Communication

3.6.2: Composing and Sending Messages

3.6.3: Default Channels and Channel Tags

3.6.4: Communications Options

3.6.5: Communication Channels

Received By

3.6.6: Color Coding Channels

3.7: Equipment and Treasure Management

3.7.1: The Inventory and Equipment Windows

3.7.3: Item Trading

3.7.4: The Vendor Window

3.7.5: The Loot Window

3.7.6: Banking Items

3.8.3: The Logout Timer

3.9: Resuming Play

3.9.1: Spawn and Bind Points

Section 4.0 – Game Windows and Menus

4.1: The Status Window

4.1.1: The Selection Window

4.2: Chat Windows

4.2.1: Text Commands

Function

4.4: The Effects Window

4.5: Information and Help

This option opens a specialized window with commands that allow you to contact or petition a Customer Service Representative for assistance or information.

For more information, refer to Section 13.0 – In-Game Customer Support.

4.5.5: Cancel Last Petition

4.6.1: The Stats Window

4.6.2: The Inventory Window

4.6.3: The Equipment Window

4.6.5: The Skills Window

4.6.6: The Powers Window

4.7.6: The Pet Commands Window

4.8.4: Local Map

Map Movement

4.8.5: World Map

4.9: Interface Customization

4.9.1: Window and Menu Management

4.9.2: Window Customization

4.9.3: Button Customization

4.9.4: Hotkeys

4.9.4.1: Assigning a Hotkey

4.9.4.2: Hotkey Mapping Screens

4.9.4.3: Hotkey Sets

4.9.5: Interface Skins

4.10: Game Settings

4.10.1: System Settings

4.10.2: Video Options

4.10.3: Diagnostics

Section 5.0: Groups and Grouping

5.2: Group Commands

5.3: The Group Status Window

5.5: Benefits of Group Membership

5.5.2: Gold Sharing

5.6: Formations and Following

Section 6.0 – Guilds

6.1: Forming a Guild

6.3 Membership Benefits

6.3.1: Basic Memebrship Bonuses

6.4: Joining or Leaving a Guild

6.4.1: Changing Cities

6.5: Guild Options

6.6: Guild Member Status

6.6.1: Guilds, Governments, and Voting

6.7: Other Uses for Heraldry and Crests

6.7.1: Heraldry Options

6.9: Nations and Guild Alliances