Darkwind: War on Wheels


 * For the Transformers characters, see Darkwind (Transformers).

Darkwind: War on Wheels is an independently developed 3D turn based racing and vehicle combat massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It is inspired by the tabletop game Car Wars and the Mad Max movies, but set in its own original universe.

Darkwind was opened to the public on May 4, 2007 after two years of development and has since then been constantly updated with new features and content.

Story
A disastrous solar event in 2019 and 2020 leaves the world devastated, with only small pockets of human survivors scratching out a living in a bleak, irradiated world. Largely fuelled by the stockpiles of hardware left behind by a dead civilization combined with the desperation of a new world order, the gladiatorial deathsports begin, around 2035. The vast expanses of wilderness between the towns are menaced by gangs of road pirates armed with heavily armed cars and trucks, and travelled by equally well armed trade groups, making a living by carrying food, fuel, and other specialist equipment between the towns.

Gameplay
The focus of the game is on vehicular combat - cars with guns - both in the wilderness and in manmade arenas and racing circuits. Gameplay is split between a web interface (for strategic management) and a 3D interface which supports Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (for control of your characters and vehicles during a combat or race).

There are all sorts of activities to do within the game. Players can gain fame and accumulate looted hardware from their defeated adversaries (who may be either computer-controlled or player-controlled), but risk suffering defeat and the lives of their gang members. Wilderness actions are frequently performed by multi-player squads: by joining together, players can greatly increase their chance of survival. Alternatively, players can also join town events, such as races and death races, to gain fame and earn prizes. These can be joined as standard events, competitive leagues or ladders.

Eight towns are currently open to players, each offering distinct death race tracks and wilderness combat maps around it. Darkwind currently has more than 20 racetracks with more under development. Camps were also introduced in 2008, allowing players to establish communities in addition to the towns on the game map. Camps can grow food, harvest water, build weapons, repair vehicles, etc.

Web interface
Through the web-interface the players can manage the recruiting, finances and the gangs vehicle garage.

Characters can be trained in combat and non-combat skills such as driving, gunnery, mechanic, scouting, first aid, handguns, etc. which adds RPG elements to the game.

It is also worth mentioning that character death in Darkwind is permanent. In addition to perma-death Darkwind has a complex injury system with long-term (broken bones) and permanent (limb-loss). Replacing dead gang members is easy, however, making it usually just a minor setback.

Many of the aspects of Darkwind run to a realworld timescale. It takes days or weeks for the players characters to heal from their injuries; it takes hours or days to repair/upgrade vehicles, and it takes hours to travel between towns. This makes strategic decisions carry real importance, and gameplay aspects such as trading take real time and effort, which allows them to work properly as part of the dynamic economy. The availability of hardware in the markets is a carefully balanced gameplay factor - if wilderness pirates are not kept under control, for example, then rare chassis types and weapons will not be easy to find.

A carefully developed economic model based on systems dynamic simulation ensures that the control and distribution of key resources unperpins a realistic, dynamic economy, providing real opportunities for trade to be used as a gameplay strategy, and control of key resources to be used as part of long term feuds and warfare. The actions of the player gangs and the victories and defeats of the computer-controlled pirate and trader gangs directly impacts the availability and cost of resources and vehicle hardware at each of the towns in the game. Lucrative trade routes are therefore not static but must be continually devised and modified.

Game client
The main turn based tactical gameplay which is the core of the game is done though a freely downloadable game client.

In Darkwind, turn-based gameplay racing becomes purely about the tactics of entering and exiting corners, passing opponents, and generally breaking down the nuances of driving that normally become automated in a traditional driving game. As real world professional racing has much more to do with tactics than reactions (for example F1 or Nascar races), the turn-based nature of Darkwind allows players to race more professionally by letting them battle it out tactically rather just waiting to see who's first to make a mistake. Darkwind's turn-based system also allows for highly detailed rules and strategy, as players have more time to assign orders to characters and vehicles.

There are two phases when the turn ends. One is the Orders phase, in which players will see their vehicles move accordingly. This is affected by many factors, including the vehicle's position, damage to tires, previous velocity, whether it is under fire etc. The second is the firing phase, whereby vehicles open fire on their targets, depending on the orders given. The extent of damage is revealed through text messages, similar to old-school RPGs such as Fallout.

Vehicular customization
As of October 2007, Darkwind had 50+ unique vehicle chassis including subcompacts, sedans, muscle cars, SUVs and larger vans and trucks. 14 different engines and 50+ weapons ranging from rams and flamethrowers for close combat to rocket launchers and mortars for long-range mayhem. Each of the chassis and weapons offers different advantages which allows players to create a range of unique and interesting vehicle designs. The weapons have detailed statistics underlying them: recoil, close range and ranged accuracy, damage factors, psychological 'fear factors', ammunition, and so on.

Future updates
Features planned for the future include: psionic abilities, performance-enhancing drugs and more towns. The developer is constantly seeking input from the game's community, so anything is possible.

Subscription
Darkwind is free to download and play with some restrictions. Players are limited to using pre-built vehicles in league and ladder events as well as wilderness combats (restricted to the area around the main in-game town of Somerset) while subscribers are free to buy and customize their own vehicles which they can use to enter special pro-events and participate in wilderness combats.

Soundtrack
The soundtrack to Darkwind: War on Wheels uses tracks written by Dean Garcia of the band Curve.

Reception
Reviews have been consistently favourable, thanks to integration of driving physics into its turn based gameplay - something that is unusual for an MMORPG. Andrew Williams from Bytten remarks that Darkwind "...is a seriously addictive game". PC Gamer UK calls Darkwind "...the best quasi-real-time, partially browser-based, online, post-apocalyptic turn-based vehicular fighting game we’ve played".

One of Darkwind's key selling features is the wide variety of activities to participate in. Inside Mac Games, in its review, said: "This is a breath of fresh air in what I consider a very stale and one-sided genre of gameplay, where even the behemoth in the market seems destined for repetition." . Gametunnel reviewer Joseph Lieberman also praises Darkwind for its harsh, unforgiving setting, saying "...it is refreshing to see an online game that doesn't let you off the hook when things go south."

Darkwind was chosen by Gametunnel for Game of the Month in May 2009, receiving its Gold Award. Bytten has also awarded Darkwind with the "Most Addictive of 2009" Bytten Ernie Award.