In any Cyberpunk setting, the use of Cybernetics is pretty gratuitous, and Ward Thirteen is no different. However we’ve taken a more practical approach over the flashy “Gunblade-Flamethrower Arm + Neon Eyelid” combo. Essentially, cybernetic use is restricted to Prosthetics, and Neural Interface Devices. In this article we’ll be focusing on the prosthetics available to players in the game.

Prosthetic Limbs

Prosthetics in Ward Thirteen are what cellphones were in the 90′s. You know what they are, you see them around, they’re fairly common, but not everyone has them. As a player, you can choose to replace your legs, or each arm individually. Generally speaking all prosthetics are humanoid in appearance, as they are meant to be practical limb replacements, and not stylized chrome monsters.

Affixing a prosthetic limb is a permanent action. You cannot then sew on a human arm again at a later date. Again, this is a permanent change to your character. Cybernetic limbs do not heal themselves either. They suffer wounds just like human limbs, however the effects of wounds are much more drastic. A skilled electrician can attempt to repair small wounds in the field, however you often have to have your appendages reinitialized, tuned, and repaired. This process is pricey, and for those on the front lines, expect a large amount of financial damage from firefights.

Prosthetic legs are packaged together. Attempting to use one human leg and one cybernetic limb makes movement incredibly difficult unless the limb is tuned to the same limits as the flesh and blood appendage. All prosthetic legs affect your movement speed, and some reduce inertial damage. Wounds to prosthetic legs are much more debilitating than those suffered by arms, so stay behind cover when possible.

Prosthetic Arms on the other hand, can be installed separately. Most arms will increase your accuracy, transitional aim, and melee force. They also increase all dexterous actions, such as reloading, typing, even medical tasks. Arm wounds are generally statistical debuffs, as they occur much more often. Each arm has a a separate module slot, as opposed to the legs shared module slot.

Customization

Each manufacturer has two or three models of prosthetics. These include standard models, meant for general use; high performance, expensive, highly tuned limbs meant for precision work; and military grade, meant for combat. This allows for some basic customization among prosthetic users.

As mentioned, each arm has it’s own module slot, and legs share a single slot. But what are modules? Modules are a second way to customize your prosthetics, and use the same attachment system as firearms. They encompass a variety of effects and bonuses, for example, installing the Ceramic Framework module will reduce the severity of wounds by 1-2 points. Others, such as Enhanced Hydraulics, further boost the dexterity bonus.

Limb Replacement Surgery

Replacing a limb isn’t easy, even in 2036. The first time you replace an individual limb, you are affixed with a Prosthetic Interface ‘cap.’ This cap allows you to snap new limbs on easily, using standardized ports. However the initial fitting of the cap wreaks havoc on your brain, focusing you to forget nerve connections that no longer exist, as well as learning new ones. This manifests in-game as a 25% penalty to all actions associated with that limb. Each day, (24 hours real time) this penalty is reduced by 5%. In addition, each time a new limb is installed, your must relearn the control system for that limb. This is represented by slowly granting the bonus of that limb by 1% each day, as you gain familiarity with it.

The purpose of this system is to provide additional realism, as well as to prevent the more economically friendly plays from simply buying brand new limbs each time they damage one, circumventing the penalties of combat. It is also worth noting that you still suffer damage when taking fire into a prosthetic. Any damage to the bio-electrics causes electrical trauma to the body and heart. However, as you aren’t suffering outer tissue damage, wounds do not bleed, and the limbs take greatly reduced bleed damage (50-75% for arms, and 25-50% for legs).

Effectiveness

Overall, most limbs will offer a 10% increase give or take, when fully upgraded and maintained. A combatant with all 4 limbs replaced will have a rough 25% increase in overall effectiveness, but don’t let that startle you. While cybernetics will give you a slight edge in multiple areas, but rarely a large edge in any single area. Equipping modules to assist in sharpshooting will still be outclassed by someone trained in it. They are meant to increase your effectiveness, so play to your strengths!

All physical conflict in Ward Thirteen revolves around ranged combat, with a  focus on tactics, strategy, and resource management. All battles are battles of attrition, and it’s not uncommon for a battle to take place over 3-5 smaller fights. While most games force you into a situation where the only way to leave combat is to either kill, or die, we constructed combat around the idea that not every fight has a definite end.

Types of Firearms

While your skills, abilities, equipment, ammunition, and attachments play a large role in your combat niche, arguably it all boils down to what you’re currently holding. Firearms come in four flavors: Pistols, Shotguns, Rifles, and Automatics. Pistols are the most balanced weapons, with average rates of fire, accuracy, caliber, and medium range. Rifles boast incredibly high accuracy, high critical chance, low rates of fire, and focus on longer ranges. Automatics are great for suppressive fire, utilizing much higher rates of fire, and lower calibers. Finally, shotguns are close range weapons that deal incredibly high amounts of damage, with a slow rate of fire, however are nearly incapable of scoring a critical hit.

Reloading

As mentioned before, Ammunition plays a large role in the combat effectiveness of your current weapon. Each weapon has a specific magazine that it uses, and are be filled with any caliber ammunition it can accept. When reloading, you drop your empty mag into your inventory, and use the first full magazine of the same ammo type you’re using. In addition, you can force a full reload by holding the reload key. This action takes much longer than a tactical reload, and places ammunition one round at a time into your current magazine.

Pimp My Rifle

Weapons have three types of attachments: Front, Rail, and Body. Each weapon can have 2 attachments, but only one of each type. Attachments do have a few limitations, such as that Pistols can only have a single attachment, and Shotguns cannot equip sights. Any bonuses granted by sights are negated while in motion, and return after 2 seconds of standing still. This system allows you to tweak your weapons to fit your perfect role. A LMG with a Bi-pod and a Recoil Pad can lay down some serious cover fire. Likewise, you can alter a weapon to fill a role not initially intended; such as taking a Long Range rifle, installing a Lighter Bolt, and adding a Reflex Sight, quickly converting it into a medium range carbine.

In the wake of sweeping social and economic downturn, the Global Republic rose from the ashes of the now defunct United Nations. Initially composed of only the American Union and the European Alliance, the Global Republic led to innovations such as the Universal Credit system, Republic IDs, and the World-Wide Wireless Network. Due to the events of the Seven Hour War, many smaller nations feel the restrictive laws of the Global Republic will restrict their ability to protect themselves from outside threats.

Organization

The Global Republic, currently comprised of five foreign bodies, each providing five Delegates as well as a President. All Republic matters are voted upon publicly, and each delegate has one vote, however the President of each body’s vote counts as five votes. While many delegates vote in line with their respective leaders, it is not unheard of to have split votes among each body. Generally speaking, all legislature affecting only a single country’s internal workings does not require the Republic’s vote, however any body may object and call a vote to order.

Demilitarization

In late 2023, the Global Republic passes legislature that forces the dismantling of each body’s military by roughly 80%. Many Private Contracting Corporations swallow a large chunk the now-jobless soldiers, leading to massive Private Militarization. Many see this as the pivotal point in the cause of the Seven Hour War.

Security

Following the rise of PMCs, the Global Republic forms it’s own Militia, lending aid to any of the member’s countries in need.  Currently the Republic Militia is primarily stationed in the American Alliance as local security. The effectiveness of the Militia has yet to be seen on a large scale, however it serves as a deterrent against most conflicts.

The Health system used in Ward Thirteen differs greatly from the system used by most RPGs today. It most cloesely resembles systems used in both Pen and Paper RPGs and modern FPS games. In the Ward, every bullet matters, and any wound can be fatal. Players should never get to a level of complacency that they don’t fear a firearm.

As far as Vitals go, you have three main stats to worry about. Your first stat is only displayed in combat, just above your head: Suppression. Every combatant has a Suppression level, serving as a makeshift guardian angel. Initially, our combat system was too deadly, and surprise attacks led to easy massacres. In light of the play tests, we took a cue from action movies. Mainly, the main character always seems to just barely avoid being shot, making that first round to actually land stand out in dramatic fashion.

Suppression in Detail

Your Suppression level is on a  scale of 0-100, with 100 being full. When a shot is calculated, your current Suppression level is applied as a % chance to avoid that shot entirely. If you have a current value of 75, and an enemy fires a single bullet at you, you have a 75% chance to dodge; however you then take the full force of th round directly to your suppression. Suppression recovers at a slow rate, only when not taking any damage for a few seconds. The recovery effect is similar to the regeneration effect used in many FPS today.

Blood and Bleeding

Your second level of health is also your most important, Blood. Many games use the arbitrary value of ‘Health’ for absorbing damage. However ultimately, regardless of how much physical damage your body takes, the primary cause of death is the actual bleeding out of those wounds. In Ward Thirteen, Blood is your primary life bar and recovers at a very slow rate. All damage that gets past your suppression is subtracted from your current blood level. However there is an even deadlier force hidden behind each trigger pull.

Critical Hits

In many games, critical hits represent striking a vital point, often causing double damage. We’ve taken that interpretation and carried it even further. In Ward Thirteen, high caliber ammunition deals less bleed damage, but in turn has a higher critical chance. Each critical hit represents striking an organ, still causing minimal bleed damage, but causing a wound, something much more dangerous.

Wounds

Your third and final health system, wounds represent vital injuries sustained in battle.  Your wound table has ten ‘slots’, with a scale of 0-10. Whenever a critical hit is scored, you suffer a wound equal to the caliber level of the ammunition used. Each subsequent critical hit fills the next box, then the next, until the table is full. Once the table is full, any additional critical hits are distributed evenly among all existing wounds. Every 5 seconds, you lose blood equal to the current value of all of your wounds added together. Because of this, even a few small wounds can lead to death if not teated quickly.

Medic!

Now when designing our healing system, we designed around the idea that all combat oriented players are likely to pick up basic medical skills; because of this all lower level medical abilities simply buy time, not fix the problem. This is necessary to keep players from quickly trivializing injuries. Bandages are able to stop one wound from bleeding, however do not heal the wound. Naturally, you will recover 1 point off of each wound every 15 minutes, meaning numerous small wounds recover faster than a small amount of deep ones. Strenuous activity such as further combat can reopen the wound, negating the bandage effect. Surgeons can attempt to operate, attempting to heal one wound, however this is physically exhausting, and can only be preformed every 30 minutes or so.

Fade to Black

Finally, defeat in Ward Thirteen doesn’t mean death. At 5% blood level, you are incapacitated. In this state, you cannot move, attack, use items, speak, or be the target of any attacks. In this state you also cease bleeding, and instead bleed out at a level of 1% every 5 seconds. An ally with the proper training (or equipment) may attempt to resuscitate you, restoring you to 10% blood, and temporarily halving your original blood loss. In the event you hit 0%, you are Medevaced to the nearest hospital. While in the hospital bed, you recover at an accelerated rate, however you are charged for every minute spent inside. You can opt for professional surgery, healing your wound table, at a high price, or you can even walk right out the door, waiting is for wusses right? Regardless of your choice, your wounds all cease bleeding, but remain on your table (unless you opt for surgery). You also have a chance of receiving permanent wounds this way, however it’s rather rare.

With the proper equipment,a player can outfit themselves as a proper combat medic, running from cover to cover patching up their allies, and attempting to revive fallen comrades. Due to the generally diminishing nature of wounds however, be sure to remind them they are far from invincible, and the best you can do is slow their trip to the hospital.

In short, play it safe, keep your tools handy, don’t die; and be sure to tip your medic.

Ward Thirteen is a small ORPG currently in development. While many tend to look down on indie games, online games in particular, being a small group of developers has advantages. For one, we don’t have investors telling us what to do, we’re able to make whatever changes we see fit, and ‘break the mold’ a little bit.

Our current goal is to focus around having a couple hundred concurrent players. Again, many might look at this number and scoff, however two things led us to this decision.

1. Most will point out that an Indie studio can’t afford large server architectures to support the playerbases that mainstream games have. This is true, for us at least.

2. World of Warcraft allows thousands of concurrent users per server. However, most users will never see even a fraction of these players, much less interact with them.

Because of these reasons, we don’t feel that a lower player target is a bad thing. It allows us to only use our one server. This drastically reduces our costs, but still allows a fair sense of community, or if you wish.. anonymity.  Our intent is for every player’s weight to be felt in the game, even if you never directly interact with that player.

Our gameplay focus is heavy on social interaction, roleplay, and strategic combat. We’ve tried to deliver a realistic experience, without sacrificing too much to gameplay. The original focus when designing the core engine was “conflict, not combat.” the purpose of that goal was to offer multiple means to advance, compete, and interact; without ever picking up a weapon.

We hope gamers, roleplayers, and even developers, will help provide feedback and criticism during this initial pre-alpha stage. Currently he server is in a highly malleable state, and this is the prime time to change the way things are done. We look forward to working with everyone during this phase.

More information about the game and setting itself can be found in the game info section, as well as the development updates.

Welcome to Ward Thirteen, enjoy your stay.