RingMasters ----------- Ringmasters pits you in direct man-to-man competition with others on-line. It is a fast-action boxing simulation where each opponent has unique abilities and advantages. Ringmasters is easy to play, but not easy to master. Brains as well as brawn determine who will take and hold a title. Each player has certain attributes (strength, agility, ect) and "skill points" to spend to enhance them. And as players move up weight divisions (by moving up in score) they are rewarded with more points. Once we have determined a champion and proclaimed his/her mastery to the world the sysop will reset the game. Be sure to READ the rules, there's a lot of tips in there! --- Boxing strategy excerpt --- "The very first thing all boxers should do is re-map their keyboard so they can just press a single key to throw a punch or combination of punches. Most communications programs (Procomm, Telix, etc) have facilities to do this. On my keyboard, for instance, I have defined "1" to be JAB BODY 1 and "9" to be HOOK HEAD 3, the more powerful punch the further to the right on the keyboard. Also, be sure to define a STAT key to monitor your stats and a CLINCH key. STATS - the deciding factor The strategy you choose should be based on how you distributed your stats (attributes). It's the key to becoming a champion. Your stats and strategy should be fluid, switch them around before going in the ring depending on who you are fighting. The wise boxer watches potential opponents from ringside, determining their fighting style, and adjusting his own stats and strategy when facing that particular opponent in the ring. If you know one player prefers high strength power punchers you may want to max out your agility to avoid being hit by him; whereas with a macro-blaster (discussed later), you might want to drop agility to get knocked down more, hoping for a "toss-out" in your favor. In any event, KNOW THY ENEMY! It's what ringside is all about. DODGING and BLOCKING Probably the least understood in what it can do for/to you. It will be the true champion who will be able to use the subtle trade-offs between dodging and blocking. While blocking risks a quicker lose of endurance, it conserves your strength (letting you throw more punches for more damage). Dodging may tire you out (less punches and damage in the long run) but it protects you from taking any damage from any blow. If you face a power puncher you could set your agility high to avoid his blows and deliver light damage from JABs to wear his strength out. Remember to use the STAT command to monitor your stats. Should you see your strength dangerously low when you are dodging, you may want to switch to BLOCK and visa versa if your endurance gets low. If you ever see the message " is too tired to tired to dodge" lay into him with your best shots immediately! All his defenses have dropped and he will be totally defenseless until he puts a new one up. Another note for the Ring Master, if your opponent has burnt his strength punching and tries to clinch you to regain it back, probably the most effective way (if he is dodging) to bust him is to throw light intensity punches (intensity 1) and sap the strength from him he is trying to gain in the clinch. Remember, he loses 1 point of strength for EACH punch he dodges. With this I've been able to keep another boxer from even being able to throw another punch the rest of the round he was in with me. Of course, if you find yourself on the receiving end of this, switch to blocking and get your strength back. WILL POWER Don't neglect your will power. Beginners usually draw from this area to put into other attributes, and they usually end up getting knocked down once and they are history. Keep it up to at least 50% (unless you plan never to be hit or think you can flatten your opponent early on). Remember your chance to get up from a knockdown is based on this as a straight percentage, so for each count by the ref you have that % to fall back down. PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER, SOME COMMON STRATEGIES THE GEORGE FOREMAN. Probably the most common strategy, it's basically beefing up your strength to the limit and beating the daylights out of your opponent. Best when you can combine it with intensity "3" punching you can wallop someone with double digit damage in a single blow. The real trick here is to be able to avoid punch burn out (with proper clinching to regain strength). As intensity "3" punching drains strength the fastest, use the STAT command to monitor the loss. Also you will lose strength with each blow, whether it connects or not, so make sure you can connect. So if you know the other guy has high agility, pump up your Skill so you can hit him. As the HOOK is the most powerful punch, smart boxers will try to clinch you to stop that particular punch. don't forget BREAK or switch to the second most powerful punch, the UPPERCUT. ROPE-A-DOPE. Probably the most sneaky, but risky, though I tend to favor it. Its risky because it takes longer to KO someone. Basically you max out your agility, letting you avoid blows by dodging but it also lets connect with more punches of your own. The trick is to remember that every punch you throw that is not "missed" causes some form of damage to your opponent (either deflected damage from blocking, or strength lose from spending energy to move out of the way). If you see he dodged a punch you know he expended a point of strength to do that. If he blocked, he took a point of strength. Intensity "1" punches don't require any strength to throw, so you can throw these light punches all day, wearing him down like a water wears a rock. THE SUPERMAN. When you clinch someone you will increase in strength as you rest. It is little known; however, that if you maintain a clinch long enough your strength will increase beyond the maximum limits! When you get beefed up into the 100+ range you'll be dealing out double-digit damage at the very minimum. Feel sorry for whomever is on the receiving end of that kind of power. MACRO-BLASTER. As most people are using a predefined single keys to throw a punch they have a tendency to blast away with 5, 10 punch combinations. Keep in mind that you're only allowed so many warnings for illegal punches. If you come across someone who consistently fills his buffer with punch combinations, put your willpower up high, and take the knockdowns. He'll get a few warnings for the extra punching, and you'll be back in the action because your willpower was high. You'll eventually get him with the toss-out. One prime example I faced was a macro blaster a few divisions ahead of me. Knowing he was worth big points if I took him out, I stepped into the ring and did NOT choose an active defense. I wanted to be sure he knocked me down with the first punch (low endurance also increases chance of knockdown). Well, as expected, the bell rang and my friend held down his HOOK HEAD 3 key and filled his buffer full of punches. By the time he got the message I was knocked down on the second punch he'd already thrown 10 more and was tossed out 10 seconds into the fight. Thanks for the points Tom. DIRTY TRICKS Most of these tricks try to confuse the other player to get him thrown out of the ring, giving the win to you! /A up! Once the cat is out of the bag with this one you can hardly use it anymore. If you get knocked down, type "/a up!". It appears to everyone as " is up!". Trigger-happy opponents will end up getting warnings for "punching a man when he's down". Too many of these and he is outta there. After that people will notice the "***" that appears in the real message won't appear in the fake and they won't fall for it anymore. Best to use this as a nasty surprise to an unawares fighter in an important title fight. /P CLANG If you time this page just right (a few seconds before the first bell, or between rounds) you can make him throw a few illegal punches. These add up, so remember to keep track of how many you have accumulated! Of course, I have a few more very interesting tricks, but if you want to see them you'll have to step into the ring with me. (301) 498-6183, I'll be waiting... Nate the Great Champ, InfiNetwork BBS