Free-for-all

"create your own game rules!"

- In-game description

Free-for-all is a gamemode in Island Wars 2 and Island Wars 2 Xmas. It includes most gameplay elements from the original Island Wars, with new ones having been added.

Rules
As for most other gamemodes, before starting the game, the player can preset multiple rules, which customize most of the gameplay itself. These include:


 * War Days - Determines the length of gameplay. Can be set from 1 to 100.
 * Play against... - Determines if the right player is another person playing on the same device, or a CPU.

Note: The following 4 rules only have significance when the "The computer" option is selected for the previous rule.


 * Difficulty - Determines the skill level of the CPU. Can be set to Very Easy, Easy, Normal, Hard or Very Hard.
 * Offensive preference, Defensive preference and Bonus preference - Further define the skillset of the CPU. Each rule has 25 different grades you can set it to.
 * Palm trees - Determines the number of trees that players have to attack and defend each round. Can be set from 1 to 10.
 * Allow bonuses - Determines which bonuses can appear during gameplay if at all. Can be set to None, No sabotage or All.
 * Bonus frequency - Determines how frequently the previously configured bonuses can spawn. Can be set to Rare, Standard and Frequent. If the previous rule was set to None, this rule has no significance in gameplay.
 * Limit bomb range - Determines if the bombs shot by the cannons and planes disappear after a few seconds or not. Can be ticked or unticked.

Rounds
The gameplay of each day is split into three rounds:


 * Sunrise, where the left player controls a plane and the right player controls a cannon. The goal of the left player is to destroy all of the right player's palm trees. This round ends when either all of the right player's trees are shot down or when the left player's plane is destroyed.
 * Noon, where essentially everything is the same, but the roles are switched: this time, the left player controls a cannon and the right player controls a plane.
 * Sunset, where both players control planes, and their goal is to shoot down each other. This round ends whenever either of the planes is destroyed.



Gameplay values
In normal circumstances (without bonuses acquired and mutators applied) Both the plane and the cannon have a set blaster energy, which recharges over time. With full blaster energy, a cannon can fire 10 bullets, and a plane can drop 5 bullets or fire 8 blaster shots. In Sunrise and Noon, the plane's bomb and the cannon's bullet cancel each other out when they collide. The cannon's hitpoints, since the cannon itself is invincible apart from the bullets, basically correspond to the number of palm trees they have undestroyed, which can vary from 1 to 10. The plane's hitpoints correspond to the number of bullet hits it can withstand, which is initially 5, but flying into the water destroys it no matter the HP left. Both HPs recharge between the corresponding rounds or days, although both the alive and dead palm trees remain on the island for the remainder of the day in the case of both players, even visible during Sunset, for the sake of decoration.

Ending
After the last day's Sunset ends, the "cease fire" screen appears, after which the camera pans to the winning player's island (which is determined by the amount of points they gathered). The winner is then given a rating, dependant on the settings they played against and the mutators used, with which they can enter the leaderboards.

Mutators
All mutators can be used in this gamemode, as it is customizable.