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[[quoteright:169:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Deuce2_copy_8044.png]]
[[caption-width-right:169:WarIsHell.]]
Ace of Spades is a free, online, multiplayer FirstPersonShooter.
To sum it up simply, it's what you might get if you were to cross VideoGame/TeamFortress2's CaptureTheFlag mode (using a briefcase as the intel) and color coded teams with {{Minecraft}}'s building blocks and boxy character models. It has a small, but dedicated, userbase.

By default, the game takes place on a large, predetermined map with hills on Blue Team's side (west), and rivers on Green Team's side (east). You play as a member of one of these teams, with the choice of weapons between a rifle, a sub-machine gun or (as of v0.58) a shotgun. You other equipment consists of a spade (for removing and acquiring blocks), 50 blocks (for building), and three grenades. The point of the game is to capture the enemy's intelligence a certain number of times. You may change the color of the blocks you place by using the arrow keys to look through the pallet, or by right-clicking something else to sample its color. A popular strategy is to build a foxhole in the side of a hill, using the same color blocks as the hill, and sniping in there with a rifle.

There is no kill-cam, so you do not know the location of your killer unless you manage to spot him before you fall.

The official website is located [[http://ace-spades.com/ here]], and there is a wiki [[http://www.aceofspadeswiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page here]]. The unofficial backup server list and forums can be found [[http://www.buildandshoot.com/ here]].

The IP has recently been bought out by Jagex of ''RuneScape'' fame; the game's creator was supposedly a Jagex employee and still involved in development at one point, but for reasons that are none too clear he seems to have moved on to other things. They've also announced the game will be available through Steam and cost about $10, that they'll no longer offer 3rd-party server hosting, and... well, see [[http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/11/20/ace-of-spades-minecraft-meets-team-fortress this IGN article]] for all the other changes. The community took this news [[InternetBackdraft very badly indeed]], and perhaps not without good reason.

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!!This game provides examples of:
* AlienSky: The {{Skybox}} can be set to a number of hues by server command, some of which are genuinely creepy. There are also scripts for a ''Minecraft''-style day and night cycle and [[SillinessSwitch Disco Mode]], the latter of which is now thoroughly depreciated.
* {{Bizarrchitecture}}: Trying to get a pickup team of sixteen gamers to collaborate on building a large fortification, with an enemy attack coming in every few minutes and often no voice-chat, can result in some ''really'' weird-looking -but often surprisingly effective- fortifications.
* BoringButPractical: Simple buildings like bunkers and walls are easy to build and can act as effective barricades and sniper spots. The team with more of them often wins. More often than not, though, hastily-dug foxholes and trenches under fire will be what the player spends most of his time in.
* ColorCodedMultiplayer: Blue and Green.
* CoolButInefficient: Many, MANY of the buildings other players may build. They may be awesome sometimes, but rarely do they actually protect your intel or soldiers.
* CosmeticallyDifferentSides
* DeathIsNotPermanent
* DoNotDropYourWeapon: Not even when you die.
* EmergencyWeapon: The entrenching tool can now be used for a OneHitKill at melee ranges, an Ascended Mod of sorts since it was added by the third-party server software. Occasionally a source of frustration if Friendly Fire is switched on, because digging and attacking are performed with the same command and it's embarrassingly easy to accidentally deck a teammate.
* EveryBulletIsATracer: Locating dug-in snipers would be very difficult otherwise.
* EverythingBreaks: Everything but the ground level.
* BuiltWithLego
* EverythingFades
* FastTunnelling: For a given value of "fast", anyway. It's much faster than would be possible in real life, but tunnelling any distance will still take quite a while.
* FireForgedFriends: What happens with you and your teammates, if you're lucky.
** The mod, Psyspades, adds squads. This, with many close encounters, firefights, and saving of lives, either makes you hate your squad, for respawning you in front of an enemy with a Smg or Shotgun, or trust them, where they snipe enemies who try to sneak up on you, heal you, and move with coordinated precision.
* FloatingPlatforms: Generally averted, if you remove all the blocks under another, it will fall to the ground and vanish, but occasionally a glitch will leave a few in place.
** However, if a structure spawns floating at the beginning of the map, it stays floating.
* FollowTheLeader: To {{Minecraft}} and (arguably) VideoGame/TeamFortress2
* GamingClan: Quite prominent. There are Major League Gamers, [[VideoGame/DwarfFortress Bay 12ers]], and *Color* Veterans.
** Oh, and special mention must go to the [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic bronies,]] one of the few clans to run their own server. Several clan members have named themselves after the "mane six" and maintain {{Kayfabe}}, and there's a word-substitution script that forces you to ''talk'' like a brony. It's still one of the better servers.
** While not actually a clan, /v/ of 4chan used to have AoS threads, which they've brought back for the new /vg/ board - along with a dedicated server.
* GameMod: Mods can range from skins that revise weapons or iron sights, or make your character look like a SpaceMarine wielding a crossbow.
* GreenHillZone: One of the default maps in the original version.
* {{Griefer}}: Rampant in earlier versions, usually centring around knocking down things other players have built. Occasionally, multiple griefers would even ''join forces'' to demolish a particularly well-made structure, often displaying greater teamwork and coordination than anyone else on the server. Laying out blocks in the shape of giant male genitalia or obscene messages was another popular griefer pastime, and the game also attracts a genuinely alarming number of neo-Nazis. Thankfully, an update that made bans IP address-based instead of nickname-based seems to have brought it under control.
* GuideDangIt: Its highly recommended to read or watch a guide before playing. Even changing certain game settings can take a while to figure out (edit config.ini in the game folder).
* HoldTheLine: Missions on some of the smaller and narrower maps frequently end up like this.
* HollywoodDarkness: You will always be able to see, even in an enclosed space.
* InNameOnly: What the Jagex version is shaping up to be. Quite literally, in fact; there are some indications that they've pretty much written an entirely new game from scratch and only kept the name and a few potentially trademarkable elements like the character designs.
* InvisibleAnatomy: You can't see yourself.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: Every server in early versions, a bit better now.
* NoPlotNoProblem
* ObviousBeta: The game takes simplicity to the extreme, with only five weapons (six, counting the spade), two official modes, and one kind of map, not counting user-created maps.
* OneHitKill: Shooting someone in the head with the rifle is this.
* ThePointsMeanNothing: Players get points when they kill enemies and capture the enemy flag. They're only for bragging rights.
* [[RedshirtArmy Blueshirt Army]]: and [[NotSoDifferent Greenshirt Army]]
* RealIsBrown: Many of the more natural maps. Actually justified by the quasi-WorldWarOne aesthetic, as one can infer that the ground has been churned to mud by several years of HopelessWar.
* RealityEnsues: For an FPS that looks like {{Minecraft}}, it actually turns out to be a relatively realistic war simulator.
* RespawnPoint: It shifts around a bit each time, but it's always on your team's side of the map.
* SceneryGorn: Whatever structures the mapper has set up at the start of the game will ''not'' be intact by the time the game is over.
* SchizoTech: The default graphics for the rifle are loosely based on a German semi-automatic rifle from the Second World War, the SMG is clearly a Heckler & Koch [=MP5=] and the shotgun and grenades could be from any era.
** Actually considering the rifle is ([[WordOfGod supposedly]]) the M14, it's possibly even ''more'' Schizo because of the 1960s weapons... ''being used to fight First World War trench combat!''
* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted. The shotgun in this game has a surprisingly realistic effective range.
** As of .75, Played Straight.
* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Its decent range and ability to blow through blocks like a hot knife through butter make this trope even doubly so.
* ShovelStrike: The spade can be used as a deadly melee weapon as well as a entrenching tool. 
* SickeningCrunch: When you take any damage at all.
* SimilarSquad: Identical except for uniform color.
* SoftWater: Averted. Water is only one block deep and it will hurt if you fall in from too high up.
* StandardFPSGuns: A rifle, a Submachine Gun, and a Shotgun, with a proper machine gun and sniper rifle to come.
* StealthExpert: You need to be this if you want to even see the enemy intel.
* StuffBlowingUp: Grenades
* TakingYouWithMe: Some players opt to save their grenades for hopeless situations, when they'll toss them just before falling dead in hopes of killing their killer. Sometimes it works.
* UnbreakableWeapons
* UnusualUserInterface: There's no ingame server browser, and in fact you don't load the game from the Start menu at all. Once the game is installed, players have to select a server from a list on the game's website, or type the aos:// address into their browser.
* VideoGameCaringPotential: Will you protect your intel and teammates with your life?
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Or will you destroy your team's defenses and teamkill them?
* WaterIsBlue: Averted. It can any color of the rainbow.
** However, for ease of identification, most maps do, in fact, make the water blue.
* WarIsHell: A common saying among the playerbase.
* WartimeCartoon: A few of them exist for the game, as well as propaganda for the two teams.
* XMeetsY: {{Minecraft}} meets VideoGame/TeamFortress2 meets WorldWarOne, WorldWarII, and depending on the map, the Falkland Islands war.
* ZergRush: Less experienced players often default to this. [[RealityEnsues It seldom goes well.]]

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13th Dec '12 6:56:39 AM Jake

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22nd Nov '12 12:19:52 PM demonfiren

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21st Nov '12 12:56:30 AM Jake

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