Line #73 VideoGame/AceOfSpades


1	[[quoteright:169:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Deuce2_copy_8044.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:169:WarIsHell.]]
3	''Ace of Spades'' is an online multiplayer FirstPersonShooter with destructible, modifiable voxel-based terrain. To sum it up simply, it's what you might get if you were to cross ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2''[='=]s class-based action and color-coded teams with ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}''[='=]s building blocks and boxy character models.
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5	Originally a simple freeware game, the ''Ace of Spades'' IP was bought out by Creator/{{Jagex}} (of ''Videogame/{{RuneScape}}'' fame) in 2012. 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. Jagex's version of the game offers new graphics and quite different gameplay and is now available through Steam for about $10.
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7	The original, pre-Jagex version of the game is still legally available -- and still free. It also seems to have a player base as large as, or even larger than, the Jagex version. Because Jagex now owns the name ''Ace of Spades'', the community supporting the original version of the game has been named, in ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin fashion, ''Build and Shoot'', and the pre-Jagex version of the game can be downloaded freely [[http://buildandshoot.com/ from their site]].
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9	The Jagex version's official website is located [[http://ace-spades.com/ here]].
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11	In the original, freeware version, the game takes place on a large map, which may be randomly generated or selected from a range of fan-made arenas. You play as a member of one of two teams, with the choice of weapons between a rifle, a sub-machine gun, or a shotgun. Your other equipment consists of a spade (for removing and acquiring blocks -- and melee combat), 50 blocks (for building), and three grenades. The point of the game is usually to capture the enemy's intelligence a certain number of times (though several other game modes are also available). Both digging tunnels and building structures for cover will aid you in this goal. You may freely change the color of the blocks you place. A popular strategy is to build a foxhole on the side of a hill, using the same color blocks as the hill, and snipe from it with a rifle.
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13	On Valentine's Day, 2013, the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" DLC was released for the Jagex version of the game. This adds a new class only playable in two new game modes, with its own weapons. It also added new maps to go along with those game modes, a Chicago map, and an Alcatraz map.
14	----
15	!!This game provides examples of:
16	* 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 ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}''-style day and night cycle and [[SillinessSwitch Disco Mode]], the latter of which is now thoroughly depreciated.
17	* {{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.
18	* BoomHeadshot: Easy to pull off, ''too'' easy in some people's opinion, because the sprites [[SuperDeformed all have heads as wide as their torsos.]]
19	* 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.
20	%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * ColdSniper: The Marksman.
21	%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample -->'''Marksman''': Let's split some skulls!
22	* ColorCodedMultiplayer: Blue and Green.
23	* 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.
24	%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * CosmeticallyDifferentSides
25	%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * DeathIsNotPermanent
26	* DoNotDropYourWeapon: Not even when you die.
27	* 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.
28	* EveryBulletIsATracer: Locating dug-in snipers would be very difficult otherwise.
29	* EverythingBreaks: Everything but the ground level.
30	%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * BuiltWithLego
31	%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * EverythingFades
32	* 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.
33	** The Miner class in the Jagex version, however, can plow through mountains like butter. Especially with his drill gun.
34	* FireForgedFriends: What happens with you and your teammates, if you're lucky.
35	** 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.
36	* 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.
37	** However, if a structure spawns floating at the beginning of the map, it stays floating.
38	* FollowTheLeader: To ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'' and (arguably) VideoGame/TeamFortress2
39	* GamingClan: There are Major League Gamers, [[VideoGame/DwarfFortress Bay 12ers]], and Color Veterans.
40	** 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.
41	** 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.
42	* GameMod: Mods can range from skins that revise weapons or iron sights, or make your character look like a SpaceMarine wielding a crossbow.
43	* GreenHillZone: One of the default maps in the original version.
44	* {{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.
45	* 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).
46	* HoldTheLine: Missions on some of the smaller and narrower maps frequently end up like this.
47	* HollywoodDarkness: You will always be able to see, even in an enclosed space.
48	* InsistentTerminology: Jagex insists on calling the original, freeware version of the game a "prototype," even though it's a complete, stable, and fully playable game in its own right.
49	* InvisibleAnatomy: You can't see yourself.
50	* KilledMidSentence: One of the achievements is called "Hey is that a sni-".
51	* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: Every server in early versions, a bit better now.
52	%% commented out as Administrivia/ZeroContextExample * NoPlotNoProblem
53	* OneHitKill: Shooting someone in the head with the rifle is this.
54	* ThePointsMeanNothing: Players get points when they kill enemies and capture the enemy flag. They're only for bragging rights.
55	* RealIsBrown: Many of the more natural maps. Actually justified by the quasi-UsefulNotes/WorldWarI aesthetic, as one can infer that the ground has been churned to mud by several years of HopelessWar.
56	** Maps that are initially colourful can actually be "churned to mud by HopelessWar" during normal game-play. All terrain blocks under the surface layer are generated as brown by default, and as the surface of the map is destroyed by grenades, tunnelling, the demolition of structures, and even stray gunshots, the world will gradually turn brown.
57	* RespawnPoint: It shifts around a bit each time, but it's always on your team's side of the map.
58	* 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.
59	* SchizoTech:
60	** The default graphics for the rifle are loosely based on an M1 Garand/M14 from the Second World War, the SMG is clearly a Heckler & Koch [=MP5=], the shotgun appears to be a WWI trench-gun, and the grenades are based off of the WWII pineapples.
61	** 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!''
62	* SentryGun: The Rocketeer can deploy an automated rocket turret.
63	* ShortRangeShotgun: Averted. The shotgun in this game has a surprisingly realistic effective range.
64	** As of .75, Played Straight.
65	* ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Its decent range and ability to blow through blocks like a hot knife through butter make this trope even doubly so.
66	* ShoutOut: The London map has a [[Series/DoctorWho blue police box]] next to Big Ben.
67	* ShovelStrike: The spade can be used as a deadly melee weapon as well as a entrenching tool.
68	* SickeningCrunch: When you take any damage at all.
69	* SimilarSquad: Identical except for uniform color.
70	* SkyBox: The skybox can be set to a number of hues by server command; including RedSkyTakeWarning, OminousFog, AlienSky, and even [[SillinessSwitch "Disco Mode"]], which cycled between every colour of the rainbow at high speed.
71	* SniperRifle: The Marksman class in the full Jagex version wields one of these. There are no dedicated scoped rifles in the original version, but the regular scopeless infantry rifle often pulls double duty as a sniper rifle of sorts (hey, UsefulNotes/SimoHayha did it).
72	* SoftWater: Averted. Water is only one block deep and it will hurt if you fall in from too high up.
73	* StandardFPSGuns: A rifle, a submachine gun, and a shotgun, with a proper machine gun and sniper rifle to come.
74	* StealthExpert: You need to be this if you want to even see the enemy intel.
75	* StuffBlowingUp: Grenades and the artillery strike that can be found on some servers and the Jagex version.
76	* SuicidalOverconfidence: Often you'll see players charging the most well defended positions and going out to build [[TooDumbToLive in the middle of an enemy attack]], most of the time their fate is not a nice one.
77	* 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.
78	* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: For an FPS that looks like ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}'', it actually turns out to be a relatively realistic war simulator, with a great focus on construction and very fragile players.
79	* 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.
80	* VideoGameCaringPotential: Will you protect your intel and teammates with your life?
81	* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Or will you destroy your team's defenses and teamkill them?
82	* WaterIsBlue: Averted. It can any color of the rainbow.
83	** However, for ease of identification, most maps do, in fact, make the water blue.
84	* WarIsHell: A common saying among the playerbase.
85	* WartimeCartoon: A few of them exist for the game, as well as propaganda for the two teams.
86	* ZergRush: Less experienced players often default to this. It seldom goes well.

Context VideoGame / AceOfSpades