GameWiki

Watching live

A cup’s matches and any match both players take live, watched behind them by a delay: the fog, the bar, the Director, the LIVE screen.

A cup’s matches

  • Unless its organiser turns it off (Live for spectators in the form, on by default), anyone with a cup’s link may watch its matches as they are played: WATCH LIVE on the cup’s page, beside the match and how many watch. No account is needed, and a phone may watch too.
  • Joining a cup asks whether you accept that your matches may be watched live; a cup already live takes only players who accept. Its organiser turns Live for spectators on or off on the cup’s page while it runs: off at any time, on only once every player has accepted (you may accept later there). The organiser also picks its Live delay (30 s, 1 min, 3 min, 5 min or 10 min; 3 minutes by default): longer at any time, shorter only before another player has joined, since each accepted live with the delay the cup showed. A match being played keeps what it began with, unless a player takes their consent back with Stop showing my matches live on the cup’s page: live then stops at once for the whole cup.
  • The players see in the muster that the match is live, nothing during the battle, and on Game Over how many watched. You cannot watch your own match; a cup’s other players see WATCH LIVE on the War Council’s cup card while one of its matches is played without them.

Any other match

Any other match goes live too when both its players want it: a quick match, a private match or a match against a bot.

  • In the To Arms! muster, each player has a Go live switch, off by default. The match is shown live only once both switched it on; a bot always agrees. Each lord wears a LIVE mark when theirs is on, and the line under the switch says who has agreed.
  • Beside it, each player picks a Delay on a slider: 30 s, 1 min, 3 min, 5 min or 10 min behind (3 minutes until moved). The longer of the two plays, so nobody is shown sooner than they chose; against a bot, yours. Each lord’s LIVE mark shows their choice.
  • It is listed on the LIVE screen for everyone, each card saying how far behind, and a rematch goes on live while both keep the switch on.
  • In the battle, the War Tent (Esc) shows how far behind it is and your slider: move it and spectators follow at once. A longer delay holds them where they are until the battle catches up (they see “the battle goes on in…”), a shorter one moves them on.
  • Changed your mind? STOP LIVE in the War Tent stops it at once for every spectator, and that battle does not go live again.
  • At most 24 such matches are live at once on a server: past it, a battle that begins is not shown.

What spectators see

  • Spectators see the match behind the players by the match’s delay, on the game’s own battlefield: until that much of the battle has passed, only the map and “Starts in…”. The delay keeps it fair.
  • A spectator chooses the fog: All, or what Blue or Red saw (F). The bar goes back (←) and returns LIVE (L); its marks and the events beside the map take the camera to a battle, a castle under attack or a cannon shot (N and Shift+N step through them).
  • The Director follows the hottest fight on its own; a hand on the camera lets it go, and D takes it back.
  • At most 200 spectators watch a match at once. They are counted, never named.

The LIVE screen

The main menu’s LIVE shows how many matches are being played now and lists them, each with its map, its players, how many watch and WATCH LIVE: the matches both players took live in To Arms! (above) and those of cups whose organisers ticked Listed on the LIVE screen (off by default) for everyone, and, signed in, those of your own cups that you do not play in.