RatiatorRatiator

Your master vanished the night the lamps went out. His dojo is yours now. You can't fight any more. So you teach rats to do it for you.

Ratiator is a tactical autobattler RPG where you program every fighter yourself. You write the logic. They live or die by it.

Program your gladiators

Every rat fights by a tactic you write:

Dozens of conditions. Dozens of actions. Qualifiers, three plans to switch between, up to 20 commands deep. One rat's tactic can be written in more ways than there are atoms in the universe, and the differences matter. A well programmed stray beats a champion who only swings.

Watch your program meet the enemy

Then the bell rings and your hands are off. Under your commands runs a real fight: stamina, balance, reach, feints, counters, blows that land or miss by a whisker.

When your rat reads the lunge you predicted and steps out of it, you did that. When it dies because of command number six, you did that too.

Scout the rival's dojo. Read how their fighter thinks. Rewrite four commands, and go again.

Build a team that talks

Fights grow from duels to 2on2, 3on3, and three rats against a beast many times their size. Every rat carries one tactic for fighting alone, one for the team and one for the hunt.

In a team they work together by your rules. Hold the line. Get behind the enemy. Bait it. Stand in front of the hurt one. Call the next plan, shout for help, patch each other up.

Raise them. Arm them. Lose them.

Your fighters are not units. Each rat has a past, traits, friends, rivals and secrets. They get hurt, they grow old, and when they die they stay dead.

Everything they carry, a human threw away. A fork is a spear. A thimble is a helmet. A soup can is the best armour in the city. Hundreds of pieces to scavenge, craft and hunt blueprints for.

Between fights there is a dojo to run: who trains, who rests, who works, who eats.

Over 2000 rivals, all running their own tactics

The city does not wait for you. Over 2000 rival fighters train, fight, win cups and die whether you watch or not. Beat them cup by cup, all the way to the Flowerpot Colosseum, where the whole city watches and a knockout can kill.

Found a tactic that wins? Send it to a friend as a short code.

And under the arena, a door

The city has an old saying: be home before the lamps go out. Nobody says why. Some nights a street goes dark, and in the morning somebody is gone.

Your master left three orders sewn into his scarf. The third one says: do not trust the lamp man.

Under the arena there is a door with five locks. The Games are only where the story starts.

Features

• Program your fighters. IF this, THEN that, up to 20 commands deep. One rat's tactic has over 10^86 possible versions. That is more than there are atoms in the universe, and a smart stray beats even a champion.

• A full fight simulation. Stamina, balance, reach, feints, parries, ripostes and flanks. Every blow lands or misses for a reason you can read afterwards and fix.

• Squads that think together. In 2 on 2 and 3 on 3, your rats hold the line, flank, bait, shield the wounded, call new plans in the middle of a fight and patch each other up. All by your rules.

• Hunt things that eat rats. Send three fighters against a crow, a possum, a ferret and worse. They get their own tactic for that.

• Spy, counter, share. Scout a rival's tactic before the bell, write the answer to it, and pass your winning tactic to a friend as a short code.

• A city that lives without you. Over 2000 rivals in dozens of dojos fight hundreds of matches every day. They win cups, grow old and die on the same ladder as your rats.

• Rats you will mourn. Pasts, traits, friendships, romances, grudges and dark secrets. Injuries that stay. Old age. Permanent death, and a memorial wall that fills up.

• The kitchen drawer armoury. Hundreds of weapons and armour pieces made from human rubbish: fork spears, thimble helmets, soup can plate. Scavenge, craft, repair and hunt down the blueprints.

• A dojo that has to pay its way. Training, a kitchen, a workshop, a surgery, workers, wages and debts. Every coin is a decision.

• A whole year of Games. A cup every week, pair and trio leagues, bets on other people's fights, and once a year the Flowerpot Colosseum, where a knockout can kill.

• A story worth digging for. Well over 100,000 words: a vanished master, a city afraid of the dark, five Legends, a locked door under the arena, and a very long way down.

Wishlist Ratiator to hear when the cellar opens.