====== Sudden Death ("SD") ======

FIXME this article could use more info by alien-experts

=== Overview ===

"Sudden death" is a special mode that starts when a match has already taken a long time. How long this time is depends on the server -- on most servers it's somewhere between 30 and 50 minutes. Sudden death is intended to make a match finish quickly, by adding some restrictions to game play. On many servers, few minutes after sudden death kicks in the match is stopped anyway by reaching the [[time limit]].

The effects of sudden death are:
  * all current [[buildpoints]] are lost, so you can't build any more structures -- not even rebuild destroyed structures!
  * players don't get any "[[free credit]]" anymore (usually players get free credits when staying alive for a while)

When sudden death starts, all players get a warning message on their screen, and on many servers there are also prior warnings.

=== What to do in Sudden Death? ===

First of all: DON'T PANIC! -- except when you are a human with a bad team, which is the common situation for human players ;-)

If you get the first SD warning, quickly make sure that:
  * your base has a good layout -- you won't be able to restructure it in SD!
  * you have spent all BPS you still have -- even a weakly placed turret is better than giving your BPS away for nothing
  * all your structures are repaired -- SD is a good chance for the enemy to [[rush]] your base, so you better be prepared

During sudden death, you have to be extra careful for your buildings. It is useful to have at least one [[builder]] hanging around and repairing damaged buildings. If you're on human team, especially take care of armory, and also of defense computer, medistation and telenodes. If you're on alien team, especially take care of your eggs.

On the other hand, SD is indeed a good chance to finally get your victory! If you are well prepared and time it well, you can rush the enemy base just in time to destroy some crucial structures. Also remember that every destroyed structure is a win -- so if you can spare the credits it might make sense to do some "kamikaze" attacks to take down some enemy defense structures.

=== Misc. stuff ===

Actually, there are some structures that **can** be built during SD:
  * humans and aliens can build their reactor / overmind at any time
  * humans can build repeaters any time (because they don't cost anything), but remember that repeaters destroy themselves after a while if they don't power any other structure!
  * likewise, aliens can often build [[Alien Structures#Hovel|Hovel]], as they also cost nothing.

=== Misc. hints for humans ===

  * When your armoury is destroyed in SD, you won't get any more ammo for non-energy weapons. So it might be a good idea to get an energy weapon while armoury is still up (so you can reload at reactor). Of course this doesn't help if you respawn; in that case it might help to spawn as builder to repair any damaged buildings. Remember, turrets and teslas are often of more use than rifle and blaster; so better camp in your base and rely on your defense buildings instead of doing kamikaze blaster runs.

=== Variations of SD rules ===

On some servers there are variations of the SD rules. [[server_versions#tjw_server|For example]], there's a variation where humans get the [[buildpoints|build points]] for a destroyed armory/medistation/defense computer back and can rebuild these. This is meant to make up for the fact that humans heavily rely on these buildings while there are no similarly important structures for aliens.