Welcome to the world of killer kites. While these kites can be flown just for fun on a sunny day at the beach, they can also be used in a murderous rampage of wanton destruction with paper flying and shredded string falling to the ground like a rain of terror among the horrified passers-by… ahem. Anyway…
Your first step in kite flying is to buy a kite. Unfortunately they are only available at special visiting merchants as of the writing of this, but if you are lucky enough to have one, here is how they work.
Kite Basics
All you need to fly a kite is a kite. You don't need to worry about string or anything as the basic kite you purchase comes with all of that. To fly the kite you must be in an open area (such as a beach or field) and you toss kite to get it airborne.
When you do this, the kite is now in the air and you will have a spool of string in your hand. You can check usage on this spool (or on the kite when you are holding it) for different sets of instructions. You use this spool to control the kite, so all verbs during flight are directed at the spool, not the kite.
Once in the sky you can do various tricks with different verbs. The verbs are as follows:
Dive, Clench, Drag, Lift, Nudge, Pull, Push, Rock, Raise, Snap, Shake, Tap, Turn, Twist, Twitch, Tweak and Wave.
If you don't want to remember all of those and just want to have fun, you can play spool. This will randomly select one of the verbs above and perform the maneuver without you having to remember all of them.
To stop flying simply drop spool and the kite will come down for you to retrieve.
Kite Battle
Once you are bored of looping a lone kite in the air, harrying seagulls and passing pigeons, you can take your kite out for battle. The basics are all the same, with the same verbs to get your kite into the air, control it, and bring it down, except now these maneuvers will be translated into attacks. You must, of course, have another kite flying as a target, otherwise you will revert to Sunday at the Park flying mode.
To set a kite up for combat, you want to load kite before you launch it. This is a toggle command that will put your kite in battle/peaceful mode. If you have it in peaceful mode, then you can fly without fear of your kite being attacked, even if another kite is in the room and in attack mode. Assess your kite to check its current mode.
You can attack the other kite in the area until one or the other of the kites is too damaged to fly. Once this happens, the kite comes crashing to the ground and the one still flying wins. Keep in mind, your attacks can be countered, so your attack may turn on you. Once you are done fighting, both kites will likely need repairs. With the kite in hand, simply repair kite and it'll be good as new. Assess your kite to check its condition.
Kite Targetting
During battle you can let your kite randomly choose a target by just doing the maneuvers, or you can choose your own. Picking a target is simple, just point at the flying kite you wish to target and then aim spool. This will get your kite in a position to focus its attacks on the selected target. Once the target is down, your kite will automatically go back to random targetting until you choose another.
Kite Statistics
There are many different stats that make up your kite's skill set, each is either given a bonus or a penalty depending on the type of accessories you add. For instance, adding sharpened metal wingtips might boost your offensive attacks, but it will also slow you down and make dodging more difficult. The stats and what they affect are as follows:
Health - Your kite has a finite number of healt points that are lost when hit in battle and sometimes just when flying normally. Normal flight does not take away enough health to severely damage it in one blow, but it will add up over time. To restore a kite's health, simply repair it between flights.
Aerodynamics - This will help keep your kite in the air in the event of a critical failure and lowers the chance of normal flight health loss. This is also used in battle to give a bonus to defense.
Offense - This is just what it says, your kite's ability to hit another for damage. This is calculated against the target's defense in battle. Offense also allows for a chance at a counter-strike when you are defending an attack based on whether your offense is higher than the opponent's.
Defense - This is your kite's ability to dodge blows in battle and is calculated directly against the attacker's offense.
Kite Accessories
Adding accessories to your kite is not necessary to fly it, but it's a fun way to personalize it and also boosts/lowers different stats during battle. The five different types of accessories are tails, fins, strings, spools and material. Only one of each may be applied at any one time and all may be removed when swapped except for the material. These accessories are currently available in the traveling merchant's shop.
To add an accessory to your kite simply put <accessory> on kite before flight. You can remove them by typing remove kite and following the instructions. To see what accessories are on your kite, simply assess it while holding it. This will also tell you what mode it is in, how many strings control it and its flying condition.