Global Triumph

My first concern is regarding the start of a country.  The Join page allows people to pick a spot up to 100 pixels away, but after playing a bit, I'm concerned that distance may be too great.  It's good in the sense that it allows people to feel around and define a country for a while, but it's also bad in the sense that there will be very little international activity for a good period of time.  If you have an opinion, please share it!

this is a great idea for a game... I love it! =)

Yeah, this SERIOUSLY kicks ass.

Thanks for the compliments!

I think it'll be really interesting once a few hundred people are playing at once!

And once it's finished, of course. haha

Great game by the way.  I'm also looking forward to a lot of people playing this.  It'll be great.  Now to the thread...Personally on the 100 pixel idea, you could probably lower it a bit but not to like to 70.  The up side for 100, it gives you time to build up a good base and be ready for anything.  The down side for 100, it takes way too long to get a fight going, just like you said.  Another concern of mine are the subs.  It says only you can see your own subs and that's it.  What it sound like is it's going to be imposible to destroy one sub.  You could have a fleet of those sitting in your backyard and nobody would know.  An idea to enable people to see them is to have an option for the subs to stay afloat or dive for a set number of turns.  This way it gives you a chance to see the threat but when the subs dive, the opponent will be lost but still have the idea that there's something going on in the water.  Just thought I'd throw that out there and I look forward to getting back to all of ya soon.

Thanks for the suggestion!  That might work well.

I left subs out of the sea units thus far because I wasn't sure how to implement them well, or if I want them in there at all.  I like the idea of keeping the game as more of an overall war strategy game, like a general directing an overall world war strategy.  Subs seemed to be more about little covert missions.

One thought I had was to give each country a "ping" every X number of cycles, which they can store up if they'd like.  Then, they can use a ping whenever they'd like to spot enemy subs.  Your dive idea could work really well, too.

Either way, I'm definitely saving them for later in the development process.

The sonar, or ping as you called it, would be a great idea, too.  It'd probably be less stuff to program for ya.  Here's another topic, have you tried to advertise this on different gaming sites such as Kongregate and Addicting Games.  Facebook was the best place to start I'd say, but you should try and get more places with other games on it cuz I know once people see this game they'll be interested.  Have fun with the "ping" and us gamers will be looking forward to launching those subs soon.

So yea, I'm going to be gone for about three days and I was wondering if my money will stock up as I'm gone?

Yes, you'll keep earning each cycle.

Can we move our capital from place to place?  I just wanna know cuz if there's a strike force coming to me from the west, I'd like to move my capital as far east as I can from them.  Thanks.

Nope, your capital is fixed, so you'll just need to be sure to protect it!

In real life, I'm sure a country could arbitrarily select a different city as a capital at any time.  However, it would really be superficial.  Their true capital was taken, so the implications of that would still exist.

I do via Google AdWords, but I just don't have an advertising budget for a focused campaign.

Once the game is done, of course, I'll try to promote it more aggressively.  Hopefully word of mouth will help, too.

I'm thinking that another good solution (in addition to dropping the distance) is to require that the person be within, say, 80 pixels of two countries.  Instead of new countries being spread outward in a straight line, it will create a map that keeps the expansion a bit tighter.

Air attacks are far more complex than I initially imagined, but I'm just about wrapped up.  A little more code and a bit more testing and they'll be ready to go!

Random question but how exactly do the Deffense Turrets work?  Do they only protect you on that one square or do they have a range is what I'm asking I guess?  Glad to hear that air bases are going to be ready soon.  Keep up on the good work.  We're all lovin it so far as from what I can tell.

They protect the sector on which they're built from all types of attacks, as well as attack any air attacks that pass over them.

In the first skirmishes that have taken place in the game, an issue came up that I think could seriously hamper gameplay.  Because units can both be moved and set to attack, battles generally are avoided completely and units essentially attack haphazardly.

For example, let's say that unit A is set to attack unit B, then charge through into unit B's country.  Later that day, unit B's owner logs in, moves it, then sets its own attack into A's country.  Unit A will never attack unit B and both units will just fly through into the other country.  It simply becomes a jumble of crisscrossed sectors.

This is also an issue with naval battles, where units will be even less likely to form any sort of line.  Units can charge almost anywhere in water.  Also, warship shots will be at targets that will have probably moved.

So, to counter this issue, a fairly significant change is going to be made in the game in the next day or two.  The ability to move a land unit will only appear when the unit is positioned on a land base or next to a transport (to board it).  For sea units, the option will only appear when the unit is next to a sea base.  Beyond that, all moves and attacks will now be handled in the daily cycle using the normal attack methods.  I will also be increasing the attack distances a fair amount to accommodate the change.

It'll take a bit of adjustment, but I think the game will function better in the long run.

Sounds good and it makes sense.  Glad you caught that at the beginning here.  I've got a few more questions...For bridges, can ships cross/sail under them?  It'd make sense they'd be able to go under but I just wanted to clarify.  Also, can bridges be destoryed?  On another note, when the treaties are complete, would your allies be able to cross each others land without attacking them?  Thanks and good luck with the treaties.

It would be nice to have a marker for sea units on the big global map.  If you are moving the sea units around it can be hard to find them on the big map and scrolling through each sector takes awhile.

Yes, assuming there isn't a land unit on the sector where you're crossing.


Also, can bridges be destoryed?

Yes, they can be weakened and destroyed via warship fire and air attacks.


would your allies be able to cross each others land without attacking them?

No, countries can never occupy another country's space.  Treaties only prevent countries from attacking one another.

I ran into that, too.  I'm debating between either (a) marking all sea units (your own and others) with a white dot on the overall map, or (b) just having markers be placed on spots where your sea units are located.  I think I'm leaning towards option a.  Any opinions?

I thought more on your "ping" idea and I think I know what you can do to make this game more stratigetic.  I think you should able to use it like every four or five turns.  With that, you decide where to set the "ping", but it has to be either on the shore line by your base or then right on top of one of your boats.  The "ping" can then spread 100 to 400 pixels around the chosen area.  The "ping" will then also point out any enemy ships that are within the area, just to branch off of the last thread.  Take it or leave it, just thought I'd throw that out there.  Nice job on the nuke update, all of us are now shaking in our boots.  Could you tell us a bit more on how the radiation works in the near futrue, please?  Thanks.

I was wondering about that myself, but someone beat me to it. When will the air units and such be ready? I can't wait to cause chaos throughout my enemies plains.

I still cant see my ships on the map..... ?

Thanks for the suggestion, and it is a good way of implementing the ping.  At this point, though, after more thought and getting some feedback from various people, I think I may leave submarines out of the game.  I think I'd prefer to keep it overall strategy and not include "covert mission"-type attacks.


Could you tell us a bit more on how the radiation works in the near futrue, please?

The nukes will leave radiation on the sectors it affects, decreasing in percentage the further it is from the blast (the target center being 100%).  That percent will drop each cycle, so the radiation will decrease over a period of time.  Any units moving in a sector that contains radiation will receive some damage from it, the degree of which will depend on the percent of radiation and the armor level.

I was hoping I'd have time this weekend, but that's now unlikely.

One issue with air attacks is that it requires some sort of attack log be added to the game.  Otherwise, you'd have no idea who's attacking your units each day.

I've got most of the processing done, but there's still a bit more to go.  I'll then have to test the new Daily Cycle script (with logging), code a log viewer into the game, and then, finally, enable air bases and units.

I know everyone's anxious!  I'll do my best!

Try hitting reload.

If that doesn't work, then it may be because I haven't coded it yet.

I think I'll work on that right now, actually.  It should hopefully be ready to go by the time you log in again.

Okay, you should see them now!

A significantly altered Daily Cycle script will be running at 4:00am.  Though it's been tested quite a bit, there's always the possibility of a bug.

If there's a significant glitch, I may need to correct the script, restore the database back to its state before the script ran, and run it again.  So, if you happen to log in before I am able to review the game and make any corrections, please note that change may be lost and need to be set again later in the day.

Again, the script has been tested and I don't expect anything to go wrong, but I just wanted to warn people just in case.

Right now, warships can attack 15 and transports can attack 17.  Do you guys think they should be equal, or perhaps flipped?  nadley mentioned that it doesn't make sense to him, and I can see his point.

Please let me know what you guys think!

I personally think it makes perfect sense.  The Warships are bigger and bulkier than the Transports, so they'd move slower.  What you could do though is if the Transports are loaded with a unit they could move the same or a bit less than a Warship.  Just a thought.  Off topic, but do you have any idea when we're going to be getting planes in the air?  Thanks.

That actually sounds perfect!  I may even make the distance variable, based on the strength of the land unit in relation to the strength of the sea unit.  Thanks for the suggestion!!


Off topic, but do you have any idea when we're going to be getting planes in the air?

They're ready to go!  It's coded to be available after 4:00am, though, so people logging in now don't have an advantage over people logging in earlier.

The Daily Cycle will process air attacks for the first time on the 5th at 4:00am.  (If something happens to go terribly wrong, I may need to restore/rerun the Daily Cycle.)

Quick note on air attacks.

Because treaties are not in place yet, all defense turrets and units owned by other countries will fire at your air units as they fly over.  (The flight path is a direct line from the air base to the target sector.)

Also, I still need to implement the following:

1) A "move" function to move air units from one base to another.  The move will count as their turn, though, so they won't be able to attack from the new air base until after the next Cycle.

2) An attack list so that air attacks that have been set can be canceled.

3) I'll also look into how I can mark targets that have been set that isn't too costly on the processing end.

If anyone would like to see the radiation side effects of a bomb, zoom in on the following area:

I have a couple of questions on the nukes...1.)How long does the radiation stay in the area?  2.)How much does it hurt your units? and  3.)Will it affect air units and other missiles/nukes?

The nukes almost take the fun out of it dude. Granted, great idea, but it almost too devastating. Any new country would be obliterated and more. I was also curious about the air units attack. How do you know if your attack was successful or a failure. It seems like a russain rolette game or something.

"Did I get the bullet, Did I get the bullet?"

One last thing. How do you change your money increase. Is it in a special file to change the amount of materials you gain from land, or is it in your capitol?

1) A few weeks, give or take, depending on how much damage the nuke took on the way to its target.  The percentage drops fairly quickly initially, though.

2) It depends on the percent of radiation and the unit armor.

3) Nope.  It's really just coded as soil contamination.  (The initial blast will affect sea units, but the radiation effects later will not.)

I think we'll have to see how it plays out.  Several have actually been launched already, two of them on me. haha

I don't think there's the motivation to spend all that money to nuke a new country.  That motivation (and the use of nukes) can decrease, too, if I jack up their cost.  And, of course, there's always the threat of a retaliatory strike!


How do you change your money increase.

It's currently a fixed rate.

I am confused by the zoom feature on the large map. it dosnt seem to do anything for me.  am i doing something wrong?

Are you referring to the zoom settings?  They set the number of sectors that will display when you click to zoom on the map.  The default has been 57x37, but now you can load more sectors, if you'd like (and if your PC seems to handle it well).

Now i understand. i thought i was going to be able to see all those sectors at once, just smaller than before,  i just have to scroll to see them.  cool, thanks

I was thinking that it might be good to have "dummy" cities on each major continent in order to spread out the combatants.  Maybe as the "war" progresses you could spawn one or two away from the fighting to create multiple campaigns on the same map.

Not sure if this falls under the category of "really stupid question" or feedback, but here goes:

Regarding land units, after the first week or so, what would be the point of having infantry? I understand that they have a role early on in that they can conquer the most open territory for the money (9 sectors per turn for $100, vs. 12 sectors per turn for $500 for jeeps and 9 sectors per turn for $900 for tanks). But as far as actual fighting, I don't see where the have any value. Am I missing something? Someone please educate me.

As for infantry, maybe an APC that moves faster than a jeep through occupied land and has no attack of it's own.  The only way it can take new land is if it has troops in it and then it has the attack of the infantry in it.  It might have a bit better defense. 

Strategically, it would be nice to have hills and impassable mountains on the map to fight over and to use as defenses.  The hills need only to be sectors that have a higher attack/defense quotient.

I would like to see tanks have a similar attack as the warship.  Tanks do have a range weapon.

Airborne troops or a C130 would also be nice (troops only).  You could then "sneak" in a flanking position that isn't water adjacent.

I thought I'd have a "peg" on the map that can be used to spawn near, since spawning could pose a problem for newer countries.  I can then move or remove the peg as necessary.

Every player has his/her own strategy, so I'm sure many players will choose to avoid them.  Some may prefer to use infantry only to start, but others will use them as land grabbers or cheap cannon fodder later.

Also, keep in mind that a well developed infantry unit can certainly beat a weak jeep unit.

How about the option to create a satellite, which would cost just an ungodly amount of loot, but would be able to deployed in a fixed geosynchronous orbit so that you could keep track of the movement of units in a radius of say 100 squares per satellite?  That way you could get a fix on subs if they ever have to surface. 

This could get really complicated.  :)

Defense turrets with infantry in their sector should deliver a defense bonus to both the infantry unit and the defense turret.  The option to entrench could be used as well, delivering an additional point of defense per day or week or whatever.  Infantry are the crux of nearly any fighting force.  In the real world, mechanized units exist almost exclusively to support those troops.  Tanks are no good in urban combat, but rule the land on open ground.  Aircraft are great at clearing out tanks, but in general do a rather poor job of extricating entrenched troops in rugged terrain. 

You have a real opportunity to make this one hell of a game man.  With the right amount of work to flesh out units and create the need for strategy (by utilizing terrain, entrenchment, natural city defenses) and doing a little in creating a storyline (such as a post apocalyptic world...blah blah), this could become a Travian killer. 

I'm absolutely willing to help on the storyline, if you'd like, and can't wait to see what developments you make to this game.

I really like the idea of a game that cycles once a day, so that you don't have to be glued to your computer 24-7 in order to keep up and enjoy the game.

But I see two problems.

First, with the sheer size of the map, players could reach a point in the game where they have thousands of units, and managing those units would take hours and hours. Not exactly sure on the numbers, but my point is eventually you could reach a point where you simply don't have enough free time to keep up. Not sure what the solution is, or if there even is one. (If I got to that point, I would probably try to find someone to share my account so that we could each do half the work.)

Second, with the game processing everything at 4 a.m. (Central), and with everything being processed in order from the previous 24 hours, players who can log in at 4:05 a.m. Central time have a huge advantage because their attacks will be processed first. (Personally I benefit from this, because I live on the West Coast and work until 1 a.m. Pacific, so I go home, eat something, watch TV for 20 minutes then log in, but that's beside the point.) Changing the time that things get processed just shifts the advantage from one group of players to another, but I'm wondering if it's possible to make the game process things starting at a random time. (The processing would still happen at 4 a.m., but the order in which things would be processed would be different each day. One day, for example, it might start with a move made at 7:24 am and loop back around, and the next day it might start at 10:17 p.m. and loop back around.)