Well the new Interstellar era has been out for a couple of weeks now and everything looks pretty stable. The log files don't show any significant errors and I haven't seen any bug reports. So either that means the code is fairly clean or people just aren't playing :)
Along those lines, I am now going to try to address the issue of players. Up to now I have been purposely not trying to gather a lot of users because I don't want people to show up and try to play a buggy and incomplete game and then leave. But now I think it is time to try to see if we can get more people to show up and play and start to grow 'a community'.
So instead of working on the game mechanics, I am going to start to work on content and features that will attract and hold other players. You have probably seen the 'voting' links at the bottom of the main page. I am not a huge fan of these kinds of things, but the truth is they can drive traffic if people vote. I am not offering any kind of incentive to vote (yet), but we'll see where that goes.
I may also start purchasing ads on other sites to get some exposure.
So anyway, you may not see a lot of visible changes to the site, but hopefully some more players will start to show up. Please welcome them and help them get started so we can grow and fill out the game world a bit.
Friday, July 25, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Its Here!
Ok boys and girls (right, who are we kidding). The interstellar era has been deployed. I did a little last minute testing and calibration of the weapon strengths and everything seemed cool, so I just went for it.
You can now create interstellar era games!
Here are some highlights:
1) Carriers and Fighters! They're pretty fun to use. But when you add the carrier to your fleet, it is empty. You have to add fighter wings to your fleet, and then assign those fighters to the carrier. You assign fighters to a carrier on the "My Fleet" page. Also, you don't directly control the fighters -- you assign them a task like attacking a specific ship or defending a ship and they go do it. They return to the carrier when they are out of fuel. Captial ship weapons cannot target fighters -- only other fighters and point defense systems can.
2) Shields! Most ships have shields. There are four shields: fore, aft, port and starboard. When a weapon hits, depending on the weapon type and the angle it hits, it can damage one or more shields. Different weapons are affected differently by the shields.
3) Different Beam Types! In addition to the standard laser, there is now a tractor/repulsor beam and an energy drain beam. The energy drain can take the targets reactor offline which can stop the ship and cause other problems. The tractor/repulsor can pull or push another ship.
4) More Effective Beams! Beam weapons have much longer ranges and do more damage.
5) Directional Weapons! Projectile weapons can now be mounted to face backward or to port and starboard. This means you can fire to the side like a classic battleship broadside.
6) Jump Drives! Many ships have Faster Than Light jump drives. You can select a destination that is anywhere on the map and engage the drive. Different drives take longer to spool, but once they do, you will jump to the destination within a few seconds.
Thats pretty much it. There are some other minor changes and bug fixes.
I hope you enjoy it. As usual, please report any bugs in the forum.
You can now create interstellar era games!
Here are some highlights:
1) Carriers and Fighters! They're pretty fun to use. But when you add the carrier to your fleet, it is empty. You have to add fighter wings to your fleet, and then assign those fighters to the carrier. You assign fighters to a carrier on the "My Fleet" page. Also, you don't directly control the fighters -- you assign them a task like attacking a specific ship or defending a ship and they go do it. They return to the carrier when they are out of fuel. Captial ship weapons cannot target fighters -- only other fighters and point defense systems can.
2) Shields! Most ships have shields. There are four shields: fore, aft, port and starboard. When a weapon hits, depending on the weapon type and the angle it hits, it can damage one or more shields. Different weapons are affected differently by the shields.
3) Different Beam Types! In addition to the standard laser, there is now a tractor/repulsor beam and an energy drain beam. The energy drain can take the targets reactor offline which can stop the ship and cause other problems. The tractor/repulsor can pull or push another ship.
4) More Effective Beams! Beam weapons have much longer ranges and do more damage.
5) Directional Weapons! Projectile weapons can now be mounted to face backward or to port and starboard. This means you can fire to the side like a classic battleship broadside.
6) Jump Drives! Many ships have Faster Than Light jump drives. You can select a destination that is anywhere on the map and engage the drive. Different drives take longer to spool, but once they do, you will jump to the destination within a few seconds.
Thats pretty much it. There are some other minor changes and bug fixes.
I hope you enjoy it. As usual, please report any bugs in the forum.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
The Hard Part
I know things have been a little quiet around here but that is just because I have been focusing on getting the Interstellar era deployed. Once that is deployed, I will be making a lot more frequent small changes to enhance the game and the website.
The coding on the Interstellar is done. All the new subsystems and ship types work.
Now I am in the middle of creating a load of new ship types. To be honest, this is probably the hardest part. It takes some thought to come up with a balanced fleet design that hopefully doesn't have any large holes that can be exploited by certain strategies.
Not to mention that it is tedious to enter all the data related to all the subsystem and weapon types. The new era has twice as many types of subsystems, mostly due to the new weapon types.
Anyway, it won't be long now. This is a busy week with it being the 4th of July, so I am not sure if I will get it deployed this week or not. But soon.
The coding on the Interstellar is done. All the new subsystems and ship types work.
Now I am in the middle of creating a load of new ship types. To be honest, this is probably the hardest part. It takes some thought to come up with a balanced fleet design that hopefully doesn't have any large holes that can be exploited by certain strategies.
Not to mention that it is tedious to enter all the data related to all the subsystem and weapon types. The new era has twice as many types of subsystems, mostly due to the new weapon types.
Anyway, it won't be long now. This is a busy week with it being the 4th of July, so I am not sure if I will get it deployed this week or not. But soon.
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