Poverty, Coding, and Politics

New Version, 3 years of Wargames!

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:01:07 GMT

Would you believe it, 3 years of Wargames.

Only a small update, but I'll try and get round sometime for something bigger. The main update is the Knock Out gametype, which aims to act like a "last man standing" type game.

Wargames Subscriptions now have a special offer for this month. If you subscribe in September, you can get the rest of this year for free before your paid subscription starts. If your a current subscriber (before today), you can take advantage of an extra 3 months (or more, if the other offer applies for longer) anytime from now and the new year.

* Fix: The Login/Logout messages for Subscribers in Country Report didn't go to a new line, fixed.
* Fix: Attempted to fix the fact that the flag chooser would stay at default at relog.
* Fix: The Assembly line research to upgrade factories would not stay grey even when it was fully upgraded, fixed.
* Fix: Dolphins now display in Ministry of War.
* Fix: Some minor alterations to Research messages.
* Fix: Attempted fix for future research bug.
* Change: If an attacker or defender has a battle value of 0, units will not be lost.
* Change: Suggestion box changed to "Suggestions and Questions".
* New: New gametype, Knock Out for subscribers:
- Knock out sets a time in which the new command is removed, alliances are broken up and banned, everyone is unPUNed and new players are unable to join the game.
- The winner is the one who beats everyone else to submission.
* New: One can now set a limitless game by putting -1 on the number of turns. Games with a turn limit now end at that turn.

* Subscribers:

* New: Knock Out gametype.

Round End

Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:46:07 GMT

The round has ended, the results are here:

http://aceblokeswargames.wikispaces.com/300808

Pretty poor to be honest, end of summer must have killed off the players, we didn't even hit 70 countries this time.

I'm still working on the new version, but I'm going to leave it till monday anyway. Mondays game will be a special "Knock Out Round". Players will have 3 days to login and join. After that, Everyone unPUN's, alliances are disbanned and banned, and no new players can join. Winner is the one that kills the rest.

Monday also marks the start of my monthly newsletter, you can join the mailing list by sending an email with the title "Wargames Newsletter" to acebloke@gmail.com.

September also marks Wargames 3 years anniversary. A special deal on Wargames Subscription to tie in with it will be revealed along with the new version on Monday.

Slide-o-Snake 4.0'ed

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:43:32 GMT

Slide-o-Snake has been 4.0'ed, one of my favourite little games that used to be hosted on Digital Byond.

Other than having an interface and a menu, the only change in it is dealing with the Poison square. It could easily be dealt with by nudging it in a corner, but now that doesn't work, it will randomly select another square to change. Other than that, its all the same.

Remember, there is a new Wargames Newsletter coming out 1st of September, if you wish to be on the mailing list, send a email with "Wargames Newsletter" in the title to my email address (acebloke@gmail.com).

There will be a special offer for Wargames Subscriptions during September which I will explain later.

Wargames Newsletter plus Pinky update

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 14:02:39 GMT

2 things:

Wargames Newsletter will start 1st of September and be monthly. If you wish to subscribe, send an email to acebloke@gmail.com (there's a link to it to your left anyway) with the title: Wargames Subscription, or leave it here on the blog if you wish to get spybots giving you spam as well.

2nd: I'm about to update Pinky, the tetris/bejeweled clone, the main updates is:

Its not buggy
It multiplies the points as you make chains
It counts the number of moves you make
There is a game option to limit yourself to 50 moves

It can sometimes crash on easy, but I haven't figured out how not to yet.

Wargames update (World is filling up!)

Sat, 23 Aug 2008 12:45:41 GMT

Haven't really had time to do anything else but this:

Slowly getting round to updating the help guide in game, its changing roughly every version now.

An Attempted fix of a bug someone mentioned, lets see if it works.

Population Density has now been included.

All info screens are now in windows rather than the BYOND browser that is built into the interface.

* Fix: An Attempted fix in the situation of countries that seem immune, when they shouldn't be.
* Change: Tried to delag the Land Leaders some more (was about 8 seconds with 115 countries).
* Change: reduced the number of variables in game by up to 2,000.
* Change: Moved the suggestion box to make room for Nations Population Density.
* Change: All info screens are now in windows.
* Change: Quick help updated again.
* New: World Population Density added to Leading Players and end of round results.
* New: Nations Population Density lists players by how densly populated they are.
* New: Population Density is now displayed in Ministry of Trade.

So yeah

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 11:48:11 GMT

Obviously, its been several days and I haven't updated or hosted a Wargames Server.

I will attempt, if I'm allowed, to work on it later and tomorrow, and host a sat to sat game then.

The updates will mainly include what I stated before, plus perhaps some expansion on the in-game help (if you haven't noticed its been different the last version or two).

I want to tidy it up so I can start to work towards going outside BYOND (as in, with the exe download file) with it (see http://www.byond.com/developer/forum/?id=657766#657766 for my post regarding that).

Wargames Round End

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 13:44:01 GMT

This weeks Wargames round has ended, the results of such is available here:

http://aceblokeswargames.wikispaces.com/170808

This round was plagued not only by my obscure usual connection problem fixed by removing and reinserting the wire, but also problems of logging into the pager to register that the game was actually live in the first place. Because of that, there was only a total of 116 countries this time, but they did relatively well enough despite the lack of blood.

Updates wise on the game development front:

Pinky, the recently released game (see post below) has some changes and additions planned. In my version which I'm updating, I've made a chain system which multiplies your score, and added a 50 move limit scenario in which you get as many points as you can in that time. I will probably also add a time trial, sounds, and some form of endgame, and that will be it for it.

No new news on Wargames 2 yet other than Beta D will be released once I've had a good full day to work on it for general tidy up.

Wargames 1 is not going to get an update just yet, but features already coded in ready for next version include another attempt to delag Land Leaders (the current one seems to hold up to 8 seconds lag in a 115 country game). There is also a new variable coming into the game: Population Density, and there is a list similar to Land Leaders from most densely populated to least, which will be helpful for those of you who like to target your enemies. I will probably host this version, though it wont be downloadable till after the end of the round, tomorrow.

New game uploaded

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 15:45:42 GMT

I've just uploaded Pinky

Pinky is a mixed clone of traditional tetris/switching puzzle games. Move the box with the arrow keys, and switch the gems in the two boxes with the a key.

All you have to do to earn points is make 3 in a row.

Modes include:

Easy: 4 colours
Medium: 6 colours
Hard: 8 colours
Harder: 10 colours
Progressive: Edges from 4 to 10 colours

There is no end game, and one can freely move blocks (bearing in mind it only works horizontally) regardless of whether or not the move makes a 3 in a row.

The 2 block cursor actually comes from a popular SNES tetris game, which got released in English as Tetris attack and themed Yoshi and Baby Mario (Super Mario World 2, Yoshi's Island storyline, basically). The game was actually originally designed with Fairies and not Mario in Japan, and switched to Yoshi for its english translation to make it more marketable in english regions.

This game takes the 2 block cursor, which switches the blocks in the cursor, and then checks for 3+ in a row. This game took me about 3 hours, including testing to make, and only really lacks an endgame which I'm unsure how to deal with (either I do a Bejeweled thing, and prevent people from moving blocks if it doesn't form a line, or I make it more difficult than 3 in a row).

The purpose of making the game was simply to make something that my wife might like to mindlessly play (as opposed to me mindlessly playing Tower Defence-including my own-games). The reason for the name "Pinky" was that I was determined to make something with pink in it, and I might make them double points or something in a future version. The other reason for making it was a) a time thing to form another game in a little amount of time (this time about 3 hours) and b) make a game with a relatively small window size (this one just includes an 11x11 map).

This game is only single player, please don't host it, just wont work right (or shouldn't, at least :p). Any comments or suggestions are welcome, but this is a bit of a throw away game to keep my mind on the right track.

Wargames 2 wise, I've coded in the basics for alliances, and I just need to alter it so it takes into account government types, so that government types actually do something. After that, it'll be just a tidy up and an expansion of units and technologies, and it'll be beta D in release.

The Wargames 1 server is doing its usual disconnects, but with the added bonus of BYOND not wanting to log in when I reconnect. There is not a lot I can do about that.

And I'm back

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:50:21 GMT

Well, I've actually been back since Monday, but been doing other things and been watching the Georgian-South Ossetian War go on, so I've been too busy to blog.

It seems like someone is hosting Wargames, but I will probably host myself later tonight.

Wargames 2 Beta D has had some work to it, and its nearing (I know I've probably said that many times, but there is a few more things added this week) release. The only major thing that I need to do which I think is important is the start of working out alliances.

Some of the updates I have done this week for the next release include a land based trader unit, and generated lists to display towns and units of your country (which is helpful).

New Wargames Version

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:56:42 GMT

Just a quick notice, I'm away from tomorrow till monday, but I have knocked up a new update with relevant fixes and a few new things to help.

The results of the game currently playing will be up soon at this url: http://aceblokeswargames.wikispaces.com/290708

I will not be hosting from Tonight till monday.

Other than the fixes, the only real updates are the following:

New title screen
The Top menu includes the Building/Unit/Other/Research commands to flip through (might be easier for some)
The command panel you are on is highlighted in red
Co-ordinates are displayed on screen, this makes targeting and viewing nukes, or just checking your own map a lot easier
The building cost variation finally appears on the Games Settings window

Full features:

* Fix: Major fix for battles, stupid coding resulted in abundance of land at attack in certain situations.
* Fix: Future era research should (hopefully) not take all your money away.
* Fix: Possible fix for a possible bug, relating to nuke costs.
* Change: The max land available at attack ends up being 13, not 12 after the bug fix (don't ask me how I miscalculated that).
* Change: Attack code has been changed slightly, and may lower combat deaths.
* Change: due to DMI icon upgrade of the title picture doubling the download files size, switched to a new title picture.
* New: The menu (at top) has been altered to include the four command panels, which might make it easier for some people.
* New: The command panel now displays a box to show which menu your in. While it'll be totally useless to old players, new players will find it easier to understand how it works.
* New: Co-ordinates display on screen (next to turn display at top right) so you are able to identify map locations for yourself and others.
* New: The building cost variation now appears as a % in the Game Settings pop up.