Deus Rex

by EGUY
Deus Rex
A tile-based board game of digitally divine proportions!
ID:92115
 
New to Byond.com?



Welcome to the hub entry! Scroll down for screenshots. An internal helpfile will provide you with all the info you need to start playing right away!

Deus Rex is now a featured game for the Byond Strategy Guild!

See my blog for the latest Dev's on this game.

*Reviews would be welcomed at this point!*

Slideshow:
Deus Rex, v21



Thanks to ACWraith for game advice!
Music by Bjorn Lynne.

I'd just like to point out that the name of your AI is misspelled( or was it intended? ) as 'Deux Rex AI'.
Metamorphman wrote:
I'd just like to point out that the name of your AI is misspelled( or was it intended? ) as 'Deux Rex AI'.

Yeah, it's a typo.
i got a glitch where i suddenly couldn't play anymore cards. it was a 5x5 board vs an AI. every time i tried to drag any card to any open slot, the interface would blink (like it's updating) and nothing would happen. i don't know what else to say about it

oh, and you should always put a 'starting play' type card in one's hand. it's really awkward and sucky to go first but have absolutely no potential to earn more than 1 point, yet let your opponent take advantage of what you were forced to place
I don't know if this is intended or not, but your standings score is automatically changed to whatever your score from the last game you played was.

If your score is lower this game this game than it was in your last, your latest score will still overwrite your score on the standings.

Overall, it's a great game though.
Well thanks for the info and I appreciate the comments!

~I haven't done Scoring in any earnest fashion yet. I've worked with Medals before but the whole scoring system still eludes me for now. There's a lot less to go wrong with medals it seems. The error is something that had caught my eye but I thought I had just forgotten the previous scores. Hmm.

~That glitch happened to me once and I don't know what was up with it. I'll have to look into that more. As for the first turn thing, I'm still trying to balance that out between the person who goes first and the people who probably won't get to play on the last round (depending on the # of spaces and players).
Zaole wrote:
i got a glitch where i suddenly couldn't play anymore cards. it was a 5x5 board vs an AI. every time i tried to drag any card to any open slot, the interface would blink (like it's updating) and nothing would happen. i don't know what else to say about it

I've been trying to duplicate this but nothing's come up yet.
*Tile Design Philosophy:*

I. Followers:
They interact with other tiles based on type.
The coloring should be dingy, with more earth tones.

II. Constructs:
Interact with the board or how the board is developed.
The coloring should be more green and sky blue.

III. Miracles
Do whatever they want. Interact with point values and players which the other two types cannot do.
The coloring is bright, with a focus on red.

Each tile should do something unique or in a manner different than other tiles. All Followers are 'human' in origin with epic monsters as possible Miracles. Constructs are of human origin. The overall theme is Western (no ninjas).
I don't see a functional forum so I'll post this here.

The black map edges are gone from the initial window, but they have been replaced by white ones. My window dimensions don't appear to match the ones in your pictures.

When maximized, I then get screen artifacts.

Minimizing and maximizing appears to shove the two sides of the skin further away from each other. This gets progressively worse when repeated. After the third time, I can't even see elements other than the map.


...Also, can I hit you up for an in-game help file? I won't be a jerk and push the bar further away at the last moment. However, I intend to make it part of BYOND Strategy's feature standards pretty soon. It's simply more convenient for players. Besides, your AI options mean the user might not even be online.


Finally, you might want to consider removing some of those borders. The more you divide your skin, the more intimidating it looks to new players. Save borders for items that need to stand out. For instance, the chat input border makes sense in this game. (I'd remove the Spectate/Join label as well because the words are right on the buttons.)
Well the white bars are just the background. This is with a lot of programming to get the thing to always stay in a square.

The screen artifacts have been there since the first version I switched to a child element to swap between the host menu and hand screen.

I can work on a help file.
I hinted at some issues in Tech Tree #156, but here are the details. =)


- The togglebg verb is currently creating a "Commands" panel. Getting rid of it is a requirement for BYOND Strategy's featured list.

- I won't harp on your lack of proper HTML standards, but you should at least remove the annoying line breaks that are inserted in the middle of paragraphs. Well-formatted help files are another feature list requirement.

- Meanwhile, you can probably remove most of the Setup section. I believe sections like this are more likely to bore or intimidate players before they even learn how to play. Summarize it in a couple sentences. If your interface is so obtuse that it requires a manual then you have bigger problems.

- When using small buttons and labels like you do in the menu pane, be sure to set the font and font size. Don't count on players using the same settings. Likewise, extend every text label whenever there is room. There is no reason I should be reading things like "Equal D...".

- Names are cut off in the info panel. I'd try removing the player suffixes. Members already have avatars to set them apart. I currently see my giant head followed by "A..." and "*Member*".

- The AI buttons are not quite wide enough to contain their text. (Mainly, "Mastermind".) Meanwhile, the Remove AI button overlaps the info panel.



Less-pressing suggestions:

- I'd remove the border on the main_menu child. It gives the text slightly more room. More importantly, it looks more clean. Remove borders when you can.

- Is the Spectators tab necessary? I'd replace it with a button next to the music toggle. It could then open a pop-up that displays everyone on the server. That would be useful even while games are in progress. The menu pane could then focus on the waiting list.
I've got some changes for the next version set, but haven't released it yet.
Well dayum. Had a bug on something I was testing and a good number of scores got wiped out...

I was planning to reset all scores for the next big update.
I think I'm going to phase out 'Equal Deal'.