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Post by succat on Apr 2, 2011 22:37:36 GMT -5
The Grid. It's a little web game I've been working on, and I was finally able to put it up on a live server I have access to. Give it a try - you might hate it - it might not even work celtruler.com/games/thegrid/
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Post by ellipsis on Apr 3, 2011 2:54:09 GMT -5
Way to sell people on it. I have a question - so deployment is movement from one controlled square to another, and then "purchase" gets you new units I take it? I ran out of gold before I got a chance to try it.
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Post by succat on Apr 3, 2011 3:06:15 GMT -5
Way to sell people on it. I have a question - so deployment is movement from one controlled square to another, and then "purchase" gets you new units I take it? I ran out of gold before I got a chance to try it. Yep, that's about the size of it. The tricky part is that 'purchase' will drop more units into the square with the highest number, so if you own squares 6 and 7, the units you purchase will pop up in square 7.
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Post by succat on Apr 3, 2011 16:52:00 GMT -5
Like I said, 'it might not work'. Unfortunately a bunch of info got tossed into the abyss. I apologize to everyone who lost their account and had to restart. It won't happen again if I can help it
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Post by nawglan on Apr 3, 2011 17:17:36 GMT -5
heh, allowed me to get a corner spot. 8)
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Post by xade on Apr 3, 2011 18:59:12 GMT -5
My account!!! Ah well, I'm back and ready to kill you all in your sleep again...
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Post by ellipsis on Apr 4, 2011 13:56:20 GMT -5
I really like the "the less you have, the more you get at updates" mechanic, but the main problem so far is pretty serious - getting gold seems to be completely and utterly random. I'm not sure if this is intentional or not, but for a while last night I was getting gold at just about every update, and then I just stopped getting gold, and have't received any gold in maybe 12 hours. I have no idea what determines my income, or if this is just a glitch.
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Post by xade on Apr 4, 2011 18:51:29 GMT -5
It seems to be relational to how many units you have in comparison to your number of tiles. That said- combat wise, if someone wants to hit you, it freaking hurts! Someone better do something about Naw before he consolidates all my old land though!
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Post by succat on Apr 5, 2011 0:39:50 GMT -5
Thanks for the feedback everyone! Obviously, there are flaws to some of the logic in the game, and I'm still thinking about how to improve some things while not breaking other things. I can tell you that that the Gold given on Updates is not random but follows a sort of pattern that I've been tinkering with here and there, which is what Ellipsis was noticing. I think I've more or less nailed it down, though, and xade is right in that it does take your units and squares into consideration, and also your gold. I had to try to come up with a balance of power so that players would not have a snowball effect overnight and then avalanche over all of the other weaker players. I also didn't want to make a player so limited that they couldn't ever hold more than 1 or 2 squares. I was hoping that in time players could build up more progressively, by playing smart and making alliances as much as possible. Anyway... I'm always open to suggestions. I did change the countdown from 15 minutes to 7, but I've been reluctant to bring the time down any more than that... I'm trying to slow the pace of the game down enough so that players will be able to walk away for a smoke if they want to and not be totally obliterated when they come back
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Post by ellipsis on Apr 5, 2011 2:33:49 GMT -5
Do you only get gold if other players are online? If so that's actually a pretty decent way to do it (though it would be nice to have some kind of indication whether or not others are online). In general, it seems that the easiest way to take enemy territory is when they are themselves being overly aggressive, which plays out nicely.
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Post by mikeEB on Apr 5, 2011 14:30:07 GMT -5
Feature requests: *Ally indicator on the map *Some way (besides watching clout carefully) for finding out which other players are allied
Balance observations: *assuming both sides know what they're doing, a smaller player has a massive advantage against a larger player *Assaulting a player with only 1 or 2 squares left is virtually impossible unless they're offline, you are similarly small or you are cooperating another player. (or they make a huge mistake) *Defense is a matter of figuring out how much territory to concede (if you're larger) or proactively wearing down squares with unit buildups (if you're smaller) *Brown is overpowered because it gets income more reliably than other colors. (this will probably even out in the long run)
In general, it seems like the only way to hold a lot of territory for a long time is to cooperate with other players.
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Post by succat on Apr 5, 2011 15:33:45 GMT -5
Ellipsis, getting gold actually doesn't have anything to do with players being online because I'm hoping that eventually (if I can get the word out about this game) that there will be enough players playing where there will always be at least someone online. I thought about making an indication if others are online, but then I decided it was more fun and less predictable when you don't ever really know if someone is online or not, unless they're chatting away at the moment. I think this makes for a more interesting dynamic IMHO. You're right, when others get aggressive, you can catch them and attack while they're weak.
MikeEB, I am planning on having some sort of ally indicator soon. For now, you have to suffer through by clicking on the "Ranks" page. You're right, players with few squares do have some good advantages, but they can be overpowered in time. Also, I wanted them to have some advantage so that if they are away for a little while and then come back, hopefully they will not be completely destroyed every time by someone with a larger force. The colors have nothing to do with getting income... if that's what it looks like, it's truly just a coincidence. It would have taken me too long to write the code to base income off of colors, and in fact I didn't even think of it, although it is kind of an interesting idea.
Thanks again for your feedback )
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Post by mikeEB on Apr 5, 2011 15:58:19 GMT -5
Players with few squares cannot be overpowered with time - just the opposite. They can possibly be overwhelmed in one update, but they have a massive attrition advantage in that they get a ton of money and all their losses back every turn, where it takes a large player a half-dozen updates to regenerate. I just finished (and lost) a 3-hour skirmish with Aratak in which I never stood a chance because I had four times as much territory as he did.
Funny enough, it still doesn't stop the 'being-away' problem. It's so bad that the only solutions to sleeping next to a 1 square opponent are to ally with them or to destroy them; otherwise they can eat you overnight.
EDIT: And the reason why brown gets income more reliably is that I'm the only brown player.
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Post by succat on Apr 5, 2011 22:11:20 GMT -5
In the long run, though, I think that 1-square players will not last because they have no intention of building their squares up -- unless they wind up with a hoard of money and just sit on it, buying up scores of units. The pain that a multi-square player has to go through to build up their force is evident, but it seems like they should be able to balance between maintaining their squares, and when the time and money and units are right, hitting hard on the 1 or 2 square players, and eventually adding them to their growing empire. Of course, if they haven't maintained their own squares first, or gained some extra gold to use for emergencies, they will get eaten up.
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Post by mikeEB on Apr 5, 2011 23:14:41 GMT -5
Anyone who's not paying attention can be eaten up easy. The main reason I'm on top right now is that I've been on for 12 hours straight, with the secondary reason being help from OurJake and Nawglan.
The real dominant force is cooperation. A small player and a large player working together can take out anyone.
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