Aevum Obscurum - Multiplayer Strategy Game!

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#1

Aevum Obscurum - Das Tausendburgenspiel V2.4.7:

Aevum Obscurum is a free online turn-based multiplayer strategy game. You will have to take control of an empire at the beginning of the 14th century, Earth. Your strategy is to have absolute control within the next years to come. Your empires to choose from are among England, France, Ireland, Rome and other 50+ all over Europe. Interact with other empires by means of diplomacy. Manage your economy and population.

Web start version:
http://www.aevumobscurum.com/original/webstart/AevumObscurum.jnlp

http://www.aevumobscurum.com/original/image/screenshots/screenshot-2.4.4-09.jpg

What you need:
Java 1.5 -OR- Download the installers…
Platforms: Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS 10.4.2+

#2

Few people have 5.

Presumably, by “couldn’t get it to compile” you mean you hit a javac bug? Try upgrading to a more recent 1.4.2 - or, in extremis, downgrading to 1.4.2_04 which IIRC had a couple of javac bug fixes…

…assuming of course that you don’t merely mean “I wrote java5 only code and couldn’t be bothered to remove it” :wink:

#3

Java 5 rocks! ;D

I tried to compile it to 1.4 using retroweaver, however,
there were some problems with certain stuff that didn’t
wanna be converted.

I guess I just will have to wait until retroweaver has all
these things added :frowning:

#4

Can you provide feedback for:

  1. Technical Problems:
    -Speed (3D interface)
    -Installation
    -Startup of the game
    -Display problems
    -Sound
    -Connection
    -Download Time
    -others

  2. Game Itself
    -Interface (is it easy to understand)
    -Graphics
    -Game Concept:
    -> Is the game concept easy to grasp?
    -> How to tell people how the game works?
    -other

Also, would you rather prefer to download and install
the game on your computer than runnig it via Java
Webstart?

#5

some comments:

  • speed/installation is ok
  • do you display random long ints whilst loading ressources?
  • screen resolution didn’t change back to 1280*1024 sometimes
  • ingame resolution was smaller than display resolution (once), had to scroll up and down to see all menus

-interface is ok, provide a security check at “end turn”, I clicked on (accidently) without moving my armies before

  • webstart solution is fine, perhaps a auto login (cookie or so) would be fine
  • please host some games with fewer players so they start more frequently! Im waiting for a game with 54 players to start, only 7 are in.
  • make the computer move for players who are not active anymore (after 3 turns)
  • make moved armies visible
  • more unit types (archers, pikemen,…)

right now, the game is like a castrated “Kingdoms of England”, but a lot of fun !
:smiley:

#6

Game looked great but I can never play - it lets me join a game then for days it sits there “waiting for more players” by which time I get fed up and don’t bother going back for ages.

I would guess that more people start the game then get fed up and refuse to try again than actually hang around to play it.

#7

because of that I asked for rounds with fewer players.
Tomorrow we will fill up the missing 40 players by registering 20 times each. I don’t think that’ll disturb the gameplay hence most players in the running game are inactive (little fortified obstacles)

You get a mail when the game starts (and a reminder the first 5 rounds with a webstart link included)

#8

uh…you didn’t think I registered a REAL email address did you? ;D

#9

[quote]do you display random long ints whilst loading ressources?
[/quote]
Yes, took less time than actually implementing a
progress bar. Is it bad?

[quote]ingame resolution was smaller than display resolution (once), had to scroll up and down to see all menus
[/quote]
I noticed. Will be fixed.

[quote]interface is ok, provide a security check at “end turn”, I clicked on (accidently) without moving my armies before
[/quote]
Will be done! Was it hard to figure out how to play? Any
other suggestions for the interface?

[quote]webstart solution is fine, perhaps a auto login (cookie or so) would be fine
[/quote]
I think you can’t access cookies from webstart? Can I?
Is there another way? Is there some kind of registry
you can use? I think there is, but it only works in windows?

[quote]please host some games with fewer players so they start more frequently! Im waiting for a game with 54 players to start, only 7 are in. / Tomorrow we will fill up the missing 40 players by registering 20 times each
[/quote]
I will add computer players later, however for now, if
you really want to play, please email me. Email is on
web site. Please provide the name of the game you
would like to start early. If you want to register 20x,
that’s fine too, however, please just drop me a line
and the game will be started!

[quote]make the computer move for players who are not active anymore (after 3 turns)
[/quote]
Good idea! I am caught up with other stuff, so will be
done later.

[quote]make moved armies visible
[/quote]
Good point, will be put onto the todo list.

[quote]more unit types (archers, pikemen,…)
[/quote]
Mhh, I didn’t want to make the current game too hard
for people to play. The goal is to make it simple but
challenging at the same time. I am planning to add
functionality to fortify fields. Also build alliances with
other players. Other ideas?

[quote]waiting for more players.
[/quote]
An email is sent, when the game starts. However I
noticed the email to get stuck in spam filters. So people
don’t actually know about the thing and don’t play.
Especially, if the game isn’t started right away. Any
suggestions?

#10

[quote] Yes, took less time than actually implementing a
progress bar. Is it bad?
[/quote]
I can live with that :wink: looks mystical

was easy for me. Make some quick-info the first few rounds or ingame help/tutorial
perhaps make the ‘next’ button BIGGER (5 times) and also the buttons to adjust the amount of soldiers. Let the buttons pop up near the current country.

here have been some discussions about ‘muffins’ here, search function!

[quote]just drop me a line
and the game will be started!
[/quote]
drop please europe-7! let the game begin!

#11

europe-7 is started! enjoy!

Thanks for the tip. I will check on ‘muffins’! What the
buttons concerns. I agree, it’s better to have them
next to the field popping up. However, the buttons
on top was much quicker to develop (swing). I will
have to look into that.

Mhh, couldn’t find ‘muffins’? Search for ‘muffins’???

#12

AAAARGH!
I made my moves in the old round, wanted to check in europe-7 : outOfMemoryError :’(

reloaded and then (in nice green letters): MOVES MADE :o

when you change the default search time from 7 to 700 days you will get results.

edit:
last round I placed orders to recruit soldiers in several countries, different amounts. The results where: recruiting 23455 men, recruiting 0 men, recruiting 0 men, recruiting 0 men. I think some ressources (money?) went out, I don’t know.
Perhaps you could display all given orders in a list, like
MOVE a b 2344
ATACK a c 2341
that you can undo your orders and check if they are valid.

#13

try this (import javax.jnlp.* if not found add javaws.jar to your classpath).

BasicService bs = (BasicService) ServiceManager.lookup(“javax.jnlp.BasicService”); // to get the codebase
URL storageURL = new URL(bs.getCodeBase().toString() + “mymuffinstorage”);

PersistenceService ps = … //(same way)
FileContents fc = ps.get(storageURL)
OutputStream out = fc.getOutputStream(); //now you’ve got the output to read the muffins, you can feed it with Object or Data-outputStream.
// close streams

// same thing for input

Hope it helps.

Lilian

#14

Muffin wrapper: http://www.java-gaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB.cgi?board=share;action=display;num=1092020498

Kev

#15

Thanks for the muffin information! I will try to get that
in as soon as possible to allow automatic login!

I am currently working on a fix for the “moves done”
problem. If you start the game and the program crashes,
a “moves done” comes up. Sorry, please just restart
for now, until I put the fix online!

Hansdampf: I couldn’t find the recruiting problem. How
much money did you spend for each recruiting? Might
it be that you forgot to set money for the recruiting,
this would result in 0 recruits.

A list with all the moves is a good idea! I will get that
in, however don’t have time right away to get to that!

#16

[quote]AAAARGH!
I made my moves in the old round, wanted to check in europe-7 : outOfMemoryError :’(
reloaded and then (in nice green letters): MOVES MADE :o
[/quote]
Arghhhhh! the second time! Not a good start for me, I was just able to play one round out of 3. Hm. Doesn’t make sense for me anymore. A friend told me that after a (very long loading time (not the download)), he killed the app, resulting in “moves done”. He has only one game going.

I couldn’t repeat the recruiting thing yet.

#17

Sorry for the troubles. I already programmed a fix which
will resolve the “moves done” problem. I will upload it
with some other changes by the end of this week
(within the next 6 days).

However, it still might not fix the crashing of the loading
of a game. You got “OutOfMemoryError”? That’s in the
Java Console? Do you have any other output messages
on the Java Console? How much memory do you have?
256MB? More?

#18

I try to log it next time.
768 MB :wink:
Did you -Xmx enough?

#19

768MB is far enough. The game uses about 200MB and
-Xmxs 256MB. I had a problem garbage collecting the
Canvas3D. I got an OutOfMemoryError message every
time I started a second game. However, this is fixed
long time ago. I can’t see why garbage collecting is
hardware related? Are you running Java 1.5_02? You
are using Windows?

Please let me know about any error messages in the
console. It works fine for me.

#20

sorry, I couldn’t produce any errors this time.
1.5.0_01. Hm, maybe time to upgrade.
win xp