Realtime Multiplayer Strategy - Provide Feedback!

WIP games, tools & toy projects Archived Projects
#1

I created a strategy game which is now available for
testing. Screenshots and download at:
http://www.aevumobscurum.com/revolution

Please provide feedback! What do you think about the
game?

Aevum Obscurum Revolution is a realtime multiplayer strategy game.
It is a wargame simulation playing in the 21st century. You take
control of your own empire. You build and move your own ships, airplanes
and land units. Download Aevum Obscurum and conquer the world!

Players: >1 Multiplayer (Games Server Available)
Supported Platforms: Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac.
System Requirements: greater 256MB RAM, Computer lesser 2 years old
Current Status: 0.90b, stable, free (7/8/2004)

#2

Nice game. I few suggestions and problems.

[*]I was only able to get landtroops onto the really small island south of the start continent (I played the first map). I could build factories on uninvaded continents though :slight_smile:

[*]Once I had deployed a plane on an aircraft carrier ship i wasn’t able to leav it.

[*]Pathfinding for the troops would be nice, quite frustrating when they get stuck on coastlines all the time.

[*]Scrolling the map was quite irritating, I found it hard to find where to put the mouse, maybe if you moved the scrollpoints to the borders surrounding the game board.

[*]On the mouseOver info for building icons it would be nice to have a name of the thing to build, besides the cost to build it as it shows now.

And off course, a webstart version would be nice, I only downloaded the the hefty 26mb package with bundled jre cause I have a special intrest in strategy games.

#3

Thanks for your feedback!

I was only able to get landtroops onto the really small island south of the start continent (I played the first map). I could build factories on uninvaded continents though

You can use Transport Plane and Transport Ship to
move your troops. Just move your ground troops into
these units.

Yeah, I have to change that with the factories. It’s
kind of funny to build them anywhere.

Once I had deployed a plane on an aircraft carrier ship i wasn’t able to leav it.

You can unload units the following way:

  1. Click on host (e.g. carrier, transport ship, transport
    plane)
  2. On the right hand side menu, you see on the top the
    hosted units. Click on the unit you like to unload.
  3. By clicking on the hosted unit, you select that unit.
    Now, you simply use the right mouse button to
    move this unit anywhere you like.

Pathfinding for the troops would be nice, quite frustrating when they get stuck on coastlines all the time.

Ok, I can do that.

Scrolling the map was quite irritating, I found it hard to find where to put the mouse, maybe if you moved the scrollpoints to the borders surrounding the game board.

The surrounding borders contain other menus, what
makes it hard to put the scrolling there. Otherwise you
select some other things and the map is constantly
scrolling.

Or maybe create a designated scrolling area around the
map?

On the mouseOver info for building icons it would be nice to have a name of the thing to build, besides the cost to build it as it shows now.

Ok, I will do that.

And off course, a webstart version would be nice, I only downloaded the the hefty 26mb package with bundled jre cause I have a special intrest in strategy games

You are right. I will do that.

What about the game play itself. You played alone? Do
you think it would be fun to play with other people?

Would you play the game again? What would make
you play the game? Any changes generally?

I still working to find somebody helping me out with
the graphics, to improve the game-feeling!

#4

[quote]I created a strategy game which is now available for
testing. Screenshots and download at:
http://www.aevumobscurum.com/revolution

Please provide feedback! What do you think about the
game?
[/quote]
Site down?

#5

[quote]Site down?
[/quote]
It is for me… so it isn’t a problem on your end.

#6

[quote]Or maybe create a designated scrolling area around the
map?
[/quote]
I must admit I haven’t tried your game yet (the site seems to be down), but I think it would work best if scrolling would be done at the borders of the screen: You move the mouse to the border of the screen, nothing happens, move more (as if you were moving it outside of the screen) and the map starts scrolling at a speed depending on how much the mouse pointer would have moved outside of the screen but with a reasonable maximum scrolling speed so you won’t overshoot the area you want to look at if you move the mouse too much.
Something like that :slight_smile:

#7

[quote] What about the game play itself. You played alone? Do you think it would be fun to play with other people?

Would you play the game again? What would make
you play the game? Any changes generally?
[/quote]
Yeah, playing against other people would probably be more fun, atleast more challengeing. As for the game play I think exploration and building stuff cant go wrong :).

The atraction point of your game, I think, could be quick multiplayer games that take 30 minutes - 1 hour to finish.

#8

The game is online again. There was a power outage,
which killed the server …

but I think it would work best if scrolling would be done at the borders of the screen: You move the mouse to the border of the screen, nothing happens, move more (as if you were moving it outside of the screen) and the map starts scrolling at a speed depending on how much the mouse pointer would have moved …

That’s an interesting idea, however one would have to
move the mouse constantly into one direction. Also,
some people might not find out. Is there a game which
does that?

The atraction point of your game, I think, could be quick multiplayer games that take 30 minutes - 1 hour to finish

That might be difficult to do. Maybe the scenario could
be setup, so everything is already build and the only
thing to do is to move the troops! Might this not be
boring? People wouldn’t have to build things anymore?

#9

You could increase the game speed I guess, the troops moves rather slow as it is now. But half a hour maybe was a bit optimisitic how about 1-1.5 hours ;D.

#10

The thing is, once you have airplanes, they move
rather fast. It would be hard to see them.
The more units you have, I would guess
it gets harder to control them if they move too fast.

But you might be right. I will speed up the ground
troops little bit.

I also created a web start version, so you don’t need
to download the program anymore. Can you give it a try?

http://www.aevumobscurum.com/revolution/webstart/AevumObscurum.jnlp

#11

Well, that’s great, except…

If you make a game that can’t be played when the server is offline then you have to guarantee it’s always online!

It won’t let me play without logging in, and it won’t let me login without registering - and the registration fails with an error message about “connection failed”.

So I didn’t get beyond the blud-background main screens, but I did notice that they are hard-coded to some resolution (800x600?). On linux, your game is making a full screen window, which on my machine is 1400x1050. You should either make the game windowed or make it zoom-to-fit.

PS I have to run this game using 1.5.0beta2, so I may be seeing 1.5.0beta bugs, because of the moron at Sun who made 1.5.0beta2 steal webstart like a virus. All the other webstart games I’m playing at the moment launch using 1.4.2_05 as expected, but for some reason your one launches using the 1.5 beta VM, despite the fact that it’s disabled. Sigh. I looked at the JNLP but you aren’t even demanding 1.5, so I don’t know why it’s not using 1.4.2 :(.

#12

Wahey, this game actually works on Mac OSX!! Fullscreen, sound, mouse and cursor support. nice!

One suggestion: you should focus the map position on the area in which the players initial pieces are located.

OSX 10.3.4, Java 1.4.2_04 DP3

#13

The game is designed to work in 1024x768. It tries to
change the resolution to that. It doesn’t work on some
computer though, so it just takes the current resolution
and places the game panel within the full screen
window. I still have to center the game panel though.

I wanted to make it screen resolution independant,
however, that’s kinda tricky to do. If somebody can
create me some screen resolution independant game
interface, I can add it.

The game runs fine with Java 1.5b1 on my computer.
I didn’t try 1.5b1 webstart? I specified jsdk 1.4+, what
might cause your computer to take 1.5b2 instead of
1.4.2_05 …

Yep, I should focus the map at the beginning to show
the initial game units!

#14

Um, so is everyone else specifying 1.4 exactly? ??? I guess I’d need to go around looking at lots of other people’s JNLPs.

#15

I use “1.4+”, but I haven’t installed 1.5 yet either, so 1.4 always loads for me, as expected.

Maybe open you your Webstart, go to preferences and look under the Java tab. It should display any JRE’s that it has found on your system.

#16

[quote]The game is designed to work in 1024x768. It tries to
change the resolution to that. It doesn’t work on some
computer though, so it just takes the current resolution
and places the game panel within the full screen
window. I still have to center the game panel though.

I wanted to make it screen resolution independant,
however, that’s kinda tricky to do. If somebody can
create me some screen resolution independant game
interface, I can add it.
[/quote]
Markus Persson indicated that a bit of math can be very helpful in obtaining resolution independant displays:

The above bit of code would be used for specifiying a location of 100,100 but one that is scaled depending on the current screen.

Taken from http://www.java-gaming.org/cgi-bin/JGNetForums/YaBB.cgi?board=jogl;action=display;num=1087860167;start=3#3

Regards,

#17

I disabled the 1.5 betas as soon as I installed them…

Anyway, the JVM that is being launched for this game isn’t even registered at all in my 1.4 webstart.

Never underestimate the ability of a few morons at Sun to screw up any major part of java without warning and without escape…it would help if there were some kind of configuration system for java, instead of the installer just doing random **** to your system and not telling you what where or how, but I haven’t yet found one if there is.

#18

Blah, I don’t have any problems with Java 5.0’s Web Start. I disable the 5.0 JRE and all is well.

Is this an issue only on Linux?

#19

[quote]Blah, I don’t have any problems with Java 5.0’s Web Start. I disable the 5.0 JRE and all is well.

Is this an issue only on Linux?
[/quote]
Um, maybe. 5.0 beta 2 did claim to steal webstart cache from 1.4.x - with no option to prevent it - but 1.4.x re-install seemed to at least retake control of the JNLP association in Mozilla.

#20

Calculating the screen coordinates is not very hard to do! The problem are the graphics. It took me a long time to get the “crappy” interface together. If somebody is interested to create a cool screen resolution independant interface, I would be happy to take it! I am more the programming guy … :wink:

Of course it’s possible to scale the interfaces and icons depending on screen resolution (as with 3D programs), but it would slow down the program on one hand and some icons/graphics wouldn’t look good anymore. The font sizes have to be changed as well, however font sizes are harder to scale.

Scaling is a piece of cake in 3D programs, because you use screen resolution independant coordinates:

[quote]gl.glVertex2f(100screenWidth/targetScreenWidth, 100screenHeight/targetScreenHeight);
[/quote]
I can make the main map panel bigger or smaller, however the interface around it is fixed right now as of my limited design capabilities ;D