Stars 'n Aliens: Testers Wanted

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#1

Project Description
Stars 'n Aliens is a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) set in space. Gameplay consists of configuring the player’s ship and using it to explore a universe full of Aliens, Items, and other Players. The interface is 2D static graphics. Most actions occur at the player’s pace, with combat occuring in real time. Players can group and interact with other players.

Project Status
Currently Stars 'n Aliensis fully functional. We continue to design and add new functionality into the game. The current need is for testers. The game is open-ended, but through the use of Quests and Missions, we can provide players with a structure to pursue goals and provide direction within the game. We currently have a base set of Aliens to populate the Universe.

Request for Testers
At this time, we are seeking new players to play and evaluate the Stars 'n Aliens.
If you are interested in participating, please visit our website for screenshots and a downloadable java client.

Website: Stars 'n Aliens

http://www.starsnaliens.com/images/snalogo.gif

thank you

#2

Doesn’t work with the latest version of java (1.4.2_05):


Warning: Cannot convert string "MetaCtrl<Key>Insert" to type VirtualBinding
Exception in thread "main" java.util.MissingResourceException: Can't find resource for bundle sun.applet.resources.MsgAppletViewer, key appletpanel.badattribute.exception
        at java.util.ResourceBundle.getObject(ResourceBundle.java:314)
        at java.util.ResourceBundle.getString(ResourceBundle.java:274)
        at sun.applet.AppletMessageHandler.getMessage(AppletMessageHandler.java:39)
        at sun.applet.AppletPanel.showAppletStatus(AppletPanel.java:755)
        at sun.applet.AppletPanel.init(AppletPanel.java:190)
        at sun.applet.AppletViewer.<init>(AppletViewer.java:177)
        at sun.applet.StdAppletViewerFactory.createAppletViewer(AppletViewer.java:82)
        at sun.applet.AppletViewer.parse(AppletViewer.java:1122)
        at sun.applet.AppletViewer.parse(AppletViewer.java:1056)
        at sun.applet.Main.run(Main.java:138)
        at sun.applet.Main.main(Main.java:80)
#3

Was that error generated by the installer at the website, or did you get the game installed, then have that error occur?

thanks

#4

Installer? What installer? ;D

There was no link to play the game, so I used appletviewer on the grounds that it must be an applet game. Looking at the webpage source I finally see what is happening - you have a shedload of javascript which isn’t working (hint: something like 40% of people don’t use javascript or have it disabled, especially windows users, who can ONLY protect themselves from outlook express viruses this way, at least until SP2 is released…).

Your javascript is, I’m afraid, rubbish: it displays absolutely nothing on my PC, and the webpage just looks like this:

You see that place where there is nothing on the webpage? Well, if I select the webpage text by hand (still nothing) and copy/paste, then magically the following text is pasted in where I put the note (but it does NOT appear in the webpage). I would guess this is a bug in Mozilla whereby copy/paste runs javascript when it shouldn’t. You might want to be nice to the mozilla developers and preserve your page as a test case and send them a bug report :).

Assuming that text did appear, it’s a useless message. There is no “alternate platform below”. There is nothing below, except a note saying it’s written in java.

PLEASE just come into the 21st century and have two links: one the windows installer, the other webstart - it does all this stuff for you automatically. Oh, and I would strongly suggest putting the webstart link above the windows one, given how many windows users already have java.

#5

Thanks for your input.

The installer is the free version of Zero G’s “Install Anywhere Now”. I haven’t had time to extend the support for other platforms, even though the installer supports them.

I’ve had feedback that the website isn’t ‘high-tech’, even complaints that it’s too simple. :slight_smile: But I’ve never heard that javascript was an unacceptable web language.

I noticed that you post here quite a bit and appear to be quite knowledgeable with regard to java web start. I appreciate your opinion on that. I looked into an early version of jws and haven’t had time to look at the current version. As I’ve seen on other topic threads, it appears that there will be a newer version of this available soon. If I have time, I’ll try to look into it. I also went to the grex site and noticed the article on jws. I plan to make use of that resource in the future.

The direct link you were referring to is here:
Stars 'n Aliens Client with JVM.
Hopefully that will get you past the website issues.

Given your knowledge and experience, I’m interested to hear your opinions and feedback on the game. However, it would be easier for me if you would use the forum at the website (forum link) after you have created an account within Stars 'n Aliens.

Thanks again.

#6

Yeah, when I discovered that hidden text I began to wonder if the script was theirs rather than yours? I’ve had minor problems with obvious bugs in their installer before (not this problem - stuff with it screwing up in wierd ways whilst trying to find JVM’s etc).

Erm, if nothing else why don’t you just link the JAR’s?

I’m no expert on this any more, but quite a few javascript functions are disabled on better browsers, and the poorer ones you just have to turn off everything in order to get safe browsing. So a lot of people turn it off.

There’s a page on the web maintained by the W3C that says what percentage of people are using which web browsers, and includes a section on percentage with javascript. Can’t remember the URL.

Not knowledgeable, just vociferous ;). The article you mentioned is a fairly good starting point right now, but we’re trying to get a more comprehensive one together too. I wouldn’t hold your breath, though - we’re still gathering info to include in the update.

This will probably depress you, but FYI I won’t be creating an account if I have to do anything more than type in a random string to try the game. I certainly won’t be faffing about logging into a forum (if it requires login). Unless a (believable) friend runs up and tells me what an amazing game it is :D. Have you any idea how many simple online games there are that require an account? Hmm. Given the number I see every week I have a pathological aversion to account creation unless I have a convincing reason, I’m afraid.

#7

it was last “maintained” in 2001-2002. you can find the page at http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/2001/01/22-stats.html

#8

No - I’ve seen figures from the W3C all the way up to last month!

So there must be another URL with the latest info…

EDIT: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp

NB: looks like I was wrong on the global scale - it’s only 10% that haven’t got / have disabled javascript. I guess I was thinking of a particular site when I remembered that 40%.

#9

whoops, my bad. I didnt even know w3schools.org existed ::slight_smile:

#10

Super annoying! :frowning:

I installed the client. Didn’t have the same issues as blah3. I would have preferred a jws and a straight download link.

Had to create an account. Booo. :frowning:

Got the password emailed to me. Tried to login. It said bad password, then closed the app. Double boo. >:(

I wanted to try it out, but so far its been lots of trouble.

Dr. A>

#11

When I executed the SnA_Clien.exe I got:

“Det magiska numret stämde inte. Skaffa en annan kopia av installationsprogrammet och försök igen.”

#12

[quote]Super annoying! :frowning:
I installed the client. Didn’t have the same issues as blah3. I would have preferred a jws and a straight download link.
Had to create an account. Booo. :frowning:
Got the password emailed to me. Tried to login. It said bad password, then closed the app. Double boo. >:(
I wanted to try it out, but so far its been lots of trouble.
Dr. A>
[/quote]
Well, it is a role playing game, so an account is needed in order to keep track of your player. We require a valid e-mail address so that people don’t randomly create accounts with names just to create them.

Our experience from working with IM clients taught us to close the login after a failed attempt. Some kids seem to get a thrill from hacking other people’s accounts, so we chose a more conservative behavior to prevent that.

Just this weekend I worked with a person who had a similar problem. After getting him on a voice chat, I learned that he was double clicking the password in the e-mail (a good idea, actually), then doing a copy/paste and it was picking up the space after the word. I’ve already changed the code to do a strip of whitespace. It’s sitting in the source for the next build.

I really feel bad for the problems you guys have had. But I’m noting your issues and plan to make what changes I can to prevent others from having the same issues.

I really appreciate you giving it a try.

As for the German, uhhh, I’m clueless. I don’t have any language extensions setup.

#13

[quote]As for the German, uhhh, I’m clueless. I don’t have any language extensions setup.
[/quote]
It’s not German, it’s Swedish :slight_smile: It says something like “Wrong magic number. Get another copy of the installationprogram and try again.”

#14

HINT: They’re going to do that anyway, and they’re going to do it in incredibly huge numbers. I can create two million email addresses in a few minutes if I really want to (with about 5 minutes setup time to automate the process). Even manually, I can create a new email address on someone else’s webmail system in under 2 seconds…

Suggestion: whilst you are asking people in general (not your direct target market) to play the game whilst it appears to be in alpha, make a game that does not ENFORCE email access. You could also have a separate copy that does - and make it clear to people that they can play in the “free for all” game which is just going to get deleted in X months, or the “permanent” game which requires verified email.

Standard technique: every fourth password fails gets an artificial 10 second delay injected by the server. Better: every 2nd/3rd/4th fail (chosend randomly each time with a cumulative percentage chance) gets this delay, so that they cannot simply do 2, quit, restart, do 2, quit, etc. This is extremely effective in breaking automated password hacking in that it slows it down to the extent where you can email yourself an alert and go and physically watch the process and decide what to do.

…but as a security system, that sucks. You should really (if you’re all that concerned) make it so that guessing someone else’s password isn’t a passport to complete control. This is a more subtle and complex subject, though.

Welcome to the world of little tidbits of ultra-useful experience that no-one ever tells you in books or training courses! (my first introduction was the discovery that when MS said their early windows admin systems were “case insensitive” they meant the compelte opposite - and their tech support were reading the same manual as us. Thankfully, someone older and wiser manually tried every case combination till he discovered it…)

#15

I played it and the first thing that you do when you get in is say crap, now what. I managed to go over to mars and beat up some aliens, which was not particularly exciting, I looked at the config screen, I cursed at the config screen, I beat up enough aliens to raise a level, I didn’t really see how that affected the game, I quit.

Basically it’s clear a lot of work was put into the game, but it’s also clear that you have a lot of work to go and I think $10 to play for a month is a little ambitious for this kind of game, at least so far.

New players need some kind of guide on how to get started, probably best if the guide is something that is presented in game in a context sensitive way (my firecracker game in my sig does this, though I wouldn’t really consider that the perfect example to follow).

The interface seems to be pretty impressive from a programming standpoint, but on my computer I have about 4 or 5 very small text areas that have horizontal and vertical scroll bars and I can only read a portion of the text. Resizing the window was disabled and personally I would have cranked up the size to get rid of the scroll bars. There is also a LOT of controls on screen so it’s going to be overwhelming for new players, I haven’t got a solution for this other than a good context help system, or even some kind of pre-game tutorial that walks a player through the basics of the game (imagine half life, the hazard course, where you get to jump and duck a few times, then shoot a few things, climb a ladder and open a door, you are now ready for the game). I think if the first time someone signs in it should automatically go to something like this, it’s not easy to get people to play games that are complex like this so you really have to go out of your way to make it easy to get started (I’m speaking from experience here, it won’t matter how good the game is if people see it and say crap and run away scared). Obviously getting a few more features in might be more important but before you even pretend you are ready to go commercial you need to implement something like that, even for free it’ll be hard to get people to play without some pretty extreme effort on your part.

I think I repeated myself about 3 times in that last paragraph, so I’m going to quit rambling for a little bit now :stuck_out_tongue:

Edit: Webstart would be ideal for this kind of game, even if updates are infrequent, you’ll almost certainly require them to even connect to the game, webstart is great for that.

#16

Yes, we are working on a tutorial.
I’d prefer to do something in, say - flash, as part of the website, but people aren’t likely to start there.
So I’m part-way through a design for a change in the client that would function as an in-line tutorial.
I’ve got a few areas that make use of the flyover messages, but they are not everywhere.
We will intend to have much more content before we initiate the monthly charge.
As for the interface - yes, there is a lot there. I’ve only got a few more areas that are coded with XYLayout. Once those are converted, then I can turn off the size lock. Ultimately, I intend to convert to a more 3D look, with overlays and controls that are only visible when available. But I’m not a 3D programmer, and they don’t grow on trees. :slight_smile:

Thanks for your insight.

#17

Here are the things I found after getting logged in -

  • I wanted a 3 letter character name, but it wouldn’t let me. :frowning:

  • no spaces seem to be allowed in the character name

  • hard to see selection of class during character creation. Maybe make selection high contrast.

  • Disable the scrollers in the bottom areas when the area is shrunk, as they take up GUI space and aren’t useful with the area being so small anyway.

  • The Expanded areas, when you click the top of the column, aren’t big enough to always hold all the info. Definately should fix this.

  • When moving, the info area doesn’t refresh to show you you’ve visited the place before. IE - I’ve never been to Earth, so I move there. The info doesn’t refresh unless I click on the planets again.

  • The bright star flares detract from being able to see all the info in some of the menus.

  • I tried to yell, only to be told I wasn’t qualified. What does that mean? If I can’t do it, then don’t allow me to click it.

  • I discovered undocking the panel at the bottom. It still seems frustrating to use the area. If I was running a 1024x display, it wouldn’t be enough room to really take advantage of being undocked.

  • After fighting someone and winning, the Encouter area wasn’t updated when I went back to it.

  • There is a visual mix of swing components and custom ones. Try standardizing the GUI interactive elements.

Nothing seemed broken when I clicked on it. :slight_smile:

I wasn’t sure if anyone else was logged in or not, as I didn’t really find anyone or get any respones from the communication box.

My 2 cents.

Dr. A>

#18

Exactly the same thoughts as DanK & the others.

the install + account + email is annoying. Being webstartable and be able to play as a “guest” to at least look at it would be very welcome.

Once you started, the reaction is like DanK said:
“Holy shit, what should i do now?!”
The GUI is overcrowded with boxes and labels of every sort and you’ve no clue what they are for, you don’t even know what’s the aim of the game!

…and i didn’t see any trace of multiplayer interaction either.