Search - don\'t use the standalone

Yes @Sobeirannovaocc I was thinking that too. There should be a standalone server application, for no other reason than the fact that you might want to have a server running on the same computer you are playing the game on.

It might make sense for both the full My Colony 2 game and the standalone server game to check with the Ape Apps server on startup and download the latest edition of the server code (if a connection is available, of course) so that some fixes to the game can actually be made without having to publish a full patch. And the standalone server console would not have to be recompiled and released with every update.
3y ago
colbya said:Nice as i see 3 hours running all that is colonists influx and building time all of it .


No, build a city take some minutes, is pretty fast to build 144 adv shipyard with 10-15k turbo drone. Most of the time i don't touch anything.

colbya said:and yep I can do that my self so what is your point ?


you have ask to do a similar test, you don't remember?

colbya said:as for 5 million in one city lord you must have a NASA super computer lol .


No, this is the 1.0.0 big change, colonists/worker don't take much computer power anymore.

colbya said:Now let THAT city fill STOP building and let it just RUN in city 3 hours .


Like i have already said, this is my modus operandi. Build everything, and wait until the GDP stop growing. I don't touch the game meanwhile, i don't build house all the time...

colbya said:FACT stats go up During BUILDING so it is quite easy to get a tempery 95 % rating and it WILL stay stable as LONG as you Build and add more housing .


Nop, only if you use a bad setup.

colbya said:The effects dont cause a problem until you idle the game in city . and fact is you want FULL income from resources Idling IN city or a single city you MUST do .
You sure are not getting 6 billion ore in 3 hours lol .


Again, all aging part, approval rating.. regard colonists, if the city don't have colonists, you won't have any change, don't matter if you idle for 5min or 5 weeks.

colbya said:you dont show how many colonist the city has .


Around 19-20k, now i'm making new adv shipyards map.

colbya said:But lets say there are 300 k you will have 30 k babies a hour lol .
really come on FACT babies FACT 30 k homes that DONT excist Fact now you have 30 k homeless .


Nop, few weeks ago i have create a new inv bank map, total pop around 600k, 5k total birth (and 5k death) in 4h game play. pls use real number and not number from your imagination.

colbya said:PS FACT once stats drop its darn near impossible to get them backup .


You have done it? Or is just a hypotheses?
Because i have done an hard test in my beta map, for test the aging population. After few day all building have stop functioning ( pop was to young or to old, 90% was to old for work, very few baby). Solution? i have deported all, and start again. the map was full operation in few hours. And was before the aging final tuning.

colbya said:Besides FACT for some reason Homes will randomly show zero stats THIS IS A KNOWN BUG i posted .


You have only posted 2 random screenshot. You don't have posted any real info regard the houses stats, you don't even have posted a screenshot about the houses stats. I only see 2 maps with a bad setup.

Can appen if you place 2 or more houses and you don't place the utility at the right distance. An house can use the utility placed for an other houses, and the other houses won't have anymore utility with free slots. Isn't a bug, can be easy solved with a correct city setup.

colbya said:still enjoy the game and think bast is a cool guy and think the game is fairly priced and bast is honest .


For a 4-5$? yes, the price seems honest. And for a one-man-army, is a tremendous guy... :P
You should try a game, when the devs offend players and delete any post/topic with some critics.

colbya said:this is not ment to be a rant its ment to a point of how the effects mess up game play Bast knows all of this already its been posted already before i made this post .


No, is a post from someone still don't understood the 1.0.0 changes, and how the game work now.

The game Is perfect? Of course no. Have some bug? yes, but on pc side nothing to ugly (i don't play on mobile).

colbya said:I am just a old school programmer and wont link my stuff here and Bugs well bug me lol


You know what a bug is? when something should do A, and sometime will do B, or C, or LKHJOLJDLKFJD and crash. If something should do A, and do A, isn't a bug, but i you don't like A, is a bad implementation.

In this day, on the last version (1.3.0), most "problem" aren't bug, but bad/primitive implementation. For example, now for having a map with all building 100% worker, we need to have at least 15-20% more pop, for cover the hole all the time. Is a bug? of course no.

If you wanna try some bug, try to do a draconian lava world...

4y ago
Here is a collection on concepts that I am leaning towards for My Colony 2 as of today (20200624). This is all subject to change and I can be convinced by the community of anything, so keep the suggestions and feedback coming. This is going to be a super long post featuring all of my thoughts on MC2 thus far. Feel free to criticize anything and everything here. My feelings will not be hurt and nothing is set in stone. This is a starting point for community discussion to help make MC2 the best game it can be!

Relationship to My Colony 1
MC2 is an entire new game, not an upgrade to the original, or a version 2.0. It may use completely different concepts. It will not be tied in to the same server. Game files will not transfer over, as MC2 will probably have completely different buildings/tech tree, etc.

This does not mean that MC1 will be going away. I will continue to support the original and the server indefinitely. I realize that a lot of people like the style of game that MC1 is and do not want anything to change, so the original is staying where it is. It may continue to receive new content as well as bug fixes, but I do not plan on any further changes to the gameplay mechanics or core engine going forward.

That said, as long as MC1 remains popular and people keep playing it and paying for it, I will keep the game going.

Business Model/Monetizing
This is the least fun part of development, but a necessary one in order to make creating a game feasible. The business model for MC1 was tacked on as an afterthought, and reflecting back I do not like the concept of certain structures and units being premium.

None of this is set in stone, but here are my initial thoughts on the business model. My Colony 2 will be a straight paid app on all app stores, with everything unlocked at the base price, no in-app purchases. No advertising anywhere. The exception is on Ape Web Apps and the Ape Market, where it will be free, everything unlocked, but with no access to multiplayer or custom content. Maybe only one map type available.

Current My Colony 1 is basically already like this on Desktop, with the mobile client being free with additional IAP, so this change just makes the mobile version match up with what is already on desktop.

Now, I do anticipate the dissatisfaction of Android players not having the free version in the Play Store. However, Android support for Progressive Web Apps is sufficiently advanced now that you can just install the Web version to your homescreen like an app and it's hardly any different. Same with iOS. And MC1 will still be available for free like it always has been.

No free version on the mobile app stores will likely mean less players, and I understand this. But I like the idea of just buying a game and having the whole thing, not worrying about IAP's and not having any advertising.

Client/Server Structure
The biggest change to MC2 is it's design from the ground up as a multiplayer game. This does not mean that you cannot play single player, but it is being designed specifically for multiplayer.

MC1 has limited multiplayer, which basically consists of chat and trading/gifting resources. You can play together on a multiplayer region, but all you are really doing is sharing atmosphere and seeing thumbnails of other players' colonies. Not really very multiplayery (is that a word?). The MC1 multiplayer is also global and centralized, meaning everything has to go through the global My Colony server.

My Colony 2 multiplayer will be decentralized, meaning no global server that everybody plays on. Why am I doing this, because it seems like a downgrade? Look at every game out there with real global multiplayer, not just chat and trading. That takes massive infrastructure, and you pay for it with either a monthly subscription or endless IAP's. That's the only way it's really possible, and I don't think anybody wants that if you really stop and think it through.

The only realistic way to add real multiplayer to the game without investing in a massive infrastructure and charging big money for the game is to decentralize it. And since I am not Blizzard and do not want to spend my whole life maintaining MC2 servers, I am adopting a decentralized approach.

What does this mean? My Colony 2 will actually be designed as two separate applications in one, the client and the server.

The game client will be fairly light weight. It's job is to receive data from the server application and render it to the screen, and pass instructions as to what the player wants to do onto the server. That's pretty much it, and it should be fairly performant. Even though the game is moving to 3d, I still expect it to perform better than MC1, simply because 3d hardware rendering performs better than 2d software rendering.

The game server is much more interesting and is where all of the game mechanics take place, but since the server does not have to worry about handling the UI or making drawing calls, it actually has a bit more overhead to work with than on MC1. The two most expensive operations in MC1 are the rendering and the pathfinding. In MC2, the server is eliminating the rendering, and I also want to greatly reduce the pathfinding, leaving more headroom for actual fun stuff, like game mechanics simulation.

So in MC2, the game relationship is between client(s) and server. Whenever you create a new game in MC2, you are creating a new server, and then connecting to it with a client. The server is saved and retained between plays, where the client only exists while it is in use, and is not saved. So the point I just want to get across is that the client is really not that important, the server is.

The server and client code are both included in the My Colony 2 game. You will have the option of starting a regular game or creating a dedicated server. When you start a regular game, you are spinning up both a client and server and creating a 1-1 connection between the two right on your device. You can also make your game joinable by friends or others on your local network for multiplayer.

You can also create a dedicated server. When you create a MC2 dedicated server, you will be presented with a special server GUI that allows you to be in full control of the game. The server will continue to process game data as long as it is running, even if no players/clients are connected. A dedicated server will be able to establish custom game rules and parameters, and have mods installed that will be transferred to any client who connects. You will be able to make a dedicated server open to the public, or by invite only, or by specifying a list of accounts who are able to join. It's up to the server. A dedicated server will be able to moderate it's players however they want, the server can adjust resource levels, ban players for cheating, or anything. It's all up to the server owner.

The game data is saved only on the server, and the server owner will be responsible for making backups. I expect game files to be a lot bigger than MC1, so I am not going to be implementing Cloud Sync, which is known to cause corruption on larger files anyway. The ability to export and backup data will be built right into the game as usual.

Because of the way it's designed, even if you only want to play single player, it still may be desirable to set up a private dedicated server. For instance, you could run a private MC2 dedicated server on your powerful home PC that is always on/connected to the internet. Then you can connect to your server from your tablet/phone/laptop/another window on your computer, wherever you are, and your game is always there waiting for you, and all of the processing is being done on the more powerful computer.

The Game World/Game Files
In MC1, the game world is divided into cities and regions, and each city is a separate game file. In MC2, there are no cities and regions, there are planets.

This is something I am aping from Minecraft. A planet is like a regular city file in MC1, except is extends out in every direction to infinity, so you do not have to worry about running out of space for your city. A planet can have multiple cities and multiple players building cities at the same time.

Planets will be procedurally generated, and new areas will be generated in real-time as needed. Each planet type will have different biomes like in Minecraft, so that different environments and different resources are available in different parts on the planet.

This system means that you will have to build up trade networks with other cities or make additional settlement outposts across the planet in order to bring more resource types back to your colony. In MC1, practically every resource in the game is available with a square mile of your lander. This doesn't really make sense. In MC2 you will have to go out and find resources, and then build up a network for bringing them back into your city.

Technically, the MC2 world is still a big 2d grid like in MC1, but each tile does have an elevation, a z-index, for varied terrain elevations. Different resources might be found at different elevations and in different biomes. You will also be able to adjust the terrain in-game, like building up dirt to level out construction areas. There will be flat areas good for building, low canyons, and hilly or mountainous areas.

Also like in Minecraft, the terrain is generated on the fly and only transferred to the client in "chunks" as needed. So your client will only contain the data for the area that you are currently looking at, and the immediate surrounding areas. As you scroll around the map, areas you are no longer looking at will be disposed from memory as new areas are loaded from the server.

Construction / Resource Gathering and Rovers
I would really like to get rid of Rovers completely and simulate everything. It's not that I hate rovers, they are so helpful and adorable. The issue is with the pathfinding. Just driving rovers around the map takes up a huge percentage of the MC1 processing time, for what is essentially a visual effect.

Pathfinding is both CPU and memory intensive on anything larger than a medium sized MC1 map, and in MC2 the map sizes are being expanded infinitely larger. It's not just as simple as "only path finding around a certain area from the rover." Before you can even calculate pathfinding operations, you first have to generate a pathfinding map and load it into memory. The maps will be more expensive than in MC1 owing to the introduction of terrain elevation, as there will now be cliffs to work around. Each time a new structure is placed the pathfinding map needs to be recalculated. With the game being multiplayer, this will have to be taking place on a larger scale. It is one of the features holding MC1 back, due to all of the CPU time that must be dedicated to solving rover paths.

The issue of course, is that everybody likes rovers. Even I like rovers. Would the game be less fun without them? I don't know. If you could just turn off Rover Rendering in the engine settings and you didn't even see them, but everything continued to operate as normal, would it make a difference to the game, or would it matter? Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't.

Everything a Rover does can be simulated for a fraction of the CPU and memory cost.

This is the largest part of MC2 that I don't have an answer to. I can't just remove rovers because that would be a blow to the fans of MC1. I also cringe thinking of all of the months wasted on optimizing path finding and the 1 star complaints about performance, all relating to a path finding feature in what is essentially a city building game.

There are options.

I could always just keep rovers in the game as they are and just keep working around the processing issues that come with it. In a single player game or a server with only a few active players at once, it probably wouldn't be a very big hit.

I have also considered just simulating rovers, sort of like colonists are just simulated in MC1. For example, you don't even have to build your own rovers. But when you place a new construction order, little rovers drive up onto the construction site and build your building anyway. These rovers do not exist on the server, but you see them building on the client. Same way for moving resources around. On the server it is just simulated, but on the client, you see a rover driving around doing all of the work. This would still require path finding, but each client would be doing their own path finding on the visual rover effect, and the player could turn it off if it became a performance issue.

If the client could just visually simulate things like rovers, colonists, police cars, busses, etc, they would all still be there visually making your city look alive, but the server wouldn't even have to worry about them.

Maybe there are other options too that I am not thinking of? All feedback on Rovers is welcome. I want the game to be performant, but I also don't want to go against the fans, so please let me know what you think either way.

Graphics
MC1 is a software rendered game using the HTML5 canvas element, arranging .png and .svg tile images onto a 2d isometric grid. Most of the graphics processing is done by the main CPU and not the graphics card, so graphics performance is largely defined by how good your processor is. This is why the game runs a lot better on desktop vs mobile, or even on iPhone vs android, and iPhone processors tend to be a bit better.

The problems is that the CPU also has to process the game, so trying to do everything at once gets expensive, especially on mobile devices.

My Colony 2 is moving to WebGL for graphics processing, which is a javascript based implementation of OpenGL that handles rendering on the GPU. This should lead to far better performance on most devices.

My original idea was to use Blender for all of the games building models. The graphics were going to be awesome. But when I dug into Blender and started working with it, I remembered how I am not actually a graphics designer, and it was going to take me forever to make all of the models for this game.

My other idea was to make blocky pixelated type graphics using my own Voxel Paint application (https://www.apewebapps.com/voxel-paint/). This means lower quality visuals but much higher output and probably better rendering performance as well. It's also so easy to use that anybody could make their own MC2 models, my wife even offering to help design structures for the game (she is a big Minecraft fan).

At the end of the day, My Colony 1 was never known for high quality graphics, but I thought that with MC2 I could really make it look great. After putzing around with Blender though, I have to acknowledge my own personal limitations. Basically, I can either spend months learning how to make great 3d models in Blender, or I can spend months working on the game code. I know which one I'd rather do. So I am probably going to go with the pixelated look, simply because it is something that I can actually do myself within a realistic timeframe, and it will also go well with the next point I'm about to explain, which is modding.

I know some people will not like a pixelated looking game. This is one of those areas where I have to say "tough," unless somebody is willing so supply me with hundreds of 3d models free of charge, which is what it is going to take in order to do this properly.

Modding
Customization is going to be huge in MC2 compared to the original. Given the global online multiplayer in MC1, custom content could not realistically be allowed in the game. The decentralized nature of MC2 changes everything though, and modding and customization, as well as all of the tools needed to make it happen, are going to be baked right into the client.

In MC2, the basic "unit" of the game is the building. Everything is going to be pretty much based on buildings, and their relationship to each other. This is basically how MC1 works as well, so this is nothing new. What is going to be knew is My Colony 2's build in Building Editor.

I am going to be creating MC2 using the games' bulit-in editor, and so the same editor I use to make the game is going to be available to all players.

Each building in the game is going to be stored as a building file, and the base game will ship with all of its standard building files, which will be loaded at runtime. This differs from MC1 where all building data is stored in a single JSON file that is shipped with the game, which cannot be easily edited.

A building file will contain three parts.

The first is the JSON formatted definition data, with information about the name of the building, what it does, what it generates, etc. All of the properties that a building can have will be stored in that data.

The second part is the model information, which will essentially be an embedded Voxel Paint file.

The third part is a small (maybe like 64x64 pixel) thumbnail or icon representing the building, which will show up on the construction sidebar and various places throughout the UI.

The three above parts are all packaged into a single file which can be added to the game client, posted online for easy sharing, or what have you. A dedicated server can include custom building files that will automatically be distributed to clients when they join the game. Each building file will have a unique UUID and version information, so if a client already has the same version of a building file that a server does, it will not need to re-transfer the data upon connection.

This system is actually a very powerful change over the original My Colony, and unlocks essentially limitless possibilities for the game. This also makes it a lot easier for the community to participate in development of the game. A creator who makes a great building idea can distribute it online where it is tested out and balanced by the community. If it works in practice and everyone likes it, the file can be included in the base game.

If you want to host a crazy dedicated server with a bunch of custom buildings that totally change the game, you can do so.

I have no idea what kind of buildings people will dream up, but including the content creation tools right into the base game will be huge, I hope. And I plan on making the process as easy as I possibly can, so that anybody can create a building. Using Voxel Paint, if you have an idea and the ability to build a house in Minecraft, you should be able to make it a reality. And being able to make something and then instantly import it into your game makes it simple to test out concepts and balance them right there on your own device.

It's possibly that nobody will care about modding or making buildings, but it still doesn't hurt to add the tools right into the game. If nothing else, it will still make it easier for me to create new content for updates, versus having to go through and edit JSON data manually.

However, it's also possible that everybody will be making custom content and the game takes off in crazy directions that we never even imagined!

It could even be possible to allow mod creators to somehow sell their mods in-game and get paid in real money, maybe through PayPal or something. That is a thought for another day though, and not a current actual plan.

Conclusion
These are my current thoughts on MC2 as of this day. Like I said, nothing is set in stone yet and everything is subject to change. I wanted to put everything out there so that the community knows what page I am on and where I am headed, and has time to stop me if I am about to drive over a cliff.

Remember that I am open to all feedback, so if you have ideas, please don't just be quite about it, or don't just complain about them in a Discord chat somewhere, because I probably will not see them. Part of being a game developer is getting hate e-mail on a regular basis on why my games suck, so believe me that your being critical of the above ideas will not hurt my feelings, and will be nothing new to me.

The whole purpose of doing all of this beforehand is to get real feedback from the community so that MC2 can go in a direction that we all like and we will all have fun playing. Once I start getting into the code, it gets harder and harder to make changes, so if there is something you don't like, now is the time to mention it. Think of all of the things I could not effectively implement in MC1 because they would require massive time-consuming changes to the entire engine. So getting ideas in right now is how we avoid that.

Like MC1, I'm trying to make something fun that I myself want to play, not a game that is going to just nickel and dime players with constant ads and IAPs so I can sit on a yacht somewhere. I think the new decentralized play model will allow the game to outlast the original. Basically, if I get in a wreck and die, the MC1 server will be forever down within a few weeks. With MC2, once players can make their own servers and create their own content right from within the game, what happens to me becomes more irrelevant, which is the way it should be.

Anyway, if you got this far, then thanks for reading my small novel. Please give some thoughts to where you want to see the game go, or discuss it with other players and really think about all of the concepts I laid out here. I want to start working on the game soon, maybe as early as mid-next month. I plan to start with the world-generating engine and the in-game building creation tools first, so people can start testing that out and seeing what it is like to make their own content.

So between now and then, if any of the above ideas are way off the mark, I need to know now. So think about it, let me know, and thanks for helping me create the follow-up to My Colony. I think it's going to be fun!
3y ago
Warning- Long Post Ahead! (the first and last paragraphs are the most important if you don't want to read it all!)
I do understand wanting to change rum into alcohol since it does make more sense, but with my experience in coding, I understand what bast is saying. Assuming that nothing else had to be changed, simply having to go through the code and find every single instance of rum in the code, and change it to say alcohol, in a game as large as my colony, could take hours. And even if he used the current variable name and kept that the same, I'm not positive, but I imagine that it would still mean having to rename every instance where the word "rum" is displayed in-game individually...and for something so tiny, it's just not really worthwhile. What I use as my head-canon is that rum just means "alcohol" as technically, for humans at least, they aren't even making rum...rum is made from molasses, and molasses is a byproduct of turning sugarcane into sugar...the human rum buildings don't use sugar in any of them, meaning that they can't actually be making rum...nor can the draconians be making rum...I know it's nitpicky to use all that logic here, but I'm just saying that you can explain away the improper name, and knowing how hard it is to go through an entire source code and change the name of one resource...for almost no reward, when you instead could be making new features that will take just as much time, but will look more impressive when you put them in the changelog, that makes sense to me. Same thing with charcoal honestly. Now, if a world comes where he plans to add natural coal deposits in, then we can reasonably discuss changing the name of that, since it wouldn't *technically* be charcoal...but again, I would point back to my rum example for that.
I would agree with adding in more uses for wool, because as you said, only humans use it currently and it's only used to make cloth, so it would be nice for wool to have more uses...I'm struggling to think of one where cloth couldn't be used instead...but I'm sure someone could think of something. I mean, besides like a wool burner. I thought maybe a winter clothes sweatshop, that uses cloth and wool to make bulkier and warmer clothes...but then that's kinda lame to only add in that as a use.
Also while I see your point about pottery and bricks both being ceramics...I feel like it wouldn't make as much sense to combine them...for a number of reasons: 1. bricks are meant for building, rather than pottery which if you tried to build something out of...woud just crush the pottery. 2. Things like, the pottery used by the museum wouldn't be as poetic if you just called it "ceramics" and certain buildings that use pottery and bricks in their construction wouldn't feel as right. Since bricks are for the structure, pottery is used to give everyone in the building cups and plates. :) Plus, ceramics are a very broad category, and you can put all materials under three categories (as I'm learning in school) ceramics, metals, and polymers. Now I know what you mean and what you're trying to say, but the problem is; diamonds, obsidian and crystal are also ceramic materials. And it comes back to what I said before, ceramics, polymers, and metals each can all have very different properties. Think about aluminum, steel, gold, uranium, antanium, triantanium. Even if you only focused on the first four because they actually exist, all four (or six) have very different properties, hence why they are classified differently. Sorry for the tangent, I was just trying to explain why I felt it would be weird to merge those two together, especially under that name.
I do think that if we are going to have all these different resources, they should have more uses, for example, instructions only have one use, and are only useful for the time when you need to get relics from Auntie Belle's Cupcake Factory...as after you get research converters, you don't need them anymore, because you can get relics directly from that. The fact that only humans are even able to store them is telling. And as mentioned, wool only has one use currently. Charcoal is nice for humans, but for insects with mysticism, even though they can make and store it, it's currently useless if you have unholy power spires. And one of the biggest problems- paintings. They are only used to build a couple draconian buildings and are sold at the counterfeit market. Outside of that, they are useless. UE can make them and store them, but currently, have a grand total of 0 use for them.
I've been having issues since the 1.30 update with getting stuck on the Loading Assets screen.
Sometimes it will start if I haven't logged in (I have premium My Colony).
It happens on all the versions I can use, Ape Launcher, the web app, Windows Store, and the standalone.
The standalone is the only one that let me play after I logged in, it stopped working when I exited and reopened though.
I've tried the uninstall reinstall thing.
7mo ago
Hi,

I have problem with loading save from file using web browser (Chrome v63.0.3239.84 64-bit).

Game(v0.52.0) was saved using Chrome browser client( More options-> Game Data -> Backup Game File ).

When I'm trying to load save from attachment (More options-> Game Data -> Restore Game File), loading screen hangs on Restoring Data...
- Chrome dev console shows:
Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of null
at onFileOpened (script.js:3753)
at Worker.<anonymous> (script.js:3416)
(I've attached screenshot),

-Microsoft Edge shows similar error: SCRIPT5007: Unable to get property 'length' of undefined or null reference
script.js (3752,23)

The same save file is loaded properly using:
- standalone windows app (my-colony-win-x64-0.51.0.zip),
- windows 10 store app (v0.51.0),
- latest android google play store v0.51.0

I have tried saving game using standalone Windows app but still can't load it using any Web browser.
Save file:
Error Screenshot:
6y ago
standalone client.
last time I tested opening saves in web was in 0.76 and it worked back then.
the saves still work fine in the standalone client but in browser I can only open region map and build new cities, opening any of the existing ones triggers the save corrupt message and kicks back to the main menu.
wouldn't say it's a big deal, might just be something my end.
5y ago


Standalone version 64bit, current 1.11.0 (but i got this error other times in older versions).


Some time, after a "back to menu" this error come out. After i need to close/reopen (and login, nickname and pass) or logout/login.

When it happens, i lose any progress in a 1-5min windows time (the other day 49.6 millions starships go puff).


I only find the error in the standalone version, the version from ape apps launcher seems immune.

The error log have only this, 3906 times:


v1.11.0 1608049703183 frame-script.js: 7219 Uncaught TypeError: message.indexOf is not a function
v1.11.0 1608049728458 frame-script.js: 7219 Uncaught TypeError: message.indexOf is not a function
v1.11.0 1608049779058 frame-script.js: 7219 Uncaught TypeError: message.indexOf is not a function
v1.11.0 1608049804242 frame-script.js: 7219 Uncaught TypeError: message.indexOf is not a function
v1.11.0 1608049824011 frame-script.js: 7219 Uncaught TypeError: message.indexOf is not a function
v1.11.0 1608049854905 frame-script.js: 7219 Uncaught TypeError: message.indexOf is not a function
v1.11.0 1608049905420 frame-script.js: 7219 Uncaught TypeError: message.indexOf is not a function
3y ago
For my agricultural idea I've put together some herbs and other plants that aid in the rpg/adventure aspect of the game. Some of these plants can create powerful elemental resistance potions or elemental catalysts needed to cast spells. Some are very picky in terms of the biome that they want to grow in, yet others can be grown anywhere.

Flaming Peppers:
grows wild in - deserts
grown in - hot biomes only
use - ice resistance potions, fire arrows, fire catalysts.
growing info - the plant can be harvested without breaking and regrows peppers over time. crops need to have one square of room all around to grow(prevents easy mass production).

Frost Melon:
grows wild in - tiaga, tundra
grown in - cold biomes only
use - fire resistance potions, ice arrows, ice catalysts
growing info - grows just like the flaming peppers and has the same spacial requirements.

Rubber tree:
grows wild in - jungle
grown in - hot and temperate biomes, but not cold biomes.
use - shock resistance potion, potential source of rubber, which could be a crafting material.
growing info - grows like any other tree, drops rubber bark and the normal drops when broken and should drop saplings so that becomes a renewable source of rubber bark.

Zing berry bush:
grows wild in - tiaga, forest, jungle
grown in - tiaga, forest, jungle only. It needs shade to grow
use - static arrows and shock catalysts.
growing info - can be harvested without breaking the plant and will regenerate over some time. They need to be planted adjecent to a tree in order to produce berries. growing next to rubber trees provides a bonus to growth and fruit growing speed.

chamomile:
grows wild in - grasslands
grown in - anywhere.
uses - health potions
growing info - grown on grass or farmland, grows faster on farmland. Spreads fledgling plants to adjacent squares to make it easy to mass produce.

sugar cane:
grows wild in: swamp, jungle
grown in: anywhere
uses: potions and food.
growing info - must be grown next to water.

Char lilly:
grows wild in - must be crafted with various fire related ingredients.
grown in - hot biomes only
use - provides nectar for inferno bees. Inferno bee hives in turn produce fire catalysts instead of honey.
growing info - char lillies are sterile, so they must be crafted in order to make more. they can be placed next to one another and must grow on farmland. The rate at which inferno hives produce fire catalysts is directly related to how many of these lillies are placed in range of the hive. This would make it easy to mass produce fire catalysts, which will be needed more and more as you progress through the game.

Frostbite Orchid:
grows wild in: must be crafted from frost/ice related items.
grown in: cold biomes only
use - provides nectar for blizzard bees. Blizzard bee hives produce ice catalysts from the nectar.
growing info - also sterile and have to be crafted, same hive mechanics, just for a different element.

Static Azalea:
grows wild in - must be crafted from shock/static related items
grows in - all biomes
use - provides nectar to tempest bees. Tempest bee hives produce shoch catalysts from the nectar
growing infor - same as char lillies and frostbite orchides, but for the shock element.

night shade:
grows in: at the lowest depths of caves.
grown in: caves only
use: this plant contains the essence of corruption, an element that causes poisoning and madness. Can be used to make corruption arrows that turn enemies against one another and is also used in black catalysts.
growing info, must be grown on farm land in caves. must have at least one tile of space on all sides.

Glow coral:
grows wild in - the depths of the ocean
grown in - underwater only.
uses - this plant contains the essence of blinding light, this light is an element called holiness and can be used to craft holy arrows which cause massive damage to undead/corrupt enemies and set them ablaze, and is used in white catalysts.
growing info: must be placed on sea floor with one tile of room all around.

aetherial kelp:
grows wild in - underground ether rivers and oceans.
gown in - underground ether sea floor
uses - all cure potions that restore full health and remove all negative status effects, used in ether breathing potions, and used to make ether catalysts for ultima spells
growing info - very rare plant. grown on ether sea floor, must have three tiles of space all around to make mass production difficult. Harvesting the plant doesn't destroy the plant and it'll regrow it's harvestables over time.

Castor Bean plant:
grows in: jungle
grown in: jungle
uses: highly potent ricin poison that can inbue weapons and projectiles with poison damage. Also, there could be a possible poison catalyst if poison is to be an element, but let's assume it's not. Poisons would also be needed to make antidotes to rid yourself from being poisoned. Could also be used to make poison vials that would imbue all arrows and mele weapons with poison for a short time.
growing info: this plant will replicate a phenomenal rates by spawning fledgling plants right next to it or up to 2 tiles away, so all you have to do is plant on dirt and you'll have a ton of these in no time, no water required. Harvesting destroys the plant, but yields a lot of castor beans. Mass production should be easy, but these plants will kill all plants and animals near them, and there is a risk of poisoning yourself as you harvest them unless a protection method is implemented, such as rubber gloves. This makes these plants a pain to control for farming, but it's worthwhile to farm them. These need to be mass-produceable so that you can make lots of antidotes, poison vials, and poison arrows to aid you in your adventures, and poison is a pretty easy to come by thing in most rpg games.

aqualemon:
grows in: all levels of the ocean
grown in: all levels of the ocean
uses: water breathing potion and can be consumed as food for hunger and water breathing for a small amount of time.

Catalysts:
fire - used as ammo for fire spells. Made from flaming peppers, wax, and charcoal.
ice - used as ammo for ice spells
shock - used as ammo for shock spells
black - used as ammo for dark/poison/necro spells and can be used as ammo for fire, ice, and lightning spells. When used that way, it adds poison damage and boosts the elemental status effects that the particular spell imbues on the enemy.
white - used as ammo for healing/light/holy spells and can be used as ammo for fire, ice, and lightning spells. When used that way, it adds holy damage to the spell and boosts it's overall damage.
ether: can be used for any kind of spell and is mainly used as ammo for ultima spells. Ether catalysts should be very difficult to obtain.

potions and consumable:

potion of fire resistance: reduces fire damage and the likeliness of being set on fire, which does damage over time.
potion of frst resistance: reduces ice damage and the likeliness of being slowed or frozen in place.
potion of lightning resistance: reduces shock damage and the likeliness of being stunned or knocked back.
tea: crafted from water, sugar, and chamomile. Basic health potion.
antidote: this common potion needs to be easy to make because the player could get poisoned quite often.
all cure: made from aetherial kelp and other highly rare ingredients, this potion brings you back to square one so you can keep up the fight without having to retreat.
potion of water breathing: allows the player to breath under water for a time, vital for venturing deep into the ocean to get things like glow coral.
Potion of dark vision: allows you to see invisible enemies and objects and allows you to see night and underground as if it were day. Not completely required as enemies that use invisibility should uncloak for a time to let the player strike them. Would be made from black catalysts and other rare ingredients.
cleansing pack: a semi-common consumable that would cure most common status ailments other than poison, corruption, and blindness. Its made from soap, cotton, and water. Soap is made from animal fat and charcoal. It would need to be easy to mass produce as the player will often find themselves under a negative status effect.
eye drops: made from salt and water, salt comes from salt deposits under the ocean(and possibly in deserts), cures blindness.

Bees:
wax: harvested from hives and apiaries. Can be used to make candles, fire arrows, and fire catalysts.
Honey: restores health when consumed, can be used in better tiers of potions and consumables.
smoker: pacifies bees for a short time, allowing you to destroy their hive or apiary or harvest wax and honey. made with iron, charcoal, and zing berries, breaks after 64 uses.
Honey collector: made with wood and iron, used to harvest honey and wax from hives and apiaries. The amount of time it takes for a hive or apiary to fill with honey is directly related to how many plants you place in the range of the hives/apiaries. Chamomile flowers have the best affect, but all other plants can be used. Hives and apiaries increase plant growth speed and fruit generation speed of all plants around them by 20%, and if the ranges of hives/apiaries overlap then this effect can stack up to 5 times.

wild honey bee hives: occur naturally all over the world. The hive will attack if the player or other mobs get's too close, regardless of whether they intend to do harm, but the smoker tool can pacify them for a time. the hive will drop wax and 1-2 queens when broken.
apiary: crafted from wood, wax, and 1 wild or domestic queen bee. Bees will attack the player even though they are cultivated, but the damage is much less and apiaries that have been smoked are pacified for much longer than normal. Apiary bees will not attack a player for standing near the apiary, unlike the hive. However, hostile mobs that enter the range of an apiary are automatically attacked, making them good defensive turrets. However, this consumes honey, and they can't attack if out of honey, so it's important to not harvest defensive apiaries, and to put harvesting apiaries in a spot where they won't encounter hostility. The player can manually insert honey or catalysts(depending on the type of apiary) into the apiary to refuel it for battle. It will even drop itself when broken, allowing easy relocation. However, the apiary has a substantially reduced range compared to the hive.

elemental bees:
elemental siphon: used to siphon elemental catalysts from elemental apiaries. Elemental apiaries will attack the player with the elemental damage of their type when attempting to destroy or harvest from the apiary. The same apiary rules apply here regarding attack parameters, range, defensive action against hostile mobs, and smoke effect duration.
Inferno apiary: made from an apiary, a number of fire catalysts, a char lilly, and lots of charcoal. Drops itself when broken, allowing easy transportation. Only operates in hot biomes, produces fire catalysts at a speed directly related to how many char lilies in it's range. The lilies will die after a long time of use, dropping a depleted char lily that can be recharged by cooking in a furnace or with one fire catalyst. The inferno hive will always produce more catalysts than you'll end up using recharging the lilies, but you can get even more catalysts out of it just by cooking the lilies.

Blizzard apiary: made from an apiary, a number of ice catalysts, a frostbite orchid, and lots of ce. All of the rules for the inferno apiary apply here, just for the ice element. frostbite orchids can be recharged using ice catalysts or by crafting them with ice.

tempest Apiary: same rules apply as blizzard apiary but with the lightning element. Made from an apiary, a number of shock catalysts, a static azalea, and lots of rubber. static azaleas can be recharged with lightning catalysts or by crafting them with zing berries.

well, that's all I have for now, it's a big list of ideas, but I think it would make for some interesting gameplay mechanics. Let me know what you think.
4y ago
Second thing... don't do a soup. And with soup i mean:

for entertainment I place two BIG stadiums 1 pyramids 2 med stadiums huge park the 3 or 4 of the tall gold monolith


This is pure chaos, if you prefer to use many type of building for aesthetic reason is.. well, a your choice, but is far away to be a good layout. No one will stop you to use pyramids (600 slot for a 6x6), large park (650 slot for 9x9..), or the obelisk (only 50 for 2x2), but don't blame the game if you use to much space...

In any case for 200k pop you need 30k entertainment slots (6 large stadium), from the list above you will have only 13450 ent slots (2 large stadium, 2 med stadium, 1 pyramids, large park, 4 obelisk)..

Is better to don't use 20 type, just use the higher utility capacity (or better IQ, if you have building with min IQ) for the space you have. Not every building available.


For the approval rating, the only way to having 100%, is to don't have pop :D If you have colonist, at the moment you will have max 94-95%, without any concerns, but if you don't have the right % for utility, will be lower.
4y ago
This topic isn't meant to be a complaint, it's just my ideas of what could be done to improve on the existing planets' designs. I realize that bast isn't working very much on new content and I support that, since what he is doing now is better for the game than making new content. I just figured that I would cover all of the planets for my planet-hub topic. That way people can get my opinion of all the planets.


earthlike Planet specific ideas:

earthlike planet summary: I think that this planet is fine as it is. It's supposed to be a training planet that gives the user the perfect conditions to build a colony, so I think it should be left alone. There are some ideas that I have regarding all planets that also apply to this planet, but I don't have any ideas regarding this specific planet. I do believe that every race should have this planet type so the player can learn to play this race under the best conditions, with the exception of zolarg because they already have a world with the best conditions to grow, their just a harder species to manage overall. reptilians and LIS get the abandoned world, which is earthlike but doesn't have any ore.

Waterworld specific ideas:

Waterworld summary: This planet is really fun to play because you have to be carful how you design your colony layout. I wouldn't chancge anything about this planet and I'm not going to suggest anything because all of the ideas that I have bast is already going to implement soon. There are other ideas that pertain to all planets that apply here, but no specific ideas come to mind when thinking about this planet.

red planet specific ideas:

Red Planet Summary: I really like the simplicity of the map, and I like the laid-back feel that you get when playing it. I also like how quickly it allows you to grow your colony. There is not much more that I would like to see added to this planet aside from the general ideas that I have below that don't apply to any planet. This planet is very well-designed.

red badlands decorations: I think that the red planet map should generate decorations that resemble badlands structures, or weird rock structures that form because wind wears it down into awkward shapes. This should make the map aesthetically pleasing.

generated lake-bed rivers: per the dry lakebed tile idea below, i think that rivers of those tiles should be generated on red planet maps. This allows the red planet to become just like an earthlike planet once terraformed, with rivers that produce infinite amounts of water. It gives the map a more dynamic feel.

Dust storms: These planetwide storms can last for months and would make it more difficult to see your colony. Solar panels would stop working, but you could implement a windmil to take advantage of the storms and it would produce more during these storms than normally. You already have added the ability to block out light by subtracting alpha from an overlaying object to simulate night time. You could create another overlay object for storms and give it a reddish-tan hue. Then just add moving particle affects and wind sounds and your done. These should disappear once the planet is terraformed. There shouldn't be a damage factor to these storms as the dust is too fine to really wear anything down.

Dynamic Terraformation: I think that this planet type specifically could benefit from dynamic terraforming and should be the first to receive such a feature if added since it's one of the most played maps.


Lunar specific ideas:

Lunar Summary: Lunar world is my favorite map because you can jumpstart your colony before you even get your first immigrant. I like the fact that it's terraformable and the regolith challenge is fun as well. There are a few features that could be added to make this world more immersive though.

Jagged rock decos: Since a lunar planet has no atmosphere, it has no wind on it's surface to smooth and erode rocks, so you should see some really jagged rock formations. I think this would add some aesthetics.

craters: I think that large circular patches of darker terrain tiles should exist on the map. These terrain tiles would act the same as lakebed tiles in that they will become water tiles as atmosphere increases. Craters should be random sizes and distances between. I would even have them generate partially off of the map and across region maps to give a very appealing region view. This may might that craters could envelop most or all of some maps, and some maps might get no crater tiles at all, but that's the beauty of it. the player should also have the option to fill in a crater tile or water tile using regolith where they would otherwise use ore on other planets. The player should be able to turn regular tiles into crater tiles as well with the cost of money.

meteor showers: these showers would pummel structures below periodically. Any that land on empty tiles could generate regolith nodes and could have the chance to generate mini-craters that would fill with water upon terraforming, this is why I think we should have the ability to turn crater tiles to regular tiles, and vise versa. The damage from these meteors shouldn't be catastrophic, but it should cause some damage depending on the structure. These meteors should stop once atmosphere is above 1 mil.

Atmosphere leach: Since most planets like the moon aren't big enough to keep an atmosphere forever(there are exceptions), there should be a significant drain on atmosphere that must be compensated for. It could also be a benefit if a colony's atmosphere is too high though. A drain of 5k per minute would be a challenge at first, and you would have to beat that mark in order for condensors to operate.


Forest Planet ideas:

Forest Summary: I don't have much to say about this world, it's pretty straightforward albiet annoying at the start. Not really a big benefit to this world aside from the fact that you don't have to mess with the atmosphere at first until you get bigger. I'd honestly play abandoned before forest any day. Here are some ideas I have in mind though:

Rivers: this should be an addition. Any forest world requires lots of water in order for trees to grow.

mega trees: i think that mega-trees should generate on the map at first and begin to spread. Players could try to preserve these so that they'll have a huge supply later on. Once they they're gone, they're gone.

Asteroid planet ideas:

Asteroid summary:
I like the asteroid world. It's just like lunar, but harder since you don't have alu nodes. I used to play this world back before we had ways to get infinite diamonds. Might take a crack at it again to see how far I get. I have a few ideas regarding this world.

craters: the same concept as the lunar planet.

meteor showers: the same concept as lunar planet

Extreme atmosphere leech: asteroids are definately not large enough to keep an atmosphere for long. Because of this, they are drained by 50k per minute. 100 minutes is all it takes for an earthlike atmosphere level to drop to 0. Major benefit later in the game though when atmosphere is increased rapidly by pollution.

Awkward rotation: An asteroid has a very randomized shape in real life. it can be elongated, flat, and even spherical. Because of this, days and nights on this planet last for random times. Short nights lower colonist energy. Short days reduce happiness. long nights can increase colonist energy and long days can raise happiness. This amount increased or decreased would only apply if the length of a night or day goes past the minimum or maximum limits. if a limit is exceeded, the same amount of energy or hapiness is taken away or given, no matter how far past the limit a day or night is.

Abandoned World Ideas:

Abandoned Summary: I really like the abandoned world map, but my idea for a twilight themed abandoned world would add a mystic and ancient feel to the map. I'd like to see a much darker themed map than the light and cheery theme that it has now.

Rivers: aside form the twilight idea I would love to see rivers on this map.

Ice planet ideas:

Ice summary: I like the ice planet because it's a challenge to get through the crystalline bottleneck. I do have some ideas though:

glacial/ crystal decos: a slew of icy/crystalline decorations would look good for this planet.

unstable melting: When you heat up an ice planet, there's no telling where the oceans and rivers will form and where the actual land will be. Ice melts very unpredictably, so there should be no indication as to whether each tile is a lakebed or regular tile, but they should both still be there and have the same texture. It should be set up to where rivers will form as if randomly and instantly. This would be part of the real-life challenges of terraforming an ice planet, so would make sense here. Sometimes your colony gets destroyed just like in lava world, sometimes you get lucky.

Underwater crystal farm: This new building would need to straddle water and land and would be four-way rotatable so it can be placed in any orientation as long as the front 4 tiles are on water and the back 2 squares are on land. It is a 3x2 structure, and it consumes moderate amounts of water, crystalline, and alcohol to constantly produce large amounts of crystalline. The concept behind it is that some crystals grow faster in a water solution with the nutrients it needs to grow. Water also allows the crystals to grow much larger because gravity is much weaker in water as we all know. The fact that the structure would have to straddle land and water means that the planet will need to terraformed before a player can place on of these and get rid of their green crystals.

desert world:

desert summary: I don't have much to say about this map, haven't played reptilians that much. I do think that it could use some aesthetics though, just one flat plane of land is nothing to get all excited about. But here are some of the ideas that I have:

Yellow badlands decos: weird yellow rock forms, crackly ground, rough patches, and some shrubbery and cacti. These should randomly dot the landscape and would really up the aesthetics on this map.

Tar(oil) pits: instead of water flowing through the map, tar pits would give it a more desert feel, as you find these pits naturally in deserts. just like rivers on the earthlike planet yield infinite water, these pits should yield infinite oil. The major downfall with this benefit is that you need workers to collect the oil, and that can be pretty tedious and may slow down performance.

raise the atmosphere: Since deserts are supposed to be hot, we should raise the atmosphere to above earthlike. This also corrosponds to my thermal idea below. In addition to this, I would recommend adding a fully terraformed stage where atmosphere is reduce to between 5 mil and 15 mil. I'm not saying that deserts don't exist when atmosphere is at perfect levels because the saharrah wouldn't exist if that were true. It's just that since bast still hasn't added any thermal or moisture level factors to terraforming, I thought that lowering the atmosphere was good enough to simulate raising the moisture level and lowering thermal levels to make the planet cooler and wetter.

dry-lakebed tiles: I think that the dry lakebed tile idea would particularly help this planet as once it is terraformed from dessert to earthlike, you'll have rivers flowing through the landscape.
Sandstorms: Not to be confused with dust storms, the storms are much shorter, yet can be devastating to colonists and buildings. These storms should cause colonist sickness, slow down movement, and accelerate the decay of structures by a certain amount for the duration of the storm. Depending on the direction of the storm, walls placed on the map will block the storm from getting into your cities. It's best to surround your cities with walls so that you get as little exposure to the storms as possible, just an extra challenge. These storms should cease once atmosphere is reduced to earthlike and life is brought back to the planet.

Lava planet ideas:

lava summary: I liked this planet at one point, but I think it's rather pointless to play being that it doesn't have an end-goal and you're colony is never safe no matter how far down the atmosphere goes. My list of lava ideas on my planet hub topic should cover all of the ideas that I have for this planet, and they all still stand.

Fissure vents: These gigantic cracks in the planet spew forth ash and toxic gas into the atmosphere. Because of this, atmosphere is increased by 2 thousand atmosphere a minute, even if the atmosphere is reduced to between 5 and 15 mil, atmosphere will still pile up, requiring you to build more buildings that use up atmosphere to balance it out. The only thing that would need to be added is a passive loop that continuously counts down 60 seconds and then adds 2k to the atmosphere number value. Good luck terraforming this planet.

ideas for all existing planets:

Dry Lakebed Tiles: I've suggested this a few times, but basically dry lakebed tiles should replace water tiles in low and high atmosphere planets. These tiles can be built on, but watch out, because when atmosphere goes over 250k or falls under 30 million, these tiles will turn to water and any buildings on them will be destroyed. There should be an apparent difference in color shade or texture between regular tiles and the dry lakebed tiles. remaning Ice deposits should also turn into water deposits at the same atmosphere level.

Dynamic terraforming: I've mentioned this a couple of times too. It's simple, if atmosphere goes too low, the terraformed planet becomes barren, just as if it were a red or lunar planet; if atmosphere goes too high, then the planet becomes hotter, becoming first a dessert and then eventually a lava planet, with all the eruptions and lava spreading we know and love. . I also think that atmosphere requirements for all atmosphere stages for region games should be multiplied by the number of tiles on a region. This gives the player a longer playthrough and also encourages them to develop cities on every tile. I think that downside is worth it and it would be a fun challenge to work towards. I think that aside from the tiles changing texture, trees should generate across the map on empty space once atmosphere either rises past 5 mil or falls past 15 mil. I also think they should disappear while outside of those ranges.

Thermal factor: I feel like there should be some sort of challenge regarding keeping your colonists at a good temperature. Perhaps you could add a meter in statistics that indicates thermal level of the entire colony. Too hot or cold and your colonists will become sick and loose energy and hapiness. An earthlike planet, or any planet that's been terraformed to between 5 mil and 15 mil, will not affect the meter at least, but too much atmosphere and the meter will start to go up and too little atmosphere will start to subtract heat from the meter. You should be able to build coolers or heaters to supplement the loss or gain of temperature. Currently most planets start out at no atmosphere, which means that they will start out cold. Lava is the only planet that would add the the thermal meter at this time but I think that the desert type planet should have high atmosphere so it can add to the meter.

Regions acting as mc campaigns: Now, some people would disagree with me on this, but I think it's totally fair to call region mode and sort of "campaign mode." This is because with regions, you get a longer playthrough and it takes longer for you to develop the space given to you. I also think it's fair that region mode requires premium, as most well-developed apps offer a free trial(single map mode) and full version with campaign mode(region mode). Some of yall might disagree. but here are the main ideas that I have in mind:
- design random mandatory goals to have a chance to pop up for each tile a map occupies that grant the player money, research. civics, happiness, or other resources, kind of like quests. But these would be more like story-line quests. a medium map would contain four of these quests. These should take a decent amount of time to complete and should make the game progress slower.
- design smaller optional side-quests that pop up randomly occasionally and grant smaller bonuses.
- each tech should require a certain number of complete story-line quests before being unlocked, even if you have enough research. There would be only one quest per tile so this would encourage players to develop all the tiles to complete all of the available story quests.
-Make individual map progression depend on the completion of story quests. For instance, you can add a population cap that unlocks after the quest is complete, and for medium maps with four quests, you could increase the cap in increments to allow the player to develop further after each quest, but not indefinitely until all quests are complete.

Overall I think that these ideas for campaign mode should add a very interesting element to regions mode and would make it more worthwhile and entertaining to play and a player might be entertained for a very long time before becoming bored.




But anyway, those are my ideas. I wanted to go over each planet so that everything was covered in my planethub topic. I'll paste this link so yall can access it easily. Let me know what you think and which ideas you like/dislike.
5y ago
CodyStormz said:I was thinking about the retirement function in my colony and it's relatively underutilized. I believe that more needs to be done in this area. So I propose the creation of the "Retirement Plan" tech path. It could cost mere 10k-15k research, but if you want to be funny you could make it cost 401k money/civics/research, (personally I would want 10k research & 401k money). All of the following will require at least Advanced Building Technology (except small old folks hab). It will be in successive tiers starting from Eldercare Essentials and ending in Cryogenics I know this is exhaustive but I hope some of the features get implemented or can be built off of, as I think it would lead to a better simulation and make the retirees and the older age group in My Colony.

*The biggest feature would be allowing control over the retirement age, potentially bringing back stimulus, and most importantly having the policy of deportation come sooner then Level 7 Government… should be closer to Level 4-5.


Human Technologies: (The order is tiered meaning you need that tech to unlock the next)
- Eldercare Essentials (Early Game)
- Retirement Planning (Mid Game)
- Advanced Eldercare (Mid Game)
- Cryogenics (Late Game)


Humans Eldercare Essentials:[/u]


(Requires: 10,000 Atmosphere) (Colonists: 20, Jobs: 5 *unskilled*) (Size 2*2) (Colonial Finance Theory)

- Colonial Elks Club/Colonial Branch Office of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks:
A fun place to hang out where you can listen to your music from 60 years ago. Provides entertainment to the retired and a place for them to hang out so they don't get depressed. Requires a small rum and food to keep the party going.
(Requires: 10,000 Atmosphere, Power: 6) (Entertains: 25, Jobs: 5 *White Collar?*) (Colonial Finance Theory, Microgravity Brewing)(Size: 1 * 2)

- Old Folks Home: A nice housing unit that takes care of retirees like Grandpa and Grandma so they don't take up homes meant for workers. Requires a modest amount of money and food to keep them out of your way but produce some civics and cloth from all those quilts they make.
(Requires: 5,000,000 Atmosphere) (Colonists: 60, Jobs: 20 *Unskilled? Heals: 2) (Low Gravity Manufacturing, Colonial Civics, Low Gravity Masonry). *Building produces cloth based on the number of residences?* (Size: 2 * 5, 1-2 stories)

- Senior’s Living Chamber: A small housing unit for the retired that want a little privacy, costs little to no maintenance and prioritizes retirees over working citizens.
(Requires: 10,000 Atmosphere, Power:1) (Colonists: 4) (size 1 * 1)





- Humans (Retirement Plan):

- Slot Machine: An automated slot machine booth that will entertain your people for days while slowly pouring their money into your pockets. (Requires: 0 Atmosphere, Power: 4) (Tourist Traps, Eldercare) (Entertains: 2, Tourists: 2) (Size: 1*1) (Produces: 5-30 money per minute depending on use?)

- CAARP: The Colonial Auto & Home Insurance Program is here to insure your housing unit and rover against the dangers of colonial life. Generates Civics and Money by assuring citizens they won't lose it all.
(Requires: Atmosphere: 10,000, Power: 50, Bandwidth: 10) (Galactic Commerce, Eldercare, I.T,Low Gravity Manufacturing) (Jobs: 45) (Size: 4 * 2)

- 401k Consult: A quaint place to plan your future retirement. Using the power of software you can raise, or lower, the retirement cutoff to a certain extent. *This may be overpowered* *Maybe just produce civics or help lower the poverty line?* *may not be necessary*
(Requires: 10,000 Atmosphere, Power:35, Bandwidth: 25) (Galactic Commerce, Solar Governance, IT, Eldercare) (Jobs:35 *white collar*) (Size: 2*2)



Advanced Eldercare:


- Medium Old Folks Hab: A larger and better version of the Small Old Folks Hab. You can use it to shove dozens of retirees into the same space and make some money well your at it. Requires employees to oversee those who live there and ensure they are well taken care of. They might also use some software out of thin air by watching all those relatives on the net.

- Office of the Old: A new job sink for educated workers at low wages. Also used to give seminars to colonists over the age of 50 or retired, giving them an intelligence boost and a quiet reminder to go back into the workforce.
(Requires: 10,000 Atmosphere, Power: 60, Bandwidth: 35) (Self Government, Nationalism, Low Gravity Manufacturing). (Jobs:80 *Unskilled* *people with IQ over 90) (Size: 2*2)


- Golf Course: A place for people to have fun, hit a few holes, and make deals. A must-have for any self-respecting colony. Use the magic of aluminum golf balls and rum to make lots of money, civics, and keep people entertained. (Large size use… requires atmosphere)

- Integrated (Seniors) Living Chamber: Using the magic of software and robots, scientists have created an amazing house fully automated to provide premium assisted living. Seniors will likely spend all their time talking to their robot pals so you never have to call.

- Retirement Community: A large living complex suited especially for the retired population. Provides large entertainment, and produces pottery and paintings from all those art classes. Basically a human version of a Zolarg labor camp… but with pickling classes. (requires atmosphere and bricks to make… not sure of quantity).


Cryogenics:

Essentially allows you to extend the lifespan of citizens and improve health. Precursor to Nano-Clincs? Could use Cobalt, Crystalline and Ant paste as part of the storage process. *Maybe could effect food use*


I could really use this for Terra Nova ngl. I am starting to ramp up my old people population. Even some of my reptillian and insectoid immigrants are getting old lol. I hope that bast notices this.

This page is the one-stop guide to everything you need to know about Ape Chat. Ape Chat is a free standalone chat service from Ape Apps. It is available in your web browser, it is embedded into many Ape Apps games (such as My Colony), it is included in the Ape Apps Launcher, and is even embedded into the footer of this website. All of these applications and services are linked to the same Ape Chat server behind the scenes. The service allows for virtually unlimited free public chat rooms, private group chats, and even group voice chat. With this guide, you will learn all of the tricks and capabilities of the service. This guide will be updated as changes and improvements to the service are implemented.

Account Authentication
Ape Chat is tied to your Ape Apps Account, and if you do not have one, you will need to get one in order to log into the service. Your Ape Apps Account is the same account used for this website and for games such as My Colony. If you do not have one, you can sign up for free at https://accounts.ape-apps.com.

Channels
Ape Chat is organized by Channels. A channel is essentially it's own separate chat room. There are a few default channels already created, and you can also easily create your own. Channels fall into three categories - Public, Private, and Voice.

Global Channels
A Global chat channel is a basic channel that anybody can join. Examples include the general Ape Apps Chat, or the My Colony global chat. Anybody can create a global channel, and they are moderated by the developer ( @bastecklein ) and global moderator ( @cry8wolf9 ). With only a few exceptions (allowed by the developer only), Global channels are text only.

Private Channels
A Private channel can only be joined by invitation. Anybody may create a private channel, and when a user creates a new private channel, they are automatically assigned as a moderator for that channel. Private channel moderators may then invite other users to join the channel. Keep in mind that the developer and global moderators also have access to all private channels.

Voice Channels
A Voice channel retains all of the capabilities of a regular text channel, but also supports peer-to-peer voice communications. The voice chat runs in a decentralized mesh network, where each peer connects to each other without having to go through the server. This reduces server load, but it can also restrict the size of the voice chat, particularly on slow clients. For this reason, users are only allowed to enable voice chat on private channels that they are the moderator of.

Creating or Joining a Channel
Both creating and joining a chat channel are done in the same way, using the /join command. For instance, if you wanted to join the cows channel, you would type the following into the chat box:
/join cows
If the channel already exists, you will join the existing channel. Otherwise, the new cows channel will be automatically created. Channel names do not support spaces.

Creating a new private channel is similar. Suppose you wanted to create the new cows channel as private channel. The command would look like this:
/join %cows
The % symbol tells the server to create the channel in private mode. So the actual channel name would still just be cows, as the % sign only tells the server how to create the channel, and it is then discarded. If the channel already exists, nothing special will happen. If it doesn't, the new private channel cows will be created, and you will be the moderator.

If you want to leave a channel and remove it from your channel listing, you can do so with the /leave command.
/leave cows

Sharing a Channel
It is easy to share a link to your channel with others. Suppose, as in the example above, we created the cows channel. You can send anybody a direct link to your chat channel using the following URL scheme:
https://chat.ape-apps.com/?channel=cows

Simply change the word cows to whatever the name of your channel is. Even easier, you can create an automatic launcher for your chatroom here on the Ape Apps forum using the chat BBCode tag. So entering this...
[chat]cows[/chat]
...would create a chat application launcher button like this:




Private Channel Administration
Continuing the example above with our new theoretical cows private channel. Suppose you are the moderator of cows. Here are some options you can do to administer your new private channel.

Inviting Users
The command to invite a user to your private channel is /invite username to channelname. For example, to invite user nezkeys to the cows channel, you would enter the following:
/invite nezkeys to cows
In the above example, the cows channel will be then be added to nezkey's channel listing. If he is currently online, he will also get a notice that he has been added to the channel.

Channel Name
You can give your channel a display name, which can contain uppercase letters and spaces, using the /setname command. A display name makes it easier to identify a channel in a user's channel listing, and just looks nicer than the plain channel hashtag name. Suppose we wanted to call our cows channel Cow Chat. We would do this:
/setname cows Cow Chat
Technically the channel name is still cows, and to join, users would still need to type /join cows, but in the channel listing, it will now be refereed to as Cow Chat. You can use this function to give users a clearer understanding of what the channel is all about.

Enabling Voicechat
Converting your private channel into a voice-enabled channel can be easily done using the /envoice command. Below, we turn our Cow Chat channel into a fully featured voice-enabled room.
/envoice cows

Client Management
You can print an in-chat listing of commands that are available to you using the /help command.
/help
You can also use /? which does the same thing.

Ape Chat supports both a light and a dark theme mode, and you can use the /theme command to pick between the two.
/theme dark
/theme light
You can also set the default color of your messages using the /color command. The color command accepts hex color code values. For example, red is defined as #ff0000. For example:
/color #ff0000
The above example will make your text red. You can also clear out your color customization and return to the client theme default using /color null. In addition, you can set your message text color on a per-message basis using standard BBCode markup.

User Management
At times you may wish to send a private message to a particular user. You can accomplish this using the @ command. For example, suppose you want to send a private message to nezkeys. You would do so like this:
@nezkeys How are you?
Note that the message will only be delivered if the target user is currently online. If they are not, you are better off sending them a private message through the forum.

Ignoring and Muting
You have the ability to either ignore or mute a user. When you ignore somebody, their messages will be completely hidden from you, including their voice stream. When you mute them, only their voice stream will be disabled, so you will still be able to read their text messages. These actions are taken with the /ignore and /mute commands.
/ignore nezkeys
/mute nezkeys
Similarly, you can undo the above actions with the /unignore and /unmute commands.
/unignore nezkeys
/unmute nezkeys
Lastly, you can completely clear out your ignore and mute lists using the all parameter.
/unignore all
/unmute all
4y ago
This application is for advanced users only.

What is it?

The Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge adds extra functionality to apps and games hosted on apewebapps.com and those downloaded from the Windows Store, giving them additional features and capabilities normally only available in the native client versions of the apps and games. These features include things like offline file-system storage access and peer-to-peer connectivity over local area networks (think offline LAN multiplayer). These features are generally unavailable to web and store apps due to web browser security standards.

Who is it for?
The Desktop Bridge was created by @bastecklein to allow for testing native cross-platform features while doing development on the web. It was previously too archaic and technical for distribution. However, with upcoming online and offline multiplayer features for games such as My Colony, Antiquitas, Colony Wars, and Death 3d, it would be impossible for web-only users of these games to use their full feature-sets.

Do you need it?
It is important to keep in mind that using the Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge is still somewhat technical, and in most cases it is preferable to just install a native client version of the app or game you are wanting to use. Setup requires installing a security certificate authority to your operating system or browser of choice, a step which some users may be uncomfortable with. But for some circumstances where you either cannot use a native version of the app or you just prefer the web or store version, the Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge is available to unlock full desktop-class functionality for software hosted on apewebapps.com.

Installation
The Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge is available for free to download from the Ape Market at this url: https://market.ape-apps.com/ape-web-apps-desktop-bridge.html . It runs on most recent 64bit editions of Windows, macOS, and Linux.

The installer is not digitally signed with any certificates, so you have to allow installation manually if you get a security warning. On Windows, it will look something like this:

On macOS, after extracting the app to your Applications folder, you will have to right-click (or command click) on the app and select 'Open' the first time you run it. There are generally no special instructions required on Linux. When installation is complete, you will be greeted with the standard console screen:

At this point everything is ready to go on the bridge-side of things. On Windows only, if you are using the standard Windows Firewall, you will be asked to allow port access to the Desktop Bridge. You must allow access, or the bridge will not work properly. Once the app window is up and running, closing or minimizing the window will simply minimize it to your system tray. To quit the application completely, you must right-click on the tray icon and select 'Quit.'

Certificate Installation
In order to actually use the Desktop Bridge, you must install a security certificate onto your PC. Why? Ape Web Apps is hosted on a secure (https) domain, and as such can only interact with resources which contain a valid security certificate. A similar restriction applies to Windows Store apps. With the Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge, you are essentially hosting a secure server on your own desktop that acts as a middle man between the game and your PC. Most home users don't have to install certificates on their own machines, although it is a lot more common in corporate network environments. The bridge will not work properly without the certificate, so if you are not comfortable with this step, then you might as well not continue.

Certificate installation will be different depending on your operating system and environment, but below are some common installation scenarios. You can probably get enough information here to make it work on any platform.

The first thing you have to do on all platforms though, is download the certificate authority used to validate the Desktop Bridge application:


The next step will depend on your environment.

Windows
To install the certificate on Windows, you will need to open the Control Panel and go to the Internet Options application. In the window that comes up, select the Certificates button in the Content tab.

Next, go to the Trusted Root Certificate Authorities tab and select Import.

On the next screen, you will need to browse to the file you downloaded. You will have to change the file type filter to 'All Files', as the file extension is different (.pem) than the one that is automatically selected. After you selected the downloaded certificate, press the 'Next' button. On the next screen, make sure your options match what is below and hit next.

Certificate installation should now be complete on Windows.

macOS
Installation on a Mac is quite a bit less involved. You generally just have to double click on the certificate file you downloaded. It should open up the Keychain Access application and ask which keychain you want to install the certificate to. You will use the login keychain.

Then in the Keychain Access window, select login on the left side, find the new localhost key, and double click on it. In the window that opens, expand the Trust section and change the setting to 'Always Trust.'

Certificate installation should now be complete on macOS.


Linux
On Linux, installation will differ based on distro. On some distros, you may be able to just double click on the downloaded certificate and import it to your keychain and be done with it. Whether or not the web browser will accept the certificate is another matter. For Chrome on Ubuntu, I had to actually install the certificate into Chrome itself, which was a simple matter. On Chrome, navigate to the chrome://settings/ page. From there, scroll to the very bottom and expand the Advanced section. Scroll down further to the Privacy and Security section and click on Manage certificates. From there, go to the Authorities section and click on Import.

On the popup window, check the following boxes and say OK.

That should be all you need to do on Chrome. The setup for Firefox is very similar.

Filesystem
When the Desktop Bridge is running, applications on Ape Web Apps (not Windows Store apps) will save all files and game data into the Documents folder for your desktop user. Files are also stored internally into the browser just in case, and may also be synced to the Ape Apps Cloud depending on the application.

Questions/Comments/Suggestions
Use this thread for all discussion related to the bridge. If it gets enough activity I can make a dedicated forum section for it, but right now for the benefit of all, keep all discussion in the same place.

Final Note
Remember that the Ape Web Apps Desktop Bridge minimizes and closes to the system tray. You should consider closing it when it is not in use, both to free up system resources and for security. You should get a system notification whenever a client connects to the bridge, although the notifications may not work properly on all systems.


Update History
  • v3.6.0 - 20180129: First public release
6y ago
I was thinking about the retirement function in my colony and it's relatively underutilized. I believe that more needs to be done in this area. So I propose the creation of the "Retirement Plan" tech path. It could cost mere 10k-15k research, but if you want to be funny you could make it cost 401k money/civics/research, (personally I would want 10k research & 401k money). All of the following will require at least Advanced Building Technology (except small old folks hab). It will be in successive tiers starting from Eldercare Essentials and ending in Cryogenics I know this is exhaustive but I hope some of the features get implemented or can be built off of, as I think it would lead to a better simulation and make the retirees and the older age group in My Colony.

*The biggest feature would be allowing control over the retirement age, potentially bringing back stimulus, and most importantly having the policy of deportation come sooner then Level 7 Government… should be closer to Level 4-5.


Human Technologies: (The order is tiered meaning you need that tech to unlock the next)
- Eldercare Essentials (Early Game)
- Retirement Planning (Mid Game)
- Advanced Eldercare (Mid Game)
- Cryogenics (Late Game)


Humans Eldercare Essentials:[/u]


(Requires: 10,000 Atmosphere) (Colonists: 20, Jobs: 5 *unskilled*) (Size 2*2) (Colonial Finance Theory)

- Colonial Elks Club/Colonial Branch Office of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks:
A fun place to hang out where you can listen to your music from 60 years ago. Provides entertainment to the retired and a place for them to hang out so they don't get depressed. Requires a small rum and food to keep the party going.
(Requires: 10,000 Atmosphere, Power: 6) (Entertains: 25, Jobs: 5 *White Collar?*) (Colonial Finance Theory, Microgravity Brewing)(Size: 1 * 2)

- Old Folks Home: A nice housing unit that takes care of retirees like Grandpa and Grandma so they don't take up homes meant for workers. Requires a modest amount of money and food to keep them out of your way but produce some civics and cloth from all those quilts they make.
(Requires: 5,000,000 Atmosphere) (Colonists: 60, Jobs: 20 *Unskilled? Heals: 2) (Low Gravity Manufacturing, Colonial Civics, Low Gravity Masonry). *Building produces cloth based on the number of residences?* (Size: 2 * 5, 1-2 stories)

- Senior’s Living Chamber: A small housing unit for the retired that want a little privacy, costs little to no maintenance and prioritizes retirees over working citizens.
(Requires: 10,000 Atmosphere, Power:1) (Colonists: 4) (size 1 * 1)





- Humans (Retirement Plan):

- Slot Machine: An automated slot machine booth that will entertain your people for days while slowly pouring their money into your pockets. (Requires: 0 Atmosphere, Power: 4) (Tourist Traps, Eldercare) (Entertains: 2, Tourists: 2) (Size: 1*1) (Produces: 5-30 money per minute depending on use?)

- CAARP: The Colonial Auto & Home Insurance Program is here to insure your housing unit and rover against the dangers of colonial life. Generates Civics and Money by assuring citizens they won't lose it all.
(Requires: Atmosphere: 10,000, Power: 50, Bandwidth: 10) (Galactic Commerce, Eldercare, I.T,Low Gravity Manufacturing) (Jobs: 45) (Size: 4 * 2)

- 401k Consult: A quaint place to plan your future retirement. Using the power of software you can raise, or lower, the retirement cutoff to a certain extent. *This may be overpowered* *Maybe just produce civics or help lower the poverty line?* *may not be necessary*
(Requires: 10,000 Atmosphere, Power:35, Bandwidth: 25) (Galactic Commerce, Solar Governance, IT, Eldercare) (Jobs:35 *white collar*) (Size: 2*2)



Advanced Eldercare:


- Medium Old Folks Hab: A larger and better version of the Small Old Folks Hab. You can use it to shove dozens of retirees into the same space and make some money well your at it. Requires employees to oversee those who live there and ensure they are well taken care of. They might also use some software out of thin air by watching all those relatives on the net.

- Office of the Old: A new job sink for educated workers at low wages. Also used to give seminars to colonists over the age of 50 or retired, giving them an intelligence boost and a quiet reminder to go back into the workforce.
(Requires: 10,000 Atmosphere, Power: 60, Bandwidth: 35) (Self Government, Nationalism, Low Gravity Manufacturing). (Jobs:80 *Unskilled* *people with IQ over 90) (Size: 2*2)


- Golf Course: A place for people to have fun, hit a few holes, and make deals. A must-have for any self-respecting colony. Use the magic of aluminum golf balls and rum to make lots of money, civics, and keep people entertained. (Large size use… requires atmosphere)

- Integrated (Seniors) Living Chamber: Using the magic of software and robots, scientists have created an amazing house fully automated to provide premium assisted living. Seniors will likely spend all their time talking to their robot pals so you never have to call.

- Retirement Community: A large living complex suited especially for the retired population. Provides large entertainment, and produces pottery and paintings from all those art classes. Basically a human version of a Zolarg labor camp… but with pickling classes. (requires atmosphere and bricks to make… not sure of quantity).


Cryogenics:

Essentially allows you to extend the lifespan of citizens and improve health. Precursor to Nano-Clincs? Could use Cobalt, Crystalline and Ant paste as part of the storage process. *Maybe could effect food use*
1y ago
I see a lot of things missing for zolarg, although I'm still able to play the game to some extent. I feel like there are many resources that need alien or unholy versions. Below are some resources that I think need a better way to produce them:

Food: food is ridiculous, you need an entire small map full of the food fortification plants just to support 40-50k colonists over several maps. Humans can do much better as they have the tall farms that produce 500 food every couple of seconds, or the food processing factories that just spew out food.

water: just like food, you end up having to create an entire small map filled with these things in order to support your colony as it grows. Eventually, I'll end up needing another map full of them. This definitely needs to change. Humans can produce an overwhelming amount of water in end-game, even to the point of causing the atmosphere to plummet, why should zolarg be stuck with such an inferior water production

Ant paste: This one too, I have a map full of paste mixers and they still don't produce very much ant paste. Usually with basic resources like this you can usually get to the point where you produce more than you can use in just one small map, but these paste mixers are the devil in end-game.

Antanium: This one too depletes very fast even with a small map filled with them, but not nearly as fast an ant paste. Still, ant paste is for zolarg what steel is to humans, and we have a steel alien factory, so I think these should have an alien counterpart as well.

Aluminum: I think it would be nice if zolarg got their own unique alien aluminum gen that took antanium to generate aluminum. UCM's can churn out aluminum, if you build an entire medium map full of them that is. Who has time to build that many? And don't tell me that we can just build mines, because humans can generate everything automatically at end-game, and there's nothing they can't mass produce.

Wood: we're still stuck in the dark ages with wood, growing and cutting down mega trees like an idle champ I am. My idea in the "fleshing out zolarg" thread in the ideas forum mentions a building that can combine paste, cloth, and antaura to make wood. I personally don't care how much @basteklein makes this thing produce as wood isn't too high in demand, we just need a way to automate that resource so we don't have to keep resorting to mega-trees.

housing: I feel like better housing is in order. The worship mounds do the trick but you have to spam them.

Colonists: We need a better way to get colonists faster. Perhaps in bigger housing, colonists could be produced quicker.

Importing/exporting: zolarg need the third and fourth tier customs centers. I recoomend the fourth being some sort of mystic gate that acts just like the stargate and consumes antaura. But zolarg really need to be able to export more than 1k resources at a time, especially if you're trying to prepare for a medium-map sized project and need several million of each resource and you have the money to import those resources.

Starships: We have the tech, but we don't have the means. This is the end of the game currently, and I feel like it should be more like the halfway point.

triantanium: I could've swore that zolarg were the first to get triantanium, yet I can't find any buildings for zolarg that produce it. I'd say that we should be able to produce it at some point. After all, zolarg invented antanium.

Charcoal,plastic,steel, robots, toys, paintings, brick, pottery, microchips, and instructions are all missing from zolarg. I feel like zolarg could use a lot of these in their own ways, but I also think that they shouldn't have access to everything that humans do, or else playing them would be just the same as playing humans in end-game. still, at least some of these resources would be useful.

I also feel like some of the resources in the game are lacking in ways to use them, so I just sell those to make money as I get them or gift them to my other colonies.


That's all I have for now, but I'm pretty sure I can come up with more if i think further about it. Those were the major areas anyway. i realize that zolarg are still under construction, so I understand why these aren't in the game, but I feel like zolarg has been put off for too long, and it may be one of the things that is causing the lack of interest from people of late. I recommend finishing them before doing anything extensive on reptilians side as people that have zolarg colonies have been waiting much longer than reptilian colonies have.
4y ago
First, i really don't care what you can believe or not, isn't really a my problem.

You should read all bast post (at least the topic opened by him), because you miss several info, and you won't listen other player...

You use a bad setup for the city, from what i can see you don't have the correct % for the utility... You don't even try to distribute houses evenly, based on the number of workers required.

Every 20-30s the game will check the map and change, so.. if you don't have the correct %, some houses will use the utility first, and other won't have any utility slots free.. This is not a bug. Is a bad map setup.

Even before the 1.0.0, keeping idle the game for long time, in city with pop, was a very bad idea. But in general idle the game without a correct setup, it's always been a bad idea, because the game in self isn't structured to be a idle game.

And in particular the update after the 1.0.0, make region game style very OP, and normal map problematic, but i have already communique the problem from the Beta, long time ago. And now.. the situation is very different, less problematic from the beta.

So.. in region map is very to handle the pop problem, just idle in a map without pop, isn't very hard to understood.


You can play the game like you wish, i won't give any "order", you can do whatever you want, its a your choice.
But.. if you use an not optimal setup, don't blame the game.
4y ago
Here's a small snapshot of what I am currently working on. It's not complete, but I'll update as I go along.

For those interested, I made a mini version of the SN11 rocket to use as a lander.

I have also included the lander base, which you are welcome to use as a standalone building, or as the lander deployment, as I have done in the above picture.

If you would like to give my settings a shot, the whole mod is right here. All of the rovers fly, and are at max speed, except for the lander itself. You can spawn extra drones if desired.

If you would like the objects used in the mod, here's the object pack for you! A lot of the buildings are currently just repainted, but it does what was needed, and I think it actually doesn't look too bad.
I have a few ideas after playing for a while. I think some of these are pretty good, some not that good. Feel free to give your own ideas or feedback. All ideas are meant to be standalone ideas and not all ideas will work with others as suggested.

1. Fixing Protesting: Too often I see colonists protesting for no reason, or because they won't fix the issue themselves. (Such as the colonist protesting about their low health while there's a medical facility with empty patient spots 5 tiles away.) I'd like to see colonists seeking out a way to fix their problems and only protesting as a last resort.

2. Quitting Jobs: Colonists should be able to quit jobs if they feel a new job will give them a better time. This can be for better pay or commute length. This goes with suggestion 1.

3. Personal Transports+Parking Lots: Colonists would be able to buy personal transports and drive them to work. They would drive from their house to a parking lot then walk to work, this walking distance becomes their commute length. This means a colonist who lives 120 tiles from his workplace can drive to a nearby lot and walk 5 tiles to work.

4. Commodity Resource
Commodity Workshop
Commodity Sweatshop
Commodity Shop

Commodities would be made at the production facilities and then used by tourist trap buildings, and commodity shops. This adds another way to make money from colonists and tourists buying commodities.

5. Military

Now this is the hard one since it's been said this isn't a war game. Unfortunately I think in this simulation game with different factions, nations, and empires, not having a war mechanic of any form would be missing out on a huge amount of potential for the game. Especially with these "Federations" that are rising. Having war would add a new level of depth to the game because it wouldn't be solely a war game. So, here goes.

New Buildings:

Arms Factory-Makes Weapon Parts
Ship Factory-Makes Vehicle Parts
Barracks-Produces Militia+Soldiers
War Factory-Produces APC+Light and Heavy Tanks
Shipyard-Produces all the ships.
Transport Pad-Sends ground troops to Transport Ships and vice-versa.

New Resources:

Weapon Parts-Used for Infantry
Vehicle Parts-Used for ground and space vehicles.

Units:

Militia
Solider
APC
Light Tank
Heavy Tank
Patrol Ship
Transport Ship
Frigate
Cruiser
Dreadnaught

Now, I'll explain how this works.

If you are a colony:

You can build all the buildings and access all the resources, but you may only build Militia, Soldiers, APC, and Patrol Ships. You have to have unemployed colonists to recruit them. You can't attack anyone at all. Your capitol is able to request units from you, you can only send Soldiers and APC's. Militia and Patrol Ships remain at the colony. Military is not a big focus if you aren't independent. This adds a military aspect without making it a "war game" as most of the players are colonies and not independent nations. Heavy war focus is reserved for a smaller number of players.

If you are independent:

You have access to all units unlike colonies. You can attack other players and the NPC factions. You can have alliances(Federations possibly too) with other commonwealths. You can also have a state of war where you're allowed to attack. Warfare and military is a larger focus here. You can request units from your colonies, they don't have to send them. You have to send Transport Ships to pick up or sent any units to/from your colonies. You can send Militia and Patrol Ships to you colonies and send them back. Units sent from your colonies can be sent to attack.
Your ships are meant for difference purposes.

Some units have special abilities.

Militia: They can be ordered by the local government to police protesters. This can help break up protests and get rid of protesters but can result in people being killed and damage being done.

Frigates: These have an advantage over Patrol Ships when attacking them.

Dreadnaughts: These can bombard the surface during the ground assault.


Stages of Battle:

Space Battle-The defending fleet fights against attacking fleet. If the attackers win we move onto ground assault.

Ground Assault-Defending ground forces fight against the attacking ground forces and any aerial bombardment. If the attackers win the planet is annexed. If the defenders win the attackers can break off or from a blockade.

Blockade-The blockaded planet can not import or export anything. They can not make or accept trade offers. They cannot send units, have units requested from, or be sent units until the blockade is broken or lifted. The blockaded planet can try to break the blockade or if only a colony, a capitol can also try to break the blockade.

NPC Factions:

United Earth, League of Independent States, and Zolarg Empire will always be at war. They will control territory with shifting fronts. Once the front moves past a commonwealth the faction may ask you for an alliance, declare war, or nothing at all. They won't attack players very often, even if you're part of an enemy NPC faction. They're more likely to if you are. They're also more likely to if your commonwealth is at war with them or you're allied to one of the other factions.

Being Annexed:

So let's say you get attacked and you lose, then what?

Colony: You lose population from bombardment and soldiers being killed. Buildings are damaged and you've been forcefully annexed to anther power. The attackers can demand up to a max of 5% of your total money as tribute. (only one time) The attackers can't impose any other tributes on you for 7 days and you can't request annexation by another commonwealth for 2 days.

Capitol: It's the same thing but before you're fully annexed you can also choose a new colony to be the capitol of the commonwealth or choose for the entire commonwealth to be annexed. Penalties and limitations are the same but colonies annexed along with a capitol can't be charged the 5% tribute.

In the grand scheme of things, I think military would add a new layer of depth to the game and not trying to would be refusing to utilize a massive amount of potential to make a good game even better. But, it would only help those who choose to participate in it. I know I don't have everything about it sorted out and there's holes in my idea but this is simply a skeleton of 1 possible system.

I think these ideas are all good in 1 way or another, feel free to leave a comment,


6y ago
Got to playing around with create a map ,
So go into making a map put some of every resource on it then use it to play the game .
this is were things get odd ,
LIS when using LIS as base the one and only way to get any power source is placing Trash on the map then deleting the trash piles to have trash on the resource bar. So you can place the trash burner which produces 15 power per .
So there is no other way to get power at the start of the map if you use LIS .
Using bugs as a base the very first teck you can buy is low gravity masonry which if I am not mistaken Bugs cant use at all lol .

Ps you never have put any other create a map size in except medium size map which is the main reason I rarely use it . I am sure quite a few people use mid size and even small maps but egads except for bugs or reptiles which you don't need much room for even a large map can quickly fill up so the first thing you need in civc points to expand a mid sized map for earth or lis .

anyway Thanks for the game .
Ps the pet pvs I have always had are you don't seam to do much testing of the game ( after all this missing power on a made map is not even a bug its just something you did not think of . And playing a made map with LIS as the base well you cant help but notice the issue and looks like it has been this way from the time you added made maps .

Create a map was a good idea to add into the game it would be a shame to not put the finishing touches .


5y ago
For the Reference Table, I suggest you to use the Coloniae Reference Table : https://coloniae.space/reference/general , instead of https://www.my-colony.com/reference/general.html, as the latter is not updated anymore by the contributor.

1. The tick/second is dependent on the interaction between the game engine and your device or computer system speed. As such, it is not possible to pinpoint exactly what your tick/second is going to be, just a range. In general, slower device/computer will have lower ticks/second, and vice versa.

In general, it should not heavily affect all calculations involved as you mentioned. The device tick will affect all production and consumption equally, so the ratio will stay constant no matter what the device tick count is. For example, 1 Aluminum Generator will supply x amount of Robot Factories, with x staying constant regardless of the device tick.

In addition, how did you determine 13 ticks/second above? If it was from actual production from Statistics, it should be noted that the numbers in Reference refer to production when all workers are fully on duty, while the actual production in game is affected by reduction due to off-duty or protesting workers.


2. The Overview shows the simulated net production/consumption at that very moment, while the individual resource Statistics page shows the general total production and consumption over a period. As different buildings have different production and consumption round length, it is possible to have one single moment where resource generation is net negative as the consuming buildings use up the resources while the producing buildings have not finished their production, but in total over a time period it will be net positive, and vice versa.


3. Resource production for all buildings requiring workers mostly increases in proportion with the amount of on-duty worker present, while "Fuel" generally does not. To use your examples, these are the calculation which match the numbers in the Reference :

a. Medium Recycling Plant =
- Aluminum = (1 Al/round) x (65 workers) / 50000 ticks per round = 0.0013 Al/tick
- Plastic = (1 Pl/round) x (65 workers) / 6000 ticks per round = 0.01083 Pl/tick
- Fuel though is not calculated by workers, so Trash = (1 Tr/round) / 2 ticks per round = 0.5 Tr/tick

b. Regolith Extraction Inc =
- Regolith = (50 Re/round) x (26 workers) / 1500 ticks per round = 0.8667 Re/tick

c. Vertical Warehouse Farm =
- Food = (500 Food/round) x (35 workers) / 2500 ticks per round = 7 Food/tick
- Fuel though is not calculated by workers, so Water = (1 Wa/round) / 2000 ticks per round = 0.0005 Water/tick


4. Buildings that don't require workers which don't produce resources based on worker generation either, such as Hydrogen Reactor (as well as other power plants and storage buildings), there is no difference between having 1 worker inside or full 30 workers. A Hydrogen Reactor will provide a full 5500 power and consume the same amount of Water as fuel (remember Fuel is not affected by workers).

For the rest which don't require workers, but generate resources such as Tree Farms, some say that having workers inside increase the resource generation. But so far I haven't read any specific testing (with numbers) between the numbers generated without any workers inside, and if there are workers inside. Most of these buildings (except maybe 3 specific buildings) are early game buildings anyways.

As for Ore Refinery specifically, you will grow out of it very fast to Advanced Ore Refinery anyways, which needs workers.


As for Alien Artifacts, bear with the UDD spam for a while. Eventually you will be able to build Relic Studies which generates Alien Artifacts equal to more than 400 UDDs per Relic Studies, which will literally generate more Artifacts than you can possibly use (due to presence of other rare bottleneck materials).

Edited for grammar.


4y ago
This planet type is basically a Mercury-type planet. A rocky planet with a rocky core instead of an iron one, and a very close proximity to the sun. The sun beats down on Mercury's surface, cooking the day side to extremely high temperatures. Mercury turns at 2 mph so you can imagine the days and nights to be extremely long and to have drastic differences. The nights are very cold, while the days are hot and radioactive enough to cook a man/insect/reptile in his skin. For the sake of simplicity though, I wouldn't worry about planetary rotation or temperature change from night to day times. Instead we will focus on the radiation exposure that the colonists will get, and challenge the player to find ways to reduce and eventually deflect radiation from areas that are highly populated or traversed.

New colonist stat: Rads: This stat affects the max health and energy of the colonist. As this stat climbs, their max health and energy falls. Eventually, if the exposure get's too much, their max health will become 0 and they will die instantly. I don't think that this is going to violate any fallout/bethesda copywrite/trademarks because this is on a different planet and doesn't involve nuclear warfare. Radiation exposure would only happen during daytime and would subside at night.

New building type: electromagnets: these buildings will reduce the rate at which colonists gain rads in a certain radius. As the player progresses, he can get better magnets with better reduction power and better radius's. In fact, the alien magnet would completely deflect all radiation in a very wide area. These buildings require tons of power and possibly artifacts for the alien one.

New building type: radiation treatment centers: these would use the latest technology to reduce colonists rad count. The first center should be added very early in the game since outside of the rover, new colonists arrivals would have no way to heal since the first magnet type would not be very powerful and they would still gain rads at a fast rate.

Lander: The lander provides impervious resistance toward radiation for colonists while they are inside of it, and it heals these colonists once they come back in at a very fast rate, faster than the most advanced radiation treatment facility actually. This would be to ensure that at least two people would survive if everyone else died of radiation poisoning. Just be sure not to give them big commute distances. This is also to give the lander another fundamental purpose so people don't destroy it.

New resource: Magnetite: An untradable resource that will be used to build magnets that reduce/deflect solar radiation from certain areas. Magnetite is not found on the surface in the form of nodes, the player must create temporary mines that allow them to collect it. This requires a new tech called "Solar Wind deflection theory." Eventually the player will get the core driller, which would provide a steady stream of magnetite as a side effect.

New vehicle: mag rovers: These guys are used to build magnetite mines and gather magnetite from them.

New Tech: Solar Wind deflection theory: unlocks the collection and use of magnetite to build electromagnets to reduce colonists exposure to solar radiation.

New Tech: Core conditioning: unlocks structures that are used to dig down to and change the makeup of the planet's core, specifically to molten iron so that it can generate a powerful and permanent magnetic field.

New Terraforming stats: Distance to core and core viscosity:Distance to core determines how far down the core driller has gone and how much distance it has before it can be upgraded to a core filler. The core viscosity stat determines the base rad exposure rate that a colonist would be subjected to if they were to be outside the range of all magnets on the map. As this stat lowers, the base rad exposure lowers, until eventually both equal 0 and the planet now has a working and permanent magnetic field.

New buildings: Core driller and core filler: These two core buildings will be responsible for drilling down to the core and filling it with molten iron so that the planet develops a powerfull magnetic field of it's own.

Core driller: Has a change to produce massive spurts of either ore, gold, alu, or ura at the end of each worker round and would provide a constant supply of magnetite. The deeper the driller digs(based on the distance to core stat), the better chance for better resources and better amounts of resources. Subtracts from the "distance to core" terraforming stat. There can be only one core driller on the field at a time.

Core filler: once the core driller has reduced the distance to core to zero feet, it can be upgraded to a core filler. This building consumes massive amounts of iron and uranium to both fill and heat the core. The core filler decreases the core viscosity stat. Once the stat reaches 0, radiation comes a thing of the past and the player can now work on planetary atmosphere if they haven't done so already. The core filler can only be obtained via upgrading the core driller, it cannot be built on it's own, thus it should not be added to the build menu.

Resources: This planet contains all of the resource nodes that are found on Red planet. The only new resource that would be added here, and untradable(since it wouldn't be needed elsewhere) is magnetite. There should be no added difficulty regarding resources or any more bottlenecks than usual besides maybe a bottleneck concerning magnetite. This will be a planet that either UE or LIS can colonize. Since there is no atmosphere, zolarg are out of the picture, and so are reptilians since their slaves don't have space suits yet.

----------------

Right now this is just a concept that I am sharing with everyone. I have no images to help my cause on this one as of yet, and I don't have much time for now to draw anything since drawing takes me hours to do that I don't have. If you like this idea, please vote on it or send us some pictures that could be put in the game if this idea is even partially used.


.
6y ago
Do you use the my colony standalone launcher or the ape launcher?
5y ago
So the Ape Apps Launcher has again been updated, this time to v1.6.5. This release fixes some bugs and also adds some new features.

Firstly, the previous release of Ape Apps Launcher has a bug related to auto-updating on Windows. If you are using Windows and you download the update, only to have the app restart to the same version you were on before, then you are impacted by the bug. To fix it, you can either re-download the app from the Ape Market, or you can navigate to the following directory on your PC:

C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME HERE\AppData\Roaming\Ape Apps Launcher\apps

and delete the folder named updatetmp. After that, the in-app auto-update will work again as intended, and this issue will no longer be present in future releases of the Launcher. Linux and macOS are not impacted by this bug.

This release also fixes a couple of bugs related to desktop launcher icons on Linux systems.

The launcher has been upgraded to a new base-release of the Electron framework, which I hope will help with come of the CPU issues @Ansom mentioned in a prior thread.

Finally, in-launcher Live Stream viewing has been added. There is a new video camera icon at the top of the launcher, and clicking on it will show all users who are currently live-streaming their gameplay.


As of now, game clients require a patch before they will show up in the Currently Streaming list, so no games will appear until the next cross-platform updates of the 4 games that currently support the Live Streaming feature (My Colony, Antiquitas, Gone Rogue, and Hell and Back). But the viewing functionality is now there in the launcher, and more exciting live-streaming related features will be coming across the entire Ape Apps ecosystem in the coming weeks.

Also over the coming weeks, and this will be important information for some people, I am going to discontinue packaging stand-alone desktop applications for distribution through the Ape Market, and instead be directing users to use either the Ape Apps Launcher or the Progressive Web Apps available on Ape Web Apps. At this point, both the Launcher and the PWA's are becoming mature to the point where either now allows you to install and launch an app as a stand-alone window straight from the OS without having to open the Launcher or navigate to Ape Web Apps first. Standalone desktop apps are also available for most apps on the Windows Store, and some are on Steam, for those who do not like the Launcher or the PWA's.

The reason for the change is because I am running out of storage space on my server to continue packaging and hosting stand alone desktop downloads for everything, and it also takes a lot of time and bandwidth to maintain. With the Launcher and the PWA's, I am still able to serve an extremely wide range of users with a lot less time and effort. In addition, the Launcher and PWA apps allow me to make across the board updates to every application in my library and push them out immediately to users, rather than having to go back and make a ton of updates to individual packaged applications.

There might be concern for those who wish to archive certain versions of games for posterity or so that they can install them in the future without an internet connection (or so they can still install the games after I get hit by a bus or something). I am working on a solution for those scenarios, where the Ape Apps Launcher will give you the option to extract an archive of any of my apps. You will then be able to double-click on that archive and the Launcher will open and run that game independently of the latest version on the market. For example, you could archive the current version of My Colony (1.12.0 I believe) to a file called something like my-colony-1-2-0.aal (theoretical extension), and you would then be able to double click on that file at any point in the future to launch that version of My Colony, even if the current version on the launcher is 1.50.0. Even if my server is long gone and dead, as long as you still have the archive file and the Ape Apps Launcher download, you would be able to run the application without issue.

So anyway, I reccomend that users of various stand-alone Ape Apps desktop apps to migrate over to either the Ape Apps Launcher or the Ape Web App edition (all of which can be installed to your system as a PWA). Doing so will ensure that you continue to receive fast automatic updates. Keep in mind that this change applies to apps downloaded through the Ape Market. Windows Store and Steam apps will continue to be updated as usual.
3y ago
rotate command does not seem to work. In fact, NONE of the keyboard shortcuts seem to work, except the select all and duplicate functions. This holds true for both browser and standalone on pc. A bit of a pity, as I could REALLY use a rotate function.

EDIT: So, it seems I was an idiot. You have to be in the move tool for any of the rotate commands to work. Disregard me.
My Colony (1.6 and 1.7), throw Ape apps launcher 1.3.14

I can back up the little region (10-30 city), but i can't back my main region (Final Space), after few min the window become white. I can't open the console on this version, and i don't have find any log error.

I have this problem using the back up while the map is open, or using the load colony menu.


ps. the standalone version can backup Inner space, 262 city.
3y ago
So, my idea is about a planet that start off at a high atmosphere and forces the player to survive in harsh environments until they lower the atmosphere to below 15 million. The pictures below are for the UE game style, I will include LIS later, but my pictures and description below should be good enough for bast to just plop everything into place in case he happens to like my idea enough to include it in the game.

Red crystalline deposit
Crystal resource indicator option in place of regular blue.
"Hell" rover, mines crystaline and builds basic structures.
The state of the ground when the game is started. The planet will have an atmosphere of 40,000,000. When my idea is done, LIS will have greater atmosphere reduction potential due to having access to diamonds. UE won't have it so easy here though.
at 30,000,000 atmosphere
at 20,000,000 atmosphere
at 15,ooo,ooo atmosphere.
Normal colonist wearing high atmo gear instead of low atmo gear.
Dark Micromine. white areas are transparent so don't pay attention to those. Only UE will use these.
Dark Regolith furnace. The white areas are transparent and the image will show up black against the dark ground.

This map will be brutal for UE but medium for LIS. The main reason being that UE doesn't have a brutal world and LIS needs some easier worlds. LIS will be able to use crystalline to gain direct access to ore, while UE will have to use crystalline to mine regolith, with they can convert to ore. Lis will also be able to access diamond mines because diamonds will be instrumental in making more effective terraforming structures than those of UE. As a result of LIS having better terraforming equipment due to diamonds, they will be able to reduce atmosphere faster but UE will be in it for the long haul.

Here are the playing styles for LIS and UE:

UE:
Start with one hell rover, which collects crystalline, and one dark lunar rover(image will be added) for regolith mining. Once you have 200 crystalline, build a dark micromine. Use the lunar rovers to collect regolith from that and continue to collect crystalline and build more dark micromines. Then, build a he3 extractor, regolith compactor, and a water extractor, which uses he3 and regolith, just like the normal one. Use crystalline to build a dark regolith furnace(image will be added) for more power and crystalline storage. Simply put, it's the same brutal playing style as the ice world except flipped on it's head and with UE instead of LIS.

The player will continue to build up their he3 and ore production as normal and build their colony normally, but they will have to hurry because they will have to build up their rum production to make more crytalline via the same green crystalline patches as ice planet. Once the player has enough rum production to produce enough crystalline, they will continue on the regular UE path. I will also be throwing in a crystalline generator later in the game, since a big colony would need to stop micromanaging eventually. There is not a big demand on crystalline yet but I'm sure that bast will come up with something to balance the scales, so a crystalline generator for UE/LIS should be added to the game.

Once the atmosphere is at 30 million, regolith extractors will become available, and that's when everything starts to get a lot easier for UE players, but from 40 to 30 million, UE will have a hard time. I will be making images for a more advanced UE atmosphere reducer soon. We already have small and medium reducers.


As for LIS, I will keep developing their strategy. I wanted to do the ultimate simplification for bast so that if he wanted to, he could plop this into the game and it would be just the same as the ice planet for LIS. All dark version structures on this planet would cost the same as original structures. For instance, a dark regolith furnace would produce as much power and consume as much regolith and cost as much crystalline as the regular regolith furnace. The same goes for the dark micromine and any future dark structures added for this planet. If I'm right, aside from the additional atmosphere reduction building that I am making, everything should be able to be plopped right into the game with no added work, and no numbers are needed on my part since the only new structures are dark structures that have the same stats as their lighter counterparts. That only reason for the dark versions is because the light versions would've looked out of place as they were white and blue while this planet is dark and red.
6y ago
This may seem foolish, but I wanted to call this to attention:

Video Games Aren't Allowed To Use The "Red Cross" Symbol For Health

https://kotaku.com/video-games-arent-allowed-to-use-the-red-cross-symbol-1791265328

For reference:

https://www.icrc.org/en/copyright-and-terms-use

The red cross and red crescent emblems are protected symbols under international humanitarian law and national laws. Any use that is not expressly authorized by the Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols constitutes a misuse of the emblem. Use of these emblems by unauthorized persons is strictly forbidden. Please contact the ICRC for more information.

While I don't think they will be knocking on doors anytime soon, forewarned is forearmed.
6y ago
Death 3D Virtual Reality Mode

As of v0.17.0, Death 3D now supports Virtual Reality mode on mobile (and mobile web) using a VR headset and bluetooth gamepad! This feature is still experimental and may not work on all devices. This thread will explain how the feature works, how to set it up, and what equipment it was tested under.

First, to enable VR Mode, you must open the Engine Settings menu and enable the VR Mode option. You shouldn't have to restart the app, but you may have to if it doesn't work right away. You will know if your game is in VR mode if you see a VR Mode Help option on the title screen.

VR Mode consists of the following components working together:

Stereoscopic 3D Rendering: The game scene is rendered in stereoscopic mode for use in a VR headset (the kind that you put your phone into). You can use a headset such as Google Cardboard, but for testing and development, the following low-cost headset from Amazon was used, and I can confirm that it displays the 3D effect properly on both an Android Motorola G6 phone and on an Apple iPhone 12 Mini phone:


Bluetooth Gamepad: Since your phone will be inside of a VR headset, you will not be able to use the touchscreen controls, obviously. Luckily, Death 3D has full in-game controller support (you may need to use the touch screen to navigate menus though). On Android, pretty much any gamepad will work, but the iPhone only works with specific models, such as the official Xbox and Playstation controllers. The controls are mapped and tested using an Xbox gamepad, so if your controller has a similar layout to an Xbox controller, you should be fine. VR Mode will probably work with a keyboard and mouse as well, although I haven't tested it.

Compass and Gyroscopes: Death 3D will use the internal sensors on your device to track head movement and which way you are facing. When you are playing the game in VR mode, it is suggested that you stand up so that you can turn around a complete 360 degrees. You can also turn yourself using the gamepad, but it's more fun to get the full VR experience by moving your whole body! The motion controls currently only work on Android, but I am working on getting them running on iOS as well.

Troubleshooting

When you are playing in VR Mode, there will be a white line down the middle of the screen, which should be lined up with the center of your VR headset for best results.

If the picture is blury, you may need to adjust the lenses on the headset. If you get the VR headset from Amazon that I linked above, you can adjust the lenses left/right or forward/back. For me, I got the best results by moving the two lenses all the way forward (towards my face) and as far apart as possible. You may need to adjust that based on your head size and vision.


VR mode on Death 3D is quite fun, and if you have the equipment (or don't mind getting it, it's fairly cheap), I think it's pretty neat. I have tried some of the other VR experiences on Android, and I think that Death 3D is already one of the better ones, even in it's early experimental stages. I plan on bringing VR Mode to Dungeon Infinity soon as well, and if people enjoy the effect, I will probably create more VR related content in the future. I sort of wanted to remaster the Deimos trilogy in full 3D at some point, and it would go great with VR as well.

So anyway, give it a try and see what you think, and if you have issues with the effect or feedback/suggestions, let me know here in the forums!
2y ago
These are just a few ideas that may be obvious things that bast has already decided he will implement, but hopefully some of these ideas may help. And Before you start blasting me about how bast won't ever put a pvp element into my colony, you should check the updates and announcements page under update 75, since bast includes the possibility of a pvp element with federations.

The ideas below represent an entire concept when applied together. This is how I would implement pvp between federations in my colony, but like all of my other concept ideas, it's mainly here to present new thoughts to the developer on how certain concepts could come together, and I don't expect him to just take this entire concept and put it in the game.

First off, I think that any pvp feature should be optional, just as bast said. But I do think that there should be some risk involved with enabling pvp and joining in federation wars/rivalries. I don't think that the risk should be catastrophic, but being attacked by someone else should come with some major disadvantages.

I think that in order for a rivalry/war between two federations to continue, a certain percentage of the federation should be regularly and actively involved. This way, people have to be actively participating in the rivalry in order for it to continue, so time and effort would need to be put in. While a rivalry is going on, all colonies in those federations are given buffs that increase income and production speeds of certain resources, so a rivalry would be good for business, as it also is in real life.

However, those that chose not to participate in a rivalry will not benefit at all from any benefits that come about by attacking enemy colonies, only active colonies do. This way there will be no freeloaders. I also think that there should be a cooldown timer that forces players to remain pvp active for a while after they've attacked another colony. This way colonies can't attack other colonies and then quickly disable pvp mode to avoid retaliation. However, if you accidentally enable pvp and haven't attacked anyone, you can immediately disable pvp. I also think that each colony should only be able to have one debuff affecting them at a time, but they could have multiple buffs in effect. Any further attempts to double-debuff an enemy would result in the attacker wasting a debuff chance and using resources that they could have used on another target.

Now, here comes a system of buffs and debuffs that I think would fit the pvp feature nicely. With these status effects, each colony could specialize in a certain kind of attack, or take on a certain support role in a rivalry, thus adding a bit of an rpg element to this system, but shouldn't need to get too in depth or complex with it. Below is a system of classes, point systems, and buffs and debuffs that a player can cast on other friendly or enemy colonies. Bear in mind that in order to receive a buff or debuff, you need to be in pvp mode. All buffs and debuffs require certain buildings in order to be unlocked and improved, and the best status effects require more complex buildings.

There would also be four different scores attributed to each colony that tell what kind of contribution that colony makes to the war effort and what their specialty/class is. Each class would be specified by a certain building, and only one of six of these buildings can be constructed at once in a colony. Whichever building is built determines the war class of the colony and what it specializes in. The buildings can be upgraded in tiers, giving more and more unique advantages for each tier, but also becoming more expensive. The classes are as follows:

A vanguard heads straight in and attacks the enemy headlong, splitting their focus between offense and defense. They can be capable attackers and defenders, but would more often than not pose as a distraction to the enemy, spreading their attacks and defenses onto multiple colonies at once with the splitter cast, and protecting themselves with the feedback loop cast. They focus on collecting offense and defense points.

Unique advantages: the vanguard's unique advantages focus on reducing the durations of all debuffs that they are targeted with, reducing buff/debuff cooldowns, increasing the amount of targets that a vanguarde can hit with the splitter cast, and on the highest tier, enabling the vanguard to attack an enemy and "taunt" them, thus forcing them to target the vanguard for their next attack. The taunt can also be used in combination with splitter to affect multiple enemies, forcing them all to wait on each other to take turns attacking the same vanguard before they can target another colony.

An empowerer is good at preparing their allies for an initial attack on an unsuspecting enemy. The buff their allies to strengthen them for the battle to come, and they join the ranks of vanguards in attacking and distracting the enemy. The Empowerer can counter some debuffs with buffs, but it proves to be a very inefficient counterer and can easily be picked out by an assassin if it causes too much bother in the heat of battle. It's best for this class to do all of it's buffs before battle and save the debuffs until the heat of battle. An empowerer will rack up offense and utility points, with relatively few defense points.

Unique advantages: The empowerer's unique abilities focus on buff potency, the amount of targets that splitter can reach, duration reduction to any debuffs that it experiences. And on the highest tier buildings, Empowerers gain a 1 in 5 chance to apply a buff to themselves automatically if they cast that same buff onto an ally without negating a debuff or being negated by a debuff. This allows the Empowerer to easily empower themselves while they are empowering other colonies in preparation for a battle, but doesn't help the empowerer during the heat of battle.

An assassin makes calculated strikes. Their attacks are very potent and can be made even more potent thanks to the charge cast. They are often supported by vanguards that strike before the assassins to get the initial attention from the enemies. They need not worry about protecting themselves in battle because of this. Even if they are attacked, they can retaliate quickly by using the dimensional reflection buff, thus giving their enemy a taste of their own medicine. An assassin can be good at countering buffs with debuffs, but not as effectively as they can attack an unprotected enemy. This class will have mostly offense points, with a little bit of silencer points as well.

Unique advantages: the Assassin's unique advantages focus on debuff potency and cooldown, dimensional mirror cooldown and cost reduction, increased potency and decreased cooldown on a buff affected by the charge cast, and on the highest tier, giving the assassin the ability to attack an enemy with an "evasive" attack, thus forcing the enemy to not be able to retaliate against the assassin for a certain amount of time. The enemy can target other colonies during that time though, just not that particular assassin.

The counterer focuses on offense and defense. They use their casts to negate a buff or debuff. They use the splitter and feedback loop buffs to cast negating buffs and debuffs onto themselves and other allies. The assassin might target a counterer with a potent attack at just the right time, during the counterer's cooldown time, if the counterer becomes a bother to it's enemies. So learning when to take action to help your allies and when let up for a while to lose attention from enemy colonies is a must for this class. The counterer gains equal amounts of defense and silencer points.

Unique advantages:The counterer's unique advantages focus on cooldown and resource cost reduction to all buffs and debuffs, increasing the amount of extra targets that splitter can give you, and on the highest tier, a counterer can "silence" an enemy, preventing them from attacking or defending any target for a duration, if they successfully negate that enemy's debuff or buff. The silence effect has a 1 in 5 chance of happening for each successful counter.

The healer is solely a supporter and defender, defending colonists by negating debuffs with their buffs and using buffs on allies just as utilities to boost their performance. The healer gives potent buffs and defenses to other players and is the pillar that holds up the federation in the war. They can use the charge cast to further increase the potency of a buff, which they would use to further strengthen allies. Assassins will target these the most to slow them down so the enemy will be without support, and counterers can also silence Healers by negating their buffs with debuffs. But healers are really good at empowering all of the other classes, which in turn will retaliate if one of their healers is attacked. The healer focuses on collecting defense and utility points.

Unique advantages: The healer's advantages focus on buff potency and cooldown, increased potency and decreased cooldown effects of the charge buff on all buffs, and on the highest tier, if they successfully counter a debuff with a buff, that buff's cooldown is reduced by 75%, allowing them to deal large amounts of counters in rapid succession as long as their buffs aren't re-countered/negated by an enemy.

The Commando is like an empowerer in that it buffs allies in preparation for battle, but instead of joining in the frontline assault like empowerers, commandos hide under cover of distraction and take out enemy defenses with tactical casts. They are extremely efficient with countering buffs with debuffs, yet they can't defend allies against debuffs. The commando is the hardest class to play as their position on the battlefield is an awkward one. And while they are really good at ripping enemy defenses away and preparing allies for battle, they themselves can't directly attack or defend anyone. Only choose this class if you're experienced with the pvp feature and your federation needs people of this class, otherwise you'll find yourself having a really bad experience with the pvp element.

Unique advantages: The commando looses the ability to buff people that are already affected with a debuff and the ability to debuff an enemy that's not protected by a buff, and debuff potency and duration is set to 0 so that if a commando successfully negates a buff, the debuff doesn't affect the enemy as an attack like it regularly would. This forces the commando into it's role turns debuffs solely into a means of breaking defenses instead of attacking directly. The commando also gets cooldown reduction to all debuffs, buff potency, increased splitter targets, and on the highest tier structure, the commando has a 1 in 5 chance of completely removing a buff or debuff's cooldown after casting it successfully. This means that the commando can hit many more targets than any other class in a period of time, allowing it to somewhat carpet-bomb enemy defenses or empower massive amounts of allies before the battle.

Major Benefits in participating in PVP: As factions war against each other, the colonies contributing to the war effect will share in the spoils of war. In order for Federations to start a war, both Federations must fromt a certain amount of money, and then each week after that start of the war, that same amount of money must be paid by each federation. Each week, a tally would be taken of how many successful attacks and counters were dealt by each federation. Both numbers are added together to get the Federation's battle score, and the federation with the highest score wins all of the money from all participating federations for that week. This can be used in a free-for-all war that includes multple federations as well as just a regular rivalry between two federations, and the war can continue as long as the federations want it to continue, provided they have enough money to put forward. The winning federation is required to split the winnings among it's participating colonies, but how much a percentage of the win that it keeps to itself is optional. Just bear in mind that nobody will participate if there is not a big enough reward.

Debuffs:

Benefits of debuffing enemies: When you debuff an enemy that doesn't currently have any status effects without being negated, you permanently gain a small amount of potency towards the debuff you casted and you get offense points that go to your offense score, which can be seen by other members of your federation. If you successfully negate a buffed enemy with a debuff, you gain silencer points towards your silencer score that other members can see and you permanenty gain a very small percentage chance of not being negated each time you cast a debuff or buff, even if your buff or debuff was countered correctly by a defending enemy(this also applies to buffs/debuffs casted with feedback loop). Finally, if you successfully negated a buff or debuff that negated your original buff/debuff on the same enemy, you will gain 2x silencer points and you get 2x more percentage added to your negation-block chance.

Brownout: Forcefully syphon energy from your enemy to temporarily add to your power capacity. Is negated by the Syphon buff but can negate the repair nanites buff. Casting this debuff successfully without having it negated will permanently add a 2% increase to the caster's power capacity that scales with their power capacity.
Category: Techno-warfare

EMP Blast: Blast your enemy with EMP waves that temporarily damage power producing buildings, causing a complete power blackout. the effects of the emp blast are shorter in duration than the brownout, but cannot be countered by simply increasing power production like brownout could. Negates the Syphon Buff but is negated by the repair nanites buff. Successfully casting this debuff without negation would award the caster with a permanent 2% faster build speed on all power producing buildings.

Plague: Inflict an enemy with a nasty plague that lowers the health of it's colonists over time. By treating the population of that colony like guinea pigs, you gain a boost towards research production. A plague will never kill a colonist directly, the lowest that a plague would bring a colonist would be 5%. This is avoid any colony from dying out because of warfare. Negated by the healing nanites buff but negates the probiotic bursts buff. Successfully casting this buff without negation will grant the caster a 2% increase in build speed of hospitals and scientific structures.

Famine: Target your enemy's food supply and reduce the amount of food they produce for a time. Negated by the probiotic bursts buff but negates the healing nanites buff since people can't heal without eating food. Successfully casting this buff without negation will grant the caster a permanent 2% increase in food storage.

World eater: You release a rare silicon-based life form that eats stone and metal into your enemy's colony. The creature quickly reproduces and infests all of the enemy's ore mines, viciously attacking the miners.. The enemy suffers a substantial reduction in production rates from any structure that relies on holes in the ground, including excavation sites, core mines, regolith extraction co.s, fracking plants, etc. The world eaters are trained to build storehouses for the ore they collect and share it with their masters. Successfully casting this debuff without having it negated will permanent multiply the attacker's total storage capacity for raw resources by 1.02, thus adding an extra 2% capacity in relation to the capacity they already have. This scales with resource capacity and applies to all resources that come from the ground, including alien arts, ore, gold, ura, alu, rego,
Category: Geo-warfare

Tectonic disruption: Pummel your enemy with earthquakes that make working in tall buildings extremely hard. The target suffers reduced work productivity depending on how potent your attack is and can't build or destroy any buildings during the duration of the debuff. Successfully casting this buff without negation will grant the caster 2% faster construction of any structure that classifies as a tall building.
Category: Geo-warfare

Splitter: A very costly and high tech buff that allows you to direct your buffs and debuffs toward two targets at once. In order to successfully target two allies/enemies with a particular status effect, you need to cast splitter on both targets in rapid succession(casts are no more than 5 minutes apart), otherwise the splitter buff/debuff would be wasted on only one target and the caster would have to wait the long cooldown in order to cast it again.
Category: Offensive Warfare

Malicious Sanctioning campaign: you target an enemy with a campaign to invite it's population to immigrate to your colony, thus leaching population away from them. Requires tons of civics to cast and a colony would have to be well established in order to have access to this attack and would need to have tons of space for new colonists. Negated by the repopulate buff but negates the Friendly sanctioning buff. Once a caster's housing space is filled up, the campaign will be ended, thus avoiding any homeless people. Successfully casting this debuff without running out of housing space or being negated will grant the caster a 2% increase in build speeds on all housing structures.
Category: Political Warfare

Purge: Purge your colony of any overly complacent colonists, forcing them to immigrate to your enemy. These colonists will immigrate to the enemy regardless of whether they have housing room or not. If the enemy doesn't have housing room, the immigrants because homeless and detract from their happiness score. This buff requires a lot of civics and would have a huge cooldown. Successfully casting this debuff would grant the caster a 2% increase in build speeds for all tourism structures.
Category: Political warfare

Blockade: Block and enemy's trade via gbt and all import/export/immigration buildings other than the Stargate. is negated by the subspace detour buff but negates the hyperspace transport buff. Requires starships to cast. During the blockade, the prices of all of the import/export stuctures besides your highest tier import/export building(stargate for humans) are reduced by 20% and the rewards gain from the exports are increased by 20%
Category: Economic Warfare

Subspace disruption: Disruption your enemy's Stargate connection, rendering their most advanced immigration and trade building useless. Negates the subspace detour buff but is negated by the hyperspace transport buff. During a disruption, your highest tier import/export building gains a 20% import price reduction and a 20% export reward increase.
Category: Economic Warfare

Buffs:

Benefits of buffing allies: There are good benefits to turning your colony unto a support colony that buffs it's allies. When you successfully negate a debuff, you permanently gain a small amount of resistance to the debuff that you negated, and you get defense points that go to your overall defense score that other members can see. When you cast a buff onto an ally while they aren't affected by any status affects, then you gain points towards your utility score, which other members can see as well, and you gain a potency increase to that buff.

Syphon: You temporarily sacrifice a portion of your power to add to an ally colony's power levels. Designed to negate the brownout debuff as long as the caster has enough extra power to successfully supplement that colony's needs as well as the extra demand for power that the brownout debuff adds. Unfortunately, the emp burst debuff negates this buff.
Category: Techno-warfare

Repair nanites: sends a swarm of nanites to repair any damage in an ally's technology caused by an EMP blast, immidiately negating the debuff. The brownout debuff destroys these nanites as the high electric demand causes electronics to overheat, vaporizing the nanites as they try to fix the damage. One side effect of getting hit with this buff is that they repair damage caused by other means, thereby repairing building infrastructure by a significant percentage.
Category: techno-warfare

Healing nanites: you send a swarm of healing nanites to an ally colony to heal it's occupants. Completely negates the plague debuff, but is negated by the dyson sphere debuff. Hospitals also heal sick colonists faster depending on buff potency.
Category: Bio-warfare

Probiotic bursts: gives an ally colony rapid food production for some time. This buff requires a large amount of food and water to charge, but when casted onto an ally colony, it releases massive clouds of genetically modified probiotics in the atmosphere, which help crops grow fast. negates the dyson sphere debuff, but is negated by the plague debuff.
Category: Bio-warfare

Ultrasonic resonance: Blast your ally with ultrasonic waves that purify the earth of any world eaters. Obviously this counters the world eater debuff. The resonance shakes ores and minerals loose from the rocks for easier collection. This adds a significant boost to production in all buildings that rely on holes in the ground. However, this buff does nothing against the tectonic disruption debuff.
Category: Geo-warfare

Cryonic infusion: calm an ally's planet down with the freezing power of cryo-science. Negates tectonic disruption, but world eaters are impervious to the extreme cold. The severe cold causes blue crystalline to grow on the surface of the planet, no matter what planet it is, and there is a percentage chance for each lava tile on a lava map to instantly turn into obsidian. Both of these benefits depend on buff potency.
Category: Geo-warfare

Repopulate: you sacrifice a portion of your population to save an ally from dying off by repopulating their colony. No resource or tech requirements. Not designed to negate any debuff, but designed to prevent any colony from dying off. This is a very low tier buff, and would be the first buff to be unlocked, so it really shouldn't be possible to kill off an enemy colony to where they can't recover, since they could always get reinforcements from allies. In fact, I could see some colonies specializing in this buff by increasing their population size way beyond their population requirements. Negates the sanctioning campaign debuff but people won't want to move to that colony if it been afflicted by a purge from another colony.
Category: Political Warfare

Friendly Sanctioning campaign: Help your ally by welcoming all of their homeless into your colony. The buff only stops when either the caster runs out of housing or the target runs out of homeless. negates the Purge debuff but is negated by the Malicious sanctioning debuff.
Category: Political Warfare

Subspace detour: Allow your ally to connect to your gbt via their stargate, thus allowing them to make trades. This negates a blockade debuff, but is negated by the subspace disruption debuff. Side effects from this buff include a reduced cost in civics for each gbt transaction and the reduction of cost and increase of reward from importing/exporting from the stargate or highest tier import/export building, depending on buff potency.

Wormhole: You create a wormhole above your planet that links to a wormhole above your allie's planet. Because of this, allies can travel more effectively without the need of a stargate. Negates subspace disruption but is negated by blockade. Has the same effect on gbt as subspace detour, but applies the cost and benefit modifiers to every tier other than the top tier import/export building.

SOS: This buff can only be applied to the colony casting it. It's basically a cry for help. Other allies can see a list of SOS reports for their federation and see the colony being attacked and identify the attacker. Afterward they can proceed to buff their ally in danger, or retaliate against the attacker with a debilitating debuff. There is no requirement or cost to cast this buff, you just have to have a communications device, consulate, or capital.
Category: Defensive Warfare

Feedback loop: Can only be applied to the caster, casting requires large amounts of power and the tech required with be pretty high to unlock this buff. Once this buff is casted, the caster can target themselves once with any buff, essentially being able to defend themselves instead of having to rely on another colony for counters. The feedback loop would come with a large cooldown, so the caster would have to choose wisely on.
Category: Defensive Warfare

Dimensional reflection: Reflect a buff or debuff back onto an enemy or ally, thus negating any effect on the caster completely and immediately. A high tech and a lot of resources required to cast this buff and comes with a long cooldown. This buff doesn't prevent an attack, you have to cast this buff during when you are experiencing a buff or debuff.
Category: Defensive Warfare

Charge: cast this buff before casting another buff or debuff to multiply the potency by 5. This also increases the cooldown of the buff being affected by 5. The most expensive buff in the game and comes with the highest cooldown.

-------------------------------

Now with all of that out of the way, I want to remind everyone that I'm not expecting this whole beast of a concept to be plopped into the game. I hope that bast at least takes a consideration of the concept and uses pieces and parts from it, but I mainly just want to see the game grow to become more popular and hopefully some of my ideas play a part in making that happen. I will be making changes to this post to constantly refine it based on what I learn about what is feasible to do and what bast's plans are, so stay tuned.
5y ago
Hello commanders.

This post will integrate all of my previous ideas with refinement, plus some new ideas.
The ideas will be updated or added in the comments.



WARNING : EXTREMELY LONG POST



For the objects, the colour of the text represents the following factions.
  • United Earth (UE)
  • League of Independent States (LIS)
  • Alpha Draconians (AD)
  • Zolarg Empire (ZE)
  • Neutral

Gameplay Suggestions
  • Demolishing Buildings
    In case you don't need some of your own buildings.
  • Cancel queued productions
    In the game there's not yet any ways to cancel queue, which means inflexible financial management when you're running out of credits.
  • Area of effect damage
    You know currently we don't have a way to counter the swarming troopers besides producing lots of troopers. We need something explosive...
  • Garrisoning
    One of the classic features of C&C style RTS that will make urban warfare better!
  • Able to control buildings
    If some building is able to make research or has special actions, this is needed.
  • Make training queues building specific like in My Colony
    It is a bit difficult to manage units and unit productions if trained unit just pop up in a random barracks/factory. So I think this will make troop training process better.
  • Visible construction range
    This will help placing buildings without tapping somewhere else you cannot place building.
  • Power meter
    As the game's power mechanism is not yet complete, this is an necessary suggestion.
  • Researches
    Some research elements can change the tide of the war. This will make more amazing battles.
  • Superweapons
    Why not?

Units
  • United Earth
    • Commonwealth Infantry (T1)
      United Earth's proud protectors of prosperity and order. These troopers are put under 3 years of various training before they come into services. With their full loyalty and strict discipline, they are one of your reliable soldiers on the battlefields.

      It is just renaming the in-game infantry.
    • Commonwealth Rocket Infantry (T1)
      Rocket Infantry Camp is one of the divisions of United Earth's military, where newbie troopers are being trained into anti-tank specialists at the battlefronts. Carrying BOAR launchers, they take out enemy vehicles and aircrafts. Best companions of infantries.

      It is just renaming the in-game rocket infantry.
    • Engineer (T2)
      Not all soldiers fight at the battlefronts. These nerdy engineers who complete their school at military universities are one of the examples. Anything about machines and computers are not a problem for these engineers, they are even able to modify alien machines.

      This thing is already in the game, but why not give them some descriptions as well.
      Can repair civilian building when garrisoned into.
    • Jetpack Infantry (T2)
      Jetpack infantries are adopted by United Earth military, due to their high mobility and aerial advantage over most units on the ground. Besides as an effective scout on battlefields with rough terrain, they can also make effective assaults on infantries.

      This thing is already in the game, but why not give them some descriptions as well.
      In addition, I want to give it a stealth detection ability.
    • Space Marines (T3)
      Elite of the elites. Space Marines Corps represents the United Earth's iron fist power, established since 2061. Entering the Space Marines Corps is definitely one of the dreams of United Earth soldiers - given the best training, able to use the high tech gadgets, paid with highest wages, and of course, chance to become hero like Sarge! Most of them are cladded with power armours, though some commandos do not to wear them.

      Tier-3 shock troopers that uses plasma guns.
    • Marines Commando (T3)
      Experienced, outstanding marines will be promoted to commandos, which they will be put into military labs to receive another 3 years of training to master various difficult skills and have some bioengineering modifications on their body. Once they have completed the course, they are SUPERSOLDIERS.

      UE commando can terminate infantries quickly with their heavy machine gun, tough as a tank, and can instantly blow up enemy buildings and vehicles using dynamites upon close contact.
    • UE Harvester (T1)
      Supply lines that are too far away from the home world are hard to maintain. In this case, local resource extraction is the mean to make supplies cheaply. That's why these mining machines get some use on the battlefields.

      (•ω•)
    • ‘Hound URV-25’ Recon Rover (T1)
      These unmanmed vehicles are not a very new stuff to military even in the year of 2051. They can be remotely controlled, which they have greatly decreased unnecessary casualties during scouting tasks. Low cost and small size is also the reason it becomes popular. Now we can even install a machine gun on it, allowing it participating in combat tasks.

      I just simply give the rover a code name. BTW @bastecklein do you plan to give it stealth detectors? :)
    • ‘Ocelot’ Light Tank (T1)
      The ‘Ocelot’ series light tank has been inside UE arsenal for more than 10 years, as one of the standardized light tank due to their balanced combat ability and a reasonable manufacturing cost.

      Code name given.
    • ‘Tigerclaw’ battle Tank (T2)
      ‘Tigerclaw’ battle tank is the bigger cousin of ‘Ocelot’ light tanks. While shares the similar chassis design, this tank is mounted with a dual 83mm gun turret, which provided the tank with better firing efficiency and firepower. There are rumours about in the first deployment of these tanks, one tank can destroy 5 enemy tanks of similar classes by average before being destroyed.

      Rename the medium tank in the game and give it a code name.
    • ‘Jaguar’ Heavy Assault Tank (T3)
      Like its code name tells, ‘Jaguar’ heavy assault tank can quickly destroy enemies with its devastating firepower. Its 134mm plasma gun can penetrate any armour, while it has a portable regenerative shield for extra protection. They are one of the backbones in most tank formations.

      Heavy tank of the
    • ‘Thunderstorm’ Missile Tank (T2)
      ‘Thunderstorm’ is the new generation of self-propelled missile launchers in UE arsenal. This mobile missile battery has two modes. Artillery mode allows it to destroy enemy from a long range. Defender mode allows it to respond to threats from the air by launching volleys of missiles.

      Depends on your needs, you can switch between two modes quickly.
    • Striker UAV (T2)
      A full development of UAV (military drones) in recent years has successfully replaced manned aircrafts, which UAV comes in with a smaller size, lighter weight, and more capabilities in ground support missions. Striker UAVs are one of the variants developed, which carries a explosive missile for hit-and-run attacks.

      Light attack aircraft. Can target both land and air.
    • Attacker UAV (T2)
      Attacker UAV specialises heavy bombardment tasks, extra plated with sturdy armour for protection. Every liberty delivery includes 3 bombs for your foes!

      Bomber craft.
    • Gunner UAV (T3)
      Gunner UAV is a hovering heavy gunship. This heavy aircraft releases pulses of plasma shots that blasts enemies into ashes, while its heavily plated armour hull can withstand lots of punishments from anti-air weapons.

      Heavy aircraft that flies and fires slowly, but with a large ammunition capacity that allows continuously bombarding the enemies using the plasma gun. The plasma gun is also anti-air.
    • ‘Angler’ Patrol Boat
      Even though not much improvements has made on these old-fashioned speedboats, they are still effective defensive recon boats in UE arsenal. It is cheap, it is nimble, and its machine gun can respond light ship attacks.

      Here also gives a code name to the in-game patrol boats.
    • ‘Grizzly’ Amphibious Transport (T1)
      Amphibious transports has its most significant importance in beachhead landings during operations in oceanic planets.

      As well, give the in-game amphibious transport a code name.
    • ‘Aegis’ Escort Ship (T2)
      The seas can be as dangerous as on the land, ships may get attacked by aircrafts and submarines. ‘Aegis’ Escort Ships are hence built to protect the shores and the seas with flak guns and torpedo launchers.

      In addition, detects submarines. The big drawback of Aegis Escort Ship is it cannot attack land units.
    • ‘Tidebreaker’ Missile Cruiser (T3)
      Traditional battleships with large caliber guns are becoming obsolete in UE arsenal and are replaced by these more lightweight but stronger missile cruisers - the new generation backbone of the navy. Besides wielding higher accuracy than cannon artilleries, it can change firing modes for different situations, either the long range mode for hitting the enemies from a safe distance, or medium range mode for heavy firepower but at a reduced distance.

      Backbone warship.
  • League of Independent States
    • Militia (T1)
      These militias composes the majority of LIS infantry divisions, comes from various colonies of LIS. Though they lack professional training like soldiers of , their devotion to free the colonies from United Earth (and other autocratic sovereigns) is irreplaceable. Their motto: ‘The blood of the martyrs will water the seedlings of freedom’.

      LIS basic infantry that uses old-fashioned rifles to fight. Cheap to train, but relatively weak on battlefields.
    • Grenadier (T1)
      Grenadiers are basically militias who utilises explosives, which their grenades are effective destroying combat vehicles and buildings.

      Anti-vehicle infantry.
    • Hacker (T2)
      Not all systems can be hacked and taken over remotely, in this situation you'll need field operations. That's what these hackers are hired for, they infiltrate a building, hack into its systems, and put it under LIS's control.

      LIS equivalent of engineer, but it cannot repair buildings.
    • Saboteur (T2)
      Disruption warfare is one of the tactics of LIS, aimed to bring down normal operations of the enemy. The saboteurs do the dirty job, they sneak into the enemy's base under the help of optical stealth generators, they can steal credits from enemy silos and refineries, they can turn down generators, facilities and even weapon systems.

      Infiltrator. Stealthed all the time. Consumed when entering enemy building.
    • Laser Trooper (T2)
      Laser is one of the affordable yet powerful choice of weapons. Under years of development, LIS is capable creating devices that launches a hypercharged beam of laser capable to cut through thick alloy composite armour, even in a long range. Leading to the birth of Laser Trooper Division, it further proven LIS has independent military capability to protect themselves, and set more colonies free from United Earth.

      Shock troopers. Has a decent reload speed. Excels taking down aircrafts and tanks.
    • Blue Cross (T3)
      Blue Cross are the elite marksman of LIS military. They hide in shadows where bare eyes cannot see. They can take down armoured Space Marines effortlessly. Even drivers inside the vehicles can be killed only using one shot.

      LIS commando unit. Stealthed if stationary. Also detects stealth. If the target is a vehicle, it may turn the vehicle into a neutral, captureable status, which a UE engineer, a LIS hacker, a Zolarg missionary or a Draconian hyjacker can capture the husk to convert it to own faction.
    • ‘Marauder’ Attack Jeep (T1)
      Attack jeeps are modified from old jeep designs, they have missile pods installed on the top. The high horsepower engines remains their high mobility. When they encounter the enemy, they'll unleash a volley of rockets, devastating enemy light vehicles and aircrafts. LIS usually utilizing it for a guerilla warfare.

      Anti-vehicle anti-air light vehicle.
    • LIS Harvester (T1)
      Though they are assembled using second handed components and husks from black markets and chop shops, they still work in the same way as it should be, which its standard can compete that of United Earth's version.

      Equivalent of UE harvesters.
    • Scorch Tank (T2)
      Even though in this era, flamethrowers are still very effective destroying fortified defenses. With the improved composition of fuel used by these Scorch Tanks, almost anything can be reduced to ashes. Burn baby burn!

      Anti-infantry anti-building tank. Clears out enemy garrisons in buildings.
    • ‘Hunter’ Cruiser Tank (T2)
      Like the code name tells, it hunts for preys. These tanks utilizes strong firepower and high mobility in most terrains to destroy enemy tanks quickly at their weak spots. Though its armour is not very reliable at all.

      Battle tank of LIS.
    • ‘Lancer’ Beam Tank (T3)
      Beam cannons on these experimental beam tanks are not ordinary as you expects, its beam can vaporise anything within seconds. The beam tank not only having a strong firepower, it can switch between modes - At mobile mode it is a strong battle tank. At deployed mode, it has doubled firepower and increased firing range.

      Heavy assault vehicle of LIS.
    • ‘Rat’ Light Self-propelled Howitzer (T2)
      Cheap-to-go artillery vehicle used by LIS for siege and fire support tasks. Though it is an artillery, it can mobilize quickly for quick response.

      LIS artillery.
    • ‘Sparrow’ Patrol Copter (T1)
      These patrol aircrafts are the eyes of LIS military in the air, they effectively searching for enemies, even those hidden in somewhere not noticed by others will not be able to escape from their sensors.

      Recon aircraft. It is armed with an anti-infantry machine gun. Detects stealth. (This aircraft does not occupy aircraft landing pads.)
    • ‘Red Hawk’ Fighter Jet (T2)
      Conventional aircraft for surface support operations and enemy aircraft interception. The coaxial machine gun and the missile pods would help them manage most enemies in the battlefields.

      All-purpose fighter jet.
    • ‘Piranha' Waterbike (T1)
      ‘Piranha’ waterbikes swifts like wind, specialised raiding enemy ships using rockets. A squad of these waterbikes can be unstoppable.

      Hit-and-run light ambush vessel.
    • ‘Salmon’ Transport Submarine (T1)
      These small submarines are specialized for crossing the seas secretly, carrying an assault team inside.

      Troops may embark on or evacuate from the submarine when the submarine is surfaced. When submerged, only anti-stealth units and torpedo weapons can detect them. Detects submarines.
    • ‘Swordfish’ Corvette (T2)
      These simple corvettes composes most of the naval forces of LIS. A pair of powerful ship gun will blast enemies into the skies.

      LIS warship.
    • ‘Stingray’ Nuclear Submarine (T3)
      As the backbone of LIS navy, these submarines has high combat capabilities. While sneaking in the seas, they sink the enemies without being noticed. When they surface, they launch volleys of missiles that bombards the enemies miles away.

      Backbone warship of LIS. Stealthed when submerged. When surfaced, the missiles can also attack air units. Detects submarines.
  • Alpha Draconians
    • Extractor Drone (T1)
      Whenever you are seeing mineral fields are disappearing in an weird way, there might be stealthed Alpha Draconian mining drones digging them. Stealth device protects extractor drone in most cases.

      Alpha Draconian harvester unit. It is rather an ‘infantry’ more than a vehicle. Detects stealth.
    • Sentry Drone (T1)
      Besides on battlefields, sentry drones can be also seen in prison camps and slave camps, or in riots. The minigun equipped on them shreds the flesh of any living things.

      Basic ‘infantry’ of Alpha Draconians.
    • Ambusher Drone (T1)
      Harnessing the powerful ion beams and being stealthed when standing by, no vehicle can stand for more than few seconds when swarmed by them.

      Anti-vehicle 'infantry’ of Alpha Draconians. Stealthed when idle.
    • Hijacker Drone (T2)
      Hijacking devices on this drone are able to take over a facility within seconds, especially useful in battlefields. It also has minimal armaments for self protection against patrols.

      Equivalent of engineers and hackers.
    • Executioner Droid (T3)
      Executioner Droids are superior combat droids that their combat capabilities can be compared to a commando, only one can be assigned to one Alpha Draconian warlord. They are also the only droids given with a personnel teleporting device, which helps them bypass the defense line safely and launch sudden attack on the enemy's weakest spot, or evade from most dangerous situations.

      The droid can teleport itself at any explored location of the map. Armed with a beam gun that continuously damages enemy.
    • Modular Combat Hovercraft (T1)
      A hovering small bunker that obtains armaments from drones that it consumes. Uses anti-infantry minigun when no drones inside.

      Each MCH can only receive one drones for armament upgrade. Recieving a Sentry will obtain a double minigun turret. Recieving an Ambusher will change the main weapon into a stronger beam gun. Recieving a Extractor will give it a stationary stealth generator. Recieving a Hijacker will obtain an EMP emitter that unmobilizes the target enemy. Drones who have entered will not return, due to components being assimilated. Amphibious.
    • Piercer Hovertank (T2)
      Piercer hovertank uses a fully flexible autocannon as a weapon with two firing modes. Tank cannon mode attacks land units, while flak mode attacks air units.

      Anti-vehicle or anti-air battle tank. Amphibious.
    • Monitor Hovertank (T3)
      A new class of artillery researched by Alpha Draconian engineers, which it is installed onto a modified, stable hovertank chassis.
    • Devastator Hovertank (T2)
      Alpha Draconians has make use of their advantage of owning major ether reservoirs, leads to this infantry devastating weapon under use, at the cost of breaking 133 galactic military regulations.

      Anti-infantry vehicle. Clears out garrisons in buildings.
    • Dominator Hovermech (T3)
      Dominator Hovermech, the steel behemoth of the battlefield. Its beam-emitting eyes can stare anything to death.

      Heavy warmech.
    • Judge Gunship (T1)
      A nimble, light jet propelled gunship carrying proton launchers.

      Gunship aircraft.
    • Eliminator Saucer (T3)
      One of the ultimate destruction weapon of Alpha Draconians. The saucer unleashes a super powerful destruction beam when flies above enemies. Nothing will survive under its strong fire.

      Bomber aircraft with extremely low mobility.
  • Zolarg Empire
    • Swarmers (T1)
      Unity is the power - that's the motto of the entire Insectoid race. That is especially reflected on these swarmers, make up of various insectoid workers.

      Melee squad. Quick and cheap to train, extremely dangerous in a group, though they generally has a weak toughness
    • Rangerbug (T1)
      Insectoid militias that uses a primitive hand cannon to fight against enemies, which they are common local defense forces in Zolarg Empire.

      Ranged anti-vehicle infantry of Zolarg Empire. Can be switched to stationary mode (flak mode) that changes their attacking target from land to air.
    • Martyr (T2)
      These martyrs are suicide bombers, faithed and determined fighters of the Zolarg Empire. Fires of explosion will purify everything!

      Suicide bomber infantry. A large group can breach heavy fortifications if given appropriate support.
    • Missionary (T1)
      These religious missionaries will make way for Zolarg Empire - Influence buildings through devine powers... Somehow works.

      Equivalent of engineer, hacker and hijacker. Can heal infantries inside the same garrisoned buildings.
    • Apostle (T2)
      Apostles are usually the leaders of Zolarg militias, who ‘delivers the divine message from the Emperor’, fortifying the morale of the fellow brothers. Besides boosting morale, it also provides adequate firepower, from their heavy machine gun.

      Heavy infantry. It rides a beetle.
    • Awakened (T3)
      The insectoid warriors that have awakened their power controlling energy flow surrounding their body. They can release energy blasts from their hands, or unleash deadly melee attacks.

      Shock troopers of Zolarg Empire. Detects stealth.
    • Redeemer (T3)
      The redeemers are insectoid warriors with mastered supernatural powers. Besides able to attack like awakened, it also has a ability to brainwash a small group of enemy, permanently turning them to own side.

      Zolarg commando. Detects stealth.
    • Attack Rollercraft
      (Notes: Insectoids call wheeled vehicles ‘rollercrafts’.)
      These highly mobile attack rollers are manned with a driver and a grenadier, which explosives mixed with sticky ant paste are tossed to enemies at close range for most destructive effect.

      Anti-infantry vehicle. Can temporarily unmobilizes enemies blasted by explosives.
    • Landship (T1)
      Zolarg Landships are primitive tanks, wielding high toughness from thick armour (and a decently strong main cannon). It is also a effective infantry transport on land.

      Anti-vehicle tank. Can carry up to 8 infantries.
    • Siege Landship (T2)
      A heavier version of landship. It is not just tougher, its cannon can fire more than one type of ammunition - Cannonballs focuses on countering tanks and destroying fortifications from a long distance, while napalm will set fire that scorches the infantries.

      Note that it does not do anything carrying infantries. Napalm can clear out garrisons in buildings.
    • Boarding Party (T1)
      Boarding parties of Zolarg Empire are not just terrible in the space but also equally terrible on the seas. Their ship will quickly ram onto yours and the boarding party will soon tear your ship into useless scraps.

      Navy melee ship. It is also a troop transport, can carry up to 8 infantries.
    • Ironclad (T2)
      A rather modernized warship of Zolarg Empire. Slow, but has devastating ship cannons.

      Ranged melee ship.
    • Bumblebee Squad (T2)
      A flying group of winged Insectoids, with a duty to throw bombs onto enemy army, or sometimes aircrafts.

      The only Insectoid airforce unit.

Buildings
  • UAV Control Tower (UE aircraft factory) (4 aircraft capacity)
  • Experimental Tech Centre (Tier-3 tech building)
  • Flak Pillbox (UE anti-air defense)
  • Torpedo Platform (UE heavy naval defense)
  • Plasma Cannon (UE heavy defense)
  • Propaganda Centre (UE combat support/research building)
  • Space Uplink (UE superweapon)
  • LIS Command Lander (LIS command centre)
  • Encampment (LIS barracks)
  • LIS Ore Refinery
  • Burner Generator (LIS power generator)
  • Garage (LIS vehicle factory)
  • Seaport (LIS naval yard)
  • Black Market (LIS Tier-2 tech)
  • Data Bank (LIS Tier-3 tech)
  • Bunker (LIS basic land defense, garrisonable)
  • Gunner turret (LIS basic anti-infantry anti-air defense)
  • Hacker Camp (LIS combat support/research building)
  • Airfield (LIS aircraft factory) (4 aircraft slots)
  • Laser Tower (LIS heavy defense)
  • Sea Sentry (LIS naval defense gun platform)
  • Missile Silo (LIS superweapon)
  • Depot (LIS silo)
  • Microreactor (AD power generator)
  • Central Command Hub (AD command centre)
  • Drone Pad (AD barracks)
  • Raw Material Teleporter (Refinery)
  • Launcher Node (AD basic defense)
  • Offshore Launcher Node (AD naval defense)
  • Stargate (AD vehicle & aircraft factory)
  • High Frequency Node (AD Tier-2 tech)
  • Conquest Center (AD Tier-3 tech)
  • Secret Operation Centre (AD combat support/research building)
  • Stealth Field Generator (AD special defense)
  • Ether Storm Generator (AD superweapon)
  • Home Mound (ZE command centre)
  • Forge (ZE refinery)
  • Outpost Mound (ZE barracks & basic anti-infantry defense)
  • Rangerbug Burrow (ZE anti-air defense)
  • Stockpile (ZE silo)
  • Landship Workshop (ZE vehicle factory)
  • Drydocks (ZE naval yard)
  • Command Post (ZE Tier-2 tech)
  • Shrine of Destiny (ZE Tier-3 tech)
  • War Academy (ZE combat support/research building)
  • Temple of Doom (ZE superweapon)
So today I am pushing out My Colony v0.70.0 to all platforms, and it should be arriving soon to a device near you.

This release brings an experimental new feature to premium users called Regions, which are essentially collections of game files places together on a single large map. You can read more details about the feature in this thread, and although the feature is listed as experimental, it actually seems to be functioning pretty good, mostly.

A Region is basically a mega-colony that consists of many small colony files which share Technology, Resources, Power, and Atmosphere. Each colony is still a separate game file like how My Colony currently works, and they each have their own population and industry. However, they are all taxed the same by their home colony, and they all declare independence from their main colony as a single entity.

Regions are going to be the primary focus over the next two or three updates, so any suggestions you have on how to improve the feature would be great.

Some questions I have gotten before which I will answer here for all. People have asked if they can import an existing city into a region. Right now, that answer is no. It might be possible in the future, but probably only for offline games, and the size of the existing city would also have to conform to the grid of the main region map. For instance, if you have annexed land on an existing map, land is annexed in chunks that make its dimensions no longer able to fit on the main region grid.

You can currently build both Small and Medium sized maps on the Region screen. I might add Large on the next update, but probably not Extra Large or Mega. Most of the issues in My Colony stem from the large, extra large, and especially Mega maps, so one of the goals with Regions is to be able to build a giant colony without having to use one of the giant maps.

The Region area is very big. While it is only a 50x50 grid, that technically allows it to hold 2,500 separate city maps, if the small map size is chosen. I don't really expect anybody to ever fill up an entire region map, but you never know with you guys 🤔

So anyway, there will be a lot more about regions over the next several updates. This update lays the foundation for the feature, as quite a few engine changes were required to allow the sharing of utilities and resources between maps. Now that the foundations are laid, work can be done adding new features to Regions, and also fleshing out the Region overview UI, which is pretty basic right now.

Moving on from the Region stuff, I wanted to quickly touch on the ongoing issues with My Colony on Android. I have actually gotten the crash rate reduced from the nearly 10% range to the 5% range. Looking through the crash stats, the majority are coming from users running Android v8.1.0, leading me to believe something is happening specific to that particular release. For instance, the crash rate on that specific version of Android is over 11%, while it is much lower on other versions. Regardless, this update contains several bugs fixes from both the latest Antiquitas release, and other stuff I found while going over the code, so perhaps I can reduce the crash rate even further.

The good news is that the game is at least no longer tanking on Android and seems to have leveled off, albeit at a far lower level than it was before. Still, things are still going good on Windows and iOS, and the Android version of My Colony now accounts for less than 1/3 of the games revenues, so I am not going to cry about it too much.

While I do like Android, I have been sort of disillusioned by the large spike in non-reproducible errors with totally unhelpful reporting in the Google Play Error console. I am also somewhat suspect when Google claims upwards of 10% of all sessions are force-closing, yet there are almost no reports in the Play Store comments about the app force closing. Not to mention the fact that an almost identical binary of the game is on the Amazon App Store, yet these same crashes are almost nonexistent on that platform.

The whole experience though has convinced me that My Colony may have a better future on Steam than the Google Play Store, and over the coming updates I will be taking steps to put Antiquitas and My Colony on Steam. They will be available unlocked at the regular purchase price of the Premium Upgrade. Now, if you have already purchased a premium license, there is really no point in buying it on Steam, you can just use the Native Client or Ape Apps Launcher edition, which will essentially be the same thing.

If you do purchase it on Steam though and sign in using your Ape Apps Account, it will check steam to verify your purchase, and sync that to your account, unlocking Premium on all platforms.

There is really no way (that I am aware) of allowing current Premium users to unlock the Steam purchase. I don't know. Really though, if you already own Premium, there is little point of buying it again on Steam, unless you like the game and wish to support it!

I do think that the My Colony/Antiquitas interface works a lot better as a Desktop game though (vs mobile), and so possibly Steam will be a good match for it. It is also very reasonably priced VS other Steam games, especially considering the vast amount of content/play time available in My Colony.

Speaking of interfaces though, My Colony is actually seeing a great surge in users on the Amazon Fire TV. This is great, although after playing it on my Fire TV for a bit, I realized that the TV interface could use some polish, so that will be coming in the next few updates.

Moving on, starting in v0.70.0, I have completely removed the auto-blacklist banner from the game. As resource checks and trade verification are now done by the server, this feature was no longer necessary, and was resulting in too many false-positives. It is much easier now to just ban bad actors on an account-wide level from the server, rather than trying to make the game monitor and looks for hacking on the individual colony files. A colony can still be banned into permanent offline mode, but there will now be actual human moderation before it is done.

Next, I have started the process of reorganizing the list of build-options in the construction sidebar, grouping like-structures together, instead of just putting all of the newest stuff on bottom. I will continue this over the coming updates.

Another small change, when a new colonist arrives, the "XXX Has Joined The Colony" popup message is now gone. I think the popup was more annoying than anything, especially on phones.

Another minor change, but one which might help ultra large colonies, is a further reduction in game file save sizes. I don't know if it will be noticeable to everyone, but it should help some files out.

Finally, there are two new structures available. Humans get the new Transcendent Triantanium Generator, which is far better than the current Triantanium factory. Additionally, Reptillians get a new Raw Materials Extractor, which is a significant improvement over the current (and horrid) Insectoid Mining Operation.

So that about rounds out today's update. The update frequency will probably increase going forward. I am pretty much giving up on trying to collect error diagnostics on the Google Play version of the game, and as such, I no longer need to keep one stable version number in the store for weeks at a time. Google has already blacklisted the game for "bad behavior", and I have reconfigured with the settings in every possible way I could think of on Android, and nothing made a significant difference. Considering there have never been any wide-scale complaints about crashes on Android, I do not think the users are suffering from the games "bad behavior" any. I am sort of just accepting the fact that Google Play is what it is, and focus on making the game as good as it can be, and not worry about trying to fix the crash stats on GPlay.

As I said before, the next few updates will add things to the new Regions feature, as well as new content to be added to all civilizations, but more especially the Reptilians. Thanks for playing the game, and enjoy the update!
5y ago
These are some ideas that I have for the regions feature. I have not played the game and experimented with regions, i just now saw the comments for updates 70-72 and I'm excited that this feature was added. I can't wait to get these ideas out so that maybe I could possibly help improve the feature. I'm assuming that all of the resources produced by every map pool together and can be used to improve any map, but I could be wrong and each map has it's own resources and you have to trade between maps to transer resources.

1.) Regional contribution to atmosphere level - This idea is obvious and would probably be implemented without me saying anything. Each region should be able to produce atmosphere that contributes to the atmosphere of the planet as a whole, just like how bast mentioned that each region would contribute to the same research and civics pool. However, if this feature is to be implemented, I recommend a nerf of all terraforming structures... or a raising of the total atmosphere needed for the planet to be earthlike. The point to terraforming is that it is supposed to be a lengthy process, and it would encourage the player to frequently switch between many maps in order to build them all up to contribute to the atmosphere level.

2.)biomes - This may be hard to implement, but wold give the map a varying texture to it, and would give some regions different strengths and weaknesses over other regions. You could base the biomes on each region, but that may look too rigid and blocky for you. Instead, you could use procedural generation to make more natural looking biomes on the global map that look much more appealing to the eyes and would transform in their own ways as the planet is terraformed. The different biomes would cross between regions using this method as well.

An example of multiple biomes would be like having different bodies of water criss-crossing the map, having snowy, dessert, and jungle areas in different parts. Crystalline could come naturally with snowy areas, trees with forest areas, and sugarcane and mutant trees with jungle areas. This also opens up the way for more resources to be added, like sand, glass, glassware, cacti, potted plants (cacti+pottery), snow, and snow globes(snow + glass). For planets with no atmosphere, ice bodies or dry lake-bed could be used to represent where water will form after a certain atmosphere level. The player could build structures on the ice/lake bed, but these buildings would be destroyed if they happen to be there when the atmosphere allows water to form in those areas.

3.) estimated production in non-active maps - this one might help with performance. Instead of having all maps producing and keeping track of all of the colonists and jobs and needs when you are in any map or on the display screen, I would use the following method:

Upon exiting a map, have the game take the most recent production and consumption rates. Then after the player creates cities in multiple maps, have the game add the production and consumption rates of all of the inactive maps together the make a total production and consumption rate for each resource. Add these rates onto the active colonies rates and you will have a grand total for the entire planet. Of course, this rate will change whenever you switch maps, but you are only dealing with one or two formulas per resource in order to keep production going instead of thousands of worker rounds in each map going on at the same time, and you are only dealing with one map producing and changing in real time instead of all of them being in realtime.

This method cuts out all of the updates regarding unemployment, individual colonist actions and stats, population changes, and possibly other functions that happen in an active map. The active map would be the only map keeping track of these stats among it's colonists. Yes, while the production and consumption rates of each inactive map will stay the same as long as they remain inactive, I think that the trade-off is worth it, even if it does represent a small compromise in keeping the game a non-idle game. This would also allow for more resources to be implemented into the game and individual maps could get more developed and densely populated without negatively impacting performance.

In fact, it doesn't have to be a compromise at all if you reduce the production of the inactive maps by a certain percentage. I would also pause the game altogether when viewing the global map, or players could just let it idle at the global map and collect resources without the risk of any of their maps starving to death. On that note, if you run out of food or water, you could have it take 1% off of the overall health of each inactive map's population(which should take off 1% of each individual colonist's health open opening that map) and cause individual health loss in real time in the active colony.

This method would also allow you to increase the size of global map grids exponentially, allowing for more regions/maps to be available to the player to build in. And overall it may even improve the android problem that you are having.

4. individual region naming - this will further help you to keep track of which region is which, even though you can tell which is which by looking at the map. I just think that each region should be able to have it's own name.

5. Being able to transfer rovers/workers from one region to another - you mentioned this one in update 70, so I know that you aim to implement this one. I'm just adding my twist to it. I don't think that rovers should have to smoothly pass from region to region. I think you should be able to select a region and have a listing of what rovers it has and how many of each type. Then, you should be able to specify an amount for each rover type to transfer and specify a destination region. I think it would be too overpowered for rovers/workers to be able to smoothly pass to another region to collect resources and then come back, and I think it would be detrimental to game performance. The player should have to deal with the resources that they have in the map during real time. If they run out of an important resource, such as regolith, they can just start on another region/map, harvest the regolith from there, and then return to the map they were working on, assuming that all of the resources from every map are pooled.

I don't think that colonists should be able to leave the map at will either. i think that at most, if at all, the player should be able to transfer unemployed or homeless colonists to another region to supply workers where needed, but I don't think that colonists should smoothly be able to walk between regions. I think if a colonist wants to leave the map, they could maybe be transerred automatically to the mother colony or to another region, but not by just walking across the border. I think that the player should have to provide adequate housing, entertainment, healthcare, and education in each map for the buildings in that map. I do like the idea of having a map solely for food production that provides all of the food needs for the entire planet, and a water map that does the same, so those resources could be poured into a global resource pool that any region can pull from.

But those are my ideas. let me know if you agree with me or not. Hopefully bast can use these to make a beter system for regions that uses even less performance than it does now. Sorry for the longest post in history.
5y ago
While yall may be wondering "what use would a campaign mode be, there's no war or conflict in my colony, so what would be the purpose," I assure you there would be a really big purpose for a campaign mode without involving any war or conflict elements at all.

Campaign mode would put the player into different scenarios that challenge their strategy skills and resourcefulness, would be a very fun adventure and storyline, and would teach newcomers how to play the game online. Honestly, I don't think that a campaign mode would be hard to make, I just think that it would take a lot of time to create and implement all of the content that is required for this to happen and I definitely don't expect this to be implemented anytime soon. Let me repeat that, I definitely don't expect this to be implemented anytime soon. @bastecklein is working on the rest of antiquitas and there are some features not yet but soon to be put in the game that would be required to make this happen. So if this does get implemented, I imagine it would be far into the future.

Anyway, here are my ideas for a campaign mode, although if bast makes a campaign mode he might do it differently:

1. Each race and spin-off race has it's own campaign series, starting with UE.

2. Each campaign would be broken into chapters. Each chapter is based on a specific planet related to that race. For instance, UE will have the planet mars(red planet), the earth's moon(lunar), and an exoplanet with alien wildlife(forest), while LIS will have the dwarf planet ceres(asteroid), Titan(ice), and a once inhabited exoplanet(abandoned). Each chapter would be unlocked by completing the one before it.

3. Each planet will have a global map that would show all of the playable locations on that map. Nothing fancy, just a map of the planet with a bunch of coordinates marked. Each of these locations/coordinates, when selected, will load a specific game file incorporated into the game. Once a file is opened, it takes the player to the normal my colony building field, which is pre-made and staged for a particular mission. Once all missions are complete for that location, the player is free to continue on playing the game, building up their colony normally, and trading with other locations on the same planet/chapter that have had their missions completed.

4. Some of those locations will need to be unlocked by completing missions in other locations, and there would be a few side-locations on each planet that don't have any missions but allow the player to build a Colony normally and send resources to the other locations. These side-locations would only be unlocked after the chapter and all missions are complete and after premium is purchased.

5. All locations would have an option to reset progress in case a player wants to replay a certain mission or restart a colony at one of the locations for whatever reason. This deletes the current in-game file that is in use and restores a copy from the backup version that is also integrated in the game.

6. Before adding any of this to the game, multiple terrain types would be needed. This is because if campaign were added now, there wouldn't be much difference between each location on the planet since we only have one terrain type, and it would be boring. Bast said that he is going to add multiple terrain types and a map editor, so I would wait until I created those before I worked on this, which is one of the reasons why I think campaign mode will be far into the future if added at all.

7. Terraforming aspect: Terraforming each planet would be done very slowly and would take multiple colonies/locations to generate or remove the needed amounts of atmosphere. Also, some other aspects and buildings for terraforming that would only exist in campaign mode could be added. For instance, in terraforming, you have to take atmosphere, heat, sea level, and oxygen percentage into consideration. Maybe add aheat aspect and create some buildings that reduce and generate heat based on what the planet needs. Or add a sea level and watch the global map fill up with water as the sea level rises and recede as it falls. You could do a lot of interesting things in campaign mode and it wouldn't impact the online mc universe. It might push the engine to it's limits though.

8. Research: research would be share by all colonies/locations on a given planet/chapter. Either research would be produced much slower or tech would require more research, but we want to make it so that all locations are contributing to the same research pool. Once a player moves to the next chapter though, the research starts at 0 again.

I think that this would be a very worth-while feature to put in the game. If any of you have any more ideas of how a campaign mode could be implemented, please include them here.
6y ago
I think that antiquitas could be better with more races as well. I don't think that we need to worry about whether a civilization can fit with Rome or not because what's the point of making a new race if the gameplay isn't completely different from the Romans; it defeats the purpose and it wouldn't be fun at all. If you add a greek civilization then the gameplay would be too similar to the Romans, because, it's as you said, Romans got most of their tech from Greece.

I think that the Egyptians would be a good civilization to add because they would bring a bunch of new resources to the table, including papyrus for paper, sandstone for building pyramids, lapis Lazule, since egyptions used it a whole bunch in their temples to add a nice blue color. They would still use all of the resources that Romains did but would be in a dessert environment with rivers running through it, since most of Egypts farming was next to the river. It would be nice to see that added if the game gets a good rep.

the Vikings would also be a unique gameplay in itself, since their environment is a cold and wet one. Not sure what resource the vikings were known to produce and trade with other nations though because vikings were war-like and made much of their living from raiding other villages; so they didn't pay that much attention to producing anything on their own volition. They were also known to be pretty nomadic, which means that they might not be apropriate for adding to the game, since they wouldn't bring that much to the table, but then again I don't know much about Viking culture. The purpose of having multiple races is so that each race can bring their own unique resources and advantages to the table, and I don't think that vikings could bring anything special to the table when it comes to a city building game, just like I don't think that greeks could bring anything special to the table either since everything they have Rome has.

Some other races to consider are the Chineese clans, which would bring rice and silk to the table, India would have spices that they could make and trade, the Incans/mayans would be a unique gameplay since they ate corn and did other things, and the Isrealites were good at producing honey, and there are many other races that could be of use in this game.
6y ago
Welcome
Ape Apps, LLC is an independent software development company founded in 2010 by Brandon Stecklein. Over the years, Ape Apps has published over 400 apps and games across various platforms. You can get in touch with Brandon on Twitter or by leaving a post on his wall @bastecklein
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