Ape Apps

My thought was that once a colony got removed from the server for inactivity in the standard way, it would also be removed from the region map that it was a part of

Regions - at a glance view of their top industrial outputs so you can see what they are contributing/specializing in

Was sitting there in Church today and during the sermon I was thinking of the code for My Colony, and I had an idea to add another gameplay mode of Multiplayer Regions. In my mind, it would be a slightly larger map than the current region file, and all of the high-level region data would be stored on the server, including the little thumbnail images that represent the individual city files. However, you could invite your friends to join your region, and they could pick a plot on the map and start building their own cities.

Instead of shared resources across the region like on current region maps, only atmosphere would be shared, although there would be a new regional warehouse type building where players can manually store resources that are shared across the region.

Also, instead of the whole region being one big city, it would be broken up into 'areas', like metropolitan areas, where each one of those would have a charter code/online presence as opposed to the region as a whole.

For example, if you start a city on the region at coordinate 20:20 (x:y), and you own no other cities touching that city, it would be chartered as a new colony on the server. If you then started another city right next to it as 20:21, it would be "linked" to the first city and they would become a metropolitan area with shared resources. However, if your friend started a new city in that region across the map at location 8:10 or something, then that would trigger the formation of a new "area" with a new charter code and its own resource pool.

My thought for this was that regions are so big anyway, the likelihood of a player filling one by himself is not very high. However a group of players could probably do it.

Anyway, that is kind of an idea I had, it's nothing solid right now, but I have (at least in theory) worked out a lot of the code needed and issues in my head, lol. I mainly wanted to throw this here and see if there is any feedback on it, to see if it is a feature anybody would actually be interested in, before spending time to implement it. I actually think that compared to a lot of things, it would be a pretty easy one to implement, since a lot of the work on Regions is already completed, it would be a similar experience except there are other parts on the map that are being filled out by other people. The only main difference to the player is the joint atmosphere, and the addition of the joint regional warehouse. You wouldn't really be able to load up other players' maps and play them, you would just see them on the main regional overview.

Let me know what you think of the concept, and if it is worth exploring further!

Yes the Palm Trees do spread. They actually provide less wood than the regular trees, but they have roughly 2x faster spread rate.

Hmm, I'll look into it. Thanks for the heads up

Still not great yet, getting a nice sandy beach was way more consuming than i anticipated :-/

cry8wolf9 said:Ok it was worth a try lol I could really use the large map for a couple of layouts and deleting trees and sugar on some of the bug maps is crazy to keep up with

Ok, I will add the ability to make a new region map be totally blank.

cry8wolf9 said:any chance on putting in an option for regions where you can select to generate a barren map with no resources?
also i remember seeing you saying you were considering adding a large map to regions will we maybe see it in this update?

Probably no to both. I want the regions to be able to avoid the map size related performance and saving issues that are present in single-city maps.

Amorphus said:Hey bast, just wondering if you were planning adding"ocean floor" or "lake bed" terrain tiles that turn into water after atmosphere goes beyond a certain point. This way a player can see where water will form and can build on these tiles under a certain atmosphere, but they risk their buildings getting destroyed when water forms there as atmosphere increases. I can imagine the map becoming a bit difficult to build around after atmosphere reaches 5 mil since the map would then be full of rivers/seas/islands instead of being the lifeless dry plane it once was.

Also, are you thinking of making structures that can be placed on the water or straddled between land and water like bridges, marinas, peers, aquariums, ferries, and boat bots that can build water structures? These would allow for more income, tourism, and resource production opportunities and bridges would allow for colonist and vehicle/worker movement over water.

Just a few aquatic ideas inspired by your water world.

Keep up the good work!

I am working on bridges right now. I do want water based buildings and vehicles, such as marinas and boats, it will just take a bit more work.



I do not have anything yet where water levels change based on atmosphere. It is doable, but would just take a lot more engine changes than I wanted to do in this update, since I want to get it out within a reasonable timeframe. I may make another water based map at some point that does have those features, and a higher difficulty level. I wanted this particular map to be accessible to most players.

Boats will 100% be coming at some point, as I want to be able to use My Colony engine to make a 'new world' type game next year, where you arrive on a ship, unload, destroy the natives, etc.

initial tests of ocean generation

Just curious, since it is dying when trying to find a folder called: C:\Users\CompleX999/NetHood
What if you go to C:\Users\CompleX999 and create an empty 'NetHood' folder

Sorry, I misspoke. It is not the capitol level 6. You need the Hall of Congress building.

Over the last week I have started working on 0.77.0 on the web client. I have been really busy with other non-app related things though, so the update has been going slowly. Towards the end of the week, I will have a lot more time to start developing again, so I will be able to go full steam ahead on My Colony. Here is what I have planned going in and what to expect. By the way, v0.77.0 is the Christmas Update, and as such, I plan on making it a big one!

Firstly, there are a great many bugs that need to be ironed out. Some have already been addressed, but more yet remain. If you are playing on the web with v0.77.0, please report bugs in this thread so they are easier to find.

Next, I am going to be totally revamping the in-game encyclopedia and owners manual for the game. The new encyclopedia is going to be merged into the Statistics window and is being totally rewritten.

The former printable owners manual is being totally rewritten and reworked. It will now be a complete comprehensive tome of My Colony data and information, and will be viewable in-app, exportable as a .pdf or .txt file, or printable. It will contain information on the game, outline the controls, all of the play modes, give a basic "starting-out" walkthrough, some backstory for all civs, and lay out the full statistics for everything in the game.

As I said, you will be able to view the full text in-app, and most people should use it that way. Not that I expect most people on the forums here to actually need a manual, but for new players it might help. If you really want it though, you can print the whole thing. The printout in total so far runs about 200 pages though (and it's still not done yet), so if you are really wanting to print it out, I would suggest having a duplex printer, or (better yet) printing it at school or work. Then you can throw it in a three ring binder and read about My Colony all day.

There have been many comments in the various app stores related to a lack of instructions or a proper owners manual, so this ought to cover just about everything. The new manual is not yet complete, there are still a couple of sections which need added, but you can see what it has so far by accessing it from the old (soon to be removed) encyclopedia interface.

Next up, I am adding a new 'Water World' map. I am thinking that each civilization will have access to the map, and it will basically be an ocean with some large islands on it. I am also considering having a random hurricane disaster on the map, although it wouldn't be near as brutal as the Lava World disaster.

Zolarg and Reptilians are going to get starship production, which is going to require several new buildings and techs in order to get there. Once all civs have starships, 0.78.0 should start to have the Trade Routes option I am planning, much of which is already ready to go on the server.

Finally, Federation voting seems to be having issues that need to be cleaned up. I also need to add the option to call a custom vote in the federation, so that the members can vote on Federation President. I will be adding Federations to the website, but this will happen between the 0.77 and 0.78 updates.

I have not forgotten about in-game moderators. There is just a lot more infrastructure that needs to be in place first. Of more immediate concern, I could use a moderator for the forum here to help fight some of the spam and to keep everything in line, if anybody is interested in that, you can PM me.

So far in 0.77.0 I have totally changed how "virtual" colonists operate (the fake colonists that 'exist' after your population crosses the 2000 line), so let me know if you are experiencing anything strange in relation to that.

Anyway, the last few weeks have been ultra busy at our house with non-Ape Apps related stuff, but everything should be calmed down by friday (at least until christmas week), which is why I hope to get a lot of My Colony work done in the downtime. Stay tuned!

Pixelers said:You can place embassies in the region view...

prntscr.com/ltqpjw

I'm on steam v0.76

EDIT: Wouldn't recommend anyone doing it once you restart the game a few times it doesn't work and you get this menu prntscr.com/ltqv8w (no buttons work). You can't destroy it I had to load a backup to remove it.

Thanks for the find. That is one giant embassy...

username said:my game updated and when I checked it there was supposed to be a bar at the bottom of the statistics page that said federations, but there wasn't. I had not updated this game since version .73 or .74 . currently, my game says it is at version .77 after the update and I am playing on the ape apps web version.

It does not show up until you have government level 6

I think the deportation probably caused it. I don't know if you should necessarily go back to the previous backup, unless it does not clear up.

Well I have been keeping it mostly up to date with My Colony engine changes. I haven't added any new content since September though. I will probably add a snow map before the Christmas update, but I don't know if I will add another civilization any time soon.

The main issue is that for adding another civ, the main artist for the game @jova sinks tons of time into the graphics, and not that many people have been playing Antiquitas to appreciate the work, or to even make it worth while.

I will keep it always up to date with whatever new features are added to My Colony though, although Antiquitas will probably get updates once per month instead of 2 or 3 per month like My Colony.

It's really just a matter of users for Antiquitas, and the fact that each of the three civs is already pretty well fleshed out.

@MasterHutchGaming I am sorry you think I have been ignoring this issue, but you are mistaken big time. Just look at how many months old this thread is, and how long it has been since the last reply before yours. There has been considerable progress made on the worker bugs since then, compared with how the issue was at the time. I am not claiming it is "fixed" now, but I think many would agree that it has improved significantly, rather than being ignored for a year+ as you suggest. For many colonies the issue is now completely non-existent.

I am aware that there is an issue on Android and iOS when a colony reaches around 500 colonists, which is the virtualized-citizen cutoff level on those devices, that causes issues when the colony is transitioning from 100% "real" colonists towards a real/virtual colonist mix. The issue is more pronounced on those platforms, because the cutoff level is at 500 population, vs 2000 on the other platforms. This is because of the reduced memory available to iOS and Android apps, Android in particular. In contrast, on Desktop when a colony already has over 2000 colonists, it is harder to notice when the engine starts to virtualize workers and simulate their stats, as there is a much larger tool of colonists to draw the generalized stats from.

That all said, your issues may be totally unrelated to this. What I gathered from all of your posts is that your issue is that whenever you build new buildings, you suddenly get massive riots and unemployment, which are made worse by a fire drill.

I just think it is possible that the issues are not exactly the same as those in the threads you replied to, many of which are very old and have since been addressed. I realize I do not reply to every single bug post, but I do look at them when I work on each update. If one has gone for months or a year with no reply, there is a pretty good likelihood that most people are no longer experiencing the same issue. Especially when it comes to employment related issues. There have been many updates since the last post to this thread that have totally overhauled the way the game assigns employees and deals with education.

What are the stats of the colony? What types or buildings are you making, does it happen with just one class of building, or all? It would also be helpful to know what your engine settings are, which you can find a link to in the game's slide-out menu. All of this information will help to research the issue. It is very difficult to debug or fix something with limited information and no way to reproduce, but believe me, I would love to get the bug fixed. Despite what you seem to believe, I do not like the game to have bugs, nor do I just ignore them.

If you guys have an incinerator that is not working, can you post a screenshot of its building stats page on here?

I have run a colony completely out of trash multiple times and all incinerators and recycling centers keep working once trash builds back up.

It is true that the incinerators will not run if there is no "fuel" for them (trash, in this case), because they are converting the trash into power. If your Trash is at 0 at the moment when the engine gets to updating the incinerator building, it will not run, and it will not produce power. Once the trash is above 0 though, it should start back up. If you have a bunch of recycling centers, they may be clearing out the trash before your incinerators have a chance to, in which case you could just sell or deactivate some recycling centers.

Now. if you are saying that the incinerators just stop and then never restart, and trash starts building back up into the thousands, then that is a bug, albeit one that I am not experiencing on any colony.

Well, I can't just magically install my game onto your Chromebook. If I could, I would probably be on my yacht right now instead of in Kansas.

SO The issue is with the "virtual" colonists, if one avatar is assigned too many virtual colonists, it produces a large delay in processing. I am addressing the issue for 0.77.0, but having your colony "fix" itself after the update will require it to idle for a while, while the engine sorts our your game data.

So it is sort of intended that you have to back out to region each time to save the research, as the research data is actually saved to the Region file, not the individual city file. I wonder how you were normally exiting the game before exiting to region? It is my understanding that pressing the 'back' button will bring you back to region.

Jroth1234 said:Nice job on the app.
Just wondering if you plan to add an “import csv” function? It would be very handy!

I had not planned to, but since you requested it I can probably get that in there for the next release

Well they are supposed to just show up on the screen like this:

I assume this is not happening for you? Which version of the app are you using (operating system-wise)?

What is the population of the 5 minute freezing colony?

Which platform are you on? A lot of times that error is caused by ad blocker

hi123456789 said:Okay so I updated from v0.75 to v0.76 and my premium has disappeared. The account manager page recongizes that i have premium ( prntscr.com/lla71j ) but I don't have premium ingame. ( prntscr.com/lla7ex )
I purchased the steam version if that helps. ( prntscr.com/lla81a )
Is there any way I can get premium back?
I have restarted the game, and relogged. I even reinstalled the game.

Sorry, I had accidentally uploaded the wrong build to Steam :-/

I have uploaded the correct one and the update should be coming presently.

Today I am publishing the v0.76.0 build of My Colony to all platforms. I was traveling all of last week, and due to the holiday I will be with family for the remainder of this week (U.S. Thanksgiving), so I was not able to spend much time on this release or really dig deep into the code. There were a couple of easy fixes that I wanted to get in there before the holiday though, as well as a little more content. So here is the rundown.

Firstly, the issue where Federation ballots were duplicated should now be fixed. Also, there was a bug where several money-related achievements were not posting. These should be working now. Also, and I have not been able to test this, but now when a colony has been disconnected from the server due to inactivity, it should now automatically register a new charter code when the player comes back online, with no further action required of the player. I have also implemented several fixes on the server side which caused stats not to be updating. Finally, any bug that caused a stack-trace exception to be reported to the error tracker has been addressed.

Beyond those fixes, I have added new content, primarily to the Zolarg.

Zolarg have two new techs to unlock now, Insectoid Oil Production and Mystic Uranium Generation. These techs unlock new structures, including the Petropit, the Petrocone, and the Unholy Uranium Generator. These additions are moving the Zolarg closer to being able to build Starships, which will be necessary for the Federation content I plan on adding soon.

The Reptilians get an upgraded capitol building called the Chamber of our Fathers, which also doubles as their very first Research producing building, so Reptilians are soon going to be getting a tech tree. Of course, and as with other things Reptilian, it will be a bit different than the other two races. Things are going to start getting crazy for the Reptilians, and you will even be seeing some My Colony lore emerge about the link between the Reptilians and the Ancient Aliens who are an underpinning presence across a lot of the game.

So that is about it for today. There is a lot more to come on all fronts, I just did not have a lot of time to do work over the last week and over the coming days, although I still wanted to get some fixes for My Colony pushed out. So stay tuned, and thanks for playing!

Easiest way is to turn on cloud sync for your game files (in the stats overview screen). Some people have issues with it, especially if they have ad/content blockers on their computers, but I use it on all of my colonies and have never had issue.