Few more modifications & bugfixes before the LAN tonight.
Enhancements:
- Moved equipping minions up in the turn processing order so you can equip and use minions immediately to raid / attack. This is to help late game when you need to be able to attack others in the current turn to prevent a win, whereas bounties cope quite well for dealing with players in the next turn.
Bugfixes:
- Check enough space for fortifications
- Check enough space for elites
- Check enough space for slaves.
- Fix elite only raids returning with 1 elite.
Thursday, January 03, 2013
Wednesday, January 02, 2013
2011 & 2012 Game Time
2011
Continuing on from the 2008 Game Time , 2009 Game Time and 2010 Game Time summaries, 2011 Game Time has been added to google docs for further analysis of the GameLogs. The spreadsheet can be organised by total hours to see the winners, or by order entered to get a more historical feel.Top 5 Game Time 2011
| Grepolis | 389 |
| Shogun: Total War 2 | 102 |
| Sengoku | 85 |
| Terraria | 70 |
| Fantasy Wars | 66 |
Grepolis claims another gong for soaking up my attention thoughout a VERY tough year for games while teaching. A couple of huge binges mixed in with consistent demands for my attention. Once again I can put down a lot of that to the guild I was in.
I'm glad Shogun placed up there, as it has been a standout for strategy in the past couple of years. The tactical battles are still much the same, but the overland map and campaign mode has been delightfully enhanced into a tough challenge on legendary mode.
Sengoku fleshed out the Japanese period, but it was really a filler for Crusader Kings II.
Terraria just kept popping up as something to play with Cameron. I'm surprised at the number of hours it racked up, but still happy it made the list for a year it didn't appear in.
Top 5 Game Time 2012
| Stronghold Kingdoms | 523 |
| Football Manager 2012 | 160 |
| Crusader Kings II | 151 |
| Guild Wars 2 | 113 |
| World of Tanks | 90 |
The Grepolis crew moved over to Stronghold Kingdoms and it had the same effect on my game time, leading the count by a considerable margin. Once again the interaction with clanmates and added incentive of Sandy playing along kept this one high on the priority list for a long time.
I'm a little surprised Footy Manager made a return to the top of the list as I'd almost forgotten about the massive stint on this game 6 months after I'd bought it. 2013 version may suffer the same fate.
Crusader Kings II was one of the standouts for the year and kept my attention more than XCOM, Warlock, Fallen Enchantress and Shogun (again) that all just missed the list.
Guild Wars 2 was also buoyed by clanmates, but this time all the local LAN guys as well as the old QGL crew kept the interest up. Sandy continued long after I did, but the time was definitely well spent. New generation of MMO.
World of Tanks did a Terraria to creep into the list from continuous play rather than standout binges. First wins kept it rotating slowly, but the lack of decent multiplyer hampered its ability to become a mainstay of the LAN.
GameLog 271 - 275
Final one for the year. Next up a Gamelog summary I promise ...
Endless space (33h) - Didn't particularly like some of the distractions on launch, but it's turned out to be a rather refined, enjoyable version of Masters of Orion. I even caught myself thinking "This game really needs planet compositions based on star age/colour" before finding out it actually does have that. Beat it on hardest with a custom race, but it definitely has legs for the future. Multiplayer needs a way to have co-op against a team of AI's though.
Hegemony Gold (10h) - Greig had picked this one up on steam and it looked the most interesting thing to sink into during the holiday up north. Went North first, before heading east instead of the traditional south to Athens.
Fallen Enchantress (10h) - Completed the campaign with my custom race, plus another partial game. Still playing well.
Unity of Command (5h) - Another pick from Greig's place. Mentioned many times on Three Moves Ahead, but only having one campain going at once doesn't lend well to sharing. Left Greig with map 3 done with 550 / 600 completion.
Notoriously databased (5h) - A fair few more playthroughs at LANs and New Year's Eve with my brothers. It's turned the corner from being a test into a more complete game in it's own right, along with specific bug fixes and tweaks to make it more streamlined.
AirMech (1h) - Snowball MMO.
Planetside 2 (1h) Snowball MMO RTS.
Endless space (33h) - Didn't particularly like some of the distractions on launch, but it's turned out to be a rather refined, enjoyable version of Masters of Orion. I even caught myself thinking "This game really needs planet compositions based on star age/colour" before finding out it actually does have that. Beat it on hardest with a custom race, but it definitely has legs for the future. Multiplayer needs a way to have co-op against a team of AI's though.
Hegemony Gold (10h) - Greig had picked this one up on steam and it looked the most interesting thing to sink into during the holiday up north. Went North first, before heading east instead of the traditional south to Athens.
Fallen Enchantress (10h) - Completed the campaign with my custom race, plus another partial game. Still playing well.
Unity of Command (5h) - Another pick from Greig's place. Mentioned many times on Three Moves Ahead, but only having one campain going at once doesn't lend well to sharing. Left Greig with map 3 done with 550 / 600 completion.
Notoriously databased (5h) - A fair few more playthroughs at LANs and New Year's Eve with my brothers. It's turned the corner from being a test into a more complete game in it's own right, along with specific bug fixes and tweaks to make it more streamlined.
AirMech (1h) - Snowball MMO.
Planetside 2 (1h) Snowball MMO RTS.
Hall of Fame
[Press play, then read]
Year 12 are on the home stretch. Tomorrow they have their prom night, then a day at the beach before the final Friday of their schooling life. I, too, am on the home stretch. The final lesson I'll ever teach was cut in half to accomodate graduations song practice, along with a heartfelt message from the principal and head of campus to "remember this time". Michael W Smith's Friends are friends forever made the cut, along with the more recent Hall of Fame by The Script. I'd heard it before on the radio, and the tune itself lends toward memorable occasions, but does it really represent a christian perspective?
The main point of contention is the chorus line "where the world's gonna know your name". Get out there and do it. Why? Because it'll make you famous. This is inherently a selfish motivation, and undermines all the inspirational lead up that the song provides.
An interesting way to think of the song is to read this line as a statement of fact rather than a guide for yourself. "The world's gonna know you're name". Who's name? Who's the most famous person in history? Jesus. Did he try to be? No. Did he want to be? No. Funnily enough, the song all makes sense if Jesus is the focus throughout. A praise anthem.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Notoriously Databased v0.41
After a couple more play sessions there have been some more bugs to squish, some wierd strategies to rebalance and some UI recommendations to help smooth out the game's flow.
First off the list was to fix an abuse of the win condition by popping yourself over the notoriety limit for 2 turns in succession. I was sure i'd covered this by checking for a wipe on the winning turn, but it needed a check for wipes on the turn before as well to catch this devious little strat.
The turn submission screen also now has a notoriety list to help gauge where you are in relation to the notoriety limit and others. this has added a bit more informaiton at your fingertips to make your choice for next turn, but has also turned the submission screen into somewhat of a knowledge store for the game too. The recommendation to place the story on there is most likely as a response from relying more and more on the informaiton at hand rather than really reading and digesting exactly what's going on in the region.
To add the story to the submission screen I wanted to try a partial view so that the same information could be displayed there as well as in its current location. Because the view has already been set up I didn't think it would be too hard to turn it into a partial view.
It turns out that there are a number of different ways of making a partial view. What i really wanted was to call the same action that currently exists as it has a ViewModel and custom data gathering script already in place and a major part of what I didn't want to replicate, so calling the partial view using @Html.Action was the way to go.
After a couple of tests it turned out to be a fairly simple change:
- Replicate CharacterCurrentStory into PartialCharacterCurrentStory in both the controller and view
- Set PartialCharacterCurrentStory controller to return a PartialViewResult
- Strip down PartialCharacterCurrentStory view to only show the table of messages fit for both views.
- Strip down the old CharacterCurrentStory view to only show the headings and page setup
- Call the PartialCharacterCurrentStory using @Html.Action()
- Add the same call to the character submission
- Strip down the old CharacterCurrentStory controller to only pass in the current character rather than the stories.
- Lock down PartialCharacterCurrentStory to only be called as a child action (probably not required, but handy to know)
Here's the end result for the controller:
First off the list was to fix an abuse of the win condition by popping yourself over the notoriety limit for 2 turns in succession. I was sure i'd covered this by checking for a wipe on the winning turn, but it needed a check for wipes on the turn before as well to catch this devious little strat.
The turn submission screen also now has a notoriety list to help gauge where you are in relation to the notoriety limit and others. this has added a bit more informaiton at your fingertips to make your choice for next turn, but has also turned the submission screen into somewhat of a knowledge store for the game too. The recommendation to place the story on there is most likely as a response from relying more and more on the informaiton at hand rather than really reading and digesting exactly what's going on in the region.
To add the story to the submission screen I wanted to try a partial view so that the same information could be displayed there as well as in its current location. Because the view has already been set up I didn't think it would be too hard to turn it into a partial view.
It turns out that there are a number of different ways of making a partial view. What i really wanted was to call the same action that currently exists as it has a ViewModel and custom data gathering script already in place and a major part of what I didn't want to replicate, so calling the partial view using @Html.Action was the way to go.
After a couple of tests it turned out to be a fairly simple change:
- Replicate CharacterCurrentStory into PartialCharacterCurrentStory in both the controller and view
- Set PartialCharacterCurrentStory controller to return a PartialViewResult
- Strip down PartialCharacterCurrentStory view to only show the table of messages fit for both views.
- Strip down the old CharacterCurrentStory view to only show the headings and page setup
- Call the PartialCharacterCurrentStory using @Html.Action()
- Add the same call to the character submission
- Strip down the old CharacterCurrentStory controller to only pass in the current character rather than the stories.
- Lock down PartialCharacterCurrentStory to only be called as a child action (probably not required, but handy to know)
Here's the end result for the controller:
public ViewResult CharacterCurrentStory(int charID)
{
Character currentChar = db.Characters.Where(i => i.CharacterID == charID).SingleOrDefault();
return View(currentChar);
}
[ChildActionOnly]
public PartialViewResult PartialCharacterCurrentStory(int charID)
{
Character currentChar = db.Characters.Where(i => i.CharacterID == charID).SingleOrDefault();
int currentStoryTurn = (int)db.Storys.Where(i => i.CharacterID == charID && (i.Turn.GameID == currentChar.GameID)).OrderByDescending(u => u.TurnID).FirstOrDefault().TurnID;
var storys = db.Storys.Include("Character").Include("Turn").Where(i => i.TurnID == currentStoryTurn && (i.CharacterID == charID || i.isPublic == 1));
return PartialView(storys.ToList());
}
Thursday, November 29, 2012
GameLog 264 - 270
Lots of other things getting in the way of GameLog reports. Some games are bound to be missed :/.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (44h) - GREAT game. stalled 10 or so missions into hardcore impossible though.
Towns (43h) - Feels like a lightweight Dwarf Fortress. That's a good thing for movingon wit hthe game, but a bad thing in that it doesn't have much depth. Added a challenge to reach the bottom (and survive) as fast as possible. Got down there in just over a month with gold equipment for 1/2 of my villagers, but couldn't sustain any time down there. I've certainly enjoyed it more than others on the forums, but in the end it left me pining for a better interface on DF.
Fallen Enchantress (15h) - Lots of changes even from the last beta that I played only a month before release, and the changes have transformed the game a lot. Monster AI seems a lot better now with a little less aggression and predictability. Enemy AI play quite solidly and is a refreshing challlenge over Warlock. Cranking it up to insane was, well, insane as they had about 20x production and resources. That said, I like a game that gives an impossible task as long as there's ways to scale as high as possible against it.
Beat it pretty well on challenging as my starting campaign, but there were 2 occasions where the AI was in a very good position and I had to re-read the situation and change strategies accordingly. I'd say it was refreshingly challenging and is probably going to be my comfort play level, if not one or 2 notches higher.
Current game is with a custom race and cranked a one notch below insane and am currently leading the scoreboard. Once again it felt refreshingly challenging and there always sems to be something bigger and badder around the corner to keep you wanting more out of your civ. This is similar to warlock, but has the end-game to match.
GuildWars 2 (10h) - Veeyar Bones, 65 Mesmer - Has a knack for putting me to sleep when playing it. Not sure why, but it's done it a couple of times. I think it's the level of mental intensity required. Few more dungeons and play sessions at LANs.
Terraria (5h) - Cam's go-to game again, along with Mad God
Notoriously databased (5h) - Another playthrough once I put in the end-game. I won it, but I think the bounties and win state have tightened it up a lot and brought back some intentional interaction. Fortifications are still broken, but apart from that it's in a pretty good place at the moment.
Football Manager 2013 (4h) - picked it up at a great price, but other games and steam sales have kept it on the backburner. the challenge modes look very interesting, especially since the involver your own team.
Realm of the Mad God (3h) - More time with Cam.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown (44h) - GREAT game. stalled 10 or so missions into hardcore impossible though.
Towns (43h) - Feels like a lightweight Dwarf Fortress. That's a good thing for movingon wit hthe game, but a bad thing in that it doesn't have much depth. Added a challenge to reach the bottom (and survive) as fast as possible. Got down there in just over a month with gold equipment for 1/2 of my villagers, but couldn't sustain any time down there. I've certainly enjoyed it more than others on the forums, but in the end it left me pining for a better interface on DF.
Fallen Enchantress (15h) - Lots of changes even from the last beta that I played only a month before release, and the changes have transformed the game a lot. Monster AI seems a lot better now with a little less aggression and predictability. Enemy AI play quite solidly and is a refreshing challlenge over Warlock. Cranking it up to insane was, well, insane as they had about 20x production and resources. That said, I like a game that gives an impossible task as long as there's ways to scale as high as possible against it.
Beat it pretty well on challenging as my starting campaign, but there were 2 occasions where the AI was in a very good position and I had to re-read the situation and change strategies accordingly. I'd say it was refreshingly challenging and is probably going to be my comfort play level, if not one or 2 notches higher.
Current game is with a custom race and cranked a one notch below insane and am currently leading the scoreboard. Once again it felt refreshingly challenging and there always sems to be something bigger and badder around the corner to keep you wanting more out of your civ. This is similar to warlock, but has the end-game to match.
GuildWars 2 (10h) - Veeyar Bones, 65 Mesmer - Has a knack for putting me to sleep when playing it. Not sure why, but it's done it a couple of times. I think it's the level of mental intensity required. Few more dungeons and play sessions at LANs.
Terraria (5h) - Cam's go-to game again, along with Mad God
Notoriously databased (5h) - Another playthrough once I put in the end-game. I won it, but I think the bounties and win state have tightened it up a lot and brought back some intentional interaction. Fortifications are still broken, but apart from that it's in a pretty good place at the moment.
Football Manager 2013 (4h) - picked it up at a great price, but other games and steam sales have kept it on the backburner. the challenge modes look very interesting, especially since the involver your own team.
Realm of the Mad God (3h) - More time with Cam.
Tuesday, November 06, 2012
Notoriously Databased v0.40
After a couple more discussions, I'm happy enough to include a notoriety limit as an end game scenario. The implementation was relatively straightforward to include a notoriety limit and a check to see if any player has been over the limit in successive turns. Also decided to limit the submission of turns once there has been a winner as it's not that hard to reset the "completed" game if there is a consensus to play further. This also adds to the finality of the game as all that is left is to read the story produced.
Now that it's a game in its own right, the next step will be to break out the game creation into its own form, and then lock off the admin tab completely. There shouldn't be any need for people to get into the admin tab once the game gets going.
Now that it's a game in its own right, the next step will be to break out the game creation into its own form, and then lock off the admin tab completely. There shouldn't be any need for people to get into the admin tab once the game gets going.
Sunday, November 04, 2012
Notoriously Databased v0.32
Another playthrough of NotoriouslyDB with Grieg and Sandy revealed yet another handful of bugs, but all were relegated to the bin by the time the night was out. I've even come up with an endgame of sorts that should fit in well with the style of game that it is.
Each game will have a notoriety limit placed on it. Once somone passes this limit, they are eligible to win the next turn if they are not wiped and remain above the limit. Hopefully this should give people time to react against the current leader when they first break the win limit, but will become harder and harder to keep them (and eventually others) from winning.
From the playthrough tonight I'd expect a limit of 30-50 to be adequate as by then it feels like you have mastery over the village and can ramp up in power fairly easily. Lower limits will be more for advanced players as it will require more management to cram both the middle -> late phase transition and maneuvering for the end game into the same timeframe.
If it survives a couple more thought experiments, it should be relatively easy to implement and even automate.
Bounties are quite simple. Place a treasure amount against another player and that increases their notoriety by that amount next turn. The bounty is public, so that other can see not only who has the bounty, but who placed it too. I've been contemplating having a way to hide who placed it, but that will most likely be rolled into the Raid disguise update in the future. At least the variables are in place on the batabase to support it when the time comes.
- Fixed attacks on other players
- Fixed defense with both elites and minions
- Fixed multiple player attacks on other players
- Added notoriety list to CharacterSubmission to see other player's notoriety. (This will be to make the game more, well, gamey, and give better feedback for the endgame)
There is still an issue with fortifications. I'm leaning toward an increasing scale of costs as 5 treasure seems fine at the start, but too little at the end.
End Game
I've tried to come up with a couple of viable endgame scenarios, but most either bred a deflated finish when one person pulled ahead in the power curve, or could be colluded a little too easily for my liking. The current endgame looks at sustained notoriety.Each game will have a notoriety limit placed on it. Once somone passes this limit, they are eligible to win the next turn if they are not wiped and remain above the limit. Hopefully this should give people time to react against the current leader when they first break the win limit, but will become harder and harder to keep them (and eventually others) from winning.
From the playthrough tonight I'd expect a limit of 30-50 to be adequate as by then it feels like you have mastery over the village and can ramp up in power fairly easily. Lower limits will be more for advanced players as it will require more management to cram both the middle -> late phase transition and maneuvering for the end game into the same timeframe.
If it survives a couple more thought experiments, it should be relatively easy to implement and even automate.
Bounties
Another feature that made it into this revision was bounties. After a discussion with Andrew regarding the relative merits of the current system ("So, is it fun?"), it seemed that the game has become more than the testbed for high level play that I thought it would be. If the game were to be played in its own right, there needed to be another avenue to use treasure, especially when you know you are about to be wiped. I enjoyed having wipes "educate" people regarding the fleeting value of money compared to the real currency of space, but with bounties in place it feels like there is more of a multiplayer component, even if it's a "Hey! what was that for!" yelled out from the other side of the room.Bounties are quite simple. Place a treasure amount against another player and that increases their notoriety by that amount next turn. The bounty is public, so that other can see not only who has the bounty, but who placed it too. I've been contemplating having a way to hide who placed it, but that will most likely be rolled into the Raid disguise update in the future. At least the variables are in place on the batabase to support it when the time comes.
Changelog
- Added bounties.- Fixed attacks on other players
- Fixed defense with both elites and minions
- Fixed multiple player attacks on other players
- Added notoriety list to CharacterSubmission to see other player's notoriety. (This will be to make the game more, well, gamey, and give better feedback for the endgame)
There is still an issue with fortifications. I'm leaning toward an increasing scale of costs as 5 treasure seems fine at the start, but too little at the end.
Factor Friends website
As part of the final year 12 project for this year, they helped build a website to promote Factor Friends. Although we ran out of time to complete it all under the student's efforts, they put together a pretty good framework for the next phase in development. I've also been inspired to write my own version of Factor Friends to compete with their major project and place it up on the site too (when finished)
Thursday, November 01, 2012
NoMovember
Since I already had a beard, I decided to do NoMovember this year (try to go the whole month without a beard).
All the photos used above were taken last night during the shave down at Ben's. See anything odd?
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