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[Aubrius]

You said it runs in the browser: what tech are you using? HTML5? Java? Unity?

The main graphical client is in Flash. I wish I could have done it in HTML5 or Unity. But when I first started working on this a few years ago, Flash was the only thing I had to work with (software and knowledge-wise).

[Aubrius]

Docks - Construction

Docks - Built

Fishing Boat

Catapult

Getting the next test game to the state where I wanted it has taken longer than I expected (of course). Most of the time I have spent on Tile Empires lately has been bug fixing - bugs like armies walking on water and conquering an enemy not giving you the land and buildings they owned.

Though, I have been able to get some new features in. Docks, fishing boats, and catapults.

Docks are the most basic version of a port. You can build fishing boats from this basic version and military ships from the larger versions.

Fishing boats act kind of like mobile food producers. They give a 25% chance of food for each adjacent empty pure water tile. I'm hoping this will give a non military incentive for building lakes, rivers, and oceans. They have 1 hit point and do no damage in combat.

Catapults finally make it easier to get through enemy walls and buildings. They have 1 hit point and do no damage to other units. If used to attack a structure such as a wall or capital, they do 10 points of damage each attack. Right now you have to move right up on your target to deal damage with catapults, but once I've implemented ranged attacks - they will be able to attack structures from a few tiles away.

I think I'm going to add in watch towers and messenger stables. Then I'll get the next game ready by setting up accounts and doing the random spawn process into the world for each player.

[Aubrius]

After months of telling myself one more thing, one more thing, one more thing, I finally stopped adding new items and fixed most of the bugs. Test game 3 is set to start next Friday *crosses fingers*.

I created a player guide to help the new players get a better grasp of what is going on, and I also created a "getting started" video that you can check out to see how the game actually plays right now -

.

I really hope everyone that signed up for it enjoys it!

[jO]

the video is set to private?

[Aubrius]

Wow I'm a newb. I just updated the link. I had linked it to an old version that was indeed private. Thanks for pointing that out.

[hube]

This looks awesome. The graphics bring me back. You kept proportion with the human units!!! So rarely is that done. It really lets you immerse when you don't have people running around that are the size of buildings like in AOE sometimes. Love the shadow on the fishing boat. Keep it up.

[Felledor]

I registered just to say that this looks awesome and that I have signed up for testing.

[Aubrius]

This looks awesome. The graphics bring me back. You kept proportion with the human units!!! So rarely is that done. It really lets you immerse when you don't have people running around that are the size of buildings like in AOE sometimes.

Thanks! I really wanted to keep everything in correct proportion, but things like the mountains and some buildings probably aren't going to look right unless I change their proportions. It will be really fun once I get some larger units in game.

I registered just to say that this looks awesome and that I have signed up for testing.

Yay!

I just sent out game invites last night around 11pm EST. So if anyone signed up and did not receive the email, let me know. The first turn has started, and the normal hourly turns will be starting at noon EST today.

[pluckyporcupine]

Played a bit today. A bit clueless on what I'm doing but I'm working on it. Didn't watch the video yet.

Mostly just threw my tiles together in ways that seemed to make sense and set up a farm and explorer since the guide said something about the explorer getting you tiles based on where it's placed.

Not really sure how player interaction works yet or if there is any beyond the rankings board.

I really don't like that you can't click on empty space to move the camera.

EDIT: Oh, I noticed that you can't seem to edit your flag and that your name and empire name don't change in the top bar if you change them.

[Aubrius]

I really don't like that you can't click on empty space to move the camera.

The user interface and stuff like moving the view around are still a rough work in progress. The fact that the user interface covers up like half the screen when you try to move around is really annoying as well. I really need to change that.

EDIT: Oh, I noticed that you can't seem to edit your flag and that your name and empire name don't change in the top bar if you change them.

The flag is just a placeholder right now until I get time to work on it. I'm working on a system where you can edit the flags pixel by pixel. Then it would show up on the site anywhere your empire is mentioned, and also in game on some of your buildings.

I see what you are talking about with the empire and ruler name not changing at the top. I'll add that to my list!

[pluckyporcupine]

Tried this out again today. Really not getting how gameplay works. Yesterday, I had about a dozen tiles 2 hours after my original setup was placed and I come back today to find no tiles whatsoever even though I now have what I'm guessing is a completed explorer tent. Also finding myself in dire need of a house already because there's just not enough manpower to build anything beyond my farm and explorer tent.

EDIT: And now, tiles popped out of nowhere.

[Aubrius]

I'm not sure what would have caused your inventory tiles to disappear like that. It's possible there was a connection hiccup or something though. If something like that ever happens, try refreshing the page.

What are you not getting about the gameplay? There certainly is a lack of end game goals at the moment. Right now the only end game type stuff to focus on is building an army or defensive walls to attack and defend with.

Also, do you care to give me the name you are playing as so I can take a peek at your empire?

[compostface]

I'm enjoying this game so far.  I've never played something so long term, so it's taken me a bit to get used to.

Anyway, do you have the current stats for soldiers, and info on how they work?  The "player guide" page for them is blank... and I'd like to attempt an invasion.

--
In terms of bugs, I sometimes get the (previously mentioned) tiles disappearing, but refreshing the page fixes that.  

More annoying though, is that sometimes if I put a tile down, but not confirm placement, put it back in the inventory, and then put it down again somewhere... it says the tile is not in my inventory.  When I refresh the page the tile is just gone.  It's not really a big deal, but I've lost maybe 10 or so tiles this way.   My empire is named "Tsorta" by the way.

[Aubrius]

Ah the famous Lord of the Turnips. Some of the top players are friends, family, and coworkers. They have been asking about you!

Anyway, do you have the current stats for soldiers, and info on how they work?  The "player guide" page for them is blank... and I'd like to attempt an invasion.

Sorry, I thought all the pages for the guide had been created. I'll get those up tonight. For now though, the soldiers require the following resources to train:

• 20 iron
• 40 man power
• 5 stone
• 100 gold
• 40 food

Once you've trained one, it will appear on the tile you trained it from. Then you can move it using buttons in the crappy UI. Right now combat is just moving units onto each other. I haven't had much play testing done with the soldier's resource cost. So it will likely change between this game and the next.

More annoying though, is that sometimes if I put a tile down, but not confirm placement, put it back in the inventory, and then put it down again somewhere... it says the tile is not in my inventory.  When I refresh the page the tile is just gone.  It's not really a big deal, but I've lost maybe 10 or so tiles this way.   My empire is named "Tsorta" by the way.

I haven't heard of this happening to anyone yet. If you can reproduce it easily let me know. Placing a tile, cancelling placement, and then putting it back into your inventory shouldn't even send anything to the game server. As far is it is concerned, your tiles are all in your inventory until you click accept and the server accepts the placement as well.

If you happen to have Tile Empires open in multiple tabs/browsers, that might be part of the problem. If you have the client open multiple times, it can kind of get out of sync. Like if you place a tile in one client, it won't automatically remove that tile from your inventory in the other client.

I'm not trying to say you are doing anything wrong. There is obviously something going on with the game client that is causing problems. I'm going to look into it and see if I can get it to happen to me as well. Thanks for the info.

[compostface]

Ah the famous Lord of the Turnips. Some of the top players are friends, family, and coworkers. They have been asking about you!

Ha,  I'm probably totally overextending myself.  Or it's starting to seem that way.  Which is what I meant by not being used to long term games.  I'm trying to expand the empire as quickly as possible.  

Once you've trained one, it will appear on the tile you trained it from. Then you can move it using buttons in the crappy UI. Right now combat is just moving units onto each other. I haven't had much play testing done with the soldier's resource cost. So it will likely change between this game and the next.

Do they have hitpoints?  Or what's with the 1/1 bubble( 1 hitpoint?).  What happens when they move onto other soldiers.

edit: also what to the fishing boat bubbles indicate.  Sometimes they go red, but then I move them around and back to the same spot and they go green again.

If you happen to have Tile Empires open in multiple tabs/browsers, that might be part of the problem. If you have the client open multiple times, it can kind of get out of sync. Like if you place a tile in one client, it won't automatically remove that tile from your inventory in the other client.

Hmm, could be this.  It always happens unexpectedly, but I'll try to pay more attention.

[DantronLesotho]

This is really interesting looking. I don't care for multiplayer games myself, will there be any kind of single-player campaign?

[Tom Felshmoon]

Oh my spacecat, I love the graphics` style, It's amazing, it's too neat
I'm sure this game will be great

[Aubrius]

Do they have hitpoints?  Or what's with the 1/1 bubble( 1 hitpoint?).  What happens when they move onto other soldiers.

edit: also what to the fishing boat bubbles indicate.  Sometimes they go red, but then I move them around and back to the same spot and they go green again.

I finally got around to fixing the soldier page in the player guide. So there is some info there now. Yes the 1/1 means 1 attack 1 hitpoint. If you move soldiers onto soldiers they basically kill each other. Same thing happens if you move soldiers onto catapults. Catapults are only for attacking structures right now. So moving catapults onto soldiers shouldn't do anything.

Yep, there is a bug where sometimes the UI bubble for fishing boats will turn red. Right now you can only scout out water with fishing boats, but my plan for them is to have a random chance to harvest food (fish) from adjacent unoccupied water tiles and also scout via water.

This is really interesting looking. I don't care for multiplayer games myself, will there be any kind of single-player campaign?

I have an idea for a single-player type campaign, but I haven't fully fleshed it out yet.

Also, I don't think I've mentioned it on here. I added in customizable flags. They don't appear anywhere in game yet (working on it), but they do on the site in certain spots. Here is a screenshot of the current rankings screen. Most of the players have customized their empires by now. Of course the person in the lead had to choose Tobias Funke as their ruler. Oh Tobias, you blowhard.

[compostface]

Looks like I absorbed someone's empire. OHIO I'm guessing.  

I was going to stop playing this because of the iron bottleneck, but after iron collection was put into the game, things seemed much more balanced.

Random thoughts/things that sometimes bug me:
-Slowness of catapults is too slow.
-Being able to use houses as weak walls.  Even crops can slow an invasion down considerably.  Doesn't make much sense.
-I didn't think of it when I started the game, but what if you just surrounded your capital with mountains on all sides... you would have a slow start, but could not actually lose.
-Not being able to move through your own units makes for annoyance and adds to the slowness of doing anything worthwhile with military.
-It's not really the slowness of the military stuff... It could probably actually be slower in order to match up with the speed it takes to build things... It's that you have to micromanage it all and do it every hour or so, otherwise the enemy can just destroy you while you aren't paying attention.  
-Which I guess is what the game comes down to, whoever checks in with it the most will probably win.
-being able to delete/kill your own units would be good.

[OHMSS]

Looks like I absorbed someone's empire. OHIO I'm guessing.  

I was going to stop playing this because of the iron bottleneck, but after iron collection was put into the game, things seemed much more balanced.

Random thoughts/things that sometimes bug me:
-Slowness of catapults is too slow.
-Being able to use houses as weak walls.  Even crops can slow an invasion down considerably.  Doesn't make much sense.
-I didn't think of it when I started the game, but what if you just surrounded your capital with mountains on all sides... you would have a slow start, but could not actually lose.
-Not being able to move through your own units makes for annoyance and adds to the slowness of doing anything worthwhile with military.
-It's not really the slowness of the military stuff... It could probably actually be slower in order to match up with the speed it takes to build things... It's that you have to micromanage it all and do it every hour or so, otherwise the enemy can just destroy you while you aren't paying attention.  
-Which I guess is what the game comes down to, whoever checks in with it the most will probably win.
-being able to delete/kill your own units would be good.

Your assault against my empire has failed! I am glad you turned your hordes attention over to OHIO, allowing me time to build a MONSTROUS force with which to CRUSH YOU!

j/k

My houses as walls strategy was good but I think there is still balance needed as far as offense/defense goes. I built my empire with only a couple of entry points knowing this ahead of time. Eventually I think he is adding flying units and such so that you can't castle up like this.

The military micromanagement is definitely something that was problematic in the first Alpha where unit cost was such that there were literally hundreds of soliders running around and it took 20 minutes just for you to play 1 turn. I think being able to stack soldiers will go a long way to make that easier.