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[Blodyavenger]

Sounds great! Do you have any estimated time on the next test phase maybe?

[Aubrius]

Sounds great! Do you have any estimated time on the next test phase maybe?

Probably in the next couple weeks. There are a few tweaks and bugs to iron out, and then also a new feature to finish up.

[Nasawa]

This looks pretty exciting. Kind of makes me want to go back and play some older city-building games. Signed up, I'd love to help test it out. I'm especially excited to hear about the queuing, since that's a huge problem with online games these days - you're either at your computer or you lose.

I'm a little curious about the interface though - is it going to be mostly mouse-only? I was just thinking that if it is point-and-click for the most part, you might be able to port this fairly easily to mobile markets once you have a little more time, if the game is mostly web-based.

Either way, good luck, and I hope to get an invite soon

[Aubrius]

I'm especially excited to hear about the queuing, since that's a huge problem with online games these days - you're either at your computer or you lose.

I'm glad other people are excited about this idea. Just please don't be too disappointed when the next test game starts. I haven't implemented the queuing yet. I'm trying to get more of the core game play working before I finish up the action queue.

I'm a little curious about the interface though - is it going to be mostly mouse-only? I was just thinking that if it is point-and-click for the most part, you might be able to port this fairly easily to mobile markets once you have a little more time, if the game is mostly web-based.

Yeah for the most part it is just point and click, click and drag, and a few keyboard shortcuts to make actions quicker.

Here is another neat little thing I just finished putting together. It is a time lapse of the world map while players are placing their tiles during the past test game. This is over the course of about 2 months. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhaWS_6SnyA

Crude example map Right now there are plains, water, arctic, forest, desert, and mountain tiles.

[quixotic]

Looks really interesting. I like the puzzle aspect of laying out tiles. You said it runs in the browser: what tech are you using? HTML5? Java? Unity?

Cheers

[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.