[I feel the need to point out that i'm falling asleep as i'm posting this, so i'm probably making little to no sense, and I appologize for that in advance.]

I feel the need to point out that i'm falling asleep as i'm posting this, so i'm probably making little to no sense, and I appologize for that in advance.
Heya folks. I'm working on a webbased game, one of which I've mentioned here a couple of times. And i'm currently trying to work on the Evil AI of the game.

I'm making a bunch of technical changes to my DB this week (namely adding in some "Protected" systems; Homeworlds, story-related-planets) and decided it's as good a time as ever to start improving the AI as well. I've included the code below--i've commented the function of each function.

Now, I've been running the AI for the past 2 days or so, and it's running perfectly--since about 2000 EST 6/22/14, the AI has infected over 500 systems. Which is fine and all, but I feel like it's still too fast (and too slow at the same time, i keep changing between wanting the thing to take over in 30 minutes to wanting it to take a month to reach Total Control)

Code:

function SLInfectCount($ai)
{
//* counts the number of Systems already infected by the AI
$stars = parent::countStars();
$count = $this->selectAiCount($ai);
$percent = ($count/$stars) * 100;
$count = floor($count/30);
if($count <= 0)
{
$count = 1;
}
#$count = 1000;
return $count;
}
function SLHabitableSystems()
{
//* Selects a random asortment planets Habitable to SL
$count = $this->SLInfectCount(-1);
#$count = 9;
$array[] = '';
$sql = "SELECT
starID as sid, starOwner as uid
FROM
starinformation

WHERE
(starOwner = 0)
or
(starOwner <> -1 AND wifi = 'on' AND homeworld <> 'true')
ORDER BY resourceArray
LIMIT :limit;";
$que = $this->db->prepare($sql);
$que->bindValue(':limit', (int) trim($count), PDO::PARAM_INT);
try {
$que->execute();
while($row = $que->fetch(PDO::FETCH_OBJ))
{
$array[] = $row;
}
}catch(PDOException $e) { $e->errorInfo(); }
return $array;
}
function SLrollattack($sid)
{
//* The Attack Roll, this mirrors the user attack role but is slightly stronger in some aspects and weaker in others. This is the one that I'm trying to tweak
$stats = $this->base;
$stats['cob'] = $stats['cob']*2000;
$planet = parent::get_planet($sid);
$oid = parent::get_planet($sid);
$oidx = $oid['owner'];
if($oidx == 0)
{
return 1;
}
else
{
$ostats = parent::warCompare($oidx);
if($ostats->religion+($planet['defense'])>= ($stats['military']*5))
{
$religion = $ostats->religion * 50;
$rand= rand(1,rand(50,$religion));
}
else
{
if($stats['military'] >= $planet['pop'])
{
$rand = 1; ;
}
else
{
$rand = rand(1,2);
}
}
return $rand;
}
}
function SLAttack($sid)
{
//* The Actual Attack, Updates the systems to show results.
#$user_attack = parent::userStatsNew($uid);
$count = $this->SLInfectCount(-1);
$attack_bias = 100;
$attack_bias_neg = $attack_bias * -1;
$attack_chance_low = -1000;
$attack_chance_hi = 1000;
$attack = mt_rand($attack_bias_neg, $attack_bias);
$roll_chance = $this->SLrollattack($sid);
if(($attack_chance_low <= $attack) && ($attack <= $attack_chance_hi) && ($roll_chance == 1))
{
$sql = "UPDATE
starinformation
SET
starOwner = -1
WHERE
starID = :sid
ORDER BY resourceArray
LIMIT :limit;";
$que = $this->db->prepare($sql);
$que->bindParam(':sid', $sid);
$que->bindValue(':limit', (int) trim($count), PDO::PARAM_INT);
try { $que->execute(); }catch(PDOException $e){}
#echo "{$sid} yup<br/>";

}
else
{
#echo "{$sid} nope<br/>";
}
}
function Infect()
{
if($this->checkSkynet() == 'on')
{
$habitable = $this->SLHabitableSystems();
#print_r($habitable);
foreach($habitable as $array)
{
if(isset($array->sid))
{
#print_r($array);
$this->SLAttack($array->sid);
}
}
$this->updateSNL();
}
else
{
}
}

Hey guys, I'm working on a web based game and need help with some of the storylines/audio files.

The game is a dark scifi based strategy game. which i'm heavily modeling off the Command and Conquer series (KANE LIVES!...) at least in the sense that the game will have some form of story to it instead of it just being a mindless clicker.

Anway, I'm looking for writers. I'm not super rich, but I'm looking to buy 2 or 3 scripts a week at 15-25 USD a pop. The scripts (as of right now) needn't be too long, the ideal lenght would be a runtime of under 4 minutes.

Bumping

I'd be willing to pay a small amount for anybody willing to help with the writing process--not much, maybe 15-25 USD--but I'm more than willing to pay.

I'll also add a bit more detail; seeing as I was falling asleep when I posted the original post. You will be given essentially free reign over what you write, you can create your own storyline (as long as it fits the theme) or take from one of the ones i've already got in the buffer. You would be writing scripts--mostly for small VA work for the game, no longer than 5 minutes long per part.

I'll have to see if its on GOG or something and pick it up next paycheck.

(and specifically the Red Alert 2 videos, my god was that game the perfect blend of comedy, scifi and 'horror')

Hey guys,

I'm looking for someone to help write out some content for an 'mmo' type game i'm working on. It's a dark sci-fi futuristic game. erm... I don't really know what else to put in here.

[googles]

I've never heard of that game... googles

ah, it came out in the era of my life where I was a console gamer. That would be why. I might pick it up, I love games with fantastic voice acting. Part of the reason why I love Fallout and why i absolutely love the Command and Conquer series (though, for the most part that can lean more towards just straight acting)

Mass Effect dodges this by changing the way conversations go, instead of really giving you different missions. The game also finds way to put "neutral" content on both the good/evil paths.

If only the acting was as good as the system, everything about that game would be perfect... actually, that's a lie; because while mass effect does it good, they do suffer from one thing i feel a lot of games suffer from (besides the bad VA work)... and that is that some of the dialogue options swing to far to the right or left of what I want them to do.

Like talking to a someone i'm having a decent conversation with, and I feel like they're lying--there's no step in between calmly talking to them and yelling like i'm about to murder them.

Not exactly what you mean--but the game pyst comes to mind.

Have you ever played Fallout? They do a pretty good job of karma related storyline; i mean there's some things they could've done better (The interaction between the MC's Father and the MC was a bit... weak... at least if a player chooses the evil route, which I usually do)

Already got the malicious aspect worked out on it.

[Frustrated, no that's just my personality]

Frustrated, no that's just my personality
Title for this section says it... I'm just a very crass person
Audio Thing
Apparently I have a flaw in my system--I need to work on that apparently. There's supposed to be a couple functions relating to each story option. It's also supposed to be a sequential thing, I'll have to go back and look it again--I've got six or seven of them, no clue why you got the same one each time. The load screen is an known error; i'm working on it.

Upgrade Glitch thing

Figured it out... fixed it now.. i was just using "hover()" instead of "hoverIntent()"... I fixed that on pretty much every object in the game, so now you have to hover for a fraction of a second before anything happens.

Colony list

The Colony List will eventually become a colony map. Or might be scrapted all together as soon as I can pay a friend of mine to help me figure out how to do a 'zoom' on the main map.

Common Knowledge

You essentially keep telling me to dumb things down on the names and such... I would just like to take a moment to point out that everything that is named on this game have been named by people who were playing it prior to The Downfall (See players being assholes, below). Originally the "Economy" was captioned something as such ("Increase the money from each mine"),  they insisted that it be something shorter, which is what its down to now. same goes for all of them--save for the "Medicine (RX)" upgrade... which I couldn't think of anything, so i just put down something something not lupus... I would've sworn on my hearts --("two of them, count")--That i'd removed that since I moved out of 'private beta'... I guess i'll have to think of something to put there now.  

Finally--The reason why nobody has played it for more than a few minutes is not the reason you think. The reason was related to other players at the time--back when i had 33 players, we had 3 players who essentially over threw the entire game, one of them made a macro that allowed them to conquer every single planet. That was before the implementation of the timer and a couple other defenses against such things (such as the Hyperspace costing energy and fuel to use)

Lastly--if you're at all interested in talking about this elsewhere, as I your input is useful to me in more ways than it is now, feel free to email me, skype me: ([email protected], [email protected], james.serbus for skype... or pretty much just type gmz1023 into google and find me there. lol)

I love your in-game personality affecting missions btw. Fable is a game that tries to do just that, but I haven't seen a single game do it really well yet. Though I'm sure some do a decent job of it.

That's actually the game that got me to start thinking about stuff like that. Well, one of them at least. Myst sort does it as well, as well as C&C3 and Mass Effect. But I've always been a big fan of the idea.

You sound like you want the focus to be on the site itself, and not the game. The game is ancillary? So "karma" isn't a bad name.

No... no... The game and site are essentially one in the same (I guess the closest association with it would be Gaiaonline). Where everything is intertwined and such. I'm thinking about it right now on the forum side, because that's pretty much what i've been working on all day. If i had been working on the board side, i'd probably have a thousand better ideas on how to get it to work in game
 

Or if you need the resource and karma to be the same thing, you need a name that covers both meanings. .... Mind-juice: earned through good behaviour, spent for social influence.

I just thought of the name--Just call it "Influence" or maybe "Sway"... I'll have to choose one of those names, but they both have essentially the same connotation, they can be used in political sense. Which would be perfect. And even better with this is, if I so wanted too, I could have the negative and positive "Sway" be effected by how you go about getting it (as i said in my previous post).

So, if someone pays someone else off for their sway (which could be done through the trading system i'm working on)--then they'd get negative influence. If they get it through other means, it's positive influence. (I was going to write this paragraph out more, but I just had a lightbulb)

I'm just remembering an Idea i had from a project a long, long time ago. It'll take a lot of back-end programming on my end, but I've always wanted to have something where, if a users Karma level dipps too low, they're contacted by a character in the game who offers them things... I could work the game around so that, if a player dipps low enough in influence, they're essentially given minimissions and such from "evil doers" in the game.

This, of course, allows me to add "positive" missions and "neutural" missions as well, which opens up a lot more options in the game. The only issue i'll have now Is how to make sure the games don't get repetitive (as i've said, the game's design and animation isn't exactly AAA, it could pass for something that came out in 1998, but its webbased and i'm the only person working on it, so it might pass)

I recommend making the impact of "karma" more obvious, so the players can actually see it. Hidden numbers will mean players take the meaning of those numbers less seriously. You can still do +/-1%; it just needs to be in the players' faces.

I never intend for it to be hidden numbers. at least no for each players count... Maybe have it linked to their profile or visible somewhere else on the game.

So you can use karma to vote. That makes it more like a currency. You can give it out too. And you earn it for good behaviour? Like likable posts etc?

That's the general idea of it. I'd like to have it be more of an ancillary currency, one that doesn't 100% effect the gameplay, but 100% effects the community dynamic. This might be due to my love of the old Roosterteeth community site, that had a similar system--each user could see their own Karma, but couldn't see anybody else.

You can gain even more strength for the system by having ways for players to accumulate karma in-game as well, preferably through a similar peer voting system (or not). Though that's a tangent.

It could be linked to the achievement system I'm going to eventually implement. though that systems nothing but a pipe dream at the current iteration of the game.

My gut says to name the system after whatever you call your luck metric. Create an abstract object, like spirit-ore, and give this to players. If you have 3 spirit-ore you get +3 luck. Then you can create a visual for the ore, so it is like a commodity. The ore can be a part of your story-line etc.
[
If there is some logical connection between the object and the boon - ore and luck - then you have a good name. If you invent a reason for why ore creates luck in your world then the bond between them will be stronger. You can have many things point towards their connection, its reason for existing.

This wouldn't really work with my games dynamic. I mean, the idea you've got there is pretty much already implemented, but its in use for a different system--namely the Trading/Stock system i'm working on. Though, I suppose I could link it to the 'crafting' system once that's up... if a player creates something useful for the whole of the game (Medicine, EMPs etc etc) then they get +1 karma, but if they create something like Nukes or Rouge AI's hellbent on universal domination, they get -1 karma.

Why does karma give voting power for example? How does that make sense? Names are like a reflection of a thing's meaning. Understand its meaning, understand its name.

Wasn't thinking that far ahead... perhaps I should be renamed "charisma"--go ever further back down the internet timeline.

[Population]

Alright--This may be the most helpful feed back i've gotten (seeing a player actually play the game). And first a foremost, I realize I have not updated my tutorial page in far too long... So, i'll have to get on that... I suck a tutorials though.

Some notes on the tutorial:

• The stars are going to be named eventually, i'm just working on some things on the back end before I can do that (namely I don't want players to name a planet "COCKLOLOLOLOL", My previous ban system wasn't exactly useful).
  
• Spelling mistakes. spelling mistakes. spelling mistakes.

I've never seen that bug before you had with the upgrades... Was that just because you were idealing between the two choices?

The upgrade costs are being tweaked actually... They were super high before (Tier 1 was somewhere near 9M, Tier 2 was 32M, Tier 3 was in the billions)

Population
Population Growth is, currently just linked to the database--it's updated every minute depending on your research level and such.

the "Disabled" thing
Still watching the video--but if you had clicked on the satellite dish, it would've enabled everything else.

Living between the beats

SO you kept talking about everything in between the turns and what not. There's actually a lot... i mean A LOT of stuff going on in the background that. For whatever reason  You didn't run into anything. If you, at any point in the near future wish to return to the game, I've upped the rate at which those things happen.

There's also a lot of things I need to work on... as I've noticed by the number of times you've said "I don't know what this is."... FOr instances; IF you were to research only science/technology you would unleash the AI in the game--the AI can work for you or against you, depending on other values.

Also... Seriously man... JUST CLICK THE GORRAM SATELLITE DISH... you've hovered over it six or seven times. it would pretty much answer all your issues--you can build buildings, you can get other options and all that. it's literally the fact you didn't click on the satellite.

Last most; you're literally the first person to tell me this game lacks depth.

Heyo folks,

This is a game I've been working on for.... somewhere close to a year now. It's still pretty finicky, but that's more or less because I haven't had any stable input from people playing the game (I've had upwards of 30 players registered at any given time, but they generally last less than a minute of playing).

The Premise of the game is simple enough--It's a Universal Domination game, basically just a click game at the moment, though i'm looking to add some deeper game play as we speak (I'm adding a customized forum system as we speak, next on the list is an alliance system and then a trading system, as well as eventually some sort of 'tatics' system for the game--to allow for better attacks and defenses).

anyway; the game can be found here:
Reddact Game

any and all input is appreciated, as this is my first *real* game (I've made games in the past, but they were rather shotty at best)

I already know for a fact that one of the things it'll do is limit the "karma" a player can give out. Kind of a closed system type deal where there's a limited amount of karma (Say 10 karma per player) and if a player has 0 karma or negative karma, they cannot give it out.

I'm also going to link it into the Alliances in the game eventually; that's more clear cut to me--have a voting system where a player can vote, but they have to give up 1 karma in return. (The Voting system will actually be very important in the game, hopefully).

But that's all, technically, out of game--or rather off the board. In game, it might just do something as simple as increase the "Luck" of the player. If a player has 0 karma (which for the sake of this argument, we'll say is neutral karma), then their luck is uneffected, but lets say they have +1, then they'll have... what? A 1% more chance of winning a battle? or maybe 0.1%... like wise for negative, it'll just downgrade the amount.

I'm sure i'll come up with more ideas as the game goes on, but right now, at current game standings, that's all i've got.

Oyi--This'll be my second post on this site, so I apologize in advance for my presence

anyway--I'm working on a game (obviously), it's web based (Lame, i know) and I'm currently trying to think of a clever name for something. I'm programming my own forum for the game, and it'll include something akin to reddits Karma system, but I don't want to call it Karma... I want it to have a nice spacey name too it... I obviously also don't want to call it "The Force", which was the first thing that came to mind when trying to think of something spacey.

The "Space Karma" will tie into the game--I'm not exactly sure how yet, i'm still plotting that part out, but I'm thinking maybe have it effect some random multipliers in the background, or something... that part of it's still very much in development (and may be scrapped if i can't figure it out)...

Sooo... any ideas? anyone?

I come here to say only that I am new here. hello.