Black Obelisk (puzzle), Evil Cult (strategy)

[qubodup]

> I found the green number confusing at first. I'd add a "of X" (X = total) tooltip.

I thought about that, but there's not much space there, also "X of Y" would stand out too much from "X"s for neophytes and adepts.

I said tooltip
(do you use another term? I was trying to think of one, because this one sounds bad, but it seems to be the official one).

[Taldor]

I've noticed that the close button at the start of the game doesn't do anything at all. Unless you plan do do something with it, I'd remove the button.

[starinfidel]

> I found the green number confusing at first. I'd add a "of X" (X = total) tooltip.

I thought about that, but there's not much space there, also "X of Y" would stand out too much from "X"s for neophytes and adepts.

I said tooltip
(do you use another term? I was trying to think of one, because this one sounds bad, but it seems to be the official one).

Oh, I missed the word "tooltip" %) Yes, I'll do that.

[starinfidel]

I've noticed that the close button at the start of the game doesn't do anything at all. Unless you plan do do something with it, I'd remove the button.

Ok.

[Taldor]

I'm must say I have become addicted to evil cult...

The entire map is now shown when I win in version 3 :-), but when I lose, the game continues and only the already visible nodes stay visible...

[starinfidel]

I'm must say I have become addicted to evil cult...

Thanks

The entire map is now shown when I win in version 3 :-), but when I lose, the game continues and only the already visible nodes stay visible...

Does it happen all the time? And does it matter what was the reason for losing? I can't reproduce that bug.

[starinfidel]

Evil Cult v3 stable is out as usual at http://starinfidel.co.cc/cult/. It's mostly minor upgrades from v3pre3, some UI and AI tweaks. The investigators are now easier for the AI (and player) to handle on normal difficulty so the "do nothing and win" bug should be gone.

Now the codebase is free and I should start implementing agents...

[Taldor]

The entire map is now shown when I win in version 3 :-), but when I lose, the game continues and only the already visible nodes stay visible...

Does it happen all the time? And does it matter what was the reason for losing? I can't reproduce that bug.

I was slightly wrong, I guess. It happens only when an investigator discovers my origin, while having other undiscovered nodes.

I noticed the difficulty in a single game varies greatly when using my preferred strategy (in v3pre3 - hard):

• The difficulty at the start completely depends on how quick generator nodes are discovered by luck.
• The difficulty of the second 'stage' (when the first adept is created) also greatly depends on luck, i.e. if the player has been able to lower awareness enough before an investigator finds out about the cult.
• Once a player has < 5% awareness (and an adept) the game becomes very easy. The opponents can be paralyzed one by one, because they don't expand aggressively (trying to paralyze their opponents) enough.
• The last 'stage' is the most boring one, because the opponents are paralyzed and the player has enough adepts to lower awareness. Now the player can simply capture all opponents nodes left, or go for the ritual (which seems to take more time than capturing all nodes).

I suggest to make some kind of shortcut when all opponents are paralyzed, to skip this last stage. And if possible, I'd make the opponents more aggressive in trying to capture the origin of their opponents.

[starinfidel]

> I noticed the difficulty in a single game varies greatly when using my preferred strategy (in v3pre3 - hard):
> [list][*]The difficulty at the start completely depends on how quick generator nodes are discovered by luck.

Yes, the starting position is completely random.

> [*]The difficulty of the second 'stage' (when the first adept is created) also greatly depends on luck, i.e. if the player has been able to lower awareness enough before an investigator finds out about the cult.

Not so. The probability of adept appearing is calculated with a simple formula which allows room for some wiggling for building up your cult. However, it is important to start lowering awareness pretty soon (you can even have 2 adepts for some amount of time, each gives +5% to investigator appearing chance) so that when he does appear, you would not be left with 20% awareness (which is a certain death unless you also have many adepts to quickly lower it). In general, the most amount of luck is hidden in the nodes position - basically, how much the AI will be able to grab while you expand.

> [*]Once a player has < 5% awareness (and an adept) the game becomes very easy. The opponents can be paralyzed one by one, because they don't expand aggressively (trying to paralyze their opponents) enough.

How come you always know where their origins are and also how come none of the AI does not have backup priests to pass the origin to?

> [*]The last 'stage' is the most boring one, because the opponents are paralyzed and the player has enough adepts to lower awareness. Now the player can simply capture all opponents nodes left, or go for the ritual (which seems to take more time than capturing all nodes).

The amount of time to cast the ritual is calculated from the amount of your priests. Basically, 9 priests will cast it in 1 turn.

> I suggest to make some kind of shortcut when all opponents are paralyzed, to skip this last stage.

I'll think about it. Personally the winning stage is most favorite of mine

> And if possible, I'd make the opponents more aggressive in trying to capture the origin of their opponents.

AI is always hard for me, not sure if I'll be able to do it. Though if I recall correctly, an origin is a pretty high-priority target for an AI in the case of war.

[Taldor]

How come you always know where their origins are and also how come none of the AI does not have backup priests to pass the origin to?

I cut a path through their network, following the direction of the non-generating adept nodes, because those are usually close to the origin. Until I know where the opponent's origin is, I try to capture all the generating nodes that I can see.
And when an opponent has a back up priest, I just repeat that strategy. This strategy allows me to paralyze opponents with (initially) much more nodes.

The amount of time to cast the ritual is calculated from the amount of your priests. Basically, 9 priests will cast it in 1 turn.

True, but it takes more time to create those priests and additional virgins, compared to conquering all opponent nodes.

AI is always hard for me, not sure if I'll be able to do it. Though if I recall correctly, an origin is a pretty high-priority target for an AI in the case of war.

The problem is that the opponents don't start a war eagerly enough, and they don't seem to capture my nodes as fast as I capture theirs.

Btw. I noticed that the game doesn't detect that I won when the last opponent node is revealed by an investigator.

[TheAncientGoat]

Wow, I didn't realize these where in HTML5.. Guess I should learn to read things in full XD

Both games are very well done, have you posted them to any other sites yet?

[qubodup]

Both games are very well done, have you posted them to any other sites yet?

I got curious how to propagate html5 games and did 1 google search and submitted these two games to html5games.com

[TheAncientGoat]

jayisgames.com also covers HTML5 games, and I think they might like these two, at least cover them in their friday links section. TIG forums too, maybe?

[svenskmand]

Any info on the great music? like who made it, is i freely available, license? and where can I download it?

Also cool game by the way , just tried it, I took over the world in 98 turns by eliminating all the other cults But I saw you win in 23 so 98 is really much :S

[starinfidel]

Any info on the great music? like who made it, is i freely available, license? and where can I download it?

Also cool game by the way , just tried it, I took over the world in 98 turns by eliminating all the other cults But I saw you win in 23 so 98 is really much :S

Well, I probably should've made it more obvious but track name is clickable and opens up a webpage of the album it's in on http://www.kahvi.org
All of the in-game music is from albums by Introspective and Curious Inversions artists.

[svenskmand]

Ok nice

I think it would be nice if this game was ported so it could also run on the computer, like the gnome games i Ubuntu Also a multi-player option where each cult is controlled by a human player would be fun

[starinfidel]

Ok nice

I think it would be nice if this game was ported so it could also run on the computer, like the gnome games i Ubuntu Also a multi-player option where each cult is controlled by a human player would be fun

As a matter of fact I've got ready playable version for Linux just a few days before. The problem is, the library I use is unstable and haven't been released yet, so there are a few bugs I had to work around. As for multiplayer, well... someday... in the future...

[MCMic]

Evil Cult is real fun :O
I love it ^^
It reminds me of konquest ^^

You really should blog about the developments and the technologies you used, games in browser without flash are something new on the web, it's hard to find documentation.
I did that one : http://mcmic.haxx.es/index.php?page=openstreetgame
But it does not use canvas, thought ^^

[starinfidel]

Evil Cult is real fun :O
I love it ^^
It reminds me of konquest ^^

You really should blog about the developments and the technologies you used, games in browser without flash are something new on the web, it's hard to find documentation.
I did that one : http://mcmic.haxx.es/index.php?page=openstreetgame
But it does not use canvas, thought ^^

Pretty nice game, however I suck at it :P
Well... however enticing blogging sometimes is, I'm still not convinced Considering I do games programming only sporadically with huge intervals between sessions this blog would be not be updated very often.

[MCMic]

Pretty nice game, however I suck at it :P
Well... however enticing blogging sometimes is, I'm still not convinced Considering I do games programming only sporadically with huge intervals between sessions this blog would be not be updated very often.

That's what RSS are for :-)

[starinfidel]

Pretty nice game, however I suck at it :P
Well... however enticing blogging sometimes is, I'm still not convinced Considering I do games programming only sporadically with huge intervals between sessions this blog would be not be updated very often.

That's what RSS are for :-)

I'll think about it... some more :-P

[qubodup]

Yes.. blog is what you need

Wordpress, Tumblr and Blogspot are easy ways to get one and not care about setting up much.

[starinfidel]

Yes.. blog is what you need

Wordpress, Tumblr and Blogspot are easy ways to get one and not care about setting up much.

Yeah, I tried Blogspot before, it has everything I need. Though the development is stalled for some time - I made a binary version of Evil Cult using a library and waiting until the guy actually releases it (it has some minor but annoying bugs)... still waiting... So as soon as I'll continue coding I'll think about whether I have something to write about.

[starinfidel]

Fresh version of Evil Cult is up here:
http://evil-cult.appspot.com/static/cult/index.html

Improvements:
- save/load feature using a server - to able to save or load first you'll need to input a key
- new messages area
- keyboard shortcuts - look in the manual
- unique names for nodes/investigators

Please test

[MCMic]

It is a lot slower, firefox even ended asking me to kill the script because it was slowing my PC