NEW Utopia [html5, island simulation]

[oberhamsi]

I won't demo this one before I do a lot more mechanic polish.

So posting this to keep me motivated :)

Latest Version http://apps.gamejs.org/newutopia/
Screenshot galore: all versions http://gamejs.org/newutopia/log

It's progressing nicely. In fact the simulation is already running, all that's missing are checks (enough money) & a decent browser view (though I'm not not.. maybe SVG look could be made to work).

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Background: I love RTS games and am trying to get a grasp of what makes them tick. History lessons :) Link to original: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utopia_%28video_game%29

[Jastiv]

Wow, 1981 game. That is the year I was born. You are doing relatively low system requirements right?
Please keep dependency hunt out of this one. I'm sure a 2d non-graphic intense game such as this one does not need it.
If you can't fix dependency hunt, I may as well stick to running old dos games in the emulator.

[oln]

Looks like it is a browser game, so I would assume dependencies should be a non-issue,

[qubodup]

no links?

1. gold on light grey is hard to read
2. the circle tiles are hard on the eyes. maybe use a set based on http://opengameart.org/content/rpg-path-tile-template at least? (I attached a blue/green set as oga is down for me right now)
3. better pirate ship: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/104821 (or do they go on land as well?)

It looks fun and I want to play it. So... no links?

[oberhamsi]

Wow thanks for the feedback, didn't expect that without a demo :)

It is indeed a browser game, so all you'll need is a modern browser.

@qubodup: will fix colors! and the ground tiles look good, i'll try them. it'll either be your tiles or i'll draw a SVG landscape. the ships are a problem. I found that one already (thanks anyways for looking!) but i need 3 ships: pirate ship, patrol boat (player controlled) and fishing boat (player controlled). and I only found that *one*.. not sure what i'll do. But good enough for now.

I need to finish the HUD and display some stats at end of year so the player has some indication of how he is doing :)

Nostalgika: 1981 is my birth year too. I went through the RTS history page on wikipedia and utopia was one of the first games.

[qubodup]

so... where's a link?

better fitting pirate: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/16832
good fishing boat (needs colors): http://www.openclipart.org/detail/22690
good patrol boat (needs colors): http://www.openclipart.org/detail/57187

[oberhamsi]

is it a problem if i don't provide a link? i'd rather do a polished ... äh.. release... this weekend. with source and all.

thanks for the boats! those *do* look great. I will definitely use the pirate boat! i spent quite some time on openclipart but your search-foo is apparently better :)

[qubodup]

is it a problem if i don't provide a link? i'd rather do a polished ... äh.. release... this weekend. with source and all.

It's a deal!

[oberhamsi]

Quick image dump, I hopefully made it prettier the last days.

otherweise no progress, but weekend starts tomorrw :)

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[oberhamsi]

yey for me! tomorrow could be alpha release day :)

[TheAncientGoat]

Oh wow, that's looking awesome! Wish you'd adopt an open development process though

[qubodup]

very nice!

hm.. I'd prefer this population icon: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/34963 and these emotions: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/17548 and this rain: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/tango ... rszawianka (maybe a lighter grey)

the terrain looks great, where's the water/grass/sand from?

[oberhamsi]

...

meanwhile: ALPHA RELEASE PLAY NOW, yey!!

Due to the audio bug I recommend playing with Firefox for the best effect.

Chrome and IE have audio disabled. Though any modern browser should work.

Oh wow, that's looking awesome! Wish you'd adopt an open development process though ;)

indeed! i should finally release the source: https://github.com/GameJs/newutopia i'm embarrassed. it has no docs, and was cobbled together in two weekends... but you asked for it :)

very nice!

hm.. I'd prefer this population icon: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/34963 and these emotions: :) http://www.openclipart.org/detail/17548 and this rain: http://www.openclipart.org/detail/tango ... rszawianka (maybe a lighter grey)

the terrain looks great, where's the water/grass/sand from? :)

hey thanks again! i'll try some of your icon suggestions and see how it looks. the list of contributors is growing :) those tiles are from reiner's tileset. one of the few 2d non iso things he did.

If you've ever muttered, "I'd certainly do better if I ruled that
country," then this game is for you. UTOPIA puts you in charge of
your own island state. You control the treasury, agriculture, industry,
housing, education, hospitals and military. You allocate funds to
create revenue and improve life on your island. If your decisions are
wise and the people are happy, you rack up points. If not, rebels
begin to infiltrate your paradise. Chances are, you'll find that running
a country is every bit as complicated as it seems.

I'll balance / playtest the sh*t out of it this week (and listen to feedback if any) and will come out with BETA ... wow! soon next week?


have fun

[TheAncientGoat]

Awesome, but difficult Will make a more detailed reply tommorow

[richardjames13]

Seems quite hard.

There needs to be some way to tell that the rebels are destroying your field. At the moment they appear and then disappear and sometimes your field disappears. Can't tell if the fort is destroying the rebels. Can't tell if storms destroy your buildings they pass by and sometimes your buildings get removed but it might be by rebels.

[oberhamsi]

yes, too hard! my neighbor/playtester said so too - you are not alone.

I will try slowing everything down or spawning less rebels and see if that makes it easier.

There needs to be some way to tell that the rebels are destroying your field. At the moment they appear and then disappear and sometimes your field disappears. Can't tell if the fort is destroying the rebels. Can't tell if storms destroy your buildings they pass by and sometimes your buildings get removed but it might be by rebels.

Mh, yes. I too often have problems telling what is going on. did you play with sound on? that helps a little because you can better tell *when* something happened.

I'm thinking either the slow-down will help with that too or I might add notification bubbles:

* rebel icon falls down on right side of screen
* makes *plunk* sound when it landed
* click on such icon stops game, popup appears: 'You have lost 1 crop field to rebels'

or something like that might help.

another thing i want are intermediary goals, like 'your population reached 500', 'you built 10 crops'... the player could be notified about those too via the bubbles.

ps.:
* rebels can only be destroyed by harmony :)
* crop dies after a while.. by itself

[richardjames13]

About the hardness. I built 2 housing at the start and some farms but my population soon bloomed past 2000 and had a rebel problem.

[oberhamsi]

I often wait with building houses until they get very unhappy. That way population doesn't grow too strong :) Being hungry makes it 'more slow' then not having housing, though.

Or: build a factory, that too slows down population growth and gives you money!

caveat: balancing is generally pretty off. I'm thinking about exposing all relevant variables in live editable text-field next to the game so everyone can try to tune them :)

[TheAncientGoat]

I think making it purely turn based could be interesting, the speed is /very/ high. Also, a tutorial would help quite a bit..

[oberhamsi]

I think making it purely turn based could be interesting, the speed is /very/ high. Also, a tutorial would help quite a bit..

tutorial! will think of something. probably a short slideshow for now.

regarding speed. turn based. hm, I want to stay away from that because this is for me exploring the RTS feel. hopefully.

But: the speed of population growth was broken! Going extreme if population was happy. I fixed that. Still playing and thinking about how to make it rewarding.

(You might have to do a hard reload with CTRL + F5 to get the newest version. or click on the reload icon with CTRL pressed.)

ps.: and there are a lot less hurricans. those seriously p*ss me off lol

[oberhamsi]

Not really a tutorial, but a commented play through off how *not* to do it: http://gamejs.org/newutopia/log (I'm finding a lot of ways of not playing this successfully)

[TheAncientGoat]

And now it's too easy XD. I started off by building a factory and a house, then a school, then a boat, and a bunch of farms.. No unhappiness, no rebels, kept my population at about 50 but it kept on giving me enough money to build a couple of hospitals which caused the population to start to grow.. Still, I was able to get 300 gold and 500 population without seeing one rebel, and only losing one fishing boat to a tornado

[oberhamsi]

There needs to be some way to tell that the rebels are destroying your field. At the moment they appear and then disappear and sometimes your field disappears. Can't tell if the fort is destroying the rebels. Can't tell if storms destroy your buildings they pass by and sometimes your buildings get removed but it might be by rebels.

I thought about that, and I could play an additional sound over the 'crumble' to make clear *what* is destroying the unit:

* wind blowing for hurrican/storm-kill
* yelling or .. shots? for something killed by rebel
* for pirate-kill... no idea
* no sound overlay if farm collapses by itself

|'m already doing that - playing two sounds at the same time - un-intentionally when you buy a unit. and i think the 'ding-ding-money' + 'wood impact' combination transfers 'you bouth something with your money'

[oberhamsi]

No unhappiness, no rebels, kept my population at about 50 but it kept on giving me enough money to build a couple of hospitals which caused the population to start to grow.. Still, I was able to get 300 gold and 500 population without seeing one rebel, and only losing one fishing boat to a tornado

and I think the problem with that is, that you 'play it wrong' :) 50 population, working like crazy in that factory, barely kept alive with a dozen hospitals while you play with your boats?? no, sir dictator, you're doing it wrong.

the original game kept score! there was one right way to lead the island. you had to maximize that score in a limited (!) time period.

now i'm thinking about implementing that. mh. do i need that.

[oberhamsi]

G'night! new version:

http://apps.gamejs.org/newutopia/
(you might have to do a hard reload. and still: sound only in firefox)

GUI improvements

* storm picture changed to qubodup's suggestion
* hourglass added, displays current year AD
* message log, should already (limited messages) make it easier to keep track off what's going on
* images in help text

Simulation tweaks

* birth & death rate less extreme, hopefully controllable
* more rebels
* better harmony calucation based on % of people unhappy
* less gold for population (1 per 1000, not 1 per 600 as before)

PS: my latest utopia.. attached