Author Topic: Gnoh Wars (Read 2590 times)

gnoh · « **on:** December 20, 2009, 08:43:54 AM »

Hi all,
I've been writing a browser game for a while now, it's still very much a work in progress.
It's nearly functionally complete however it's pretty much untested and as for layout/design still very much on going.
I havn't even thought of a name yet heh, anyway it's currently hosted athttp://vegeholic.com/game

I'm hoping to find a couple of people to help play it over the next few weeks when i'm adding real content/starting to balance it. If you are at all interested in helping me do this I'm on msn

saljutin · « **Reply #1 on:** December 20, 2009, 08:53:18 AM »

I only see login, no other information on what this game is all about so I am skipping it...

gnoh · « **Reply #2 on:** December 20, 2009, 09:02:32 AM »

Yeah, that's the entry to the game, I guess I should have described what's inside
It's a usual building/training strategy game

You play as a 'province' within a kingdom of 10 players(atm) you build up your province infrastructure then start training troops. When you're at that stage you start deploying armies, you have a few character types, commanders(army leaders), leader(you) which have skills they can learn and be equiped with items.

anyway, the main point of the game is centered around the kingdom map where you have 'portals' that can be opened and closed to other kingdoms, you move your armies about the map and fight invaders, there are nature spots where you can send your armies off to fight natives for the usual grinding for items.

Battles develop in real time and you can group up with friends and stack which is how I see the start of the invasions happening..

heh i'm missing alot of points here no doubt.

Nox · « **Reply #3 on:** December 20, 2009, 09:32:36 AM »

I don't know if you indend to work on the homepage... years earlier it probably wouldn't matter but today you should convince visitor that he should play your game and that he would enjoy it and not waste time. It's not just the way "I want mainly many many players so I get tons of money", but even a player that would really like your game and become a devoted player don't really get a chance to be interested, other than being friend of someone already playing.

It's like CV, you need to spice it up a bit

I'm not sure if you want feedback, but I can delete it any time

- It would be worth to think whether you can include sign up form to the homepage, there's a lot of free space.
- Usually it's adviced to require as little info in sign up form as possible, not to deterr possible player... on the other hand I think that if your main goal is not as high player count as possible, you could get higher percentage of serious, more patient, players
- Hm, Opera doesn't allow me to save login data... weird
- Do you have some particular reason for using iframe?
- Refresh/opening page again kicks player back to login screen, that's quite unpleasant...also what is logout for then?
- Isn't 10 resources a bit too much?
- In grid summary you could also display labels for data (like "land type: grassland" instead of just "grassland"), also you could display owner if avalible

Doesn't look bad though...I think graphics should be improved but user interface (ergonomy) is fine imho
For ingame "windows" you use your own solution or it's external? wouldn't be bad if commun. window could be resized... I have a problem placing it so I can see the rest of the game (22'')

Having it thouroughly JS it makes it less compatible+issues like that logging in, on the other hand the game is pretty fast.... what about refreshing data? Periodically via AJAX?

I have to login like 10 times now so it's all for now

gnoh · « **Reply #4 on:** December 20, 2009, 09:49:01 AM »

Yeah i'm going to work on the homepage after the design is complete, it's pretty much going to be a link to a registration/play, link to a forum and a few screen shots.

The iframe is a fix for GWT to make history work.

I've actually disabled the cookie that would log you back in automatically as up to now it's just been me running a fair few provinces so the cookie would have been a nightmare.

Land isn't owned by anyone, but I could easily do what you've said about the grid summary.

I think you're talking about the popup's with the in game windows, they're just a basic GWT dialog box I could maybe look at extending it to make it resizable but I can see that being a nightmare, I intend on making the communication popup transparent at some point but the idea is to pop it up and down.

I need to check opera problem though

Your last point about ajax refreshing, since it's a GWT application it's fully ajax/interactive the kingdom map 'asks' for the domain model every minute so you can see armies moving about without actually updating.

Thanks for replying with your views btw.

Nox · « **Reply #5 on:** December 20, 2009, 09:53:17 AM »

No problem
I don't really know GWT so that might be the issue

The owner - I meant for area with a building, if it can be owned

gnoh · « **Reply #6 on:** December 20, 2009, 09:58:54 AM »

Uhm, on the kingdom map? those buildings are kingdom owned, they can be captured by enemy kingdoms but it's only for winning the war, the client online is about a week out of date and is missing some of the newer functionality.

if you see the little blue/white/red colour blocks above the buildings they indicate the state of it, i.e. if it's captured by blue = your own kingdom, white = your province, red = owned by enemy kingdom.

The point of the buildings on the kingdom map is to provide the 'kingdom' with resources to upgrade the buildings there, and they act as points of control i.e. a war is won when 4 out of 6 resource buildings are captured and the kingdom capital is captured at the same time.

gnoh · « **Reply #7 on:** December 21, 2009, 04:27:57 PM »

Maybe a developer forum isn't the best place to look for testers heh

anyone have any suggestions about where to find a few?

Xavier · « **Reply #8 on:** December 22, 2009, 02:37:31 AM »

Friends, family members, etc. A couple of direct mails to those with a short explanation should do.

gnoh · « **Reply #9 on:** December 22, 2009, 08:48:31 AM »

Friends and family make for lousy play testers.

gnoh · « **Reply #10 on:** December 28, 2009, 01:26:30 PM »

I think I might as well update this place with how things are going.

I've decided on a name and have a domain heh www.gnohwars.com

home page isn't finished yet but it's on it's way, still working on the design but i've ironed out a fair few bugs already.

I have been dropping the database when needed but I think as from now it can remain as it is.

Hopefully within a few weeks I can start spamming/advertising

, btw chris thanks for always talking about project wonderful that looks ideal.

gnoh · « **Reply #11 on:** December 31, 2009, 08:00:49 AM »

I'll gob off a bit more about what i've done lately.

I've been working on making it more lively so that people are discouraged from pressing refresh(as it's a thick client that would cause it to reload the whole script)

I think it shows this a little the previous point a little more now, especially on the map. I'm struggling with layouts/colours as I am colour blind and as artistically creative as a frog. Still waiting for a few pictures from my team mate who's struggling with the province overview picture.

zolacat999 · « **Reply #12 on:** December 31, 2009, 11:18:09 AM »

Just signed up to give it a try and I've its not bad Just needs more touching up and It will be brilliant.

gnoh · « **Reply #13 on:** December 31, 2009, 11:24:09 AM »

thanks m8, can you be specific as to what needs touching up?

I'm struggling with making it purdy, I wish I was back in the implementation phase heh at least I could plan properly then. I just need a few people to stick about so I can see how the actual game plays noone but me has an army out yet heh nevermind 2 full active kingdoms so I can see how the war/main features of the game plays.

tellmore · « **Reply #14 on:** January 01, 2010, 01:48:39 PM »

+respect, at least you got it running.
many who had plans can't say the same.
ever.

gnoh · « **Reply #15 on:** January 01, 2010, 03:27:40 PM »

Thank you

I'm appeciating all the feedback you guys are giving. Special thanks to zolacat and nox

gnoh · « **Reply #16 on:** January 02, 2010, 12:33:57 PM »

Yet another update, I've put the latest version online which includes fixing a few more bugs that e-fish has kindly helped me spot. I've also implemented a few of features he would have liked to see, which includes a hotkey to bring chat up. (Great idea thanks)

It's got an initial draft of the province view picture in place just so people can see what it will eventually look like.

To follow shortly will be:
quest/intro into the game
buildings produce less resources

A little later:
User guide which will be found on the forum.

Sunchaser · « **Reply #17 on:** January 02, 2010, 01:02:29 PM »

gnoh, i registered... is it done all with ajax?

gnoh · « **Reply #18 on:** January 02, 2010, 01:28:45 PM »

Yah it's GWT so it's java 'compiled' into js.

It's a thick client so you have a fully functioning js client downloaded and cached after first load. The only data that passes between the server then is images(only some) and actual game data.

gnoh · « **Reply #19 on:** January 02, 2010, 06:02:17 PM »

Sorry about the ingame chat guys, it's fixed now.

gnoh · « **Reply #20 on:** January 09, 2010, 08:30:20 AM »

Ok another update, I've added an ingame help system, a few quests to get people started. I've also added a great big list of creatures to battle in the nature villages. I've fixed a fair few more bugs and tidied up a few interfaces.

Thanks everyone that has helped out so far

gnoh · « **Reply #21 on:** January 25, 2010, 09:01:35 AM »

Another gob of session.

We've been busy adding images/gfx to the game and basically polishing it up. Bugs are becoming alot less frequent so within a couple of days i'll be changing the tag to beta.

gnoh · « **Reply #22 on:** March 20, 2010, 07:05:30 AM »

Gnoh wars is now in open beta.

It's been a while since I've posted here, suffice it to say many changes have happened in the meantime. I'd like to thank the members of the community who have helped along the way.

Natalie · « **Reply #23 on:** March 20, 2010, 07:39:16 PM »

where can I find my rankings of the whole game? like how I compare to the best player in game, all i can find is comparison to my kingdow, you should be able to compare kingdoms/provinces, if you cannot do that already!

gnoh · « **Reply #24 on:** March 21, 2010, 05:32:38 AM »

Rankings are on the home page as well as in council->rankings in game.

Kingdom only rankings(rankings amongst friends) can be found by clicking on kingdom in game. It has only just opened last night(had a little hiccup) so not too many players to beat yet :{

News:

Author Topic: Gnoh Wars (Read 2590 times)