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romegames

Discussion in 'Online Game Development' started by shugo, Dec 23, 2010.

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  1. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    I told some people that I was busy creating a new game. Shugo is going to get closed off for good. The domain will expire on march the 8th 2011.

    I'm getting closer and closer to finishing my new game. I estimate that my new game ROMA will be ready for beta test in a few weeks.

    When it is ready for beta the test will take place here:
    Roma


    I'll clear the data in the sql database of shugo soon, that includes the board and any registered users, clans, start dates and anything else that is in there.

    Please note that you cannot register yet, as there are no sql tables in the database. You will be able to register once the code is ready for the beta test. However, you can read the guide. If you're interested you can take a peak and see what it is going to be like.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 6, 2011
  2. Joker

    Joker Ogre Hall of Fame Ogre Veteran

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    How will Roma be better than Shugo?
     
  3. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    It will be different, mostly bigger with more things to do.

    There is trade and production of like more than 60 different resources and goods. Anything from bread, chariots, pottery, purple dye, swords, shields, tunics, wine and so on. Which is a lot more than the 8 sellables we had in Shugo. And this is actual trade with other players. Not simply selling the goods on the market.

    In Roma you will have control of a Roman family, which is a bit like the clans in Shugo, but this time marriages actually lead to children being born to parents. So you get a real family tree. Marriages are now really necessary to keep your family alive and going.

    In Roma there will be politics in the Senate, where players can elect members of the families of other players, for such magistrate offices such as Consuls, Aediles and so on. Much like in ancient Rome during the republican era. Unlike titles of Shugo, which only gave you a small bonus, these magistrates offices really mean something and the Senate has the ability to change things. The Senate can change laws that actually affect the game mechanics, such as changes in the armies, taxes, the grain dole, the construction of public buildings, like baths, amphitheatres and theatres, and whether one can divorce or gamble and so on.

    Instead of fighting eachother's armies, players can now send their gladiators to fight in the arena against gladiators of other players, or they can race their chariots at the circus for money.

    In Roma players can send men into the Roman army. Players who are lucky enough to have a Legatus or Consul as their family member can become a general and fight barbarians on the battlefield. The fights will no longer be a simple report about who won what, but will be an actual battlefield where a general can decide how to move his forces much like in a chess game.

    Players can have villas in the countryside and farm crops of their choice and keep animals. Players can also have mines, quarries and fish the mediterranean. There are actually ships in Roma. Religion plays a bigger role in Roma, where dozens of various gods affect all sorts of things with various bonuses. Roma tracks and stores dozens of statistics that help players to decide what to focus on. There is diplomacy with barbarians, including with historical leaders and figures such as Vercingetorix and Cleopatra.

    Unlike Shugo it is no longer important to know everything and be good at everything and know every little detail, which was often necessary to try and survive and strategically outwit your opponents in Shugo. Instead you can focus on a specific part of the game. If you want to a be a rich merchant, you try to be the best merchant there is. If politics suits you more, then you try to win as many elections as possible. Don't like that, then you can try to have the biggest and baddest gladiator or the fastest charioteer. If you're more of an army guy, then you can try and find a career in the army and try and become a general and fight the barbarians. Or else try a life in the entertainment industry and become an actor or a singer. If none of that suits you, then maybe you just like to farm and have a quiet life in the countryside. While you still need to do some basic things that will keep your family alive and well, you get to decide what you want to focus on and what suits you best. You get to pick your own path. Roma is roleplay, strategy, economic sim all blend into one game. The choices are nearly limitless.

    And there is more.... I don't think I've even come close to mentioning everything...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 27, 2010
  4. quinn

    quinn Starcatcher Ogre Veteran

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    Will things be in English? That was the biggest thing that kept me from playing Shugo excessively, hard to figure out what everything is!
     
  5. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    shugo was in english too, only the units were written in phonetic japanese and the buildings were in english and phonetic japanese...

    and by the way
    ashigaru = foot soldier
    samurai = knight
    but you could have read that in the guide ;)
    but I understand that 12 chapters may be too long of a read

    and yes Roma will be in english, I only use latin words for the names of the magistracies, but then again the english translation is the exact same so I couldn't possibly see how one would fail to understand that. Besides there is only 5 kinds of those, so it should be really easy to figure out which magistrate is what. I think you'll agree with me that you understand what a Consul is. I also use latin words for a few resources. But I think you'll understand that a gladius is a sword. And if you didn't know that, there is a link in the game going directly to the relevant part of the guide, that will tell you that a gladius is indeed a sword.

    Roma is a lot different from Shugo, you don't have to read the guide to get started. You can figure it out as you play the game, the guide is only there to check up on things, if you do end up in trouble, or if you really need to know details for your plans and strategies, like how much swords a character can produce each real day and how much iron you need, to produce those swords. But then, you can find most of that in the game itself, so you don't need to find that in the guide.

    So the guide is just there as a backup. The fact that it is so big is because there is so much in the game.

    If you are still concerned about those few latin words and you hate looking it up, then my advise would be, to have your family members pick the career of a farmer or a shopkeeper, because unless you're a smithy or a winemaker you'll never use a single latin word in those cases.


    ...and one last thing, there is a glossary of terms, way in the back of the guide. Any word that you may not understand is explained on that page and that page also contains links to other parts of the guide related to those words.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2011
  6. quinn

    quinn Starcatcher Ogre Veteran

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    ...OOoh. It all makes sense now!
    I really should have finished reading the guide. :)

    This new game sounds pretty fun. I'll definitely check it out when it is done.
     
  7. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    Initially I had hoped, i would be able to finish the code for beta this weekend or the next weekend, but it may take a little longer than expected as I may have to help my sister move next weekend, so I won't have time then.

    I also had to fix bugs in sql tables yesterday, which is not something that I had hoped to see, so that was another delay. I still need to finish parts of the battle page and the graecostacium page, as i have to rewrite stuff that's in those pages. I have no idea how long that will take me.

    bleh at delays...
     
  8. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    Today there has been another step forward in the creation of the game.

    The registration page works now! I imported all the tables into the sql database. The login process also seems to be working in good order now. This means you can now actually register and login to the game. With that said, keep in mind that the whole code is in no way fully complete yet, nor is the alpha test finished. Some pages have not yet been uploaded, so if you are going to navigate through to the game, please note that 404 errors and white pages may be a common occurance.

    So while you can register, be aware that if some error in the code affects the data in the sql database that I may need to delete the tables. I'm saying this as a caution to people who do register this early, not to get emotionally attached to their account. I may delete all the data anyway, when alpa test is finished.

    Despite all of these warnings, you can at least now get a first glimpse of what a few parts of the new game is going to look like.
     
  9. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    The economy works now!

    The battle system, the arena, the circus and the senate are work in progress. Although there are no syntax errors anymore, there are some bugs left in those areas that prevent certain areas from being visible to the players.

    With that said... you can now:
    -build a villa
    -farm the land
    -buy a home
    -open up a shop or workshop
    -produce resources

    I'm currently in the process of testing whether elections work or not. Diplomacy with the barbarians needs some alterations so that bit doesn't work yet.
     
  10. coolpunkz

    coolpunkz MMORPG Addict The Pit

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    is it truly good games ??
     
  11. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    it will be once it is truly finished
     
  12. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    Alpha test is progressing for Roma.

    I fixed a lot of stuff and removed the marriage and birth bug recently. There are some bugs left in the senate, the arena, the circus and the battle system. I'm busy removing those bugs and making those parts work too. It's a slow and tedious process this debugging, just when you think there are no bugs left, you see a bunch of new bugs. Anyhow I'm steadily plowing through the code and fixing things. I'm getting close to finishing alpha test.

    I've also made a walkthrough and some screenshots.

    You can read the latest news here.

    I also got a coupon lately, so it looks like I'll be getting some free advertisement from Google.

    You can check out the game if you register!
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 6, 2011
  13. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    OK the senate works now.

    Next to be debugged are:
    -the arena
    -the circus
    the parts relating to the battle system
     
  14. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 27, 2011
  15. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    So I got a google adwords coupon and now I'm trying to figure out what to do with this coupon. The coupon expires on the 30th of april.

    I developed some sentences for my google text adverts for my campaign that starts at the end of march. Here is what I've come up with sofar:

    text advert 1:

    Roma
    When in Roma do as the Romans do
    and visit www.romegames.nl
    www.romegames.nl

    text advert 2:

    Roma
    Play Roma and..
    Get thrown to the lions!
    www.romegames.nl

    text advert 3:

    Roma
    Gaius julius Caesar on Roma:
    "I came, I saw, I played!"
    www.romegames.nl

    text advert 4:

    Roma
    "Join up, they said."
    "It's a man's life, they said."
    www.romegames.nl

    text advert 5:

    Roma
    surely...
    All roads lead to Roma!
    www.romegames.nl


    Not exactly eye-catching slogans I know, but this will have to do until I think of something better.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 14, 2011
  16. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    So I almost got the arena and circus debugged. This took a lot longer than expected.

    Last call is the battle system, at least that's what I thought...

    so I checked my error log and my access log and behold I find a few errors in the error log, apparently the rostra and the portal are not completely debugged :(


    I also checked my access log of today to see what I'd find. Naturally there are the usual bots of the search engines like google, yahoo and bing...

    and of course I find myself in the log.

    Next I find a player from Virginia, who came in from gameogre.com and apparently read the whole guide (every single page, starting from chapter 1 to chapter 34), then registered and finally opened every single page in the game..... :eek: culminating in the construction of a jeweler's workshop and announcing a request for marriage in the forum.

    woah you guys read a lot...
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 16, 2011
  17. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    So I tidied up the guide and fixed the bugs in the arena. I put a few more pretty pictures in the guide and corrected typing errors.

    Now the only things left are the circus and the battle system.

    The advertisement campaign will begin sometime at the end of this week, or at the beginning of next week.

    I will probably reset the game for beta test when alpha test is finished.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 21, 2011
  18. awesomedrako

    awesomedrako Clubbed

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    Took a quick look at the guide... Looks like a really comprehensive game, good job shugo.
     
  19. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    It really is a comprehensive game, there is so much there.

    Unfortunately alpha test isn't finished yet. There are bugs in the circus and the battle system that need to be fixed. I keep postponing beta test because of this debugging, but I know I am getting closer by the day. It shouldn't take long now.
     
  20. shugo

    shugo Elite Ogre Ogre Veteran

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    Circus is almost done, found another bug in the arena that needed fixing. The battle system is pretty much the only part that is left to be debugged
     
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