DrDread

all messages by user

1/6/2016 Topic: We've ordered "Space Coin" rewards Doctor Dread Administrator	We are planning to have start a Kickstarter campaign THIS MONTH sometime. Probably the 19th or 20th of January 2016. We've been doing crunch time to get most of the game not only working correctly but also looking good enough to make a short video. One of the backer rewards we wanted to have are Coins that kind of look like futuristic Terran Federation money. We didn't want to wait till after a campaign to make them, we wanted to have some to hand out as a promotional item. We found a great place that makes them online and we sent them off to production today We don't have an official logo but we modeled the look off of the Insignia for a Start Lord title. We expect to have these in our hands towards the end of the month. This is what the proof that got sent off today looks like:
1/12/2016 Topic: We've ordered "Space Coin" rewards Doctor Dread Administrator	I'm seeing those star citizen cards for the first time after you mentioned it. That is a neat idea. We almost wanted to do some sort of paper or plastic "cash" before we did coins but the cards are a great idea also. That whole game has a high production value. The cards go up to the $10,000 mark, crazy. That game seems like some sort of roided out version on Entropia online where you rank on the ladder is essentially how much money you can invest into the game =)
1/17/2016 Topic: Kickstarter planned for February 8th, 2016 Doctor Dread Administrator	We've been shooting for an early January Kickstarter campaign but we feel we need some more time to get the game working and looking good enough to make a video out of. We also need some time to put together a video that has something meaningful to show. Second week of February looks pretty good. It's also Chinese new year I think, purely coincidence =) When the Kickstarter goes up we'll email everyone and let them know. We're probably shooting for only about $6,000 for the campaign and that's going to go mostly to artist for the units. We have everything we need for the game already. It's almost finished, we already own the webserver and all the software (this site is running on our own server hosted at a co-location). I'm a website and database programmer, my friends and even my wife who are supporting this project are all Network admins, database admins and IT managers. I have no doubt there will be snags and problems but I hope we're at least qualified to handle it =) Also, Our "Coins" as backer rewards came in. We got a lot of 100 of them so we can hand some out to media. They are really nice looking. I want to try to get a picture of them up here soon.
1/17/2016 Topic: Worked on Viewscreen and other pages this week Doctor Dread Administrator	We've been busy doing some Social Media this week in addition to working on the game. We've had a couple of media bloggers give us a follow and mention that they are keeping on eye on this game as it goes to Kickstarter. We're probably going to get a couple interviews before we launch. Pretty exciting, and also adds some pressure to get a video and kickstarter up! With resolved a few critical issues this week involving combat and production and we also changed out a few images that were still placeholders from the internet with ones that are open and free to use, only one or two had ever snuck onto our screenshots page. With that out of the way we started cleaning up a lot of the pages under the Viewscreen tab. The viewscreen shows the planets and the galaxy and allows you to zoom in down into a city or location. As you do the screen overlays information over the planets, cities etc. depending on which sub tab you have selected. The sub tabs are Overview, Resources, Industry, Demand, Military. Each sub tab overlays its own set of information, Resource tabs shows small icons across the planet or system representing all the resources for example. Military shows icons representing all military units and their direction of movement. When you zoom in all the way to a location the viewscreen display grids of information appropriate to the sub tab you're on. For example, Industry sub tab will display grids with all the structures and standing product for you and anyone else at that location. The demand sub tab shows a grid of all the buys and sells from everyone at that location in the last 100 turns. The Overview sub tabs shows several grids that represent Events, government leaders as well as a broad summary of the other sub tabs information. The view screen and its sub tabs are the best way to get an idea of where everyone's structures and military units are as well as what's going on at the cities, planets and star systems. These screen are now working and looking 10x better than before. We're probably going to move on to the big list item of Events which includes the voting system that elects players to become government rulers
1/22/2016 Topic: Worked on Viewscreen and other pages this week Doctor Dread Administrator	Psyentific wrote: There's only two Ns in Banana ... well then, I guess you've earned beta tester status! =) Nice catch
2/1/2016 Topic: Kickstarter campaign and video ready! Doctor Dread Administrator	Whew! Working on a Kickstarter campaign and making a reasonable video for the first time isn't easy but that's what we did in the last week or so. Getting your hands on video software and writing up a campaign pages ACTUALLY TAKES A WEEK just like the internet says it does! Our kickstarter campaign is scheduled to launch on Feb 8th, 2016 just a week from now. We submitted our campaign for review and we put together a video on youtube if you want to check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGjVFSdPTUM The Kickstarter isn't launched yet, but you can see a preview of it here: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/164042533/133683123?token=653a5ad7 edited by DrDreadAdmin on 2/1/2016
2/1/2016 Topic: Kickstarter planned for February 8th, 2016 Doctor Dread Administrator	Our Kickstarter campaign and video is ready! It is set to launch on Feb 8th, 2016. In the meantime you can see a preview of it here and give feedback if you like! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/164042533/133683123?token=653a5ad7 edited by DrDread on 2/1/2016
2/2/2016 Topic: Player-Owned Shipping Doctor Dread Administrator	"Shipping" is not done via a "Route" really. You actually have your ships or transports given orders to pick up whatever goods, then move to another location, then drop them off or sell them, then loop back to first order. Along the way anyone else can see your ships moving and attack them if they like, camping out on the spot where they make their "turn" and attack that corporation. There is going to be a "Raid" option to attacks which will do less damage but steal cargo instead. This way you can make hit and runs and not have to actually blow freighters up to be a pirate. If you want to protect those freighters you can group them with fighting units, the whole group moves as one. The people who run the planet and star system are probably gonna come after you, welcome to Barons of the Galaxy =) Having a unit with orders like that looks like this On the view screen when he's moving to Madrid he's that little arrow inside the green box
2/2/2016 Topic: Welcome to the Barons of the Galaxy Forum Doctor Dread Administrator	I know! I'm excited too! =)
2/6/2016 Topic: Website "bugs" Doctor Dread Administrator	I bought this forum separately from the website I made. It went up in an hour and worked great, but it does have some issues like what you are mentioning. The login problem, The forum was setup this way in which you have to come from the main site. I leave the login visible so I can get into it manually but it is confusing and theres no straightforward way to have it remember you. For now the best option is to favorite the site and click into the forum until I find a good solution The title length is something I can fix it turns out. Might change that soon. The login time, maybe I can increase that past the 20 min(?) default
2/8/2016 Topic: Kickstarter Campaign Launched Today! Doctor Dread Administrator	Our Kickstarter campaign has launched! Please help back our project. Even a $2 backing will get you a free month of subscription time. Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/164042533/barons-of-the-galaxy-a-game-of-industry-politics-a edited by DrDread on 2/8/2016
2/10/2016 Topic: Welcome to the Barons of the Galaxy Forum Doctor Dread Administrator	Radu85 wrote: Hello, i made the account but if i press Play button nothing happens. Is there a problem or the game is not open for me? The game is still in Development. We're running a Kickstarter campaign right now and hopefully the game will be ready in a few months. When you click the play now button it should be taking you to the "Development" page. Did you read somewhere that it was ready to play? There was a Gamewires article that went up today that said you can play it now but that's not true. I think I need to talk to them.
2/14/2016 Topic: Kickstarter Update and Media Doctor Dread Administrator	Had a interview this morning with Matt Chelen from MMOs.com about Barons of the Galaxy. Actually let him go through the tutorial, make some structures (He is a Wheat farmer) and units and then of course attack a harmless corporation in Madrid! The game is mostly complete and somewhat playable. Matts posted the interview article for MMOs.com also. There are two other sties that have also written a short blurb on Barons of the Galaxy. You should try to give them a visit and make a comment about the game there. Any chatter should help bring more attention the kickstarter campaign. Thanks everyone! MMOs.com article MMOs.com Interview article Cliqist / GameWires article NewRPG.com article
2/15/2016 Topic: Kickstarter campaign and Sol System Doctor Dread Administrator	This last week or so has been mostly the Kickstarter campaign and the media work attached to it. We've had a few articles written about Barons of the Galaxy and so far there's been a good response to the campaign. The other thing we have been working on is the manual setup of the Sol System. In the game the Sol system is earth and the 9 planets and can be considered the starter zone. In the Sol System there are no elections for government and the cities are set in stone. The population don't move much and the demand on all the products is regulated so they cannot stray very far from a baseline. All the resources have been made pretty balanced and pretty strict in terms of their values, as in, not much variation from very low number to very high numbers. This system can survive and be stable even if there are no players there. We have been manually placing the cities and resources in the Sol System and are almost finished. Then we will code the system to regulate the Demand, the population, and insure cities can't crumble. We might put in the actual game turn timer also. When these are in place the game can actually begin Alpha testing with registered website users. The only things missing are the event system and the Chat rooms. We would love to get the game Alpha ready by the time Kickstarter ends on March 8th.
2/19/2016 Topic: Where did you hear about Barons of the Galaxy? Doctor Dread Administrator	I have a development thread on SpaceSimCentral and SpaceSector.com I recently contacted them both and asked. We'll see what happens
2/21/2016 Topic: Where did you hear about Barons of the Galaxy? Doctor Dread Administrator	Thanks! I never liked OGame or Astro Empires is why I'm making this game.
2/21/2016 Topic: Sol System starting to run by itself Doctor Dread Administrator	The priority goal we have now that our Kickstarter campaign is running is to try to get the game actually stable and somewhat playable in hopes that we can have some people toy around with a Pre-Alpha before our campaign is up. The major thing we need is to get the game to run and not runaway even if no one is doing anything in it. We got Sol System, the stable hand crafted system that everyone can start in, starting to run by itself. All the planets and moons are in. So are all the resources which have been made to not vary much at all and be evenly dispersed. There is now code that keeps the City population and demand for goods from straying very far from their defaults. We also setup a countdown timer till the next turn as wellas ran the game on the 10 minute timer all day. We hope to finish off a few missing features and maybe get a Comms/Messaging system in place before trying to have a few people try it out. We'll see what we can accomplish by next week
2/29/2016 Topic: Terran Federation Forces attacked by Kaiju Doctor Dread Administrator	This week saw more work done on the Sol System. We've created several permanent NPC corporations in the game, one of them is the Terran Federation. There units will protect the players and cities in the Sol system from attacks by other players or events. We've made a script that randomly populates the cities inside the Sol System with units from the Terran Federation and will replace them when lost. We also want to have some ships flying around. We're working on making a system that will detect a lot of fighting in any location and have some units respond to that spot and guard it temporarily. We've also made corporations that represent A couple of different pirate factions as well as one for Hostile Creatures and Space Monsters. These will be used for NPC hostiles and events. Speaking of Space Monsters, in testing some of the new features there was an attack on Shanghai by the ancient Godzilla knock off monster Megawhopatron. There are a ton of forces in Shanghai and they fought valiantly right up until the Shields went down and then the next few rounds didn't look so good. We probably won't have a playable Alpha ready before our Kickstarter ends next week but we're getting close. We're filling in a lot of the details that need to be there for the game to function on its own and they don't always work quite right on the first try =)
3/1/2016 Topic: Where did you hear about Barons of the Galaxy? Doctor Dread Administrator	Cthulhu wrote: Was searching for an alternate to Ogame when I stumbled onto a random forum where somebody else was asking for Alts to Ogame. Luckily enough, at the bottom of the thread there was a message from Dr.Dread mentioning Barons. Jumped over here instantly and began reading. For quite some time, years even, I was hooked on Ogame. Starting out in an existing galaxy made the whole process an uphill battle, but it was a lot of fun. The galaxy I was in slowed to a halt, and a merger took place. The merged galaxy wasn't very active either, and I slowly lost interest. To be honest, I'm not even sure if my account is still in Vmode or long deleted. I'm looking forward to trying Barons, it looks like it'll have the depth that I'm looking for in a persistent game. I hear that a lot from OGame and Astro Empires, even EVE online. The games kind of grind to a halt and nothing much happens. I'm trying to make this game a little more "MMO Centric" as in half the game is dealing with the other players politically. Wether that's against them or cooperatively.
3/10/2016 Topic: Kickstarter has FAILED Doctor Dread Administrator	Our Kickstarter campaign has failed and that's ok! We're still working on the project and will hopefully re-launch in a month or two. We've been working on a lot of small features and bug fixes in order to get the game playable for an Alpha test. We also made some gameplay changes after actually "playing" the game for a little while. We will continue to post updated every week or so to let you all know how it's going. If you backed the Kickstarter, we're going to try to invite you to an Alpha test when it becomes available. Thank you all for your support!

Powered by Jitbit Forum 8.3.8.0 © 2006-2013 Jitbit Software