DrDread

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7/15/2016
Topic: The Alpha Test v3 reporting thread

Doctor Dread

Administrator

ChaChaCharms wrote:

All city populations are now only 8 ppl. Needless to say this has dramatically affected every corps bottom line.

I have a feeling this was one of the events affecting population but with the math done incorrectly. I'll figure out which one it is tonight and put the populations back

7/15/2016
Topic: No population?

Doctor Dread

Administrator

I haven't confirmed it yet but the "Popular Fad - Clothing" event affecting all of Sol is probably causing this. The population all dropped around turn 5280 and this event kicked in with the "Allow" vote on 5178. The code that is reducing the population by 1% is probably MAKING the population 1% or perhaps dropping it by 100% because of a decimal point or something.

7/15/2016
Topic: Cities

Doctor Dread

Administrator

This is coming from a bug with one of the events, its affecting all of Sol right now also, should be cleared by tonight .

7/15/2016
Topic: No population?

Doctor Dread

Administrator

Problem fixed, it was as expected. The city pop will REDUCE by 0.0001% of its total every turn for 100 turns as opposed to EQUALING 0.0001% of it's population every turn for 100 turns!

I've reset the Sol city population back to the defaults. Profits are rolling back in.

7/16/2016
Topic: The Alpha Test v3 reporting thread

Doctor Dread

Administrator

Jazzek wrote:

I thought you couldn't be both ruler of a city and ruler of a planet?

5473 122068354:190430958 Sell Rulership +4,498
5473 122068354:190430958 Sell Rulership +1,784

[font=]Emperor of Odegard II
[font=]Ruler of Sno

I changed it at the last minute. It doesn't show Tangoor dynasty as ruling both though when it comes to his titles. Have to check that

7/16/2016
Topic: The Alpha Test v3 reporting thread

Doctor Dread

Administrator

Doctor Dread wrote:

Jazzek wrote:
I thought you couldn't be both ruler of a city and ruler of a planet?

5473 122068354:190430958 Sell Rulership +4,498
5473 122068354:190430958 Sell Rulership +1,784

[font=]Emperor of Odegard II
[font=]Ruler of Sno

I changed it at the last minute. It doesn't show Tangoor dynasty as ruling both though when it comes to his titles. Have to check that

There was a bug in the City rulership that cleared Tangoors planetary title as soon as he was re-elected for Sno on turn 5502. That should not happen anymore.

We'll clarify how the system is set up now:

At first we had it so you can only have one government title but that was changed recently. You can have one OF EACH TYPE now. You can be ruler of a city, a planet and a star system.

If you move your Corp HQ outside of your ruling city, you will lose that city title, if you move it off the planet you'll lose the planetary title same with system. You can lose a re-election for a city but still maintain your Planetary title, same goes for Star Lord if you lose the planet. The eligible candidate for city rulership is anyone who has a Corp HQ in that city. For planetary rulership the eligible candidates are the city rulers on the planet AND the current planetary ruler (in case he has no city title, he can still be re-elected). Everyone on the planet with industry can vote on who the planetary ruler will be based on their industry. Star lords work similar to planetary election, The candidates for Star Lord will be the current Planetary rulers AND the existing Star Lord (In case he has no planet title). Everyone with industry in the entire star system can vote for the Star Lord.

Also, currently it takes 3 city rulers on a planet for a planetary election to activate. It will also take 3 established planetary rulers in a system before the star lord election will activate. This number may go up in the future.

Moons currently are handled exactly like any other planet in the system. This MIGHT CHANGE in the future where the cities on moons are considered to be cities on their orbiting planet. that would mean there could not be a planetary ruler for a moon. I might do a vote in the forum for that one =)

7/17/2016
Topic: The Alpha Test v3 reporting thread

Doctor Dread

Administrator

Shooer wrote:

The turn seems to be stuck on turn 5563. It seems that it's been stuck on that turn for some time now.

Its back up. Thanks for catching it. Integer variable set to small couldn't handle the big numbers of production that is happening.

7/17/2016
Topic: (ACP) Structure Update

Doctor Dread

Administrator

There's a major change going in a few minutes. We are removing all the (ACP) items for structures and making them all deploy for a single item called "(ACP) Structure". The (ACP) Military Base and Shipyard are still going to be separate items. We had to push a tricky query to update everyone's current item assets and orders to make this switch happen without breaking anything but no guarantee it didn't! The old items will not be selectable for orders or construction anymore either. If you game breaks after this update please let us know. At the worst you might have to remove all orders from your ships.

7/17/2016
Topic: Alpha Test v3 Update 2

Doctor Dread

Administrator

There was a major change to the Items in the game. We have removed the separate ACP Items for each specific structure and instead went with a generic "(ACP) Structure" item that can be deployed as anything from the orders screen. The ACP Military Base and Shipyard remain as separate items still. We've updated everyone's assets to combine their items into the new (ACP) Structure item and changed existing orders to use them,.

This was a desired change to reduce the clutter and hassle of separate items but it's also another step towards Artifacts and the items they make. The artifact items are going to be added to the list when we implement them. They will probably be handled in a similar way with a handful of actual artifact items which can be "deployed" in various ways

7/17/2016
Topic: Open Beta Test and Kickstarter campaign

Doctor Dread

Administrator

We're planning to open the game up to everyone on the website starting on July 30, 2016. The game will be reset and anyone can play!

We are also planning to Re-launch our Kickstarter campaign the week after on August 6th,2016.

The Open Beta Test is planned to run until the game goes live which can be a couple of months past a successful campaign or longer if it is unsuccessful. We're planning to give same day bonuses to Beta Test players who help back the project while the campaign is still running. We're hoping this will help promote the campaign. Any amount of pledge will turn your Beta Test account into a "paid" one. Higher level of backing will probably increase your Corp HQ level in addition to some more funds, similar to what was planned for the "Accelerated Start" option. These bonuses are extras given for the Beta Test are in addition to the backer rewards backers will get when the game goes live. The active players from the Alpha test will get similar bonuses regardless =)

7/26/2016
Topic: Alpha Test v3 Update 2

Doctor Dread

Administrator

We have been working on Artifact items this week. We hope to at least have the mining of Artifacts resource into different items implemented by this weekend. You will be able to build a Research Facility on an Artifact resource similar to other resources but instead of producing a product you will choose a general type of artifact item you want to build. The artifact resource will put points into a progress bar which builds an artifact item when reaching its maximum. Different types of artifacts can take varying amounts of resource to produce. Higher artifact resource values will provide faster progress and overcrowding by other players can make your facility cost more to run similar to normal resources.

The items you can produce will be relatively few and general in nature (Military, Movement, Production, Large and Small) but when they are deployed, usually onto an appropriate ship, military unit or structure you can choose from different types of implementations such as Weaponry or Shields. A category of navigation, mysterious or "treasure map" artifacts when deployed onto a ship might initiate a personal quest like event for that ship or can cause a public event in that area or a temporary worm hole to open to far off part of the galaxy. We're still playing around with the details but many things are possible using a system like this since we don't have to necessarily make a new in game item to have more "effects"

We still plan to launce an Open Beta Test this weekend on Saturday the 30th. The game will be reset and Sol system will be tweaked having the number of cities and total resources reduced significantly. Hopefully the game will be stable during the following week in time for a re-launch of our Kickstarter campaign planned for August 6th.
edited by DrDread on 7/26/2016

7/27/2016
Topic: The Alpha Test v3 reporting thread

Doctor Dread

Administrator

SkyShepherd wrote:

I have recently upgraded a freighter to lvl 5, only upgrading cargo, and it still at only 10k of cargo space. This is compared to my other lvl 4 freighters with 15k of cargo space.

The upgrade amount was changed weeks ago. It doesn't increase cargo by 50% per level anymore, it only goes up by 20% per level now. Your older freighters are still using the old amount, If you upgrade them they will correct themselves. We're going to be resetting the game for an Open beta in a few days though.

7/29/2016
Topic: For Beta launch

Doctor Dread

Administrator

On an average resource value of 10 it takes you at most 1,000 credits to make 10 units of resource.

It takes 10 units of resources to make 25 units of a component plus another 1,000 credits.

Now you've spent 2000 credits and have 25 units of a product.

It takes 10 units of components and another 1,000 credits to make 50 units of an end product.

If you spend the 4,500 to make 10 resources, 25 components and then 125 end products with it. you ended up spending 36 credits per end product and selling it for on average 100 each.

Now that's assuming you make them all yourself and everything's demand is 100 .

It's not easy to make everything needed to make the end products or even the components but if you got together with a guild or a few other players who specialize in the all the resources and components you can be VERY profitable.

7/30/2016
Topic: For Beta launch

Doctor Dread

Administrator

The components factories, like Basic Fabric, Baisc Ceramics. make 25 units at level 1. The end product factories, like Clothing make 50 units at level 1.

I mentioned 125 units because you can make 125 units of clothing with 25 units of different kinds of fabrics components. I was just trying to show you why its profitable.

The consumption in a city of end products is the same as other products. When you make end products, it makes a lot of product and you will quickly oversupply the city you are in. You can expect to have to ship your clothing to the other cities.

The city infrastructure is just another kind of product in the game, like "Roads" but they are different because they don't actually make any product, it sells automatically to the city they are in. You cannot move them or sell them somewhere else.

7/30/2016
Topic: Open Beta Test is now LIVE!

Doctor Dread

Administrator

We just launched the Open Beta Test for the game. The game has been cleared and it is now open to everyone to play. We plan to be in Open beta test until the game launches live at least a few months from now.

We are planning a Kickstarter campaign next week on August 6th and we plan to offer immediate bonuses in the Beta Test game is you are a backer while the campaign is running.

Have fun and please mention bugs, complaints or just rant in the forums.

7/30/2016
Topic: Open Beta Test goes LIVE

Doctor Dread

Administrator

7/30/2016
Topic: Kickstarter campaign link available

Doctor Dread

Administrator

This is a link to our DRAFT of the Kickstarter campaign we plane to launch on August 6th

Barons of the Galaxy Kickstarter Campaign

We have increased the rewards from last time and we're also offering big immediate bonuses for the Beta Test if you back the project. It's been mentioned that the live game rewards are lacking because all they are is free paid time. We're against making any pay to win style boosts past the "Accelerated Start" option that will slowly be put into the game as the average players become more established.

However we are considering offering perhaps just a Corp HQ level increase in your live game as backer rewards, without any credits. That wouldn't catapult you forward quickly but you wouldn't have to wait for the time and money to upgrade your Corp HQ. That seems like a reasonable tradeoff and also can't be abused or farmed like a credit bonus can. A Corp HQ level increase at launch is also the type of reward we were planning to give our helpful and active Alpha Game testers in addition to whatever rewards they get for backing the project even if they don't actually back it.

We would love to hear your feedback on the campaign rewards!

7/30/2016
Topic: For Beta launch

Doctor Dread

Administrator

You do, its just like any other structure. It takes components and produces a "Product" like Roads or Communications but it sells it automatically to the city it is in. You can't pick it up and sell it somewhere else.

7/31/2016
Topic: Playing the Beta, initial thoughts.

Doctor Dread

Administrator

nochip wrote:

I haven't played the Alpha, so here comes a fresh impression on BotG.

What I find good as it stands.
- Love the pictures of stuff, even though some are missing.
- Love the map, nicely done even with the planet view and all.
- Good selection of different resources to produce
- Fairly simple learning curve, got just the right amount of Menu's

The elements that pushes me away.
- 10 Minute turn rate. Sorry, it has probably been mentioned before, it's just too long in the start of the game.
Maybe if it was reduced to 5 or 2 minutes it would be closer to acceptable.
- Too many selections, like on resource selection, two drop down menu's is too much, especially if the page reloads.
I suggest more search fields instead, maybe using some client-side javascript to instant search local data, as to to reduce server load as well.
- Micromanagement of trading is too much, like manually having to make 5 orders to sell water to your neighbor... really?
Love the control you have, but its too time consuming, so please make a "auto create order" tap somewhere to ease this process

I'm not done with this game yet, especially since I'm a huge fan of the genre, but to newcomers, these elements has a huge impact on if they choose to stay.

I agree with what you're saying.

The turn time is a little tricky. Because everything happens at once, as opposed to a "tick" system where everything is on separate timers, it can take several seconds for a turn to flip when the game is populated. I had a concern that if the turn flip starting taking 30+ seconds in a crowded game then a 2 minute or 5 minute timer would become a problem. Dropping the turn timer to 5 minutes is something I'm considering doing but it depends on how fast the turn can flip with a lot of players.

There are a LOT of selections. there used to be more! It sounds good on paper to have hundreds of products that would require a thousand players working together to make the economy flow. It prevents a single player or small group to control everything because your Corp is more efficient if you specialize in a few products or categories. No one can cover everything easily. However the dropdowns have become huge and I'm still looking for a good way to select them. On some screens all the products are on one dropdown, on others it lets you select a category first. Corp HQ can build ANYTHNG so it's 150 long.

I have this idea of restricting the selection of products based on your Corp HQ level. For example, At level 1 you can only do resources, then at level 2-3 the components and end products open up. That way it at least won't be overwhelming for new players. Perhaps the only categories of products that open up for you are the ones you have at least one point of tech in? That would reduce your selections down to only the stuff you would ever make anyway. The interface doing full loads is an issue I intend to tackle once it stops changing =)

5 orders to trade one thing, yes this has gotten tedious. I was thinking of changing the sell order so that if you say you want to sell at Shangai it will move you to Shangai if you're not there before trying to sell. Same thing with Transfer. You select a location you want to transfer from and if you're not there when it tries to do the transfer it will move you there first. Essential putting the select location widget onto the other orders. That way your trade route orders will become: 1-Pick Up Wheat from Shangai, 2-Sell Wheat To Memphis, 3-Loop.

As a stop gap though, having a widget ask you what you want to trade and between what two points so it can generate the orders for you might be doable also.

It's good to know that the problems with the game are generally interface related which is something that can be improved or overhauled.

Thanks for your feedback!
edited by DrDread on 7/31/2016

7/31/2016
Topic: Production Bonus ?

Doctor Dread

Administrator

Sobanov wrote:

Hello! I am nev here, but i think bonus what we have (HQ+Tech) not work.
Have 35%bonus (25+10) and 14 fields on me location, so why no get "14+(14x35%)" Wheat. Why no 14 basic and bonus 4.9 from 14? Its Bug or normal???

The bonus is not to how many you make, it is a bonus to how much the structure COSTS to run every turn. Normally a factory costs 1000 a turn but if you had a bonus of +100% it would only cost 500 a turn. at 35% bonus your factory is probably costing you 740 a turn to run. (1000 / (1 + 0.35))

Also, if you are at a resource that is overcrowded, more than 1000 product a turn being produced by everyone there , There will be a overcrowding (OCrowd) penalty to your cost Same with Logistics, If you have too many "levels" of factories in your corporation they will all start to get a penalty to there cost. Increasing your Corp HQ level give you more logistics. It is displayed at the top of the Assets page.

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DrDread

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