Poverty, Coding, and Politics

* Got rid of the status bar which was of no use.
* Bad guys will gradually give more gold.
* Death animation and wait at end.

Forgot to update help but will do it later.

This is the version I've been working on. Have fun. The main updates is the introduction of the market, and "Million Notes" which help get away from oversized numbers. It also includes a new layout, while it looks similar, its actually done by scratch.

* Fix: Obscure bug which meant clicking "New" or "Start" twice (at least, I'm sure this is how its been done) when the starting era was pre-power plant created a negative power situation from the start.
* Fix: When nuked, it might not have been downgrading towns when it should have been, hopefully fixed if it was a problem.
* Fix: Nukes have their correct monetry value in the Unit Help.
* Change: Mainly for coding reasons and better english, the "New" command has been replaced to "New Start"
* Change: I forget whether I ever mentioned the new approval system (if I have, ignore this completely) but there is a new system. On top of Education, Health, Economy and your Nuclear power, it also includes your military and employment rate.
* Change: Slight alteration to Ministry of War setup.
* Change: The Flag options have been switched over from the Trade Ministry to the more relavent "Seat of Government" screen.
* Change: Whisper actually tells you in the entry window and on the output box who you are sending your message to. While it sounds silly, there was no notification before, which might lead to confusion.
* Change: Commercial upgraded towns are now 1.5x money (that is, 750 extra per town as to the previous 500). The amount of extra food it requires has also doubled (50 now, 25 before each).
* Change: The employment rate in the Ministry of Trade now includes a helpful % sign.
* Change: The demolish command intended for the building menu that was hidden has been moved.
* Change: Commercial costs have gone up, it costs 10,000 (6,000 before) cash and 1,000 wood (500 wood).
* Change: Commercial effects a range of 2 squares appart rather than one.
* Change: As mentioned below, Nukes require "Million Notes" rather than cash in order to purchase. Clicking them without the necessary million notes will display a message explaining.
* Change: PostWW2, Modern, Future research also require "Million Notes".
* Change: The leader boards highest cash player is now listed by "Approx Million Cash" to cope with the larger numbers.
* New: The ministries are now accessable by the Menu.
* New: Seat of Government, basically a new ministry, acts as an additional stat screen that didn't fit anywhere else (including approval rating and flag options).
* New: Subscriber player feature, see below.
* New: When no land has been captured in battle, it states so in the battle report.
* New: New building, market is an earlier version of commercial and slightly cheaper.
* New: Quick tips pops up when you log in to give you some handy information or tricks into playing the game.
* New: There is also a Quick tips button next to your turn number and co-ordinates to randomly pick one of them.
* New: There is a new system to bypass annoying high cash moments which suck up all your money. Million Notes (aquireable at the Ministry of Trade) lets you buy Nukes without it screwing up your money.
* New: Once you hit 1,000,000,000 (thousand million(UK)/billion(US)) 500 million will automatically convert into Million Notes.

* Subscribers

* New: Clicking on the information bar at the bottom, will switch the data to the amount of resources your currently collecting per turn (note that the hold back on wood still applies, its not took into account here). It switches back at the next turn.

Here is a list of dates for Wargames hosting:

January: Sat 24th-Sat 31st
February: Sat 21st-Sat 28th
March: Tue 24th-Tue 31st
April: Thu 23rd-Thu 30th
May: Sun 24th-Sun 31st

December and just-before-January subscriptions has reaped me £27.92, enough for 5 weeks hosting already. It has also counted up development hours to 37 hours.

A new version will be released sometime on the 1st of Jan, it includes a "proper" layout and not a slight modification of the default (although it looks virtually the same for the moment). It also includes "Quick Tips", a small pop up with some helpful info when you log into the game (or request it).

These things tend to come in 4X and similar games due to the nature of their complexity. I will no doubt transfer this over to Wargames 2 as well.

I did wonder about making commercials better, for now, they are marginally better due to a update I have planned but not for tomorrow. Tomorrows changes include a new building: The market which comes long before the Commercial in the Late Middle Ages (the third age). Commercials will now upgrade towns 2 squares away, giving them an advantage over markets for now. Cash earned from upgraded towns (regardless of whether it is commercials or markets) is now 750, up 250. They also cost 50 food each extra per turn, up 25.

I do plan a "super upgraded" town, when a town falls under the line of both a market and a commercial but it will require additional coding which I wont finish by tomorrow. The way that money works will also have to change soon, simply because the number of digits involved is simply too much for BYOND's standard usage (but I will get over it some how :p).

I will end this post now before I use too many brackets.

As mentioned before, Wargames development will be changing as of 2009. I will not be able to continue its development for so many hours and hosting week long games without financial help to support it.

It does cost a bit to leave a computer on constantly for a week, even more obviously to do it continually every week. My plan is therefore, to run Wargames one week a month (if you haven't voted yet, please do, you can find it a few blog posts down; or on the left hand side). At the moment, it looks like the last week of the month is winning, so that would mean I would host on Saturday the 24th of January.

To support the cost of running the computer, I ask that one subscription to Wargames (and Wargames 2 of course, its a double pack) contributes to the electricity bill for 1 week of hosting. I have used December this year as a backdrop to this system, and my current Wargames financial account comes to a whopping... £16.60, enough to run a 1 week game in January, February and March.

If you kids (and big kids) want me to host after that, I will need your support, each Subscription to the Wargames Double pack will contribute to running it an extra week in another month. If I'm lucky enough to get more than 9 subscriptions (oh lucky me) before the end of 2009, then I will consider hosting more than one week a month.

Along side that, I will only code Wargames or Wargames 2 if the money comes in. As well as hosting for each £5 that comes in, I will also work a number of hours for definite based on this amount. I have worked up a tier system which goes up as more money comes in to handle this system. At first, I will be willing to work for 75p an hour, so one subscription will pay for about 6 and a half hours. The next band would start when a target is hit, in this case, £260 is the first target. My "rate of pay" would then increase to £1 an hour (meaning I would work 5 hours for each subscription rather than 6).

I feel that this is a reasonable way of working (and a lot better than I am currently doing) which also means I get "paid" for what I do. Wargames can sadly not be a hobbie any more because of its growth and my other commitments in my life (I'm 21, I'm married, already work, I need to move house etc etc). I will also contribute any tips I get from work (which is few and far between) to this contribution, and any other money I will make from BYOND in the future.

Therefore, with the current £16.60 in my "Wargames Account", I will pay for 3 weeks hosting (1 per month) and code 22 hours between now and April.

I will explain the bands/tiers in detail in a future post. Please support me and Wargames, it wont die yet. I will also release a new version of wargames, probably on the 1st.

New game, done in a few hours, help included in game but its fairly simple.

http://www.byond.com/games/Acebloke/MicroDefence