Forums

With Catastrophe X being a real-time game, there has been no way for players to communicate with each other without being online at the same time. Not exactly ideal, especially given the relatively small number of players that the game has right now. So I have created a third-party forum to provide a place for discussion of Catastrophe X. Consider this a temporary venue, as I intend to integrate forums into the game itself once an account system is in place.

Drop by and introduce yourself -- let's get the discussion going.

Catastrophe X Forums

UI Improvements

Today I implemented a few user interface updates that have been on my list for a while.

• When you are in the process of deploying or moving a unit, there is now an arrow indicator showing which direction your craft will face. This removes any potential confusion about which side of a craft is the front.
• When you are in the process of performing an action, the box reading “please select a target (cancel)” is now tucked away at the top of the screen. This box would occasionally obstruct players' choice of targets.
• Ticks are no longer printed to the chat console, as these notices often pushed more important information off the screen.

I have also updated the generator craft, which now gives a bonus +3 energy per tick when placed on a colored energy tile (for example +3 blue per tick when placed on a blue tile). This should give players more reason to fight for control of the map when using the introductory pre-built detachments.

More soon!

Game Promotion Progress

I've spent the past few days promoting Catastrophe X. The best results came from making an update post on reddit, where people seemed to be pretty enthusiastic about the game. After posting on Saturday, I spent most of the weekend playing against the redditors that came online. At one point there were nearly ten players online with multiple battles going on, including a three-player battle for the first time -- exciting! Things have now died down a bit, but I have reserved a sponsored link on reddit's /r/gaming for later this week that should help generate some more buzz.

This week I will continue to focus on promotion. It's time-consuming, but there is no point focusing solely on features until more players are around to use them. To make the game playable despite the lack of opponents, I have set up an alarm on my computer that alerts me when a new player signs on. When anybody comes online during the day (in North America), I should usually be online within a few moments for a match.

Expect new features to be deployed over the next few days – more soon!

A Multitude of Small Changes

I implemented a bunch of smallish changes over the past few days. Most importantly:

• The bug that prevented players from exiting battles and upcoming battles has been fixed.
• The error message that occasionally popped up when surrendering has been corrected.
• I have revised the pre-built detachments to make them simpler for new players (i.e. fewer different types of craft).
• The last tick / next tick view mode selector is now easier to understand.
• The tick interval now defaults to 30 seconds. This is probably too short for more advanced players, but is better suited to newcomers who are trying to get a feel for the game.
• I have added a three-player map called Tristar.
• Deployment indicators (the concentric circles overlaid on a new unit) are now white if the unit is to be deployed next tick, and green if the unit was already deployed last tick. They were previously always green, making it difficult to tell if the deployment had actually occurred.
• Buildcraft now have a larger building range, instead of only the one tile directly in front of them.

In my last post I wrote about my plans for upgrading the craft action / tick system to accommodate some of the fancy craft capabilities that I have in my head. That will be important, but it's difficult for me to ignore the fact that the game is usually empty right now. Looking forward over the next couple weeks, I am going to put a lot more work into promoting Catastrophe X and accumulating the critical mass of players that the game needs to be fun. The game isn't ready for prime time just yet, but it would be nice to have at least a handful of players online at any given time.

UI Spruce Up and Craft Adjustments

I have spent the last few days polishing up the UI. As part of this, I have renamed the Server screen to the Hub screen, which I think better communicates its purpose. In addition, clicking on your display name at the top-right now brings up your Headquarters screen. The headquarters screen doesn't contain much right now, but down the road it will display your army, detachments, maps, and so on.

I have also made adjustments to some of the craft definitions. As players have started using custom detachments, it's become obvious that craft need to be better balanced. I would like to ensure that there is a diverse set of winning strategies, and that winning strategies involve armies with combinations of craft rather than only one type of craft. Achieving balance will be an ongoing effort.

Today's craft changes:

• Strikers, launch pads, fighter bases, and generators take more space in detachments.
• It is more expensive for buildcraft to create generators.
• Added the Arrow craft, which has a large moving range but a weak attack.

Looking forward, I am going to priorize building a larger, more balanced set of craft with much more diverse capabilities. Right now too many craft have the same basic move and attack capabilities, and in order to implement some of my new craft ideas I will first need to make the action system more flexible. More on this soon.

Video Tutorial

In an effort to make Catastrophe X more accessible and appealing to new players, I have released a video tutorial and have given the homepage a bit of a face-lift. Next on my agenda is to spruce up the game interface as well. More soon!

Faster Graphics

I have spent the past two and a half weeks working on the speed of the Catastrophe X's graphics system. Prior to today, moving to a different part of the map would result in a slow rendering spiral starting in the center of the screen. The rendering speed was tolerable in some browsers such as Chrome, but made the game almost unplayable in other modern browsers like Firefox.

The new graphics system changes all this. Shapes are indexed spatially for fast retrieval and display when you move around the map. And if things do slow down a bit, the system focuses on rendering the most important shapes first, before moving on to purely aesthetic details. The new system is very fast in all modern browsers, though Internet Explorer still struggles.

While digging around the map system, I also replaced the hated mouse-based map scrolling with keyboard-based scrolling using the arrow keys. I have also added some other hotkeys for convenience (N/L toggle between last tick and next tick view, C focuses on the craft deployment box, D signals you are done the tick).

More soon!