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Here is a collection on concepts that I am leaning towards for My Colony 2 as of today (20200624). This is all subject to change and I can be convinced by the community of anything, so keep the suggestions and feedback coming. This is going to be a super long post featuring all of my thoughts on MC2 thus far. Feel free to criticize anything and everything here. My feelings will not be hurt and nothing is set in stone. This is a starting point for community discussion to help make MC2 the best game it can be!
Relationship to My Colony 1
MC2 is an entire new game, not an upgrade to the original, or a version 2.0. It may use completely different concepts. It will not be tied in to the same server. Game files will not transfer over, as MC2 will probably have completely different buildings/tech tree, etc.
This does not mean that MC1 will be going away. I will continue to support the original and the server indefinitely. I realize that a lot of people like the style of game that MC1 is and do not want anything to change, so the original is staying where it is. It may continue to receive new content as well as bug fixes, but I do not plan on any further changes to the gameplay mechanics or core engine going forward.
That said, as long as MC1 remains popular and people keep playing it and paying for it, I will keep the game going.
Business Model/Monetizing
This is the least fun part of development, but a necessary one in order to make creating a game feasible. The business model for MC1 was tacked on as an afterthought, and reflecting back I do not like the concept of certain structures and units being premium.
None of this is set in stone, but here are my initial thoughts on the business model. My Colony 2 will be a straight paid app on all app stores, with everything unlocked at the base price, no in-app purchases. No advertising anywhere. The exception is on Ape Web Apps and the Ape Market, where it will be free, everything unlocked, but with no access to multiplayer or custom content. Maybe only one map type available.
Current My Colony 1 is basically already like this on Desktop, with the mobile client being free with additional IAP, so this change just makes the mobile version match up with what is already on desktop.
Now, I do anticipate the dissatisfaction of Android players not having the free version in the Play Store. However, Android support for Progressive Web Apps is sufficiently advanced now that you can just install the Web version to your homescreen like an app and it's hardly any different. Same with iOS. And MC1 will still be available for free like it always has been.
No free version on the mobile app stores will likely mean less players, and I understand this. But I like the idea of just buying a game and having the whole thing, not worrying about IAP's and not having any advertising.
Client/Server Structure
The biggest change to MC2 is it's design from the ground up as a multiplayer game. This does not mean that you cannot play single player, but it is being designed specifically for multiplayer.
MC1 has limited multiplayer, which basically consists of chat and trading/gifting resources. You can play together on a multiplayer region, but all you are really doing is sharing atmosphere and seeing thumbnails of other players' colonies. Not really very multiplayery (is that a word?). The MC1 multiplayer is also global and centralized, meaning everything has to go through the global My Colony server.
My Colony 2 multiplayer will be decentralized, meaning no global server that everybody plays on. Why am I doing this, because it seems like a downgrade? Look at every game out there with real global multiplayer, not just chat and trading. That takes massive infrastructure, and you pay for it with either a monthly subscription or endless IAP's. That's the only way it's really possible, and I don't think anybody wants that if you really stop and think it through.
The only realistic way to add real multiplayer to the game without investing in a massive infrastructure and charging big money for the game is to decentralize it. And since I am not Blizzard and do not want to spend my whole life maintaining MC2 servers, I am adopting a decentralized approach.
What does this mean? My Colony 2 will actually be designed as two separate applications in one, the client and the server.
The game client will be fairly light weight. It's job is to receive data from the server application and render it to the screen, and pass instructions as to what the player wants to do onto the server. That's pretty much it, and it should be fairly performant. Even though the game is moving to 3d, I still expect it to perform better than MC1, simply because 3d hardware rendering performs better than 2d software rendering.
The game server is much more interesting and is where all of the game mechanics take place, but since the server does not have to worry about handling the UI or making drawing calls, it actually has a bit more overhead to work with than on MC1. The two most expensive operations in MC1 are the rendering and the pathfinding. In MC2, the server is eliminating the rendering, and I also want to greatly reduce the pathfinding, leaving more headroom for actual fun stuff, like game mechanics simulation.
So in MC2, the game relationship is between client(s) and server. Whenever you create a new game in MC2, you are creating a new server, and then connecting to it with a client. The server is saved and retained between plays, where the client only exists while it is in use, and is not saved. So the point I just want to get across is that the client is really not that important, the server is.
The server and client code are both included in the My Colony 2 game. You will have the option of starting a regular game or creating a dedicated server. When you start a regular game, you are spinning up both a client and server and creating a 1-1 connection between the two right on your device. You can also make your game joinable by friends or others on your local network for multiplayer.
You can also create a dedicated server. When you create a MC2 dedicated server, you will be presented with a special server GUI that allows you to be in full control of the game. The server will continue to process game data as long as it is running, even if no players/clients are connected. A dedicated server will be able to establish custom game rules and parameters, and have mods installed that will be transferred to any client who connects. You will be able to make a dedicated server open to the public, or by invite only, or by specifying a list of accounts who are able to join. It's up to the server. A dedicated server will be able to moderate it's players however they want, the server can adjust resource levels, ban players for cheating, or anything. It's all up to the server owner.
The game data is saved only on the server, and the server owner will be responsible for making backups. I expect game files to be a lot bigger than MC1, so I am not going to be implementing Cloud Sync, which is known to cause corruption on larger files anyway. The ability to export and backup data will be built right into the game as usual.
Because of the way it's designed, even if you only want to play single player, it still may be desirable to set up a private dedicated server. For instance, you could run a private MC2 dedicated server on your powerful home PC that is always on/connected to the internet. Then you can connect to your server from your tablet/phone/laptop/another window on your computer, wherever you are, and your game is always there waiting for you, and all of the processing is being done on the more powerful computer.
The Game World/Game Files
In MC1, the game world is divided into cities and regions, and each city is a separate game file. In MC2, there are no cities and regions, there are planets.
This is something I am aping from Minecraft. A planet is like a regular city file in MC1, except is extends out in every direction to infinity, so you do not have to worry about running out of space for your city. A planet can have multiple cities and multiple players building cities at the same time.
Planets will be procedurally generated, and new areas will be generated in real-time as needed. Each planet type will have different biomes like in Minecraft, so that different environments and different resources are available in different parts on the planet.
This system means that you will have to build up trade networks with other cities or make additional settlement outposts across the planet in order to bring more resource types back to your colony. In MC1, practically every resource in the game is available with a square mile of your lander. This doesn't really make sense. In MC2 you will have to go out and find resources, and then build up a network for bringing them back into your city.
Technically, the MC2 world is still a big 2d grid like in MC1, but each tile does have an elevation, a z-index, for varied terrain elevations. Different resources might be found at different elevations and in different biomes. You will also be able to adjust the terrain in-game, like building up dirt to level out construction areas. There will be flat areas good for building, low canyons, and hilly or mountainous areas.
Also like in Minecraft, the terrain is generated on the fly and only transferred to the client in "chunks" as needed. So your client will only contain the data for the area that you are currently looking at, and the immediate surrounding areas. As you scroll around the map, areas you are no longer looking at will be disposed from memory as new areas are loaded from the server.
Construction / Resource Gathering and Rovers
I would really like to get rid of Rovers completely and simulate everything. It's not that I hate rovers, they are so helpful and adorable. The issue is with the pathfinding. Just driving rovers around the map takes up a huge percentage of the MC1 processing time, for what is essentially a visual effect.
Pathfinding is both CPU and memory intensive on anything larger than a medium sized MC1 map, and in MC2 the map sizes are being expanded infinitely larger. It's not just as simple as "only path finding around a certain area from the rover." Before you can even calculate pathfinding operations, you first have to generate a pathfinding map and load it into memory. The maps will be more expensive than in MC1 owing to the introduction of terrain elevation, as there will now be cliffs to work around. Each time a new structure is placed the pathfinding map needs to be recalculated. With the game being multiplayer, this will have to be taking place on a larger scale. It is one of the features holding MC1 back, due to all of the CPU time that must be dedicated to solving rover paths.
The issue of course, is that everybody likes rovers. Even I like rovers. Would the game be less fun without them? I don't know. If you could just turn off Rover Rendering in the engine settings and you didn't even see them, but everything continued to operate as normal, would it make a difference to the game, or would it matter? Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't.
Everything a Rover does can be simulated for a fraction of the CPU and memory cost.
This is the largest part of MC2 that I don't have an answer to. I can't just remove rovers because that would be a blow to the fans of MC1. I also cringe thinking of all of the months wasted on optimizing path finding and the 1 star complaints about performance, all relating to a path finding feature in what is essentially a city building game.
There are options.
I could always just keep rovers in the game as they are and just keep working around the processing issues that come with it. In a single player game or a server with only a few active players at once, it probably wouldn't be a very big hit.
I have also considered just simulating rovers, sort of like colonists are just simulated in MC1. For example, you don't even have to build your own rovers. But when you place a new construction order, little rovers drive up onto the construction site and build your building anyway. These rovers do not exist on the server, but you see them building on the client. Same way for moving resources around. On the server it is just simulated, but on the client, you see a rover driving around doing all of the work. This would still require path finding, but each client would be doing their own path finding on the visual rover effect, and the player could turn it off if it became a performance issue.
If the client could just visually simulate things like rovers, colonists, police cars, busses, etc, they would all still be there visually making your city look alive, but the server wouldn't even have to worry about them.
Maybe there are other options too that I am not thinking of? All feedback on Rovers is welcome. I want the game to be performant, but I also don't want to go against the fans, so please let me know what you think either way.
Graphics
MC1 is a software rendered game using the HTML5 canvas element, arranging .png and .svg tile images onto a 2d isometric grid. Most of the graphics processing is done by the main CPU and not the graphics card, so graphics performance is largely defined by how good your processor is. This is why the game runs a lot better on desktop vs mobile, or even on iPhone vs android, and iPhone processors tend to be a bit better.
The problems is that the CPU also has to process the game, so trying to do everything at once gets expensive, especially on mobile devices.
My Colony 2 is moving to WebGL for graphics processing, which is a javascript based implementation of OpenGL that handles rendering on the GPU. This should lead to far better performance on most devices.
My original idea was to use Blender for all of the games building models. The graphics were going to be awesome. But when I dug into Blender and started working with it, I remembered how I am not actually a graphics designer, and it was going to take me forever to make all of the models for this game.
My other idea was to make blocky pixelated type graphics using my own Voxel Paint application (https://www.apewebapps.com/voxel-paint/). This means lower quality visuals but much higher output and probably better rendering performance as well. It's also so easy to use that anybody could make their own MC2 models, my wife even offering to help design structures for the game (she is a big Minecraft fan).
At the end of the day, My Colony 1 was never known for high quality graphics, but I thought that with MC2 I could really make it look great. After putzing around with Blender though, I have to acknowledge my own personal limitations. Basically, I can either spend months learning how to make great 3d models in Blender, or I can spend months working on the game code. I know which one I'd rather do. So I am probably going to go with the pixelated look, simply because it is something that I can actually do myself within a realistic timeframe, and it will also go well with the next point I'm about to explain, which is modding.
I know some people will not like a pixelated looking game. This is one of those areas where I have to say "tough," unless somebody is willing so supply me with hundreds of 3d models free of charge, which is what it is going to take in order to do this properly.
Modding
Customization is going to be huge in MC2 compared to the original. Given the global online multiplayer in MC1, custom content could not realistically be allowed in the game. The decentralized nature of MC2 changes everything though, and modding and customization, as well as all of the tools needed to make it happen, are going to be baked right into the client.
In MC2, the basic "unit" of the game is the building. Everything is going to be pretty much based on buildings, and their relationship to each other. This is basically how MC1 works as well, so this is nothing new. What is going to be knew is My Colony 2's build in Building Editor.
I am going to be creating MC2 using the games' bulit-in editor, and so the same editor I use to make the game is going to be available to all players.
Each building in the game is going to be stored as a building file, and the base game will ship with all of its standard building files, which will be loaded at runtime. This differs from MC1 where all building data is stored in a single JSON file that is shipped with the game, which cannot be easily edited.
A building file will contain three parts.
The first is the JSON formatted definition data, with information about the name of the building, what it does, what it generates, etc. All of the properties that a building can have will be stored in that data.
The second part is the model information, which will essentially be an embedded Voxel Paint file.
The third part is a small (maybe like 64x64 pixel) thumbnail or icon representing the building, which will show up on the construction sidebar and various places throughout the UI.
The three above parts are all packaged into a single file which can be added to the game client, posted online for easy sharing, or what have you. A dedicated server can include custom building files that will automatically be distributed to clients when they join the game. Each building file will have a unique UUID and version information, so if a client already has the same version of a building file that a server does, it will not need to re-transfer the data upon connection.
This system is actually a very powerful change over the original My Colony, and unlocks essentially limitless possibilities for the game. This also makes it a lot easier for the community to participate in development of the game. A creator who makes a great building idea can distribute it online where it is tested out and balanced by the community. If it works in practice and everyone likes it, the file can be included in the base game.
If you want to host a crazy dedicated server with a bunch of custom buildings that totally change the game, you can do so.
I have no idea what kind of buildings people will dream up, but including the content creation tools right into the base game will be huge, I hope. And I plan on making the process as easy as I possibly can, so that anybody can create a building. Using Voxel Paint, if you have an idea and the ability to build a house in Minecraft, you should be able to make it a reality. And being able to make something and then instantly import it into your game makes it simple to test out concepts and balance them right there on your own device.
It's possibly that nobody will care about modding or making buildings, but it still doesn't hurt to add the tools right into the game. If nothing else, it will still make it easier for me to create new content for updates, versus having to go through and edit JSON data manually.
However, it's also possible that everybody will be making custom content and the game takes off in crazy directions that we never even imagined!
It could even be possible to allow mod creators to somehow sell their mods in-game and get paid in real money, maybe through PayPal or something. That is a thought for another day though, and not a current actual plan.
Conclusion
These are my current thoughts on MC2 as of this day. Like I said, nothing is set in stone yet and everything is subject to change. I wanted to put everything out there so that the community knows what page I am on and where I am headed, and has time to stop me if I am about to drive over a cliff.
Remember that I am open to all feedback, so if you have ideas, please don't just be quite about it, or don't just complain about them in a Discord chat somewhere, because I probably will not see them. Part of being a game developer is getting hate e-mail on a regular basis on why my games suck, so believe me that your being critical of the above ideas will not hurt my feelings, and will be nothing new to me.
The whole purpose of doing all of this beforehand is to get real feedback from the community so that MC2 can go in a direction that we all like and we will all have fun playing. Once I start getting into the code, it gets harder and harder to make changes, so if there is something you don't like, now is the time to mention it. Think of all of the things I could not effectively implement in MC1 because they would require massive time-consuming changes to the entire engine. So getting ideas in right now is how we avoid that.
Like MC1, I'm trying to make something fun that I myself want to play, not a game that is going to just nickel and dime players with constant ads and IAPs so I can sit on a yacht somewhere. I think the new decentralized play model will allow the game to outlast the original. Basically, if I get in a wreck and die, the MC1 server will be forever down within a few weeks. With MC2, once players can make their own servers and create their own content right from within the game, what happens to me becomes more irrelevant, which is the way it should be.
Anyway, if you got this far, then thanks for reading my small novel. Please give some thoughts to where you want to see the game go, or discuss it with other players and really think about all of the concepts I laid out here. I want to start working on the game soon, maybe as early as mid-next month. I plan to start with the world-generating engine and the in-game building creation tools first, so people can start testing that out and seeing what it is like to make their own content.
So between now and then, if any of the above ideas are way off the mark, I need to know now. So think about it, let me know, and thanks for helping me create the follow-up to My Colony. I think it's going to be fun!
Relationship to My Colony 1
MC2 is an entire new game, not an upgrade to the original, or a version 2.0. It may use completely different concepts. It will not be tied in to the same server. Game files will not transfer over, as MC2 will probably have completely different buildings/tech tree, etc.
This does not mean that MC1 will be going away. I will continue to support the original and the server indefinitely. I realize that a lot of people like the style of game that MC1 is and do not want anything to change, so the original is staying where it is. It may continue to receive new content as well as bug fixes, but I do not plan on any further changes to the gameplay mechanics or core engine going forward.
That said, as long as MC1 remains popular and people keep playing it and paying for it, I will keep the game going.
Business Model/Monetizing
This is the least fun part of development, but a necessary one in order to make creating a game feasible. The business model for MC1 was tacked on as an afterthought, and reflecting back I do not like the concept of certain structures and units being premium.
None of this is set in stone, but here are my initial thoughts on the business model. My Colony 2 will be a straight paid app on all app stores, with everything unlocked at the base price, no in-app purchases. No advertising anywhere. The exception is on Ape Web Apps and the Ape Market, where it will be free, everything unlocked, but with no access to multiplayer or custom content. Maybe only one map type available.
Current My Colony 1 is basically already like this on Desktop, with the mobile client being free with additional IAP, so this change just makes the mobile version match up with what is already on desktop.
Now, I do anticipate the dissatisfaction of Android players not having the free version in the Play Store. However, Android support for Progressive Web Apps is sufficiently advanced now that you can just install the Web version to your homescreen like an app and it's hardly any different. Same with iOS. And MC1 will still be available for free like it always has been.
No free version on the mobile app stores will likely mean less players, and I understand this. But I like the idea of just buying a game and having the whole thing, not worrying about IAP's and not having any advertising.
Client/Server Structure
The biggest change to MC2 is it's design from the ground up as a multiplayer game. This does not mean that you cannot play single player, but it is being designed specifically for multiplayer.
MC1 has limited multiplayer, which basically consists of chat and trading/gifting resources. You can play together on a multiplayer region, but all you are really doing is sharing atmosphere and seeing thumbnails of other players' colonies. Not really very multiplayery (is that a word?). The MC1 multiplayer is also global and centralized, meaning everything has to go through the global My Colony server.
My Colony 2 multiplayer will be decentralized, meaning no global server that everybody plays on. Why am I doing this, because it seems like a downgrade? Look at every game out there with real global multiplayer, not just chat and trading. That takes massive infrastructure, and you pay for it with either a monthly subscription or endless IAP's. That's the only way it's really possible, and I don't think anybody wants that if you really stop and think it through.
The only realistic way to add real multiplayer to the game without investing in a massive infrastructure and charging big money for the game is to decentralize it. And since I am not Blizzard and do not want to spend my whole life maintaining MC2 servers, I am adopting a decentralized approach.
What does this mean? My Colony 2 will actually be designed as two separate applications in one, the client and the server.
The game client will be fairly light weight. It's job is to receive data from the server application and render it to the screen, and pass instructions as to what the player wants to do onto the server. That's pretty much it, and it should be fairly performant. Even though the game is moving to 3d, I still expect it to perform better than MC1, simply because 3d hardware rendering performs better than 2d software rendering.
The game server is much more interesting and is where all of the game mechanics take place, but since the server does not have to worry about handling the UI or making drawing calls, it actually has a bit more overhead to work with than on MC1. The two most expensive operations in MC1 are the rendering and the pathfinding. In MC2, the server is eliminating the rendering, and I also want to greatly reduce the pathfinding, leaving more headroom for actual fun stuff, like game mechanics simulation.
So in MC2, the game relationship is between client(s) and server. Whenever you create a new game in MC2, you are creating a new server, and then connecting to it with a client. The server is saved and retained between plays, where the client only exists while it is in use, and is not saved. So the point I just want to get across is that the client is really not that important, the server is.
The server and client code are both included in the My Colony 2 game. You will have the option of starting a regular game or creating a dedicated server. When you start a regular game, you are spinning up both a client and server and creating a 1-1 connection between the two right on your device. You can also make your game joinable by friends or others on your local network for multiplayer.
You can also create a dedicated server. When you create a MC2 dedicated server, you will be presented with a special server GUI that allows you to be in full control of the game. The server will continue to process game data as long as it is running, even if no players/clients are connected. A dedicated server will be able to establish custom game rules and parameters, and have mods installed that will be transferred to any client who connects. You will be able to make a dedicated server open to the public, or by invite only, or by specifying a list of accounts who are able to join. It's up to the server. A dedicated server will be able to moderate it's players however they want, the server can adjust resource levels, ban players for cheating, or anything. It's all up to the server owner.
The game data is saved only on the server, and the server owner will be responsible for making backups. I expect game files to be a lot bigger than MC1, so I am not going to be implementing Cloud Sync, which is known to cause corruption on larger files anyway. The ability to export and backup data will be built right into the game as usual.
Because of the way it's designed, even if you only want to play single player, it still may be desirable to set up a private dedicated server. For instance, you could run a private MC2 dedicated server on your powerful home PC that is always on/connected to the internet. Then you can connect to your server from your tablet/phone/laptop/another window on your computer, wherever you are, and your game is always there waiting for you, and all of the processing is being done on the more powerful computer.
The Game World/Game Files
In MC1, the game world is divided into cities and regions, and each city is a separate game file. In MC2, there are no cities and regions, there are planets.
This is something I am aping from Minecraft. A planet is like a regular city file in MC1, except is extends out in every direction to infinity, so you do not have to worry about running out of space for your city. A planet can have multiple cities and multiple players building cities at the same time.
Planets will be procedurally generated, and new areas will be generated in real-time as needed. Each planet type will have different biomes like in Minecraft, so that different environments and different resources are available in different parts on the planet.
This system means that you will have to build up trade networks with other cities or make additional settlement outposts across the planet in order to bring more resource types back to your colony. In MC1, practically every resource in the game is available with a square mile of your lander. This doesn't really make sense. In MC2 you will have to go out and find resources, and then build up a network for bringing them back into your city.
Technically, the MC2 world is still a big 2d grid like in MC1, but each tile does have an elevation, a z-index, for varied terrain elevations. Different resources might be found at different elevations and in different biomes. You will also be able to adjust the terrain in-game, like building up dirt to level out construction areas. There will be flat areas good for building, low canyons, and hilly or mountainous areas.
Also like in Minecraft, the terrain is generated on the fly and only transferred to the client in "chunks" as needed. So your client will only contain the data for the area that you are currently looking at, and the immediate surrounding areas. As you scroll around the map, areas you are no longer looking at will be disposed from memory as new areas are loaded from the server.
Construction / Resource Gathering and Rovers
I would really like to get rid of Rovers completely and simulate everything. It's not that I hate rovers, they are so helpful and adorable. The issue is with the pathfinding. Just driving rovers around the map takes up a huge percentage of the MC1 processing time, for what is essentially a visual effect.
Pathfinding is both CPU and memory intensive on anything larger than a medium sized MC1 map, and in MC2 the map sizes are being expanded infinitely larger. It's not just as simple as "only path finding around a certain area from the rover." Before you can even calculate pathfinding operations, you first have to generate a pathfinding map and load it into memory. The maps will be more expensive than in MC1 owing to the introduction of terrain elevation, as there will now be cliffs to work around. Each time a new structure is placed the pathfinding map needs to be recalculated. With the game being multiplayer, this will have to be taking place on a larger scale. It is one of the features holding MC1 back, due to all of the CPU time that must be dedicated to solving rover paths.
The issue of course, is that everybody likes rovers. Even I like rovers. Would the game be less fun without them? I don't know. If you could just turn off Rover Rendering in the engine settings and you didn't even see them, but everything continued to operate as normal, would it make a difference to the game, or would it matter? Maybe it would, maybe it wouldn't.
Everything a Rover does can be simulated for a fraction of the CPU and memory cost.
This is the largest part of MC2 that I don't have an answer to. I can't just remove rovers because that would be a blow to the fans of MC1. I also cringe thinking of all of the months wasted on optimizing path finding and the 1 star complaints about performance, all relating to a path finding feature in what is essentially a city building game.
There are options.
I could always just keep rovers in the game as they are and just keep working around the processing issues that come with it. In a single player game or a server with only a few active players at once, it probably wouldn't be a very big hit.
I have also considered just simulating rovers, sort of like colonists are just simulated in MC1. For example, you don't even have to build your own rovers. But when you place a new construction order, little rovers drive up onto the construction site and build your building anyway. These rovers do not exist on the server, but you see them building on the client. Same way for moving resources around. On the server it is just simulated, but on the client, you see a rover driving around doing all of the work. This would still require path finding, but each client would be doing their own path finding on the visual rover effect, and the player could turn it off if it became a performance issue.
If the client could just visually simulate things like rovers, colonists, police cars, busses, etc, they would all still be there visually making your city look alive, but the server wouldn't even have to worry about them.
Maybe there are other options too that I am not thinking of? All feedback on Rovers is welcome. I want the game to be performant, but I also don't want to go against the fans, so please let me know what you think either way.
Graphics
MC1 is a software rendered game using the HTML5 canvas element, arranging .png and .svg tile images onto a 2d isometric grid. Most of the graphics processing is done by the main CPU and not the graphics card, so graphics performance is largely defined by how good your processor is. This is why the game runs a lot better on desktop vs mobile, or even on iPhone vs android, and iPhone processors tend to be a bit better.
The problems is that the CPU also has to process the game, so trying to do everything at once gets expensive, especially on mobile devices.
My Colony 2 is moving to WebGL for graphics processing, which is a javascript based implementation of OpenGL that handles rendering on the GPU. This should lead to far better performance on most devices.
My original idea was to use Blender for all of the games building models. The graphics were going to be awesome. But when I dug into Blender and started working with it, I remembered how I am not actually a graphics designer, and it was going to take me forever to make all of the models for this game.
My other idea was to make blocky pixelated type graphics using my own Voxel Paint application (https://www.apewebapps.com/voxel-paint/). This means lower quality visuals but much higher output and probably better rendering performance as well. It's also so easy to use that anybody could make their own MC2 models, my wife even offering to help design structures for the game (she is a big Minecraft fan).
At the end of the day, My Colony 1 was never known for high quality graphics, but I thought that with MC2 I could really make it look great. After putzing around with Blender though, I have to acknowledge my own personal limitations. Basically, I can either spend months learning how to make great 3d models in Blender, or I can spend months working on the game code. I know which one I'd rather do. So I am probably going to go with the pixelated look, simply because it is something that I can actually do myself within a realistic timeframe, and it will also go well with the next point I'm about to explain, which is modding.
I know some people will not like a pixelated looking game. This is one of those areas where I have to say "tough," unless somebody is willing so supply me with hundreds of 3d models free of charge, which is what it is going to take in order to do this properly.
Modding
Customization is going to be huge in MC2 compared to the original. Given the global online multiplayer in MC1, custom content could not realistically be allowed in the game. The decentralized nature of MC2 changes everything though, and modding and customization, as well as all of the tools needed to make it happen, are going to be baked right into the client.
In MC2, the basic "unit" of the game is the building. Everything is going to be pretty much based on buildings, and their relationship to each other. This is basically how MC1 works as well, so this is nothing new. What is going to be knew is My Colony 2's build in Building Editor.
I am going to be creating MC2 using the games' bulit-in editor, and so the same editor I use to make the game is going to be available to all players.
Each building in the game is going to be stored as a building file, and the base game will ship with all of its standard building files, which will be loaded at runtime. This differs from MC1 where all building data is stored in a single JSON file that is shipped with the game, which cannot be easily edited.
A building file will contain three parts.
The first is the JSON formatted definition data, with information about the name of the building, what it does, what it generates, etc. All of the properties that a building can have will be stored in that data.
The second part is the model information, which will essentially be an embedded Voxel Paint file.
The third part is a small (maybe like 64x64 pixel) thumbnail or icon representing the building, which will show up on the construction sidebar and various places throughout the UI.
The three above parts are all packaged into a single file which can be added to the game client, posted online for easy sharing, or what have you. A dedicated server can include custom building files that will automatically be distributed to clients when they join the game. Each building file will have a unique UUID and version information, so if a client already has the same version of a building file that a server does, it will not need to re-transfer the data upon connection.
This system is actually a very powerful change over the original My Colony, and unlocks essentially limitless possibilities for the game. This also makes it a lot easier for the community to participate in development of the game. A creator who makes a great building idea can distribute it online where it is tested out and balanced by the community. If it works in practice and everyone likes it, the file can be included in the base game.
If you want to host a crazy dedicated server with a bunch of custom buildings that totally change the game, you can do so.
I have no idea what kind of buildings people will dream up, but including the content creation tools right into the base game will be huge, I hope. And I plan on making the process as easy as I possibly can, so that anybody can create a building. Using Voxel Paint, if you have an idea and the ability to build a house in Minecraft, you should be able to make it a reality. And being able to make something and then instantly import it into your game makes it simple to test out concepts and balance them right there on your own device.
It's possibly that nobody will care about modding or making buildings, but it still doesn't hurt to add the tools right into the game. If nothing else, it will still make it easier for me to create new content for updates, versus having to go through and edit JSON data manually.
However, it's also possible that everybody will be making custom content and the game takes off in crazy directions that we never even imagined!
It could even be possible to allow mod creators to somehow sell their mods in-game and get paid in real money, maybe through PayPal or something. That is a thought for another day though, and not a current actual plan.
Conclusion
These are my current thoughts on MC2 as of this day. Like I said, nothing is set in stone yet and everything is subject to change. I wanted to put everything out there so that the community knows what page I am on and where I am headed, and has time to stop me if I am about to drive over a cliff.
Remember that I am open to all feedback, so if you have ideas, please don't just be quite about it, or don't just complain about them in a Discord chat somewhere, because I probably will not see them. Part of being a game developer is getting hate e-mail on a regular basis on why my games suck, so believe me that your being critical of the above ideas will not hurt my feelings, and will be nothing new to me.
The whole purpose of doing all of this beforehand is to get real feedback from the community so that MC2 can go in a direction that we all like and we will all have fun playing. Once I start getting into the code, it gets harder and harder to make changes, so if there is something you don't like, now is the time to mention it. Think of all of the things I could not effectively implement in MC1 because they would require massive time-consuming changes to the entire engine. So getting ideas in right now is how we avoid that.
Like MC1, I'm trying to make something fun that I myself want to play, not a game that is going to just nickel and dime players with constant ads and IAPs so I can sit on a yacht somewhere. I think the new decentralized play model will allow the game to outlast the original. Basically, if I get in a wreck and die, the MC1 server will be forever down within a few weeks. With MC2, once players can make their own servers and create their own content right from within the game, what happens to me becomes more irrelevant, which is the way it should be.
Anyway, if you got this far, then thanks for reading my small novel. Please give some thoughts to where you want to see the game go, or discuss it with other players and really think about all of the concepts I laid out here. I want to start working on the game soon, maybe as early as mid-next month. I plan to start with the world-generating engine and the in-game building creation tools first, so people can start testing that out and seeing what it is like to make their own content.
So between now and then, if any of the above ideas are way off the mark, I need to know now. So think about it, let me know, and thanks for helping me create the follow-up to My Colony. I think it's going to be fun!
cry8wolf9 said:Well maybe not so quick.
Since your taking a look at models.
Are you keeping the same model for structures? Like entertainment, government, ect.
Also what about the races? Same or are there going to be different ones? Would this be a good chance to suggest new ones?
Any lore ideas yet to base the buildings and builders on?
Sorry cry, but you might get more than you bargained for with my reply.
So I am not exactly sure what you mean by "models," but I don't want the design of the game to be limited by what was there in MC1. There might be a tendency to think "well this is just MC1 with just 3d versions of the landscape and buildings," etc, but that is not my thinking at all. There is no reason that the tech or building tree has to mimic what was in MC1, and the buildings don't just have to be 3d versions of their MC1 counterparts. There is no reason why MC1 needs to have a lander, silo, solar panel, greenhouse, refinery etc, unless they make sense in the context of the game. Same thing applies to Rovers, which is why I continue to raise the question as to whether they need to exist in the same form as they do in MC1.
This is not to say that existing MC1 stuff does not belong here, what I am trying to say is that this is an entirely new game, there is nothing wrong with starting on with a new slate.
In terms of lore/races/civs/etc. My thought is that MC2 would be on one hand smaller in scale than MC1, but at the same time much larger.
What does this mean? So My Colony 1 basically encompasses a large area of the galaxy with thousands of planets and the three principal races. And all of the races are still official "lore" for the game, of course. Additionally, a "planet" in MC1 is basically limited to a small plot of land, and you can go from a lander touching down on a dead empty world to a booming metropolis in a matter of days.
I want MC2 to feel completely different, like when your lander touches down on the Red Planet (or whatever world), you are just a lander and two tiny colonists alone on a massive, dead, empty world that you must tame, and all of the resources you need will not just be sitting there waiting for you upon arrival.
Here is how I sort of see it in my head. All lore for the game universe comes principally from the following titles: Colony Wars, Colonial Tycoon, Death 3d, My Starship, Deimos, Deimos 2 - End of the Earth, Deimos 3 - High Noon, and Sarge. If you wanted to put the story in a chronological order, I think it would go like this:
- My Colony 2
- Deimos
- Sarge
- End of the Earth
- High Noon
- Colony Wars
- Death 3d
- My Colony 1
- Colonial Tycoon
- My Starship
So that is a general overview of the MC Universe lore. The nature of My Colony 1 and 2 make them harder to place firmly on a timeline, since a game can last "years" and span throughout the whole timeline. But I do like to see My Colony 2 start at the very beginnings, not to far from our present day, because I think it would be neat to see the original few lonely colonists roughing it in hard times on a barren world, which is what going to Mars is going to be like in real life.
It has given me some ideas for some changes VS MC1 though.
In MC1 you are like a mayor or a governor starting a city. In MC2, I see the player as more of a company landing on part of a new planet for fun and for profit, but mostly for profit. You begin with a certain amount of money, and initially to get more colonists, you have to finance another launch from Earth, which results in another Lander showing up with two or three colonists. The Lander can be broken down for scrap parts once it arrives. I think you will also be able to order up a supplies lander from Earth for a lower cost, which has no colonists but whatever materials you need to order, or foot/water etc. However if another player is also on that planet and there are already colonists nearby, they may join your settlement instead of having to bring in new people. You get more money by exporting resources back to earth.
Eventually your settlement grows into a city and the nature of the game changes from one of having to ship materials to Earth for survival to a self-sustaining colony. But I think it will be a slower, more drawn out process VS MC1.
Having multiple players on a planet will also allow for a planetary economy to grow, where trade networks between settlements are made and colonists move from one player to another. Eventually a planet can be built to a point where Earth is no longer required. In MC1, each player has his own planet, but in MC2 I would rather see all players on the server on the same planet, with the planet itself being near infinite in size, with different resources and terrains on different parts on the planet. There will of course be support for multiple planets on a server, but I do not think the game will be as fun if everybody starts with their own planet, as on MC1. On MC1 it was needed because a planet was, at most, a few square miles in size. In MC2, a planet is like an actual planet.
I don't know if there will be terraforming as in MC1, or if so it will be way, way slower.
As for other civs, my plan is to just have Earth/Human. If somebody wants to create a mod with another civ built out, they are free to do so. If it's really good and they want it included in the base game, I will consider it. But it's not a part of the initial plan.
I think we sort of decided that resources would work in a similar manner to MC1. One thing I think needs to be finalized is resource pools. Should they be player based, or settlement based? I am of mixed opinions on this, so would like to hear feedback and pros/cons of each, since I need to start adding resources to the engine fairly soon before I can move on.
Some resources need to be like MC1, but they can not be both?
Steel factory:
- -2 ore (like utility)
- +1 steel (like utility)
- 150 steel unit (like mc1, for building)
In mc1, you remember why you were forced to add a hardcap for the payroll assistance? Some player are born only for give chaos.
The only settlement based resources pool isn't a bad idea, can be a nice way to play with friend, slowly introducing them into the game. The experienced player could actually help those unfamiliar with the game, without destroying the gameplay (like gifting billions of resources to those just starting to play).
But.. the server owner need to have the possibility to create rule, like:
- Only player inside a list can play in settlement create by player A
- Other player can interact with a settlement only if the player is Online
- some blacklist
- maximum withdrawal based on the grade
- ecc
For the player personal resources pool, how players could change resources? Resources Like MC1, or physically located in storage? (if i have steel in sector 0:0, i can't use in sector 9900000:65465465465465)
The more I think of it in my head though, I am starting to envision a new system that is possibly a bit more complicated at first, but I think is more realistic and would add a whole new element to the game - logistics.
Love it.
If you wanna to keep the settlement little and realistic, is a good choice.
My proposal for MC2 is to have the resources literally be tied to no large single pool, but instead just sit there in the building/area they were produced until they are moved. If you build a mine somewhere, you also need a transportation system to bring the ore from the mine to the refinery, or to a warehouse, etc. Each player is responsible for this own supply lines. Suppose you build a department store in Settlement A that sells toys. You also have a factory in Settlement B that produces toys, but it is X miles away and there is a transport cost. Player2 also has a toy factory in Settlement A right across the street from your shop. You can either pay build up your own transportation infrastructure, or you can just source the toys from across the street, in which case money would change hands from Player 1 to 2.
Seems a nice bottleneck to me (a good one, not bad), able to give more realism.
There should be logistics related buildings such as trucking stations or perhaps rail lines. So there wasn't so much micromanaging, a Factory could know what resources it needs, and trucks in the area could automatically move the materials. If a truck is owned by Player 1 and the mine is owned by Player 1 and the factory is owned by Player 1, then it can be a "free shipping" scenario, otherwise you could make money by transporting resources for other players. A player could build his entire financial empire on being a "transport tycoon" and shipping resources for other players.
Seems a very nice idea. And again.. can be used from experienced players to help unfamiliar players.
Warehouses can be tweaked so that the player can decide what resources are stored there. You could say that Warehouse A on this part of town should only store Gold because there is a Mint nearby. And then trucks behind the scenes could figure out the logistics. The player could also manually set their trucking routes if they wanted more control.
So.. instead like mc1, where each warehouses have a infinite resources list, the building now is just a big place where players can put thing inside. Not bad
If each building had a "Needs" and "Provides" ledger, a lot of the logistics could happen behind the scenes automatically.
The whole transports system can easy be structured like a hydraulic system, you could copy some hydraulic formula for easy setup the system, like flow rate, speed, valves, tanks, main pipes, reducers, etc..
Another benefit of each building keeping it's own inventory would help facilitate transactions between players. Suppose Player 1 needs a new Rover, but does not have a vehicle factory, or the materials to build his own. But Player 2 has a Rover Dealership with 6 rovers in stock. You can just buy one of their rovers for Money without even needing the materials or your own factory, and Player 2 gets some nice funds added to their treasury. And perhaps the settlement gets a nice sales tax. Player 2 could tell the dealership building to always keep X numbers of Rovers in stock, and the shipping and logistics engine could take care of the rest. Or he could own the rover factory next door and set up the shipping himself. I don't know!!!
To me seems an other argument, not direct connected with the transports or warehouse. Another way to make it easier for players to interact, and again, to help other player.
At this point, why not allow the sale of buildings, or pay someone to build for us? With resources / money. And if the player B give enough resources, player A only need to move rovers, not personal resources.
In MC1, again like a dictatorship, the player controls everything related to the economy. You pay the workers, and you also tax them. I am thinking of separating this out. For MC2, I propose that the only resource an actual settlement as an entity can have is Money. Each settlement will have it's own public treasury, and the leader of that settlement decides what funds are used for the public, enacts tax policy, etc. Perhaps a settlement can be democratic where different players are able to run against each other, or perhaps a settlement is a dictatorship and leadership cannot be altered. The settlement will be able to tax both colonists, which are controlled by the engine, or businesses, which are controlled by the player. If there is a business tax in the settlement, it is taken out of profits produced by players. If the settlement wants to build a public structure like a Park, it can contract the work out to a player who has the logistics to build it. The settlement would pay a player to build the police station, but then you would use public settlement money to fund and operate it.
Agreed
This system also would let a settlement leader implement zoning, as mentioned in this thread. The settlement leader could say "only houses in this area" or "only shops in this area" etc. Roads within a settlement could be the responsibility of the settlement owner, or he could just say "anybody can build necessary roads here."
If the leader can implement rules, why not.
Anyway, maybe this is all too micro-managy and I should just stick to MC1 mechanics, so I'd like to hear what others think about such a logistics system. I like it better because the game can have even more resources than MC1, but without having a huge resource bar at the top of the screen. And it's more realistic than just having storage buildings everywhere will millions of resources.
I don't thing is too much, but i love micro-management. And adding several layers of micro/macro-management, can easy become bottleneck, avoid insane stuff.
Little and nice settlement, instead to have a nearly infinite building like mc1.
One little question.. The ideas in this post are very very very nice, every one. But, they should have a maxim impact in planet with many many players. Not in a nearly infinite planet, with 2-3 players playing very far from each other.
So.. an other idea.. If Player A run Server A, and player B run Server B, they could cross playing without start again everything? In this scenario, many player server they could work together, allowing interactions of this type. But.. maybe this idea can be an other topic, not this one.
The online map at https://mc1.my-colony.com/map/ doesn't work anymore.
Apparently when the website changed subdomain, some js links weren't changed. (Is it really 2 years and nobody noticed or was the js changed recently after the migration?)
The error is in galmap.js at lines 198, 240, 289 and 364:
Apparently when the website changed subdomain, some js links weren't changed. (Is it really 2 years and nobody noticed or was the js changed recently after the migration?)
The error is in galmap.js at lines 198, 240, 289 and 364:
198c198Tested with https://mc1.my-colony.com/map/mbHpVVuDyx.html
< var apiURL = "https://www.my-colony.com/api.php?pf=2&g=1&c=" + charter;
---
> var apiURL = "https://mc1.my-colony.com/api.php?pf=2&g=1&c=" + charter;
240c240
< window.open("https://www.my-colony.com/colonies/" + selectedColony.charter + "/","_blank");
---
> window.open("https://mc1.my-colony.com/colonies/" + selectedColony.charter + "/","_blank");
289c289
< var apiURL = "https://www.my-colony.com/api.php?pf=3&g=1&sx=" + x + "&sy=" + y;
---
> var apiURL = "https://mc1.my-colony.com/api.php?pf=3&g=1&sx=" + x + "&sy=" + y;
364c364
< var apiURL = "https://www.my-colony.com/api.php?pf=2&g=1&c=" + charter;
---
> var apiURL = "https://mc1.my-colony.com/api.php?pf=2&g=1&c=" + charter;
Hello guys!
So several have past, MC2 have grown in terms of contents and its community. Many ideas to expand diversity of MC2 arises, though most of them carries some form of legacies from MC1.
By that, I'm reviewing the aspect of resources form MC1 and let's see if they can get some form of improvement and better organization before they get implemented into MC2.
Certain resources from MC1 is kinda...... weird, either they are not general enough to represent some aspects of commodities, or limited in purpose and utilization because of the narrow concept. Most of the resources in question I'll mention today are relevant to non-heavy industries, which will require some conceptual rebranding - for wider representation that possibly allows more buildings ideas, or reduce the redundancy of certain resources (if they are) by integration.
Pottery, in many ways, reflects the aspects of common customer goods especially home necessities which expanded examples can include furniture, utensils (which pottery themselves are) and decorations of different materials.
By pottery I don't think it can well represent that aspect alone. Home necessities, may it be decorative or utility, are not limited to earthwares, those can be made of plastic, steel, wood, etc, and in sci-fi genres of My Colony they can be even made of advanced materials we haven't think of yet. Ohh, yes, don't forget carpets (though cloth resource represented it already. But cloth is not our resource of interest today, since cloth itself has no problems).
My idea is perhaps an integrated resource called Common Wares. By that it not just includes pottery itself, but also other commodities that fits the general furnishing, consumer goods and necessities purpose for home, your office and public facilities.
Paintings, very obviously, reflects certain fine or some form of HIGH-END artistic creations (usually physical), which the aspect should not be limited to just paintings - In some ways just paintings is not suitable despite painting is still the most common form of art today IRL. In many ways we actually have forgotten some even very traditional artistic creations that can end up as high-end goods, like sculptures, fine potteries (those very beautiful ones separated from common, plain potteries), rugs with fine embroideries and calligraphy. More modern "art" can include some more modern ones like unique animated gadgets and other stuff you may imagine that are tailor made into fancy items.
I haven't think of a way to generalize them with some catchy title, so for now I'll leave it as it is.
Toys - represents games and non-food entertainment goods - perhaps one of the most underused resource in MC1 due to itself (and particularly its icon too) pretty much mostly refers to very traditional toys for kids by the definition in the game, it pretty much limits direct imagination and somewhat make some of the buildings like Playhouse, awkwardly child-themed where these places also serves adults.
In more modern aspects, where entertainment has expanded and evolved to new forms, new definition might be needed to represent these playthings. It requires no renaming though, include some modern gadgets and wider examples into the concept of toys beyond children playthings and refurnish its resource icon would suffice.
So change its icon to what? Simply less pieces of Lego, and try add something like a joystick or a ball. If someone thinks portable game consoles can be included as "toy", perhaps that too.
As a result, with expanded concepts and more possible fabrication recipes for toys, and finally allowing toys for more proper uses without becoming an awkward sight in the colony.
Wool - basically raw fibers that can be made into woven textiles. It's weird to see why it is not generalized as Raw Fibers to include other raw textile materials like linen, industrial hemp, raw animal silk, and even mineral wool. On alien planets I believe there can be more sources of raw textile fibers, which we can use them without need to create another new redundant resource that serves identical purpose while allows greater imagination.
Rum could have been a resource in question of revamping needs, but since it canonically becomes the most common type of liquor in the MC1 galaxy, I guess this part can't be touched then.
So here's my kinda messy ideas regarding some resources that might pass onto from MC1 and MC2, and their needs for revamping. Hopefully this can make resource more generalized for greater diversity of industries.
So several have past, MC2 have grown in terms of contents and its community. Many ideas to expand diversity of MC2 arises, though most of them carries some form of legacies from MC1.
By that, I'm reviewing the aspect of resources form MC1 and let's see if they can get some form of improvement and better organization before they get implemented into MC2.
Certain resources from MC1 is kinda...... weird, either they are not general enough to represent some aspects of commodities, or limited in purpose and utilization because of the narrow concept. Most of the resources in question I'll mention today are relevant to non-heavy industries, which will require some conceptual rebranding - for wider representation that possibly allows more buildings ideas, or reduce the redundancy of certain resources (if they are) by integration.
Pottery, in many ways, reflects the aspects of common customer goods especially home necessities which expanded examples can include furniture, utensils (which pottery themselves are) and decorations of different materials.
By pottery I don't think it can well represent that aspect alone. Home necessities, may it be decorative or utility, are not limited to earthwares, those can be made of plastic, steel, wood, etc, and in sci-fi genres of My Colony they can be even made of advanced materials we haven't think of yet. Ohh, yes, don't forget carpets (though cloth resource represented it already. But cloth is not our resource of interest today, since cloth itself has no problems).
My idea is perhaps an integrated resource called Common Wares. By that it not just includes pottery itself, but also other commodities that fits the general furnishing, consumer goods and necessities purpose for home, your office and public facilities.
Paintings, very obviously, reflects certain fine or some form of HIGH-END artistic creations (usually physical), which the aspect should not be limited to just paintings - In some ways just paintings is not suitable despite painting is still the most common form of art today IRL. In many ways we actually have forgotten some even very traditional artistic creations that can end up as high-end goods, like sculptures, fine potteries (those very beautiful ones separated from common, plain potteries), rugs with fine embroideries and calligraphy. More modern "art" can include some more modern ones like unique animated gadgets and other stuff you may imagine that are tailor made into fancy items.
I haven't think of a way to generalize them with some catchy title, so for now I'll leave it as it is.
Toys - represents games and non-food entertainment goods - perhaps one of the most underused resource in MC1 due to itself (and particularly its icon too) pretty much mostly refers to very traditional toys for kids by the definition in the game, it pretty much limits direct imagination and somewhat make some of the buildings like Playhouse, awkwardly child-themed where these places also serves adults.
In more modern aspects, where entertainment has expanded and evolved to new forms, new definition might be needed to represent these playthings. It requires no renaming though, include some modern gadgets and wider examples into the concept of toys beyond children playthings and refurnish its resource icon would suffice.
So change its icon to what? Simply less pieces of Lego, and try add something like a joystick or a ball. If someone thinks portable game consoles can be included as "toy", perhaps that too.
As a result, with expanded concepts and more possible fabrication recipes for toys, and finally allowing toys for more proper uses without becoming an awkward sight in the colony.
Wool - basically raw fibers that can be made into woven textiles. It's weird to see why it is not generalized as Raw Fibers to include other raw textile materials like linen, industrial hemp, raw animal silk, and even mineral wool. On alien planets I believe there can be more sources of raw textile fibers, which we can use them without need to create another new redundant resource that serves identical purpose while allows greater imagination.
Rum could have been a resource in question of revamping needs, but since it canonically becomes the most common type of liquor in the MC1 galaxy, I guess this part can't be touched then.
So here's my kinda messy ideas regarding some resources that might pass onto from MC1 and MC2, and their needs for revamping. Hopefully this can make resource more generalized for greater diversity of industries.
I haven't tested trying to host two different servers on the same machine, but my guess is that it would cause issues. Granted, this is only really a problem if you want multiple players on the same planet. If you are just running your own game and don't care about other people joining, then it really makes little difference. If you are just playing your own colony single player then it probably wouldn't matter if you ran 10 colonies on the same PC.
Every game you start in MC2 is technically a server, whether it is dedicated or not. Whether or not other players join the game is really immaterial. You can just start your own game set to private and build a colony like in MC1, and it will be just like a normal game. There is no requirement to have multiple players, in which case the game would be just like MC1.
In this manner, a "server" for MC2 is not at all like the server for MC1, they are similar in name only. The MC1 server handles colony information and trades for all games. A server in MC2 houses all game logic and processing and supports multiple players on the same map. MC2 may also have a separate global server that handles colony information and trades, like the current MC1 server, depending on if I go that route. I'll have to see how the game plays and feels first to see if it's even necessary. I am hoping it's not...
As for the different protocols on different platforms, I understand that it is not ideal, but unfortunately that was not some sort of design decision on my part, but a matter of necessity. Each platform only supports what it supports, and that is pretty much out of my hands. All I can really do is enable all supported protocols on each platform and give them a way to talk to each other. Some multiplayer combinations will not be possible, like an Ape Web Apps player joining a Windows 10 (UWP) server. However, a Ape Web Apps player AND a Windows 10 UWP player could both join a Desktop/Steam server. If a global MC2 trades server is added at some point, any client would be able to join it regardless of protocol, just like in MC1, because that is an entirely different system.
Hope that answers something!
Every game you start in MC2 is technically a server, whether it is dedicated or not. Whether or not other players join the game is really immaterial. You can just start your own game set to private and build a colony like in MC1, and it will be just like a normal game. There is no requirement to have multiple players, in which case the game would be just like MC1.
In this manner, a "server" for MC2 is not at all like the server for MC1, they are similar in name only. The MC1 server handles colony information and trades for all games. A server in MC2 houses all game logic and processing and supports multiple players on the same map. MC2 may also have a separate global server that handles colony information and trades, like the current MC1 server, depending on if I go that route. I'll have to see how the game plays and feels first to see if it's even necessary. I am hoping it's not...
As for the different protocols on different platforms, I understand that it is not ideal, but unfortunately that was not some sort of design decision on my part, but a matter of necessity. Each platform only supports what it supports, and that is pretty much out of my hands. All I can really do is enable all supported protocols on each platform and give them a way to talk to each other. Some multiplayer combinations will not be possible, like an Ape Web Apps player joining a Windows 10 (UWP) server. However, a Ape Web Apps player AND a Windows 10 UWP player could both join a Desktop/Steam server. If a global MC2 trades server is added at some point, any client would be able to join it regardless of protocol, just like in MC1, because that is an entirely different system.
Hope that answers something!
In time for the weekend, My Colony 2 has just been updated to v0.27.0 and should be hitting all platforms shortly! This update has a critical fix that might actually end up killing some existing colonies, so you are going to want to read on to find out what's new!
First for the big change. As I was implementing one of the new buildings for this update (the Ancient Alien Microchip Factory), I noticed that during it's production cycle, it was not consuming any Alien Artifacts. I tweaked with the building in the game editor a bit, and still no consumption. Upon further investigation, I noticed that no building was consuming any resources, and it's been like this all along!
How I missed such an obvious flaw is beyond me, although I don't know if anybody else really noticed it either. It's easy to overlook a bug that actually benefits you, I suppose. Looking back though, stockpiling resources did always seem a bit easier in MC2 as compared to MC1.
Anyway, I went ahead and fixed the issue, loaded up my main colony, and it immediately died. Stockpiles of Ore, Gold, Wood, Charcoal, Crystalline, Rum, Uranium, you name it, all quickly evaporated. My settlements had been running so long on a balance based on zero resource consumption, I never built up the necessary production and gathering capabilities to handle the industrial output. Needless to say, it pretty much brought my entire colony to a standstill. Not only that, but since I had several settlements connected to the same resource pool using trade depots, every single one was brought down to a grinding halt!
It actually took me several hours to recover my game from this calamity. In fact, the fix required me to alter the stats of several buildings, because it became plain once resource consumption was factored in that many buildings were either under producing or over consuming resources. Because of this, production and consumption stats have been altered in this update for the Sugar Extraction Lab, Tree Farm, Charcoal Factory, Uranium Enrichment Facility, Canteen, Gold Synthesis Lab, Ore Fracking Operation, and Rum Distillery. I think I have a reasonable balance going right now, but of course there are likely things that I have overlooked. If you find structures that need rebalanced because of this changed, either buffed or nerfed in some way, let me know in the comments to this post.
Now, while I was trying to figure out this new balance, it was actually quite difficult to do at the beginning, as My Colony 2 lacks detailed resource consumption/production stats like you would find in My Colony 1. At least it did lack those stats, as this update now adds a new Resources tab to the Statistics window!
As in My Colony 1, you can select each resource to see the breakdown on which buildings are providing/using a specific resource, which is a huge help when trying to work out and balance your settlement production levels.
Of course, the resource stats are not exactly, and cannot be exactly as they are in MC1, due to the nature of resource pools in MC2. Resources in this game are not kept per-player or even per settlement, but are rather stored in dynamic "pools" that can change as time goes on based on the existence of logistics stations, outposts and other such structures. This made putting together the stats collection and reporting a bit more difficult than it was in MC1, but it's mostly working here now. To view the stats of a resource pool, you have to move your camera/viewport to a settlement first, and you will be shown the stats for the resource pool that you are currently active in. At some point I will probably make it possible to view a list of all resource pools and which settlements they are connected to, I just have not gotten to it yet.
Moving along, this update brought a few big changes to roads, changes that I started working on a few updates ago and neglected to finish until now.
Firstly, roads with either production or consumption properties (such as the Solar Road) are now finally functional. Prior to this update, you could build a huge Solar Road network with 200 tiles, and it would only produce power based on the first tile placed. Now, they work as you would expect.
Next, Roads are now actually factored in to the path finder, and their "drive speed modification" stats now actually work! You may or may not have noticed, but before this update roads had basically no impact on what your Rovers did, other than providing an aesthetic look. Roads are now fully functional, and will work in basically the same manner as they do in MC1.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, you can no build roads (and some other structures) anywhere you want, no settlement required!
Wouldn't it be nice to build a big beautiful highway connecting all of your settlements together? You couldn't do it before, but you can now! Roads can now be built anywhere, as long as you have an appropriate Rover in range. The resources used to pay for the roads will come from your closest settlement to the road in question (the closes settlement owned by the player building the road). The only restriction is that you can not build a road in a chunk/settlement that is "owned" by another player.
The Game Editor now also allows you to specify other buildings, besides roads, that can be built out-of-settlement. The only one right now is the Commemorative Plaque, since I figured it would nice to be able to place signs along the side of your highways.
Moving along, I did a lot of focus and work on performance optimizations in this release. When a map had larger settlements, the game was starting to get so laggy (at least on my M1 Mac) that it was barely playable anymore, so something had to be done. Obviously there is always more performance work to be done, but here are some of the changes so far.
Firstly, I reduced the radius of chunks that are generated around the camera, and I lowered the time that it takes before the engine clears out chunks that are no longer active around the camera. This provides a pretty large reduction in memory usage when you are in a big settlement, as it can reduce the number of .vpp models loaded in memory significantly. At some point I will probably make this a setting in the Engine Settings window, so people with epic desktop computers and RTX video cards can turn their chunk render distance way up if they want to, but since most players right now are using a smart phone, I decided to lower the default setting.
Speaking of default settings, most of the "pretty" engine settings, such as Anti Aliasing, Depth of Field, Dynamic Shadows, Fancy Water, etc, are now turned off by default. These you can always just turn back on in the settings menu if your machine can handle them, but I wanted the default settings to be low so that a new player wont get in the game and immediately experience lag if they are using a lower end machine.
A lot of improvements have also been made to the server code, which runs on a separate thread from the renderer. There was a pretty big issue where the game server would lag down hard if you had a ton of rovers in your game, since every "tick" a rover checks to see if it should be building something or not. To address this, the server now keeps track of whether or not there are actually buildings under construction, and so Rovers will only check if they should be building when there is actually something to build. Makes sense, right?
Moving along, since the last update introduced the Excavator and digging, it basically became possible to turn the Desert World map into a little water world by digging out your own lakes and rivers. Because of this, it only made sense to allow all of the water based structures and units to be constructed on the desert map.
You are now free to terraform your Desert World map into the holiday paradise that your colonists have been yearning for.
Next up, this update adds the classic Crystalbot from MC1, and with it comes the ability to create and grow Synthetic Crystalline Deposits. Be careful though, because the Synthetic Crystalline is a cancer that is as aggressive as ever, so I would suggest not building it too close to your settlement...
My original inspiration for Crystalline (back in MC1) was the Tiberium from Command and Conquer, a substance that provides power but that also spreads and can become an environmental catastrophe. For this reason, you need to take extra precautions when dealing with the synthetic stuff, as it can easily get out of hand if you let it.
I think I mentioned earlier in this post that the Ancient Alien Microchip Factory has been added to the game. This along with the Crystalline stuff requires two new techs, Ancient Alien Manufacturing and Crystalline Synthesis. I also added the new Luxury Townhome, a decorative housing unit for Premium players.
Since I was on the topic of new Research, I will mention the final engine change to this update. Players who are either in a hurry or want to speed through a new game can now instant-unlock new research using Ape Coins. Like I mentioned in the last My Colony 1 release notes, I am going to be looking for better ways to monetize the My Colony games without resorting to heavy advertising, and this seemed like a reasonable way that is totally optional and does not fundamentally change the game for existing players.
So all in all, this was a pretty big update for My Colony 2. I would suggest that all players be careful when they first open their games after the update, and to comb over your settlements and their research stats, because there will probably be things you need to change, particularly if you have an older established colony.
Moving forward, my near-term plans are to continue expanding the Alien/Quantum tech trees. I am also going to be bringing a Galactic Board of Trade to My Colony 2 in some form (gotta work out the details on that one), and I will also probably be adding a Spice World (not related to the Spice Girls) to implement some of the Spice suggestions from @Architecture1134 and others. There is also a lot coming soon to the original My Colony and to Colony Wars, but more on those another day. All in all, a lot of excitement coming to the My Colony Universe of games, and I should probably put together another episode of the My Colony Podcast to discuss it all. But until then, check out the new update, enjoy, have a good weekend, let me know what issues you find or suggestions you have, and stay tuned for more!
https://www.apewebapps.com/my-colony-2/
#mycolony2
First for the big change. As I was implementing one of the new buildings for this update (the Ancient Alien Microchip Factory), I noticed that during it's production cycle, it was not consuming any Alien Artifacts. I tweaked with the building in the game editor a bit, and still no consumption. Upon further investigation, I noticed that no building was consuming any resources, and it's been like this all along!
How I missed such an obvious flaw is beyond me, although I don't know if anybody else really noticed it either. It's easy to overlook a bug that actually benefits you, I suppose. Looking back though, stockpiling resources did always seem a bit easier in MC2 as compared to MC1.
Anyway, I went ahead and fixed the issue, loaded up my main colony, and it immediately died. Stockpiles of Ore, Gold, Wood, Charcoal, Crystalline, Rum, Uranium, you name it, all quickly evaporated. My settlements had been running so long on a balance based on zero resource consumption, I never built up the necessary production and gathering capabilities to handle the industrial output. Needless to say, it pretty much brought my entire colony to a standstill. Not only that, but since I had several settlements connected to the same resource pool using trade depots, every single one was brought down to a grinding halt!
It actually took me several hours to recover my game from this calamity. In fact, the fix required me to alter the stats of several buildings, because it became plain once resource consumption was factored in that many buildings were either under producing or over consuming resources. Because of this, production and consumption stats have been altered in this update for the Sugar Extraction Lab, Tree Farm, Charcoal Factory, Uranium Enrichment Facility, Canteen, Gold Synthesis Lab, Ore Fracking Operation, and Rum Distillery. I think I have a reasonable balance going right now, but of course there are likely things that I have overlooked. If you find structures that need rebalanced because of this changed, either buffed or nerfed in some way, let me know in the comments to this post.
Now, while I was trying to figure out this new balance, it was actually quite difficult to do at the beginning, as My Colony 2 lacks detailed resource consumption/production stats like you would find in My Colony 1. At least it did lack those stats, as this update now adds a new Resources tab to the Statistics window!
As in My Colony 1, you can select each resource to see the breakdown on which buildings are providing/using a specific resource, which is a huge help when trying to work out and balance your settlement production levels.
Of course, the resource stats are not exactly, and cannot be exactly as they are in MC1, due to the nature of resource pools in MC2. Resources in this game are not kept per-player or even per settlement, but are rather stored in dynamic "pools" that can change as time goes on based on the existence of logistics stations, outposts and other such structures. This made putting together the stats collection and reporting a bit more difficult than it was in MC1, but it's mostly working here now. To view the stats of a resource pool, you have to move your camera/viewport to a settlement first, and you will be shown the stats for the resource pool that you are currently active in. At some point I will probably make it possible to view a list of all resource pools and which settlements they are connected to, I just have not gotten to it yet.
Moving along, this update brought a few big changes to roads, changes that I started working on a few updates ago and neglected to finish until now.
Firstly, roads with either production or consumption properties (such as the Solar Road) are now finally functional. Prior to this update, you could build a huge Solar Road network with 200 tiles, and it would only produce power based on the first tile placed. Now, they work as you would expect.
Next, Roads are now actually factored in to the path finder, and their "drive speed modification" stats now actually work! You may or may not have noticed, but before this update roads had basically no impact on what your Rovers did, other than providing an aesthetic look. Roads are now fully functional, and will work in basically the same manner as they do in MC1.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, you can no build roads (and some other structures) anywhere you want, no settlement required!
Wouldn't it be nice to build a big beautiful highway connecting all of your settlements together? You couldn't do it before, but you can now! Roads can now be built anywhere, as long as you have an appropriate Rover in range. The resources used to pay for the roads will come from your closest settlement to the road in question (the closes settlement owned by the player building the road). The only restriction is that you can not build a road in a chunk/settlement that is "owned" by another player.
The Game Editor now also allows you to specify other buildings, besides roads, that can be built out-of-settlement. The only one right now is the Commemorative Plaque, since I figured it would nice to be able to place signs along the side of your highways.
Moving along, I did a lot of focus and work on performance optimizations in this release. When a map had larger settlements, the game was starting to get so laggy (at least on my M1 Mac) that it was barely playable anymore, so something had to be done. Obviously there is always more performance work to be done, but here are some of the changes so far.
Firstly, I reduced the radius of chunks that are generated around the camera, and I lowered the time that it takes before the engine clears out chunks that are no longer active around the camera. This provides a pretty large reduction in memory usage when you are in a big settlement, as it can reduce the number of .vpp models loaded in memory significantly. At some point I will probably make this a setting in the Engine Settings window, so people with epic desktop computers and RTX video cards can turn their chunk render distance way up if they want to, but since most players right now are using a smart phone, I decided to lower the default setting.
Speaking of default settings, most of the "pretty" engine settings, such as Anti Aliasing, Depth of Field, Dynamic Shadows, Fancy Water, etc, are now turned off by default. These you can always just turn back on in the settings menu if your machine can handle them, but I wanted the default settings to be low so that a new player wont get in the game and immediately experience lag if they are using a lower end machine.
A lot of improvements have also been made to the server code, which runs on a separate thread from the renderer. There was a pretty big issue where the game server would lag down hard if you had a ton of rovers in your game, since every "tick" a rover checks to see if it should be building something or not. To address this, the server now keeps track of whether or not there are actually buildings under construction, and so Rovers will only check if they should be building when there is actually something to build. Makes sense, right?
Moving along, since the last update introduced the Excavator and digging, it basically became possible to turn the Desert World map into a little water world by digging out your own lakes and rivers. Because of this, it only made sense to allow all of the water based structures and units to be constructed on the desert map.
You are now free to terraform your Desert World map into the holiday paradise that your colonists have been yearning for.
Next up, this update adds the classic Crystalbot from MC1, and with it comes the ability to create and grow Synthetic Crystalline Deposits. Be careful though, because the Synthetic Crystalline is a cancer that is as aggressive as ever, so I would suggest not building it too close to your settlement...
My original inspiration for Crystalline (back in MC1) was the Tiberium from Command and Conquer, a substance that provides power but that also spreads and can become an environmental catastrophe. For this reason, you need to take extra precautions when dealing with the synthetic stuff, as it can easily get out of hand if you let it.
I think I mentioned earlier in this post that the Ancient Alien Microchip Factory has been added to the game. This along with the Crystalline stuff requires two new techs, Ancient Alien Manufacturing and Crystalline Synthesis. I also added the new Luxury Townhome, a decorative housing unit for Premium players.
Since I was on the topic of new Research, I will mention the final engine change to this update. Players who are either in a hurry or want to speed through a new game can now instant-unlock new research using Ape Coins. Like I mentioned in the last My Colony 1 release notes, I am going to be looking for better ways to monetize the My Colony games without resorting to heavy advertising, and this seemed like a reasonable way that is totally optional and does not fundamentally change the game for existing players.
So all in all, this was a pretty big update for My Colony 2. I would suggest that all players be careful when they first open their games after the update, and to comb over your settlements and their research stats, because there will probably be things you need to change, particularly if you have an older established colony.
Moving forward, my near-term plans are to continue expanding the Alien/Quantum tech trees. I am also going to be bringing a Galactic Board of Trade to My Colony 2 in some form (gotta work out the details on that one), and I will also probably be adding a Spice World (not related to the Spice Girls) to implement some of the Spice suggestions from @Architecture1134 and others. There is also a lot coming soon to the original My Colony and to Colony Wars, but more on those another day. All in all, a lot of excitement coming to the My Colony Universe of games, and I should probably put together another episode of the My Colony Podcast to discuss it all. But until then, check out the new update, enjoy, have a good weekend, let me know what issues you find or suggestions you have, and stay tuned for more!
https://www.apewebapps.com/my-colony-2/
#mycolony2
There are some changes coming soon to the My Colony website that will impact individual colonial/regional websites as well as the public My Colony API. Beginning with the release of My Colony v1.9.0, all API calls are being migrated to a new subdomain, and the current My Colony website is moving as well.
The change is as follows:
Current Location: https://www.my-colony.com
New Location: https://mc1.my-colony.com
Essentially, all URLs should remain the same, except for the www is changing to mc1. The current My Colony public api will remain at the current location for a few weeks, but will then be going offline, so all API calls should be moved to the mc1 subdomain.
The current primary www domain is going to be reworked as a portal to all My Colony Universe games, including Colony Wars, Colonial Tycoon, Death 3d, My Starship, Deimos, End of the Earth, High Noon, Sarge, and the upcoming My Colony 2. This will include not only information on all of the above titles, but also extensive backstory/lore information on the entire universe and all of the characters, presented in a Wiki style format. The new mc1 subdomain is primarily going to be used to hold colony websites and texture mods for MC1.
The change is as follows:
Current Location: https://www.my-colony.com
New Location: https://mc1.my-colony.com
Essentially, all URLs should remain the same, except for the www is changing to mc1. The current My Colony public api will remain at the current location for a few weeks, but will then be going offline, so all API calls should be moved to the mc1 subdomain.
The current primary www domain is going to be reworked as a portal to all My Colony Universe games, including Colony Wars, Colonial Tycoon, Death 3d, My Starship, Deimos, End of the Earth, High Noon, Sarge, and the upcoming My Colony 2. This will include not only information on all of the above titles, but also extensive backstory/lore information on the entire universe and all of the characters, presented in a Wiki style format. The new mc1 subdomain is primarily going to be used to hold colony websites and texture mods for MC1.
I had originally wanted to do away with units/rovers in MC2 for performance reasons (since the world is now infinite in size, and path-finding is expensive), but I think I have settled on a new strategy that will both allow units and keep the server path-finding to a minimum.
In MC2 there will be two types of units, "global" units, and "tethered" units.
A global unit will work pretty much the same way that a unit in MC1 works. The unit is assigned to a player, and a player can move it around the map as he/she pleases. The unit's pathfinding is controlled by the server, and it's state and location is synced between all connected clients. An example of a unit that will be in the global class for MC2 is the Lander, or any other future type of unit that has the ability to "unpack" into a base structure or outpost.
The other class is the tethered unit, which conceptually did not really exist in MC1 (although the transit bus was similar in some ways), but most of the types of units from MC1 will be turning into the tethered type for MC2.
To explain Tethered units, I will give the example of an ore refinery. In MC1, you would build a refinery, and then you would build Ore Miners. Ore Miners would search the map for ore and bring them back to whatever refinery was closest.
This behavior changes for MC2. Now a building will be able to support X number of "child," or "tethered" units, varying based on the individual structure, and these units will operate within a certain radius of the parent structure.
For example, suppose a hypothetical refinery supports 10 tethered units and has a unit radius of 30 tiles. When you build the refinery, it may come with one free unit, and then you can click on the refinery and build more units up to 10. Those 10 units will harvest any Ore deposit they find within the 30 tile radius. Also, the state and location for those 10 units are unique to the client. On the server side, Ore in the area is simply harvested statistically based on how many tethered units a building has, so there is no server-side path-finding required. On the client, it will look like rovers are driving around doing things, but it will be mainly for show, and they can be disabled in engine settings. The client will only need to do path-finding within the 30 tile radius.
This new system should improve unit performance significantly VS MC1, while still keeping Rovers as an integral part of the game.
In MC2 there will be two types of units, "global" units, and "tethered" units.
A global unit will work pretty much the same way that a unit in MC1 works. The unit is assigned to a player, and a player can move it around the map as he/she pleases. The unit's pathfinding is controlled by the server, and it's state and location is synced between all connected clients. An example of a unit that will be in the global class for MC2 is the Lander, or any other future type of unit that has the ability to "unpack" into a base structure or outpost.
The other class is the tethered unit, which conceptually did not really exist in MC1 (although the transit bus was similar in some ways), but most of the types of units from MC1 will be turning into the tethered type for MC2.
To explain Tethered units, I will give the example of an ore refinery. In MC1, you would build a refinery, and then you would build Ore Miners. Ore Miners would search the map for ore and bring them back to whatever refinery was closest.
This behavior changes for MC2. Now a building will be able to support X number of "child," or "tethered" units, varying based on the individual structure, and these units will operate within a certain radius of the parent structure.
For example, suppose a hypothetical refinery supports 10 tethered units and has a unit radius of 30 tiles. When you build the refinery, it may come with one free unit, and then you can click on the refinery and build more units up to 10. Those 10 units will harvest any Ore deposit they find within the 30 tile radius. Also, the state and location for those 10 units are unique to the client. On the server side, Ore in the area is simply harvested statistically based on how many tethered units a building has, so there is no server-side path-finding required. On the client, it will look like rovers are driving around doing things, but it will be mainly for show, and they can be disabled in engine settings. The client will only need to do path-finding within the 30 tile radius.
This new system should improve unit performance significantly VS MC1, while still keeping Rovers as an integral part of the game.
If you were wishing for back-to-back My Colony game updates this week then you are in luck, because right off of the heals of the MC1 update from the other day comes the v0.26.0 update for My Colony 2! What's new in this release? Let's find out!
This update brings some pretty large changes to the engine code, which means that new bugs could be showing up, so please let me know if you find things that are broken. I have added support for modifying the terrain heights that are generated by the world seed, which itself constituted a pretty large change to the base code. A new concept of "subterranean resources" has been implemented, where there are now resources present under ground as well as on the surface. Several new scripting flag types and scenarios have been added to the game, and the engine now supports techs that cannot be unlocked through research, but by some triggered game event. All of these engine features are available now in this update in various forms.
First we introduce a new resource for this update, Alien Artifacts, which we all know and love from MC1. Getting them though is a lot different (and possibly more difficult) than in the original My Colony. The first thing you need to do is unlock the new Deep Excavation tech, allowing you to construct the new Excavator unit (created by @spamdude ).
This is a large, slow 2x2 unit that can be used to flatten out hills on the terrain. Once a hill has been removed, there is a chance for new subterranean resources to be exposed, giving you access to more resources you can harvest. This is probably as close as I will come to adding the different Mines from MC1 to the game. Besides the usual resources, you may end up discovering some Ancient Alien Ruins under those hills. Discovering the ruins will trigger an engine flag, automatically unlocking the new Ancient Alien Language technology.
It is not possible to unlock Ancient Alien Language through traditional research. You must either discover ruins through excavation, or be gifted Artifacts from another player.
Once unlocked, you get access to a new Unit and a new Structure, the Artifact Extractor and the Giorgio Institute for Alien Research. The Artifact Extractor is built from the Robot Factory (so you need Robot abilities as well) and is a flying drone used to extract Alien Artifacts from ancient ruin sites. Alien Artifacts can be stored in small amounts in the current Warehouse building, but for additional storage, the Giorgio Institute provides a ton of space for Artifacts, and generates Research as well.
Once you have collected some Artifacts, you can then build the new Extraterrestrial Builder, which in turn is able to construct the new Aluminum Generator!
For those who want some more decorative items, the Single Family Home from MC1 is back, allowing you to build some lower density subdivisions for your colonists. I will probably add the other color variations of the house at some point too.
Finally, when you start getting to the point where it's hard to keep up with food production for your colonists' demands, the Vertical Warehouse Farm is back, providing large amounts of nutritious food to help feed a growing population.
There have also been a few tweaks here and there. I have extended the operating range of the Logistics Station (nearly 2x), since it seemed like setting up connected outposts had far too small of a range. I might end up extending it even more, you guys can let me know what you thing.
I have also turned CloudSync on by default for saved games, for users signed in with an Ape Apps Account. I haven't had many reports of issues with CloudSync lately, and it can really help save your colony in the event of a catastrophe.
I also changed the UI of the zoom buttons on the Radar a bit to make them easier to use on touch, and put the Radar Size button on the radar overlay as well, since on some smaller screen devices, switching the radar to large would hide the other button, never allowing you to switch back.
With this updates in hand, the next release will focus on ironing out whatever I broke in this update, as well as introducing new Alien techs. A lot of the bigger manufacturing structures are probably going to be needing their "Ancient Alien" upgrade, such as the Microchip Factory, the Refinery and so on. I am also debating on whether or not to add a Galactic Board of Trade to MC2, like in MC1. You can let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Other than that, that is all for this update! I hope you guys enjoy both of this weeks My Colony updates, keep the suggestions and bug reports coming, and stay tuned for more!
#mycolony2
This update brings some pretty large changes to the engine code, which means that new bugs could be showing up, so please let me know if you find things that are broken. I have added support for modifying the terrain heights that are generated by the world seed, which itself constituted a pretty large change to the base code. A new concept of "subterranean resources" has been implemented, where there are now resources present under ground as well as on the surface. Several new scripting flag types and scenarios have been added to the game, and the engine now supports techs that cannot be unlocked through research, but by some triggered game event. All of these engine features are available now in this update in various forms.
First we introduce a new resource for this update, Alien Artifacts, which we all know and love from MC1. Getting them though is a lot different (and possibly more difficult) than in the original My Colony. The first thing you need to do is unlock the new Deep Excavation tech, allowing you to construct the new Excavator unit (created by @spamdude ).
This is a large, slow 2x2 unit that can be used to flatten out hills on the terrain. Once a hill has been removed, there is a chance for new subterranean resources to be exposed, giving you access to more resources you can harvest. This is probably as close as I will come to adding the different Mines from MC1 to the game. Besides the usual resources, you may end up discovering some Ancient Alien Ruins under those hills. Discovering the ruins will trigger an engine flag, automatically unlocking the new Ancient Alien Language technology.
It is not possible to unlock Ancient Alien Language through traditional research. You must either discover ruins through excavation, or be gifted Artifacts from another player.
Once unlocked, you get access to a new Unit and a new Structure, the Artifact Extractor and the Giorgio Institute for Alien Research. The Artifact Extractor is built from the Robot Factory (so you need Robot abilities as well) and is a flying drone used to extract Alien Artifacts from ancient ruin sites. Alien Artifacts can be stored in small amounts in the current Warehouse building, but for additional storage, the Giorgio Institute provides a ton of space for Artifacts, and generates Research as well.
Once you have collected some Artifacts, you can then build the new Extraterrestrial Builder, which in turn is able to construct the new Aluminum Generator!
For those who want some more decorative items, the Single Family Home from MC1 is back, allowing you to build some lower density subdivisions for your colonists. I will probably add the other color variations of the house at some point too.
Finally, when you start getting to the point where it's hard to keep up with food production for your colonists' demands, the Vertical Warehouse Farm is back, providing large amounts of nutritious food to help feed a growing population.
There have also been a few tweaks here and there. I have extended the operating range of the Logistics Station (nearly 2x), since it seemed like setting up connected outposts had far too small of a range. I might end up extending it even more, you guys can let me know what you thing.
I have also turned CloudSync on by default for saved games, for users signed in with an Ape Apps Account. I haven't had many reports of issues with CloudSync lately, and it can really help save your colony in the event of a catastrophe.
I also changed the UI of the zoom buttons on the Radar a bit to make them easier to use on touch, and put the Radar Size button on the radar overlay as well, since on some smaller screen devices, switching the radar to large would hide the other button, never allowing you to switch back.
With this updates in hand, the next release will focus on ironing out whatever I broke in this update, as well as introducing new Alien techs. A lot of the bigger manufacturing structures are probably going to be needing their "Ancient Alien" upgrade, such as the Microchip Factory, the Refinery and so on. I am also debating on whether or not to add a Galactic Board of Trade to MC2, like in MC1. You can let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Other than that, that is all for this update! I hope you guys enjoy both of this weeks My Colony updates, keep the suggestions and bug reports coming, and stay tuned for more!
#mycolony2
I know that many are anxiously waiting the next updates to My Colony 1 and 2, so since they are still a little ways off, I thought I would share with everyone what their current status is, and what my plans are going forward!
First, the reason for the lack of updates this month is that I have created a new Google Play account called My Colony Universe to house all of the games in (you guessed it) the My Colony Universe, so that everything is combined together and easy for players to find. Since the titles were spread out across three different accounts, it took me some time to get everything transferred over, as each transfer request takes several days and must (I assume) be done manually by employees at Google.
Going forward though, all My Colony related content on Android is available on the same Google Play account which you can view here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=6753488031908307666
While I was waiting for the transfers though, I started the process of going back and updating my entire catalogue of apps and games so that they all target the latest versions of Android/iOS/Windows and run the latest SDK's and so on. This has been a slow-ish process, and I expect it to take me most of the rest of the month, but it is important work to do, since the My Colony games themselves do not generate all that much revenue, and are largely subsidized by the rest of my catalogue of apps and games. For that reason, it is important to keep the other titles up to date and functioning properly on the latest mobile hardware, and since some of my apps I had not touched in several years, time was well overdue to go through and complete this process.
Next, let's look at the future plans for the original My Colony. I do not know if it will be ready for the next update or not (really depends on GirlyGamerGazell's timeline), but the next big content update to the game will be the completion of the Dark Matter update. This will probably be the last really big content update that MC1 receives, other than a regular stream of weekly premium structures. I really want to focus my time for new content and features into My Colony 2 which has really begun to mature over the last few updates, so that is what I will be doing. Rest assured though, MC1 will continue to receive updates on a regular basis to fix things that need fixed and to stay current for the latest devices and whatnot.
I am also going to be making a change to the Challenges system, as it turns out that it is a lot of work for me to keep coming up with new challenges on a daily basis. Instead, every day the MC server is going to automatically generate a new daily challenge using a random resource, this way I do not have to keep coming up with challenges and logos manually. In addition, randomly throughout the day, the server may generate a 1-2 hour long "snap challenge," which I think should give more players a chance to gain trophies.
As the challenge system goes on, it may make sense to implement something like "seasons" where all trophies reset after a time. There can be a record of course of which players/federations won each season. But at some point it might get to where first place is so far ahead on trophies that nobody can even catch up.
Anyway, you guys can let me know what you think of the system. Remember that challenges are completely optional, and while some people have expressed disdain for the system, many others seem to really like it, so it will be staying around for sure, and might even come to MC2 as well.
Now on to My Colony 2, which is going to have a big year in 2023. A lot of new features/fixes/and mechanics have come to MC2 over the last few updates, bringing it closer to being on par with the original. That is going to continue, and it will eventually far surpass MC1 in terms of "stuff to do."
First, I have done some work behind the scenes over the last couple of weeks on the server side of things, mostly aimed at improving MC2 dedicated servers. I noticed that when running an MC2 dedicated server for several days, what would happen is that the user's account token would expire, and then all game saves to Cloud Sync would fail due to an expired token. Thus the next time the server was rebooted, several days of game data would be lost. This issue should now be fixed on the web app version of My Colony 2, so it now should be safe to run an MC2 dedicated server using the web browser for days on end with Cloud Sync enabled. I currently have three servers running at my house to put this theory to the test.
To further help with dedicated servers, I am going to be adding an automatic daily backup for all public dedicated server games directly to the My Colony 2 server (which is on different hardware than the Cloud Sync server) which server owners will be able to restore from in the event of a catastrophe. Perhaps I will retain the last several days worth of backups that an owner can restore from.
Since I noticed there has been a lot more MC2 dedicated server activity lately, I wanted to make sure that this system is as solid as I can make it, so more improvements will be coming to it as time goes on.
In terms of new content, the next MC2 update will be fairly large, as I am pleased to report there have been quite a few new model submissions on the Discord server and elsewhere, so there is a lot of exciting content coming soon to MC2.
I am also going to be making a way for people to submit the link to their custom News Feed servers, so that the game will come standard with several that players can choose from.
I would like to also finally release MC2 to Steam in 2023, which I know is something some people have been asking/waiting for. Before it gets there, I want the game to have sound effects and a music track. I have already compiled a few original tunes for the game using Garageband, but I am no musical expert, so if anyone out there wants to take a stab at creating some songs for MC2, please feel free to do so!
Big things are going to be coming to the Player mode in My Colony 2 (the mode where you become a little colonist and walk around). I sort of have a vision in my mind where MC2 is kind of two types of games in one, the city builder type game that it already is, and something of an adventure/role playing game using the Player mode, except that the universe you play in consists of the network of online dedicated servers built by other players. I am thinking that the Star Gate from MC1 needs to return, but this time it will act as a means for players to travel from planet to planet in player mode in order to adventure, complete quests/missions, find items, or just explore other worlds from that perspective. I have spent some time just walking around some MC2 worlds in the VR mode, and it is pretty cool, but would be far more so if there was actually something to do besides just look.
Basically, each player/account is going to have one player mode avatar on the entire universe server, instead of a different guy for each world. You will have a "home" planet that you can respawn on if you die or if the server you are currently on goes offline. You will have stats/inventory and be able to party up/communicate with other players. You will be able to visit other worlds via Star Gates, even if you do not have a settlement on that world. When you are in building mode, you will be able to see Player Mode people as they come through your star gate, and so really you can build some kind of special welcoming area/lobby in your world around your Star Gate. Maybe buildings will be added that you can build that have specific functions for player mode. The game will also generate some NPC type characters in each settlement that players can interact with or get quests from. You will be able to do some sort of prospecting/mining, and maybe each world will have unique materials that you can only obtain in player mode. There are a lot of options.
Player Mode characters will also be able to control vehicles, whether driving/air/water vehicles, as well as combat type vehicles. There are a lot of options. Players will also be able to fight each other if they choose to do so.
So that is sort of my idea for the "two games in one" approach to MC2. Although the classic My Colony style of play will always be the primary mode, I think realtime multiplayer and dedicated server model that MC2 has unlocks the ability to add the cool secondary mode that can potentially add replay value to the game for years to come, and also open the world up to players who maybe don't care about the building aspect of the game, but would have fun adventuring through worlds that others have built up.
So those are the 2023 plans for MC2. Content and feature wise, I want it to be close to on par with MC1 United Earth faction, with the added bonus of infinite world sizes, real time online multiplayer, and a network of worlds that are truly connected. On top of that, I want to start adding a secondary adventure game to the mix that players can interact and explore in, whether on a PC, touch screen, TV/gamepad, or in VR. Finally, I want the polish and presentation to get to a point where the game is ready for Steam. I think all of these updates will add up to some exciting times ahead for MC2!
Just as an aside, I also plan to keep updating Colony Wars throughout the year, I have not forgotten about that game. At some point also, Terra Nova 4X will become a thing, I just need to find the time to work on it!
#mycolony #mycolony2
First, the reason for the lack of updates this month is that I have created a new Google Play account called My Colony Universe to house all of the games in (you guessed it) the My Colony Universe, so that everything is combined together and easy for players to find. Since the titles were spread out across three different accounts, it took me some time to get everything transferred over, as each transfer request takes several days and must (I assume) be done manually by employees at Google.
Going forward though, all My Colony related content on Android is available on the same Google Play account which you can view here:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=6753488031908307666
While I was waiting for the transfers though, I started the process of going back and updating my entire catalogue of apps and games so that they all target the latest versions of Android/iOS/Windows and run the latest SDK's and so on. This has been a slow-ish process, and I expect it to take me most of the rest of the month, but it is important work to do, since the My Colony games themselves do not generate all that much revenue, and are largely subsidized by the rest of my catalogue of apps and games. For that reason, it is important to keep the other titles up to date and functioning properly on the latest mobile hardware, and since some of my apps I had not touched in several years, time was well overdue to go through and complete this process.
Next, let's look at the future plans for the original My Colony. I do not know if it will be ready for the next update or not (really depends on GirlyGamerGazell's timeline), but the next big content update to the game will be the completion of the Dark Matter update. This will probably be the last really big content update that MC1 receives, other than a regular stream of weekly premium structures. I really want to focus my time for new content and features into My Colony 2 which has really begun to mature over the last few updates, so that is what I will be doing. Rest assured though, MC1 will continue to receive updates on a regular basis to fix things that need fixed and to stay current for the latest devices and whatnot.
I am also going to be making a change to the Challenges system, as it turns out that it is a lot of work for me to keep coming up with new challenges on a daily basis. Instead, every day the MC server is going to automatically generate a new daily challenge using a random resource, this way I do not have to keep coming up with challenges and logos manually. In addition, randomly throughout the day, the server may generate a 1-2 hour long "snap challenge," which I think should give more players a chance to gain trophies.
As the challenge system goes on, it may make sense to implement something like "seasons" where all trophies reset after a time. There can be a record of course of which players/federations won each season. But at some point it might get to where first place is so far ahead on trophies that nobody can even catch up.
Anyway, you guys can let me know what you think of the system. Remember that challenges are completely optional, and while some people have expressed disdain for the system, many others seem to really like it, so it will be staying around for sure, and might even come to MC2 as well.
Now on to My Colony 2, which is going to have a big year in 2023. A lot of new features/fixes/and mechanics have come to MC2 over the last few updates, bringing it closer to being on par with the original. That is going to continue, and it will eventually far surpass MC1 in terms of "stuff to do."
First, I have done some work behind the scenes over the last couple of weeks on the server side of things, mostly aimed at improving MC2 dedicated servers. I noticed that when running an MC2 dedicated server for several days, what would happen is that the user's account token would expire, and then all game saves to Cloud Sync would fail due to an expired token. Thus the next time the server was rebooted, several days of game data would be lost. This issue should now be fixed on the web app version of My Colony 2, so it now should be safe to run an MC2 dedicated server using the web browser for days on end with Cloud Sync enabled. I currently have three servers running at my house to put this theory to the test.
To further help with dedicated servers, I am going to be adding an automatic daily backup for all public dedicated server games directly to the My Colony 2 server (which is on different hardware than the Cloud Sync server) which server owners will be able to restore from in the event of a catastrophe. Perhaps I will retain the last several days worth of backups that an owner can restore from.
Since I noticed there has been a lot more MC2 dedicated server activity lately, I wanted to make sure that this system is as solid as I can make it, so more improvements will be coming to it as time goes on.
In terms of new content, the next MC2 update will be fairly large, as I am pleased to report there have been quite a few new model submissions on the Discord server and elsewhere, so there is a lot of exciting content coming soon to MC2.
I am also going to be making a way for people to submit the link to their custom News Feed servers, so that the game will come standard with several that players can choose from.
I would like to also finally release MC2 to Steam in 2023, which I know is something some people have been asking/waiting for. Before it gets there, I want the game to have sound effects and a music track. I have already compiled a few original tunes for the game using Garageband, but I am no musical expert, so if anyone out there wants to take a stab at creating some songs for MC2, please feel free to do so!
Big things are going to be coming to the Player mode in My Colony 2 (the mode where you become a little colonist and walk around). I sort of have a vision in my mind where MC2 is kind of two types of games in one, the city builder type game that it already is, and something of an adventure/role playing game using the Player mode, except that the universe you play in consists of the network of online dedicated servers built by other players. I am thinking that the Star Gate from MC1 needs to return, but this time it will act as a means for players to travel from planet to planet in player mode in order to adventure, complete quests/missions, find items, or just explore other worlds from that perspective. I have spent some time just walking around some MC2 worlds in the VR mode, and it is pretty cool, but would be far more so if there was actually something to do besides just look.
Basically, each player/account is going to have one player mode avatar on the entire universe server, instead of a different guy for each world. You will have a "home" planet that you can respawn on if you die or if the server you are currently on goes offline. You will have stats/inventory and be able to party up/communicate with other players. You will be able to visit other worlds via Star Gates, even if you do not have a settlement on that world. When you are in building mode, you will be able to see Player Mode people as they come through your star gate, and so really you can build some kind of special welcoming area/lobby in your world around your Star Gate. Maybe buildings will be added that you can build that have specific functions for player mode. The game will also generate some NPC type characters in each settlement that players can interact with or get quests from. You will be able to do some sort of prospecting/mining, and maybe each world will have unique materials that you can only obtain in player mode. There are a lot of options.
Player Mode characters will also be able to control vehicles, whether driving/air/water vehicles, as well as combat type vehicles. There are a lot of options. Players will also be able to fight each other if they choose to do so.
So that is sort of my idea for the "two games in one" approach to MC2. Although the classic My Colony style of play will always be the primary mode, I think realtime multiplayer and dedicated server model that MC2 has unlocks the ability to add the cool secondary mode that can potentially add replay value to the game for years to come, and also open the world up to players who maybe don't care about the building aspect of the game, but would have fun adventuring through worlds that others have built up.
So those are the 2023 plans for MC2. Content and feature wise, I want it to be close to on par with MC1 United Earth faction, with the added bonus of infinite world sizes, real time online multiplayer, and a network of worlds that are truly connected. On top of that, I want to start adding a secondary adventure game to the mix that players can interact and explore in, whether on a PC, touch screen, TV/gamepad, or in VR. Finally, I want the polish and presentation to get to a point where the game is ready for Steam. I think all of these updates will add up to some exciting times ahead for MC2!
Just as an aside, I also plan to keep updating Colony Wars throughout the year, I have not forgotten about that game. At some point also, Terra Nova 4X will become a thing, I just need to find the time to work on it!
#mycolony #mycolony2
@KamikaziYT MC2 is not going to have the building name issue that MC1 had for sure.
The design of MC2 is taking a more modular nature, so there is not going to central game definition and string files like in MC1, which will make it both better and also a bit more difficult for translating.
For example, in MC1, all translatable strings were contained in one file that could easily be sent to a translator for work.
In MC2, all buildings are represented by a single file, which contains all of it's data and assets, and will also include all translations. So language translations for a building will need to be added to and stored on it's individual file. This change is to allow modded and expanded content to also include different language sets.
As for building names, the reason they could not be translated in MC1 is because the original design of the game did not include a separate internal ID number for buildings, and so all buildings were identified to the engine by their name, which always had to be the same or else it would break existing game saves. It was a stupid design decision, but by the time I started adding translations, there were so many existing players out there that I could not make the change without breaking tons of peoples existing colonies, which was not a viable option. I could have also added a new field to all of the buildings in the game with a reference to a string object, but the game at that point had hundreds of buildings and going back and adding a new property to each was becoming very time consuming.
The design of MC2 is taking a more modular nature, so there is not going to central game definition and string files like in MC1, which will make it both better and also a bit more difficult for translating.
For example, in MC1, all translatable strings were contained in one file that could easily be sent to a translator for work.
In MC2, all buildings are represented by a single file, which contains all of it's data and assets, and will also include all translations. So language translations for a building will need to be added to and stored on it's individual file. This change is to allow modded and expanded content to also include different language sets.
As for building names, the reason they could not be translated in MC1 is because the original design of the game did not include a separate internal ID number for buildings, and so all buildings were identified to the engine by their name, which always had to be the same or else it would break existing game saves. It was a stupid design decision, but by the time I started adding translations, there were so many existing players out there that I could not make the change without breaking tons of peoples existing colonies, which was not a viable option. I could have also added a new field to all of the buildings in the game with a reference to a string object, but the game at that point had hundreds of buildings and going back and adding a new property to each was becoming very time consuming.
I am considering a change to resources and construction costs and whatnot for MC2.
Perhaps instead of making MC2 a resource stockpile game like MC1, the only real "resource" you will actually stockpile in the game will be money. When you want to build a structure or unit or whatnot, all you need to do is make sure you have the correct amount of money.
On the other hand, the traditional resources such as Ore, Gold, Water, Food, etc, will all work in a similar way that Power and Bandwidth do in MC1.
Suppose that a Mine generates +3 ore based on it's location, and a refinery requires -2 ore to output +1 steel. In this situation, the colony is netting +1 ore and +1 steel. So the player needs to balance the resource input with the output for each settlement. Since only 2/3 Ore is being utilized, the remaining 1 ore can just stay in the ground until needed.
It could be tweaked, but this change would eliminate massive resource stockpiles and instead measure a colony on the amount of resources they are actively producing rather than what they have stockpiled (or gifted in the case of MC1).
Trading resources could happen still, but instead of giving another colony a bulk X amount of resources, you establish a trade deal that adds X resource to your capacity and subtracts the same X from theirs, in exchange for money or another resource.
Anyway, let me know what you think of a system like this? It would be a big departure from MC1, but could be made to "feel" the same as well. Would eliminate all of the resource hording related problems.
Perhaps instead of making MC2 a resource stockpile game like MC1, the only real "resource" you will actually stockpile in the game will be money. When you want to build a structure or unit or whatnot, all you need to do is make sure you have the correct amount of money.
On the other hand, the traditional resources such as Ore, Gold, Water, Food, etc, will all work in a similar way that Power and Bandwidth do in MC1.
Suppose that a Mine generates +3 ore based on it's location, and a refinery requires -2 ore to output +1 steel. In this situation, the colony is netting +1 ore and +1 steel. So the player needs to balance the resource input with the output for each settlement. Since only 2/3 Ore is being utilized, the remaining 1 ore can just stay in the ground until needed.
It could be tweaked, but this change would eliminate massive resource stockpiles and instead measure a colony on the amount of resources they are actively producing rather than what they have stockpiled (or gifted in the case of MC1).
Trading resources could happen still, but instead of giving another colony a bulk X amount of resources, you establish a trade deal that adds X resource to your capacity and subtracts the same X from theirs, in exchange for money or another resource.
Anyway, let me know what you think of a system like this? It would be a big departure from MC1, but could be made to "feel" the same as well. Would eliminate all of the resource hording related problems.
I mentioned in my other thread about how a game planet was going to be divided into settlements, but since I am at the point of development right now where I actually need to start fleshing this out, I thought I would open a thread to discuss how exactly the mechanics of settlements would/should work, and how they should be governed.
In the thread regarding Resources as Utilities, I think we sort of decided that resources would work in a similar manner to MC1. One thing I think needs to be finalized is resource pools. Should they be player based, or settlement based? I am of mixed opinions on this, so would like to hear feedback and pros/cons of each, since I need to start adding resources to the engine fairly soon before I can move on.
I have been going back and forth on this. I have considered resources being tied to the settlement, tied to the player, work like utilities, and even just not having resource pools at all. The more I think of it in my head though, I am starting to envision a new system that is possibly a bit more complicated at first, but I think is more realistic and would add a whole new element to the game - logistics.
My proposal for MC2 is to have the resources literally be tied to no large single pool, but instead just sit there in the building/area they were produced until they are moved. If you build a mine somewhere, you also need a transportation system to bring the ore from the mine to the refinery, or to a warehouse, etc. Each player is responsible for this own supply lines. Suppose you build a department store in Settlement A that sells toys. You also have a factory in Settlement B that produces toys, but it is X miles away and there is a transport cost. Player2 also has a toy factory in Settlement A right across the street from your shop. You can either pay build up your own transportation infrastructure, or you can just source the toys from across the street, in which case money would change hands from Player 1 to 2.
There should be logistics related buildings such as trucking stations or perhaps rail lines. So there wasn't so much micromanaging, a Factory could know what resources it needs, and trucks in the area could automatically move the materials. If a truck is owned by Player 1 and the mine is owned by Player 1 and the factory is owned by Player 1, then it can be a "free shipping" scenario, otherwise you could make money by transporting resources for other players. A player could build his entire financial empire on being a "transport tycoon" and shipping resources for other players.
Warehouses can be tweaked so that the player can decide what resources are stored there. You could say that Warehouse A on this part of town should only store Gold because there is a Mint nearby. And then trucks behind the scenes could figure out the logistics. The player could also manually set their trucking routes if they wanted more control.
If each building had a "Needs" and "Provides" ledger, a lot of the logistics could happen behind the scenes automatically.
Another benefit of each building keeping it's own inventory would help facilitate transactions between players. Suppose Player 1 needs a new Rover, but does not have a vehicle factory, or the materials to build his own. But Player 2 has a Rover Dealership with 6 rovers in stock. You can just buy one of their rovers for Money without even needing the materials or your own factory, and Player 2 gets some nice funds added to their treasury. And perhaps the settlement gets a nice sales tax. Player 2 could tell the dealership building to always keep X numbers of Rovers in stock, and the shipping and logistics engine could take care of the rest. Or he could own the rover factory next door and set up the shipping himself. I don't know!!!
In MC1, again like a dictatorship, the player controls everything related to the economy. You pay the workers, and you also tax them. I am thinking of separating this out. For MC2, I propose that the only resource an actual settlement as an entity can have is Money. Each settlement will have it's own public treasury, and the leader of that settlement decides what funds are used for the public, enacts tax policy, etc. Perhaps a settlement can be democratic where different players are able to run against each other, or perhaps a settlement is a dictatorship and leadership cannot be altered. The settlement will be able to tax both colonists, which are controlled by the engine, or businesses, which are controlled by the player. If there is a business tax in the settlement, it is taken out of profits produced by players. If the settlement wants to build a public structure like a Park, it can contract the work out to a player who has the logistics to build it. The settlement would pay a player to build the police station, but then you would use public settlement money to fund and operate it.
I don't know exactly how this would work out, so discussion is needed. It could also be that all buildings are private, including parks and police, like a total Ayn Rand utopia. I really just don't know yet.
This system also would let a settlement leader implement zoning, as mentioned in this thread. The settlement leader could say "only houses in this area" or "only shops in this area" etc. Roads within a settlement could be the responsibility of the settlement owner, or he could just say "anybody can build necessary roads here."
In terms of jobs, I think when a player builds and owns a factory, he should be able to set the pay rate on each factory (he can also just set a default rate or bulk update). When you build an apartment complex, the player should be able to set the rent level. Perhaps a settlement can implement minimum wages or price controls, but in general the player gets to set these levels. That would add an element of competition to a city. It would also have an impact on which parts of a settlement become high end, which become ghetto, etc.
Anyway, maybe this is all too micro-managy and I should just stick to MC1 mechanics, so I'd like to hear what others think about such a logistics system. I like it better because the game can have even more resources than MC1, but without having a huge resource bar at the top of the screen. And it's more realistic than just having storage buildings everywhere will millions of resources.
In the thread regarding Resources as Utilities, I think we sort of decided that resources would work in a similar manner to MC1. One thing I think needs to be finalized is resource pools. Should they be player based, or settlement based? I am of mixed opinions on this, so would like to hear feedback and pros/cons of each, since I need to start adding resources to the engine fairly soon before I can move on.
I have been going back and forth on this. I have considered resources being tied to the settlement, tied to the player, work like utilities, and even just not having resource pools at all. The more I think of it in my head though, I am starting to envision a new system that is possibly a bit more complicated at first, but I think is more realistic and would add a whole new element to the game - logistics.
My proposal for MC2 is to have the resources literally be tied to no large single pool, but instead just sit there in the building/area they were produced until they are moved. If you build a mine somewhere, you also need a transportation system to bring the ore from the mine to the refinery, or to a warehouse, etc. Each player is responsible for this own supply lines. Suppose you build a department store in Settlement A that sells toys. You also have a factory in Settlement B that produces toys, but it is X miles away and there is a transport cost. Player2 also has a toy factory in Settlement A right across the street from your shop. You can either pay build up your own transportation infrastructure, or you can just source the toys from across the street, in which case money would change hands from Player 1 to 2.
There should be logistics related buildings such as trucking stations or perhaps rail lines. So there wasn't so much micromanaging, a Factory could know what resources it needs, and trucks in the area could automatically move the materials. If a truck is owned by Player 1 and the mine is owned by Player 1 and the factory is owned by Player 1, then it can be a "free shipping" scenario, otherwise you could make money by transporting resources for other players. A player could build his entire financial empire on being a "transport tycoon" and shipping resources for other players.
Warehouses can be tweaked so that the player can decide what resources are stored there. You could say that Warehouse A on this part of town should only store Gold because there is a Mint nearby. And then trucks behind the scenes could figure out the logistics. The player could also manually set their trucking routes if they wanted more control.
If each building had a "Needs" and "Provides" ledger, a lot of the logistics could happen behind the scenes automatically.
Another benefit of each building keeping it's own inventory would help facilitate transactions between players. Suppose Player 1 needs a new Rover, but does not have a vehicle factory, or the materials to build his own. But Player 2 has a Rover Dealership with 6 rovers in stock. You can just buy one of their rovers for Money without even needing the materials or your own factory, and Player 2 gets some nice funds added to their treasury. And perhaps the settlement gets a nice sales tax. Player 2 could tell the dealership building to always keep X numbers of Rovers in stock, and the shipping and logistics engine could take care of the rest. Or he could own the rover factory next door and set up the shipping himself. I don't know!!!
In MC1, again like a dictatorship, the player controls everything related to the economy. You pay the workers, and you also tax them. I am thinking of separating this out. For MC2, I propose that the only resource an actual settlement as an entity can have is Money. Each settlement will have it's own public treasury, and the leader of that settlement decides what funds are used for the public, enacts tax policy, etc. Perhaps a settlement can be democratic where different players are able to run against each other, or perhaps a settlement is a dictatorship and leadership cannot be altered. The settlement will be able to tax both colonists, which are controlled by the engine, or businesses, which are controlled by the player. If there is a business tax in the settlement, it is taken out of profits produced by players. If the settlement wants to build a public structure like a Park, it can contract the work out to a player who has the logistics to build it. The settlement would pay a player to build the police station, but then you would use public settlement money to fund and operate it.
I don't know exactly how this would work out, so discussion is needed. It could also be that all buildings are private, including parks and police, like a total Ayn Rand utopia. I really just don't know yet.
This system also would let a settlement leader implement zoning, as mentioned in this thread. The settlement leader could say "only houses in this area" or "only shops in this area" etc. Roads within a settlement could be the responsibility of the settlement owner, or he could just say "anybody can build necessary roads here."
In terms of jobs, I think when a player builds and owns a factory, he should be able to set the pay rate on each factory (he can also just set a default rate or bulk update). When you build an apartment complex, the player should be able to set the rent level. Perhaps a settlement can implement minimum wages or price controls, but in general the player gets to set these levels. That would add an element of competition to a city. It would also have an impact on which parts of a settlement become high end, which become ghetto, etc.
Anyway, maybe this is all too micro-managy and I should just stick to MC1 mechanics, so I'd like to hear what others think about such a logistics system. I like it better because the game can have even more resources than MC1, but without having a huge resource bar at the top of the screen. And it's more realistic than just having storage buildings everywhere will millions of resources.
I hope you are all having a great today! Today I am releasing My Colony 2 v0.12.0, which includes quite a bit of new content. I have also submitted this build to both the Google Play store and the Amazon App Store so that I can start getting better feedback on mobile performance and UI! MC2 is really starting to shape up into a real game now, so let's take a look at what is new in this release!
First, you may notice that My Colony 2 now has a proper title background image instead of a blank grey screen, which of course looks a lot nicer. Modders can obviously customize this to be whatever they want.
I started adding in the interface for the in-game encyclopedia, which you can see from the main slide-out menu. The only section so far is the in-game credits, which are automatically generated based on username data attached to game data and .vpp files. Check it out if you want to see who has all helped on the game so far! The neat thing is that the credits will be different when you activate a mod, so that you can see information on the mod creator as well.
Since the game is starting to get more resources, I made a change to the resource readout bar. It will appear static as normal until your resource list takes up more space than can fit on one line, then it will begin scrolling like it does in My Colony 1.
Speaking of resources, I added two new ones to this release, Rum and Sugar! I always thought that Rum in MC1 should have been made out of sugar instead of food, so that is how it works now in My Colony 2. Sugar is obtained through the new Sugar Extraction Lab which extracts trace sugars from your excess food. Rum is naturally made as the new Distillery. Unlock these structures with the new Microgravity Brewing tech.
As you may have noticed in the background of the above picture, the Solar Tower from MC1 has returned. You can unlock it using the new High Density Solar Panels tech.
Some good new structures pulled from @GeneralWadaling 's voxel batch have been added, including the Regolith Processing Plant, and Greenhouse Park, and the Trading Depot.
The Regolith Processing Plant is a superior version of the Regolith Compactor on Lunar maps. The Greenhouse Park is sort of like the Green Dome from MC1, except it will produce some food as well. The Trading Depot currently only generates a bit of cash, but is eventually going to be used to facilitate trade between players on the same world. So stay tuned for that.
You can now start generating Civics using the new Civic Center! The Civic Center is unlocked with the Colonial Civics tech. Civics in MC2 are slightly different from MC1, in that they are stored at the settlement level and are not shared between settlements, even if you have a logistics center. Civics are going to determine the "city level" of a settlement, and be a factor in deciding what sort of government options a city has available.
I have made a lot of fixes to pavement rendering in this release. In addition, Pavement is now slightly depressed into the ground once built. It is fairly subtle, but you can notice it when the lighting is right.
In addition, the engine can now automatically generate brick road patterns for pavement, which I demonstrate in this release with the addition of the Solar Road. I also want to add checkered pavement generation, which will probably be coming in the next update or so.
There are more little changes here and there, and you will see them as you play. For now though, I want to thank everyone for playing, leaving feedback, and helping with content! The next few updates are all going to be big on content, so stay tuned for more!
#mycolony2
First, you may notice that My Colony 2 now has a proper title background image instead of a blank grey screen, which of course looks a lot nicer. Modders can obviously customize this to be whatever they want.
I started adding in the interface for the in-game encyclopedia, which you can see from the main slide-out menu. The only section so far is the in-game credits, which are automatically generated based on username data attached to game data and .vpp files. Check it out if you want to see who has all helped on the game so far! The neat thing is that the credits will be different when you activate a mod, so that you can see information on the mod creator as well.
Since the game is starting to get more resources, I made a change to the resource readout bar. It will appear static as normal until your resource list takes up more space than can fit on one line, then it will begin scrolling like it does in My Colony 1.
Speaking of resources, I added two new ones to this release, Rum and Sugar! I always thought that Rum in MC1 should have been made out of sugar instead of food, so that is how it works now in My Colony 2. Sugar is obtained through the new Sugar Extraction Lab which extracts trace sugars from your excess food. Rum is naturally made as the new Distillery. Unlock these structures with the new Microgravity Brewing tech.
As you may have noticed in the background of the above picture, the Solar Tower from MC1 has returned. You can unlock it using the new High Density Solar Panels tech.
Some good new structures pulled from @GeneralWadaling 's voxel batch have been added, including the Regolith Processing Plant, and Greenhouse Park, and the Trading Depot.
The Regolith Processing Plant is a superior version of the Regolith Compactor on Lunar maps. The Greenhouse Park is sort of like the Green Dome from MC1, except it will produce some food as well. The Trading Depot currently only generates a bit of cash, but is eventually going to be used to facilitate trade between players on the same world. So stay tuned for that.
You can now start generating Civics using the new Civic Center! The Civic Center is unlocked with the Colonial Civics tech. Civics in MC2 are slightly different from MC1, in that they are stored at the settlement level and are not shared between settlements, even if you have a logistics center. Civics are going to determine the "city level" of a settlement, and be a factor in deciding what sort of government options a city has available.
I have made a lot of fixes to pavement rendering in this release. In addition, Pavement is now slightly depressed into the ground once built. It is fairly subtle, but you can notice it when the lighting is right.
In addition, the engine can now automatically generate brick road patterns for pavement, which I demonstrate in this release with the addition of the Solar Road. I also want to add checkered pavement generation, which will probably be coming in the next update or so.
There are more little changes here and there, and you will see them as you play. For now though, I want to thank everyone for playing, leaving feedback, and helping with content! The next few updates are all going to be big on content, so stay tuned for more!
#mycolony2
Today I am publishing a long awaited update to the original My Colony, v1.20.0, which is live now on Ape Web Apps and the Ape Apps Launcher, and should be hitting everywhere else sometime next week (might have delayed app reviews due to labor day weekend). People have been asking for fixes and content, so it's time to give MC1 some love, so let's take a look at what is new, as well as what's to come!
First off, one of the longest awaited bug fixes is here in this release, regarding colony health statistics. There was a bug in MC1 where, if your colony ever ran out of food or water, it would completely bork the health reporting stats, even after food and water was restored. This has been corrected, and health stat reporting should be back to normal. If yours was borked, it might take up to ten minutes in-game for the issue to correct itself.
There was a request by @josip0101v to overhaul the building color codes in the "Building Colors Only" view mode, and this has now been done. I don't remember the new color coding off the top of my head, but its something like Yellow for resource production, Green for residential, blue and purple are in there too. I think they correspond to the graph colors when you click on a building. Anyway, it's better than showing everything in Red.
If you are one of those people who hate kids, then you are in luck because the long broken Deport Children function has been fixed. Deporting children will remove all kids 10 years of age and younger. The cutoff is 10, because MC1 considers kids over 10 to be working age, and they are available to work in the labor market.
There have been several issues raised related to inappropriate language and behavior in the in-game chat, so some basic automatic chat moderation has been added. These changes only apply to the green letter chat that shows up in the game window, and the slide-out chat sidebar will still show everything, for those who do not want moderation.
The game will filter out a variety of common profanity words. By filter them out, I mean if a message contains one, the message just wont show up in the game at all (it will still be in the chat sidebar though).
The chat overlay will now no longer show messages over 400 characters long. There have been complaints about people either typing a bunch of nonsense or just copy/pasting stuff into chat. This will no longer show up.
There have also been complaints about non-stop spam posting. The game will now no longer allow more than three messages from a user within a 10 (I think 10) second time span. This should be well enough time to allow for normal conversation to go uniterrupted.
Again, none of this moderation happens in the slideout chat, it's mainly to keep things from showing up for people who are just trying to play the game.
By request from @Shadowdoom286 , more information has been added to the popup window when you mouse-over the population of your colony. It will now show the number of children, the number of working age adults, and the number of retired people.
Moving on. The Quantum Warehouse and the Gravity Compression Warehouse now have storage for Cobalt. Cobalt will now also be generated by the Research Converter.
I have included three new buildings in this update that were submitted by the community. The new Nuclear Water Synthesis Plant (submitted by @itsLiseczeq ) is a great new structure for water generation (mid game, but its probably one of the best structures for late game as well). The Department of Paradoxical Studies and Nanite Server Building (submitted by @Electrogamer1943 ) have also been added. The Department of Paradoxical Studies is roughly the LIS version of the Department of Fish Mating Studies, and the Nanite Server Building is an upgrade to the Large Server Building, providing more bandwidth, but costing nanites and cobalt.
Next, I decided people might want me to start adding more late game content, and so I am starting down a new tech path which I will expand on over the coming updates. The new Advanced Simulation Theory research has been added to the game, which unlocks the new Advanced Simulations Unlimited structure, which is an OP generator for money, research and civics but costs huge amounts of power and bandwidth, and really chews through the nanites.
Moving forward, I think the game needs (at a minimum) better production facilities for Software, Nanites, and Bricks, so you can expect those in the coming update. I am also open to continued community submissions, so keep them coming and I will keep adding them. While I have been focused on MC2, there seems to be a larger desire for me to keep adding content to MC1, so I might as well, so stay tuned for more content to both games as the weeks progress!
So that's it for today, check out the update on the web now, idk when it will hit other platforms but it should be this coming week (maybe longer for Android). Enjoy!
#mycolony
First off, one of the longest awaited bug fixes is here in this release, regarding colony health statistics. There was a bug in MC1 where, if your colony ever ran out of food or water, it would completely bork the health reporting stats, even after food and water was restored. This has been corrected, and health stat reporting should be back to normal. If yours was borked, it might take up to ten minutes in-game for the issue to correct itself.
There was a request by @josip0101v to overhaul the building color codes in the "Building Colors Only" view mode, and this has now been done. I don't remember the new color coding off the top of my head, but its something like Yellow for resource production, Green for residential, blue and purple are in there too. I think they correspond to the graph colors when you click on a building. Anyway, it's better than showing everything in Red.
If you are one of those people who hate kids, then you are in luck because the long broken Deport Children function has been fixed. Deporting children will remove all kids 10 years of age and younger. The cutoff is 10, because MC1 considers kids over 10 to be working age, and they are available to work in the labor market.
There have been several issues raised related to inappropriate language and behavior in the in-game chat, so some basic automatic chat moderation has been added. These changes only apply to the green letter chat that shows up in the game window, and the slide-out chat sidebar will still show everything, for those who do not want moderation.
The game will filter out a variety of common profanity words. By filter them out, I mean if a message contains one, the message just wont show up in the game at all (it will still be in the chat sidebar though).
The chat overlay will now no longer show messages over 400 characters long. There have been complaints about people either typing a bunch of nonsense or just copy/pasting stuff into chat. This will no longer show up.
There have also been complaints about non-stop spam posting. The game will now no longer allow more than three messages from a user within a 10 (I think 10) second time span. This should be well enough time to allow for normal conversation to go uniterrupted.
Again, none of this moderation happens in the slideout chat, it's mainly to keep things from showing up for people who are just trying to play the game.
By request from @Shadowdoom286 , more information has been added to the popup window when you mouse-over the population of your colony. It will now show the number of children, the number of working age adults, and the number of retired people.
Moving on. The Quantum Warehouse and the Gravity Compression Warehouse now have storage for Cobalt. Cobalt will now also be generated by the Research Converter.
I have included three new buildings in this update that were submitted by the community. The new Nuclear Water Synthesis Plant (submitted by @itsLiseczeq ) is a great new structure for water generation (mid game, but its probably one of the best structures for late game as well). The Department of Paradoxical Studies and Nanite Server Building (submitted by @Electrogamer1943 ) have also been added. The Department of Paradoxical Studies is roughly the LIS version of the Department of Fish Mating Studies, and the Nanite Server Building is an upgrade to the Large Server Building, providing more bandwidth, but costing nanites and cobalt.
Next, I decided people might want me to start adding more late game content, and so I am starting down a new tech path which I will expand on over the coming updates. The new Advanced Simulation Theory research has been added to the game, which unlocks the new Advanced Simulations Unlimited structure, which is an OP generator for money, research and civics but costs huge amounts of power and bandwidth, and really chews through the nanites.
Moving forward, I think the game needs (at a minimum) better production facilities for Software, Nanites, and Bricks, so you can expect those in the coming update. I am also open to continued community submissions, so keep them coming and I will keep adding them. While I have been focused on MC2, there seems to be a larger desire for me to keep adding content to MC1, so I might as well, so stay tuned for more content to both games as the weeks progress!
So that's it for today, check out the update on the web now, idk when it will hit other platforms but it should be this coming week (maybe longer for Android). Enjoy!
#mycolony
Hello everyone!
Since bast is now focusing on My Colony 2, the development of MC1 has slowed down, which is very much understandable - all games eventually get a sequel or just fizzle out in popularity. I don't mean that bast ignores the community of MC1 - he is just focused on the development of the sequel, which is completely fine.
But, over the last year or so, I was thinking about several changes that would take a while to implement to MC1 but could benefit the longevity of the game (or even games like Antiquitas, because some of these changes will probably apply to the engine itself). This is by no means a final request or demand from me, I'd be happy if any of these changes were introduced, and I'll still support the game if no changes will be made, because it's still a damn fun game after all these years.
These ideas are big changes that will probably take quite a while to implement, but could be very beneficial to making the Scroll2D engine games live practically forever. Please treat this post as more of a crazy idea dump more than an actual solid suggestion, as some of these ideas will probably not make sense to implement on a development time basis.
I'd also love to see feedback and potential cues on how these ideas can be simplified.
Anyways, here be thou ideas.
1. Advanced modding support
My Colony 2 was revolutionary in the terms of modding. For the first time we as a community could add our own buildings and resources, and later even events and technologies, which is awesome and definitely contributes to the overall ingenuity of the game.
In My Colony 1, there are also modding options, however these are limited to maps and texture packs. It's still better than nothing at all, but could be greatly improved.
My idea extends the modding system in a way that allows players to add their own buildings, resources, technologies, units, worlds, and even things like civilizations and custom building GUIs. This will probably require a lot of changes to the engine but can be implemented at least partially, benefiting the overall replayability of the game. These mods will probably have issues with charters and online games, so these could be limited to offline only, but will still be a very fun addition to the game, allowing the players to create their own after-end-of-life DLCs and such.
2. Bigger cities
This is a very straight-forward idea that I've heard from a bunch of other players in the community. This idea regards the sizes of the cities in region worlds. These are currently Small 51x51 (1x1 region tile) cities and Medium 101x101 (2x2 region tile) cities. This is okay, but it could probably be easily expanded to Big 151x151 (3x3 region tile) cities and Huge (4x4 region tile) cities. One problem to consider would be cloud disk space, however I'd assume that 9 Small cities would take up the same if not more space than 1 Big city.
3. Annexable regions
This is another idea I've seen other players talk about. While it is true that there is a lot of space on the region worlds already, some people are making absolutely huge bases and slowly outgrowing the region size.
Annexing regions would add the possibility to have several additional similarly sized regions under your command.
This could be implemented in several ways - either by adding several layers of regions, with a map of regions, and regions full of cities, or adding a submenu simply listing owned regions, and perhaps regions having green outlines that allows you to switch the one you're currently viewing, similar to region cities.
An obvious issue would be cloud disk space since now My Colony worlds would be essentially infinite, but there could be a limit of regions set or even a premium system where an Ape Apps Gold user has an increased limit of regions.
4. Multi-species colonies
The concept of multi-species colonies has always been very interesting to me and I've been pretty confused why it's not in the game. This would allow colonies to have several kinds of colonists - humans could live alongside bugs and aliens. This would also allow creating buildings previously exclusive to another race. I don't know if this conflicts with bast's vision for the game, but this could be locked behind an end-game technology to make the game way more interesting.
5. Expeditions
This would be a simple way of extracting resources that is an expansion of the WMD system (but this time more peaceful). This would include a special upgradeable building that would be an expedition agency, which would send colonists on a type of planet that the player can choose and establish a settlement to extract resources.
Now this settlement can either be completely simulated with resources just flowing in or essentially be a second temporary colony that the player can actually use just like their primary. Of course the latter would need a lot more coding to be done and is actually possible to a degree already with the use of charters. But one way that could be done more efficiently is to limit the number of colonial colonies to something like 3 at a time and limiting the map size to for example 50x50. However, this would be treated as an independent map, so the resources would be able to respawn.
So that's it. As I said, these would probably take some time to implement but they could really expand the game and make it way more replayable. Unless bast wants us all to migrate to MC2. I'll hold a grudge in that case. Cheers!
Since bast is now focusing on My Colony 2, the development of MC1 has slowed down, which is very much understandable - all games eventually get a sequel or just fizzle out in popularity. I don't mean that bast ignores the community of MC1 - he is just focused on the development of the sequel, which is completely fine.
But, over the last year or so, I was thinking about several changes that would take a while to implement to MC1 but could benefit the longevity of the game (or even games like Antiquitas, because some of these changes will probably apply to the engine itself). This is by no means a final request or demand from me, I'd be happy if any of these changes were introduced, and I'll still support the game if no changes will be made, because it's still a damn fun game after all these years.
These ideas are big changes that will probably take quite a while to implement, but could be very beneficial to making the Scroll2D engine games live practically forever. Please treat this post as more of a crazy idea dump more than an actual solid suggestion, as some of these ideas will probably not make sense to implement on a development time basis.
I'd also love to see feedback and potential cues on how these ideas can be simplified.
Anyways, here be thou ideas.
1. Advanced modding support
My Colony 2 was revolutionary in the terms of modding. For the first time we as a community could add our own buildings and resources, and later even events and technologies, which is awesome and definitely contributes to the overall ingenuity of the game.
In My Colony 1, there are also modding options, however these are limited to maps and texture packs. It's still better than nothing at all, but could be greatly improved.
My idea extends the modding system in a way that allows players to add their own buildings, resources, technologies, units, worlds, and even things like civilizations and custom building GUIs. This will probably require a lot of changes to the engine but can be implemented at least partially, benefiting the overall replayability of the game. These mods will probably have issues with charters and online games, so these could be limited to offline only, but will still be a very fun addition to the game, allowing the players to create their own after-end-of-life DLCs and such.
2. Bigger cities
This is a very straight-forward idea that I've heard from a bunch of other players in the community. This idea regards the sizes of the cities in region worlds. These are currently Small 51x51 (1x1 region tile) cities and Medium 101x101 (2x2 region tile) cities. This is okay, but it could probably be easily expanded to Big 151x151 (3x3 region tile) cities and Huge (4x4 region tile) cities. One problem to consider would be cloud disk space, however I'd assume that 9 Small cities would take up the same if not more space than 1 Big city.
3. Annexable regions
This is another idea I've seen other players talk about. While it is true that there is a lot of space on the region worlds already, some people are making absolutely huge bases and slowly outgrowing the region size.
Annexing regions would add the possibility to have several additional similarly sized regions under your command.
This could be implemented in several ways - either by adding several layers of regions, with a map of regions, and regions full of cities, or adding a submenu simply listing owned regions, and perhaps regions having green outlines that allows you to switch the one you're currently viewing, similar to region cities.
An obvious issue would be cloud disk space since now My Colony worlds would be essentially infinite, but there could be a limit of regions set or even a premium system where an Ape Apps Gold user has an increased limit of regions.
4. Multi-species colonies
The concept of multi-species colonies has always been very interesting to me and I've been pretty confused why it's not in the game. This would allow colonies to have several kinds of colonists - humans could live alongside bugs and aliens. This would also allow creating buildings previously exclusive to another race. I don't know if this conflicts with bast's vision for the game, but this could be locked behind an end-game technology to make the game way more interesting.
5. Expeditions
This would be a simple way of extracting resources that is an expansion of the WMD system (but this time more peaceful). This would include a special upgradeable building that would be an expedition agency, which would send colonists on a type of planet that the player can choose and establish a settlement to extract resources.
Now this settlement can either be completely simulated with resources just flowing in or essentially be a second temporary colony that the player can actually use just like their primary. Of course the latter would need a lot more coding to be done and is actually possible to a degree already with the use of charters. But one way that could be done more efficiently is to limit the number of colonial colonies to something like 3 at a time and limiting the map size to for example 50x50. However, this would be treated as an independent map, so the resources would be able to respawn.
So that's it. As I said, these would probably take some time to implement but they could really expand the game and make it way more replayable. Unless bast wants us all to migrate to MC2. I'll hold a grudge in that case. Cheers!
Are these going to be changed ?
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edit: https://mc1.my-colony.com/releasenotes/102.php <-- not found
All other links I was able to replace www with mc1
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edit: https://mc1.my-colony.com/releasenotes/102.php <-- not found
All other links I was able to replace www with mc1
MC1 don't have a solid, big player base. A completely decentralized game, with many different versions (theoretically, each player could have a different versions), completely player-server dependent.. I'm not sure if will work.
I love the possibility of (almost) complete customization, and the possibility to have a personal server. Even for easy play in different support. I could use a pc server, and play in my LAN in every smartphone/tablet/ecc, without big problem.
For the multiplayer, with the server/client decentralized we won't have classic multiplayer, just many server. Maybe few player will be play in "multiplayer", but.. for almost all players, they will be alone isolated on their server. Maybe will help few friend to play together.
But.. a central server (like MC1) for resources and trade don't have much sense with complete customization system. The economy in MC1 is already a disaster, a global trade system can't live in a game where player can make a building able to produce trillion and cost 1 ore.
I don't think player need to play the same map at the same time, sure.. will be a nice touch, but is crazy for server requisite and heavy depended to internet.
I prefer solid interaction outside the map (a solid economy system, a complete trade structure, from resources to bot, tech..), to a solid interaction inside the map.
I love the possibility of (almost) complete customization, and the possibility to have a personal server. Even for easy play in different support. I could use a pc server, and play in my LAN in every smartphone/tablet/ecc, without big problem.
For the multiplayer, with the server/client decentralized we won't have classic multiplayer, just many server. Maybe few player will be play in "multiplayer", but.. for almost all players, they will be alone isolated on their server. Maybe will help few friend to play together.
But.. a central server (like MC1) for resources and trade don't have much sense with complete customization system. The economy in MC1 is already a disaster, a global trade system can't live in a game where player can make a building able to produce trillion and cost 1 ore.
I don't think player need to play the same map at the same time, sure.. will be a nice touch, but is crazy for server requisite and heavy depended to internet.
I prefer solid interaction outside the map (a solid economy system, a complete trade structure, from resources to bot, tech..), to a solid interaction inside the map.
The bad performance with large maps in MC1 was largely from the combination of pathfinding/rovers and sprite rendering, and not necessarily related to the server. The primary reason for decentralizing MC2 is to allow multiple players to build on a single planet. This would require a lot more server capacity VS MC1. The real question, is if that feature is even necessary? Does going decentralized add a lot of unneeded headaches for a feature that may or may not be that great?
I think that decentralized infinite maps will oddly perform better than the current small map + region model. The reason is that, although unseen by the player, this model is somewhat similar to the region model anyway, at least in the way I envision it. The planet is broken into "chunks" of some fixed size, perhaps 32x32 tiles, and at any one time the game is only "actively" processing your "chunk" and the ones surrounding your current camera position. The others are still being updated, but at a lower less intensive level. And your client is not rendering them anyway.
Also in MC2, most of the game logic will be occurring on a separate background thread, which should in and of itself afford a significant performance boost.
Finally, using WebGL instead of the software canvas should improve performance even further.
Whether it is centralized or decentralized, I do think performance will be a lot better than MC1. The main bottleneck will be in allowing multiple players to build on the same map, since on some level you will need to keep all players in sync, and one player with a slow device or connection could kill it for everybody. Now, since the game isn't as fast paced as, say Colony Wars, you may be able to let one client fall behind, but it could become an issue if players are right next to each other.
Actually the game could just as easily have both options. If the clients are not using modded content anyway, what does it matter if you are in a one player game or a planet with multiple people? If basically all the centralized server is doing is managing trade routes and resource prices, any un-modded non-creative game type should be able to connect.
I think that decentralized infinite maps will oddly perform better than the current small map + region model. The reason is that, although unseen by the player, this model is somewhat similar to the region model anyway, at least in the way I envision it. The planet is broken into "chunks" of some fixed size, perhaps 32x32 tiles, and at any one time the game is only "actively" processing your "chunk" and the ones surrounding your current camera position. The others are still being updated, but at a lower less intensive level. And your client is not rendering them anyway.
Also in MC2, most of the game logic will be occurring on a separate background thread, which should in and of itself afford a significant performance boost.
Finally, using WebGL instead of the software canvas should improve performance even further.
Whether it is centralized or decentralized, I do think performance will be a lot better than MC1. The main bottleneck will be in allowing multiple players to build on the same map, since on some level you will need to keep all players in sync, and one player with a slow device or connection could kill it for everybody. Now, since the game isn't as fast paced as, say Colony Wars, you may be able to let one client fall behind, but it could become an issue if players are right next to each other.
Actually the game could just as easily have both options. If the clients are not using modded content anyway, what does it matter if you are in a one player game or a planet with multiple people? If basically all the centralized server is doing is managing trade routes and resource prices, any un-modded non-creative game type should be able to connect.
Hey guys. I was thinking of a cool addition to MC2 (still don't know if I post it here, or somewhere else, but here goes nothing)
My idea was: Flag editor from MC1, but for buildings. Basically a flag on a pole that you can edit similarily to colony flags in MC1. They would change appearance and be visible on map. Couldnt export a PNG so im sending a VPP of a makeshift flag I made in Voxel Paint.
I love making flags in MC1 and I wish for more than one in a single colony/region... ;)
My idea was: Flag editor from MC1, but for buildings. Basically a flag on a pole that you can edit similarily to colony flags in MC1. They would change appearance and be visible on map. Couldnt export a PNG so im sending a VPP of a makeshift flag I made in Voxel Paint.
I love making flags in MC1 and I wish for more than one in a single colony/region... ;)
I've gotten back into My Colony again lately, and I've noticed a couple of changes that could be made to help the overall Quality of Life.
1.) Large buildings like the starship port, disappear if you scroll a little bit too far away from the center of the building.
2.) Currently, a lot of rss don't have any use in late game. I'm not asking for a huge content update, but if we could get something that uses starships and makes something like charcoal(I don't just some sort of useful resource) that would give bigger incentive to getting into ships. B/c unless you have a large base of Tri generation, ships are overall a net loss.
3.) On the ape apps launcher of MC1, if you try to click the person's name in chat on the right hand side of the screen it will not pop up the list of colonies.
4). Please Bast add a dark mode to the ape apps launcher version of MC1. Please. My retinas beg for it.
5.) An option to click and put a number in where you want to export resources, instead of the slider we have now.
6.) Revert gift nerf. Please.
7.) Making it possible to sell to the galactic loot pool in higher lots than 100 million. I have well over 1/2 trillion ore I want to get rid of(Thx Bob), and selling it off in 100m increments is never gonna make it.
8.) Fix auto trade, b/c it doesn't work for some reason. I'll tell the game to auto trade my ships and my ships will just stay at max the entire time. Maybe add a feature to specify how much to sell at a time and how much to sell it for?
9.) A faster way to generate bricks. That's all.
Overall, now that I've written this out, it seems a lot longer than I originally anticipated. But hey, MC1 still needs a bit of love every now and then. I would hate to see the game that built my early teen years die.
1.) Large buildings like the starship port, disappear if you scroll a little bit too far away from the center of the building.
2.) Currently, a lot of rss don't have any use in late game. I'm not asking for a huge content update, but if we could get something that uses starships and makes something like charcoal(I don't just some sort of useful resource) that would give bigger incentive to getting into ships. B/c unless you have a large base of Tri generation, ships are overall a net loss.
3.) On the ape apps launcher of MC1, if you try to click the person's name in chat on the right hand side of the screen it will not pop up the list of colonies.
4). Please Bast add a dark mode to the ape apps launcher version of MC1. Please. My retinas beg for it.
5.) An option to click and put a number in where you want to export resources, instead of the slider we have now.
6.) Revert gift nerf. Please.
7.) Making it possible to sell to the galactic loot pool in higher lots than 100 million. I have well over 1/2 trillion ore I want to get rid of(Thx Bob), and selling it off in 100m increments is never gonna make it.
8.) Fix auto trade, b/c it doesn't work for some reason. I'll tell the game to auto trade my ships and my ships will just stay at max the entire time. Maybe add a feature to specify how much to sell at a time and how much to sell it for?
9.) A faster way to generate bricks. That's all.
Overall, now that I've written this out, it seems a lot longer than I originally anticipated. But hey, MC1 still needs a bit of love every now and then. I would hate to see the game that built my early teen years die.
Today marks the availability of My Colony 2 v0.10.0, along with some cool new features and enhancements! Updates for MC2 will be weekly during most of the rest of the summer, so make sure you stay tuned for all of the new features and content. In the meantime, let's take a look at what's new with this release.
My Colony 3D - If you thought that Jaws 3D was all of the rage back in the day, it's got nothing on My Colony 2. If you have a pair of red/cyan 3d glasses, yes the old movie theater kind, you can now enable Anaglyphic 3d Mode in the Engine Settings menu for a neat stereoscopic 3d effect. Observe the above screenshot using 3d glasses for an example.
Back to Work - The pandemic has ended for the worlds of My Colony 2, and so all productive structures are now requiring their workers to return to the factories. Hovering your mouse above the population readout in the toolbar will now show you the same stats that MC1 would regarding settlement population, housing, and jobs. New for MC2 though, buildings will now show a "workers needed" icon over the top of them if they have no workers available, so that you can see at a glance if you need to construction more housing or landing pads. Since the added work requirement will no doubt require a higher population, the Dormitory has been added as a more dense housing option.
Storage Required - Before now, it wouldn't really matter if you constructed storage facilities or not, as you could just gather infinite resources anyway. Now storage requirements are enforced. To assist in this new requirement, the Warehouse is now available to build in the game.
Money is now in the game, which can currently be created using the Gold Mint facility. Eventually you will have to pay your workers, and Money is the way they are going to be paid. Money will also be the medium of exchange for player-player trades, once I get that implemented.
The Desert World is now functional and ready for colonization. To assist in Desert World colonization, I have added the new Desert Rover, the Sand Drill, and the Small Condenser to to the game.
The updates are going to be coming fast to My Colony 2 over the next few weeks, leading up to the late-July Android release of the game. Once the game hits Android, some of its features are going to be moving behind the premium paywall, such as modding, multiplayer, and some of the world maps. Premium content is being added to MC2 because, unlike MC1, I do not plan on using in-app advertising banners in this game.
My short-term (next few months) to-do list for MC2 is as follows (and this is a loose roadmap, not set in stone):
So that is what is here now and coming soon for MC2! Thanks to all who have played and contributed content to the game, and stay tuned for more as the weeks progress!
#mycolony2
My Colony 3D - If you thought that Jaws 3D was all of the rage back in the day, it's got nothing on My Colony 2. If you have a pair of red/cyan 3d glasses, yes the old movie theater kind, you can now enable Anaglyphic 3d Mode in the Engine Settings menu for a neat stereoscopic 3d effect. Observe the above screenshot using 3d glasses for an example.
Back to Work - The pandemic has ended for the worlds of My Colony 2, and so all productive structures are now requiring their workers to return to the factories. Hovering your mouse above the population readout in the toolbar will now show you the same stats that MC1 would regarding settlement population, housing, and jobs. New for MC2 though, buildings will now show a "workers needed" icon over the top of them if they have no workers available, so that you can see at a glance if you need to construction more housing or landing pads. Since the added work requirement will no doubt require a higher population, the Dormitory has been added as a more dense housing option.
Storage Required - Before now, it wouldn't really matter if you constructed storage facilities or not, as you could just gather infinite resources anyway. Now storage requirements are enforced. To assist in this new requirement, the Warehouse is now available to build in the game.
Money is now in the game, which can currently be created using the Gold Mint facility. Eventually you will have to pay your workers, and Money is the way they are going to be paid. Money will also be the medium of exchange for player-player trades, once I get that implemented.
The Desert World is now functional and ready for colonization. To assist in Desert World colonization, I have added the new Desert Rover, the Sand Drill, and the Small Condenser to to the game.
The updates are going to be coming fast to My Colony 2 over the next few weeks, leading up to the late-July Android release of the game. Once the game hits Android, some of its features are going to be moving behind the premium paywall, such as modding, multiplayer, and some of the world maps. Premium content is being added to MC2 because, unlike MC1, I do not plan on using in-app advertising banners in this game.
My short-term (next few months) to-do list for MC2 is as follows (and this is a loose roadmap, not set in stone):
- Implement Abandoned World map with lakes of Ether and old ruins to explore
- Start implementing Scripting Engine, starting with basic flags and triggers (enough to implement in-game tutorial at first)
- Water Based Units and Structures, for both the Water World map and the coming Abandoned World map.
- Pavement
- Research and Tech Requirements
- Building Options, such as Sell, Rotate, Prioritize, etc
- And of course, more Structures and Units with each update.
- AI controlled Civilizations for trade or combat
- Full Statistics screen window, similar to what MC1 has
- Entertainment, Medical, Education and Security requirements. The necessary structures will be available to build well before they are required.
- Cross-Server trade networks. I still do not want to have a big centralized MC2 server, but I am working out a plan where individual dedicated server owners can set up their own server-server trade networks, whereby multiple decentralized servers can be linked together and interact online.
- iOS and Steam releases before the end of the year
So that is what is here now and coming soon for MC2! Thanks to all who have played and contributed content to the game, and stay tuned for more as the weeks progress!
#mycolony2
My Colony 2 v0.14.0 has just been released and should be hitting all devices in a timely manner. I had originally planned to focus on the Water World for this update, but it ultimately ended up being completely different! That's fine though, because this release brings a lot of interface changes and some good new content to boot. Let's take a look at what's new!
I have added a new glow effect to units when you select them so that it is easier to tell which unit you have selected. Also, I have brought back the gesture from MC1 where you can click/tap on a unit twice to select all units of that same type (within a 40 tile radius).
This change solves two feature requests at once, so it's all good. I still need to bring back the drag/box select for Units, which will happen in due time.
I have started to expand the Encyclopedia with the new Structures section.
Right now it is only a glorified list of all structures in the game, but of course you will eventually be able to click on them to get all of the detailed information.
Speaking of expanded dialogs, the Engine Settings screen has a new Interface section. Here, you can adjust the size of the in-game chat text, and turn off the Camera Mode toolbar button, since players who use a mouse may never need to click on that button anyway.
And finally for dialogs, I have started to implement the Statistics screen, although it still has a ways to go.
The stats will be greatly expanded in the future. For now you can get some general information about the planet as a whole, a list of all settlements (as well as the ability to instant jump to each settlement location) and details on all players on the server. If you are the server owner (or a moderator), you can even conduct player moderation tasks on the Players screen.
In addition, you can also now finally change your player color on the Players screen by selecting your own name. These player moderation options are also available now in the Dedicated Server console.
Speaking of the Dedicated Server console, you can now easily switch your game between regular and dedicated server mode! On the game listings screen, click on the settings gear icon to launch your game in either mode. This allows you to play on your own server when you are at home, and then switch it over to dedicated mode when you are away.
And finally, you can now restore your game backups from the game listing screen by clicking on the new Restore Backup option that is at the bottom of your games listing.
I have updated the Chat Commands guide with new console commands that have been added to the game. Most of these also can be accessed by in-game UI, but those who prefer to type have the option as well. To go along with these, and as I lightly mentioned earlier, you can now assign a Moderator to your server to help watch over things when you are away. A moderator currently has the ability to kick a player for 5 minutes, as sort of a time out. The server admin can ban a player for however many days they deem necessary. Feel free to suggest more options for both Admins and Moderators.
Pictured below, you can see three new building options that have been added to the popup that appears when you select a building, which are Sell Confirmation, Upgrade, and Clone.
The little sell confirmation dialog will appear when you click on the sell button, so that you do not accidentally do something by mistake. The clone button works as in MC1, allowing you a quick way to "build another" of a certain type of building without searching through the build menu. And of course the upgrade button is there because we can now upgrade buildings, just like in MC1!
Moving on, you will now notice that Border Lines are drawn around your settlements!
This makes it easy to determine where you can and cannot place structures.
There are other little engine changes and improvements throughout, but let's move on to the new stuff next, starting with a new map, the Abandoned World!
The lovely pink radioactive waters are back, and along with them come the new resource Ether, and the associated Ether Tank and Ether Pump. The Ether will eventually be utilized for power generation and other industrial uses.
Speaking of power generation, you can now harvest Uranium using the new Uranium Miner, which is stored in the new Uranium Silo, and can be used to power the new Small Nuclear Reactor, giving you way more power than you had before!
Lastly, I have made several changes to the Ice World, making it more difficult than before. You can no longer construct solar panels (or solar anything) or water pumps or Ore Fracking operations. The world is also darker than before, to highlight its cold inhospitable nature.
In exchange, the Ice World gains the new Crystal Glowrod, a light source powered entirely by Crystalline, and the Tundra Molehole, which is essentially an Ore Fracking operation, but for Regolith.
As always, there are other things here in the new update, but you can have fun discovering them on your own. I will be submitting this build to the Windows Store in the form of a premium PWA, so look out for that if you want to purchase the game through your Microsoft Account. And next month, My Colony 2 will finally be hitting the iOS App Store, so look out for that too. Until then though, thank you all for playing and supporting the game, and leaving your suggestions and feedback. And of course, stay tuned for a whole lot more #mycolony2 !!
I have added a new glow effect to units when you select them so that it is easier to tell which unit you have selected. Also, I have brought back the gesture from MC1 where you can click/tap on a unit twice to select all units of that same type (within a 40 tile radius).
This change solves two feature requests at once, so it's all good. I still need to bring back the drag/box select for Units, which will happen in due time.
I have started to expand the Encyclopedia with the new Structures section.
Right now it is only a glorified list of all structures in the game, but of course you will eventually be able to click on them to get all of the detailed information.
Speaking of expanded dialogs, the Engine Settings screen has a new Interface section. Here, you can adjust the size of the in-game chat text, and turn off the Camera Mode toolbar button, since players who use a mouse may never need to click on that button anyway.
And finally for dialogs, I have started to implement the Statistics screen, although it still has a ways to go.
The stats will be greatly expanded in the future. For now you can get some general information about the planet as a whole, a list of all settlements (as well as the ability to instant jump to each settlement location) and details on all players on the server. If you are the server owner (or a moderator), you can even conduct player moderation tasks on the Players screen.
In addition, you can also now finally change your player color on the Players screen by selecting your own name. These player moderation options are also available now in the Dedicated Server console.
Speaking of the Dedicated Server console, you can now easily switch your game between regular and dedicated server mode! On the game listings screen, click on the settings gear icon to launch your game in either mode. This allows you to play on your own server when you are at home, and then switch it over to dedicated mode when you are away.
And finally, you can now restore your game backups from the game listing screen by clicking on the new Restore Backup option that is at the bottom of your games listing.
I have updated the Chat Commands guide with new console commands that have been added to the game. Most of these also can be accessed by in-game UI, but those who prefer to type have the option as well. To go along with these, and as I lightly mentioned earlier, you can now assign a Moderator to your server to help watch over things when you are away. A moderator currently has the ability to kick a player for 5 minutes, as sort of a time out. The server admin can ban a player for however many days they deem necessary. Feel free to suggest more options for both Admins and Moderators.
Pictured below, you can see three new building options that have been added to the popup that appears when you select a building, which are Sell Confirmation, Upgrade, and Clone.
The little sell confirmation dialog will appear when you click on the sell button, so that you do not accidentally do something by mistake. The clone button works as in MC1, allowing you a quick way to "build another" of a certain type of building without searching through the build menu. And of course the upgrade button is there because we can now upgrade buildings, just like in MC1!
Moving on, you will now notice that Border Lines are drawn around your settlements!
This makes it easy to determine where you can and cannot place structures.
There are other little engine changes and improvements throughout, but let's move on to the new stuff next, starting with a new map, the Abandoned World!
The lovely pink radioactive waters are back, and along with them come the new resource Ether, and the associated Ether Tank and Ether Pump. The Ether will eventually be utilized for power generation and other industrial uses.
Speaking of power generation, you can now harvest Uranium using the new Uranium Miner, which is stored in the new Uranium Silo, and can be used to power the new Small Nuclear Reactor, giving you way more power than you had before!
Lastly, I have made several changes to the Ice World, making it more difficult than before. You can no longer construct solar panels (or solar anything) or water pumps or Ore Fracking operations. The world is also darker than before, to highlight its cold inhospitable nature.
In exchange, the Ice World gains the new Crystal Glowrod, a light source powered entirely by Crystalline, and the Tundra Molehole, which is essentially an Ore Fracking operation, but for Regolith.
As always, there are other things here in the new update, but you can have fun discovering them on your own. I will be submitting this build to the Windows Store in the form of a premium PWA, so look out for that if you want to purchase the game through your Microsoft Account. And next month, My Colony 2 will finally be hitting the iOS App Store, so look out for that too. Until then though, thank you all for playing and supporting the game, and leaving your suggestions and feedback. And of course, stay tuned for a whole lot more #mycolony2 !!
Hi yall!
So, I have a habit of playing games on my phone when I have no internet, like for example MC1, but-
My Colony 2 loads fine without internet. Everything is cool and all.. But when you make a colony, even in private mode, it gets stuck on "Creating Server"
So I think its just made to set up an online server even if it's offline. Which is a shame
It'd be cool if we could make Offline mode colonies (like MC1) and much like MC1 they could be made into online colonies for the price of clearing all your resources, for exploit purposes..
Thanks
So, I have a habit of playing games on my phone when I have no internet, like for example MC1, but-
My Colony 2 loads fine without internet. Everything is cool and all.. But when you make a colony, even in private mode, it gets stuck on "Creating Server"
So I think its just made to set up an online server even if it's offline. Which is a shame
It'd be cool if we could make Offline mode colonies (like MC1) and much like MC1 they could be made into online colonies for the price of clearing all your resources, for exploit purposes..
Thanks
Sobeirannovaocc said:https://dev.coloniae.space coming sooooon
We will need to discuss automated stat reporting endpoints, as I want to add the feature into the game for v0.21.0, but it can't work the same was as it did in MC1 and needs to be made a little more generic.
Given the modding capabilities of MC2, it is conceivable that some future mod creator would want their game stats reported to their own server somewhere instead of to coloniae. Also with the potential for so many games to have differing data sets, we will need to make sure to compare "apples to apples" when putting together a database of colony statistics.
I am going to add a new field to the Metadata section of the Game Editor for stat collection endpoint URLs. Multiple URL's will be permitted, separated by commas, and the game will report information by the minute. Reporting will only be done by the Server instance, not by client players connected to the server.
The data will be sent using standard HTTP post, maybe with a custom header to signify that it is coming from the MC2 client. I don't know if maybe it should also have some sort of rudimentary authentication system, like maybe the MC2 client will need to first get an access key of some sort from the reporting end point that can be included with all posts. Clearly with MC2 since anyone can just look at the endpoint URLs in the game editor, it's not going to be totally secure, but we are just collecting raw stats without any secure info. I just don't want people to be able to abuse it and goose their stats somehow, although it could also be made sufficiently complicated to where it's not easy to send bad data anyway. I mean technically someone could send their own MC1 data to Coloniae right now if they wanted to dig into the MC1 source code and look at how it works.
Really it could just be on the endpoint maintainer to see where the request is coming from, and to look at the data and see if it seems legit. All real MC2 requests will either be coming from apewebapps.com or the Android/iOS client, so anything else could be considered a bad request.
Anyway, the posts made to the endpoint, besides for data related to the game world, should also include the Game Identifier uuid string from the Metadata game object so that info from different mods can be segregated, as well as client version, a checksum of all of the gamedata objects so that you can easily tell what data is coming from the same version/client, etc. Perhaps when a world is first loaded, it can also post that same checksum along with a list of all game data items installed, so there can be a reference there too.
Anyway, I want to start testing some basic stat collection with v0.21.0. I am going to set up my own stat collection endpoint for testing, and if you want to make one for Coloniae @Sobeirannovaocc then let me know and I can get an endpoint URL added to the official Metadata game object. You can just create a dummy script there for the time being and develop it later if you want.
Also sobe at some point soon here I am just going to purchase a cloud server instance for Coloniae and give you access to it. My internet connection (and electric utility) has not proven to be good enough to host a production website, lol.
Just in time for the weekend (if you are using the PWA at least), the My Colony 2 v0.23.0 update is now available, bringing a lot of goodies that I hope think you are going to love. So what's new in this release? Let's take a look!
To begin with, continuing work from the last two releases of My Colony 2, more structure voxel models have been separated from the data files, further reducing initial game load times, particularly on mobile devices. This should especially help on lower memory devices, as some were crashing from the sheer size of the overall MC2 data file during initial load.
Next up, as I mentioned in another thread, all My Colony 2 game statistics are now being automatically logged to the Coloniae service that @Sobeirannovaocc is maintaining. The My Colony 2 implementation of Coloniae is still in development, but you can find it at the following URL to track it's progression. Check it out, see if you can find your own world statistics, and be sure to give Sobe your feedback!
https://dev.coloniae.space/
In addition, all new colonies in MC2 are now being automatically added to the mc2global Universe, as outlined in this thread. This will be the default global universe for all new MC2 games, and if you want to join it with your existing colony, simply click on the thread I just posted for instructions.
Next up, commenters in the various app stores have long been requesting that MC2 contain some sort of hints or tutorials such as those found in the original My Colony. So I have started to add helpful dialogs to the game at various points.
More exciting than the tutorials though, are the manner in which they have been implemented. Some time ago, there was a request for some scripting capabilities to be added to MC2 that creators could use for different types of mods. I started implementing it by adding some flag properties to units, structures, worlds, and civs, but then forgot about it, until @Luker124 recently reminded me that they would be helpful for a mod he is planning. As a result, you will now see a new Scripting section in the Game Editor.
I will make a more detailed post on scripting at some point, but it basically works like this. Certain entities (units, structures mainly, but also civs and worlds) can set either a Player Flag or a Global Flag when they are built/come into the game. A Player Flag pertains to the player who triggered the event, and a Global Flag pertains to the entire server. When a flag is triggered, the engine looks through all of the available scripts, and then will run any script that is triggered by the trigger flag.
The engine remembers which players have used which flag, so they can only be triggered once, unless a script gives a "clear flag" command. You can see the currently available script actions in the screenshot above. A script may contain one or more actions, and can call subsequent scripts by setting flags itself.
I plan to use this new flag/script feature to implement something suggested by @GeneralWadaling some months ago, whereby you could discover interesting terrains which would then unlock things. My thinking is that you could discover alien artifacts/tech that would then unlock certain structures that were not available otherwise through the tech tree.
The possibilities are vast though, so it will be interesting to see what modders come up with. The scripting framework is still in its infancy, so try it out and let me know what additions or improvements you would like to see. I foresee eventually being able to make a wide variety of different types of mods with this feature, not even limited to colony builder games.
Next up we come to a new addition that everybody has been asking for since MC2 was first made public, and I am talking about the return of the Bulldozer!
There is now a new toolbar above the build options sidebar. Currently it only has a bulldozer, but that will probably be expanded at some point. As in MC1, the bulldozer mode will turn your interface red so that you do not forget you are in a destructive mode. Unlike MC1, bulldozing a structure will now actually sell it instead of just destroy, so that it is actually more like a quick-sell option than anything else.
Besides just structures, Roads can now finally be removed too, using the bulldozer. This has been one of the top requests for a long time, and now it is a reality. This actually required a pretty substantial rewrite to how roads work, which I outlined in another thread a few weeks ago. But the work is done and the feature is here now. In the coming updates, I plan on also allowing roads to be built pretty much anywhere, not just within the confines of your own settlement, allowing vast highways to be buily across your world!
Moving on, the engine will now enforce structures that have a Settlement Level requirement (currently, only a handful of structures do). You will see this when viewing structure costs on the sidebar. Settlements are leveled up using Civics, and you can level up your settlement by selecting it from the Statistics window.
Now on to new content, as three new Techs have been added in this update: Low Atmospheric Zoology, Advanced Security and Advanced Robotics! Along with the techs, we have two additional resources added to the mix, Cloth and Robots.
Of course, there are new structures here too. The Fish Hatchery is back from MC1, allowing you to breed fish for food. The Outhouse is here, which I think was something of a gag model that GeneralWadaling sent me, but I turned it into an early game sanitation (medical) facility that you can build early on, before you can afford an infirmary. Next we have the Synthetic Textile Lab for creating cloth, and the Robotics Factory for making robots. There is a decorative United Earth Flag that takes on the color of your settlement, and the Storage Yard is a new upgrade to the Raw Materials Depot, allowing you to store way more raw materials than you previously could. Finally, the new War Factory will allow you to build this updates' new military unit, the Main Battle Tank!
All in all, there is a lot here in this update, and I hope you guys like it! So check it out, as it should be hitting all platforms over the coming days, and if you don't want to wait, fire up the web app now at the following URL. Until then, thanks for playing, and have a good weekend!
https://www.apewebapps.com/my-colony-2/
#mycolony2
To begin with, continuing work from the last two releases of My Colony 2, more structure voxel models have been separated from the data files, further reducing initial game load times, particularly on mobile devices. This should especially help on lower memory devices, as some were crashing from the sheer size of the overall MC2 data file during initial load.
Next up, as I mentioned in another thread, all My Colony 2 game statistics are now being automatically logged to the Coloniae service that @Sobeirannovaocc is maintaining. The My Colony 2 implementation of Coloniae is still in development, but you can find it at the following URL to track it's progression. Check it out, see if you can find your own world statistics, and be sure to give Sobe your feedback!
https://dev.coloniae.space/
In addition, all new colonies in MC2 are now being automatically added to the mc2global Universe, as outlined in this thread. This will be the default global universe for all new MC2 games, and if you want to join it with your existing colony, simply click on the thread I just posted for instructions.
Next up, commenters in the various app stores have long been requesting that MC2 contain some sort of hints or tutorials such as those found in the original My Colony. So I have started to add helpful dialogs to the game at various points.
More exciting than the tutorials though, are the manner in which they have been implemented. Some time ago, there was a request for some scripting capabilities to be added to MC2 that creators could use for different types of mods. I started implementing it by adding some flag properties to units, structures, worlds, and civs, but then forgot about it, until @Luker124 recently reminded me that they would be helpful for a mod he is planning. As a result, you will now see a new Scripting section in the Game Editor.
I will make a more detailed post on scripting at some point, but it basically works like this. Certain entities (units, structures mainly, but also civs and worlds) can set either a Player Flag or a Global Flag when they are built/come into the game. A Player Flag pertains to the player who triggered the event, and a Global Flag pertains to the entire server. When a flag is triggered, the engine looks through all of the available scripts, and then will run any script that is triggered by the trigger flag.
The engine remembers which players have used which flag, so they can only be triggered once, unless a script gives a "clear flag" command. You can see the currently available script actions in the screenshot above. A script may contain one or more actions, and can call subsequent scripts by setting flags itself.
I plan to use this new flag/script feature to implement something suggested by @GeneralWadaling some months ago, whereby you could discover interesting terrains which would then unlock things. My thinking is that you could discover alien artifacts/tech that would then unlock certain structures that were not available otherwise through the tech tree.
The possibilities are vast though, so it will be interesting to see what modders come up with. The scripting framework is still in its infancy, so try it out and let me know what additions or improvements you would like to see. I foresee eventually being able to make a wide variety of different types of mods with this feature, not even limited to colony builder games.
Next up we come to a new addition that everybody has been asking for since MC2 was first made public, and I am talking about the return of the Bulldozer!
There is now a new toolbar above the build options sidebar. Currently it only has a bulldozer, but that will probably be expanded at some point. As in MC1, the bulldozer mode will turn your interface red so that you do not forget you are in a destructive mode. Unlike MC1, bulldozing a structure will now actually sell it instead of just destroy, so that it is actually more like a quick-sell option than anything else.
Besides just structures, Roads can now finally be removed too, using the bulldozer. This has been one of the top requests for a long time, and now it is a reality. This actually required a pretty substantial rewrite to how roads work, which I outlined in another thread a few weeks ago. But the work is done and the feature is here now. In the coming updates, I plan on also allowing roads to be built pretty much anywhere, not just within the confines of your own settlement, allowing vast highways to be buily across your world!
Moving on, the engine will now enforce structures that have a Settlement Level requirement (currently, only a handful of structures do). You will see this when viewing structure costs on the sidebar. Settlements are leveled up using Civics, and you can level up your settlement by selecting it from the Statistics window.
Now on to new content, as three new Techs have been added in this update: Low Atmospheric Zoology, Advanced Security and Advanced Robotics! Along with the techs, we have two additional resources added to the mix, Cloth and Robots.
Of course, there are new structures here too. The Fish Hatchery is back from MC1, allowing you to breed fish for food. The Outhouse is here, which I think was something of a gag model that GeneralWadaling sent me, but I turned it into an early game sanitation (medical) facility that you can build early on, before you can afford an infirmary. Next we have the Synthetic Textile Lab for creating cloth, and the Robotics Factory for making robots. There is a decorative United Earth Flag that takes on the color of your settlement, and the Storage Yard is a new upgrade to the Raw Materials Depot, allowing you to store way more raw materials than you previously could. Finally, the new War Factory will allow you to build this updates' new military unit, the Main Battle Tank!
All in all, there is a lot here in this update, and I hope you guys like it! So check it out, as it should be hitting all platforms over the coming days, and if you don't want to wait, fire up the web app now at the following URL. Until then, thanks for playing, and have a good weekend!
https://www.apewebapps.com/my-colony-2/
#mycolony2
My Colony 2 has just been updated to v0.33.0 on the Web and the Ape Apps Launcher and should be hitting other platforms over the weekend. There are some changes and some goodies packed into this release, so let's take a look at what is new!
To start off, base defenses have now arrived in My Colony 2 with the addition of the Pillbox and the Security Wall Pillbox (Pillbox texture by @GeneralWadaling )! Over the last few weeks, a certain user on MC2 online (whose name shall go unmentioned) has been rampaging through several dedicated servers with unprovoked attacks on settlements whose users have been offline. This highlighted the need for some updates to the game that should help address this problem, and one of those changes are the new base defensive structures that you can now construct around your settlement.
In addition, there have been cost increases to the military units in the game (the Infantry, Main Battle Tank and Patrol Boat). All three military units now require Money to build. As money is slower to come by at the beginning of the game, it should put a halt on being able to join a server and just spam thousands of infantry units right off the bat. In addition though, Infantry units now each cost you 1 population to build, so every time you build an infantry unit, your settlement population will go down by one (since he was drafted into service). This should likewise put a cap to mass infantry spamming, as you now actually need both the economy and the population to back an army up.
Some additional server admin settings have been added to the Statistics window. Now server admins can set a user account blacklist, so that if there is a user out there known for greifing servers, you can pre-ban him or her before they have a chance to trash your server. You can also set a Message of the Day that players will see when they sign in to your server.
I have also expanded the game Credits section (found in the Encyclopedia). When you select a username in the credits, you will now see more detailed information on all of the items they have contributed to the game.
I have also added a new engine setting, which you can find under the Tweaks section. You can now toggle on and off a grid that will be drawn over the ground tiles, which may make placing structures easier on a touch screen device. It looks like this when activated:
New content has arrived in this update as well, starting with the Low Gravity Masonry tech, which brings with it the long await Brick Factory and the regular and Yellow Brick Roads (brick texture provided by @SPARKY0303 )!
The Brick Roads utilize a new feature which you will find in the game editor, allowing you to use a Pixel Paint file (*.ppp from https://pixelpaint.online/, the 2D cousin to Voxel Paint) as a road texture. For best results, use a 16x16 Pixel Paint file. I should mention that the game editor also now lets you export packaged Voxel Paint models (which you previously could not do).
@spamdude provided a model for a new Ether Sanitation Plant in this update, converting Ether into Water and Uranium. Thanks to @therealchromedino we get two new Alien tech structures too, the Alien Enrichment Facility and the Ancient Alien Ore Refinery!
There are also two new Sugar production plants available in this update, the Integrated Sugar Lab (model by @SPARKY0303 ) and the Sugar Factory (model by @therealchromedino ). The First is a simple upgrade to the existing Sugar Extraction Lab. The second is a large facility that makes large amounts of Sugar, and also produces a bit of Helium-3 as a production byproduct, since we always need more He3 production.
Finally for new content, some of you in the forums and on the Discord know that I have been talking about adding a Star Gate to MC2. I know some people disagree since I said that MC2 is more of a prequel to MC1, but to me that is all irrelevant, since in both games you start out with no tech and you do research to advance into further ages, so timeline in this type of game is largely irrelevant. But that is neither here nor there, because before I can add the Star Gate from MC1, I need the tech to back it up, so in this update, I have added two additional techs, Artificial Intelligence and Transcendence! The AI tech is pretty easily obtainable and allows you to build the new Center for Artificial Learning.
This is a building that I wanted to make about twice as tall as it is, but my Voxel Paint was lagging out while I was making it, so it is what it is. Maybe I will revisit the model later, but it is fine for the time being.
Transcendence is a super expensive tech in MC1, and the same applies in MC2. Right now nothing happens when you research it, but major props for the first player who gets it. It costs 750m research, and maybe one of the larger worlds already has that, but I added the tech in the game to prepare the way for things to come :-)
Finally, I added a Regolith Synthesis Lab to the game, since we already have labs for Gold and Ore, and you need Regolith to build Helium-3 storage tanks, so it made sense.
In addition to the new stuff though, I have also buffed the existing Gold Extractor and the Gold Synthesis Lab. In addition, I also fixed a bug where building upgrades were not working properly. There were some other bugs I fixed as well, but I forgot what they were. But at least they are fixed!
I think that is all for this update, maybe there is more that you will find in there as well! Over the next few weeks I will be finishing up a new My Colony Universe game called Terra Nova 4X but after that I will be back to more exciting My Colony 2 content, so thanks to all who are playing and contributing to the game, and stay tuned for more to come!
#mycolony2
To start off, base defenses have now arrived in My Colony 2 with the addition of the Pillbox and the Security Wall Pillbox (Pillbox texture by @GeneralWadaling )! Over the last few weeks, a certain user on MC2 online (whose name shall go unmentioned) has been rampaging through several dedicated servers with unprovoked attacks on settlements whose users have been offline. This highlighted the need for some updates to the game that should help address this problem, and one of those changes are the new base defensive structures that you can now construct around your settlement.
In addition, there have been cost increases to the military units in the game (the Infantry, Main Battle Tank and Patrol Boat). All three military units now require Money to build. As money is slower to come by at the beginning of the game, it should put a halt on being able to join a server and just spam thousands of infantry units right off the bat. In addition though, Infantry units now each cost you 1 population to build, so every time you build an infantry unit, your settlement population will go down by one (since he was drafted into service). This should likewise put a cap to mass infantry spamming, as you now actually need both the economy and the population to back an army up.
Some additional server admin settings have been added to the Statistics window. Now server admins can set a user account blacklist, so that if there is a user out there known for greifing servers, you can pre-ban him or her before they have a chance to trash your server. You can also set a Message of the Day that players will see when they sign in to your server.
I have also expanded the game Credits section (found in the Encyclopedia). When you select a username in the credits, you will now see more detailed information on all of the items they have contributed to the game.
I have also added a new engine setting, which you can find under the Tweaks section. You can now toggle on and off a grid that will be drawn over the ground tiles, which may make placing structures easier on a touch screen device. It looks like this when activated:
New content has arrived in this update as well, starting with the Low Gravity Masonry tech, which brings with it the long await Brick Factory and the regular and Yellow Brick Roads (brick texture provided by @SPARKY0303 )!
The Brick Roads utilize a new feature which you will find in the game editor, allowing you to use a Pixel Paint file (*.ppp from https://pixelpaint.online/, the 2D cousin to Voxel Paint) as a road texture. For best results, use a 16x16 Pixel Paint file. I should mention that the game editor also now lets you export packaged Voxel Paint models (which you previously could not do).
@spamdude provided a model for a new Ether Sanitation Plant in this update, converting Ether into Water and Uranium. Thanks to @therealchromedino we get two new Alien tech structures too, the Alien Enrichment Facility and the Ancient Alien Ore Refinery!
There are also two new Sugar production plants available in this update, the Integrated Sugar Lab (model by @SPARKY0303 ) and the Sugar Factory (model by @therealchromedino ). The First is a simple upgrade to the existing Sugar Extraction Lab. The second is a large facility that makes large amounts of Sugar, and also produces a bit of Helium-3 as a production byproduct, since we always need more He3 production.
Finally for new content, some of you in the forums and on the Discord know that I have been talking about adding a Star Gate to MC2. I know some people disagree since I said that MC2 is more of a prequel to MC1, but to me that is all irrelevant, since in both games you start out with no tech and you do research to advance into further ages, so timeline in this type of game is largely irrelevant. But that is neither here nor there, because before I can add the Star Gate from MC1, I need the tech to back it up, so in this update, I have added two additional techs, Artificial Intelligence and Transcendence! The AI tech is pretty easily obtainable and allows you to build the new Center for Artificial Learning.
This is a building that I wanted to make about twice as tall as it is, but my Voxel Paint was lagging out while I was making it, so it is what it is. Maybe I will revisit the model later, but it is fine for the time being.
Transcendence is a super expensive tech in MC1, and the same applies in MC2. Right now nothing happens when you research it, but major props for the first player who gets it. It costs 750m research, and maybe one of the larger worlds already has that, but I added the tech in the game to prepare the way for things to come :-)
Finally, I added a Regolith Synthesis Lab to the game, since we already have labs for Gold and Ore, and you need Regolith to build Helium-3 storage tanks, so it made sense.
In addition to the new stuff though, I have also buffed the existing Gold Extractor and the Gold Synthesis Lab. In addition, I also fixed a bug where building upgrades were not working properly. There were some other bugs I fixed as well, but I forgot what they were. But at least they are fixed!
I think that is all for this update, maybe there is more that you will find in there as well! Over the next few weeks I will be finishing up a new My Colony Universe game called Terra Nova 4X but after that I will be back to more exciting My Colony 2 content, so thanks to all who are playing and contributing to the game, and stay tuned for more to come!
#mycolony2
With the latest update to My Colony 2, I went ahead and did a full migration of the game engine off of the antiquated Web App Core framework and transferred the game onto it's own unique domain. Seeing as this change went relatively smoothly, and how I have also committed to keeping the original My Colony up to date and supported for the foreseeable future, I think I am going to go ahead and do a similar migration to MC1.
Now, with My Colony 2, I had been planning for quite a while to migrate the code, so I already had some things baked into the game to make it a bit easier to do. This is not the case with the original, so this is going to be a bit larger of an undertaking. That said, if I am going to commit to keeping the code maintained and up to date for years to come, then I think that this is something I really need to do.
I have also been needing to migrate the original My Colony online server over to new hardware, and this change will give me an opportunity to take care of everything at the same time.
As with the MC2 migration, the MC1 migration will have the biggest impact to those using the Web version of the game, as non-cloud saved data will not carry over to the new game location. It will also require bookmarks to be updated, and PWA installs to be uninstalled/reinstalled using the new domain.
As for domain, I have not yet decided what the new URL will be for My Colony. mc1.my-colony.com is taken by the site that houses all of the user colony websites. I could do something like play.my-colony.com. I also own mycolony.net and mycolony.online, so those are options as well. I would appreciate feedback on this decision!
Anyway, please help get the word out to the other players of the game. Luckily, most My Colony 1 players are on mobile, and I do not expect them to be impacted (I have not heard of any mobile MC2 players having issues with that migration yet). I think most web app players probably use cloud sync and should be OK, but for those who don't, you should probably either turn it on or make sure that you have a local backup of your colony on your PC. As with the MC2 change, I will wait a few weeks before I start working on this, to give people time to prepare for the change.
#mycolony
Now, with My Colony 2, I had been planning for quite a while to migrate the code, so I already had some things baked into the game to make it a bit easier to do. This is not the case with the original, so this is going to be a bit larger of an undertaking. That said, if I am going to commit to keeping the code maintained and up to date for years to come, then I think that this is something I really need to do.
I have also been needing to migrate the original My Colony online server over to new hardware, and this change will give me an opportunity to take care of everything at the same time.
As with the MC2 migration, the MC1 migration will have the biggest impact to those using the Web version of the game, as non-cloud saved data will not carry over to the new game location. It will also require bookmarks to be updated, and PWA installs to be uninstalled/reinstalled using the new domain.
As for domain, I have not yet decided what the new URL will be for My Colony. mc1.my-colony.com is taken by the site that houses all of the user colony websites. I could do something like play.my-colony.com. I also own mycolony.net and mycolony.online, so those are options as well. I would appreciate feedback on this decision!
Anyway, please help get the word out to the other players of the game. Luckily, most My Colony 1 players are on mobile, and I do not expect them to be impacted (I have not heard of any mobile MC2 players having issues with that migration yet). I think most web app players probably use cloud sync and should be OK, but for those who don't, you should probably either turn it on or make sure that you have a local backup of your colony on your PC. As with the MC2 change, I will wait a few weeks before I start working on this, to give people time to prepare for the change.
#mycolony
@bastecklein , sorry to disturb you, but MC2 is getting much too laggy for me to play now. I have polled some of MC1 chat, and the primary reason they don't check MC2 out is due to lag (My numbers are limited tho). If MC2 was less laggy, more people could play.
I believe that although it has great potential (I myself contributed to it), it does need a few under the hood changes to make it run smoother. A MC1 single city with 190q GDP, 2 million pop, and a huge file size (Terra Nova) lags less on a Chromebook than a MC2 world with about 500M-3B GDP, ~400k people, and lesser sprawl than the MC1 colony (Terra Divitiae [Which isn't even the craziest colony]).
I believe that maybe a simulation distance from settlements where if you are too far away from a settlement it does not load in (Nor stays loaded in once it is out of simulation distance).
But that is just a thought.
I believe that although it has great potential (I myself contributed to it), it does need a few under the hood changes to make it run smoother. A MC1 single city with 190q GDP, 2 million pop, and a huge file size (Terra Nova) lags less on a Chromebook than a MC2 world with about 500M-3B GDP, ~400k people, and lesser sprawl than the MC1 colony (Terra Divitiae [Which isn't even the craziest colony]).
I believe that maybe a simulation distance from settlements where if you are too far away from a settlement it does not load in (Nor stays loaded in once it is out of simulation distance).
But that is just a thought.
I've read similar issues of not being able to access the premium version of my colony 1.
I was playing MC1 on my old laptop that unexpectedly died and I was unable to retrive my game. I have replaced it with a similar model with similar specs, i don't require top specs for what i use the machine for. I downloaded MC1 which is what i call a playable demo, started it and logged in, premium purchase was acknowledged and i started to play. i did check to see if there was an online save of my previous game but none was found so back to square one. When i first purchased MC1 i received a different copy that i could play offline, what i discovered when i returned to my new game i had started that the only way i could play the premium version was online only. So, the obvious question, is it possible to convert the demo game into a permanent premium version (assuming the developers can create a patch that will enable this).
many thanks in advance. merlins (very itchy) beard
I was playing MC1 on my old laptop that unexpectedly died and I was unable to retrive my game. I have replaced it with a similar model with similar specs, i don't require top specs for what i use the machine for. I downloaded MC1 which is what i call a playable demo, started it and logged in, premium purchase was acknowledged and i started to play. i did check to see if there was an online save of my previous game but none was found so back to square one. When i first purchased MC1 i received a different copy that i could play offline, what i discovered when i returned to my new game i had started that the only way i could play the premium version was online only. So, the obvious question, is it possible to convert the demo game into a permanent premium version (assuming the developers can create a patch that will enable this).
many thanks in advance. merlins (very itchy) beard
Added a new public API for checking GBT contracts:
For All Resources
https://mc1.my-colony.com/api.php?pf=4&g=1
For Specific Resource
https://mc1.my-colony.com/api.php?pf=4&g=1&r=25
Returns active GBT contracts in JSON format. Example output:
Output Fields
For All Resources
https://mc1.my-colony.com/api.php?pf=4&g=1
For Specific Resource
https://mc1.my-colony.com/api.php?pf=4&g=1&r=25
Returns active GBT contracts in JSON format. Example output:
[{"resource":"Antanium","seller":"Cyberkayu","sellercharter":"T0gtaz50","quantity":"150000","price":"87742500","expires":"2017-11-28 02:09:07","offerflag":"0"}]
Note: When you specify a resource in the API call, you do so using &r=x, where x is the id number of the resource. You can get the resource ID numbers from the previously documented GBT Prices API call which you can read about here: https://www.ape-apps.com/viewpage.php?p=584Output Fields
- resource: the name of the resource
- seller: the colony selling the resource
- sellercharter: the sellers' charter code
- quantity: the size of the trade
- price: total asking price of the trade. divide by 100 to get the lot price.
- expires: server time that the contract will expire and be returned to the seller
- offerflag: if this is 0, it is a resource sell. if it is 1, it is an offer-to-buy contract
@Sonnyzane My Colony 2 will be a completely new game separate from MC1. I don't know what the premium/business model for MC2 will look like yet, but the My Colony 1 purchase will not carry over. So for a real world example, this would be like if you bought Halo 1, it does not then mean that you just automatically get Halo 2 when it comes out.
So just to be clear, I am not talking about My Colony v2.0, I am talking about a whole new game. This will not be an update to the existing My Colony, and the existing My Colony will still be around and will still be supported, and the server will not be shut down or anything. There will be two completely different games. Buying MC2 will not give you an advantage over MC1 players because they are two separate games on two separate servers.
Hope that clears it up!
So just to be clear, I am not talking about My Colony v2.0, I am talking about a whole new game. This will not be an update to the existing My Colony, and the existing My Colony will still be around and will still be supported, and the server will not be shut down or anything. There will be two completely different games. Buying MC2 will not give you an advantage over MC1 players because they are two separate games on two separate servers.
Hope that clears it up!
Thanks @itsLiseczeq
@Ansom I can add an underground layer no, no problem.
I am considering making a major change to the concept of a game file in MC2. Instead of the current region/city model, I am considering doing infinite (or at least way larger) sized procedurally generated planets, sort of like a world is generated in Minecraft. The map would be loaded in "chunks" like in Minecraft and so the engine would only actively process the chunks that are near currently have active players. Other areas of the map might process in the background on a less frequent interval.
In this way, it would be easy (well, easier) to have multiple players on the same map in real-time.
For performance, all game processing will be done in a separate worker script, the way it is currently handled in Epic Adventure, Colony Wars, and My Empire. Those games all separate out the client/server code, which makes implementation of real-time multiplayer a lot easier.
My thought is that players could create a local game file. Others could join their game if they choose to and start their own settlement somewhere on the planet. If somebody else has a settlement on another players local game file, the server player would have to be online for everyone to play. Each player would have their own resource pool, although that might be customizable on a per-game basis.
Players would also be able to download the server code and install it on their own box, running their own private server if they wanted to. In theory a single privately run server could host multiple planets as well, with trade networks between them, just depends on how powerful the server is. A private server hosted on a powerful PC or cloud hosting service should be able to handle quite a few players at once. The operator would be able to set custom parameters for the universe and assign other operators.
I have been thinking of ways to decentralize the multiplayer experience in MC2, so there is no single point of failure as there is in MC1. It would also lower my costs, and private server operators could take care of administration in their own servers. I think designing it this way from the start will allow for a pretty robust multiplayer experience.
Of course, you can always just play offline too, or in your own household via LAN. But I do like the idea of scrapping the region/city concept and replacing it with an entire planet concept, that just keeps loading new chunks as you scroll through the world. To me it is more realistic. And a single planet can now have multiple biomes, different resources in different parts of the world that you will have to build trade/transit networks to utilize.
Anyway, I have a lot of plans for MC2. It's not just going to be MC1 with 3d graphics. There are a lot of things I have wanted to implement that would have been too hard to just nail on to the existing game engine.
@Ansom I can add an underground layer no, no problem.
I am considering making a major change to the concept of a game file in MC2. Instead of the current region/city model, I am considering doing infinite (or at least way larger) sized procedurally generated planets, sort of like a world is generated in Minecraft. The map would be loaded in "chunks" like in Minecraft and so the engine would only actively process the chunks that are near currently have active players. Other areas of the map might process in the background on a less frequent interval.
In this way, it would be easy (well, easier) to have multiple players on the same map in real-time.
For performance, all game processing will be done in a separate worker script, the way it is currently handled in Epic Adventure, Colony Wars, and My Empire. Those games all separate out the client/server code, which makes implementation of real-time multiplayer a lot easier.
My thought is that players could create a local game file. Others could join their game if they choose to and start their own settlement somewhere on the planet. If somebody else has a settlement on another players local game file, the server player would have to be online for everyone to play. Each player would have their own resource pool, although that might be customizable on a per-game basis.
Players would also be able to download the server code and install it on their own box, running their own private server if they wanted to. In theory a single privately run server could host multiple planets as well, with trade networks between them, just depends on how powerful the server is. A private server hosted on a powerful PC or cloud hosting service should be able to handle quite a few players at once. The operator would be able to set custom parameters for the universe and assign other operators.
I have been thinking of ways to decentralize the multiplayer experience in MC2, so there is no single point of failure as there is in MC1. It would also lower my costs, and private server operators could take care of administration in their own servers. I think designing it this way from the start will allow for a pretty robust multiplayer experience.
Of course, you can always just play offline too, or in your own household via LAN. But I do like the idea of scrapping the region/city concept and replacing it with an entire planet concept, that just keeps loading new chunks as you scroll through the world. To me it is more realistic. And a single planet can now have multiple biomes, different resources in different parts of the world that you will have to build trade/transit networks to utilize.
Anyway, I have a lot of plans for MC2. It's not just going to be MC1 with 3d graphics. There are a lot of things I have wanted to implement that would have been too hard to just nail on to the existing game engine.
I haven't worked out exactly how the modding will be set up yet @Sobeirannovaocc so I can't answer everything for certain.
My intention is that I don't want to have to fiddle around with a bunch of .JSON data every time I make an update. And it's not that JSON is difficult or anything, but in MC1, there are so many records in the file now, that if I want to add an additional property to a building, it takes all day of going back through the file and adding the new property to all existing buildings. Not fun.
So to me, the more the game can be created by using it's own built-in tools, the better.
Now, your ideas about having mods in their own folder or using a launcher are good, but here is the problem. Well, three problems: they are called Android, iOS, and Windows 10 (via the Store). Sorry, four problems: Web Browser. All of the big platforms require all applications to run in a sandboxed environment and severely restrict your access to the filesystem. The Web does not have real filesystem access at all, although this is theoretically changing by the end of the year, at least for Chrome and Edge (the chromium version). But I doubt it will be changing at all for Firefox anytime soon. Apple iOS is actually becoming a bit more open in terms of filesystem, but Android is going in the opposite direction and becoming even more locked down with every release.
So the biggest issue for modding like that is application sandboxing. But just because the customized files are stored within the application's sandboxed storage, does not mean they have to dirty the clean install of the game. Maybe modded content is only loaded on a per-game/server basis? So that when you start a new game, you can select which extensions you want to activate. And maybe also have an in-game mod panel where you can activate new mods or update existing ones after the game is already running. And maybe have a container file that groups a bunch of mods into one package, so that you can easily install an entire collection of things bundled into one mod package. I am just thinking of ideas here.
So anyway, hope that answers some things. I don't know if it will be just buildings until I kind of see the direction of the engine. I know that buildings will be the most important unit in MC2. To the extent that I have Rovers, I don't think they are going to have the same importance as they do in MC1. I suppose resources and map types can also be customized. We'll see!
My intention is that I don't want to have to fiddle around with a bunch of .JSON data every time I make an update. And it's not that JSON is difficult or anything, but in MC1, there are so many records in the file now, that if I want to add an additional property to a building, it takes all day of going back through the file and adding the new property to all existing buildings. Not fun.
So to me, the more the game can be created by using it's own built-in tools, the better.
Now, your ideas about having mods in their own folder or using a launcher are good, but here is the problem. Well, three problems: they are called Android, iOS, and Windows 10 (via the Store). Sorry, four problems: Web Browser. All of the big platforms require all applications to run in a sandboxed environment and severely restrict your access to the filesystem. The Web does not have real filesystem access at all, although this is theoretically changing by the end of the year, at least for Chrome and Edge (the chromium version). But I doubt it will be changing at all for Firefox anytime soon. Apple iOS is actually becoming a bit more open in terms of filesystem, but Android is going in the opposite direction and becoming even more locked down with every release.
So the biggest issue for modding like that is application sandboxing. But just because the customized files are stored within the application's sandboxed storage, does not mean they have to dirty the clean install of the game. Maybe modded content is only loaded on a per-game/server basis? So that when you start a new game, you can select which extensions you want to activate. And maybe also have an in-game mod panel where you can activate new mods or update existing ones after the game is already running. And maybe have a container file that groups a bunch of mods into one package, so that you can easily install an entire collection of things bundled into one mod package. I am just thinking of ideas here.
So anyway, hope that answers some things. I don't know if it will be just buildings until I kind of see the direction of the engine. I know that buildings will be the most important unit in MC2. To the extent that I have Rovers, I don't think they are going to have the same importance as they do in MC1. I suppose resources and map types can also be customized. We'll see!