Rising Empires - an Android project

[Netherlords]

Hi everybody!


The second beta continues as planned and we've now played 10 turns (2 weeks). The setup has forced all empires to build lots of fleets in order to move troops and settlers from their capital. All empires combined has built 68 fleets with some 279 ships...


The beta will run for at least 4 more weeks (20 turns) and we believe we'll see plenty of action before the end. The player of one empire has decided to not participate and if you are interested in taking over this position please let us know (reply to this post or send a PM).


I spent last weekend in Gothenburg with Johan and a couple of friends, incl. Glom which is our main game tester. Johan and I discussed how we are going to proceed with implementing the last features in Rising Empires. Rising Empires is, in its current version, a complete game but we want to add more diplomatic options as well as the Heaven level before we release it. The first we will add is non-aggression pacts allowing empires to be more friendly towards each other.


We have also designed a new research view and removed the research selection from the empire menu. Research is such an important feature in Rising Empires and we believed it needed its own view where all data on technologies can be reached.


If you're interested in Rising Empires and it's development please support us by visiting our website or our Google+ page and +1 us.


Thanks!

[Netherlords]

Hi!


This will be the last update before my summer vacation. Only one more day and I will turn off my computer (and my brain) for three weeks! Johan will take a break from Rising Empires during the same period. We'll start working with Rising Empires again in mid-August when we're also going to have a large meeting to discuss the game.


Tomorrow we'll run the last turn of the beta test. We've sent out a questionnaire with a couple of questions to our play testers and are eagerly awaiting their replies. We've already received some answers but we hope to get a few more. Overall I must say that this beta test has progressed very well. The routines for downloading results and uploading orders have been flawless, the bugs and errors that were found could be fixed and we've managed to implement non-aggression pacts.


The last weeks have also been very interesting for me as I've learned a couple of new algorithms and possibilities when writing code. This has allowed me to re-think some ideas that Johan and I had and more practically it also means that I've started on our map generator! It's far from finished but it can create mountain ranges (see attachment) as well as the starting area around the capital.


I'll continue with the map generator when I get back from vacation. My idea is to make it able to create good Surface maps first and then start to look at the Netherworld which I believe will be more complex to create.


I hope you're all having a couple of good summer weeks!

[Netherlords]

Hi!


Johan visited me this weekend and we had plenty of time to discuss Rising Empires and even write a few lines of code. One or two beers went down as well... We had very good discussions and talked through the last features that we need to complete before we can publish Rising Empires on Google Play. These discussions were detailed as we talked through each step of, for example, the process when setting up a new empire. We also took the opportunity to discuss stuff like price levels on subscriptions. The next time we'll meet 'in person' to discuss Rising Empires will be in the middle of September.


All new empires will start in a trial (or test) world where they can play up to 20 turns (with one turn each day this equals a month) for free and without encountering any other empires. Yes, that's right, no interaction between empires is possible during the trial period. During this period players will be able to start developing their empires, explore their neighbourhood, research technologies and build military companies. Then, when the player start his first subscription, his empire (and starting map) will be transferred to the game world. After 20 turns of game play his empire will be prepared for encountering neighbouring empires...


We also had time to work a little on the code and it's now possible to create empires in the app. When the player (i.e. you) have selected race and religion type as well as entered name and password the empire is created together with a starting map. Then the player can issue his first set of orders immediately and do not need to wait for us to process a new turn. When the player uploads his first set of orders details about the new empire as well as the starting map is sent to our server allowing us to add the empire to the game world. I'll post some screenshots of the 'Create empire' screen when Johan has tidied it up a bit. We also got some work done on the map generator (see screenshots) and it's near completion. The only thing remaining is to create corridors between the different caves and to add rivers.


All in all we were very satisfied with the weekend.


Cheers!

[Netherlords]

Hi,


On our forum we've recently posted posts which discuss the security of Rising Empires as well as where we've got our inspiration to the game.


Rising Empires security
What has inspired us?


I hope you all have a good weekend!

[Netherlords]

Hi!


We've now created a blog for Rising Empires updates (much better than writing updates in our forum which we did before). It's called 'Words from the Netherlords' and can be found at:
'Words from the Netherlords'
I hope this will make it easier to follow our progress with Rising Empires and also to ask questions and discuss the game with us.


Cheers!

[Netherlords]

Hi everybody!


Last weekend Johan and I met for discussing and coding on Rising Empires and I must say that neither of us were prepared for what the weekend held in store for us. Our intent were to complete the setup of new empires and to test it thoroughly, instead we decided to change focus on the project from a massive multi-player game with 1 turn/day to a single-player game.


We've already started development of the AI and you can follow our progress at the 'Words from the Netherlords'-blog. Both Johan and I feel this is a good decision and we look forward to deliver Rising Empires to all Android user out there!


Cheers

[Netherlords]

Hi everybody!


I've been a bit silent the last weeks. This has nothing to do with lack of progress on Rising Empires as we're moving forward with good speed, especially the AI for the single-player game is getting a lot of love... Johan is also working hard to improve the app and he is doing some great improvements compared to the old layouts. As soon as he completes the first layouts I'll post some screenshots.


What are the status with the Rising Empires AI?


We've completed the first version of the scout AI. This is the AI that handle all exploration and patrolling in the empire. The exploration bit is completed and functions well but we've not started with patrolling of already scouted territory. This is important though as the AI need updated information on what's going on around its borders.


We've also done a lot of work on the settlement AI. The settlement AI can now handle and take care of the food situation in a town or city. It improves terrain, construct food buildings when more food is needed quickly and it also send requests to the main AI for better food technology when needed. The settlement AI also construct new buildings according the wishes of the governor (yeah, each settlement AI has a governor that decides how it will act). We're very satisfied with the algorithm that control what buildings that are constructed.


What we're doing now is creating the objective AI (the first objective will be to move population from one settlement to another) and implementing the first version of our strategic AI. When this is done the strategic AI will be able to choose between building scouts and sending population to settlements that need/want a larger population. It's not much but with the architecture in place it will be simpler to add more objectives.


If you want to follow the development of the AI in more detail please visit our blog, the 'Words from the Netherlords'.


Cheers!

[Netherlords]

Yeah, you're not to first one to say that... Johan and I put together the first playable version of Rising Empires this weekend. You can now play any of the 6 races against a number of Greenskins and Human AIs. They do not put up much of a fight yet as they don't build any soldiers but we're working on it.

[Tottclown]

Sounds really cool! Good luck!

[Netherlords]

Join the beta test of Rising Empires and help us make and shape an excellent strategy game. The game is now an early beta build but we believe we’ve come far enough to ask for your help: Does it work on all phones? Where are all the bugs? We also appreciate general thoughts about the game: Is it interesting to play? Is it too slow or too fast? Is the learning curve just too hard?

We've now uploaded the first beta build of Rising Empires on Google Play.

Read more about the beta test on Google Play or on our website.