Paper Wars

[traylorpark]

PAPER WARS for the Pandora
MOST RECENT BUILD - APRIL 11 2012 - multiplayer BETA

ok here it is - another release of paperwars! ... phew this took definitely more time than expected ...
keep in mind, it's BETA.

Also note, after some online matches, we have discovered the wifi on the Panda tends to bomb out after a few minutes. We don't know what is causing this bug, but it's not on our end. Solvable by playing the game with a wifi stick in your Panda.

Download
paperwars pnd: http://crow.riot.org...ars-rebirth.pnd
paperwars server: http://crow.riot.org...wars-server.zip

So what can you expect?

• every unit is now animated
• a new big map
• a map currently work in progress - only the layouting and the movement is done, there's no mesh yet.
• reworks of the game mechanics: every unit has now a special power - hopefully speed up the game a little
• and last but the most important: NETWORK gaming including super duper ingame chat
  

and this is where you guys/girls come in: i've played some network matches on my local computer, using different machines and devices and it works quite well! but of course my test+time resources are limited, so i dont know if really everything plays nicely. so we ask for your time and play some of the network matches.

how does that networking gaming work now?
well it's quite simple, on the menu there's a fat "network" text button, just hit that, choose your team, the map you wanna play and then it'll (hopefully) connect to the server i've setup for you to play public matches against each other. there's no lobby or something. the matchmaking is simple: if 2 players connect and want to play the same map, they get connected to each other. but wait - the one who waits longer has a bit of priority, if both players want to play the same team, the earlier one gets it!

but wait, what happens if my server crashes?
well here you go, we release the server binary, too! that way you don't need rely on my server stability or whatever, but just can host a gameserver on yourself. B)
a quite self-explanatory paperward.ini is included to configure the server to your likings. oh and it's written in java, to make it easier to host.
i've even tried to let it run on the pandora, and it starts, but then the java vm just crashes. didnt spend much time investigating it, but it is something linux-arm related java issue or so.

so, how do i connect to an alternative server?
check your appdata/paperwars/ folder. there's a network.ini file, where you can configure the main and the fallback server.

drawbacks?
of course!
the single player game is not working at the moment. i've fully invested my time in writing a server and all those nasty network backends for a lot of platforms. so this is the part i'll dive into next (though i'm quite stuck with).

How do I play?
Grrr... embedded youtube clip died. Check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/5C-RK-zb0dw?feature=oembed

have fun!

 

 

[F_Slim]

It certainly looks gorgeous from the screenshots!


Is there a single-player mode?


(Or at least turn-based on the same device?)

 

[pmprog]

*drools*


I can't wait... I just love the whole feel of this game.


When you say "Cross-platform online multiplayer", which platforms are you releasing for? I'd definately love a Windows edition


I'd love to donate, how (if) are you handling that between the two of you? Send all to one, or want me to send two bits one to each?

 

[Ian J]

Why have I not heard of this game, it looks beautiful.

 

[Stradian]

Wow, paper wars has come a long way.

 

[DaMummy]

because it was part of the last homebrew device competition, and never made its way to the repo....which i hope is going on there for this release...right?


either way...make sure you dont miss out on some of the other entries from that compo, http://www.riotdigital.com/ttcc2011/?page=Entries


AAAA has been added to pandora since that competition and is on repo btw

 

[fusion_power]

Yay, some news! I'm starving!

It certainly looks gorgeous from the screenshots!


Is there a single-player mode?


(Or at least turn-based on the same device?)

The first Demo was Single Player against AI so I'm sure there also is a Single Player mode in the new Version. I bet they also improved the AI.


And I hope we can disable turn time limit in single player, I need time for my (supadupa) moves. ^^

 

[bzar]

Awesome

 

[ibisum]

It looks absolutely gorgeous! Nice one you guys - I'm really eager to get to play it finally! Also: WILL BUY IT AS SOON AS ITS POSSIBLE! I really believe in you guys ..

 

[crow_riot]

It certainly looks gorgeous from the screenshots!


Is there a single-player mode?


(Or at least turn-based on the same device?)

it's single player, turn based on same device and network play ... can't think of anything else ...

When you say "Cross-platform online multiplayer", which platforms are you releasing for? I'd definately love a Windows edition

well ... the recent builds work on windows,macos,ios and pandora. where the windows and macos builds are mainly for faster testing and not intended for end-user release. i've not updated the wiz/caanoo codebase for long and i don't know how the caanoo handles the new bigger map (though it could work fine, at least playable)

I'd love to donate, how (if) are you handling that between the two of you? Send all to one, or want me to send two bits one to each?

traylorpark's account, i trust him to not spend it on hookers only

I bet they also improved the AI.


And I hope we can disable turn time limit in single player, I need time for my (supadupa) moves. ^^

i should start working on the AI again somewhen ... but there's so much on my list and thats the part that i'm not really good in ... so i always push it to the end of my list ;-)


there's no time limit in single player or hotseat mode, just online mode. and also configurable.

It looks absolutely gorgeous! Nice one you guys - I'm really eager to get to play it finally! Also: WILL BUY IT AS SOON AS ITS POSSIBLE! I really believe in you guys ..

yeah i hope it's sooner than later to buy


well some points that traylorpark missed ... and i can think of now


* savegame support for single and hotseat game mode is there (pokeparadox requested it i think after the compo)


* some automatic camera moves for single player - so that you see what the ai does (requested by fusion_power)


doesn't sound like much, but it was a long way to come here ...

 

[pmprog]

When you say "Cross-platform online multiplayer", which platforms are you releasing for? I'd definately love a Windows edition

well ... the recent builds work on windows,macos,ios and pandora. where the windows and macos builds are mainly for faster testing and not intended for end-user release. i've not updated the wiz/caanoo codebase for long and i don't know how the caanoo handles the new bigger map (though it could work fine, at least playable)

What would it take to make you consider desktop releases?

I'd love to donate, how (if) are you handling that between the two of you? Send all to one, or want me to send two bits one to each?

traylorpark's account, i trust him to not spend it on hookers only

I don't mind doing one to each of you if it helps? Can one of you PM (or post here) where to send donations? Can't find any details on your site nor in this thread.

i should start working on the AI again somewhen ... but there's so much on my list and thats the part that i'm not really good in ... so i always push it to the end of my list ;-)

Are you going to publish the network protocol? It would allow developers to create and test their own AI opponents in any language.


Keep up the good work, I'm eagerly awaiting the next release

 

[erico]

...doesn't sound like much, but it was a long way to come here ...

I played the caanoo version.


What you have now SURE sounds like a lot.


Keep it up, this game is a winner!

 

[traylorpark]

Aw guys, thanks so much for the good feedback!


I'm pretty sure the plan right now is that we are never going to charge for the Pandora version. We do want to bring it to the iOS store, but that won't have an effect on the Pandora version.


Also, if you feel super compelled to reward our tireless efforts financially, you can use PayPal and send to my personal hooker/beer account. Just send donations to peter at traylorpark dot com. Actually, the money is used exclusively for Paper Wars stuffs.


I hope to have a post of my new map layout in a day. It's a totally different beast this one is!

 

[gunrock]

Looks great, can't wait to see it released.

 

[Cloudef]

I like the art style of this, actually I've been following your blog since I first saw mention of this game on some other thread. Looks really nice, might drop donation whenever get around testing it.

 

[foxblock]

Very nice, looking forward to this

 

[hitbyambulance]

still my most anticipated Pandora game

 

[Dead1nside]

Looks great, can't wait to play it. Thanks.

 

[crow_riot]

"good" news from the multiplayer side ... i've bought a wifi dongle today and managed to get it working (a small micro netgear dongle) and now i've got stable enough wifi to finalize pandora's networking backend. i'll probably post a movie soon me playing against myself over network. B)

 

[traylorpark]

Hey! Just wanna show a bit from the level design side...


Before I start on the art, I lay out the map in plane hexes. These are the same hexes that the game will use for navigation (they become invisible when there is geometry for the scene).


At this point, I can bring it into the game and test against the AI or even watch the AI verse itself! That allows me to see things I hadn't thought of before, shortcomings or potential strengths.

-left and right green hexes are cities


-middle green hexes is the base


-top green hexes is the helipad


-red hexes are places where units can't touch the ground (trees and variable terrain)


This map is a special kind in that there is only one base, and it starts with nobody having control over it!


The match is a constant give and take of trying to get control of the bast long enough to make some units before it's inevitably taken by the other team.


So guard those soldiers carefully, because if you lose them you lose any chance or re-capturing the base.


In the future, I'll be coming to you guys to beta test new maps that are in this layout, before jumping into the art stuff.