Battle Mines

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07/02/2012

Diplomats have a new ability: If either of two players has a diplomat with the other, land push and land exchange are prevented on both sides.

Also, if a diplomat manages to escape execution on the outbreak of war, they now become a full operative instead of an informant.


03/02/2012

Fallout at high levels now drains more quickly.

Drain for non-uro lands: 20%, rounding up.
Drain for uro lands: 10%, rounding up.

This should take the pressure off farmers while making purifiers more effective.


07/01/2012

I am currently setting up the server farm for the production deployment of Battle Mines.

If anyone is interesting in making a "Let's Play" video for Battle Mines, please get in touch with me. The basic idea is, you would start a new Battle Mines account, and record yourself playing and commentating for a couple of weeks. This would be compiled into a series of youtube videos (so 10 mins max is best I believe).

It should not be too hard, I just need a plucky volunteer to take on an account from scratch and make a regular go of it. When the full game launches, everyone will receive fresh accounts regardless.

We will also keep the current Open Beta world running as a testing ground for new stuff.


03/01/2012

- Greenhouses now produce two food again, down from three.
- Diamonds now refine from 7 coal, up from 6.
- Domes now cost only 2 GLASS + 1 ALU (down from 3 GLASS + 1 ALU)
- For every 5 negative space, +1% corruption chance is now added. (See the manual for details.)
- City shrinkage (due to tech loss) now adds rubble and crops lost this way to the inventory (as well as building scrap).


30/12/2012

Tech level now starts at zero. Instant Tenure is tech level 1.

18/12/2012

Ok. So basically what happened is the tutorial world cache was overwriting the real game world cache for user data.
This meant that a user was created in the tutorial, ie. Tronster, and because his uid happened to be the same as say IJ's, all IJ's real data got clobbered.

Combined with that, the db backup got updated/overwritten JUST AFTER all this started happening, so I actually lost the account state of some users, back to my previous manual backup (pre-DDD).

It took me about a day and a half to figure all this out, but the problem is now fixed and we are free to continue playing.

This version of the world will only be kept going for another month or so, so don't get too attached to it.

17/12/2012

World being torn apart by cache bugs.. I'm working on it but some people already lost data. :(
Backups will be much more reliable in the future.

15/12/2012

Maximum 10 ICBMs in one attack (missile test or targeted).

14/12/2012

There was a bug in signup which has been fixed, and the affected existing accounts have been repaired.

Idle death has been enabled.

Rule changes:

- Aridity in sand tiles is now nullified by wet/overflow rainy/stormy weather.
- Fallout now has double the negative impact on GM. PM still unaffected.
- Local combat victory is now dependent not on number of cannons fired, but number of shots that land on the city.
  This essentially combines firepower and accuracy into one measure, coming in below munitions.
  (Note: Uranium munitions don't care whether they hit the city or not.)
- Bounties scaled back to 3, 9 and 15 total buildings destroyed / tier.

11/12/2012

Less buildings need destroying to win a bounty. +1 tier for each of 3, 6, or 12 total buildings destroyed.

09/12/2012

Heft is now calculated as the absolute different in weight between lands, plus one.

Local combat victory conditions have changed slightly, to place more emphasis on cannons:

The first rule (both sides have no buildings) has been eliminated.
After munitions, the number of cannons fired is the next determinant of victory. (ie. If all previous conditions tie and one side fired more cannons, they win.)
After cannons fired, sheer number of surviving cannon buildings is a victory determinant. A perma-cannon does not contribute to this value.

So, final victory heuristic:

1. Buildings left
2. Buildings destroyed
3. Munitions
4. Firepower
5. Cannons

27/11/2012

Semi-open beta begins now. There will be a limited number of seats available, increasing as stability warrants.


25/11/2012

Natural GM growth check now happens on a 4-hour interval, down from 6 hours. Ie. Crops/trees growth rate increased by a third.
Desolation withering (fixed, 1-hour interval) now happens separate to growth, ie. not instead of.


11/11/2012

We are back up. Happy Remembrance Day, nations of the commonwealth.


10/11/2012

I have upgraded everything on the server, from the OS up. Quantum Quetzel, baby.

As a result some package dependencies need reworking, it will probably be a day or so before we're back up.


08/11/2012

Open beta will be kicking off in two weeks. Preparations are well underway.

This week, I plan to enable tectonics for a dry run. You should see some lands come and go from your map, and land push will be enabled.
Be on the lookout for untested behaviour, especially regarding:

1. Outposts and messages when lands detach/arrive
2. The effects of spies, palantirs, and vassalages on non-neighbors
3. True global trading and warfare
4. Frequency and results of tectonic activity, how does it "feel"? (Disruptive, exciting, confusing, etc.)

The mechanics may be especially peculiar for such a small group, but I need to start collecting data so hold on to your hats.
You may want to add some friends if you haven't already.


31/10/2012

A super technoshield on either side now blocks collection from idles. (Super technoshields, not closed borders.)


29/10/2012

Neither technoshield adds power anymore, +2 power is simply a trait of the technocracy government.
The super technoshield now halves industry cap for both PM and GM. (All life is stifled by the oppressive red shield, see Starcon 2.)

Omniscience now costs three diamonds to activate.


23/10/2012

Sabotage and suicide bombing now cost one less steel each.


20/10/2012

Doomsday devices now destroy 10% of your hull rounding up, not just 1 point.


18/10/2012

Base hull is now reduced down to 10 again, but one hull now provides +2 space.
The human rights senate issue now has an additional effect on top of bribery.

Strict: Active pushovers cannot be tithed.
Moderate: Active pushovers have the usual -10% tithe.
Lax: No tithe reduction for active pushovers.

Corruption interval is now 4 hours, up from 3. Ie. 25% less corruption.


16/10/2012

Pale horseman is back up to 4%, and it's now possible to lose more than 1 hull (ie. if your chance is >100%)
I also fixed a few bugs I found in it, like fallout was being omitted, and theocracy wasn't working.


15/10/2012

All diplomats now get a 50% chance of escaping execution to become informants.
Communist diplomats get a 100% chance of escaping.


13/10/2012

- White horseman will now only reverse vassalage on masterless masters.
- Black market restocking wait time is reduced to 4 hours.
  * You can reduce your restock time 75% by donating one food to Ramul.
  * You get a minimum time reduction of 15 minutes. (Meaning a full restocking wait can be eliminated for 3 food.)

Wait time cannot be reduced below one minutes. This also applies to land exchange restock timer reset.


06/10/2012

DMs now only add 1 to land weight per chunk, not 2.


03/10/2012

- Rainy weather now causes -10% combat accuracy. Stormy weather now causes -20% combat accuracy.
- Failing to return fire results in a loss of combat, ie. the munitions victory condition now extends to conventional arms. This is called being a "pushover".
- If victory is due to the loser being a pushover, and they are not idle, tithe is -10%.
- Capitalism is now tithed +5%. Tithe % is now reported by your spy.
- Each chunk of DM now costs 5 steel, in addition to normal costs, which have all been reduced by 5 refined materials.
- Bauxite lands now get +5 GM.

- Land exchange now resets Ramul's restocking timer.
- Desolation now kills crops before it kills trees.


03/10/2012

Global combat now carries a +10% tithe.


02/10/2012

Palantirs now count as a connection for global combat.


01/10/2012

- Land weight and heft are now game concepts.


22/09/2012

- Cannons now hold one coal, protecting it from overflow. This happens before the effect of the cellar.
- The senate now meets Monday and Friday at noon, server time. Whatever that is.
- Diamond drills destroyed in combat now have a chance of leaving diamonds.
- It is now possible to revolt players to syndicalism at the usual cost (2 food, 3 for target-hated government)


21/09/2012

Global warfare can now only be used against players you have a connection with:

- Master or vassal
- Spies, or hosted diplomats
- Invisible (non-OP'd) neighbors

This renders the rule against attacking leaders unnecessary, it has been removed.
To attack any other players, missile test must be used.


17/09/2012

The black market can now only be used once every six hours; Ramul needs time to restock after a purchase.


16/09/2012

Global trade is complete, see the manual for details.


12/09/2012

All major updates from this point onward will have almost no effect on the closed beta, they are intended for the full game.

- World leaders cannot be directly targeted for global combat.
- Missile Test is a new ability, initiating global combat with a random valid target anywhere in the game.


09/09/2012

- The speaker for the Senate leadership position now takes priority over all others.
- Spies are no longer killed when buildings are scrapped, only when they are destroyed.
- Trees no longer count in saving against anarchy reversion and vassal desertion.

This idea of any last-three building being destroyed (and subsequent consequences) is now known as "stability".


05/09/2012

- All buildings now have autoharvest disabled by default.
- There is now a "Reset Autoharvest" button, which disables each building and autoharvest overall.
- Autoharvest resets on land exchange.


04/09/2012

- Land exchange now costs only 5 enriched uranium and 10 coal (down from 15)

Defensive combat breather time is now one minute if the combat had a resolution (winner/loser), ten seconds otherwise.


28/08/2012 (b)

Telescopes now cost 3 steel and 1 glass, instead of 1 steel and 3 glass.

Language change: The spy upgrade level from informants known as the "Agent" is now called the "Operative".
Informants and operatives are collectively known as "field agents", as opposed to the diplomat level of spy above both of them.
Don't confuse the old agents (now called operatives) with the new idea of field agents.


28/08/2012

+5% pollution dissipation over all industries.

Laissez-faire buff: Ignore the first 5 pollution on GM (same way URO miner ignore first 20 to PM)


26/08/2012

Trees no longer count towards the 10-building limit for aid use.

Trades are no longer cancelled when your border closes; they simply become unavailable.
This means, for example, as a technocracy you can set your trades up before the storm hits, and they will be available for the duration.

Ok new spillover: Anyone with ten more pollution than a given neighbor will spillover to them.


25/08/2012

- URO de-nerf: Miners now ignore their first 20 pollution (up from 10).
- Spillover now only afflicts players with less than 20 pollution. (ie. Those with 20+ pollution spillover to those with less than 20.)


25/08/2012

- URO miners now ignore only the first 10 pollution to their PM.

Desolation:
- Feeding the people / banquets now reduce hunger fully and normally. (Used to be only by 1 point.)
- The usual +2 PM / feed become -2 PM / hunger. This is called starvation.

Black Horseman
- No longer any x3 feed bonus to PM.
- No more strike when hunger is 5.

New concept: Riots
Riots happen when you have both strikes AND desolation.
The people go berserk, destroying one production building per hour, starting with the highest tech and working their way down to mines.


23/08/2012

- Revolt now costs only 2 food, unless it is a revolt to a hated government which is still 3.
- Ramul now accepts at most one enriched uranium in any given black market trade.


22/08/2012

Changes and bugfixes, big and small.

You will note that we now have a senate, feel free to read about that in the manual.
It will be running every night for now, until we get the bugs worked out.

Other changes include:

- Watcher in the Deep, a world leader position awarded for most palantirs.
- Holidays; meaningful impact contingent on the peace in our times senate issue.
- Fascism buff: +10 PM, -3 from that per outpost you host.
- Technocracy nerf: +1 power for both super and non-super technoshields (so 3 and 2 now respectively).
- Monarchy nerf: Now causes corruption as before, experienced corruption is only halved. Full white horseman effect.
- See the corruption precedence chart in the manual for some specifics.


16/08/2012

Change to office towers: They now have only 3 levels instead of 5.
Capitalism buff: No more -5 PM, +1 PM only for fully upgraded office towers (again).

Domes now block the effects of stormy weather on PM.
Domes now halve the effect of pollution and fallout on both GM and PM.

Windmills no longer function under the dome.
Constructing a windmill no longer reduces pollution by one.
Every time a windmill-powered building starts production, land loses one pollution.

Previously (despite vague documentation) windmills would reduce power on a given building by one, maximum.
Now, multiple sets of three windmills can completely reduce the power of a factory or powersink.
(Still only one pollution is lost when the building starts production.)


15/08/2012

Syndicalism buff: The cost to change to Syndicalism is now just two food, for hatred.
The first food/vassals check comes six hours later, and the food requirement has changed.
Instead of needing to EAT four food, the Syndicalist must simply be at 0 or 1 hunger.
If they have 0/1 hunger, and they pass the vassal check, syndicalism continues to reign.
If they are above one hunger, but there is enough food in the inventory, they will eat it to reduce their hunger.
Each unit of food eaten by force takes away only one hunger, so feed your people yourself.
If there isn't enough food for them to reduce their hunger to one, they revert to the previous gov.

- Spies will now report enemy building losses if they survive combat.


14/08/2012

- Monument height (controlled) now adds to score.
- DDD build cost reduced.
- New Fascism bush: Rush power is doubled (reduce production by 4 hours, not 2).


13/08/2012

This marks the start of work that won't really affect our little game very much, but is geared towards the open beta which I hope to start in a month or two.
Expect to see less impactful gameplay changes, but feel free to play around with whatever you like for debugging purposes.
Look and feel updates will be ongoing.

Monuments

- Cost: 10 ALU, 10 STEEL, 10 GLASS, 10 DMND
- Can add a level of height to existing monument for same price
- Destroy a monument for 25 EUR
- Tallest monument, builder of most monuments gets leader title

See the new manual for more details.


10/08/2012

15 second minimum delay between attacks on a player.
Fascism buff: +1 bounty tier if opponent's OP destroyed. (Both not needed.)
Monarchy change: Now experiences (and engages in) corruption during white horseman.


08/08/2012

A host of UI improvements and fundamental game changes.

UI:
- Office towers are now upgraded simply by clicking them.
- Colour coded messages.
- "Reply" and "Repeat" message checkboxes, applying to personal messages.
- Message button available on Player View, usable on non-Leaders only.
- Tons of little things.

Gameplay:
- Ramulgorithm change, greedy vs. selfish now orders primarily by object tier, then (as before) on object commonality, producability, and value order.
- New policy setting, Material Priority, allowing the spending of base or refined materials in preference over the other.
- New Fascism ability: If they win a combat where two outposts were destroyed (attacker's and defender's), +1 bounty tier.
- New Communism ability: All bounties collected against them are -1 tier.
- Monarchy now no longer gives or receives corruption.
- Governmental leaders are now immune to revolt, and cannot change governments (except back to the one they are leader of).
- Building cost changes - Cellar: 3 ALU. Bunker: 3 STEEL. Greenhouse: 2 GLASS. Solar panel: 3 DMND, 3 GLASS.
- The base object to refined object pay ratio is now 4 to 1. Base hull is now 15, all players have been given 5 new hull.

There is a new manual in place, please let me know in the forum if you notice typos or inconsistencies.


01/08/2012

Black horseman now works differently. Instead of needing food before they will do work, the people go on strike whenever their hunger is maxed out.


31/07/2012

"Rushing" is now a common ability available through the city screen.
By hitting R, you enter rush selection, and can click any building which is currently producing something.
Rushing will feed your people one food, and decrease the target building's production timeout by two hours.
Rushing will reduce building production to a minimum of two minutes.
You cannot rush buildings with less than two minutes of production remaining.
Boreholes and factories manufacturing palantirs cannot be rushed.

Smaller changes:
- Feeding the people now reduces hunger by three, not just two.
- Monarchy loses the "Feed the People" ability, and instead gains "Throw a Banquet", which costs three food but sets hunger to zero.
Throwing a banquet is unfortunately prone to desolation.
- Steel mines now cost only two steel to construct, down from three.
- Idle players' trees now count as full buildings, for purposes of local combat victory and bounties.
- Idle players industry is now automatically set to neutral.

PM tweaks:
- Theocracy, now only -5 PM for no church
- Bureaucracy, no more -5 PM, just +1 PM / customs house
- Capitalism, still -5 PM but +1 PM / office tower (need not be level 5)
- Sunny weather is now back to +5 PM, +10 seemed too strong

Interface:
- Harvests triggered while you are adjusting autoharvest settings will now show as a popup in-game, not in Events.
- The bug where you didn't have to close the player view before clicking the lower HUD has been fixed! It was a pain in the ass.

Palantirs all had to be reset, let me know if you lost a ton and I'll give you some glass.
The Aid menu has been completely redone, should be more understandable.
Several other small bug fixes.

Also, the entire library generating the city screen has been refactored from the ground up.
If you notice any odd transitions to other screens, or poor command interaction, please let me know.


24/07/2012

Fascism and syndicalism governments now give +10% tithes.


23/07/2012

Bounty tiers are now awarded for ten and twenty combined buildings destroyed, cumulative. There is also a new bounty tier, download the new manual for details. Bounties cap at the maximum tier.
The dome now protects against half (in your favour) of both pollution and fallout on GM. (Previously was only fallout.)
Monarchy nerf! +3PM for the first vassal, +2 for second, and so on. So much neater and tidier!
Pale horseman's potency reduced to 3%, and blocked by n00b shield.


12/07/2012

During land exchange, the only OPs lost in the vassal's new land are those for neighbors which the master did not have OPd.
All OPs for the vassal from neighbors are preserved (except the master's). The master loses all OPs, looking in or out of their new land.


09/07/2012

The pale horseman now has a 4% chance to cause hull erosion, up from 2%.
Harvesting a refinery for enriched uranium now has a 25% chance of causing one fallout.

Definition change: Formerly, buildings that had a chance of taking out adjacent buildings if destroyed in combat were called "explosive". (Ie. The reactor.)
Now, they are called "dangerous". This is to accomodate the borehole, which has that effect but wouldn't intuitively cause such extra damage by exploding.


07/07/2012

"Idle players" update. Players become idle after one week of inactivity. They receive:

+10% Tithes
Double corruption
Autoharvest disabled

Their trades are cancelled, and replaced with a fair vassal-type trade, their base for another random base, reset every 6 hours.
Active players with a spy can harvest the crops and rubble of idle players. One crop or rubble can be harvested from a given idle every 24 hours.


06/07/2012

Welcome to the "xade update", so called because most of it benefits our indomitable friend in the iron ohmu over there.

Windmills: Now only three adjacent required to reduce power by one.
Solar panels: New algorithm. Now, the total power of all adjacent buildings is halved, rounding down.
Sunny weather now gives +10 PM, up from +5 PM.
Diamond drills now give +2 PM, up from +1 PM.
Coal miners are now not subjected to PM loss from number of mines. (Justification: Coal is easy to mine? Take it or leave it.)


04/07/2012

Outposts built by neighbors can now be seen even without a reciprocating OP. This will help fascists tackle their PM bonus, rounding out the "Iuewen" phase of updates.

Production buildings that are destroyed and leave rubble will now leave their objects in the rubble pile, if they were finished producing. (Factory hull/palantir production excluded.)


03/07/2012

Uranium ore miners are now immune to the effects of pollution on their production modifier.

Hunger reduction (feeding the people) now has double the impact on PM. This includes when the Black Horseman rides, affording a possible +30 PM at such times.


02/07/2012

A new feature has been completed, autoharvest. It may seem simple, but was rather complicated to implement, so I expect lots of juicy bug reports.

A new version of the manual has been uploaded, find details therein (section 7.7).


25/06/2012

Factories now finish processing in 6 hours.
Uranium ore mines now finish in 20 hours. Greenhouses also take 20 hours, but produce 3 food (up from 2).

All tech tree costs have been revised and balanced, thanks to everyone who struggled through the old high prices.


23/06/2012

After land exchange, the victim (vassal) now gets to keep OPs that the master had for neighbors shared by both players.
To clear up some ambiguity that existed in the manual: All other land-based OPs, for the master and all other neighbors, are lost.
Lighthouses are preserved.

When city size is reduced, self-inflicted or otherwise, players now automatically gain scrap for all lost buildings.


20/06/2012

Welcome to the "IJ" update, named thusly in honour of the man championing a playstyle which, while intentionally effective, requires nerfification.

It also includes a lot of stuff that will make the game easier. Too easy perhaps? We shall see.

- You may no longer scrap your last mine, cannon, or warehouse.
- For local combat, in the event of a tie in the number of buildings destroyed, combat is won by the player who used more powerful munitions.
- If a vassal loses combat to their master, tithe is increased by 5%.
- If any of a master's last three buildings are destroyed (same as anarchy reversion trigger), all their vassals desert and are lost.
- Monarchy now gets +4 PM for their first vassal, +3 PM for the second, +2 PM for the third and +1 PM for each thereafter.
- Pollution reduction is increased by 10% for every industry.
- Only 4 windmills need be adjacent to a building to reduce power (in windy/stormy weather) down from 5.
- Refining a diamond now costs only 6 coal (plus power), down from 10.

I have put up a new copy of the manual. Download it from the game page for more details on these rules.


14/06/2012

Syndicalism now requires only four food and four vassals to maintain.


12/06/2012

Combat now features bounties for the winner in some cases.

The latest manual has been linked from the game page, download it and read the pertinent section under Warfare for how bounties work.


10/06/2012

Greenhouse output has been doubled, they now produce two food every twelve hours, still affected by strikes and growth modifier.

The red horseman now allows all neighbors to see each other.

You may want to clear your cache and reload the Flash once in a while. You might be missing out on something cool! ;)


04/06/2012

Scoreboard is now up on the Politics page.

Manual will be updated later. For now here's what is added up to make your score:

PM
GM
Occupied Tiles
Tech Level
Advanced Buildings
Diplomats
Outposts
Vassals x 10

If you are a vassal, the score halved.

PLEASE NOTE THAT SCORE IS NOT CALCULATED IN REAL TIME. It is performed approximately every hour, behind the scenes.
Do not expect your number on the scoreboard to add up exactly to the items above, because it is probably 1-60 minutes old.

PS. I have been playing in this world about 2 days longer than everyone, and I may have inadvertently cheated a few times, so don't worry I'm not that good.


04/06/2012

Windmills now have a new ability: When constructed, they reduce your pollution by two. This happens only once, when the windmill is first built.


31/05/2012

Been debugging since we launched, that's looking pretty good now.

I just added tooltips on the map screen, and the number of windmills required to reduce power on a building is now 5, not 6.


27/05/2012

Had some fun setting up the contracts but we're back on track now. We should have some people kicking around in the world by tomorrow.

I've decided I'm going to implement all the global MMO features next, before 3rd party integration.

Here's a roster, approximately in order:

- Scores, scoreboard
- Ranks
- Leaders
- Bounties (including Red's)
- Monuments
- The Senate
- Global Warfare (ICBMs)
- Global Trade

I'll also add code for powersinks and dealing with idles. SoPs are a ways off yet.


25/05/2012

Wow, more than 2 months since the first web launch. I decided to do the documentation and some useful features this month, to make the closed beta experience more productive.

Regardless, expect mucho bugs/relaunches, potentially even world resets over the next little while until things stabilize.

Current dev plan is to concentrate on the first round of testing and welcome players for a while. Then I'll pretty much follow the former plan below, bumped up by a month.

Still shit tons to do, but please enjoy the game as it stands.


21/03/2012

Launching the first try at the tech tree.

When I launch stuff, I will probably keep wiping all accounts for now. So just recreate your login whenever that happens.
I will keep the weather sunny and the inventories large for now, so you can probably buy your way through the game and unlock everything as I fill it in.
Expect that to change presently.

All the major parts of the game are in place, there should be nothing challenging left to do except one or two system overhauls and a bunch more logic.
So, I will shoot for the first full map (16) player demo in May, that should be with 95% game functionality.

The month after I will do 3rd party social integration including map slot matching, and monetization.

I will be another month on beautification and documentation.

In summary:

March + April - Game code
May - 3rd party integration
June - Beautification and lore-writing

July is reserved for emergency/debugging/extra time.
So by August, the bucks better be rolling in or my name's not Charlie.

GO TEAM BATTLE

MIIIIIIIIIINES

Shoot, there's a tutorial to do as well. Have to get that in. Rg! Go team me!

BATTLE MINES © Erik Walle 2005-2024
Red Asteroid Games Inc.
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