Category Archives: Announcement

A special news.

Anti spam measures at the community forum

Recently the number and different ways of spam attacks on our community forum has increased dramatically to the average of around one successful spam account per day. For comparison, genuine registrations happen more on a monthly basis.

I’m not going to tolerate this and will defend the forum against spam. Therefore I had to turn off guest posting and immediate access after registration. Instead, I will unlock every registration attempt manually after writing a short welcome mail and analysing the answer (anti spam Turing test).

I will also do some research into more technical ways of fighting spam but for the time being this seems to be the most promising strategy.

New Release (0.2.1)

And there is another release. It’s rather a minor release and mostly changes the details shown in the view of the editor screen (rivers, cities, borders) and also the game lobby (where one selects a scenario to play). This means we are still far from any playable state.

However, the project is still active and this release also serves the purpose of showing this activity.

Interested in helping out or want to report and issue?

Drop a message in the contact form or register at the forum.

Some actual screen shots:

New Release (0.2.0)

After a bit more than a year there is a new release. Most prominently it features the transition from using Java as the programming language to using Python. The transition took place within four months and no major obstacles were found during this period.

However the functionality is still the same (or even less in some areas) – so do not expect a playable game. The current state is still not much more than a tech demonstration of what might be one day.

But the community behind this remake will now continue and after the transition to another programming language has been achieved one can expect more features in the near future.

Interested in helping out? Drop a message in the contact form or register at the forum.

Below some screenshots.

Task board online

The project now has a task board which shows a list of available tasks, small jobs, that currently would bring the project forward. This list will be updated continuously and allows the cooperation of many contributors as well as planning ahead. In the Community Forum we also have a task center discussion thread associated with the task board.

The idea is to constantly break up the big step of developing a full strategy game in many smaller steps and present them in a way that everyone can see what needs to be done next as well as can serve himself to a task or two.

A new start

Recently I found back to this project. It took me awhile and I spent the mean time improving much on my Python abilities (which will be good for the project) as well as playing computer games or doing other stuff (which was only good for myself). Unfortunately this also meant that for at least half a year not much happened and the project was stalled. Sure, this is never a nice experience but that’s kind of normal when you do stuff in your free time. Anyway I was kind of disattached with the project but it changed and now I’m back.

So much about the past, now about the present and the future. I’m very happy one of the earliest team members Veneteaou is still present. After a short discussion the decision is that we switch from Java to Python. Both seem like viable ways to accomplish the task but with Python we both think that the development time will be shorter. And judging from the more than two years of posts in this blog, time goes fast enough as it is. Time to speed up the project.

Apart from the switch of programming language I also renewed the web sites of the project. The forum has a much nicer layout, this blog is now a wordpress powered blog and the sources are now on github.

Please stay tuned for news in the next weeks/months. We always need and ask for volunteers. Either send a message via the contact form or post on the forum.

New Release (0.1.4)

Exactly two months after the last release we have another update. This time with a complete overhaul of the server-client communication, now featuring the ability to actually start a local server and connect to it (and send and receive chat messages) as well as possibility to have continuous looking terrain tiles. Still the game is in the early stages. We will continue even at slow speed. Register at the forum if you want to take part in the development or just give feedback. Thanks for listening. 🙂

ScrIMP, the Imperialism agile development method

Recently we added a new development method to our inventory: ScrIMP. It is derived from Scrum, an agile software development method and especially adapted to open source projects with ever changing team members.

The heart is frequent definition and reflection on short term goals as well as the implementation of these goals during defined short periods of time. For us this means that we offer the possibility to do a Sprint, i.e. to achieve a goal within 7 days (starting on fridays always). There is a place for volunteering, for progress reports and for reviewing.

Of course this is completely optional. Everybody can just contribute in his/her own preferred way. However we also hope to increase the attraction to new supporters.

New Release (0.1.3)

Just wanted to report another version with some minor changes – mostly the product of our designers in achieving a nicer start screen. Also we discussed the games rules heavily in the last time and last but not least the naming vote was conducted was didn’t come to a clear conclusion. So the name is still not decided. But I am optimistic. We will continue and improve with every release.

New Release (0.1.2)

It’s again two months after the last release and time to let you see what the project achieved so far. So what’s new?

– We have a windows launcher (checks for the correct version of Java), a windows installer and we tested it under Linux (it runs).
– We have music composed by one of our own playing in the background.
– We have a much improved map with borders, cities, rivers, provinces.
– We have diverse artwork for the terrain and the start screen.
– And many, many small things.

So head over to the Download area and try it out for yourself! 🙂

It’s a big step forward for us but also still a long way to go. We need your help in making the project a success. If you are interested, check here.

New Release (0.1.1)

Two months after the very first release in this project we can proudly present another iteration. Head over to the Download area to test it or see some new Screenshots. It features more details in the map (resources, provinces with borders and province center locations, better support for non Windows OS and many minor improvements.

In case of problems our Help center will be happy to deal with them.

You can also have a look at the Sources (see Download area) which is now easier to setup in an development environment. Contributions are always welcome – best way to contact is via the forum.