EDIT: On page three you can find a little battle report to give you and idea of how battles are fought in the game.
Hello,
I would like to introduce you to Arcadia Online, a browser MMORTS that I've been working on with my team for the past 4 years. The closed beta test is finished and now Arcadia is released.
I know teamliquid is a great community since I use to lurk alot here, and I would like to hear your opinions about the game, we are a small team of indie game developers and any help is appreciated.
If you like to play browser games like Ogame or Imperia you might give Arcadia Online a try. What separates Arcadia from other games is that the entire game is played on a huge 2d world map (think medieval total war campaign style map) and the tone of the game is more hardcore than the mainstream browser mmorts-es out there. Player cities can be destroyed or conquered, and even total defeat is possible under some conditions.
Here are some screenshots of the game to give you a quick idea of what it looks like:
For more info you can got to the faq or screenshots section of the website.
What I would like to hear is what do you think about a game of this type? Can it compete with other more mainstream mmorts?
We support mobile phones and the game works on the iphones (iphone 3+). However there are some problems with how the fixed elements of the user interface are rendered and thats why you probably could not see intro screen that tells you to choose your flag color and then choose your start location because that screen was rendered on the bottom center of the map (instead of being rendered at the center of your screen). This problem doesnt surface on regular play because the fixed window is used much less than the city/unit windows
Right now thats a little inconvenience that proves almost impossible to fix for all different mobile browsers.
For the techies that have done some web design: The problem is in the fact that many mobile browser dont support position:fixed; and those that support many of them are buggy with fixed position. This is one of the problems that will get fixed as better mobile browsers gain market share.
I like how you guys dont implement any pay-for-resources in your game, which makes it appeal a lot more to me.
Something you could fix is the large amount of typos in your game, such as the academy( Accademy ), founding a city (fund city), stone/iron excavation (escavation), etc
The FAQ and guide need to be more fleshed out. A lot of things that aren't obvious, such as exploitation of map tile resource bonuses and how resource gain/loss is calculated.
On December 26 2012 10:58 KtheZ wrote: I like how you guys dont implement any pay-for-resources in your game, which makes it appeal a lot more to me.
Something you could fix is the large amount of typos in your game, such as the academy( Accademy ), founding a city (fund city), stone/iron excavation (escavation), etc
Yep, we are all from Croatia so the language might have some typos in it. Thanks for pointing that out, I'll fix it!
On December 26 2012 17:10 Wegandi wrote: How do you increase gold production?
A city gets gold by the taxes that are payed, so the bigger the population (Male and Female) the bigger the gold income.
On December 26 2012 20:51 lichter wrote: The FAQ and guide need to be more fleshed out. A lot of things that aren't obvious, such as exploitation of map tile resource bonuses and how resource gain/loss is calculated.
Agree, the Guide is a work in progress and I'll start updating it now that I'm getting player feedback on things they are not sure how to accomplish.
I'm also not sure what happens when I attack a rebel city. Is there a population there that becomes mine when I conquer it? Or do I need to bring people to populate it? Pros/cons of conquering versus founding a city would be nice.
Another comment is that making a move plan allows me to set the command to cross rivers and lakes, and once I get to the river, the move just stops. No error or message to inform me that may army has stopped. Would be nice to either have an error when issuing the move (so that I don't accidentally try to cross a river in vain) or get a message when the move command ends abruptly.
On December 26 2012 21:36 lichter wrote: I'm also not sure what happens when I attack a rebel city. Is there a population there that becomes mine when I conquer it? Or do I need to bring people to populate it? Pros/cons of conquering versus founding a city would be nice.
When you attack a rebel village you destroy it if you win the battle (taking the resources). It would be too easy to get new cities since rebel villages are easy to defeat. However cities can be conquered from other players, but only if the defender has a bigger number of cities than the attacker or else the city gets destroyed.
On December 26 2012 21:36 lichter wrote: Another comment is that making a move plan allows me to set the command to cross rivers and lakes, and once I get to the river, the move just stops. No error or message to inform me that may army has stopped. Would be nice to either have an error when issuing the move (so that I don't accidentally try to cross a river in vain) or get a message when the move command ends abruptly.
More comments soon
The "Plan army movement" doesnt check if the terrain is crossasble or not, because you may want to set a plan to board your army on a fleet and for that you need to be able to move to non crossable terrain (water). If you want you can use the "Move army" command that works like in any other rts, using pathfinding.
On December 26 2012 23:57 Silencioseu wrote: Is it any different from games like Ikariam and such?
The best way to find out is to try it, but I would say that the game offers more freedom and doesnt have a pay-to-win feature where you can swap real money for resources. This is not gonna happen in Arcadia Online since we are of a strong opinion that those kind of features destroy the gameplay.
On December 26 2012 23:57 Silencioseu wrote: Is it any different from games like Ikariam and such?
There are a few difference that could be pretty big. From what I have noticed, your army must travel with a general (I'm not sure how may of these you could have but it could making things more interesting in wars if people don't always have them readily available). Another thing I have noticed are the random NPCs that I don't know too much about (killed a mammoth today and lost around 350 troops doing it - 600 units v 95 mammoths that didn't seem to drop any loot). It appears you can transfer population between cities. Combat can happen anywhere instead of only in a city. Different mechanics of how resource gathering works but its not a huge difference (I actually went down in resource generation after upgrading the structure that generates it because my population couldn't support it. It normally gives you a message when this will happen but it didn't for me this time).
I also have a few questions about the game. Does killing NPCs (orcs/mammoths/black dragon/etc) yield loot? What about NPC cities? Are there upkeep cost(food of gold) for soldiers while they're in a town(something is using 1k+ food per hr for me and I am unsure what it is)? If I get lost on the map by scrolling around too much, is there a way to return to one of my cities without relogging?
EDIT: I figured out, you do get loot for killing NPCs but its not reported anywhere, it just appears in your general's cargo
On December 27 2012 16:42 Dissenia wrote: Another thing I have noticed are the random NPCs that I don't know too much about (killed a mammoth today and lost around 350 troops doing it - 600 units v 95 mammoths that didn't seem to drop any loot). It appears you can transfer population between cities.
You probably didn't notice because Mammoths drop only food, all hostile NPC drop loot.
On December 27 2012 16:42 Dissenia wrote: Are there upkeep cost(food of gold) for soldiers while they're in a town(something is using 1k+ food per hr for me and I am unsure what it is)? If I get lost on the map by scrolling around too much, is there a way to return to one of my cities without relogging?
The upkeep cost are for armies and navies are always present, the only difference is that while an army is outside the city it consumes 120% of the gold than while being in the city.
In the UI window Manage Realm there is a list of all cities/armies/navies, so if you want to get to one of them just click on the "Go to location" link.
A little update, many things have happened since the last time I posted.
Now that almost a month has passed since the release of the game things are starting to get interesting with three major alliances forming and war is on the horizon
1. House Bolton 2. Equestria 3. Troll
There have been lots of changes and bug fixes thanks to the input of the community and some of the major ones are: - Alliance Ranking - Improved Manage Realm and Market
Here are some of the screenshots to document how the world is evolving:
This is the heart of the House Bolton Alliance, the strongest one on the realm
This is the heart of my own alliance Troll I joined
And here is a tribute to DAMMIT, the top ranked player in the realm, he choose to live a secluded life on the outskirts of the map
On January 22 2013 09:51 Sufficiency wrote: How come this looks like civilization?
No idea, but so far I'm enjoying this game. I took out my starting army and pwned some rebels. Looted over 8k in gold and I was pretty excited lol. I feel like there's not much going on, probably because I just started yesterday, and I keep refreshing my browser every 10 or so minutes. I'm pretty secluded because I only have one neighbor, but he has two cities right next to me in the mountains.
Can NPC's attack cities? There's a black dragon that keeps flying near my city and plenty of rebels and orcs roaming around. That'd be cool if they tried to lay a siege every once in a while.
On January 22 2013 09:48 PaqMan wrote: I've signed up. In-game name is TribaL!
Civilization was a game that I loved playing, but what Civilization lacked for my taste was the MMO component. Thats one of the reasons I made Arcadia Online.
On January 22 2013 09:51 Sufficiency wrote: How come this looks like civilization?
No idea, but so far I'm enjoying this game. I took out my starting army and pwned some rebels. Looted over 8k in gold and I was pretty excited lol. I feel like there's not much going on, probably because I just started yesterday, and I keep refreshing my browser every 10 or so minutes. I'm pretty secluded because I only have one neighbor, but he has two cities right next to me in the mountains.
Can NPC's attack cities? There's a black dragon that keeps flying near my city and plenty of rebels and orcs roaming around. That'd be cool if they tried to lay a siege every once in a while.
It takes a few days for things to really start to get interesting, right now you should be focusing on attacking Rebels/Orcs/Trolls for resources, developing your city and building a new one. As soon as you have a strong army 1000+ with at least 40 catapults you can try to conquer a city from another player if he is inactive.
NPCs cannot siege cities. A for the black dragon, ignore it, there is nothing you can do about it for now :D
On January 22 2013 16:42 Archers_bane wrote: Can you trade resources within alliances?? Looks a lot like civilization
Yes you can trade resources, and not only within alliances. The Market tab has all the options you need for trading resources, but you need to build a Market first.
On January 23 2013 05:57 Archers_bane wrote: Do provinces need to be a certain distance to trade, or can they located like in another world tile?
Also, is the cap 12 cities per player still?
Yes, a city can trade only in the province it is in and with the provinces it borders, by building cities in the bordering provinces you can make a trade chain and extend the reach of trading. The 12 city cap is still here, as the game progresses maybe the cap will be raised, but right now its a must for three reasons: - So that Veteran players dont get a too big advantage, imagine someone with 50+ cities - To promote Alliance gameplay, and work together towards world domination. - It can get tiresome to manage too many cities.
On January 23 2013 05:57 Archers_bane wrote: Do provinces need to be a certain distance to trade, or can they located like in another world tile?
Also, is the cap 12 cities per player still?
Yes, a city can trade only in the province it is in and with the provinces it borders, by building cities in the bordering provinces you can make a trade chain and extend the reach of trading.
Don't really understand the specifics. How far away can they be to trade? Like 10 land tiles away from the city? Does upgrading market only allow for higher quantities of trade between cities?
On January 23 2013 05:57 Archers_bane wrote: Do provinces need to be a certain distance to trade, or can they located like in another world tile?
Also, is the cap 12 cities per player still?
Yes, a city can trade only in the province it is in and with the provinces it borders, by building cities in the bordering provinces you can make a trade chain and extend the reach of trading.
Don't really understand the specifics. How far away can they be to trade? Like 10 land tiles away from the city? Does upgrading market only allow for higher quantities of trade between cities?
Not land tiles (land tiles are the hexagonal tiles that can contain a city or an army), its provinces (quadrants, sectors, howewer you want to call them ). That means you can trade in your province (the entire map that fills your browser screen) and in the provinces bordering it. When you look at the World Map provinces are the big squares.
On January 23 2013 14:59 Archers_bane wrote: What does an experienced general do? Are there any bonuses with it?
Also, can you combine two of your armies in the fields to make 1 big army? Or do you have to go back to a city and combine.
Does trade bonus means that you get better deals in the local market? Like you can buy/sell at a better price than someone with lower trade bonus?
An experienced general give an advantage during battle (it is calculated along with other advantages like army morale).
Armies can be combines in the field using the "Transfer units or resources to (commander name)" link, this can only be done if the two armies are near each other.
The Trade bonus is used to balance all other bonuses as it is added to them (Woodcutting, Stoneworking etc..), tiles near the sea have a bigger trade bonus to compensate for the fact that they dont have any other bonuses (other than the Fishing bonus).
How is the total move cooldown calculated? Is it the average of the move cooldown of the army or is it always the slowest person in the army?
Edit: Also, when does the next line of defense fights in melee? Is it when a group of unit dies and a hole opens up, then the units next in line goes in the front? Or is it only when the entire front line is wiped out?
On January 24 2013 02:46 Nemesis wrote: How is the total move cooldown calculated? Is it the average of the move cooldown of the army or is it always the slowest person in the army?
Edit: Also, when does the next line of defense fights in melee? Is it when a group of unit dies and a hole opens up, then the units next in line goes in the front? Or is it only when the entire front line is wiped out?
The move cooldown is equal to the slowest unit in the army/fleet. This opens interesting strategies with fast armies consisting only of cavalry that can outrun normal armies.
A group of units that is placed in the formation second line will go to the frontline as soon as the group of units in front of it dies.
I see, so it would be kind of advantageous to make an all cavalry army.
Does siege units do splash damage, that is hit more than one group at a time? Also how is damage calculated in here? Does each unit have its own health or do they have a pool of health? I'm guessing it's the latter, as otherwise those 17k dragons can only kill 1 at a time >.<
On January 24 2013 23:13 Nemesis wrote: I see, so it would be kind of advantageous to make an all cavalry army.
Does siege units do splash damage, that is hit more than one group at a time? Also how is damage calculated in here? Does each unit have its own health or do they have a pool of health? I'm guessing it's the latter, as otherwise those 17k dragons can only kill 1 at a time >.<
Yes, an all cavalry army has a big disadvantage if the enemy has enough anti cavalry units like Spearmen and Pikemen.
As for the damage its a little bit complicated, units fight in groups up to 100 units and the resulting casualties are calculated using many criterias (Attack, Defense, Morale, Special abilities). The Combat Mechanics section of the guide explain it in a more detailed manner.
Since it doesn't seem like anyone else was making it, I've made a TeamLiquid alliance now. Just apply to the alliance (it's TeamLiquid, one word) and post your IGN here (or send me it in a PM) and I'll accept you in.
On February 01 2013 01:41 Callagan wrote:Just apply to the alliance (it's TeamLiquid, one word) and post your IGN here (or send me it in a PM) and I'll accept you in.
I wonder, can you stay outisde of warmongering and exclusively focus on economic(trade/prodt/expos)? Or will you be dragged no matter what into world scale conflict ?
On February 01 2013 03:18 anatase wrote: I wonder, can you stay outisde of warmongering and exclusively focus on economic(trade/prodt/expos)? Or will you be dragged no matter what into world scale conflict ?
You can create a strong kingdom by simply expanding peacefully, however there is no guarantee that another player wont try to take what you have accomplished with force and you'll be forced to defend yourself.
BTW war has broken out between two of the top alliances in the realm, Troll and Equestria, expect some battle reports to give you an idea what combat is like in the game.
On February 01 2013 12:42 PaqMan wrote: I'll join the TL guild, although my activity is low because of work and school. IGN is TribaL
The nice thing about games like this is that the best way to play them is to log in a few times a day (but a normal play session duration is a few minutes), so you can sneak and play during work/school
Things get more intense during wars. Anybody remembers playing Ogame and setting your alarm clock to wake you up during the night for a sneak attack? Well I do
However in Arcadia Online sneak attacks while someone sleeps aren't as efficient as in other games, since the siege timer makes it impossible to blitzkrieg a city. But sneaking in an army on their island while they sleep so they cannot intercept you with their fleet is an efficient way to avoid a naval battle, I just did that :D (while my alliance mate got his entire fleet destroyed because he tried to land yesterday.)
On January 29 2013 10:29 Callagan wrote: Is there some kind of TL alliance in this game? Or is everyone just going solo?
Well, technically everyone from the Shakuras alliance is from TL (or almost everyone). But maybe that doesn't count since we're also from another website (shakuras!)
Here is a little battle report from a few days ago to give you an idea of how wars are fought in the game.
Fate was a top ranked player that decided he needed to expand and attacked my alliance leader Ivan (Troll alliance). The attack was unexpected, and worst of all, Fate was the first player on the realm to get Dragons, and not only one dragon, but three
Fate put under siege Sharqi city and we had only two days to prepare a defense. Me and my friend "camper" managed to scramble an army and set sail to defend our alliance leader. The problem was that he was two regions away from us and so we had one day of voyage ahead of us. Our mission looked more like a suicide mission at this point than a rescue one, however the player DAMMIT offered his assistance in the attack against Fate and this is how the battle unfolded:
Me Ivan and Ivan approaching from the east (camper was late) while DAMMIT attacks the army that has Sharqi under siege.
This is the battle report of DAMMIT vs FATE:
After having lost the first battle against DAMMIT Fate starts to retreat towards his city.
But DAMMIT and Ivan intercept his retreat from the North and Fate has no other option but to fight. This battle was a massacre, Ivan had a much bigger army but Fate had better units and Dragons! Fate won the engagement, however he lost almost his entire army.
In the end Fate managed to escape with one army since he had a fast fleet.
On January 23 2013 05:57 Archers_bane wrote: Do provinces need to be a certain distance to trade, or can they located like in another world tile?
Also, is the cap 12 cities per player still?
Yes, a city can trade only in the province it is in and with the provinces it borders, by building cities in the bordering provinces you can make a trade chain and extend the reach of trading. The 12 city cap is still here, as the game progresses maybe the cap will be raised, but right now its a must for three reasons: - So that Veteran players dont get a too big advantage, imagine someone with 50+ cities - To promote Alliance gameplay, and work together towards world domination. - It can get tiresome to manage too many cities.
i woudn't mind that somebody had like 20 orsomething,
On January 23 2013 05:57 Archers_bane wrote: Do provinces need to be a certain distance to trade, or can they located like in another world tile?
Also, is the cap 12 cities per player still?
Yes, a city can trade only in the province it is in and with the provinces it borders, by building cities in the bordering provinces you can make a trade chain and extend the reach of trading. The 12 city cap is still here, as the game progresses maybe the cap will be raised, but right now its a must for three reasons: - So that Veteran players dont get a too big advantage, imagine someone with 50+ cities - To promote Alliance gameplay, and work together towards world domination. - It can get tiresome to manage too many cities.
i woudn't mind that somebody had like 20 orsomething,
that would really make things intresting
SlayersBoxer supposedly has 9 of them, but he's kinda isolated I think.
On January 23 2013 05:57 Archers_bane wrote: Do provinces need to be a certain distance to trade, or can they located like in another world tile?
Also, is the cap 12 cities per player still?
Yes, a city can trade only in the province it is in and with the provinces it borders, by building cities in the bordering provinces you can make a trade chain and extend the reach of trading. The 12 city cap is still here, as the game progresses maybe the cap will be raised, but right now its a must for three reasons: - So that Veteran players dont get a too big advantage, imagine someone with 50+ cities - To promote Alliance gameplay, and work together towards world domination. - It can get tiresome to manage too many cities.
i woudn't mind that somebody had like 20 orsomething,
that would really make things intresting
SlayersBoxer supposedly has 9 of them, but he's kinda isolated I think.
Geographically yeah but he's part of the Shakuras alliance
just started playing seems i decided to start near where alot of people are. got few questions. would it be better to find a more desolate spot and start over since iam only a day in. is there a way to see alliance rankings without being in an alliance.
does navel warfare rely soly on ships or armies inside the ships.
if i join an alliance could it be feasible to focus on naval production to help dominant the seas.
I'm in the TL alliance but it's pretty boring. I have no action going on whatsoever. My closest neighbor is a Troll, Mivani, with three cities right next to me. Also Arcanis you have a city in my region as well :3 Arc Treasure
On February 12 2013 08:24 drivec wrote: just started playing seems i decided to start near where alot of people are. got few questions. would it be better to find a more desolate spot and start over since iam only a day in. is there a way to see alliance rankings without being in an alliance.
does navel warfare rely soly on ships or armies inside the ships.
if i join an alliance could it be feasible to focus on naval production to help dominant the seas.
I prefer more populated spots since you can start conquering cities quite early with the right army. But the more desolated spots offer more Diamond/Palladium mines. I would say start where you are with the first 2-3 cities and then expand to more desolated spots.
You can see alliance ranking under Manage Realm -> Alliance Ranking. It doesn't matter if you are not a member of an alliance.
At the start its better to focus on land armies, at the later stages when big wars start breaking out naval warfare becomes important.
On February 12 2013 08:40 PaqMan wrote: I'm in the TL alliance but it's pretty boring. I have no action going on whatsoever. My closest neighbor is a Troll, Mivani, with three cities right next to me. Also Arcanis you have a city in my region as well :3 Arc Treasure
Yes thats right, the only spot I could find with both a Diamond and Palladium mine. Also if you want action, find someone to attack
Just signed up..did the tutorial, It said my armies only cost money when they move out of a city right? i sent mine back to my town so i shouldnt spend anything correct?
Hopefully because i plan on just building up for a few days before going off to trololol people
On February 12 2013 15:56 Capped wrote: Just signed up..did the tutorial, It said my armies only cost money when they move out of a city right? i sent mine back to my town so i shouldnt spend anything correct?
Hopefully because i plan on just building up for a few days before going off to trololol people
EDIT: got it, just put them i nreserves.
Also - is there a chat feature?
Armies in city also cost an upkeep in gold, its just 20% less than when they are outside the city. And a realm chat feature will be coming soon, right now there is only private messages and alliance chat.
dont use spears against them. spears are only good against Calvary and Mammoths if im not mistaken? And arent trolls more powerful than orcs? Perhaps targeting rebel armies/cities and orcs would be better for now.
I lost a 700+ army of spears and some archers archers against a 2 or 3 hundred orc army. I also lost a big army of spears and archers to a decent sized mammoth group.
Yeah im going to keep away from anything non-rebel now haha, i killed some orcs when i first started though and looted like 3k gold and other stuff, but there was only 100 there so im assuming somebody tried to kill them before hand and failed.
Also, how do you build a new city..? Thats my next target
On February 14 2013 15:29 Capped wrote: Yeah im going to keep away from anything non-rebel now haha, i killed some orcs when i first started though and looted like 3k gold and other stuff, but there was only 100 there so im assuming somebody tried to kill them before hand and failed.
Also, how do you build a new city..? Thats my next target
3000 wood 3500 stone 500 iron 10k food 1500 males 1500 females 1.25(number of cities) X1000 gold
just a tip u will need another captain that u can leave in that city to get your army out of it.
I've been playing this for a little more than a week. I have to say it's quite enjoyable. Just joined the Troll alliance and built my 4th city, on my way to conquer my first city
So on the above ^ started an alliance with 3 dudes down here now, the guy named it "Cerberus" (-__-) so if you start playing and want to join (theres a TL alliance too btw) just send me a PM there or here.
I have no idea if house bolton are still active, i think a couple of them maybe are but atm diego is sieging one of them so perhaps not.
My alliance are recruiting anybody who will remain active in the game, goes by the name Cerberus. Atm we're still small and based to the south, looking to expand to "strategic" positions north soon for future wars. I am willing to get you started with any help you might need (questions on how things work, best places to expand, can send you some resources) and get you involved with the alliance if you want to play and stick around for a while. Any active players are more then welcome to join us too!
EDIT: Just realised that drivec is part of our alliance too, had no idea he was on TL lol!
Drop me a PM here or ingame (Still capped) or PM Snipe5000 in game about it too.
Out of curiousity, did the TL alliance ever take off? Did you guys want to join up with us instead and make it the "TL hub" so to speak? I dont see any TL alliance on the list :-)
And to any players in the troll / shakuras alliance...the games too small for two huge alliances, spread out the power and have some fun :-D
On March 11 2013 04:34 DyEnasTy wrote: yeah all i see is someone from shakuras alliance and his cities there.
WOW i am such a retard, ive been posting here we are in E7 the entire time, when we are in E4, where the hell did i get E7 from? thats the corner of the map hahaha.
For future reference, bottom row, middle tile, Mainly based in the north ! With a few cities in E3 and D4..where the hell did i get E7 from
Had to reform my alliance, the leader went idle lol, playing under Arc Angels now, just recruited someone being sieged by diego, no.2 player in the realm lul. "Negotiating" with him now to see if he'll back off, if not..i guess its time to get smashed in a war.
Dyenasty call him off for me if your in troll :-D and if your in shakuras, lets take him down if he refuses! :D
Still welcoming any active players to the Arc Angel alliance, old or new! Just send me a PM here or in game
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