Test Game (pre-beta)

[Madmardigan]

WA here.  

Nothing new other than I lost a fanatic 2 on a recon mission  

I will use a new spell this turn - summon phantoms and I can cast kraken against someone next.  

Any takers?

Mad

[HeadHoncho]

Question, how do you do an 888 or other post 743-action with a wizard that is now in a different group than at turn start?

[unclemike]

Question, how do you do an 888 or other post 743-action with a wizard that is now in a different group than at turn start?

The Extra Orders button is supposed to be "free-form" where the user specifies all the relevant fields for the new order (much like the previous order checker webpage) which will handle any circumstances of shifting figures or troops around. However, I see that not all of the Extra Orders buttons are working in that way right now so if you have to specify an action post-move or such then use the older order checker to complete your orders until I update the Extra Orders buttons to be free-form...

[Frost Lord]

Uncle Mike,

I entered my orders in the New online order checker and verified with no errors.  I then opened up my orders on the Old online order checker and verified my orders there.  Saw a small problem with how it calculated Food consumption (off by 900 food).  

Will the old program be available for use (and up-to-date with all rules & validations) after 3rd Cycle goes live?  And do you want us to report problems with the Old program?

New Program:
(Treasury 8,500 Food, 64,014 Gold) 1AM Wizard Istar (Power-2) Created Gold
(Treasury 3,400 Food, 64,014 Gold) 1AM Was Fed
(Treasury 0 Food, 64,014 Gold) 2AM Was Fed

Old Program:
(Treasury 8,500 Food, 64,014 Gold) 1AM Wizard Istar (Power-2) Created Gold
(Treasury 2,500 Food, 64,014 Gold) 1AM Was Fed
(Treasury 2,500 Food, 64,014 Gold) Not Enough Food To Feed 2AM

[unclemike]

The older site is frozen and should only be used for emergencies to enter your orders and submit them.

[Frost Lord]

UM,

That's not good.  I thought that we would have the option to use either tool.

I was planning to use the Old site until the interactive map is built.  

You have explained the system limitations as to why the New order entry program cannot be smarter than it currently is.  This means that the New website will not be able to replace the things that my Excel workbook can do and I will have to continue using my Excel tool to do my turns.

After I finish my turn in Excel, I will need to submit it.  The problem is that the New site is not as efficient as the Old site when it comes to simple data-entry.  With the Old site, I can enter my orders from start to finish without ever having to touch my mouse.  It literally takes me less than a minute to enter my orders because I do not have to scroll through hundreds of menu options or change from screen to screen.  In this respect, the new site is extremely slow and cumbersome.

FL

[VballMichael]

I agree with FL on the website thing. I generally do my orders on paper, then enter them. It is much faster on the old system, though the new system does have its advantages.

I tested 3 maidens this turn, 2 of whom advanced. One cannot, apparently, use a priestess the same turn she promotes (unlike the previous where one could hire and use a priestess). The order checker told me she was not a priestess when I entered the extra order, but did not say she had already taken an action.

I guarded my town with a Level 4 agent against HH doing a recon. I think he got the recon, while killing my agent, then he died on the way out.
Lots of dead people for a simple recon. Not sure I would want to lose a Level 4 just to stop a recon (and I don't think it even stopped the recon). Maybe we can choose to guard against things more important than a recon only?

Still don't have my region. Lots of foreigners in Amberland.

[Netstrider]

Druid here.

I've been pretty lame with this game so far. Some of it has been a certain level of dissatisfaction with the new order input interface. I find it very clumsy and I end up spending much more time inputting orders than on the old site and making more mistakes.

I did try out Kraken this turn. Not sure I'm even supposed to have it. But it sounded fun so thought I'd give it a whirl. I did NOT patrol this turn in Terror:

Sea Battle Sea battle in the sea of Terror over rough seas: 2 fleets of Necromancer
barges vs. 2 fleets of Druid barges. During the first hour of battle, long
and medium range catapult fire inflicted devastating damage to the
Necromancer navy and very light damage to the Druid barges. As the forces
drew near, ballistas, fire arrows and grappling missiles caused negligible
losses to the Necromancer barges and negligible losses to the Druid ships.
When the navies clashed at close range, ramming tactics and ship to ship
melee resulted in additional negligible damage to the Necromancer ships,
and negligible damage to the Druid ships. By this time, total losses to the
Necromancer ships were devastating compared to very light losses to the
Druid barges based on the overall number of ships in each navy. The battle
continued to rage for some time until the Necromancer fleet attempted to
break off. Their slow sailing navy was unable to escape and was destroyed!
Necromancer losses were put at 2 fleets while Druid losses were estimated
at 0 fleet. Damage to remaining Druid fleets was minor . Damage to
surviving ships resulted in diminished naval quality in that sea.

Seems like some bugs in here

[Netstrider]

Looking through my spell list I also have this:

Name: Imp Familiar Spell #: 933

In his dimly lighted laboratory, the caster summons a mischievous Imp for the current
turn. The Imp can carry out Assassination as an L7 agent. Range 8. Not detected as to
kingdom whether successful or unsuccessful.

This seems pretty powerful for a P3 spell, no? I'm thinking I want to try it out on this guy:
NE Count Gil-galad DK Viperhead Awaiting further orders.

Also noticed I have Raise Zombies - which doesn't sound very druid-like to me, but ok.
Name: Raise Zombies Spell #: 112

The spell has the caster prepare a dark conjuring that raises the enemy dead from a
group battle as Zombies. A battle spell that happens after the battle, creating a
zombie brigade for each destroyed enemy brigade if the caster's group does not
already have more than 5 Zombie brigades, and any new Zombie brigades created by this
spell cannot bring the group total over 5 Zombie brigades.

I can try it out if someone comes to fight me. But it too sounds a little over-powered. The same level spell summon Minotaurs only creates one brigade.

The old summon spells had some indication of the strength of the unit. Is this omitted because you'll see something about the unit in your kingdom report?

Speaking of what you see on the kingdom report, how come it only shows the defense of a brigade? What about the offense?

[unclemike]

Perhaps I didn't fully explain this but at some point, the older site will only work for 2nd Cycle games. You'll have to use the new site for all 3rd Cycle games moving forward. I've made the two sites interchangeable but only for the purpose of the TEST GAME and that requires a manual intervention from me to make the older site work for 3rd Cycle. It won't be that way once the new site has been tested and becomes official.

The reason for this is that the two systems run off a completely different server environment and can't be interchangeable. I've been postponing certain changes to the server for the first 10 turns or so of the test game until the new site has been thoroughly tested then I HAVE to commit the new software that I've been holding back on.

3rd Cycle games run off a completely different system and the older site just won't work on it. During this test, I've been manually moving things around, editing files, and other values to allow the older site to be used but that's not going to continue in the future. Around turn 10-15 or so, if the new site is working properly without any issues, I'm planning on committing my changes to the server then you'll have to use the new site for all 3rd Cycle games thereafter.

2nd Cycle is frozen and the old site will be there for those games. 3rd Cycle games will require the new site due to the different filesystem and server architecture that the game runs upon.