Friday 26 January 2001

Pic of the day: Screenshot. This sinister picture is from the game Planetarion.

Asteroids and mages

I have played these two free online strategy games for a few weeks now: Planetarion and Archmage. I guess some of you would be interested in my observations.

Both of these games happen in (fairly slow) real time. In Planetarion, each round or "tick" takes one hour of real time; in Archmage, the lenght varies according to which server you choose. (The Apprentice server has 20 minutes.) This means that you can log in once or twice a day, make your strategic decisions, and get on with your life. Don't be surprised if you find yourself thinking about the games a inappropriate times, though...

Fair warning: Planetarion may have some trouble ahead right now. The company that hosted their servers, Barrysworld, is closing shop on January 31. As I understand it, the Planetarion software is rather portable, and they plan to continue as if nothing had happened. Then again, over the top optimism is the rule of the computer games industry, so it may not be quite that easy. We shall see. It works fine now, at least.

While Planetarion has exploded unto the internet gaming scene, Archmage has been around for years, and built a very loyal fan base. Like Planetarion, they count their users in the tens of thousands, and they intend to launch their own space strategy game in the near future.

***

Planetarion is a simple science fiction game. It is pure strategy, with no moving parts. Mankind is expanding in the universe, colonizing steadily new galaxies. Each galaxy has 25 habitable planets (so much for realism) and each cluster has 25 galaxies. Travel time within a galaxy is fairly short, within a cluster somewhat longer, and between clusters longer again. Each galaxy is pre-organized as a community, with a message board, galaxy statistics screens, galaxy news detailing mostly military events in the galaxy, and an election system to elect a galactic leader. This gives shy players (like me) an instant community. Much appreciated.

The game is simple enough. You have a limited number of research and construction options. Each research leads to one construction, which leads to a new research and so on for a few levels. As you complete the various constructions (think industrial complexes) you get the option to build more military units too. The game is heavily geared toward the military, but you cannot actually conquer or destroy enemy planets. You can at best destroy their military and steal their asteroids.

The asteroids are the true value in Planetarion. They can be mined for one of 3 resources: Metal, crystal and eonium (fuel). Each hour, every initiated asteroid will contribute a fixed amount of resource. So if you steal someone's asteroids, your income will increase and theirs will decrease. This will enable you to build a stronger military and steal more 'roids. There is no point, there is no winning condition. You just go on bullying those weaker than you until everybody is fed up.

The fun is in the human interaction. If an enemy can win over one, two may defeat him, or perhaps you need to organize your whole cluster to overwhelm a sufficiently large enemy. The place teems with alliances, but in addition many players have friends or relatives who they make deals with quite informally. And it is considered good form to defend those in your own galaxy.

The game is plagued by nobies and newbies. The nobies are those who log in once, find out that the pictures don't move, and never come back. At any time, these may make up half of a new galaxy, making it almost impossible to organize. After something like a week of inactivity, the accounts are purged and other new players are let in. But often as not, they are the same sort. Ack.

Newbies don't build enough mining and military, but mine a lot of roids which are then dutifully stolen by the big cats from outside the galaxy. The newbies are then screaming for everyone to come defend them, while they never are able to help anyone else in any way. Newbie is a state of mind ... it's not about having played before or not.

Based on my personal experience, I recommend expanding slowly. Build all manner of mines first, don't stop till you have a core mine. Research PDS (Planetary Defense System) and build 20 or even 30 laser turrets for each asteroid you initiate. That way, even if someone manage to steal your roids, they will have lost so much metal in the bargain that it wasn't worth it. Most non-newbies will understand this and keep away.

I'll freely admit I like this game, despite its military leaning. I like to help people, and with my play style I get the chance to do that after a while.

***

Archmage is quite different. It is also playable from a standard browser, no java applets or javascript programs running around. But Archmage is set in a fantasy world filled with magic. It is vaguely similar to Master of Magic or Magic: The Gathering, with its 5 types of magic (White, Green, Red, Blue, Black) and summoning various fantastic creatures. Unlike MoM, cities don't grow organically. You have to zone part of your land for city, and a somewhat larger part for farms to feed the city population and your army. You must explore for new land, and on most of the servers you find less new land as you expand, until it stops completely. By now, your only chance to get more land is through conquest. Sadly, conquest tends to also destroy some land. So just like in real life, fighting back and forth will weaken both parts. And unlike real life, you can not declare war against someone much weaker than yourself.

Some of the Archmage servers allow guilds where mages cooperate, others don't. There is no natural provision for cooperating with your neighbors, the way there is in Planetarion, and I must admit that I miss it. I'm not the type to go out and seek new friends, not even in a game.

I play White magic, of course. That's just the way I am! My experience so far is that quality is better than quantity, and that you should be sure to click the sponsor ads that are associated with Lady Luck. :) But there are people who have played this game for years, and I'd take those opinions over mine any day. Archmage is a more complex and deeper game than Planetarion, but its social aspect is not built-in. If you're very shy, you may want to pick a non-guild server ... or none at all.

***

None of the games will put food on your table or help you into the Kingdom of Heaven. They will however let your sharpen your wits (and optionally your social intelligence, if any) on real human players. As the saying goes: "Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity."