I am making an independent TBS computer game for 4-5 years. I nearly completed it. In short its like combination of Sid Meier's two game : Colonization and Civilization.

There are 10 civilizations, different bonuses for every civilization, special units. In cities citizens can work on not only gold, food and production they can work on food, cotton, tobacco, fur, wood, stone, gold or petrol. In city buildings citizens can convert cotton into cloth, tobacco into cigar, grape into wine and fur into coat. Player have to collect stone to build buildings in cities. There are science charts like in civilization. Please examine details and give your ideas and advices about game.

There are different buildings and wonders which effects military production, science research speed and culture in the city like in civilization.

One or two small pictures are currently taken from civ2 and they will be replaced very soon.

You can examine game details from http://www.ozangumus.com

I finished the game but I am not sure about what to do with this game. You can give me advices about how to consider my efforts. This game has a different taste from both Colonization and Civilization. I both like these two games and connected them. If you want to contact me you can both use this forum or send me mail from ozangumus@gmail.com

Screenshots :

http://www.soccerforecast.com/invasion1small.gif http://www.soccerforecast.com/invasion2small.gif http://www.soccerforecast.com/invasion3small.gif http://www.soccerforecast.com/invasion4small.gif

http://www.soccerforecast.com/invasion5small.gif http://www.soccerforecast.com/invasion6small.gif http://www.soccerforecast.com/invasion7small.gif http://www.soccerforecast.com/invasion8small.gif

If it ran on a cellphone..

Do you work in the industry, or have you sent this to games makers as a showreel?

No, I am not working in industry I new graduated from computer engineering I will start working in industry but for now its an independent game. I made it by myself including AI. I did not send it anywhere, first posting info about game here.

If nothing else you can put it on your resume.

I guess there are four options: don't distribute it, distribute it at a cost, distribute it as freeware, distribute it as open source. I imagine there are different sorts of licenses you would need for each situation.

My hunch would be to make a showreel and send that around the gaming studios because you obviously have strong maths and a deep commitment to programming. You are perfect for the production phases of any large project.

Also, if you're looking for one more year of study, check this out. All links relate to the same course and you won't find it anywhere else. I know the leading professors and they are very good: they would turn your commitment and ability (already commendable) into a serious creative force beyond mere programming. Professor Latham knows this industry and I really think his courses could lead to people like you being head-hunted.. there are so many big names around him!!

http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/computing/computer-games/
http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/pg/msc-computer-games-entertainment.php
http://doc.gold.ac.uk/games/

If you apply, let me know ;)

Thanks stormbind for your ideas and links you posted. I will examine them. I got some proposals from some game studios in my country, they knew me here because there are not very much game developers even independent.

But I want to consider my long efforts and get return of my game. I am thinking about some solutions. Maybe I can sell game via web with a low price.

AI in Invasion is very complex like in civ series too, only my disadvantage is graphics are not so good because I am not graphic designer.

It seems like you put a lot of effort in this game!

Given that it is more than inspired from Civ, and that as you said, the graphics are not tremendous, you should probably make it available as a shareware/freeware. Post it in a lot of places, ask for feedback. It will make your work known and will be a tremendous experience.

Making the right product at the right time is a very difficult problem. Invasion was obviously your hobby and not a product determined by market forces.

For example, most big publishers will have one candidate for each genre and won't sponsor any more than that. Studios are bound by publisher requirements. Consequently, the market is very much dictated to developers.

My interests are in a completely different domain so take my advice with a pinch of salt. I have the feeling you're in a weak position and I would really like a succesful name to steer your talent away from difficulty.

There are few studios in the UK which I'm sure would like to hear from you :)

Given that it is more than inspired from Civ, and that as you said, the graphics are not tremendous.

One of the things Goldsmiths' is world-renowned in are the intellectual domains leading to original narrative and art (storyboardng, graphics, design). I think a little of these skills could go a long way with the technical ability of programmers like ozangumus.

Yes, Masquerouge I really put lots of effort on this game (as an example, wrote 60.000 lines of code) Firstly I want to see reactions of civ-fans to my game. Later I will somehow make it available. In my page it wrotes demo will be avaible 20 days later maybe this can be 30 days or more I am still thinking what to do. I want to get return of my efforts too also I want to see people are playing this game after tons of effort. Anyhow it will be avaible soon.

Thanks for all ideas/thoughs.

What country are you from?

There are few studios in the UK which I'm sure would like to hear from you :)

Stormbind, are these few studios want to publish Invasion or are they want to take me in their game development team? In first step I want to somehow make my game avaible, I need a solution for this step firstly. Yes I am at weak position because I developed game by myself and still alone after finishing and not know the industry well.

Can I buy shares in you?

Full sized pics please (I want to look at the details) :)

Oz. As I said, studios do not (normally) publish and neither do developers (normally) publish. There is a reason for this situation and its not likely to change. The serious financial power - which is many millions of dollars - is controlled by publishers. To these businesses, human effort is worth nothing and they really want to stay in control of their market. Taking them on is... upto you. I think it might be easier to the play their game.

I imagine the studios would slide you into their development team where your many programming skills are needed.

I understand that you want your game to be available, because it's your game and you deserve the whole world to rave about it. I just don't have ideas of how to make money from a product that was not requested. If you pack Invasion into Java and ship it with a cellphone then maybe I would be more enthusiastic purely because it would then have novelty power.

Incidentally, control is the reason I quit programming :P

You can look at full sizes from Invasion Gallery (http://www.ozangumus.com/gallery.html)

Full sized pics please (I want to look at the details) :)
There's full-size pics on the website.

@Ozangumus: What language was it written in? Is it easily portable to, say, Java, so that it can be played on other platforms, e.g. PDA or mobile phone? This is quite the type of application that people would pay for on their mobile phones. EDIT: Or into whatever language Symbian runs on so that it can be used on Nokia N-series phones etc.

What about facebook? Can it be turned into an application on facebook "easily"? I know facebook uses a very ... particular language, but it would give you access to a huge number of people very quickly.

Another option is packaging it as shareware and distributing it via PC gaming magazines. There's not much of a market for shareware games anymore though.

Have you looked into distributing it via Steam?

Why can't you build wood buildings?

Wood is good for building buildings!

I developed Invasion in Borland Delphi with using DelphiX (DirectX package). Not suitable for cell phones. It works in 1024*768 and all graphics and other things designed depending on this resolution.

Another option is packaging it as shareware and distributing it via PC gaming magazines. There's not much of a market for shareware games anymore though.

Have you looked into distributing it via Steam?


Yes I am thinking about this option at most. Can you give information about Steam.

Modify it so you can invade facebook groups :D

Why can't you build wood buildings?

Wood is good for building buildings!

I thought this too:) But I have to choose one.

Why do you have to choose one?

Feature creeeeeeeeep :)

Why not add squirrels?

Yes I am thinking about this option at most. Can you give information about Steam.
http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/index.php <-- I think this is the website you need...

Here's a wiki link (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_%28content_delivery%29) to what Steam is. It's basically a "content delivery" system, where users pay for a game and download it via the interface. It's kinda like iTunes.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about it, only that I've seen lots of 2D games like this available to download. And people pay for them too!

I like it!!!

You're like a young Sid Meier! :goodjob:

Thanks for all replies, I hope you will like Invasion after playing too. I will examine Steam and all similar tools/pages in order to make my game avaible for all civ-fans. I need 30 days more. Playing Invasion will be a different experiance for TBS fans.

Screenshots look nice, you should publish this game as freeware or through Steam. I think that this could become popular among hardcore Civilization/Colonization players.

One very important thing: make sure your game has been thoroughly tested and that no glaring bugs are still there. The best way to do that would be to do some sort of beta where you give the game to 30-40 people and ask them to play.
Maybe you did that already :) But if you're really serious about publishing your game, you can't afford to have a broken product.

Can people make mods for this game?

Most people who play Civ-style games have their own views on how the game should be structured. Civ games have always been pretty good at allowing the user to control that, and that creates a loyal, heavily involved fan-base (this site is living proof!). It would be great if this stuff wasn't hard-coded, and people could tinker with the rules, units, terrain, tech-trees, wonders, buildings, etc. I think that any game that seeks to be so true to the Civ series (as yours clearly is) without the ability to tinker with the inner workings will have limited appeal to Civ fans.

The flip-side of that, though, is that you can market this as being simply one massive, well designed stand-alone mod for Civilisation/Colonisation. This might be a better way to go, but only if you're willing to put it out as shareware, since I doubt people are willing to pay for a "mod", regardless of how good it is.

One thing... Your tech-trees, units, and general game concept is heavily based on Civ. Make sure you're not breaching any intellectual property laws by releasing this...

Looks very interesting. Good Job. :goodjob:

Can people make mods for this game?
One thing... Your tech-trees, units, and general game concept is heavily based on Civ. Make sure you're not breaching any intellectual property laws by releasing this...

I know this and I am of course accepting that I affected from Civ. But in some cases there is nothing you can do, for example after gunpowder is developed chemistry should be opened. This is how world come today. I could not change that kind of things. I respect to Sid Meier and Civilization but if someone tries to create some new TBS game about history of world have to pass from similar way.


Also Masquerouge, me am and my friends are heavly testing game:) This issue is important too. Because TBS games are generally so detailed so you have to be careful at testing.

First of all, Good job!! I hope this really helps you to get a place on the IT industry. I'm studying Software Engineering (Still long way to go for me), I hope I can get skilled at programming and stuff. Looking forward to try your game sometime.

One thing... Your tech-trees, units, and general game concept is heavily based on Civ. Make sure you're not breaching any intellectual property laws by releasing this...

That is what I was thinking, it does seem very ..... familiar.

Fair play all the same though.

Also Masquerouge, me am and my friends are heavly testing game

I think that you should also have couple of testers that don't know you in real life. Your friends may not reports some (minor) flaws to you, as they don't want to sound like nitpickers.

I examined all choices and I decided how to release my game.

Its demo version (which is limited till year 300 AC) will be (downloadable) 4-6 days later. I will release my game as shareware. Certainly I will have some problems with presentation/promotion. Because very low number of people knows about Invasion game. If any of you think they can help me about this problem please contact me. I will be very glad.

You can play Invasion very soon.

Well, if everyone here advertises the game in other forums people are browsing, that will help a little. At least I'll do that.

Thanks Hitti-Litti I will need that kind of help very much, I really do not care they buy or not; I want at least people will reach my game and try. Of course if I can sell much then I can continue developing new games). It becomes good but at least I want to see lots of people will download its demo.

I really worked lot for this game, making a game with only one person:) is really hard. You have to draw its arts, find sounds, create web page, promote game, most importantly wrote source code, creating dialogs, help files by yourself. Only one of my friend Mike is helping me translating it in English. Because my English is not so good. Finishing and releasing Invasion one day was my dream for last 5 years. Some computer magazines here, distributed its beta versions three years ago (but they are very old). It was my amateur project. There were lots of wrong things it was so slow, ext. Then I restarted making it with using power of DirectX. Now I am very near make my dream real. I was playing nights and days Colonization when I was 10-15 years old. I really liked that game and I wanted to reshape it.

Wow, awesome looking game! I especially dig it because I play older games all the time and like the simplicity in graphics. I hope you continue on with it to the point of completion I would definately donate to play it if you were not able to sell it. Could you add nuclear weapons though?

Looks very cool, Civ I & II were the best, IMO. Main weaknesses were stupid AI & too much of an advantage for massive building of cities.

Also, the goodie huts factor was often huge in multiplayer games (especially on small maps).

Edit : Also, are there more wonders? I only noticed one page.

Also2 : A cool bonus feature would be a super large "Earth" scenario where ALL the civilizations could play at once (20 or 30 or however many you have). Might overload the system but would be cool.

Also3 : I'll try to dig up a letter I wrote to Sid Meier back in 1995 or so with a bunch of ideas I had for Civ II (before Civ II came out), maybe you might get some ideas from it. :)

Wow, awesome looking game! I especially dig it because I play older games all the time and like the simplicity in graphics. I hope you continue on with it to the point of completion I would definately donate to play it if you were not able to sell it. Could you add nuclear weapons though?


No there is not nuclear weapons. Last and most developed unit is bomber, an air unit which becomes enabled when advanced flight is found. Maybe I can add this in next version. After one time registering you will be registered all upcoming versions of Invasion.

We all missed the simplicity in games. Some new games lost their fun, because they are very realistic and they have advanced graphics; maybe this is a big power and hardwork however we are all missing something from old games, but we do not know what it is:)

Demo will be time limited (game time) it can be played till 300AC. You can generally produce warrior, pikeman, longbowman, catapult, horseman, horse archer, swordsman and maybe caravel till this year. (Only Britions in demo) If you discover gunpowder till this date this means you play Invasion very well. It is nearly impossible.

Tip : If you want to be good at military and science you have to earn more golds(you can get from taxes and selling products produced in cities) and spend these golds for science and military in cities by increasing science and military budgets. To get more gold you have to convert cotton to cloth, tobacco to cigar, grape to wine and fur to coat in cities. For example selling 100 cotton will make you earn 4 golds but selling 100 cloth will make you earn 15 golds. To convert cotton to cloth you have to build cloth house. To build cloth house you have to produce stone firstly in at least one of city areas:)

Edit :


Edit : Also, are there more wonders? I only noticed one page.


No there are only 8 wonders. They are :
Pyramids
The Great Wall
Hanging Gardens
Colesseum
Colossus (Rodos Tower)
Cop. Observatory
Hagia Sophia
Eiffel Tower

All have different specialities like in Civ.

So, what is this game going to cost? I assume you're charging since there is a demo.

Can I have a free copy as a playtester? :please: I promise not to fileshare! http://i.pbase.com/u32/gilliantan/upload/20926978.angel2.gif

I have to try to make profit because I want to continue game developing. If I cannot earn I have to do some other job:) This is rule of life. And I believe I am good at game developing and I love doing this so it should have a cost.

But it will be very low, I think it will be about 13-15 Euros.

I have to try to make profit because I want to continue game developing. If I cannot earn I have to do some other job:) This is rule of life. And I believe I am good at game developing and I love doing this so it should have a cost.
I totally understand. And totally support anyone who's making their living doing something awesome like this instead of some crappy job! :goodjob:

But it will be very low, I think it will be about 15 Euros.
:cry: That's like 30 dollars!

To get more gold you have to convert cotton to cloth, tobacco to cigar, grape to wine and fur to coat in cities. For example selling 100 cotton will make you earn 4 golds but selling 100 cloth will make you earn 15 golds. To convert cotton to cloth you have to build cloth house. To build cloth house you have to produce stone firstly in at least one of city areas:)

Awesome idea! :goodjob:

Awesome idea! :goodjob:

it's not mine its Sid Meiers idea:)
Examine Colonization game.
I am only trying to develop that game.

I have to try to make profit because I want to continue game developing. If I cannot earn I have to do some other job:) This is rule of life. And I believe I am good at game developing and I love doing this so it should have a cost.

But it will be very low, I think it will be about 13-15 Euros.

Not to be cruell but your not getting thirteen euros for this. If you finish up the graphics you can probaly get taht much.

Wow... amazing. Touch up on graphics and text, add some nice sound effects, and you might have something really special. cubsfan is probably right, you'll struggle to sell very many for 13 Euros, I'd go for 10. Unfortunately, the wider audience just doesn't appreciate 2D gfx like they used to...

Wow... amazing. Touch up on graphics and text, add some nice sound effects, and you might have something really special. cubsfan is probably right, you'll struggle to sell very many for 13 Euros, I'd go for 10. Unfortunately, the wider audience just doesn't appreciate 2D gfx like they used to...

After you got demo everyone gives their own decision. If you do not think it worths you continue playing demo. If you like game you can buy registration key. Certainly I cannot predict how many people will like Invasion. We will all see. I am impatient to see your good or bad responses after you play.

I do look forward to the demo and if it's a good game I will purchase it. But Civ3 complete goes for around the same price so you'll be hard priced to sell many.

looks very good :D

as was said, with the graphics level you will find it hard to sell for 13euro.

personally, and im NOT a programmer, id make this a shareware.
the exposure you will get from this will let you get other jobs in.

what you can do, is:
1- leave it in demo mode, ask for registration (via EMail) for full version. you can use that database for your own advancement (when you go to a gaming company and say, "look, i have 15000 registered players for this game...." it looks GOOD! )

2- ask for donations for the full version. youd be surprised how many people will donate. assuming most players will be older ones, still digging this kind of game, we dont mind paying a bit..

3- DO TRY AND CONVERT IT into a PDA/Mobile/etc game.

my feel is go with this as a "pilot" project.
spread it around, and start using it to advance your career.

Might have been answered on the website and I missed it but is your game going to be multiplayerable?

Also, you check out my links yet? :D

Might have been answered on the website and I missed it but is your game going to be multiplayerable?

Also, you check out my links yet? :D


No Narz, it is single player.

By the way I will examine it I have limited time for now (becasue 3 days to go) but I will:)

Cool.

How is the AI? I hope it's tougher than the AI in Civ II!!

I have to try to make profit because I want to continue game developing. If I cannot earn I have to do some other job:) This is rule of life. And I believe I am good at game developing and I love doing this so it should have a cost.

But it will be very low, I think it will be about 13-15 Euros.

Probably not a very good price point. I just downloaded the orange box, which has five excellent well polished games, via steam for 39 US dollars which is a (about 29 euros).

Honestly, I commend all the effort but this game will appeal only to Hardcore TBS fans and I doubt that you could sell such a graphically obsolete game for such a high price. When I heard that you were wanting to sell, it I honestly thought of more of a price point between 1-5 dollars

How about the Wii?

Its getting a lot of software converted for it in the new Wiiware section.. that would get you MASSIVE exposure, and they are accepting all kind of games :D

Moved to All Other Games.

Cool.

How is the AI? I hope it's tougher than the AI in Civ II!!

AI is good. Be sure about this. Even I cannot win aganist hardest(level 5) most of the time:)

By the way Mulholland, you said 13 Euro is expensive, but this is not a small game like Tetris or Firecell to sell 2-3 dollars. (Also its 1-2 dollars goes to other places than me) I worked 5-6 years for this game. Ok graphics are worse than Civ3-4 but gameplay is not. And at Civ series the most important thing is always gameplay. I am not worried about people who will not buy game because graphics are bad. I did not make my game for them. I did this game for hardcore civ players.

Also demo will be long enought (till 500AC), if you did not like the graphics and do not think to buy you can enjoy yourself with long demo without paying nothing.

Only thing I noticed that could be a problem is that some of the icons listed on the website for ingame stuff are from Civ2... which is still probably owned by someone.

Only thing I noticed that could be a problem is that some of the icons listed on the website for ingame stuff are from Civ2... which is still probably owned by someone.


I repainted them. Can I ask which ones did you recognized I do not want to forget any remaining. Thanks.

I repainted them. Can I ask which ones did you recognized I do not want to forget any remaining. Thanks.

I've seen all the unit icons before on Civ sites to be used in mods, I don't know who made them.

http://www.ozangumus.com/terrains4.html
Most of those look exactly like the ones from Civ2.

And the heads of the monks and merchants in this picture too;
http://www.ozangumus.com/invasion6big.jpg

Yes, I first took 70% of unit pics from mods. Then I changed some parts of them. Any of them is not exactly same. I examined how they draw these units and tried to copy their skills. Because I am not good graphics, my real job is programming and game design. But I am trying to do my best to overcome this problem.

Kudos for completing your game! I'm more than a little envious!
If you plan to sell it, your have to make absolutely sure that you are not infringing anyone's copyrights.
This goes for the graphics, the sound, and all third party code/libraries you have used. All resources you'll find on the net should be considered copyrighted, unless the author stated otherwise. Simply using stuff you found on the net is a good way to get sued.
A lot of useful code is released under the GPL and using it requires you to publish the source code of your game. So make sure all your libraries are licensed under the LGPL at most.

Kudos for completing your game! I'm more than a little envious!
If you plan to sell it, your have to make absolutely sure that you are not infringing anyone's copyrights.
This goes for the graphics, the sound, and all third party code/libraries you have used. All resources you'll find on the net should be considered copyrighted, unless the author stated otherwise. Simply using stuff you found on the net is a good way to get sued.
A lot of useful code is released under the GPL and using it requires you to publish the source code of your game. So make sure all your libraries are licensed under the LGPL at most.

All source code is 100% mine there is no extra library, and all musics are taken from their producers with permission. I made game with licensed Delphi. And I drew most of the graphics at game myself, only I used some unit pics from mods and some productivity icons from civs and I changed them and still trying to change. PrinceScamp found all which I did not do myself:) I think he spent a really long time with all modes/versions of Civilization. I looked for a pixel artist for helping me at development stage but I could not find anyone. So I have to deal with this problem myself.

No additional libraries? It's even more impressive that you've managed to programm it all on your own then! And yeah, cheap and reliable graphic artists are very difficult to find. Even large open source projects struggle with that issue.

I'm sure you could ask some people here who would be willing to create any additional graphics you need and release them for you to use. Try the Civ2 forum here and at Apolyton.

I do like the wheat field graphic you have.

Quite impressive. Borrowing ideas and graphics doesn't matter, those things can be easily replaced and changed. The hard part is to make it all work together in a playable game.

Someone suggested making it into a PDA/mobile game. Another suggestion is to make a browser game of it, ie a game that isn't downloaded and installed but played by visiting a web page and where all data is stored on a remote server and database. Examples of such games are Ogame and Ikariam.org, but they are technically RTS, not TBS. This would require a lot of additional work though (if it's even possible to make a TBS browser game). The money could be in selling subscriptions that provides UI improvements and perhaps some minor in-game bonuses. Perhaps you could also earn some money by selling ad space.

Bleh, no more browser games. I wouldn't pay for one anyways.

Quite impressive. Borrowing ideas and graphics doesn't matter, those things can be easily replaced and changed. The hard part is to make it all work together in a playable game.

Someone suggested making it into a PDA/mobile game. Another suggestion is to make a browser game of it, ie a game that isn't downloaded and installed but played by visiting a web page and where all data is stored on a remote server and database. Examples of such games are Ogame and Ikariam.org, but they are technically RTS, not TBS. This would require a lot of additional work though (if it's even possible to make a TBS browser game). The money could be in selling subscriptions that provides UI improvements and perhaps some minor in-game bonuses. Perhaps you could also earn some money by selling ad space.

Thanks for ideas. PC games for single player have a different taste every time. I do not think people will give up playing single games at future. Examinations show that games are playing currently are 70% single games. But different ideas of course can be ok. I can develop Invasion in the future too but first option is making again single player. I think TBS is best when you are only human at game:) But game should make you do not feel that loneliness with good diplomacy part.

At last all finished. I uploaded trial version to RapidShare and FileFront


You can download trial version of Invasion Turn Based Strategy Game v0.1 from

RapidShare (23.3 MBs)
http://rapidshare.com/files/120746012/InvasionSetupv01.exe.html

FileFront (23.3 MBs)
http://hosted.filefront.com/ozangumus



If you downloaded game yesterday please download again. There were some problems at sounds and enterance menu.
And please give feedback about game.

I am very impressed by the demo so far. From my first 20 minutes of play time, one thing I noticed that bugged me. When I gave a unit a command to move some tiles away, I had no way to cancel it later.

Thanks MrPopov,

I think you gave an order to your current unit to far cells - not neighboor cell For example

XOOOO
OOOOO
OOOOO
OOOOY

You are trying to move your unit from X to Y, you need to click unit and hold mouse and release it at point Y to give a move order.

To stop it anytime(at next turns, because that turn he is tired after now you cannot select) you have to right click it before turn comes to him and select his name from box will be opened. But you say right you cannot stop if only unit is this unit I will take care of that problem. Thanks for your valuable feedback.

Also for more details about game press F1 and open Invasiopedia. (I think you already know this)

Invasion's version 0.2 is released. Bugs are cleared which occured at first version with helps of reports of players. Also new colonization-like musics and specialities are added.

You can download that version from Invasion Web Page (http://www.ozangumus.com/demo.html). If you see any bug again, please report here.

I liked the game its entertaining but there are some problems, I couldn't activate a unit once it is set to defend a city with key "F". I tried clicking on it from the city and it didn't work. Can anybody help me at this point :confused:

I liked the game its entertaining but there are some problems, I couldn't activate a unit once it is set to defend a city with key "F". I tried clicking on it from the city and it didn't work. Can anybody help me at this point :confused:

You can activate any fortified unit with right clicking with mouse on the cell that unit stands, and selecting that unit from menu which is opened after your right click. Or if this unit is only unit in that cell you can directly left click and activate it if there is no city in that cell.

Also Invasion V03 is released with new additions.

You can download from Invasion V03 from my signature.

New additions :
(1) Flags for cities,
(2) News and Information about that tech is given after new technologies are discovered,
(3) Centralized +1 food (I could not add stone, I think stone have to be collected from city areas in any case.)
(4) War bug corrected, (AI was winning more).
(5) Some annoying musics are replaced.

Nearly 1 month later (October 2008) Invasion's V0.4 will be avaible with better graphics. Before that day and before Civ 4:Colonization is released (23 September 2008) if anyone still did not tried Invasion, give Invasion a change. I am still waiting feedbacks about Invasion of old Colonization fans...

Invasion = Civilization + Colonization

You might also consider distribution through Stardock(tm). They are very popular since they do not believe in DRM(which is also less work for you). This popularity is doubly true among indie-gamers, which would likely be an interested player group who isn't normally on CFC and other Civ sites. 13 euros is still high, but 5-10 with a polished product wouldn't be terrible. You seem talented enough that you could go the way of Introversion Software.

I had an odd bug occur;

I just captured a city and my treasury(started at 69 gold) went to -1001 gold. Of course this kind of ruined my entire game, after which it CTD.

I had an odd bug occur;

I just captured a city and my treasury(started at 69 gold) went to -1001 gold. Of course this kind of ruined my entire game, after which it CTD.


Thanks for bug report.

Which year (game year) this bug happened? Can you send me save file of your game to ozangumus@gmail.com?

Its in one of these that were in the SAve folder. 850AC Britons. The autosave.

I had an odd bug occur;

I just captured a city and my treasury(started at 69 gold) went to -1001 gold. Of course this kind of ruined my entire game, after which it CTD.


I examined your save file shwick...

This is not a bug. This was a protection system for cracking. I was not expecting some special cases in demo version like finding a developed science like "Democracy". Because demo is limited until 1000AC. But you played game well and find that science before demo end (850AC) without any crack vs. So game protected its self and reduced your gold to -1001.

I will try to save your file and place here later. Thanks for files and information...

Here is your new save file with your old gold is returned and next founding science is switched to Invention. Copy this file under your Save directory. It will not be at autosave slot, it will be at save slot 5. Good luck!

Using that save game I got another weird gold bug. After taking the city of Pompei my gold went to -862 gold. Also I had a CTD once the AI's turns were being calculated.

Using that save game I got another weird gold bug. After taking the city of Pompei my gold went to -862 gold. Also I had a CTD once the AI's turns were being calculated.

It again caused because of "discovery of Democracy science". I changed your currently working on science to Invention to prevent these "crack protections" but Democracy remained as founded. I changed founded variable of Democracy to false now. You can play this time but you are very near to Demo end.

Also CTDs are also happening because of same protection system. I will fix that problem too in Version4 which I am currently working on. Players who bought serial key will have not to do anything extra to pass V4. Key will work on all versions.

You can continue your game for last 3-4 turns until demo end with this new slot5.

Also I want to ask a question, does musics are annoying in the game? I used old midi files to catch old Colonization spirit, and can change to better mp3s if these midis are annoying.

If these are just caused by not having a serial key, I'll buy one in the next few days. Will wait until I have a few free hours to play through.

On the music: As long as its easy to adjust volume, its not too annoying. I would try to make it so players could also add their own music in the appropriate format.

I really wish the right-click help system would return. It isn't necessary, but really helps in learning stats and terrain stats for newbies.

Question: Why can't settlers and covered wagons be converted into population?

I just got the serial key and started playing through some more. Ran into another strange bug. Every time I try to enter a city, either through the message glyphs or by clicking on them; I get a floating point error. Here is the save.

Same error happened on another game I was playing. Here is the save:

I found an important bug. I am solving it. I will inform you after I solve this error. You can be sure that I will overcome this problem in 24 hours, so you can continue your games.

Thanks for your helps, registration and feedbacks.


On the music: As long as its easy to adjust volume, its not too annoying. I would try to make it so players could also add their own music in the appropriate format.

I want to change volumes of musics in game. But I could not find a tool for decreasing volumes of midi files and saving them again. I am not good at musics. And I have less info in that area. I only want to decrease volume of musics not sound effects. If I add volume adjustment volume of all sounds will change.


I really wish the right-click help system would return. It isn't necessary, but really helps in learning stats and terrain stats for newbies.

I can add this feature in V04 or V05. I think you are right.


Question: Why can't settlers and covered wagons be converted into population?

Because some players can transport their settlers from one city to another by this feature. And this can cause unfair situation because city population grows faster when current population of city is lower than 6. So players can carry their villagers from small cities to bigger cities and they can speed up population growth. This is not an desired situation and can effect game play negatively.

http://www.soccerforecast.com/inv.png

I corrected bug which you had found. I will upload new version of Invasion V04 tomorrow night.
And you can continue your game without that bug after tomorrow. I need to work on some more stuff before uploading new version.

Like you see in screenshot after solving bug I added feature you offered.
-Right clicking and getting production info about that area-

Also coast graphics are better in Version 04. But I need an illistrator for better graphics. I am only programmer.

I want to change volumes of musics in game. But I could not find a tool for decreasing volumes of midi files and saving them again. I am not good at musics. And I have less info in that area. I only want to decrease volume of musics not sound effects. If I add volume adjustment volume of all sounds will change.

I know that OpenTTD has a decent midi player application attached to it. Since OTTD is under a GPL distribution, you may be able to use the integrate the midi-player without legal trouble.

Because some players can transport their settlers from one city to another by this feature. And this can cause unfair situation because city population grows faster when current population of city is lower than 6. So players can carry their villagers from small cities to bigger cities and they can speed up population growth. This is not an desired situation and can effect game play negatively.

Very true. In the original Civilization series their existed a rule limiting the maximum size city that could receive a population from a settler. However even this may not be very balanced. Either way the conservative approach is not really a problem.

I corrected bug which you had found. I will upload new version of Invasion V04 tomorrow night.
And you can continue your game without that bug after tomorrow. I need to work on some more stuff before uploading new version.

Like you see in screenshot after solving bug I added feature you offered.
-Right clicking and getting production info about that area-

You're awesome dude. Help feature looks right on as well.

I gave it a quick spin, and encountered a bug that appears to have something to do with the music. Suddenly an error message popped up, and said, something about "file not found or missing". It froze for a second and then the music started playing. Sorry, but it didn't occur to me to take a screenshot or write down the excact message.

Just posting to let you know that all the large versions of images on the fourth image gallery page in Invasion site seem to be missing...

I gave it a quick spin, and encountered a bug that appears to have something to do with the music. Suddenly an error message popped up, and said, something about "file not found or missing". It froze for a second and then the music started playing. Sorry, but it didn't occur to me to take a screenshot or write down the excact message.

Thanks Rheinmetall, I found and resolved this bug. That happened because a music was missed while uploading latest version.

Just posting to let you know that all the large versions of images on the fourth image gallery page in Invasion site seem to be missing...

Thanks for notice Toni, I already know that, this happened because I spent my all area for web page, I will prepair new gallery in one week with V04's screenshots.

Another bug found.

I found my first city, and used the drag move for my first warrior, the unit moved two squares. He ran into a native village, and the appropriate dialog windows opened. I passed them and got ritualism, presumably from the natives. Then nothing happened. I tried clicking everything, but only the menu worked. When I clicked "exit" it said I couldn't exit the game while selecting next technology and only after that the science dialog box appeared.

This one is quite similar to the last one. I had Fraps on and managed to get screenshots of it.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion%202008-09-14%2013-25-24-46.png
I ran into the natives in my second turn.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion%202008-09-14%2013-25-31-46.png
So far it looks normal.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion%202008-09-14%2013-25-35-46.png
I don't know what quirk this is, but it always happens.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion%202008-09-14%2013-25-56-29.png
Here's the thing: The game is stuck into the Natives turn.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion%202008-09-14%2013-26-10-54.png
I can click into the dark and, if I hit a native village, I can see what's in it.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion%202008-09-14%2013-26-22-37.png
After exiting the city screen, it again presents this.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion%202008-09-14%2013-26-31-46.png
And then returns to normal.

Thanks for bug-report. I corrected empty dialog box error which happens before selecting next science (at first science). Can you download Invaison V04 again and try again. I hope it will not happen again.

Also I will examine your other bug about stucking in native turn this evening.

I just discovered the drag movement feature. Very useful for ships. But it also led me to an interesting bug;

If you transported troops in a ship then let them off, they still have the S next to their names. This is true even on shore. Even more interestingly, they will follow the same movements as the ship if it auto-moves. This is independent of where they are on land. A soldier that was one square away from the ship, even walked on water to try and reach it.

Here is the save-game a couple of turns later. Even after fortifying the unit, the S is still there.

I just discovered the drag movement feature. Very useful for ships. But it also led me to an interesting bug;

If you transported troops in a ship then let them off, they still have the S next to their names. This is true even on shore. Even more interestingly, they will follow the same movements as the ship if it auto-moves. This is independent of where they are on land. A soldier that was one square away from the ship, even walked on water to try and reach it.

Here is the save-game a couple of turns later. Even after fortifying the unit, the S is still there.

Can you give your save file again, I can solve this problem by examining. - ok sorry, I got it, in the meantime you placed save file.

I managed to repeat the bug, but this time I got stuck into the Aztecs turn. Like with the natives I was able to click in their cities in the dark and click on their units and activate them, but didn't seem to be able to give them orders. As I clicked from one unit to another the Aztech turn progress bar progressed for every unit I clicked through. The most fatal thing was, that when I was looking inside their city, I was able to mess with the production too. Like changing production orders, demolishing an unfinished build, making a settler and sell produced goods. After closing the city screen, the turn seems to progress normally to it's end. I don't have a clue yet what triggers it, but will keep trying.

Nearly 1 month later (October 2008) Invasion's V0.4 will be avaible with better graphics. Before that day and before Civ 4:Colonization is released (23 September 2008) if anyone still did not tried Invasion, give Invasion a change. I am still waiting feedbacks about Invasion of old Colonization fans...

Invasion = Civilization + Colonization

Release that graphics upgrade as soon as possible, since using lots of Civ2 graphics assets (as seen in screenshots) in commercial product can get you in lot of legal trouble.

Well it looks like a few of us are playing/testing at this point. Maybe we could start discussing strategy, etc.

City Sites:
Here are some criteria I use for choosing new city sites. I am curious how you guys choose.
At 30 gold a pop, founding cities is expensive. This was probably an excellent design decision since now the utility of ICS has been nerfed.
I usually demand a stone site of some kind so only 1-2 citizens are required for buildings to be completed in a timely fashion. Of course after The Wheel, roads will allow any open terrain to produce 5 stone. This means that settling by mountains may only be required in the early game. Anyone else consider settling completely in open ground, and why?
I also usually try to find a heavy food square, but what is the value of that food square versus bonus collection sqaures?

Release that graphics upgrade as soon as possible, since using lots of Civ2 graphics assets (as seen in screenshots) in commercial product can get you in lot of legal trouble.

Most of them is already changed and still changes. I did not used any graphics directly from Civ2. I modified very very much or I used graph from a mod of Civ2 and still modified very much. Sometimes I get permission. Be sure that I am earning less then I deserved after 6 years of working. I do not feel that I am doing something wrong while using 10% of graphics at my game from other sources with modifying. My oppornities are/were very limited. I want to create something for people to play. Also do not forget that I did this project when I was a high school and college student. Also I am still changing graphics. Thanks for advice.

Yes, I see some of the graphics is from Civ2 mods (including some just slighty modified original models, for example recolored Tank)

Still, just using slightly modified assets is a bit gray area regarding Intellectual Property area so be carelful. Best to use as much of original graphics as possibile. At least for final version.

I just discovered the drag movement feature. Very useful for ships. But it also led me to an interesting bug;

If you transported troops in a ship then let them off, they still have the S next to their names. This is true even on shore. Even more interestingly, they will follow the same movements as the ship if it auto-moves. This is independent of where they are on land. A soldier that was one square away from the ship, even walked on water to try and reach it.

Here is the save-game a couple of turns later. Even after fortifying the unit, the S is still there.


I resolved that bug :D I also find one another while examining your (sir_schwick) file. Try to activate (by selecting from list opened after right click on ship) and send a non-sailing unit to a sea area while that unit is on a ship. And resolved that bug too.

Now I will work on Rheinmetall's bug but I need his screenshots to find occurrance point of that bug. I sent a pm to you (Rheinmetall), please can you send your screenshots to my mail adress.

I will upload new Invasion without these bugs after resolving Rheinmetal's bug. I think tomorrow night it will be resolved.

I resolved that bug :D I also find one another while examining your (sir_schwick) file. Try to activate (by selecting from list opened after right click on ship) and send a non-sailing unit to a sea area while that unit is on a ship. And resolved that bug too.

Now I will work on Rheinmetall's bug but I need his screenshots to find occurrance point of that bug. I sent a pm to you (Rheinmetall), please can you send your screenshots to my mail adress.

I will upload new Invasion without these bugs after resolving Rheinmetal's bug. I think tomorrow night it will be resolved.

If I can recreate the bug I will try to save the game on the enemy turn if possible and send it to you. I will send you the screenshots shortly.



[Edit]

Here's a tank you can use to replace the old one. If it looks too modern, I can do another one.
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/tankT.png
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/tankA.png

Thanks for tank picture and screenshots. I will change tank picture in game with yours. I could not repeated your situation at my computer. So I cannot understand what triggers it and I cannot solve it. If somehow you find a save file before this bug happens I will probably solve it. I need a save file which saved one turn BEFORE bug happens. If this error happens again please shut your game up at that minute without saving and send me slot7.txt (autosaved game one turn before) after shutting game down.

This looks like a bug to me. It wouldn't let me build a city into the square I marked with red. Instead it said it was too close to map edge, but to my knowledge it isn't.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion_cbc.png

else if not CanBuildCity(player[currentPlayer].units[currentUnit].x,
player[currentPlayer].units[currentUnit].y) and
not player[currentPlayer].controlledByAI then
BEGIN
ShowMessage('A city cannot be built if ' +
'there is another city within 2 squares.');

result:=false;

Exit;
END
[bug] else if not player[currentPlayer].numberOfOwnCities = 6 then
BEGIN
ShowMessage('Any civilization cannot build more than 6 cities, ' +
'to increase number of cities you owned after now, you should ' +
'capture cities of other civilizations.');

result:=false;

Exit;
END
else if not player[currentPlayer].controlledByAI then
BEGIN
ShowMessage('You can not build city to a square which lies in ' +
'lowest or uppest two cordinates of map.');

result:=false;

Exit;
END

************************************************** **

the line start with bug should be

else if player[currentPlayer].numberOfOwnCities = 6 then

I corrected that bug thanks. You cannot build new city because you have 6 (self built) cities. Game limits self built cities with 6. If you have 8 cities and you built 5 of them and captured 3 you can build one more city. But you cannot build 7 (self built) city. You have to capture cities of other players after 6th city to enlarge.

In the bug you cannot built new city but you get wrong message.

I am still trying but cannot stucking in AI's turn. How did you do that:)

Yet another bug.

First the vikings demanded 4 gold, I agreed, but I couldn't pay because I had only 2 gold left. The game said I didn't have enough gold, so it failed. Then I rejected to pay, and they declared a war.

Instantly the Vikings demanded 4 gold again. I Agreed, knowing I did not have enough gold. The game said I didn't have enough, so I chose to reject. They declared war.

But on the next turn the Vikings again wanted 4 gold. I agreed, but the game said I didn't have enough gold, but as you can see from the second screenshot I did have 14. I agreed again, but it didn't work so I had to reject. They declared a war on me, and then demanded 4 gold again. I agreed, but again it complained about not having enough gold. I rejected, and they declared war. You can probably guess that they demanded 4 gold AGAIN. I rejected and they declared war. Soon after this the game crashed with access violation error, and I had to kill it via task manager.

Here are the screenshots, and the savegames.

http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion_bug/Invasion%202008-09-16%2019-36-35-00.png
http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion_bug/Invasion%202008-09-16%2019-38-18-43.png

Slot1.txt (http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion_bug/Slot1.txt)
Slot2.txt (http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion_bug/Slot2.txt)
Slot3.txt (http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion_bug/Slot3.txt)
Slot4.txt (http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion_bug/Slot4.txt)
Slot5.txt (http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion_bug/Slot5.txt)
Slot6.txt (http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion_bug/Slot6.txt)
Slot7.txt (http://koti.mbnet.fi/jatt/Invasion_bug/Slot7.txt)

I resolved your last bug Rheinmetall and uploaded corrected Invasion to www.ozangumus.com/demo.html thanks for your bug report.

Please add save file (especially one turn before one, autosave) when you find an error like last bug report. This makes resolving bug easier. To make this when you see an error close program with alt f4 and send last autosave save file.

I also resolved sir_schwick's shipping/sailing land unit bug. Load bug-free version from Invasion's page. (Do not forget to save your old save files to one another place before installing new Invasion.)

Edit : Also if there is any illistrator/artist who can draw colorful pictures of leader's every civilization. It becomes great! For now I only have one leader picture without any colors. (You can see that bad non-colored leader drawing at upper screenshots.)

Ok couple small things.

It is possible to build farms in the city square after the city has been built, by pressing the hotkey "C". It gives the food production bonus aswell. I think it's an exploit and should be fixed.

Also in one game the natives demanded that I give them tech. I Alt tabbed out of the game to start fraps but I couldn't get back into the game anymore. So no screenshots or savegames.

Also if your only unit is on a goto order, and a tech finishes, you cannot change the tech until the unit has finished it's goto order. If you have a 6 square goto on the unit and a tech finishes on the second, you will lose 4 turns of research until the unit has finished moving, since you cannot stop it.

Managed to invent democracy for the first time before the trial ended. Way before. I ususally pick city sites that have atleast one stone producing tile next to them. Preferably two. I've also tried to specialize the cities science/production/military way. Monarchy is real killer of the treasury if you have a large military. I also tent to go to war as soon as I have something resembling a military, but I don't think that's going to work on the harder difficulty levels.

Also a small bug:

When you find a new resource by clearing a forest, the game announces a wrong city name.

Found another bug:

I destroyed a native village because they declared war on me. They were in a good spot so I built a city on top. It appears I am cursed with feeding their ghosts. The city demands 12 food a turn, although there is only the one citizen.



I also have discovered a trend/pattern that probably needs resolving;

Over the course of a few games my best strategy was building barracks in all cities ASAP. Basically I would try to accumulate as many troops as possible. Would usually wait until I had a few processed goods industries set up before going to Monarchy. However that always meant I had plenty of HA and possibly Swordsmen. Creating new units quickly is fairly inexpensive and requires only two population and 250 stone and 1 gpt per military city.

My personal suggestion to curb this effect would be the addition of military equipment products and industries. A-la Colonization, you would create more advanced units by giving them better equipment. And of course manufacturing this equipment(including Horses) would require manpower and structures. Maybe requiring some of the processed goods for interesting variations of the primary unit would also create a Money vs. Military choice.

Building Universities reduces overall science output. In my 90+ morale cities, with two Teachers and a Library with 1 gold investment, I would get 10.2 science. Once the University was completed it dropped to 8.3.

I was really enjoying development on this game, where did Ozangamus go?

I was wondering the same thing.

I am here friends,

Only cannot find enought time, working on several projects currently. And I could not make advertisement of Invasion enought. Most of TBS players still dion't aware of this project. I do not know what to do next.

Anyway I will continue development soon. Thanks for your care.

Only cannot find enought time, working on several projects currently. And I could not make advertisement of Invasion enought. Most of TBS players still dion't aware of this project. I do not know what to do next.

Other projects? If any are potentially public, you should put links on your website. I'm always curious.

I wish I could help more with getting the word out. I did read the Apolyton thread and agree with them about moddability. There is virtually no other game(open-source or not) using a Colonization-style economy that is moddable. In addition, your coding skills seem pretty good so you could still easily compete in terms of functionality and power. Most of the people interested in creating scenarios and TCs using your engine will remember the text-file editing from CivII, so for now modding tools would not need to be robust either. Just text files that run the products that can be produced, how they relate to buildings, how they relate to terrain, how they relate to units, and possibly how they relate to other things(like cities/research/etc). For bonus all the files that hold the graphics in an easily moddable form(like CivII). Have these things and many scenario designers would be really happy. Might help for advertising, definitely make you a cult favorite among scenario designers, who I feel are important to TBS communities.

PS: Happy Solstice, Festivus, Chanukah, Kwanza, Christmas, ...whatever you celebrate. You too Rheinmetal.

Nice to see you're still around. Good luck with your projects.

This looks interesting, depending if I try to drive 70kms in the snow or not today I may give it a look.

^ If he likes it, there's all the advertisement you need! I've purchased and enjoyed many games on PrinceScamp's recomendation.

I DL demo to give it a try...

^ If he likes it, there's all the advertisement you need! I've purchased and enjoyed many games on PrinceScamp's recomendation.

O_o thanks.

However I never did end up checking this out.

Interesting game, but also unplayable because of bugs. When I enter by any unit square with paper with question mark there game loops, so every turn I get gold from this square, but also other units do not want to move after that where they had to, but they return to square where they moved from.

Interesting game, but also unplayable because of bugs. When I enter by any unit square with paper with question mark there game loops, so every turn I get gold from this square, but also other units do not want to move after that where they had to, but they return to square where they moved from.

Thanks, sorry for late answer I was at military obligation for 6 months which is a must here.

Can you send/attach/upload your savegame file (you can find it under save directory) then I can fix the problem.