Another tip regarding new games I have to make is World Supremacy by Malfador Machinations (developers of the Space Empires series). It’s a great turn based light strategy game where you simply have to conquer the world (no diplomacy or stuff like that). It’s distributed by Shrapnel Games (who also sell Weird Worlds). Have tried this out as soon as it came out and it’s great. But don’t expect good graphics, the game looks very 90s-like.
Here’s the link to the game page at Shrapnel Games: shrapnelgames.com/Malfador_M … _page.html
Hmm, I gotta warn you of this game. Please don’t listen to the first post. It seemed great at first, played through some nights, but it’s totally unfinished yet, more like a beta than a finished game. It has one of the worst AI’s I ever saw in a turn based strategy game, and is the units are severely unbalanced. So, either wait some time until they fixed it, or just try the demo. Don’t buy the game! It’s much to expensive for the product you get.
Hey, gotta warn you: Don’t buy this game. If I could change the title of the thread, I’ d do so. It absolutely lacks support from the developers and publishers, and has one of the worst AIs ever (although improved a little bit in the last patch), so it’s no fun in single player. Only try this when you want to play it in multiplayer, and DON’T BUY THE GAME WITHOUT TRYING THE DEMO! You won’t get a refund from the publishers when you’ve bought it, absolutely no way, it’s their official policy. Please listen to my warning, guys. If they’d finally get on fixing it’s problems, it could be a fun game though, but until them, consider it unfinished!
I have one other addition here: I’ve been really busy in the forums of World Supremacy, and more threads have been closed down. My new tactic: Try to rally more support for the game.
The following request goes out to all modders here in this forum:
Please check out the demo, it’s already fully moddable. What we really need is to form a bigger community again instead of just complaining on and on. So, please visit the following page, check out the demo, and if you’ve been active modders here, the following info might be useful for you:
All unit pictures, all terrain tiles, all research items, every territory name, all sound effects, and all effects themselves in World Supremacy, are in fact easily moddable via simple text files:
Effects.txt
GameSettings.txt
HelpText.txt
MainFonts.txt
MapTypes.txt
NationNames.txt
PlayerNames.txt
RegionNames.txt
SoundEffects.txt
Technology.txt
Terrain_Tiles.txt
Terrain_Tiles.txt
The files you need for changing any settings, graphics etc. are located in
…\World Supremacy Demo\GameTypes\Standard\data
These are the exact same files as in my full version. I think the demo is only restricted in turns you are able to play and in number of players etc.
So, please take a closer look at the demo again, if you don’t want to buy the game.
All image files can be replaced by own files, and in the text files links to these different pictures can be specified, so the look is completely moddable, plus all unit capabilities. I think you could turn it into a fantasy or sci fi game if you wanted. Seems you can also change the placement and amount of starting forces. You see, there hasn’t been much modding activity. The only mods that came out were some simple mods that changed unit values, prices or single pictures (for example a different picture for tech level 1, 2 and 3 tanks).
But the possibilities are MUCH higher.
We need to resume creating mods for this game, so all people who have experience with this, please check your full version or the demo.
BUT, I think the AI can only be fixed by Malfador Machinations.
Sorry, there actually is a contradiction in the last post. It is as I’ve stated. He simply decided the game doesn’t need anymore patches after the last patch, and stated he’s only willing to give up this opinion when he receives bug reports over the official Shrapnel bug report support ticket system. That’s how it actually is. That means, he wants to get proof that there’s still a demand for further patches, and he only accepts official Shrapnel support tickets as proof. Plus, he’s simply ignored all bug reports made in the forums after the patch FOR TWO MONTHS.
Look there, if you want to know more:
forum.shrapnelgames.com/showthread.php?p=781435
Please, since you don’t have any experience with this game yet, just check it out.
I think, given the modders to support, it could me made into a land based counterpart to the Space Empires empires series like Gratutious Tank Battles will probably become a land based counterpart to GSB if modded.
You see, one of Malfador’s biggest failures in this game was: They couldn’t attract Space Empires fans to this game, IE the people who already have experience modding Malfador’s games (because Space Empire, especially Space Empires IV, was a game that relied heavily on modding, IE it was very bland in the beginning, but became MUCH more after being modded by the fans). This is why I’m also trying to rally support in the Space Empires forums.
One thing I wanna add: I was absolutely amazed when I looked at the mod compilation thread here about a month ago, driven there by Cliffski’s blog entry where he featured the Classic Dreadnoughts mod. I had lost interest in GSB because I wasn’t able to play the online campaign (hadn’t bough it, have no permanent internet connection), and it was great seeing EXTREMELY MUCH additional content usable for offline play here.
I want similar things to happen to World Supremacy. Just remember, it could easily be modded into a Sci Fi game, in fact one of the reviewers in one of the first reviews of the game I saw stated he’d like to see a Star Wars mod.
OK, another update: The forums are quite dead, all my efforts to get some people interested in this game in other forums (like this one) were fruitless, Malfador Machinations, the developers, keep silent. Shrapnel are starting to get annoyed by my support requests or simply ignore them.
Shitty situation. I can only state: Shrapnel is the worst Indie strategy game publisher in respect to the community (treatment of customers) I’ve ever encountered, and Malfador seem to be a bunch of lazy asses. I think they weren’t even interested in finishing this game in the first place, don’t know why. I’m sick of being the only person still interested in the game.
One more update: More closed down threads, banned users, and additionally the creator of the game refusing to support it any more and refusing to work together with us. I’m still trying to get more people to join the discussion in the forums and to try out the game, but I guess it’s useless. A shame since I put much time into the forum, tried posting about it in other forums etc., and I still think it could be pretty great with some improvements. But if the game designer himself isn’t really willing to improve his own product, I guess it’s no use trying to rebuild the community. It’s a shame things developed this way, and Shrapnel (the publisher) take a large part of the guilt for this affair, because they suppressed all attempts of criticism in the forums by simply banning the guys criticising them, closing forum threads etc. A pretty fascist forum, some of the worst treatment of customers I’ve ever experienced. After all I paid for this game. I have every right to criticize them.