2014-08-07 08:55:45

Moderation!

Sinse this is a new version of the game for people to download, the topic might as well be moved to new releases, after all we have other topics there about updates and new versions too.

Much as I like swamp, castaways is likely what I've been most looking forward to seeing updated. I never actually got how people could be interested in these sort of stratogy games until I played castaways sinse my only experience was the browser games like ateraeon or 1000 Ad, which always work on a very static model of just minimaxing all statistics and then beating other players which always seemed dull to me, something however like castaways where you need to reacg to what happens progressively as well as plan for your stratogy is awsome, and I can't wait to see more in the future, indeed as I said, the more complexity the better!

So, great news on the updates.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2014-08-07 09:58:57

Awesom update, I'll check it in my free time.

2014-08-07 10:17:41

Sorry to hear about your lost game Mr. Jones.  tongue

The hardest part for sighted players to grasp in Castaways, was the method for cycling between jobs and your citizens, so now there is some artwork to help with that a bit.  It is just a small section floating in the top-right corner that shows the currently selected job type (like showing all Builders), the selected person (Bob), and the person's current job (which is usually the same as the filter you've selected, but not always).  There is a small graphic which also indicates the age (child or adult) and race of the selected person.  It's not really a big game changer or anything, but I do believe it will make the game much easier for sighted players to first pick up and learn.

Pelantas, development for Castaways did indeed stop, but I have a bad habit of changing my mind about stuff.  Haha.  I originally started working a bit on Castaways so I could change it over to using the new Kaldobsky gamer accounts for multiplayer, but in the process I got a bit carried away and added other things.  Actually I've been doing a bit more work on the RPG lately, and the story has been bothering me.  There was just too large of a gap between the events where Castaways ends and the beginning of the RPG.  I had been trying to figure out ways to fill players in on everything that happened in between the 2 games, like splitting it up among NPCs or starting the game with a long intro story, but neither option seemed right.  By adding these 2 new missions to Castaways, I was able to stretch the story so that it will flow nicely into the next game in the series.  I also added the challenge map feature, but I'll go more into that in a minute.

Thanks for moving the topic Dark.  I'm glad you enjoy the game, and I'd say you're probably responsible for a lot of people trying the game since you do bring it up often in other topics.  smile  I wish you luck battling your way through the 2 new missions good sir.

No Aprone update is complete without another update to fix bugs from the first update, and this update is no exception!  big_smile  Yay!
After getting home from work I realized that the Z key was not listing resources during mission 7 (due to a typo), so I've uploaded 2.7b to fix that.

Now for that recorded challenge map part.  Well actually, on second thought, I'll make it into its own thread in the morning.  I'm starting to fall asleep at the keyboard.  smile  To leave you with a super short summary, it's going to be a contest with prizes.  If you're feeling rusty at Castaways or haven't really played it before, now might be a good time to start warming up.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
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2014-08-07 10:43:08

Sounds awsome. I actually think Castaways in a lot of ways does as much new in audio game terms as Swamp, sinse it's certainly the first single player stratogy based equally on civilization building as combat, and of course it has the events and civilian disasters to keep matters interesting.

This is why I mention it in other threads. I'd also be very interested in seeing things expanded into a full complex civilization style development and management game, indeed the further and more complex things go the better as far as I'm concerned, though as rpgs are also obviously something I'm highly interested in I can't complain too much if that's the next project :d.

You could also considder adding Lunimals to the Kaldobski account system, sinse it already has an awards system, challenge mode and other features that would work well with online play, and having a community of luna dome owners bragging about their biomes, showing off their earned trophies and maybe even trading animals or resources would fit righ in with the game's plot, ---- though if your too busy with other things fare enough.

Sadly my playing of castaways will have to wait a little as we're going through a run of really good games at the moment and I'm deep into paladin of the sky, I also had to leave my swamp playing for the same reason.

With our dreaming and singing, Ceaseless and sorrowless we! The glory about us clinging Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing; O men! It must ever be
That we dwell in our dreaming and singing, A little apart from ye. (Arthur O'Shaughnessy 1873.)

2014-08-07 11:04:46

Very good point about the new games.  I've been sort of away for the past few weeks, and I'm now reading up on a lot of new games that popped up out of nowhere!  Very exciting!

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2014-08-07 11:39:49

hi,

nice idea dark about also porting lunimals to the kaldobsky account. it will be awsome to talk with other people from the community about wich trophies you have. and also trading animals with others. and as you mansioned resources.
it aren't the biggest games like swamp but it is great fun to also have lunimals included with multiplayer on a kaldobsky account.

great idea dark!

big_smile

greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
https://www.retro-kingdom.com

2014-08-07 11:52:34

hey aprone, just played through  the recorded score mission. It's really hard, because the map is so small that the goblins surround me and I have like 12 squares to work with by the time my barracks is built. I would have built it earlier except that you start with just enough resources to get a tavern and a sawmill and a quarry built up, and then you have to worry about food. So by the time you are ready to build a mine and a forge the goblins have already advanced like 3 squares and once they are done they've advanced like 5 squares, then by the time you've created enough metal bars, they've moved another 2 squares. And by that time, it's basically too late, no matter what you do. I was able to train up 3 knights, but they just couldn't deal with all of the goblins on all of the squares, because there were so many. I think the best sollution is to make 16 by 16 like map 1 was. Those cramped quarters are probably the biggest issue for me.
Oh also, if you hit shift-g in the recorded score mision it tells you there are zombies, when it's really goblins.
Really nice work though, I like the aesthetic changes a lot.

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This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
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2014-08-07 12:57:31

hi

@aprone

i just started playing the sandbox wich is my personal favorite on multiplayer mode. i am very sure i downloaded version 2.7b but it tells me that i am not running the same version as the server. is this perhaps a typo?

hope to hear from you soon. and to hear of course if other people encounter the same.

greetz mike

Visit the following website to see what games we have:
http://www.nonvisiongames.com
Or the following English marketplace to see what retrogames and game merchandise I am selling:
https://www.retro-kingdom.com

2014-08-07 15:52:47

Hi Aprone

Awsom, even checkup made it in ... <smile>
One small issue: multiplayer seems to be doing weird things since I can't connect to the server, even though I have the latest version. (surprised look on my face)

Cheerio

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My folding at home statistics

2014-08-07 16:41:07

Oh thanks for the heads up guys, I had forgotten to update the server to the newest version.

KeyIsFull, walls are definitely your friend during the challenge map.  I had to restart that one quite a few times before I got the hang of how to get my base started so that I could hold back the goblins.  I ended up still getting overrun, while my 9 knights battled valiantly, but that was due to a mistake I made in building placement.  If I hadn't made that single stupid mistake, I'm pretty sure I'd have survived until the 10000 tick mark.  So there are ways to survive, once you've had enough time to plan out a strategy.

Also thanks for spotting that Shift-G bug.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2014-08-07 17:58:24

The contest details have been posted in a new topic.  Here is the link:
http://forum.audiogames.net/viewtopic.p … 38#p184038

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2014-08-08 03:50:33

grr, I've tried 2 more times on the challenge map and it's really really hard. I barely have enough time to build a single wall before the goblins advance another square, and they seem to take up every square surrounding the one they advanced from which seems kind of overpowered especially because I don't think they advance that way normally. Or maybe they only advance 1 square each  cycle when playing on the easy level, I don't remember. and then there's so little room to build stuff because the map is so tiny. I have no idea how you managed to pull an actually good save out of this map Aprone. If anyone wants to see the difficulties I had, check out this save file
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8252087/crap_save
if anyone has a better plan of attack than what I was doing let me know. It took me like 3000 tick sto even have a barracks up. Is that a sign of me doing something wrong?

I like to sleep, Sleep is good,
This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
Follow @TheGreatAthlon5 on twitter for humorous facts and game updates!
If you like my posts, thumb me up!

2014-08-10 20:26:34

Since the forum was down I couldn't post this sooner.  A couple of bugs were brought to my attention, which could corrupt save game files for the contest!  I have posted a patch that fixes those, and also it slightly slows down the advancement speed of the Goblins (just for you Key).  big_smile

I hate posting a new update that might require some people to start over on the challenge, but I'd hate it even more if someone put in a lot of hard work and their save file got corrupted!

Key, the strategy I was using was to get my tavern, saw mill, and quarry up first and then have everyone focus on gathering lumber and bricks.  I'd toss up a few walls to block off the most vulnerable ways into my land, and then I'd work on food and slowly closing in any remaining ways in.  It worked pretty well for me, but I've chatted with someone yesterday who took a slightly different approach and was doing better than me.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2014-08-12 18:36:52

Hi Aprone,
I know that the actual development of Castaways stopped a while ago, but nonetheless I have some suggestions concerning the chat:

  • Would it be possible to view incoming chat messages while the game is paused? This way you could just chat with people without having to waste any valuable game ticks.

  • I'd also like to see new chat being added at the bottom of an already existing chat file, as you have already done it for Swamp.

It would be awesome if you could make these changes, but since you've already officially stopped developing the game, I wouldn't mind if you hadn't the time or motivation to add them.

Errare humanum est!

2014-08-14 16:22:57

hi, can anyone please tell me why my people are starving dispite of me having huge quantities of food, a cook and a firm sorce of food production? I have about 100 meet, 20 bread and a low number of vegetables but just a few minutes ago, someone died of starvation and those minutes ago, I still had very much food. despite me having a lot of food, I constantly see yournamehere is on the verge of starvation!

I used to be a knee like you, then I took an adventurer in the arrow.

2014-08-14 17:54:11

Connor, first make sure you have a cook.  Second make sure you have food stocked in your tavern.  If you don't have enough peasants moving supplies around, they might not be stocking the tavern as fast as people are cleaning it out.  People stopping to eat at a tavern require a cook to prepare the food.

If you have checked both of those, the next thing to consider is distance.  If a builder is hungry, but not hungry enough to go eat just yet, they could be doomed by being sent on a very long distance task.  Lets say you're building some new place that is several tiles away, and your hungry builder starts off on his long journey.  His health will continue to lower so he could starve to death before making it back.  A distance of 5 or 6 tiles can be a pretty long walk for your people, so always be mindful of building spacing as you're constructing your town.

If your people are being fed multiple types of food, it makes them far more resistant to "long trip starvation".  Each of the 4 food types (meat, bread/cake, wine, and vegetables) energizes your people in a separate health bar.  The person will stop to eat if any of those health bars gets below 25%, to try and refill it.  Even sending a hungry person halfway across the map then gives them multiple health bars to draw from, keeping them alive for much much longer, so that they can finish their job and grab a big lunch upon their return.  I hope that helps.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2014-08-14 22:27:42

speaking of the food bars I see that all my people have separate amounts of energy with the g key. But it never goes above like 40 usually especially if i'm low on food. How much of each food type can they have?

I like to sleep, Sleep is good,
This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
Follow @TheGreatAthlon5 on twitter for humorous facts and game updates!
If you like my posts, thumb me up!

2014-09-09 12:49:50

I found a bug yesterday in mission 7. If you save your game, the save file doesn't remember how much your taxes were. I noticed this first when I had to reload my save after something went wrong and it was still saying that I had to pay 20 metal bar taxes even though the taxes were 15 when I had saved the file. So I exited the game and restarted it, and guess what! when I loaded the game, my taxes were 0 metal bars! I was really bored so I played the game because I was bored, and I am trying to make my civilization crash. I have about 200 people, and about 2000 food and tons nnd tons of other supplies and I'm trying to see whether my civilization will crash before the map is too big to build anything on. I'm thinking the  civilization will crash though. I have 3 taverns and 2 storehouses and that seems to be sustaining the people okay. I held off on building the third ship so that I could do this. If we could mute the injury messages, I could just let the game go by in the background, but as it is, I have to keep resuming the game when people get injured.

I like to sleep, Sleep is good,
This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
Follow @TheGreatAthlon5 on twitter for humorous facts and game updates!
If you like my posts, thumb me up!

2014-09-09 17:19:15

Good catch on the bug Key.  I'll have to remember to fix that.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2014-09-09 22:51:05

I finally got sick of playing the game and just finished today. I had 316 people, but I was actually beginning to run low on meats. Though really, since farming just gives infinite resources, I don't think my civilization could have crashed no matter how many more houses I'd built. I got bored of just building up lumber so I built like 9 extra ships partially to use it up. I also decided to create a bunch of soldier equipments just because, so I had about 63 armors, 70  horses, 190 cloaks and 110 bridgadine leather armors, and I had about 120 tomes. I ran out of cloth because of all the ship building I was doing. I also had about 2500 bricks. I had about 130 idle peasants during most of the game except for during the ship building sprees.

I like to sleep, Sleep is good,
This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
Follow @TheGreatAthlon5 on twitter for humorous facts and game updates!
If you like my posts, thumb me up!

2014-09-09 23:34:14

KeyIsFull, I can't even imagine what it would be like trying to manage 316 people!  That's insane!

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2014-09-10 19:52:08

KeyIsFull, which mission was that on, where you managed to have so many people? the last one?

2014-09-11 07:29:10

Hi keyisfull.
That's insane I don't think I could ever manage something like that. I want to try this and make a whole bunch of goblin killers to see how many goblins can be killed at once.
Would you ever make a playthrough of the game. I'd really like to see how you manage all the people and jobs all at once.

Guitarman.
What has been created in the laws of nature holds true in the laws of magic as well. Where there is light, there is darkness,  and where there is life, there is also death.
Aerodyne: first of the wizard order

2014-09-11 12:18:34

I didn't really manage anything past like the 90th person. I muted  all the job types that would pause the game and basically just let it go on autopilot though. Sadly, you can't make the game just keep going if people get injured. But that's the only reason why the game ever stopped.

I like to sleep, Sleep is good,
This is how I do it: Lie on a nice warm cozy bed, and dream dreams about how to rule the world!
Follow @TheGreatAthlon5 on twitter for humorous facts and game updates!
If you like my posts, thumb me up!

2015-04-23 04:16:39

Are there still plans for a Castaways 2?
As always with games, I'm super late to the party, so I'm still enjoying the first Castaways.  I only just finished Mission 1 today.
But from the thread, it looks like there was an expansion in the works.
I love these civilization-building resource-management games.
Thanks for a great game, Aprone!