Bay 12 Games Forum

I havent found a thread for this game using search, so here we go:

Tinywarz/Dropshock is a browser-based strategy game which is sort of a mix between RTS and RPG (Mostly RTS, but there is xp gained for your crews and you can customize your war machines, which is more RPG).

Basically, you buy/build units ranging from fast scout buggies to large tanks to huge mekas with lazors for arms, modify them with various additions including more powerful engines, faster-regenerating shields, or just bigger guns, and deploy them to various planets with different rules (some PvP, some PvE, some similar to capture-the-flag...), and fight it off in turn based combat (each turn has a 1 minute limit).

That's the short version. There's alot of possible strategies to adopt, and the different advantages and disadvantages of units and mods must be weighed depending on your goal . Should I take some cloaking glass-cannon units and hope they get close enough to destroy the enemy before they shoot back, or should I get some slow missle-launching platforms and bombard the enemy from afar, or do I get a giant hivemind meka that swarms the enemy with tiny drones, etc...

The vast majority of units and mods (equipment) in the game are player crafted, with some specific ones that need to be salvaged from PvE enemies. Also, crafted units are not necessarily all similar, even before being outfitted with mods, as more skilled or lucky players can manage to craft units with more slots for mods and some special variants of units with enhanced or different abilities.

Your command crew, which commands one of your units, gets experience and levels as you kill enemies, and level points can buy various abilities ranging from better aim to better mining yields to abilities that temporarily boost you speed or recharge your energy weapons or gets you more ammo, etc... Your non-command crews crewing your remaining units also get xp for kills, and as they level, they get better at aiming, better at driving more complex units, and gain merits that give various bonuses too.

I'm not really good at describing this any more than that, so here are some screenshots to give you more of an idea:

(Argh, I cant find any good pics, and I dont have time to take some myself ATM, tell me if you really need more pics and I'll work on it in the following days)


Now, for downsides (IMO):

-The interface can be a little clunky and take some time to get used to. (I've never found a browser based game that didnt have this sort of problem though)
-I feel the game is sort of dying, with few new players comming in. This can be annoying, because a large part of the player base are snobbish elites (anyone who's played an online game knows what I'm talking about). And even though there are non-snobbish advanced players that are willing to help newbs, it still means there are few people to play with at the same level of ability and power when you are still starting out.
-Its a bit heavy on the "real life money = power" aspect. Even though its wholly possible to get everything ingame for free, seeing other players just pay real money to get game money feels too cheaty.


So, if anyone feels like trying this out, http://www.drop-shock.com/
(Or, for those who dont mind referral links, here )


Though I doubt a Bay12 faction is feasible, seeing how skewered towards high-level the current playerbase we'd be facing is, who knows, maybe we can try such a thing. Otherwise, join some training faction (I'm in PGF_auXiliary) to see if you enjoy the game enough to later try something more ambitious.

Ok, so I've known a bit of many programming, scripting, and database query languages for some time, ranging from basic to php to mysql to javascript, but I've never really tried doing much with any of them short of learn the fundamental basics. This time, I've decided to delve deeper and actually try making something slightly noteworthy, and I decided to do so in C++ (since I figured that learning this one is better than learning a hundred less used programming languages (I'm not saying that other languages are not worth knowing though)).

I skimmed through the hello world tutorial quickly, but making something big (a Roguelike maybe?) is still a bit far off, so instead I made a prime number finder that uses the Sieve of Eratosthenes method to pick primes out of the other, less interesting numbers.

I'm gona give the source code, which I compile in Dev-C++ 4.9.9.2. Its inefficient, the code messy, its a HUGE memory hog if you try to search to big numbers, but hey, it works. And damn well for my first slighlty useful C++ program I'd say.


#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <math.h>

using namespace std;

main()
{
      string inputstr;
      long n=0;
      short tf=0;
      long maxnum;
      //int sieve[100]; //not used now, was for non-dynamic-array
      short * sieve;
      long currentfactor=2;
     
      newsearch:
      n=0; tf=0; currentfactor=2;
           
      cout << "Input the max number in our search (from 2 to 10000), or nothing to exit: ";
      getline (cin,inputstr) ;
      if (inputstr == "") return 0;
      stringstream(inputstr) >> maxnum;
     
      if (maxnum > 10000) maxnum = 10000;
      if (maxnum <= 1) maxnum = 2;
     
      cout << "The search will be up to " << maxnum << ", press enter to start.";
      getline (cin,inputstr) ;
     
      sieve = new short [maxnum];
     
      //maxnum=100; //for debugging only
     
      for (int i=0; i<maxnum; i++)
      {
          sieve[i]=1;
      }
      sieve[0]=0;
     
      sievethething:
                   
      n=0;
      tf=0;
     
      do {
          tf = sieve[n];
          n++;
      } while (tf != 1);
      currentfactor=n;
      n--;
      sieve[n]=2;
     
      while (n<maxnum) {
          if (sieve[n]==1) sieve[n]=0;
          n=n+currentfactor;
      }
     
      if ((currentfactor*currentfactor) < maxnum) goto sievethething;
      n=0;
      for (int i=0;i<maxnum; i++) {
          if (sieve[i]==1 || sieve[i]==2) { cout << (i+1) << " "; n++; }
      }
     
      cout << "\nNumber of primes found: " << n;
     
      delete [] sieve;
      getline (cin,inputstr) ; 
      goto newsearch;
}


Yeah, messymessymessy. I also forget to use comments most of the time, so its probably very hard to figure out.

I just felt like sharing this with the DF community that has many great programmers in it. I dont think I'll work on it much more, since i want to move on to something else, but I'm curious if there is another more efficient way to find primes. I thought about dividing each and every number by all numbers inferior to it, but I think that that way would be far slower, although less of a memory hog.

PS: I put a limit of 10000 to the max number in a search, but that can be tweaked in the code fairly easily if you want to murder your computer. I tried up to 500000 before I started getting bored of the slightly long wait.

EDIT: Fixed stuff up and added a 'number of primes found' line at the end of searches.

The bug: The liason arrived and instantly (barely a few seconds later) i got a message that he left unhappy or whatever. i know we normally get this message if he waits too long, but this time i definitely didnt make him wait. My leader was taken by a mood at that time and working on his artifact, my guess is that that's what caused him to leave angrily. Is this a bug?

ok, I'm gona go bonkers if these dwarves throw one more party  they throw one atleast ounce a month! nothing is getting done around the fortress!! is there some way to make them stop throwing/attending parties??

Have you even considered what the new DF versions ahead (in new versions I mean the still far from COMPLETE army arc, not upcomming release), combined with the incredible modding many of the forum modders are capable of, could achieve?
Lets take, for an example, the new paint-brush-thingy custom world drawer (check development page on main site for more info), and add to it some knowledge of Middle Earth from Lord of the Rings, building (drawing and setting parameters) a world as close to it as possible. Mod in hobbits, treants, all sorts of evil creatures... and make all the civs, good and evil, playable. Add the One Ring, some other non-playable creatures from the story, and, ofcourse, armies will be included. Thus, you set out to rewrite the story of Middle Earth. Maybe create the greatest human civilization and set off to fight the forces of Mordor? Create a fortress in which you build the One Ring, then abandon and come in adventure mode to take the ring and set off your mad journey across the world? Only your imagination is your limit!

Ofcourse, you don't have to be based on a story. You could just invent your own! And, in the DF community spirit, why not share your ideas? Post what worlds YOU will be trying, what stories will YOU rewrite, or even write yourself! Maybe you have an idea for a mod too? Maybe even you already have one, and can't wait to try it in the new version? Well, what are you waiting for? Discuss!!!

Personally, I think I might try a world based on the Wheel of Time saga, although I might not make until also the caravan arc is made and companions are back in (meaning not before some considerable time)