I think the best way would be to link the accounts to their massassi account somehow.

maybe give each account a number (if they don't have one already) and use that to be able to make a user account...

but that can be defeated by multiaccounting on the forums... but that's a lot to go through just to cheat at a game

What I would do, if I didn't have access to the VB database of usernames...

I would use cURL to do an advanced search of people via username, I would grab the page source, validate that the username is valid. Using the source, grab the user ID. Use cURL again to open their user profile page and make sure they have more than I dunno 10 posts. There is probably an easier way.. but I've had a few margaritas and thats the first thing that came to my head.

Wow... uh, what happened to my nation? It seems in the very few hours I wasn't signed in the fighting started, and ended, and been reset... Did I live?

PS, it would seem that I can't research weapons or make declarations right now... every time I try it send me to the login page, then back to the news...

You apparently have to create a new account every time. I'm sure MZZT's working on it.

Good idea, CoolMatty would have to give me read access to the Massassi db though Not too hard to do since they're on the same box, but he may need... PERSUASION.


On the other hand I suppose I could still link accounts even without db access... the script would just take the username/pass given and try to log in to the forums with it. If successful it would write the username/pass hash to it's own DB to create your account.

As an added bonus it moves the responsibility of preventing duplicate accounts to the Massassi Forum Admins

Also I was thinking of a feature where each news post would also show up as a forum post on a CWC thread (like this one). DB write access could do this best (with the above account-linking, each news post would appear to come from the user who triggers it). Even without db access I could still make a new account specifically for news posting and then have the PHP script "log in" as it and post posts.

I'm thinking of making user accounts survive a reset, only problem is then we might have a bunch of nations that don't want to play anymore... maybe I'll add a "delete this account after this round" button, and every round will now simply reset resources and weapons and instead of wiping the DB.

Also right now resets are manual, although all it takes is me clicking a link.

Things I'm gonna do, in this order probably:
- Account page listing
- Profile page viewing
- When you win, I'll make it so your personal customized CSS is applied to every page!
- Profile editing
- Will make all accounts survive resets, and manual entry into a new round
- Will make resetting automatic, will keep news posts around and will keep track of who won the LAST game and display it until the current game is won.
- Redoing news to add a summary of what it's about to make it easier to browse, and also making the news auto-posts into templates and asking for more so I can randomize them a bit for more variety.
- Might do the account linking, seems a better idea than what I'm doing now to limit multiple accounts (Matrinix already beat it with a proxy, which I expected him to try anyway)
- Might do the news posts -> forum thread posts thing
- Some HTML layout/CSS stuff
- Maybe some JS here and there

[Edit: Oops, I broke the weapon and attack pages yesterday... fixed]

[Edit: I now have a "SUDDENLY, ORBITAL LASER" link for myself only on every profile page. Don't be cheap. >_>]

Got a better idea than a check box for "delete account after this round"

Have it so that the accounts are still there, but don't show up in the game until they click a button to activate them for the round. That way, they can play a round, skip one, and play the next without being in the middle round, nor deleting their account.

You'd basically have to activate your account between the end of the previous round, and when MAD begins in the next round. (This would also keep you from having inactive accounts during a round, they person would have to specifically join that round)

Will resets eventually be automatic?

Also, if you want longer games, you could set it up so that no one can launch weapons for X hours after the game starts... Something else to consider is starting with more res for longer games with more weapons.

I edited my post to include the above two ideas... I will work on them next. Then, I will redo the news system to make it template-able and display summaries, and then there's only forum integration stuff left.

THe multiply glitch is still there, kinda... after a point, it starts adding on weapons... then after you reach a point, it goes back to normal.

Or something.... I just know that I had more weapons than I bought a moment ago.... and everyone has more Eraser Missiles than i've sold >_<

EDIT: ya... it's still there... it showed me as owning 2 of everything, then I bought 1 Ball of Steel for 2 RU and it brought everything to 3x, then I bought another and it brought it to 4x.

Fixed it. Turns out if you buy a weapon you already have, it'll update the count of ALL the weapons you own, not just the one you bought. I forgot part of the WHERE clause in the MySQL statement.

Ok... was entertaining when someone triggered MAD and I had 5 of every weapon. =P

The game will now play the national anthem of whoever wins a round on every page

Also round reset keeps accounts and news, and you have to "opt-in" to the new round before MAD starts to play in it.

Game resets will now happen 5 minutes after the game ends, with the winner of the last round displayed on the side.

So who wins when games go "inactive" but people still have weapons? Also, what makes a game "inactive" (how long)

Pomeria is back.

I haven't quite decided how/if to handle "inactiveness".

inactivity.

I think we've established at this point that the game requires attentive and constant participation from its players while it's going on. Any way to guarantee that people don't sign up and then just go idle?

Weapons auto-explode due to poor maintenance.

No help if they don't buy any weapons first.

Also, I'm not seeing any advantage to buying one big weapon when you can buy a lot of small ones for the same price. Small ones let you divide up your damage as you like.

I more just buy what I like the sound of.

I have implemented the new news thing, which gives you a summary of what the post is about at the top now. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed.

The game is mostly feature complete now, apart from needing better CSS and HTML tweaks here and there, and some JavaScript to make things a bit nicer (real-time countdown reset timer == Web 2.0 zomg).

Only features I have left are really forum integration (on register it verifies you entered valid massassi forum account info, every news post is mirrored in a massassi forum thread) and somehow taking care of the inactivity issue.

Also McLongname, the game doesn't end until only one nation is left or until everyone expends all their weapons. That means you.

The only way to stop people from just making/buying weapons that cost 1 res is to limit how many you can fire at a time (and then you'd have to specify what the time limit is between firings)
That way, if you buy 50 weapons of 1 res each, you'd only be able to fire 1, then wait, then fire another, etc whereas someone could buy 1 bomb of 50 res and do all that damage at once.

Okay, so how about there be a revolution instead? The people riot, civil war breaks out, and the nation just goes to ****.

Yep, game failed to end before I found myself needing to do other things. Which is a pretty good illustration of the problem I'm talking about.

SG's solution to the buy-lots-of-tiny-weapons problem seems like a good one though.

i JUST found this post and i feel like i really missed out. i went to your website and ive started a nation (the sour surfs of sor) and built a weapon (crack).

i juts wanted to say.... theres something wrong with the weapon development page (its all buggy on my screen) and that when looking through the weapons in the list, there all scrunched too close together to tell them apart easily. there should be some spaces in there or something.

i read the old game, and it looks like alot of fun. by the way, i remember you asking for posts a while back for new news text, are you still looking for those, cus these are all the same in here.

i have a thought... earlier someone was mentioning that money is only being expended, not gained. it moves from player to player, but it only gets added if new players join the game. i agree that this is an important issue.

Mega-ZZter... would it be possible to add some kind of periodic increase to resources? like gaining a small amount each hour or something? or maybe we could also research new ways of GENERATING money, like spend cash on an idea and we gain 5% of the amount spent every hour or something?

it seems like with such a small population in the game right now, its really hard for new resources to enter play, and it drags it down a quite a bit.

EDIT: sorry about the two posts in a row, i know were not really supposed to do that.