May 8, 2008: Short & Sweet Has Started
Short & Sweet has started. Be sure to add your name to the wait list to be notified of the next mega!May 4, 2008: New Mega: Short & Sweet
The new mega is now open for joining. You will need to complete a solo game to be eligible to join the mega. Click here to join or read more info about the game.May 1, 2008: New Mega: Short & Sweet
Our next Mega will be "Short & Sweet." Five XP to Big Ern for the suggestion! This will be a 25-turn game with classic victory conditions. It will open Sunday night and start ticking when it's full (about 250 players). The only tweaks are to races, but one of those tweaks creates a new unit, so feel free to try out the Arachnons in a solo or pub game and post to the forum with comments . . .
Arachnon
The Arachnon special perk has been massively changed. There will still be a "brood vat" HW bonus to population, but it's reduced to 10%. In addition, the Arachnons get a new fodder unit, the Scuttlers. (Ze'Manel Cunha gets 5 XP for an idea good enough to try, and he'll get a lightbulb badge if it works. Thanks, Ze!)
When the Arachnons win a battle, one Scuttler immediately appears on the world for every 10 lost population (both sides!), rounded up. Scuttlers are OF 5, DF 5, PD 5, AT 5, CA -1. They can't be built . . . just spawned after a battle.
If you saw Cloverfield, think what a Cloverfield bug might be if it were bigger, faster, smarter, and hungrier. We'll need to get some art for this.
Mah-Tog
Starting pop increased from 900 to 1,000.
Nozama
Now start with 95 Nozama Fighters, instead of 90.
Guir
Now start with three PsiHaulers, instead of two. Note to Guir players: you might seriously consider keeping the third one at home on the first turn!
VaT'ak
Need a bit of nerfing. We're going to let them keep the great N-class perk, but we have taken away one E-class. We've also taken away all their HEW-9. Why would VaT'ak start with defensive units, anyway?
Swamp Beasts
Their pop perk is reduced from 25% to 20%.
April 18, 2008: Net Hiccups
Our provider, Grande, is having a bad day. If you experience lag or disconnections, it's them, not us, and they are working on it.
In other news, we have decided to stop development and quit running free megas . . . No, wait, April 1st is over, can't say that. For those of you whose hearts have not stopped, YES, we'll announce a new mega soon. Good "S" names are being discussed on the forums.
April 2, 2008: Quince Ends!
Quince has ended. Congrats to Agramer for the victory, and to everyone who survived the game!
Everyone who placed in the top 10 of their race in Quince received the gold top10 race badge. You can view all of the new badges on the standings page.
March 26, 2008: Ruh-Oh Games Ended
The Ruh-oh Ring games have ended. Congrats to the winners - Roethe, Justinius, Sentrion, Vroomba, and UC_Rommel!We've also added some shiny new badges for those that finished first in their race in the Ruh-oh games.
Quince will be wrapping up in a few days. We haven't made plans yet for the next mega, but stay tuned...
February 27, 2008: Ruh-Oh Games Starting
The Ruh-oh ring games are now joinable, with 30 spaces in each. We ended up splitting them by XP instead of average.
- Ruh-oh 1 is exclusively for those with fewer than 50 XP.
- Ruh-oh 2 is open to everyone with fewer than 200 XP.
- Ruh-oh 3 is for players with 200 or more XP.
Since the first three games filled so fast, we've created several more:
- Ruh-oh 4, for players with 50-200 XP.
- Ruh-oh 5 (formerly Ruh-oh 6), for players with any level of XP.
Go for it! Conquest is Job One!
February 24, 2008: Ruh-Oh Rings!
We will soon launch three new ring games with the same setup. There will be one each for starting, medium, and high rated players.
Ruh-Oh will run for 25 daily turns. The victory conditions will be classic (number of worlds controlled), and the economy will be on. Points credited will be standard for rings.
Scooby-Doo fans will know what we mean by "Ruh-oh." Clearly, we over-buffed the Swampies and Entradishar, and we don't have to wait for Quince to finish in order to test the next round of changes:
- The Swampies lose their R-class, but they keep the license and the population advantage.
- The Giganto license and CPX both go to 750 for the Entradishar.
- The OMG is now a scanner with a range of 120.
- The poor unbuffed Ectonians get three extra cargo boosters, since we're not going to be testing any major buffs at the same time we debuff the currently strongest races.
February 19, 2008: Xiron Heavy Cruiser Art
Robi Mookerjee, who created the art for the X-8 and the Nozama, has created these new images for the Xiron Force Coil and Xiron Heavy Cruiser. Thanks, Robi!
February 9, 2008: Quince Has Started
. . . and, though we announced it on the forum, we did not post news here. No excuse. We suspect the Sludge has infested our brains. The game is full; if you missed out, be sure to sign up on the game request page. If we get enough interest we'll start a ring game or something to give everyone their fix.February 1, 2008: Solo in 4!
Congratulations to UC_Rommel for completing the first solo game in 4 turns! You can check out the game here.
Lots of Updates
We've just rolled out a bunch of changes in preparation for the upcoming mega game (which we expect to open next week). Please read the forum thread for details. The racial help files have NOT been updated yet; we'll get to that shortly.
We would like you to test the new changes. Any newly created game (solo or PUB) will get the new racial X-factors and bonuses, with the exception of Sxullborgs: all CURRENT games will get the Sxullborg perk, starting now.
Note also that the LAST news item was so recent that you may not have seen it, so, to repeat: The "All Fleets" report has been modified to make it easier to notice when you have neglected to deploy a fleet. The undeployed fleet section of the report is now at the top . . . and if you have undeployed fleets, they show up with a red background.
If you notice anything that doesn't look right - numbers don't add up, or you get a traceback or notice other bugs - please e-mail those to kira@sjgames.com. We'll do our best to get any bugs worked out before we start the new mega.February 1, 2008: All Fleets Tweak / Sxull Perk
The "All Fleets" report has been modified to make it easier to notice when you have neglected to deploy a fleet. The undeployed fleet section of the report is now at the top . . . and if you have undeployed fleets, they show up with a red background.
Also: one of the changes for the next game is a perk for the SxullBorgs. Because it's not part of setup, it will become active for existing games as soon as we migrate the code to the regular server. So if you're a Sxull in a PUB, and you notice something useful and odd . . . it's a feature, not a bug.
The full announcement of the next mega, and its changes, will be coming soon. All the changes will be implemented a few days before the new mega opens, to give everyone a chance to practice and to shake out the bugs.
-- Steve Jackson
January 31, 2008: Downtime Thursday Night / Friday Morning
Our service provider, Grande, has just told its users there will be six-hour downtime window, starting at midnight CST tonight (Thursday the 31st). We are to expect "intermittent service disruptions throughout the duration."January 26, 2008: How Fast Can You Solo?
The Festivus games have ended; thanks to everyone who played. We have rolled back the average points that were awarded for those games; see this thread for details. All Festivus players will keep the Master Points (MP) they won.
Our next mega game will open soon. Meanwhile, why not try besting your solo game record? We have some nice shiny badges for anyone who completes a solo game in record time (badges are awarded for solos completed in 8 turns or less). You'll also win some XP (up to 20 XP for a solo in 5 turns.) We've also created a special badge for anyone that manages the impossible: a solo in 4 turns. Will you be the one?
. . .
January 16, 2008: Combined Battle Reports
Battle reports are now displayed in combined view. This means that all of your units are shown in a single column, rather than one column per fleet. This should make it easier to view large battles. You can still view the old one-column-per-fleet display by clicking on the "View report by fleet" link.January 13, 2008: Avatars!
As of now, you can add an avatar to your profile . . . once you have reached 50 XP. Once we launch, only subscribers will be able to add avatars, but those who earn avatars during the beta will get to keep them.
To add an avatar, visit your profile page.
We're also having an avatar contest. Send us your best UltraCorps-related avatars (in 100x100 GIF or JPG format). Winning images will go into our avatar library, which other players may choose from. Winners will receive 5 XP for each winning image.
Visit the avatar page for more info.
January 9, 2008: Looking For A Perl Coder Or Two
We've thought for quite a while that we were very close to launch with UltraCorps . . . but there's still a significant to-do list, and not as much of Kira's time is available as when we started this. We would be happy to hear from competent Perl coders interested in part-time contracting to help us get to launch. And, obviously, somebody who is playing UC would have a much shorter learning curve, and would treat the project as more than just a job. So we're putting this announcement here rather than our more general news sites!
I'm best reached at sj@sjgames.com. Include basic resume information, please.
-- Steve Jackson
December 28, 2007: Autobuild Is On
Usually we don't make changes in the middle of games. This time we did.Starting immediately, and continuing through all Festivus games, a new "autobuild" feature is running. When a player quits, all the worlds in his cluster, including his homeworld, queue up fodder units. This works much like the "Homeworld Defense League" does for active players who appear to have forgotten their homeworld builds . . .
The goal, of course, is to reduce the advantage you get when a neighbor quits. His worlds will be harder to take and will have less accumulated Ult. They'll probably still be more profitable conquests than the worlds in a player empire, but not so much so! Let us know what you think about this; there is now an "Autobuild" thread in the UC forum.
December 26, 2007: Festivus-3 Starts Ticking Tonight
And . . . that's the news right there. Have fun. Conquest is Job One.December 25, 2007: Festivus-3 Now Open
Festivus-3 is now open for joining, if you missed out on Festivus 1 and 2.December 24, 2007: Another Holiday Ring?
As of Christmas Eve afternoon here in cold-but-sunny Austin, we have 29 on the wait list for another ring. If you're interested but not on the list . . . get on the list. We will be happy to launch another game if we get enough signups to justify a 50-player ring. Ho ho ho!December 23, 2007: Festivus Games . . . With New Orn X-Factor!
Festivus 1 and 2 are now full, and will tick tonight. F-1 ticks at 7pm CST; F-2 ticks at 8. If you'd like to play but didn't get to join in time, please add your name to the wait list. If we get enough requests, we'll set up another game.Also, the Orn racial X-factor is now in place. All Thirus All-Purpose Saucers owned by Orn players get +10 DF. This X-factor will apply in the Festivus games, as well as any newly created solo or PUB games.
See the forum thread for other race and unit changes, and a post-mortem of Palatino.
December 22, 2007: Holiday Ring Games: Festivus
Two 50-player ring games will open for joining today at 5pm central time. See the forum thread for more info and a post-mortem of Palatino.December 11, 2007: Maintenance Thursday Night
We are going to be doing some server maintenance on Thursday night, Dec. 13, from 8 to 10pm CST (GMT -6). We don't expect any noticeable issues, but it's possible there might be intermittent outages during that period. This will affect the UltraCorps forums and logins to UltraCorps. It should not interfere with the tick itself. However, if you want to play it really safe . . . finish your Thursday turn before 8pm CST.
-- Jimmie
December 4, 2007: Downtime Thursday Morning
Our ISP has informed us that they will be performing network maintenance on Thursday morning. This means that you may be unable to reach our websites or send us email intermittently between the hours of 12:00 am and 6:00 am (CST / GMT -6) on Thursday, December 6th. Most of you will be sleeping, but the night owls and overseas fans will have to drop by afterwards.
-- Jimmie
November 25, 2007: Who's The Fastest Solo Of Them All?
Congratulations to Andy6474 for finishing a 12-in-5 Solo game over the weekend, and to ONyX665 who finished one a few weeks ago. (Visit the standings page to see all the previous winners.) The 12-in-5 Solo is one of the toughest games to win, but it is doable, with some planning . . . and some luck! The reward is a nice shiny badge and 20 XP.
Can you do it?
November 16, 2007: Palatino Tick, Friday Nov. 16
Tonight's Palatino tick crashed; it took me a bit over an hour to sort things out and get the backup data restored, then re-run the tick. Things should be ok for now, although this is related to a recurring storable file error some of you have reported. I'm still not sure what's going on with that, but we'll hunt it down and get it fixed. Thanks for your patience.
-- Kira
November 6, 2007: Race And Unit Changes For Palatino
Palatino, a 35-turn game using classic victory conditions, starts Monday, Nov. 12. The following changes will be in effect:
BioBombs
- will no longer have a Carry. Let's see if that is enough to get them back to a reasonable strength.
- will now just be called BioBombs and will be alphabetized under B.
VaT'ak
- will no longer start with any Cargo Boosters.
- will start with 15 X-8s instead of four.
- will start with 550 population instead of 500.
Nozama
will have their starting fleet reduced to a Queen and 90 Nozama Fighters.Nozama Fighters
- will now be generally available, and enter the regular economy, on Turn 8.
- will acquire SP 80 if in the same fleet as a Nozama Queen.
- will have CPX 20 and a base price of 10.
Nozama Queens
- will have their lock reduced to 5.
- will generate 15-20 Nozama each turn they are in a base fleet, but . . .
- that is per world, regardless of the number of Queens present.
October 30, 2007: Chat Lock!
One of the annoying little "needed for launch" items was the chat lock . . . which keeps the chat window from scrolling up every time there's a new entry, so you can read back. As of tonight, Kira finished it. Go to Chat and look for the little lock icon.
Another step closer . . .
October 28, 2007: Happy Halloween!
Fleet names have been spooked up, and will remain that way until we wake up on November 1.
New mega being plotted . . . now!
October 8, 2007: Oceans-23 Ends
Oceans-23 is over. It ended after Turn 38, with River in first place, Zees67 second, and Al E Gator in third.The next mega will start pretty soon. It will use the classic "most worlds" scoring system. We'll definitely cut back on the Nozama a bit . . . their new power was interesting but somewhat overdone. We'll probably cut the BioBombs back a bit, too. Feel free to comment on these things in the forums.
As to other tweaks . . . Maybe. Maybe not. We have one in mind that would not be hard to do, but it's prioritized behind a large stack of tiny bugfixes. Stay tuned.
-- Steve Jackson
August 27, 2007: New Mega Game: Oceans-23
In this game, players are interstellar bandits . . . the only thing that scores is Net Worth. Furthermore, Ult in the basefleet counts double!This is an experiment, so rather than write special scoring code to support it, we are running this as a Classic game. The "double Ult in basefleet" scoring has been hacked in, and the admins will just override the game's automatic determination of "victory to the one with the most worlds" and change it to "victory to the one with the most lovely, lovely money."
This game will run 35 turns plus the roll of a 6-sided die, so those who plan on breaking alliances can't be sure when the last turn will be. You'll know the game is over when, sometime after turn 35, you log in and find out it's done. (That seemed to work well last time, and if it gets good feedback this time, we will code it as an option.)
We have made several tweaks for this game; the biggest one is the racial perk for the Nozama. Nozama Queens now spawn 8 to 12 Nozama Fighters each turn they're in the basefleet. This, and an increase to 60 in Nozama Fighter speed, should lead to some real hordes. Prepare to meet a lot of Nozama in this game!
August 14, 2007: Unit Stat Changes
The new mega will start after GenCon. In the meantime, here are the new unit stat changes. Thanks to everyone who commented!July 31, 2007: Back Online
Our server swap is complete; you should be able to access all of the game pages now.
We think the chat room is working again now too. Please give it a try.
July 28, 2007: Downtime Coming
We are working on a major upgrade of our web hardware. Right now, if everything goes as planned, we'll migrate services (including UltraCorps) to the new servers on Monday night. The downtime may last several hours.
More on this as it develops.
-- Steve Jackson
Update:Our web and game servers will be offline tonight starting at midnight US Central time for emergency maintenance. We expect them to be offline for three to four hours. During this time the websites for Steve Jackson Games, Warehouse 23, e23, and UltraCorps will be unavailable. We apologize for the short notice, and hope that you will bear with us and try us again in the morning.
-- Jimmie Bragdon
July 21, 2007: Rommel: Forum Moderator
UC_Rommel has joined our UltraCorps forum volunteer moderation team. Thanks, Rommel!
June 13, 2007: Fiction Contest Winners
We have our N-Space fiction contest winners!- First place, Lyfdel and Argrath: 25 XP each.
- Third place, Pastafarian: 12 XP.
- Fourth place, Kail, beaten only by a whisker: 10 XP.
- Honorable mentions to TomC, heyzeus23, and Thrognor: 5 XP each.
Update! SJ made a typo when this was first posted and turned the name of the fourth place winner, KAIL, into KAIN. And as it happens, there IS a user named KAIN, so we didn't catch the mistake right away. It has been fixed. Kail has his XP now. Kain loses the 10 XP that he had for a day or so. Sorry about that, Kain! You get an apology point, worth absolutely nothing . . .
June 4, 2007: N-Space Fiction Contest
The jury has returned its nominations for the best fiction posted on the forums during N-Space. Due to ties (there were four jurors, who submitted similar but not identical lists), we have seven finalists. In no order, they are Lyfdel, TomC, Kail, Argrath, Thrognor, heyzeus23, and Pastafarian. Congratulations, all of you!All our finalists will grab some extra XP. Who gets how much . . . depends on your votes. Go to the forum thread entitled "UltraCorps Fan Fiction Contest", where you can read all their stories, and then vote in the poll!
In other news, a frequently asked question is "When's the next mega?" The answer is . . . as soon as possible. Kira and SJ have some non-UC fires to put out first.
May 8, 2007: Ratings Revised
We have revised the rating system for megas and rings, so you are now being compared with all the other players, rather than just the leader. We seem to have consensus that this will be a lot fairer - it will keep a few runaway leaders from sitting on everyone else's ratings. This means that, if you are playing N-Space, you can now look at your ratings for last turn and see a jump.
MP and average, which are computed from the individual ratings, will also be affected.
April 10, 2007: New Nozama Art
Robi Mookerjee, who won the X-8 art contest, has created some new Nozama art for us (click to view desktop pics). Now you can see what the mighty Queen looks like!
April 4, 2007: Reminder Of Downtime Thursday
Just a reminder, there will be a scheduled downtime for maintenance on our router and network beginning at 10:30 PM CDT Thursday, April 5th (Friday, 3:30 AM UTC). (That's after the tick, for those of you playing in N-Space.) The outage is expected to last around 30 minutes.
April 3, 2007: New Mega Game Now Open
N-Space, a mega game for 250 players, is now open for joining. (You must complete a solo game to be eligible to join N-Space.)Features of this game:
- The economy will be in effect.
- The game will run for 35 turns, ticking daily at 10pm CDT.
- It will use the "classic" victory conditions . . . number of worlds controlled.
- The map for N-Space is less randomized than most of the past megas. You can expect to have 4-6 enemy homeworlds surrounding your world, and most of them will be within 300 units. (Some will be in the 300-350 range.) Gaps in the starfield are smaller and less common.
April 2, 2007: Scheduled Downtime This Thursday
There will be a scheduled downtime for maintenance on our router and network beginning at 10:30 PM CDT this Thursday, April 5th (Friday, 3:30 AM GMT). The expected maintenance window is approximately three hours.
If things go smoothly, this should only result in a brief outage of up to 30 minutes for our mail server, Pyramid chat, and our websites (sjgames.com, warehouse23.com, and UltraCorps) while router changes are made. The rest of the work is internal, and thus may prevent SJ Games staff from responding to communications for the duration of the outage.
--Jimmie
March 31, 2007: New Mega Game
We're starting another mega game. This one tests a new join feature and a new map style. It's called N-Space, and is an open beta game for 250 players - we based the size on the number of people who signed up on the request list.Features of this game:
- The economy will be in effect.
- The game will run for 35 turns, ticking daily at 10pm CDT.
- It will use the "classic" victory conditions . . . number of worlds controlled.
- The map for N-Space is less randomized than most of the past megas. You can expect to have 4-6 enemy homeworlds surrounding your world, and most of them will be within 300 units. (Some will be in the 300-350 range.) Gaps in the starfield are smaller and less common.
On Tuesday, if there are any slots still open, we'll open up joins to everyone who has completed a solo.
The first tick will take place on Wednesday, April 4 at 10pm CDT (UTC-5).
March 28, 2007: Scheduled Downtime Saturday Afternoon
There will be a scheduled downtime for maintenance on the UltraCorps server at 12:00 PM CDT (noon) this Saturday, March 31. The expected downtime window is approximately one hour. The UltraCorps game server will be offline and unreachable during this time as we try to address the recent server crashes.
-- Jimmie
March 28, 2007: Server Woes
The UC server was down last night, from just before 1am til about 9am central time. This is the third crash in a week's time. Tracking down the problem is proving difficult since it leaves no errors in the server logs. We're probably going to swap the server out for one of our backup boxes, which will mean a little more down time while we swap the disks to the new box. I'll post more news here when I have some.--Kira
March 21, 2007: Changes To Racial Start Values
We've made some changes to the starting fleets for the following races:
-
Cosmic Needle Men - 15 Hurax (instead of 16)
Ectonians - 2 Megabots (up from 1), Hyperbooster (new), G-21 Arc Cannon (new), 20 Super Space Fighters (up from 10), 20 X-5 Raiders (up from 5), 15 X-7 Corvettes (down from 20), (drop 3 TK bikes), 3 cargo boosters (new)
Nozama - 1 Nozama Queen added.
Orn - 5 Thirus All-Purpose Saucers (up from 4), 3 cargo boosters (up from 2)
March 17, 2007: Server Crash
The UC server went down about 3:30 PM CST on Saturday the 17th. It was restarted (by coming in and physically power-cycling it) a bit before 8pm. At the moment, we don't know what happened; the logs show a sudden death and no obvious cause. It could have been related to the Daylight Savings reboot last week. Or not. We'll see if we can learn more.-- Steve Jackson
March 13, 2007: Short Maintenance Downtime
We made it through the new Daylight Savings changes this week fairly smoothly. There are a few things that don't seem to have updated with the rest of the systems yet, so we are planning to have the servers down for a short time this coming Thursday evening. The downtime will begin at 9:00 PM CDT and should last less than half an hour. Our web sites, email, and UltraCorps may all be unavailable during this period.
-- Jimmie
March 10, 2007: Edit Units In PUB Games
The "Edit Game Units" feature is now available for testing in PUB games. This feature will only be available for Elite accounts after launch, but anyone may try it now.
You can only edit game units before the game starts. Fields editable are: Turn available, Start price, License price, CPX, OF, DF, AT, PD, Carry, Speed, Max orderable, Scanner range, and Stealth bit (0 or 1). Most fields have some upper and/or lower bounds, to prevent deadlocks and other odd problems.
This feature is still in testing. If you encounter any bugs, please e-mail Kira.
February 14, 2007: PUB Game Reputations
We've been working for a while on a system to let PUB Game players give ratings to the game owners. It's done! In theory, this will make it easier for the good GMs to find players, and harder for players to get suckered in by abusive GMs. You can read all about it on the new PUB Game Reputations help page.
This is a brand new feature, so feel free to play with it next time you finish a PUB game (you can only rate someone at the time you are booted or the finished game is deleted). If you give a negative rating to a friend just to experiment, you'll be able to remove it, but then you won't be able to rate him again until you play again. Remember: apparent bugs go to kira@sjgames.com, and issues with documentation go to sj@sjgames.com.
February 7, 2007: King Kruel Strikes Again!
Check out the new game from the creator/illustrator of UltraCorps . . . it's called Cannon Blast and you can get a free downloadable version. PCs only, sigh . . . Play it and make the King happy!January 29, 2007: Short Downtime Thursday Morning
There will be a scheduled downtime for maintenance on the UPS that powers our network routers at 12:10 AM CST this Thursday, February 1 (Wednesday night / Thursday morning). The expected downtime window is approximately ten minutes. None of the Steve Jackson Games websites or mail servers will be accessible during this time.January 25, 2007: Network Outage
It seems the "brief" network outage that Grande (our network provider) said we might have last night turned into about 9.5 hours of downtime. We're not any happier about it than you are....
Ticks that were scheduled have run on schedule. Our server was still running; you just weren't able to reach it. Tonight's regularly scheduled Many ticks will run on schedule, barring any further network problems.
January 24, 2007: Possible Down Time
Grande (our Internet provider) has notified us that they will be doing maintenance on the part of their network that we are on, beginning at midnight tonight (12:00 AM CST Thursday). They warn that there may be a brief service interruption at that time. Sorry for the short notice - only now did they tell US. We'll discuss this with them . . .January 23, 2007: Luckymonkey: Forum Moderator
Luckymonkey has joined Starcharger as a volunteer moderator of the UltraCorps forum. (Incidentally, of all the SJ Games forums, UltraCorps is the second most active!) Thanks for your help, Lucky!January 19, 2007: Combining Some Games
We didn't get as many joiners as we'd hoped on the lower-MP games, so we're combining some of them. If you are in Many-2, Many-4 or Many-5, please read the headlines in your game to see which game to join.
We'll leave 2, 4 and 5 up for now in case you need to refer back to them for your initial fleet orders, but those games will be deleted on Sunday.
Also, since Many-8 has filled, if you have 8 MP and weren't able to join, we've opened up Many-9 to you.
January 16, 2007: New Ring Games: "Many" Series
Our Holiday games have ended; congrats to Ralpher for finishing Holiday-6 with 101 worlds!On Wednesday the 17th at 11am CST, we'll open a new series of games. The "Many" games are only for people who played in Last, and they are divided according to your current MP. (Which, except for the Holiday winners, is the only MP anyone has.)
This is a test of our new join code, which will allow us to limit games by experience and other factors. Many-1 is for Commanders who have 0 or 1 MP, Many-2 is for those who have 2 MP, and so on, up to Many-9 (which will admit those with 9 or more). All these are 20-slot ring games, except for Many-9, which is a 36-slot ring. You are only eligible for the game that matches your MP total; if it fills before you get in, whoops, sorry.
All these will run 30 ticks, one per day, and will be scored on the point system. (After watching the way Holiday played out, we think that a 20-tick game using the classic system is weighted too much toward the fast races; the slow-but-strong ones and the economic powerhouses don't get the chance to develop.)
The Many games will start ticking on Saturday. Many-1 will tick at 7pm CST, Many-2 at 7:30, and so on.
For those of you who weren't in Last, we will be setting up the "Many More" games for you. Check the lobby for them!
January 11, 2007: Upgrade Interface Upgraded
The Buy Licenses page has been revised. Instead of being grouped together in a single "Upgrades" category, upgrades for each unit are now shown below that unit, in order. Click the arrow below the unit to view them, or click it again to collapse the list of upgrades.January 5, 2007: 12 In 8-7-6-5 Badges
We've added a new badge to the set you can win for completing a solo game quickly:
These badges recognize a player who has completed the standard unopposed solo game, with 12 unowned worlds to conquer, in eight turns or less, as follows:
- 12-in-8 badge (good time): copper, with the number 8 in a group of planets.
- 12-in-7 badge (very good time): bronze, with the number 7 in a group of planets.
- 12-in-6 badge (amazing time): silver, with the number 6 in a group of planets.
- 12-in-5 badge (frightening time): gold, with the number 5 in a group of planets.
January 4, 2007: Holiday Games Ending
Holiday Ring games 1, 2, 3 and 5 wrapped up today; congratulations to Sentrion, TPrice, BrianTheBrave, and UC_Rommel for conquering their respective galaxies.
Join us in the chat room tonight (Thursday) for some post-game ticktalk!
--Kira
December 29, 2006: Brainstorm Badges
The Brainstorm badge has been implemented. It's to recognize a player who makes a truly inspired suggestion that is implemented in the game. The initial badge holders:
- Walter Milliken, for the revised Firepower formula.
- El Vato Loco, who suggested the term "PUB" (Private Universe Battles).
- Joel Halpern for a good enough explanation of "percentile" to - we hope - save a lot of questions about the new rating system!
- MrBlarney, for his neat universe maps, which are not actually implemented yet, but Kira says she can do it . . .
December 24, 2006: Holiday Games!
Holiday ring games 1-3 are full! We've now opened Holiday-4 and Holiday-5, for 20 players each. Holiday-4 will tick ONCE per day, starting at 9pm Christmas night. Holiday-5 will tick twice a day starting at midnight Christmas night. (Although if we don't get enough joins before then, I'll bump the start time back a day.)-- Kira
December 23, 2006: Holiday Ring Games
Within a few days, we'll start Holiday-1 for those who want some galactic conquest over the vacations. It will tick Christmas night, and twice a day after that for 20 turns. This will be a new type of map, for 20 players. We're going to call it a "ring game," because all the homeworlds are in a ring, with Nobodys in the middle.No, 20 players isn't a lot. But at the same time we start Holiday-1, we'll launch a new "game request" feature that will let you say "Hey, I'm not in a game and I want to be." See, we really have NO IDEA how many of you are going to be up for holiday gaming, so we're creating some code to let you tell us. And when we get enough requests, whether that's the next hour, the next day, or the next week, we can launch Holiday-2, and so on. (Some of the holiday games might tick only once per day . . . look for the Holiday Ring Games forum topic to comment on what you'd like.)
Winning a Holiday Ring game will be worth 1 MP. All players will get normal XP for playing. Averages will not be affected.
December 20, 2006: MahTog Poll In Forums
Last month we weakened the MahTog setup, since so many people were picking it that it was clearly considered overpowered. If you have been playing MahTog, please visit the Forum poll right here and let us know what you think about the change.
Vote now. We will announce some new games soon, and if we're going to tweak the bats any more before we start, now is the time to decide.
December 12, 2006: New Feature: Handoffs
If something happens to keep you from playing actively, and quitting would spoil the game for the other players, you can now give a game position to another player. The "handoff" link is on your Empire page.PUB game owners can also do a handoff to give away an inactive position. The link is on the admin page, right beside the Boot link.
If a game is being played for points:
- The original player earns XP for the turns he played. The stand-in gets XP for the turns he plays.
- If the handoff takes place on or before turn 3, the original player gets no MP and the game does not affect his average. The stand-in gets MP and the game affects his average normally.
- If the handoff takes place on turn 4 or later, neither player gets MP and the game does not affect either one's average.
December 10, 2006: Racial Perks
To some, a significant flaw in UltraCorps has been that all races are exactly the same other than their starting fleets. This is no longer true. We have implemented two racial "perks." The Arachnon and Nozama races both needed buffing; they were among the least popular in Last.
The Arachnon perk deals with the very first issue I ever had with UltraCorps. I played Arachnon in my first game. The racial flavor text had described how the Arachnons delighted in destruction and consumption of their foes . . . and I was quite disappointed to find that was just flavor, with no rules implementation. If I was going to play the Bugs, I wanted to EAT!
The special Arachnon racial ability is now: Whenever the Arachnon destroy population and win the battle, they get an homeworld population bonus of 25% of the destroyed population. (Each time this happens, the Arachnon player will get a notification from his Broodmaster.) We'll see how this works to let the bugs build up their homeworld population at the expense of the planets they pillage.
The Nozama get two perks. First, the Nozama Fighter license will now be free on every Nozama-owned world. This will make it much easier for the Nozama to support and reinforce their Battlesuit Horde! Free licenses will disappear if the world is taken by a different race.
Second, the Nozama also now get a unique unit: the powerful Nozama Queen, which increases the combat ability of Nozama Fighters. Nozama homeworlds start with the license, though they do not start with a Queen. No other race can buy this license, and it vanishes if the world is captured by a non-Nozama. We'll play with these for a while, and tweak them for balance if necessary, before we consider other racial perks.-- Steve Jackson
December 5, 2006: UltraMail Revamped
Kira has completely recoded UltraMail. Check it out. New features, including "you have mail" notification from the Lobby! In particular, you can now send "general" UltraMail to any user, even if you are not in a game with him. Documentation has been updated to cover the new features. You can get to your old mail for any game via the link at the bottom of that game's inbox. Mail for a given game will still go away when that game is deleted. Questions or comments should go in the "New UltraMail" thread in the forums.November 12, 2006: World Names
Thanks to everyone who submitted suggestions for new world names. 68 players suggested a total of 591 names, of which we kept 347. Our world names file is now up to 6500+ names!November 1, 2006: World Name Suggestions
We'd like to thank everyone who participated in the Last alpha-test game! As a special bonus to the top 100 finishers (by point score), we'd like to invite you to visit this page and enter up to 10 suggestions for world names to be added to our world names database. These names (if approved) will become part of UltraCorps, and used to name Nobody worlds in future games.
All names will have to be approved by SJ, so please choose creative but appropriate names. Your entries will be checked against our existing database (so you can't submit a world name that's already in there, and you also won't be able to submit a name that someone else already suggested.)
Thanks!
October 26, 2006: Racial Tweaks
The following racial tweaks have been made (for NEW games):- Mah-Tog have had their starting setup reduced to 750 pop and 3000 ult.
- Swamp Beasts now get 10 biobombs, 8 ATO-3 crawlers (up from 6), and 500 pop (up from 400).
- Entradishar now start with 40 SSFs (up from 25).
- Giganto CPX reduced to 1000 (from 1500)
- U-90 biobomb reduced to 50 cost / 50 CPX.
October 18, 2006: Ratings
By popular request, which we agree with, the Ratings system has been changed. Everyone in Last will see a huge jump in Rating, to a number that will more accurately compare you with all players, not just with the leader. (Okay, ALMOST everyone will see a jump. The leader's rating remains 100.)Here's the new system, based on an explanation by Joel Halpern:
At the end of each mega-game turn, your current "rating" for that game is computed. Take the number of players with scores equal to or less than your own. Multiply that by 100 and divide by the total number of players. Round up to the next whole number - except that ratings between 99 and 100 become 99. That gives the winner a rating of 100, and everyone else scores proportionately less. A player whose point score is in the middle of the pack has a rating of 50. (For the mathematically inclined, this score is very similar to, but not the same as, a percentile calculation.)
October 6, 2006: Notable Battles
We've added a "Notable Battles" link to Com-Net. The page shows large battles, long battles, and homeworld captures for the last turn. It has static links to all past turns (except that, in Last, turns 1-3 have empty results). We would like to add a column showing the winner of each battle, but that will require more coding.September 20, 2006: Last Is Full!
The last alpha-test game ("Last") is now full! The first tick will be Thursday at 10pm.
If you missed out on Last, don't worry. When we launch, we'll be opening new mega games regularly. Join the announcements mailing list to be notified of future games.
September 18, 2006: Last Is Open!
The last alpha-test game is now open. You can join here. You must have completed a solo game in order to join.The first tick will be Thursday at 10pm.
This is a points game; point-scoring will begin on turn 5. Points earned during Last will count on your permanent profile.
September 17, 2006: New Mega-Game Starting This Week
The last alpha-test game is about to start. Its name is Last . . .You can get info about the game here. The game will open for joining on Monday at noon CDT. Join early; there are only 257 slots.
The first tick will be Thursday at 10pm.
September 18, 2006
We've cleared the database of all points earned from prior games - that's the test blitz, and Kilroy. So you may notice your profile points have changed.
Points earned during Last will count on your permanent profile; they will not be deleted.
September 8, 2006: Brief Downtime Monday
There will be a short (~30 minutes, if all goes well) downtime on Monday, sometime between 1-2pm Central time.September 2, 2006: Liberation!
A new badge is available: Liberation. It shows a planet and a broken chain. This badge is not leveled. You earn it for recapturing your original homeworld.
August 17, 2006: Steve At Worldcon . . .
I will be at the World Science Fiction Convention next week in Anaheim. If any UltraCorps players are attending, look me up . . . I will be most easily found by checking at the Chaos Machine in the Exhibit Hall.-- Steve Jackson
August 10, 2006: X-8 Contest Winner!
We had three entrants submit nine different designs for the X-8 art contest. The winner is this design by Robi Mookerjee:
We'll be awarding XP points to all three entrants (just as soon as I get that part coded...)
--Kira
August 1, 2006: Mini-Mega Points Blitz On Saturday
We're going to be running a test blitz today. Play starts at noon (CDT) and will run 15-min ticks for 2 hours, then 20-min ticks for 2 hours. Then a 1 hour break (from 4-5pm). Then 2 more hours of 20-min ticks. So, 20 turns total, unless something breaks.
The game will be open to 50 players; you must have completed a solo game in order to join the blitz. The objective of this test is to see how well the new point-scoring code works (and for me to fix it if it doesn't work...)
--Kira
July 25, 2006: Several Unit And Race Changes
We made a few more changes to units and races today:- We modified the Zenrin starting fleet to include a license for DinChoFu Stealth Arts (the Zenrin v3 upgrade). So Zenrin will be the only ones to be able to build this unit during the first 8 turns of the game.
- CR Orgs now become available on turn 6, and Infinita become available on turn 10.
- The Biobomb is now 100 cst / 100 cpx (halved from previous stats).
July 23, 2006: Availability Of Upgrade Units
PUB and Mega games (newly started ones) now inherit the default "turn availability" for certain upgrade units. v3 upgrade units become available on turn 8; v4 upgrades on turn 12.
Solo games have all units available on turn 1.
July 22, 2006: This Is The New Server
As of now all games have been moved to the new server. Known issues: past unit stats will not show up until the games tick again, although you can still view an individual unit's price history by viewing its unit help page. Also, past battle reports will not be viewable, so if you try to look at a report from before the move, you'll see a "No battles at planetname on turn X". If you need to view battle reports from earlier ticks, you can go to uctest.sjgames.com/zgame/old to view them, at least for the next week. After that we'll be deleting all the games on the old server as it becomes our test box.
If you notice any other bugs or problems on the new server, please email Kira.
July 19, 2006: Change Log Changed
We've changed the format of the Change Log. Henceforth it will be spammier, because it will be the publicly viewable record of all tweaks, at least all those of any significance whatsoever. So, if that interests you, there it is, and if not, you can trust us to continue to put the really good stuff here in News.-- Steve Jackson
July 15, 2006: Shiny New Server!
We've had our new UltraCorps server for a while now, hidden away while we set up code and test things. But as of today it's now serving up ultracorps.sjgames.com. Another step towards launch day!
Sometime this week we'll be switching over all of the databases from uctest to ultracorps.sjgames.com. We'll post another note when we're sure of the day; it will result in some schedule interruptions for games currently running.
July 8, 2006: Art Contest Deadline
Oh, right. We really should have a deadline for entries.One month from today: August 8. Midnight CST.
Bring 'em on!
July 4, 2006: X-8 Art Contest
You have probably noticed that there is no artwork for the very useful X-8 Assault Shuttle. This new unit was added after we took over development, and there was no existing art that could be repurposed to fit it.So . . . contest time. Let's get some art.
Your mission: to use whatever 3d rendering tools suit your fancy to create a unit that more or less matches the X-8 icon, and fits the style of the existing art. Don't worry about lettering . . . we'll add that.
There should be two different images: a small one, 340 x 300, showing the unit, and a larger 1024 x 768 desktop. Both should be 72dpi RGB JPEG files. We will also need the mesh and skin so we can do other evil and neat things with it.
The prize: your name goes on the permanent credits page, and when we establish the "experience points" system - or whatever we end up calling the rankings that measure your service to the community - you will start off well above zero. And if we're really impressed, we may offer you a deal to make us more art . . . and not just for XP, either.
The fine print: All submissions become property of SJ Games. We may not name any winner, if nothing blows us away . . . or we may put it to a forum vote if several of you blow us away. Send your entries to kira@sjgames.com and sj@sjgames.com.
-- Steve Jackson
June 22, 2006: Kira Set Up Us The Bomb!
We have a new unit: the U-90 Biobomb. So called because it's Unit 90 in the database . . .
This is the long-range population-killer that has been discussed a bit on the forums. It's available in all newly-started games. Give it a try and let us have your feedback on the forums.
June 8, 2006: E-Mail Tick Notifications
You can now sign up to receive e-mail when your PUB game has ticked. Click on the "Empire" tab in your game to enter your e-mail address.
Right now you have to enter it on a per-game basis.
I don't have plans to make this work for Mega games, since that'd be a lot of mail, and Megas usually run on a fixed schedule anyway.
--Kira
June 6, 2006: Glitch With Certain PUB Games
The following PUB games suffered a system glitch today:- #11964 - 06-06-06 Afternoon Blitz Game
- #11859 - Four-Way War
- #11547 - Work-Week Special V
- # 9200 - Death to Ahabig
- #11888 - Texas Three-a-day
- #11376 - Empires In Space
- #11675 - GHC 4: Psych Out
Anyway, my advice is to proceed with the next tick, which should clear things out, but if you continue having problems with your game, please e-mail me.
-- Kira
June 3, 2006: Kilroy Has Ended!
Kilroy has ended! It ran for 37 turns. Congratulations to Black Star, who finished with 73 worlds. (Hmm. 73:37... ) Also, despite the Xiron owning the top 10 early in the game, the final rankings were more evenly distributed: one Arachnon, 4 Mah-Tog, a Cosmic Needle Man, a Va'Tak, and two Xiron... plus a 3-way tie for 10th between two Xiron and a CNM.
While we didn't get point scoring going this game, we have made some improvements both to visible pages (profiles, zero-lock licenses, accurate prodq estimates) and to behind-the-scenes stuff. We also learned some things (this map was too spaced-out; expect your neighbors to be closer next time).
We don't have any ETA on when the next Mega game will start; til then, there are plenty of PUBs going on, including a PvP PUB Tourney. Check out the forums for details!
May 26, 2006: Server Downtime Saturday 5/27
There will be a brief (15-30 minute) outage this Saturday (May 27th) afternoon (probably between 4-5pm Austin time, GMT-6) while we move the servers into the new server room. This shouldn't affect Kilroy, but it will interrupt any scheduled PUB ticks.May 3, 2006: More Docco Features
Kira has written a Quick Intro, which will help you introduce your friends to the game. It's near the top of the Help index.We've also added four more information tabs to the sidebar that you'll see under (for instance) News and FAQ:
- Known Bugs is a quick link to the existing Known Bugs page. We are pleased to point out that we don't know of very many . . .
- Upcoming Features presents both the list of things we plan to do, when and as we can, and the "Anti-List" of things we plan NOT to do.
- Change Log links to a sort of "UltraBlog" that we're going to be keeping; it will list the changes and fixes we make, but we'll try to be interesting about it.
- And Credits is just a quick link to the Credits page, because it was a bit hard to find.
-- Steve Jackson
April 28, 2006: Solo/PUB Game Change
You may now own BOTH a solo game and a PUB game. Have fun!And two reminders:
- The next mega-game, Kilroy, starts at 10pm CST Friday. You can sign up from the Lobby.
- We are taking pre-orders for the UltraCorps alpha relaunch shirts. We are going to print to order . . . assuming we get enough orders to do it at all. if you want one, please pre-order now and save us frustration later!
-- Steve Jackson
April 24, 2006: Okay. We Give Up. Kilroy Is Here.
You know what they say. The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time. The last 10% takes the other 90% of the time.We have given up on making Kilroy the beta game. We have, at a reasonable estimate, two weeks worth of work to do on the remaining list of launch features. And we have learned the hard way that things add themselves to that list. Plus, we are about to move the game to a brand new server of its very own, and we'll need shakedown time after that . . . but we don't want to go another two weeks with no mega-game available.
So: Kilroy is now open for entry. The first tick will be April 28th. This will be an open game, with the economy in force, and a slightly uncertain ending date; see the game information page for details.
In other news, we think that all pages have been reskinned. If you encounter a page with the old color scheme, send a note to kira@sjgames.com.
-- Steve Jackson
April 15, 2006: Kilroy Unit/Race Stats Active
Although we still have a list of things to fix before the next mega-game, Kilroy, goes live, we know what changes we intend to make in units and races . . . and as of now, they are activated, so you can try them in PUBs and solos.
And here's the forum posting with the details.
-- Steve Jackson
April 12, 2006: UltraCorps Shirts At Last!
Isn't that pretty? For the Relaunch Alpha shirt, we stuck with the color scheme from the original version of the game; next time we'll go with blue. But these alpha shirts are a one-time printing . . . if you want it, pre-order now, because we'll print only as many as are ordered.
Kilroy Progress
We're not ready to launch the next mega-game . . . as you can see, because it hasn't launched. But we're working on it.March 30, 2006: Kilroy Isn't Here (But Will Be Soon)
A lot of you have been asking about the next massive game. Our current goal is to make it the first and hopefully last BETA test . . . beta being defined as "Feature complete for launch, so here's your last chance to break it."(Yes, we want to add some more PUB features too, but those can be done after the massive beta starts.)
Kilroy will definitely not start BEFORE Sunday, April 9. Among other reasons, we have a server maintenance downtime of at least four hours which is currently scheduled for the early, early morning of Friday the 7th. (We'll give you specifics later, but obviously ticks won't run during that time.) We want a minimum of a day after the system comes back up before we start anything big!
And, of course, not all the launch features are IN yet . . . so there will be a lot of coding over the next week.
When the new game does start, it will be a daily tick, economy on, 35 turns PLUS 1d6. In other words . . . it will be at least 36 turns, maybe 41, and you won't know it's over till you log in after the last tick.
There will be more unit tweaks, and at least one racial tweak. We will implement these in the unit database SOON so you can try them out in PUB games beforehand. There will be a short announcement here, and a forum thread, when that happens.
-- Steve Jackson
March 18, 2006: Observation Deck
You can now view UltraCorps games without joining them, by visiting the Observation Deck, linked from the Lobby. As of this writing, you can view:- 39 ongoing PUB games
- One completed PUB game
- The mid-sized (35 players) economic test run, Ecofreak
- The last two massive games, India and Juliet.
March 13, 2006: The PUB Is Open!
PUB games (player-initiated games for 2 to 6 commanders) are now in open alpha. Anyone with an UltraCorps playtest account (free - you just have to sign up) can create a PUB game, and either throw it open to whoever signs up first, or password it and invite friends.PUB stands for "Private Universe Battles," and in pre-alpha, these were a lot of fun . . . so join us and give it a try! The owner of the game sets the tick schedule, so you can do anything from a slow game that ticks once every few days, to a blitz that ticks every 10 or 15 minutes.
You can also make the game as long as you want . . . though we don't promise that games started now will stay on the server after actual launch, so don't tie up your whole life in a 999-tick game just yet. But you've got at LEAST a month!
-- Steve Jackson
March 6, 2006: PUB Games
Our new feature is the PUB (Private Universe Battle) game. These are small-map games for two to six empires, owned and ticked by one of the players. Features are still being added, but a small group of experienced players has been given the ability to create PUB games as a sort of pre-alpha. We anticipate that within a week or so, if we don't find anything awful, everyone will be able to do so. In the meantime, if you want to join one, follow the PUB Games link in the lobby and look for an open game. If you find none, come hang out in UltraChat, or post a note in the "Please invite me to a PUB Game" topic on the forum.
You do NOT have to have played a solo game in order to join a PUB game, but if you are new to UC, we recommend that you knock out at least one solo as soon as you can, so you don't make any empire-shatteringly fatal goofs against your live opponents.
-- Steve Jackson
March 3, 2006: Juliet Done; Small Group Games Start Soon
Juliet is over. Congratulations to Mah'Furry, who ended the game with more than 45,000 population!To see the final rankings, go to the Juliet ComNet page and click the Final Player Rankings link. Note that six of the top 10 population leaders were also in the top 10 for world count. This may be inevitable; nevertheless, many players said they enjoyed having a different victory condition to shoot for.
On the rankings page, you'll notice we have added rankings for top WORLD in both population and firepower.
Members of the alpha playtest list will be able to start small group games soon. They will be able to invite anyone to join, though invitees who don't yet have an account will have to set one up before they can enter a game. If you're not on the alpha list, look in the Lobby for an opening, or hang around UltraChat and ask for an invitation!
February 24, 2006: Small Group Play
Test game Juliet is winding down. The next one will be Kilroy, as in "Kilroy was here." But Kilroy won't get here for a while . . . because we have something else to try.Within a few days of Juliet's ending, we'll announce testing of a new way to play UltraCorps. A "private game" will be for two to six players. Like a solo, it will be initiated and owned by a player. The owner will tick the game. We may also set it up so private games can tick on a regular schedule.
In the short term, anybody who wants to will be able to set up a private game (one per registered tester) and invite any other registered tester to play. In the long run, of course, this will be a feature of paid accounts.
-- Steve Jackson
February 8, 2006: Juliet
Juliet is the next UltraCorps playtest game. You can join now; the first tick (that is, processing of the first move) takes place at 10pm Wednesday (and then the game closes; you cannot join after the first tick, and you really should join long enough BEFORE the first tick to complete a move). There will be 20 turns, one per day.This game has evolved since the last playtest. It will have more than 500 players if it fills up; the economic rules are now in place; the goal is maximum population, not just number of worlds controlled, so you have an incentive to be nice to your subjects; and there's an entry condition. In order to join, you must first complete the solo game (if you have already completed a solo recently, the database will know that). This was a player suggestion, and it's a good one. It insures that everyone who gets into the game will have some clue what's going on! Sort of a Galactic Warlord Qualifying Exam.
UltraCorps is still free, so this is your chance to see what it's like while helping us out.
-- Steve Jackson
February 4, 2006: Ecofreaking
The five-hour blitz game Ecofreak, a quick test of the economy, has ended successfully. Nothing broke. However, the testers felt that more volatility would be good, so we'll kick it up a notch for Juliet.
Congratulations to ZeManel, who came in first out of the field of 35.
-- Steve Jackson
February 3, 2006: New Games!
First, our thanks to all the India playtesters who have finished their questionnaire . . . and if you haven't, please do so!Now: TWO new games will start in the next few days. To sign up for either one, you will need to have finished a solo by conquering the whole cluster (and our records of who has finished solos may not be complete, so if you have not played one for a long while, go practice!). To sign up, go to the Lobby sometime between the time the game opens and the time it fills . . .
Ecofreak, a blitz game to test the economy, will run this Saturday, February 4. Don't sign up unless you want to spend the afternoon at the computer. The game will open Friday, probably in the evening, to minimize the number of people who reserve a space and then make other plans. :-( This will only be a 35-player game.
The first tick will take place at noon CST (which is GMT -6). The game will run for 17 more ticks - a total of 18 turns - just time enough to harass your neighbor a bit. The next eight turns will be 15 minutes each; the rest will be 20 minutes. The last tick will run at 5pm. You may want to keep a chat window open for fast diplomacy. Feel free to try to break or abuse the economy - that's what this is FOR.
Juliet, our first massive game with variant victory conditions, will open Monday, February 6. The first tick will run Wednesday, February 8 at 10pm CST. There will be a total of 20 turns. The game will have an economy unless Ecofreak finds big problems. The map has 529 homeworlds. Everyone will be Mah-Tog, and the object will be to control the most population so you can win the democratic election for Galactic Overlord. Info on unit stat changes will be posted before the game starts.
There will be a special rule for this scenario, which we will probably keep for similar games: inactive homeworlds (and we'll define "inactive" pretty tightly) will go nova. It will not be easy to snap up unguarded Mah-Tog homeworlds full of unspent ultranium. The surrounding Nobody worlds will remain, though.
-- Steve Jackson
January 28, 2006: Blitz Game
We ran a small blitz game today (Saturday 1/28) to test the new production code. Thanks to everyone who joined! Nothing crashed, and some new improvements were made while we played.
The next open game (Juliet) is expected to start later this week. We'll post an announcement when we've decided on a start date for that.
-KiraJanuary 22, 2006: Success In India
India is over, and we're very happy. At no time was play interrupted by a crash or major bug. Various minor bugs were found and fixed, and various features were added even as play continued.Of the 393 players who started, 287 finished. Only 120 worlds remained unowned after the last tick. Congratulations to Diggio, the Emperor of India, who ended the game with 69 worlds.
We'll have an announcement about the next game soon . . . possibly at, or right after, the post-game chat at 7pm CST Monday Jan. 23. Note that this chat uses the new UC chat, not the old Pyramid chat, so log in to India or a solo game and use the Com-Net chat button.
-- Steve Jackson
January 13, 2006: India Goes Well
Turn 12 (out of 20) ticks tonight. Things are going well; one horrible bug showed up in multi-player combat, and was squelched. We're filling in features, fixing mini-bugs, and discussing the next game.
Our current thinking: everyone will be Mah-Tog, and Steps Will Be Taken to prevent the homeworlds of inactive players from falling into the hands of their neighbors, at least early in the game.
-- Steve Jackson
January 1, 2006: India Is Full
All 393 slots are taken. (Why the funny number? The "galaxy" is circular, constructed in rings, and when we filled the outer ring of homeworlds, there were 393 this time.) Depending on how it goes, we may open another game soon. Or not. In the meantime, the solo game system is open, with the same revised unit stats we're using in India . . . feel free to try it!December 31, 2005: India Is Open!
The first big, open game with the new codebase is starting now. India is a circular galaxy with spaces for 393 players. It will lock when it's full, or after the first tick (10 pm Jan. 2). There are no restarts in this game . . . play to win!-- Steve Jackson
November 28, 2005: Thanks For Playing!
The Hotel solo playtest session is over, and no new solo games can be created now. If you have a game in progress, you have a few hours to finish it before we wipe the remaining games and tally results.
Please check the News page on Monday for a recap. We'll be sending you a link to the questionnaire soon, and will really appreciate it if you can take time to answer!
November 26, 2005: Hotel Is Open!
Our first open alpha-test session, Hotel, began last night. It's had a lot of players (136 games are in progress as I type), and hasn't blown up. Various small bugs have been identified; some have already been fixed.Hotel is solo play . . . you conquer a small cluster of worlds, moving at your own speed and ticking when you're ready. In particular, be sure to check out the new and improved autofleet system! And Kira wrote a leader board, visible on the lobby page.
You'll also be able to see the new blue "skin" on lobby and help pages, though not (yet) on the actual game pages.
Log in to www.ultracorps.com any time before 11:59:59 pm Sunday, give it a try, and post your comments on the forums! Monday we'll mail out a link to a short questionnaire. Please, please respond, and help us improve the game!
-- Steve Jackson
November 25, 2005: Open Alpha Begins
Our first open alpha-test session, Hotel, begins at midnight tonight . . . that is, in the tick between Friday the 25th and Saturday the 26th. Hotel will be solo play only . . . you'll conquer a small cluster of worlds, moving at your own speed and ticking when you're ready. In particular, be sure to check out the new and improved autofleet system!You'll also be able to see the new blue "skin" on lobby and help pages, though not (yet) on the actual game pages.
Log in to www.ultracorps.com any time between midnight tonight and 11:59:59 pm Sunday, give it a try, and post your comments on the forums! Monday we'll mail out a link to a short questionnaire. Please, please respond, and help us improve the game!
September 2, 2005: Goodbye, Prox
Prox was - that's right, was - the UltraCorps server we got from VR-1. A few days ago, we decided to take it out of service. Prox had eaten four hard drives, and it was never clear exactly why.Unfortunately, the latest fried drive brought the current game, Golf, to a premature end. We could, of course, keep sacrificing hard drives to the malign spirit that lives in the server, but we think we won't do that. And we cannot, at any reasonable cost, replicate the antique server and environment required to run the existing code.
So: Golf is dead; bye Golf. And this will be the last test we run with the VR-1 code.
Although Golf did not finish, it was a very instructive playtest, and we thank everyone who participated. It got within a few turns of ending . . . enough that we could see how the game went. There wasn't much left but the mopping-up. The static economy made data on what people are purchasing (in other words, which units people think are most valuable) a lot easier to interpret, and we may make static-economy games a continuing feature.
Playtesting now takes a breather while we bring our reimplementation of the code to a fully testable state.
-- Steve Jackson
August 21, 2005: Playing Golf
The "Echo" multiple-solo game went well; Foxtrot was a regular game, and now we're in the final stages of the 40-turn Golf, which admitted a lot more playtesters and is an experiment in removing the economic rules (everything has a fixed price). We also increased (doubled or better) all negative CA values and increased the defensive bonus of Sentinels of Garsasso and some other units, to see what happened when the balance of play was pushed more toward the defense.Conclusions so far: We probably overdid the change in balance. However, a game with a fixed economy is playable, and this might become one component of a learning scenario.
On the back end of development, we have created a wiki that documents the play of the game. We're using this as a baseline - and organizational template - for discussion of new or changed features.
-- Steve Jackson
July 1, 2005: New Code, New Scenario
We're currently running playtest game Echo, which uses newly written map generation code. It's also a test of a sort-of-solo scenario, which has possible applications both as a training game and as a "duplicate bridge" sort of contest. Basically, although an arbitrary number of players can be in the game, they can't fight. Your closest neighbor is far, far away, so what you're doing is trying to conquer the dozen or so planets that surround your homeworld. But the economic rules are still in force, so you still have to try to outguess the other players to get a good deal on the units you buy . . . and, of course, the sooner you can conquer your whole cluster, the better.-- Steve Jackson
June 6, 2005: Delta Finished
This 40-tick game is over. Appropriately, DeltaGreen was the winner in Delta. Several interesting things came out of this game:- The top six scorers, and one member of the three-way tie for 7th, were experienced players . . . but the Top 10 was rounded out by two complete newbies and one SJ Games staffer who had not played before we acquired UltraCorps . . . but has become pretty scary in just a few games.
- The two new units we added, the WarMek and the X-8 Assault Shuttle, both look like possible keepers. The WarMek may need to be a bit "bigger" for carrying purposes, and the Assault Shuttle may be a bit overpriced, but tweaking is easy.
- The old economy code is SO broken. We dug into it a bit because the WarMek price kept going down no matter how many were bought. We don't yet know what the problem is, but apparently the code isn't doing what it is supposed to do for many units . . . it just hasn't been as obvious as it was for the Meks. It is possible that the economy code never actually did what it should have done.
- Starting the Orn with an OMG (that's Orn Moon Gun, of course) really does make for an interesting setup.
Another test will start before too long, but we are still discussing what we will test. Two leading possibilities right now: a game with no unit price changes at all (since the code that controls that is known to be bad), and a game where your nearest neighbor is a huge distance away (which is a potential learning scenario).
-- Steve Jackson
May 7, 2005: Delta Thrives
Okay, that's a shout-out to Patrick Farley's webcomic. But it's also a status report.
The current playtest game, Delta, is going well after a dozen ticks. We have enough players that the economy is behaving more normally . . . though if you place a big enough order, you can still see the effects of your own purchasing next turn! The races and units seem closer to balanced, though more tweaks are needed . . . we seem to have made the Arachnons strong enough that they can be used as early-game griefers, and that's not good.
-- Steve Jackson
April 15, 2005: Launching Delta
Another closed playtest, with modified races and units, will begin soon. We now have a somewhat formal list of Things To Fix And In What Order, and are attaching dates to them.We have dealt with another round of server hiccups.
Exciting, no? All right, no, it doesn't sound exciting. But work is getting done.
-- Steve Jackson
March 20, 2005: Back In The Saddle
The team is back from the GAMA Trade Show. Everyone seems to have survived, and Leroy will get here soon. This week we'll meet and put together an action plan for the next month or so.Terminology note: I had been using the term "open beta" to describe the first game we open to everyone. I have been advised that "beta" is a term more properly used for a game that is THOUGHT to be ready to go . . . a test to look for unknown bugs. And we are not going to wait that long to do the first open game. So the official term for the first open game(s) is now Open Alpha (OA). Just so we're all on the same page.
When will that be, you ask? Hmm. We really have sorted out a lot of issues already. The game works. Not as well as it will this time next year, but it works! The big question with regard to the OA starting date is: how many of the old newbie-hostile features can we get changed beforehand? A problem with UC has been that a newbie could easily get a couple of bad starting positions, launch a couple of bad attacks, misunderstand a couple of key rules, and get chewed up enough times that he'd drop out before he found the fun. Obviously we don't want the OA to scare people away. Not everyone can win, but once you find the fun, UltraCorps can be a great experience win or lose. So that's a big part of what we are thinking about now.
-- Steve Jackson
March 4, 2005: Now That Was Neat!
I just got off the phone with Brandon Gillam, one of the original designers of UltraCorps and the creator of the great art that gives the game so much of its flavor. It was a fantastic call, and I'm now stoked. The stories he told about the ancient days just blew me away. He hadn't known that UC was being resurrected, and he's pleased. To put it mildly.I love the idea of him being involved again!
Okay, you all want a status report too. The bad news, at least from the "immediate progress" standpoint, is that the Game Developers Conference, immediately followed by the GAMA Trade Show, will be distracting our team here for the next couple of weeks. The good news is we have hired a new full-time employee, Leroy Everett, who will be putting about half his hours into UltraCorps. The other half of his time will go into webmastering, which will free up a great deal of Giles' time for . . . UltraCorps. Net result: approximately one more full-time UC developer. Leroy will get here before the end of the month, and the milestones will start coming closer together.
-- Steve Jackson
February 19, 2005: More Tweaking
We've started a couple more small alpha games to test various changes, including different inputs for the systems that create the map and starting setups. We have invited a few of the Old Faithful UltraCorps Veterans to join these . . . watch the forum for their reactions. The tutorial has been overhauled (though not for the last time) and the online help - a.k.a. Rules Of The Game - is getting attention this weekend.
We're still not ready to announce a date for the first open game, but we can see it getting closer.
January 29, 2005: Blitz Game
So . . . on Saturday a number of staffers, and a couple of local MIBs, came by the office, and we had a LAN party for UltraCorps . . . with a few [Not Available At Your Clearance] logging in remotely. It went pretty well. The first couple of hours were rough, as in "Did we break the program?!?" rough. Then the problem was identified. One spurious character brought down the entire "battle reports" subroutine, not just on this game but on the others on the server.Fortunately, Giles fixed it.
It was an interesting session. We are finding more and more reasons why small "blitz" games are just Not What This Code Was Made For. It really was designed for massively multiplayer games running once a day; it appears that if you try to run three ticks an hour, it doesn't get enough time for housecleaning. So we learned a lot. But we still had fun with our new computer game!
-- Steve Jackson
January 28, 2005: Testing Unit and Race Changes
It's been a good week. We have a backup of the UC drive, and it seems to be working fine; we have restarted Alpha and it's ticking from the backup. And we believe that we have identified and cured the server's restarting problems (power fluctuations thanks to an interestingly wired switch).The firewall is up.
We have updated the database with a lot of changes to racial and unit stats, based on player input on the forums. This weekend we'll run a "blitz" game (ticking every quarter-hour or so) with a dozen players. Next week we'll report on how that went and what it means in terms of progress toward letting YOU play.
January 15, 2005: Small Bad News, Big Good News
First the bad news: the UltraCorps hardware is sick. The server which we acquired from Jaleco has started rebooting spontanously. We've quit ticking Alpha and redirected our efforts from "get firewall up and launch closed Beta" to "replicate server NOW and retire the old hard drive to archival status."
Now the good news: The above is a speedbump, not a stone wall. Overall, things have gone well enough that UltraCorps is getting its own personnel budget; it is no longer one of the projects that we work on "in between things." (Having dedicated personnel was always the plan, but now it's reality.) Giles Schildt is now officially the Producer for UltraCorps. It will be getting about half his time as soon as he finishes handing off his Webmaster duties. UltraCorps will get about another 20 hours a week from others; Giles will coordinate their efforts. So that's the equivalent of one full-time employee devoted to the game. This should make a difference very soon.
December 25, 2004: Christmas Progress Report
Alpha has quit ticking for the holidays, but as of now we have still found no major problems and we continue to unravel the code.The answer to the VFAQ "When can I play, huh, huh?" is still "As soon as we're ready."
I hope that won't be too long. We have brought in two more systems - one to be the firewall, one to be a second UC machine - and we have purchased duplicates of the server and SQL software necessary to make UC tick. (So to speak.) That will give us a system on which we can try more adventurous tweaks without risking the whole game.
Our first day back in the office is Jan. 3. As soon as the inevitable sysadmin fires are put out, Giles and Nathan will set up the firewall so we can allow connections from outside. Once that's fine and dandy, we will be able to start a closed beta. Timing on the public beta will depend, obviously, on how the closed beta goes!
December 17, 2004: Progress Continues
We have made a number of successful changes in the database, without breaking anything. Now we're asking users on the forums to suggest the changes in unit abilities, startups, etc., that they'd like to see in the first open game, and we're working on the formal plan for launching the first (closed) beta.December 8, 2004: Alpha Continues
Alpha, our in-house test game, is continuing smoothly. We are beginning to experiment with database changes for unit stats, race startups, and so on. So far we don't seem to have broken anything . . .November 23, 2004: And Here We Go!
Our first alpha game has started. In-house only, so we can see what sort of bugs pop up . . . but it's a game! Props to Nathan Eliot for persistent unraveling of the code, and to Les Barstow for sage advice ("Just ignore that error message and go on.")
We'll tick Alpha a couple of times tomorrow, and then put it on hold for Thanksgiving. Then we'll do a tick every weeknight once we get back. We should wind up with between 8 to 10 players in this one. It will be interesting to see how UC works as a merely multiplayer (rather than massively multiplayer) game.
November 19, 2004: Pointers
Jaleco has now transferred us the ultracorps.com domain, and any attempt to reach that domain now goes to our UltraCorps page.November 12, 2004: Credits!
We've now heard from several people who have been significantly involved with UltraCorps . . . most recently Stan James. Who's Stan? Just the original designer of the game. Woot! Thanks to Stan, we have enough historical information to post a credits page.Not much progress on the server front, not because it's that hard, but because until the beginning of the week we had only one person who is competent to track down those IP addresses, and Giles had too much on his plate. Nathan Eliot is now here and working, and progress will happen.
October 22, 2004: Hacking Away
Three of us are putting in a late Friday right now, working with the UltraCorps server. It runs, but not completely. In particular, we can't yet set up new accounts, and we can't get it to tick. Best guess right now is that it has to do with a whole lot of hard-coded net addresses which we'll have to find and correct, one at a time.October 15, 2004: SJ Games Purchases UltraCorps
Steve Jackson Games has bought all rights to UltraCorps and will be relaunching the game soon, first as an open beta and then as a full-featured pay-to-play project. Details of the schedule will be announced as we figure them out!
Steve Jackson's comment was: "I bought this game because I really liked it. It's challenging and fun. It was ahead of its time and ahead of its market, but we're going to give it a good home, and I think a lot of our fans will like UltraCorps as much as I did."
