Go to: https://apps.facebook.com/threshwars/

Keep in mind:

• This is an early beta.
• If this goes well, we will add a lot more features.

Please let us know:

1. Did you enjoy playing and do you want more?
2. What things did you LIKE and NOT LIKE about it?
3. Do you want more solo campaigns OR player-vs-player features?
4. Any ideas, criticism, or comments.

Go to: https://apps.facebook.com/threshwars/

Leave comments here or send directly to: rikk@cloudplay.com.

As you may know, TW was sick recently (see previous posts) and we were able to fully resuscitate the game with no losses. But during the down-time, we had an opportunity to reflect, and came to the same conclusion–that many others already came to–it’s time to let it go. So, rather than restart the game for an inevitable slow demise, we opted to pull the plug now.

Sincere thanks to the many passionate Thresh Wars players and fans. We enjoyed playing and working with you, and thank you for your interest. We hope to see you again in our next game.

Please feel free to contact me: rikk@cloudplay.com.

P.S. I will write a postmortem on Thresh Wars when the smoke has cleared…

So, unless a miracle occurs, I expect to be issuing an official end of life to Thresh Wars later this week.

A big thank you and apology to the players that have enjoyed the game and have hung in there with us. We gave it our best shot plus some, we spent far too much time and money on it, and the writing is on the wall.

If you wish to contact to me directly, please email: rikk@cloudplay.com

Best case scenario:  We are back to where we were yesterday morning (anything that happened yesterday is gone forever)

Worst case scenario: I’m afraid to even say it…

A Mutual Draw?  (bad idea)

Several players have suggested we add a “draw” feature. This would enable the players to mutually agree on a tie (i.e. draw). It would not count as a win or a loss. However, I really hate this idea because:

• Players have invested a lot of time and don’t want to feel it was wasted!
• Stalemate endings are extremely boring and unsatisfying!

So, I really, really don’t like this idea.

Ideas

1. Random Death or Desertion: Automatically ecognize that the battle is “stalled” and at the start of each stalled round, a random unit is killed or removed from each team. This forces them to try SOMETHING to avoid the random death.
2. Mini-Game Decider: If a battle stalls, offer the players a mini-game (e.g. Rock-Paper-Scissors) to end the draw.
3. Score Determines Winner:  Automatically determine that the battle has been stalled too long (e.g. 2-3 rounds) and end the battle.  The winner is determined by who has the most points. If the points are tied, we will use another deterministic factor (e.g. sum of all unit health) to determine the winner. etc.  This would happen automatically!

Do you have ideas on how to end draws?  Or feedback on the ideas above?

Thresh Wars needs a Map Editor to enable our players to create their own battle maps. If you (or someone you know) is a competent software programmer and interested in working on this fun project, please let us know.

Unfortunately, we cannot pay cash since the game is not profitable yet. We looking for an adventurous student or experienced pro who has the time, interest, and ability. Of course, if the game does turn a profit, we would be more than happy to compensate for the work later. And, we can award plenty of Yin for this person now!

Programmer Requirements

• Software programming experience: You must have software programming experience and can work independently (a powerful computer with the necessary tools).
• You must be familiar with Flash or Flex or AJAX application or HTML5 software development. [I'm open to other ideas...]
• A computer science student (or other technical area) or have worked in the software industry writing code.
• Able to work independently. We’ll give you the specs, lots of advice and help, but you must be able to build a software application.

Project Details

• Preferred Approach = Flash (AIR) Application: I believe this is the best way to go because its guaranteed to work on all computers and has lots of components that will make this easier. If it were me, I’d used Flex to build the Flash app, but that’s not a requirement. I can explain later why AIR is needed, but trivial.
• Alternative Approach = AJAX or HTML5 Application: This project COULD be done as an AJAX application, but imo will be a lot more effort (you gonna need a server!).

Simple Test

If these questions are not trivial to answer, the project is probably too much for you:

• What is a compiler?
• What does client-server mean?
• How many bits in a typical pixel?
• What are the RGB values for yellow?
• What is an image layer?
• What is the meaning of the universe?

Scope

The great news about this project is that it can be done in small steps:

1. Read a TW map and display it in your app.
2. Write a new TW map to disk from your app.
3. Now add one little feature at a time:
1. Start with flat maps (i.e. ignore elevation).
2. Use rectangles only to draw the terrain.
3. etc.
4. etc.

Other Map or Pixel Editors

Tiled Map Editor: http://www.mapeditor.org/

Picnick: http://www.picknick.com

If you or someone you know is interested, please contact me: rikk@cloudplay.com.

• How-to  videos are preferred over random game videos or funny stuff.
• All videos must be on YouTube before we review them.
• Please follow the Guidelines below!

How to Submit Your Video

Send an email to rikk@cloudplay.com with a link to your video.

There are two possibilites for publishing:

1. We add your video to the Thresh Wars YouTube Channel.  We’ll add anything reasonable here.
2. We add to the actual game!  These videos must adhere strictly to the Guidelines below and be of good quality (i.e. a normal person can understand it).  We may suggest changes before we publish here.

Guidelines for Making a TW Video

If you follow these principles, your chances of getting your video posted in the game are MUCH HIGHER!

0. Please focus on new users first.  These are the folks that really need the help.

1. Short and concise! (e.g. 2 minutes)

2. Guide the viewer via text overlays and/or voice-over (i.e. assume the Viewer is very slow and needs to their hand held!)  Voice-over is very, very hard to get right.  Overlay text is much easier to execute.
If using text overlays:
- make sure the text is clear and large enuff to read/notice
- make sure it stays long enuff to read
- try to keep the pace and frequency of the text overlays “just right”
- IMO: insert a text overlay EVERY TIME the turn switches from one player to the other

3. Always use the ALLIED player as the “point of view” of the video (e.g. if how to kill a BS, make sure the ALLIED player kills the BS)

4. Delete dead air from the video (use Imovie, Camtasia, YouTube editing, or whatever).

5. Big, centered title text at start (~5 seconds). For example:

THRESH WARS
How to Kill a Battle Station
by name, name, name

6. Music:  If you want music its fine, just make sure its not over-powering or distracting.

7. Crisp ending: Big, centered text at end (10 seconds?) For example:

CONCLUSION: We hope you learned how to kill battlestations.
Send comments and questions…. etc.

We plan to test out some early ideas for tournaments next week.  These early tournaments will be 100% run by players (admins)! Winners will be listed on the site, granted permission to add a badge to their nickname, and receive Yin awards. If this goes well, we will try to do this regularly. If it goes really well, we will add this formally to the game itself.

More info COMING SOON!

Tournaments

1. BEGINNERS-only Tournaments (Privates only!)

These are for beginners.

Details: TBD

2. DOUBLES Tournaments

These are for teams of two players of any rank. Find a partner and join the tourney as a team.

Details: TBD

3. MASTERS Tournaments (rank limit?)

These are for advanced (or courageous) players with large armies. It will be hard to compete at this level without premium units!

Details: TBD

Rules

TBD

Awards

TBD

More info COMING SOON!

_____________________________________________
IMPORTANT: Several players have asked if they can create maps:

The bad news:
1) its not automated,
2) it takes a LOT of work,
3) we won’t be able to handle many requests.

The good news: if you are able to create a map, we will test it out.

So, if you are interested in creating a map:
1) read this article carefully,
2) send me an email to let me know if you are going to create a map
(so that I have an idea of how many are coming) -> rikk@cloudplay.com
_____________________________________________

INTRODUCTION

This first post explains how to create FLAT MAPS! I will explain later how to add elevation later! [Trust me, its very difficult to add elevation and have it work properly in the game.]

You don’t need to be an artist! But, you do need to follow these directions! It’s fine if the pixel artwork is sketchy… we can help with that AFTER we have a map that plays well. But, the terrain image and parameters need to be quite precise (or the map will not work).

REQUIREMENTS = Pixel Editor

You must have a “pixel editor” application that creates/edits PNG files:

GIMP: (windows/mac/unix) FREE! Open-source, powerful! http://www.gimp.org/about/introduction.html
Paint Net: (windows) FREE! Looks good on paper.  http://www.getpaint.net
Paint Shop Pro: (windows) http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1184951547051#versionTabview=tab1&tabview=tab0
Adobe Photoshop Elements: (windows/mac) A cheaper, simpler Photoshop. More than adequate for the job. http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopel/
Adobe Photoshop: Expensive! (windows/mac) Clearly the world’s best, but VERY expensive.  (30-day free trial!) http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html
Adobe Fireworks: Expensive! (windows/mac) My personal favorite, but still quite expensive. (30-day free trial!) http://www.adobe.com/products/fireworks.html

BASICS

Thresh Wars maps are composed of three pieces (2 image files + some data):

1. Terrain image file: a PNG image that defines the rules of unit movement and the elevation of the map,
2. Map Parameters: details/rules of the map,
3. Pixel image file: this image is just for show; it has no effect on the game mechanics!

Warning: Creating a good map is hard work! It will take many hours and iteration to create one good map.

STEP 1: Develop A Battle Concept!

This is the most important thing to get right!

[I know, you're probably thinking "but the pixels and story are the fun part!" and you really want to focus on that cuz you have this great story idea, etc.... I know, I know. But like most things in life, success comes from doing the hard work up front and postponing the gratification of the fun part for later... trust me on this!!]

Answer these questions BEFORE you start designing your map:

• What kind of battle scenario am I trying to create?
  e.g. an epic battle with lots of units and several players battling it out in the middle,
  e.g. a small, 1×1 battle that can be played in 30 minutes with limited units (e.g. infantry) and very strategic moves,
  e.g. a 1×4 defense battle, where one player must defend against a surrounding army of four enemy players,
  e.g. a battle for high ground (very hard to do),
  e.g. a battle that requires cooperation.
• How many players are ideal for the battle? Focus your design on a very specific # players per team and do not worry about the cases with fewer players. e.g. 1×1, 2×2, 3×3, 1×3, etc.
• How long should a typical battle on this map take to complete?  20 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, 1 week?
• Is this battle for beginners, moderate, or advanced players? Consider the abilities of the players and the size of their armies.
• Do I want to restrict the units types for the battle?  e.g. infantry only, no artillery, etc.
• Will the battle use Repair Stations and/or Deploy Stations? If so, how will they be used?
• Deploy Stations can make the battles longer and favor advanced players with lots of units. So be careful here.
• Keep in mind that both DSs and RSs can be destroyed, as well as protected with obstructions.

If you have answered these questions, you are ready to start…

STEP 2: Paper Sketch

Grab a pencil and graph paper, and try to sketch out the key elements of the map (rectangles only!). Each grid square on the graph paper corresponds to a grid on the terrain map.

This has NOTHING to do with artwork.  Do not worry about art (i.e. the Pixel Image) until everything else is done!

Here are the key elements of a map:

• Initial Deploy Zones for each player & team (these must be squares, any size, e.g. 35×35).
• Obstructions (i.e. areas where NO UNITS can move and all shots are blocked). These are rectangles on the grid.
• Restricted Unit Movement areas: these are rectangles on the grid that restrict unit size (e.g. units of size 3 or less).
• Location of Structures: these are all squares
  
• Large Deploy Stations: large (no unit restrictions) size = 18×18, (deploy distance = 23)
• Infantry Deploy Stations: size = 7×7, (deploy distance = 7)
• Large Repair Stations:  size = 17×17, (deploy distance = 34)
• Small Repair Stations: size = 7×7, (deploy distance = 34)
• Command Centers: size = 18×18

The following diagram shows an example of a Infantry Deploy Station. First, notice the location (x,y): this is the grid coordinates of the upper-left corner of the structure. Now, notice the size of the unit: in this case it’s 7×7. Now, notice the deploy distance, which is measured from the center of the unit. It’s critical to ensure that Structures do not overlap other units OR their deploy distances!

You also want to think about how the battle will flow over time. Think carefully about three the phases of very battle:

1. Early phase: This refers to the initial deploy (round 0) and the first few rounds. Most players set their strategy here.
2. Middle phase: This is where the battle get going and where most of the action is. It’s good to consider alternate strategies and provide different ways to win the battle, e.g. straight ahead shoot out, flanking, resource wins, sneak attacks, etc.
3. End game: At some point, key actions in the battle will determine the end game. This phase is where the battle is won or lost, and the final rounds to close it out.

This is the truly hard part of map design and requires the most thought, but more imporantly, it requires testing!

Here’s a quick example of a paper sketch:

STEP 3: Terrain Image File

Warning: Creating a good map is hard work! It will take many hours and iteration to create one good map.

Note that image files are really just a rectangular collection of pixels, where a pixel is defined by a red, green, and blue value, in the range of 0 to 255. For example, a bright red pixel would be: r=255, g=0, b=0, and a medium yellow pixel would be: r=128, g=128, b=0.

The terrain image tells the game which units can move on which areas of the map AND the elevation of the land at each point on the map. For example, a forest area can be created that only allows infantry. Or a wall can be created that does not allow any units to move through it and will block shots.

Here’s how it works:

• The red colors in the image defines the movement (and cover) rules (i.e. which units can move where on the map).
• The green colors in the image defines the map elevation.
• The blue colors in the image are ignored.

Very important: The terrain image is 108x SMALLER than the pixel image (i.e. artwork). This is because each terrain pixel represents a 12×9 block of pixels on the pixel image. Thus, one terrain pixel defines the terrain values for 108 pixels of the artwork pixels (i.e. a 12×9 rectangle of pixels)!

Here’s a very simple example:

IMPORTANT: Do not use any colors in the Terrain Image besides the following:

1. Obstructions = (0,255,0) = “100% green”: Block ALL units from moving and block shots from passing through.

2. Restricted unit movement areas:
(0,0,0)   = No movement allowed. Shots are not blocked across these areas!
(32,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 2 or less. (e.g. small infantry only)
(48,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 3 or less. (e.g. most infantry only)
(64,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 4 or less.  (e.g. all infantry only)
(80,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 5 or less.
(96,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 6 or less.
(112,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 7 or less.
(128,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 8 or less.
(144,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 9 or less.
(160,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 10 or less.
(176,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 11 or less.
(192,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 12 or less.
(208,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 13 or less.
(224,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 14 or less.
(240,0,0) = Restricted to units of size 15 or less.
(255,0,0) = No restrictions = open map.

IMPORTANT: Do not use any anti-aliasing or blurring in the Terrain Image file since this will result in colors OTHER THAN the ones lists above. It will break your map! Therefore, the Terrain Image file must be very crisp, blocky, and follow the colors listed above exactly!

A Note on Cover: As described earlier, the red colors define in the Terrain Image define the Movement Rules for units (i.e. which units can move on which parts of the map). Note that when playing the game, these units that are allowed into these regions ALSO GET ADDITIONAL ARMOR. The lower the red value, the more the additional armor the unit gets. For example, if the value is (32,0,0) that means that only units of size 2 or less are allowed in these area, AND it means that these units get the maximum additional armor. The idea is that the smaller the unit, the more trees/cover protecting them.

STEP 4: Map Parameters

coming soon…

STEP 5: Pixel Image File

When creating a map, start with VERY, VERY simple pixels. Black and white sketches are fine. If you spend a lot of time on the pixels BEFORE the map has been tested by real players, you are guaranteed to waste your time.

STRONG RECOMMENDATION: Create the first pixels with little or no color!

What size does the Pixel Image file need to be?

width = 12 x width of Terrain Image file
height = 9 x height of Terrain Image file

What is a good way to start?

1. Copy the Terrain Image file to a new file (e.g. fred_map_terrain.pmng -> fred_map_pixels.png).
2. Open the new file in your pixel application and change the image size to 12x width and 9x height.
3. Colorize and add some stuff.  Make sure to maintain registration with details from the Terrain Image file.

WHAT DO I DO NOW?

If you have followed the steps above and think you have a working map:

Send one email to me with the two images as attachments AND include the Parameters in the email body. Send -> rikk@cloudplay.com.

We will review your map. If its reasonable & works, we’ll test the map in the game!

We’ll also give you free Khora Cash.  The better the map, the more KC you get.

It is not done!  Please provide suggestions and feedback here.

The map is called: Attrition 4×4:

Here’s the terrain map, in case you are interested:

red = Cover/obstruction (0=completely obstructed, 16=units of size 2 or less can enter and gain some cover, 24= units of size 3 or less, …, 255 = open)
green = Elevation (its a flat map, but I made the barriers very high)