5 ms·

Empire of Code: a space game with a mix of strategy, tactics and coding

61 points by tokai 11y ago

sxp 11y ago
This is a fun game in theory, but it's hard to write complex code which makes it frustrating in practice. The JS code is sent to the server and executed before actually running on the client. This makes debugging issues difficult. Combined with bad API documentation, it is frustrating to write AI logic for complex situations.
- oduvan 11y ago
  The documentation for AI have been refactored recently we will update documentation in a couple days
tarr11 11y ago
Please let us try it without authenticating.
pnt12 11y ago
Cool idea, but feels very unpolished: - it's tough to discover the APIs (codinggame does it by describing all data elements and actions in a simple digest) - UI should be more descriptive (just add some text to the buttons!). Recognition before recall is very important: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/ http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/ . - couldn't complete the tutorial, the game either crashed or froze Regarding the game elements, I personally hate waiting games with pay to win options. I was curious to discover more, but that made me give up right then.
- oduvan 11y ago
  > I personally hate waiting games with pay to win options The game doesn't have pay to win option.
relkor 11y ago
If you do not enable the tracking scripts on the page (google analytics) then the "/game" entry point after signup just endlessly reloads itself automatically in Firefox 42.0. I can watch the page load resources in the developer console. There are a couple of different stopping points. One is when it loads all the way to /api/user-config while the tab has focus, then it starts reloading. Another case is where I leave the tab, then I load all the way to /api/tutorial/?userBase=XXXXXX&tutorial=true plus some images (ending with logo.png). As soon as the tab gains focus again, it triggers a reload.
- oduvan 11y ago
  Do you see the same behaviour with all dev tools turned off?
  - relkor 11y ago
    Yes. I orginally tried the page in a vanilla browser. What I then observed was a black page, which the game logo would then appear and then fade out. Sometimes I get a splash screen with a tip centered at the bottom of the page. Then the page would go black again. This cycle has a period of 3-5 seconds. I had never seen this behavior from a website before, so I opened up the dev tools to try to figure out what was going on. That is when I discovered the page was reloading itself. Without the dev tools, the address bar does not indicate that the page is reloading. There is no clue for a regular user what is going on other than this weird looping that does not let the user interact with anything. I would be happy to collect more information for you, because this bug feels interesting. A dependence on google analytics scripts is something that I have never encountered before. If you are doing some kind of strange hack to get extra bandwidth out of google or getting google to do some sort of computation for you using their tracking scripts a la AWS Lambda then that might be a more interesting article for HN. PM me if there is any specific tests or information you need. I use NoScript, and when I signed up I enabled the empireofcode.com domain for scripts. I will never enable the domain google-analytics.com to serve JavaScript.
tonetheman 11y ago
Yeah the authentication/signup part is a bit confusion (or did not work maybe). When you pick github it just keep redirecting back to the signup page... I could not get google to work either. I kept looking at the page... maybe I missed something. Good luck! The marketing stuff looked nice.
- Apocryphon 11y ago
  Ran into this same issue in Chrome.
- MartynX 11y ago
  It appeared to just be using it to fill in the username field for you...
- oduvan 11y ago
  Hi there. We are working on fixing auth right now. Sorry for inconvenience.
g_delgado14 11y ago
For some reason the roboto font couldn't load on my macbook (chrome) and defaulted to a serif font.
npstr 11y ago
My code never gets checked.
- oduvan 11y ago
  It is fixed already
TheDong 11y ago
I think the best game I've found based on writing code as part of the game so far was untrusted: https://alexnisnevich.github.io/untrusted/ https://alexnisnevich.github.io/untrusted/ Really fun, really well made. This one, I had too much trouble getting started to do anything
chatwinra 11y ago
Cool game! Here are some of my thoughts from playing the first 5 minutes: - really like the visual style. Consistent and distinct - it was annoying that I had to sign in via github and THEN sign up again: I just want to play the game!! - The coding aspect seems really well integrated and exciting - The tutorial ended kind of abruptly. I was lost about what to do after destroying the first base - The options between 'python' and 'javascript' doesn't seem that impactful. I know they're different languages, but does it have an impact on how the game plays? IF not, there's potential to use a language's strengths/weaknesses as part of the game - why does the 'speed up construction' button exist??? (as in, why would I not want construction to go at full pace?) Best of luck with the game!
smi1e 11y ago
nice
katrin2012 11y ago
Interesting game.

61 points by tokai 11y ago

sxp 11y ago

This is a fun game in theory, but it's hard to write complex code which makes it frustrating in practice. The JS code is sent to the server and executed before actually running on the client. This makes debugging issues difficult. Combined with bad API documentation, it is frustrating to write AI logic for complex situations.

oduvan 11y ago
The documentation for AI have been refactored recently we will update documentation in a couple days

tarr11 11y ago

Please let us try it without authenticating.

pnt12 11y ago

Cool idea, but feels very unpolished: - it's tough to discover the APIs (codinggame does it by describing all data elements and actions in a simple digest) - UI should be more descriptive (just add some text to the buttons!). Recognition before recall is very important: http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/ http://www.nngroup.com/articles/ten-usability-heuristics/ . - couldn't complete the tutorial, the game either crashed or froze Regarding the game elements, I personally hate waiting games with pay to win options. I was curious to discover more, but that made me give up right then.

oduvan 11y ago
> I personally hate waiting games with pay to win options The game doesn't have pay to win option.

relkor 11y ago

If you do not enable the tracking scripts on the page (google analytics) then the "/game" entry point after signup just endlessly reloads itself automatically in Firefox 42.0. I can watch the page load resources in the developer console. There are a couple of different stopping points. One is when it loads all the way to /api/user-config while the tab has focus, then it starts reloading. Another case is where I leave the tab, then I load all the way to /api/tutorial/?userBase=XXXXXX&tutorial=true plus some images (ending with logo.png). As soon as the tab gains focus again, it triggers a reload.

oduvan 11y ago
Do you see the same behaviour with all dev tools turned off?
- relkor 11y ago
  Yes. I orginally tried the page in a vanilla browser. What I then observed was a black page, which the game logo would then appear and then fade out. Sometimes I get a splash screen with a tip centered at the bottom of the page. Then the page would go black again. This cycle has a period of 3-5 seconds. I had never seen this behavior from a website before, so I opened up the dev tools to try to figure out what was going on. That is when I discovered the page was reloading itself. Without the dev tools, the address bar does not indicate that the page is reloading. There is no clue for a regular user what is going on other than this weird looping that does not let the user interact with anything. I would be happy to collect more information for you, because this bug feels interesting. A dependence on google analytics scripts is something that I have never encountered before. If you are doing some kind of strange hack to get extra bandwidth out of google or getting google to do some sort of computation for you using their tracking scripts a la AWS Lambda then that might be a more interesting article for HN. PM me if there is any specific tests or information you need. I use NoScript, and when I signed up I enabled the empireofcode.com domain for scripts. I will never enable the domain google-analytics.com to serve JavaScript.

tonetheman 11y ago

Yeah the authentication/signup part is a bit confusion (or did not work maybe). When you pick github it just keep redirecting back to the signup page... I could not get google to work either. I kept looking at the page... maybe I missed something. Good luck! The marketing stuff looked nice.

Apocryphon 11y ago
Ran into this same issue in Chrome.
MartynX 11y ago
It appeared to just be using it to fill in the username field for you...
oduvan 11y ago
Hi there. We are working on fixing auth right now. Sorry for inconvenience.

g_delgado14 11y ago

For some reason the roboto font couldn't load on my macbook (chrome) and defaulted to a serif font.

npstr 11y ago

My code never gets checked.

oduvan 11y ago
It is fixed already

TheDong 11y ago

I think the best game I've found based on writing code as part of the game so far was untrusted: https://alexnisnevich.github.io/untrusted/ https://alexnisnevich.github.io/untrusted/ Really fun, really well made. This one, I had too much trouble getting started to do anything

chatwinra 11y ago

Cool game! Here are some of my thoughts from playing the first 5 minutes: - really like the visual style. Consistent and distinct - it was annoying that I had to sign in via github and THEN sign up again: I just want to play the game!! - The coding aspect seems really well integrated and exciting - The tutorial ended kind of abruptly. I was lost about what to do after destroying the first base - The options between 'python' and 'javascript' doesn't seem that impactful. I know they're different languages, but does it have an impact on how the game plays? IF not, there's potential to use a language's strengths/weaknesses as part of the game - why does the 'speed up construction' button exist??? (as in, why would I not want construction to go at full pace?) Best of luck with the game!

smi1e 11y ago

nice

katrin2012 11y ago

Interesting game.