6 ms·

A few months ago I've found this browser-based game which ditches the whole 3D game ui directly and allows you to do all your spreadsheet planning right there.

A few months ago I've found this browser-based game which ditches the whole 3D game ui directly and allows you to do all your spreadsheet planning right there. https://prosperousuniverse.com/ https://prosperousuniverse.com/

Drakim 3y ago
Prosperous Universe is really great, I highly recommend it. Prosperous Universe Honest Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODecu2voAh8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODecu2voAh8
- prox 3y ago
  Haha, that trailer is great.
twoquestions 3y ago
If you like that and 18th century naval history, you'll also like Rule the Waves 3, which also makes no bones about being a spreadsheet sim. Definitely on my wishlist! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2008100/Rule_the_Waves_3/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2008100/Rule_the_Waves_3/
science4sail 3y ago
If you want a 4x space strategy game with a enterprise business software UI, then I'd recommend Aurora 4X. It's a great way to feel like a galactic bureaucrat. Forum: https://aurora2.pentarch.org/ https://aurora2.pentarch.org/ Wiki: https://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php https://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php Video (previous version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xhUGGEnJcU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xhUGGEnJcU
- giancarlostoro 3y ago
  Never seen this, but it looks like originally it was VB6 and he is working on (or has completed) a C# based remake. I recognized the form icon on the youtube video and nostalgia kicked in.
- the_only_law 3y ago
  Interesting. I considered doing something like this after getting frustrated with the typical game engines. I wanted to make a grand strategy game, but utilizing an MDI style UI as I knew I could focus on building out the game itself without having to put too much effort into designing the UI within whatever engine was being used and just embed a graphics library for drawing the actual game visuals. I had some trouble getting the embedding to work quite right, but I might try an pick the project up again sometime. I know I’ve seen other games use this UI style before, but I haven’t heard of the one you posted, and can’t recall whatever game is hidden in the back of my mind. Command: Modern Operations comes to mind, but is a bit fancier.
HeckFeck 3y ago
Not to mention https://www.pardus.at https://www.pardus.at This one has a clicky tile-based UI and a space economy simulation.
imtringued 3y ago
Prosperous universe players don't use Excel, they use Google sheets because of significant collaboration between players. The main spreadsheet of a corporation may have hundreds of tabs and runs into the 10 million cell limit all the time. The spreadsheets run Javascript code to import data from a tool called FIO. A major downside is that these spreadsheets end up taking forever to update. You change one thing and wait five minutes for it to finish updating cells.
- artemonster 3y ago
  is in on youtube? would love to see it
- CuriousCosmic 3y ago
  Honestly that sounds like the community is going to need to learn SQL and start moving into proper DBMS.
  - hinkley 3y ago
    There was a brief period where browsers almost exposed a sqlite engine, but that went away. But I thought I heard there's a wasm version out there, so aim for the fences.
robertlagrant 3y ago
I remember playing Planetarion[0] in 2000/2001. Amazingly, it's still going! [0] https://www.planetarion.com https://www.planetarion.com
frakkingcylons 3y ago
More details: this game is an economic MMO. If a major player that used to produce a huge chunk of the supply of coffee suddenly decides to quit, then everyone in the market for coffee will notice. Fortunately, almost everyone needs coffee (it makes your production times faster), so ideally someone steps up to fill that supply because they know the demand is there. Things take hours to do. Fly a ship from Deimos to the commodity exchange at Antares Station? That's going to take 7 hours (like 7 _real_ hours). A smelter facility will take 10 real hours to smelt a batch of aluminum. You want to be a real good planner. Unless you like having to wait another day because you miscalculated the amount of flux needed to run your smelters, causing your aluminum production to run idle for half a day. Where do you sell your goods? Well there's six commodity exchanges spread across the galaxy which accept one of the four currencies used in the galaxy (and yes there's FX markets). The bid/ask for goods varies so you'll want to decide where it may be optimal to sell (fuel isn't free!). You don't have to ship it yourself though, you can post a contract at your planet for someone else to ship your goods and deliver them within X days for a price. This game is crazy. I have somehow ended up in a position where I now pay money to pretend to be a supply chain analyst and write my own ERP software. These are the scripts I use to run my company: `csv.py` - converts exchange and inventory data to csvs `production_line.py` - performs analysis of current production lines as described in `data/production_lines.json` `analysis_increment.py` - Based on current production lines, gives a list of next building/recipe to invest sorted by ROI days `analysis_multi_step.py` - Starting from current production lines, plots out the next several buildings/recipes to invest in based on their ROI days `analysis_supply.py` - Gives a per-planet supply breakdown including planned productionn lines if included `analysis_vertical.py` - Given a material ticker, returns an analysis of production lines with varying degrees of vertical integration to produce the given material. `analysis_arbitrage_trip.py` - Takes origin, destination, capital, profit threshold, mass, and volume. Will give a list of materials to buy at origin at ask prices which then must be sold ASAP at destination bid prices
- athom 3y ago
  Point given for "write my own ERP software." I work with that stuff on a daily basis, and am actually thinking of trying just that.
geek_at 3y ago
Oh my god that reminds me so much on oldschool browser games (before/without flash or JS). My favourites were Ogame [1] and Galaxywars [2] which were both unplayable after a few months because you were just raided every day without a chance to bounce back and balancing in general was horrible. Still good memories though because the game continued when you were not online. You sent an attack that took 8 hours on way so after 8 Hours you know if you succeeded and after 16 hours had your loot and ships back (or not) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGame https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGame [2] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxywars https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxywars (german only sadly)
- pdntspa 3y ago
  Oh the good old days of Planetarion and Hyperiums (I think both are still running, too?)
  - karpour 3y ago
    Wow, I didn't expect someone to remember Planetarion! I played it back then but I have no idea how popular it was overall.
    - pdntspa 3y ago
      It seemed pretty niche back then. I was drawn to it because it could be played in a web browser on my highschool's locked down computers and wasn't well-known enough to be blocked. Plus it looked very spreadsheety
- wwilim 3y ago
  There were three types of kids in Poland in the early 00s, those who had no Internet access, those on dial-up who played Ogame, and those on broadband who played Tibia. Funnily enough, those two games uncannily reflected the reality those kids were born into - both were infamous for constant danger presented by other players and ruthless difficulty where you could lose everything in any given moment.
- bragh 3y ago

Drakim 3y ago

Prosperous Universe is really great, I highly recommend it. Prosperous Universe Honest Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODecu2voAh8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODecu2voAh8

prox 3y ago
Haha, that trailer is great.

twoquestions 3y ago

If you like that and 18th century naval history, you'll also like Rule the Waves 3, which also makes no bones about being a spreadsheet sim. Definitely on my wishlist! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2008100/Rule_the_Waves_3/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2008100/Rule_the_Waves_3/

science4sail 3y ago

If you want a 4x space strategy game with a enterprise business software UI, then I'd recommend Aurora 4X. It's a great way to feel like a galactic bureaucrat. Forum: https://aurora2.pentarch.org/ https://aurora2.pentarch.org/ Wiki: https://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php https://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php Video (previous version): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xhUGGEnJcU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xhUGGEnJcU

giancarlostoro 3y ago
Never seen this, but it looks like originally it was VB6 and he is working on (or has completed) a C# based remake. I recognized the form icon on the youtube video and nostalgia kicked in.
the_only_law 3y ago
Interesting. I considered doing something like this after getting frustrated with the typical game engines. I wanted to make a grand strategy game, but utilizing an MDI style UI as I knew I could focus on building out the game itself without having to put too much effort into designing the UI within whatever engine was being used and just embed a graphics library for drawing the actual game visuals. I had some trouble getting the embedding to work quite right, but I might try an pick the project up again sometime. I know I’ve seen other games use this UI style before, but I haven’t heard of the one you posted, and can’t recall whatever game is hidden in the back of my mind. Command: Modern Operations comes to mind, but is a bit fancier.

HeckFeck 3y ago

Not to mention https://www.pardus.at https://www.pardus.at This one has a clicky tile-based UI and a space economy simulation.

imtringued 3y ago

Prosperous universe players don't use Excel, they use Google sheets because of significant collaboration between players. The main spreadsheet of a corporation may have hundreds of tabs and runs into the 10 million cell limit all the time. The spreadsheets run Javascript code to import data from a tool called FIO. A major downside is that these spreadsheets end up taking forever to update. You change one thing and wait five minutes for it to finish updating cells.

artemonster 3y ago
is in on youtube? would love to see it
CuriousCosmic 3y ago
Honestly that sounds like the community is going to need to learn SQL and start moving into proper DBMS.
- hinkley 3y ago
  There was a brief period where browsers almost exposed a sqlite engine, but that went away. But I thought I heard there's a wasm version out there, so aim for the fences.

robertlagrant 3y ago

I remember playing Planetarion[0] in 2000/2001. Amazingly, it's still going! [0] https://www.planetarion.com https://www.planetarion.com

frakkingcylons 3y ago

More details: this game is an economic MMO. If a major player that used to produce a huge chunk of the supply of coffee suddenly decides to quit, then everyone in the market for coffee will notice. Fortunately, almost everyone needs coffee (it makes your production times faster), so ideally someone steps up to fill that supply because they know the demand is there. Things take hours to do. Fly a ship from Deimos to the commodity exchange at Antares Station? That's going to take 7 hours (like 7 _real_ hours). A smelter facility will take 10 real hours to smelt a batch of aluminum. You want to be a real good planner. Unless you like having to wait another day because you miscalculated the amount of flux needed to run your smelters, causing your aluminum production to run idle for half a day. Where do you sell your goods? Well there's six commodity exchanges spread across the galaxy which accept one of the four currencies used in the galaxy (and yes there's FX markets). The bid/ask for goods varies so you'll want to decide where it may be optimal to sell (fuel isn't free!). You don't have to ship it yourself though, you can post a contract at your planet for someone else to ship your goods and deliver them within X days for a price. This game is crazy. I have somehow ended up in a position where I now pay money to pretend to be a supply chain analyst and write my own ERP software. These are the scripts I use to run my company: `csv.py` - converts exchange and inventory data to csvs `production_line.py` - performs analysis of current production lines as described in `data/production_lines.json` `analysis_increment.py` - Based on current production lines, gives a list of next building/recipe to invest sorted by ROI days `analysis_multi_step.py` - Starting from current production lines, plots out the next several buildings/recipes to invest in based on their ROI days `analysis_supply.py` - Gives a per-planet supply breakdown including planned productionn lines if included `analysis_vertical.py` - Given a material ticker, returns an analysis of production lines with varying degrees of vertical integration to produce the given material. `analysis_arbitrage_trip.py` - Takes origin, destination, capital, profit threshold, mass, and volume. Will give a list of materials to buy at origin at ask prices which then must be sold ASAP at destination bid prices

athom 3y ago
Point given for "write my own ERP software." I work with that stuff on a daily basis, and am actually thinking of trying just that.

geek_at 3y ago

Oh my god that reminds me so much on oldschool browser games (before/without flash or JS). My favourites were Ogame [1] and Galaxywars [2] which were both unplayable after a few months because you were just raided every day without a chance to bounce back and balancing in general was horrible. Still good memories though because the game continued when you were not online. You sent an attack that took 8 hours on way so after 8 Hours you know if you succeeded and after 16 hours had your loot and ships back (or not) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGame https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OGame [2] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxywars https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxywars (german only sadly)

pdntspa 3y ago
Oh the good old days of Planetarion and Hyperiums (I think both are still running, too?)
- karpour 3y ago
  Wow, I didn't expect someone to remember Planetarion! I played it back then but I have no idea how popular it was overall.
  - pdntspa 3y ago
    It seemed pretty niche back then. I was drawn to it because it could be played in a web browser on my highschool's locked down computers and wasn't well-known enough to be blocked. Plus it looked very spreadsheety
wwilim 3y ago
There were three types of kids in Poland in the early 00s, those who had no Internet access, those on dial-up who played Ogame, and those on broadband who played Tibia. Funnily enough, those two games uncannily reflected the reality those kids were born into - both were infamous for constant danger presented by other players and ruthless difficulty where you could lose everything in any given moment.
bragh 3y ago