DataSmugglers

Todays Changes

Today’s changes are:

• Auto-attack is now limited to the units range only.  So T-Rex auto attack only goes 1 hexagon.
• Velociraptors have now got auto-attack abililty.
• Stone Circles, Tunnels and Stone Gates built in Public or PVP realms must be spaced 1 hexagaon apart.  They can be close together in castles, keeps and home valleys now.
• User names can no longer contain < or >
• Android app has been updated, hopefully this will fix some bugs and help performance.  Update it from the Google Play Store.
• Coloured Pteradactyls should now be given to people when they spend money.  Even if their volcano’s are occupied.
• Added user coloured hats to Riflemen.
• And added more nines.  The resource limit is now 999,999,999,999.

Server Efficiency

The top 3 problems with Ironfell are:

Ironfell is not profitable (www.ironfell.com/profit).  The way things are the server cost per user is greater than the income per user.  If we had 100 times as many people playing, I’ld have to buy more servers and would just be losing more money.

Too many server restarts and disconnects.

Iron and Oil are too hard to get at the moment.

And here are a list of solutions:

Remove Risky Tunnels and instead create Risky Realms automatically at a rate that can be adjusted.  They’ll always contain Iron mines, and you will be able to use Conquest Tunnels to reach them.  This makes Iron easier/cheaper to get to (Conquest Tunnel costs won’t change).  And it means the number of Risky Realms created is limited.

Trailblazer Realms will make a come back, and work the same way as the new Risky Realms.  They will be safe with tree’s just like they used too.  Trailblazer Tunnels connect to these realms.

Realm Purge.  Risky and Trailblazer valley realms that have nothing in them will be removed.  There are over 60,000 of these realms, and they are slowing down the servers too much.  I’ld like to remove 50,000 of them.  I’m not sure which ones will be removed yet, but it’ll be based on the number and type of units that are inside those realms.  And yes, this will affect your wood production.

Users who have never played will have their accounts deleted, and their home valleys removed.

All types of gateway (tunnels, keeps, castles, etc) will have the spacing rule applied to them, the same as the current stone circles.

There are over 120,000 Woodcutters on auto-gather, this slows the servers down and is the main cause of the restarts and disconnects.  So after a few weeks (exact number to be decided) … Woodcutters will turn into Werewolves.  This means they will not auto-gather forever.  Werewolves will be a fighting unit.

Auto-attack is the other thing slowing down the servers.  So Dinosaurs auto-attack will be changed so that is is only triggered if their target is within their attack range, 1 hexagon away instead of 8 hexagons.  This also means Velociraptors will get auto-attack enabled again.

More nines. Resource cap will be increased from 999,999,99 to be 999,999,999,999.

And lastly… Farms, Paddocks, Colleges and Universities will expire after a long amount of time. Probably a few months.

There are still lots of details to figure out, and I need to think through all the consequences of these pretty significant changes.  But anyway, there is the rough plan.

Server Renewed

I’m sorry, but I still haven’t done anything new on Ironfell.

The first server just came to the end of its one year contract.  And I’ve renewed it for another year.   So that proves that Ironfell isn’t going away.  And I will get back to improving it!

Also, here’s another puppy photo:

More Sootie Shadow

No progress on Ironfell… I’ve been busy doing some real work to earn some money.

But here’s another picture of Sootie Shadow!

More fixes and tweaks

Just uploaded a few fixes and tweaks:

• Ory Burrows fail really quickly sometimes. This is because they get destroyed by something on the other end.
• I’ve increased their health to 20,000 to make them last longer.
• Archers can turn into Riflemen on bridges now.
• If there is a Megalodon Eggs on a Whirlpools, now the Whirlpool is selected before the egg. So you cant use them to block Whirlpools.
• Increased the frequency that eggs spawn in prehistoric realms.
• Increased the number of small iron deposits found in risky realms.
• Added better descriptions to the FAQ for each resource.
• Removed auto-attack from Raptors, too many units with auto-attack turned on causes lag.
• Decreased Windmill electricity generation so they now take 22 days to empty instead of 11.
• Increased up Large Iron mine production, now 120 Iron per hour, 2x the speed of a small mine.
• Changed the unit shown on the preload pony to be one of 5 random units.

Few small fixes.

Just restarting the servers to apply a few small fixes:

• New Ory Burrows will have 2000 health (was 400).
• Clicking on the long move arrow when a unit is under the arrow, now does a long move, instead of selecting the unit.
• Fixed a typo that was crashing the servers sometimes.
• Fixed several units not showing the red high-light correctly.

Dinosaur Expansion for Ironfell is Live!

DataSmugglers is pleased to announce that the highly anticipated Dinosaur and Time Machine Expansion for Ironfell, the indie MMORTS, is now live!
www.ironfell.com

The expansion doubles the number of units in Ironfell and introduces two new resources to fight for. Oil seeps out of the ground in existing PVP realms and Engineers can build pump jacks to collect that oil. Electricity is generated slowly by Windmills and quickly by Oil generators. Inventors can build Time Machines that give you access to 65 million years ago where dinosaurs roam.

The new dinosaurs include rare Tyrannosaurus who can clear 100′s of swordsman but fare poorly against masses of the new Riflemen units. Small Oryctodromeus can dig burrows between prehistoric realms. Ultrasaurus and Diplodocus are two herbivorous dinosaurs who eat the new larger multi-stage Wollemia trees and pass the seeds allowing you to grow more trees where you need them.

Ironfell is free to play on Mac OSX, Windows, Browser and Android. All platforms connect to the same massive, persistent universe consisting of 75,000 realms packed with 3.5 million user controlled units.

In the next few days DataSmugglers will announce an indiegogo kick starter to fund the next expansion – Space!

Dinosaur and Time Machine Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/embed/uz4VxKYngbc

About Ironfell
Ironfell treats balance differently to other MMORTSs. In Ironfell players are encouraged to gain an unfair advantage. The longer they play, the more resources they get, and the stronger they become.

Game Information
Name: Ironfell
Genre: MMORTS
Status: LIVE
Description: The great big multiplayer strategy game that gives you the unfair advantage.
Platform: Android, Mac OSX, Windows and Browser.
Website: http://www.ironfell.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ironfell
Forum: http://ironfell.freeforums.org (made by a fan)
Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxcq_eiuSU8
Developer Blog: http://datasmugglers.com/
Development started: Late 2011
Open Beta began: May 2012
Live: 15th January 2013

Tunnels in Prehistory

Normal Safe, Conquest and Risky Tunnels can’t be made in the prehistoric realms.  They can only be made on normal hills,   and the prehistoric realms all have prehistoric hills.

So there the gateways you can use in prehistoric realms are:

Time Gates – move you from the present to the past.  And connect realms in matching pairs, so there is a similar realm in the now and in the past.

Oryctodromeus Burrows, dug by the Oryctodromeus dinosaur.  They connect to another realm in the past that someone has already visited (by going back to there with a Time Machine).

Castles and Keeps and their Whirlpools, I talked about a couple of days ago.

And Stone Circles… which are “magic” so they work in space and time.  You will be able to use Stone Circles to help your friends get into the past and to move your dinosaurs into the present eras.

We are all set to go live tomorrow, i’m off to bed now :)

If you want some more details… check out the wiki, it has some of the new units in it already:
http://ironfell.wikia.com/

Dinosaurs and Time Machines Trailer

Just put the trailer up on youtube! check it out….