Creep.rangedMassAttack().Creep.say().Creep.moveTo() method now reuses the path found along multiple game ticks without recalculation in order to save CPU time. See option reusePath for more info.Room.lookAtArea().Flag.color and an argument color to the Room.createFlag() method.Creep.rangedHeal().HEAL power now equals to 12 hits per tick in short range, and to 4 at a distance.WORK body part from 15 to 20.RoomPosition.findNearest() method to findClosest. findNearest alias is still available, however it is deprecated and will be removed soon.RoomPosition.findClosest() and RoomPosition.findInRange() methods now accept object arrays as the first argument allowing look-ups against arbitrary object lists.algorithm to RoomPosition.findClosest() method for performance optimization.Room.findPath() method: avoid and ignore that allow flexible pathfinding customization.heuristicWeight option in Room.findPath() method from 10 to 3.ConstructionSite.ticksToLive property.RANGED_ATTACK power from 15 to 10.ATTACK body part construction cost from 100 to 80.heuristicWeight for the method Room.findPath() added in order to speed up path finding. The current default value is 10, it was hard-coded to 1 previously.This post has been published at Indiegogo campaign on April 29, 2015.
Screepers!
Private Early Preview will launch on May 20!
We worked hard, so now we have something to show you at last. Mark this date in your calendars, take leave at work, and tell family you won't be available: in 3 weeks, on May 20, at 17:00 UTC, the private Early Preview of the full-scale MMO World Mode will go live. This is exactly what Screeps was devised for. The Survival and Arena were just introductory modes purposed to test the engine and servers. Now is the time the real game begins!
Those of you who joined our Indiegogo campaign with $10 or more will automatically receive an email with the Early Preview activation code. You may enter it right now here. All the rest can fill in the request form on the site – we will invite new players as the capacity grows.
The game world map is already live on the site. Here is its part:
When the launch countdown timer runs out, you will be able to place your first spawn in any room you like (inside the region available for settling) and set out on your long quest to the total dominance in the online world of Screeps.
Take note that the Early Preview purpose is to test and debug everything prior to the public launch. Please report any errors or bugs you may find as you play. After the end of the Early Preview, close to the public launch, all the world data will be wiped.
By the way, we will set up a forum on our site shortly. Stay tuned!
This post has been published at Indiegogo campaign on April 21, 2015.
Screeps has very simple graphics. This game is about programming rather than explosions, special effects, and textures. Chess has no brilliant graphics either, but Crysis has fewer players.
However, simplicity does not always mean sameness. Your creeps must have unique appearance to be different from other players' creeps even as they are small spots on the map. To achieve this, we have introduced a mechanism allowing you create your own badge. It is already online and working.
Your badge will be displayed on all your creeps, spawns, and structures. By selecting the look and shape of your icon and choosing three colors from the palette, you create a unique appearance of your creeps that will differentiate them from those of other players. Besides, your badge will be displayed on the world map on top of the rooms you control.
You can create your badge in your account settings right now.
In a very short time, we will announce the date of the private Early Preview launch. Follow the news!
This post has been published at Indiegogo campaign on March 24, 2015.
Multiplayer has arrived!
We are happily announce that we have just launched a new game mode – Arena. It's not a full-fledged MMO yet, but still a pretty real multiplayer!
The Arena features a confined space with 3x3 rooms with working passages between them. There are no spawns, structures, and base development in this mode. Instead, each player has only 4 immortal creep-gladiators that keep constantly respawning in portals after they die. Your goal is to find and mine energy lying on the ground in the rooms and carry it back to the portals. Each unit of energy carried to the portals adds points to your leaderboard record. And since all the players play simultaneously on a shared Arena map, you will have to do it quicker than everybody else so that enemy creeps can't deprive yours of energy.
The Arena Mode is the last stage of testing server multiplayer capacity before the launch of the real World Mode.
Unlike the Survival Mode, your creeps live and operate in the arena on the 24/7 basis, that's why we have limited access to the arena only to the Indigogo backers. Soon you will receive an activation code at your email used for signing up on Indiegogo. Use this code upon your first access to the Arena.
This post has been published at Indiegogo campaign on March 1, 2015.
The February 2015 season is over. Congratulations to user ANDMAN for the first place and 6274 points!
For the next season, we have prepared a brand new map with an interesting new feature. As has always been the case, there are 5 sources on the map, but 3 of them are now protected by special NPCs called Source Keepers. Though they are extremely lazy, their lairs are very close to the source, so your creeps will have to face and fight them to access the sources.
Such mechanic will appear in the online version too – in all rooms with more than 2 sources. So, even deep in your homefront, far from your domain borders, you will still have to figure out how to protect your workers.
This month, we have started deploying our infrastructure based on the Amazon AWS cloud hosting. It will allow us to flexibly adapt to any number of players and their scripts executed on the server. In order to test the load, we have increased the maximum CPU allowed to all the players 3 times, so now your script can use up to 300 CPU. If you could not implement your ideas due to lack of CPU before, now it is the time!
This post has been published at Indiegogo campaign on February 19, 2015.
In this update we will talk about game mechanics of the open world that will be crucial to the game balance of the multiplayer mode.
There will be many rooms in the Screeps universe. At the start of the Early Preview, the world will be confined into roughly 50x50 rooms (i.e. 2500 rooms totally). Eventually this amount will be increased manyfold, and by the release date, by tens of times. This is a huge amount already, but still we are often asked: what if there appears a single ultimate AI that will capture the entire game world and kill the game for everybody else? To avoid such a scenario, we have envisaged a special balance mechaniс that is now absent in the Survival mode. Here is the idea.
Each room will have a special object dubbed Room Controller (RC) – an invincible structure impossible to destroy, but possible to capture. The RC owner is proclaimed owner of the room and can build his or her own buildings in it. No new structure can be built in a room without owning its RC first. Also, the icon of this player will be displayed for this room on the world map.
A neutral (with no owner) RC can be captured by any creep using the command creep.claimController(). Then the RC instantly comes under your control, and you can start building simple structures.
However, in order to build, say, an extension or a second spawn, you will need to upgrade your RC to the next level. It is done the same way as the building of structures – you will need a working creep with body parts WORK and CARRY which must consequently apply the command creep.upgradeController() to the RC by utilizing energy. Having upgraded the RC level (RCL) to 2, you can build up to 3 extensions per room. RCL 4 allows building 12 extensions and a second spawn. The highest RCL 8 allows building up to 25 extensions and 3 spawns. Besides, high RC levels will unlock more new building and features, and there will be more bonuses as well. For example, the ramparts maximum hits also depend on the RCL.
Note that the amount of energy required for upgrade grows exponentially. Upgrading to the RCL 2 takes hours, to the RCL8, days. High-level rooms with advanced infrastructure capable of building powerful creeps with high performance will prove to be a real treasure for a player, but not easy to achieve.
And here we arrive at the second parallel concept which is even more important.
Each energy unit that is spent on upgrading any of your RCs raises not only the local RCL, but the whole Global Control Level (GCL) as well. GCL is a characteristic not of a room but your account as a whole. The RCs may be attacked, downgraded, and re-captured, while the GCL cannot be decreased, and it is saved to your account forever even after all your rooms are captured, buildings destroyed, and you even stopped playing.
GCL is required to capture rooms. In the beginning of the game, your GCL equals 1 which means that you can own only one room in your domain. As the RCL of this initial room reaches a certain level, your GCL raises to 2 – and you can now claimController() in the new room. Now developing both of your RCs will give you a GCL increase until it is 3, etc. The amount of energy required for the GCL increase grows exponentially as well.
Even having lost to foes all your rooms or structures (or in any time as you wish) you can respawn and rebuild your first spawn from scratch at any vacant spot on the world map. And since your GCL is stored at your account, you can quickly regain your former influence in the new place, because you have already qualified for capturing as many rooms as your GCL allows. Certainly, you will have to develop your room levels and restore all the infrastructure, but now it will take much less time than developing your GCL.
Therefore, firstly, you should not worry because of temporary loss in the game (as in many other games of this kind, Screeps have a "losing is fun" rule). Secondly, no single player will ever be able to capture the entire game world or even its larger part. Though each of them will strive for maximum area coverage and influence, it will always be fun to compete!