Game News
From Colony 337 Wiki
Contents |
September 04, 2008
- Depending on behavior patterns of the robots involved, attacking or repairing a robot may not provide any experience points. This is being added to curb abuse.
August 30, 2008
- Robots can repair themselves again
- GAME MAP located at http://www.colony337.com/map/ showing deployed force field by team flag. This map is updated daily. Historical maps are saved so I plan to make an animated version eventually. This is a significant departure from my earlier goal of having a "fog of war" approach. Now, the map of game world is visible. This will probably affect team strategies.
- Robots can now switch teams again. This was broken in the interface.
- Team flags are visible on the Change Team team list and the team leaderboard page. The flags on the team leaderboard page will act as a legend for the game map.
August 15, 2008
- Can no longer attach degrader coils to locations that don't have force fields. (bugfix)
- "Close" button on the Profile, Inventory, Team and Skills panels work again (bugfix)
- Can now upgrade non-combat skills again (bugfix) (was hotfixed earlier)
- Event panel wasn't being hidden when viewing Profile, Inventory, Team and Skills panels (bugfix)
- IMPORTANT: Robots playing from the same IP address can longer target each other. Remember, it's against the game rules to have more than one account. There are cases where multiple legitimate robots will be playing from the same IP, so I don't block based on that alone. But robots in that situation will no longer be able to attack or repair each other.
- Color coding of contacts still not working right.
August 10, 2008
- Removed the background bar images.
- Loading ammo into weapons is less automatic. Robots must now choose which weapons gets loaded with which ammo.
- When attacking, a Critical Miss on a Force Field had no effect. It now has the same affect as a Critical Miss when attacking a robot: The attacker is damaged and the weapon is destroyed.
- Moving on the map grid now requires clicking on the new "Move <direction>" elements on the map instead of anywhere in the square.
- Numerous optimizations that should have no direct affect on game play.
July 9, 2008
- New Skill! With the Degrader Coil skill, robots can attack more than one Degrader Coil to a Force Field. The higher a robot's skill level, the more coils it can attach. Multiple Degrader Coils on a Force Field will degrade the force field faster.
- Attaching a Degrader Coil now only provides 1 xp instead of 3.
- Destroying a Force Field now provides 15 xp instead of 5.
- Mallets now do more damage to Force Fields and less damage to robots than before.
- Shockers now do more damage to Force Fields.
July 3, 2008
- New Item: Field Scanner With sufficient skill, robots can use the Field Scanner to scan a wide area around their current location, collecting information about force fields in the area.. The scanner output shows coordinates, team colors, and field strength
- New Skill: Field Scanner skill. High levels of the skill allow robots to scan a wider range.
- Frying Pan works again.
May 21, 2008
- The Privacy Policy has been folded into the Terms of Service, and the Terms of Service have been significantly changed, borrowing heavily from other existing MMORPG/PBBG games. Continued use of Colony 337 constitutes acceptance of the new Terms.
- Rules Of Play have been added. Continued use of Colony 337 constitutes acceptance of the Rules Of Play.
- The two changes above give site operators the leeway to deal with abusive and cheating players. All players are encouraged to read the Terms and the Rules.
- Look and feel changes.
- Powering force fields now requires use of a Field Adaptor item. The field adpators each robot had are now part of their inventory. Robots without field adaptors will not be able to power Force Fields.
- It is now much more difficult to power Force Fields, even with the Field Adaptors. Turns spent powering a Force Field add less energy to the Force Field than before.
- There is a new skill for using the Field Adaptor. Upgrading the Field Adaptor skill allows robots to add more power to Force Fields per turn of use. Higher levels of this skill allow robots to power Force Fields more efficiently than before the Field Adaptor was introduced.
April 28, 2008
- Force Fields now have a maximum strength.
- Some changes were made to curb abuse. Regular players should not notice any changes related to this. However, if you find your robot locked out of the game, please contact me by sending a private message to 'gort' on the forums. Looking at current usage, there shouldn't be any false positives, but please let me know if it happens to you and you don't think it should.
- The home page was updated and I'm now including a screen shot tour for potential new players. Hopefully, this will be a better introduction to the game for people who follow your robot's referer links. More links = more referrals = more bots = more fun.
- Other minor changes and bug fixes.
April 18, 2008
- Transmitting messages now requires a Radio item. The radios each robot had are now part of their inventory. Radios can be tuned to 89 different channels (Channel 10 - Channel 99). Channel 10 is the encrypted "Team" channel. Only robots on the same team as the transmitter can receive transmissions on that channel. Channels 11-99 are open channels and not restricted to any team. Any robot with a radio tuned to a specific channel will receive transmissions on that channel. Robots can have multiple Radios in their inventory.
NOTE: If a robot does not have a Radio tuned to the Team channel in their inventory, the robot will not receive team transmissions. - Attaching Degrader Coils to Force Fields now provides some XP.
April 4, 2008
Two new items can now be found.
- Degrader Coil Degrader Coils can be attached to Force Fields. Force Fields with Degrader Coils attached will slowly lose power. Left unattended, the Force Fields will eventually run out of power and fail. The rate of decay is 1 point of power every four turns, or 24 points per day, although this is subject to change.
- Degrader Tongs Degrader Tongs are used to extract a Degrader Coil from a Force Field, to stop the power loss.
- The Terms Of Service and the Privacy Policy have been updated. Continued use of the Colony 337 constitutes agreement with the new Terms and Policy. The changes are:
- Further changes to the Terms and Policy will now be announced with a Game Update Announcemount, instead of by email, as previously stated.
- We are now actively tracking the ip address of robots during play. Users running multiple accounts are subject to having accounts suspended without notice.
- Numerous small bugs fixed.
February 15, 2008
- Attacking can now have critical hits and critical misses, with additional damage and side effects.
- One new item can be found.
- Destroying a robot now gives the attacker a significant experience point bonus.
- Weapons that require ammunition can sometimes be found partially loaded.
- Numerous small bugs have been fixed.
January 20, 2008
- Robots can now find a number of new items. Some new items will help new and low-level robots improve their attacking abilities.
January 18, 2008
- Robots that have not moved or acted for seven days are now perceived as dormant. They will not be been seen by active robots and cannot be targeted. If they robot starts moving again, it will become visible and targetable.
January 17, 2008
- Team force fields now notify team members upon deployment or failure.
- Teams are notified when a robot joins or leaves the team.
- Robots now gain five points of experience when deploying a force field.
December 31, 2007
Initial launch. Happy New Year!
