Joe Leonard’s Discord Server

Join Joe Leonard’s discord server! We talk about EverQuest, Pantheon, MMORPGs, Diablo 2, gaming, etc!

Join Joe Leonard’s Discord Server – Neverworks Discord

The Nevergrind forum has been officially abandoned in favor of the Discord server. All feedback, bugs, praise, concerns, discussion etc can be handled here rather than there. PHPBB3 forums are so early 2000s, so it has been abandoned in favor of Discord. Besides, this is much easier to manage from an administrative standpoint. This server was originally created only for Firmament Wars, but if Nevergrind players join up then that’s cool, too! It helps centralize where I focus my attention and it’s easier for me.

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How to Play Firmament Wars

Firmament Wars is a multiplayer strategy game. The goal of Firmament Wars is to eliminate all enemy troops from the game. You start with your troops in your capital and you must explore the map to acquire more tiles.

Turns Explained

The gameplay unfolds in a series of real-time turns. Every time a turn ends, all players receive energy to perform tasks like move troops, deploy troops, or attack. If you don’t spend your energy, it will accumulate like all other resources, such as food and science.

Gameplay

Each tile provides varied amounts of food, production, and culture. Food is used to create more reserve troops. Science is used to deploy troops, build structures, and weapons. Culture provides Great People, which provides resource rewards and powerful abilities. You can also attack barbarian tribes on the map which provide random rewards to the conquering player.

Hotkeys

Most actions in Firmament Wars have hotkeys. Each hotkey is indicated in yellow on the action panel. Use hotkeys for best results! Clicking every action will slow down your ability to issue commands to your troops!

Command (Cost Energy):

  • A: Attack – Send troops in the tile to attack or move. No, you cannot attack yourself.
  • S: Split Attack – Split move/attack your troops into two to cover area more quickly or to attack more conservatively.
  • D: Deploy army – Deploy reserve troops earned from food milestones to the battlefield.
  • R: Rush troops – Instantly add troops to the battlefield using 2 energy. Troops deployed equals 2 plus 1 for every 50 culture bonus %. Note that rushing troops does not cost reserve troops that you have earned from filling your food bar. This is an important distinction.

Build (Cost Science):

  • B: Build bunker/wall/fortress – Increase tile defenses. Each structure adds +1 to tile defense. Capitals also start with +1 defense. Since they can have a huge impact on battle results, structures are very important! They are indicated by yellow bars on each tile. It’s important to pay attention to them.
    • Bunker +1 defense; -1 weapon damage
    • Wall +2 defense; -3 weapon damage
    • Fortress +3 defense; -6 weapon damage
    • Capitals +1 defense
  • C: Cannons – Attack adjacent tiles with cannons. Starts at 2-4 damage. Damage upgraded +1 by Great Generals. 2-second cooldown.
  • M: Missile – Attack any enemy tile on the map with a powerful missile attack. More powerful than cannons. Starts at 7-12 damage. Damage upgraded +2 by Great Generals. 5-second cooldown.
  • N: Nuke – Destroys all defensive structures, except palaces, and 80-99% of troops. 30-second cooldown.

Research:

  • Y: Masonry – Unlocks bunkers
  • O: Construction – Unlocks walls
  • G: Gunpowder – Unlocks cannons
  • E: Engineering – Unlocks walls and fortresses
  • K: Rocketry – Unlocks missiles
  • T: Atomic Theory – Unlocks nukes
  • F: Future Tech – Unlocks a random Great Person

Governments

Despotism

  • Free movement through own tiles
  • Start with gunpowder
  • Start with a bunker
  • 2x maximum army attack size

Monarchy

  • +2 defense
  • +1 culture from 2 food
  • 50% starting culture bonus
  • +2 cannon damage

Democracy

  • 4x maximum troop deployment
  • +3 reserve troops when you lose a tile
  • 50% starting science bonus
  • Reduced culture milestone requirement

Fundamentalism

  • Overrun: Instant win with 4x advantage
  • Infiltration: -1 structure defense
  • Fast growth: Reduced food milestone requirement
  • +2 troop reward bonus

Fascism

  • +1 attack
  • +1 attack from tiles with structures
  • +4 attack vs barbarians
  • Bonus troop with each deployment

Republic

  • +1 energy
  • Combat medics heal 50% troops upon victory
  • Start with masonry
  • +50% plunder reward bonus from barbarians

Communism

  • Start with a great person
  • +1 science from 4 food
  • Can deploy troops to uninhabited territory
  • 2x discovered reward bonus from barbarians

Protips

  • Defensive structures help against armies and weapons.
  • Culture Bonus increases the number of troops rushed by 1 every 30%!
  • Try to conquer tiles with food resources to help acquire troops faster.
  • In the early game try to conquer barbarian tribes to receive special resource awards.
  • Get construction early so that you can place a bunker or two at a key location on the map!

Culture Rewards

  • Great General: +1 attack for troops in all tiles
  • Great Tactician: +1 defense for troops in all tiles
  • Great Industrialist: +2 energy
  • Great Humanitarian: +50% food
  • Great Scientist: +50% science
  • Great Artist: +50% culture
  • Great Revolutionary: Instantly flips an enemy tile to your side
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New United States map added to Firmament Wars!

This is the third map to appear in Firmament Wars. I combined a few of the smaller states to make them easier to click. I get a little bit better at creating these maps each time I make one. This one only took two days to completely integrate into the game.

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Firmament Wars Kickstarter Campaign Just Went Live!

Check out the project details over at Kickstarter. If you love fast-paced strategy games, you should definitely check it out!

Firmament Wars Kickstarter Campaign

Firmament Wars - Coming Soon

Firmament Wars – Coming Soon

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Firmament Wars Coming March 14th!

It’s officially happening!

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Firmament Wars Kickstarter Demonstration Video

In this video I give a comprehensive demo of Firmament Wars. This should give you a good idea of what the game is all about. Enjoy!

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Firmament Wars: Kickstarter Campaign Video

This will be the featured project video on January 24th. Should be a lot of fun! Also check out the campaign preview!

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Firmament Wars Kickstarter Campaign Starts on January 24th

I will start the Kickstarter campaign for Firmament Wars at 10 a.m. EST time on January 24th, 2017. The fundraising goal is $5,000. I have a tentative release date for Firmament Wars on March 14th, but that may be adjusted depending on how crazy the campaign is and how quickly I finish up the additional maps that I want to add. Please, feel free to check out the screenshots, the rewards, and the story—and feel free to provide some feedback!

Also check out the Firmament Wars About page for more screen shots and information about the game!

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Displaying Achievements In Your Ribbon Rack

Achievements have become a staple of many modern games and Firmament Wars is no exception. Since it’s a military-themed game, I thought it would make perfect sense to add military ribbons that would be earned by completing achievements. Today I designed a complete ribbon rack to see what it would look like. Here’s the mockup.

Firmament Wars Ribbon Rack

Firmament Wars Ribbon Rack

I have to continue development to add the triggers that will actually unlock them. This is just a static mockup that displays them, but I’m looking forward to these actually displaying based on persistent data on the server. It should only take about a week to get these all in place working properly.

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New /who Command Returns User Information

There’s a new feature in Firmament Wars called the /who command. The who command allows you to query any user account and check out their information. This is really useful, particularly when a new user joins the game. It provides a ton of information including their player’s country (if known), account, nation flag, nation name, FFA record, head-to-head record, rating, disconnects, and disconnect ratio.  This can also be triggered by clicking on a user’s account name in the title or game lobbies.

/who command retrieves user information

/who command retrieves user information

This hearkens back to games like Starcraft and World of Warcraft which offered similar functionality. Additionally, this command works whether a user is online or not, so the user does not have to be present in order to use it. In the future a feature like this could tie in nicely with a client-side friend list. Is /friends a future feature? Perhaps!

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