Application status

Information regarding the application’s state include the identifier of the next game update, the identifier of the current game update if one is being processed at the time, the date and time at which each type of recapitulation e-mail was last sent (administrative, server errors, player messages), and information about maintenance mode, if enabled (start date & time, scheduled end date & time, reason).

System logs

Entries in the system log include a time stamp, a level (trace, debugging, information, warning or error), a component identifier and a message. In addition, a log entry may be associated with an exception record. Such a record includes the list of exceptions in the proper order, with the exception’s class and message, and the stack trace for each exception. An entry of the stack trace may contain a location (class and method), a file name and a line number.

Ticker status

The “ticker” is the server component which fires the various tasks that ensure the game’s proper functioning. A ticker task is identified by its name. It may be running, stopped or scheduled to start automatically at a later date and time.

Game update status

When the various game updates are being executed, it is necessary to store their current status in order to make sure that an error during a game update can be recovered from. Information regarding a game update includes the type of update (e.g. fleet movement, battle computations, empire research…), the last game update at which the update was last executed, and whether the update has been processed, is being processed, or is scheduled for processing. Finally, there are two major types of updates – updates which affect planets and updates which affect empires; this implies storing a reference to the planet or empire affected by the update, respectively.

Game and system parameters

A game or system parameter is identified by a code name (which is used in the game’s code to refer to the parameter). It possesses both a name and a description, which are stored as text (only administrators will see these strings). A parameter belongs to a category identified by a name. It may include a lower bound and / or a higher bound, and of course has a value.

Session types

The game will, in the future, allow for various types of sessions (in addition to sessions from the usual web interface). A session type is defined by a code (e.g. “web” in the case of the web interface), associated to a flag indicating whether the session type is exclusive. An exclusive session will automatically terminate any concurrent, exclusive session.

These events occur randomly in the course of the game and affect game parameters on a scale wide enough not to advantage or disadvantage too much particular players. The frequency at which random events occur will have to be precisely defined, however it will be devised so that everyone is affected by a random event every now and then in any case.

Random events are defined by an effect, an application range and a duration. For instance, one such event could be a disease reducing population growth in a layer of the universe for a week. Several categories of random events have been devised so far.

Spatial phenomena such as ion storms, meteor showers or electromagnetic waves affect the behaviour of fleets, ships, communication and detection systems. Economic events affect planets’ production, resources and research. These include for instance economic booms or depressions, strikes, piracy or research boosts. Population-related events include epidemics, food shortages or religious holidays. Species-specific events affect various species-related parameters or occur on a per-species basis. Some affect all species, such as periods of xenophobia. Others affect the relations between two species, such as territorial disputes. The last ones are specific to one species, such as a breeding or hibernation cycle.

Various ranges for the application of random events have already been defined. These ranges can first of all be based on geography: an area of a layer, a layer, a set of layers or the whole universe. They can also be depend on species: one particular species, a set of species, all species. Finally the range can be have specific conditions, for instance all planets with an happiness level below a particular value or all mixed population planets, etc.

What do you think of this random events principle? Do you think it could add some dynamics to the game?

Do you consider the proposed application ranges are adequate?

Can you think of other random event categories?

What kind of events would you suggest?