EverSwarm.

[annikk.exe]

Dedicated to all of the people who have looked at the Absolute Beginners Guide and wondered if they should give it a try.
Beauty awaits.  Don't think twice.  Dive in.

Map Type: Randomised
Difficulty: Varies

Features:

• Randomly generates a level every time you play.  Between 15 and 50 asteroids are positioned in a randomised, organic way.  All asteroids are ultimately reachable by others, all send distances and stats correspond to asteroid size.
• Infected AI spawns between 2 and 8 enemy empires for you to fight against.  Be sure to play them off each other - you have no hope of taking all of them on by yourself!
• 3D Starfield Engine gets its widely anticipated first outing.  Lots of different visual effects can occur.  The visuals differ between plays, so I would expect you to still run into surprises on your 5th or 6th play.

To win: Capture all enemy asteroids.
Loss occurs if: You lose all your asteroids.


Thanks to beta testers:

• Aino
• Flashfire
• ArdB

Coding EverSwarm was not trivial - hundreds of hours were spent.  My hope is that provides some replayability, as every level it generates is totally different from the last.  Please don't play once and think you've seen the whole thing!
I hope you find it beautiful and fun.  :>  I would love to hear about your experiences playing it - good or bad.  Your post will make my day.

[Aino]

Finally released, is there any changes from the last beta or is it the same code?

[annikk.exe]

This is the same level as Beta version 3.

[Aino]

Kay, so Idon't need to DL

[annikk.exe]

Nope, you can rename the file though if you want.  :>

[Aino]

The map gets easier and easier as I grow more and more better tactics against this furious AI... I just feel a need to spoil it, but I won't

[Rudolf]

Alex and I have a rather full plate of work at the moment furiously getting the psn version ready for release but I do wish I had some time to play this.
I think I need to clone myself.

R

[annikk.exe]

No worries Rudolf.. :>  It'll still be here when you guys finally get to take a breather.

By the way, any idea when the PSN version will be done?  :>  Anyone know when the release date is..?

Edit - ah... Spring 2011.  Could be a month or two yet, then...

[Aino]

Is it just my eyes fooling me, or does the stars MOVE in the distance even if you're not moving the camera?

[annikk.exe]

Sometimes they do.. :>

[Koss]

annikk.exe, you are the best. Beautiful Starfield Engine, very cool.
Level really replayable, played some times, each time all is different.
Thank you ! Wait for new revelations !

[annikk.exe]

Thanks for the kind words Koss! :D  And thankyou for playing.  I'm glad you're getting some replayability from it.  :>

[Jazz Ad]

I'm rather impressed. I played 4 different games and got 4 completely different layouts and paces.
It is beautiful, interesting to play and always renews itself.
I found a slight bug but it may be hard to reproduce. On 2 occasions the circle around a planet told me I could reach another one but the move arrows were too short.

Alex and I have a rather full plate of work at the moment furiously getting the psn version ready for release but I do wish I had some time to play this.

Seriously, if Annikk is for hire, do it. He keeps bringing your game to higher levels.
Whatever he did in this mod would justify a game mode of its own, random conquest or something like that.

[annikk.exe]

Jazz Ad,

Thanks very much for the kind words about the level.  I am glad you found it beautiful as well, that was one of the goals.. :>

Regarding the bug... that is very strange, I did not run into that problem at all when I was testing it and can't really think how I could make Eufloria produce that behaviour.  Are you sure it wasn't that Asteroid A could reach Asteroid B, but Asteroid B couldn't reach asteroid A?  I did see quite a bit of that during testing, although by travelling via a neighbour there is always a way back to Asteroid A.

I'm not going back to fix anything at this point but I'm curious about any bugs that emerge, so if you're up for sharing a bit more about your experience with this I'd be very happy to hear about it.  :>

[The Tupper]

Hello, annike.

I'm quite new to Eufloria and discovered your stuff in the Community Pack so I thought I'd see what else you'd done. EverSwarm is brilliant! It's one of those levels that (aside from the excellent visuals) has a perfect difficulty, i.e: I thought it was perhaps too easy until the moment I over-extended myself and got a good arse kicking for my trouble.

Great work - thanks.

TT