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artchivon Screeps – An MMO strategy open world game for programmers

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artchivon Screeps programmable MMO RTS will go public on August 12

You can develop game scripts locally using Grunt task: http://support.screeps.com/hc/en-us/articles/203022512-Commi...

artchivon Screeps programmable MMO RTS will go public on August 12

This is described here: http://support.screeps.com/hc/en-us/articles/203079471-Indie...

You can't control the entire world, there are game mechanics to prevent this.

artchivon Screeps programmable MMO RTS will go public on August 12

It has been in Early Preview stage for 2 months, and now the public release date is revealed.

artchivon Show HN: Screeps is live at Indiegogo – the world's first MMO for programmers

And how could you stop them from allying in an open world game?

artchivon Show HN: Screeps is live at Indiegogo – the world's first MMO for programmers

Please keep in mind that it is still alpha development version. We are still working on it, please get back soon! :)

artchivon Show HN: Screeps is live at Indiegogo – the world's first MMO for programmers

Even if Screeps had one fixed plan, it would still be possible for anyone to launch "ally" programs on behalf of several users and thus get the same total CPU increase.

However, keep in mind, that Screeps is not about having many creeps but about controlling them properly. More CPU, more rooms, and more creeps often don't offer any advantage over another player if you can't manage all this.

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

Every user script is run in isolated nodejs forked process with disabled global vars and with a limit for CPU time and memory used.

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

The good thing about Screeps is that online users counter means nothing here. You could build a large empire with a complex network of roads, sourcing, mining, manufacturing, border defense which would live on its own, while you would occasionally drop in from time to time just to check the situation and polish your scripts, if needed.

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

What do you mean by "more detail"?

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

Every MMO, regardless RPG or not, will require you to invest time to repeat some actions and pay attention to it as much often as you can. See Travian for example. Screeps will not, if you manage to write decent scripts.

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

This is where Screeps will be different. You will need to think hard how to adapt someone other's script for your landscape, game environment, creeps setup, etc.

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

Well, it is possible. You can place flags at the game field and program your creeps to move to them by a simple command.

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

It doesn't make much sense, you really will not be able to control all those hundreds of creeps on your own 24/7 :)

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

Think of it as Starcraft with code editor panel in the bottom. Your script controls everything, but you can still click at your creeps to see their info and memory.

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

Every player will have CPU limit on how much time his script can use in milliseconds. So that's the challenge to make the AI strong and not exceed the resources.

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

Sure it is. Graphics in chess are not that good also.

artchivon Screeps – the world's first MMO sandbox strategy game for programmers

Yes, Early Preview stage. Get back on November 20, there will be more info then.