Reign (online game)
| Reign | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Ty Kauffman |
| Designer(s) | Ty Kauffman |
| Platform(s) | PHP (Client OS independent) |
| Release date(s) | September 16, 2010 |
| Genre(s) | Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy |
| Mode(s) | Normal, Classic (w/ solo) |
Reign is a free browser-based multiplayer online game hosted online at reign.ws. It was initially designed and developed by Ty Kauffman from April 5 to April 9, 2004. Since then, Ty, Mark Caudill and David DiBattiste have built on to the game by adding new features and improving the code. Reign was, and still is, developed using a simple text editor and Photoshop exclusively. It is a PHP / Javascript web-based strategy game that a MySQL database for data storage.
Rounds
Reign exists as a series of "rounds", each typically lasting approximately one calendar month, generally with one to three day recesses between each consecutive round. At the conclusion of each round, the game is reset, and an entirely fresh cycle of gameplay begins.
Beta
From April 2004 until September 2006, Reign was in Beta mode. During this time, new features were continually added to Reign. Player feedback greatly influenced the Developers' decisions on what aspects of the game to update each round.
This extended state of "beta" triggered much criticism from players, who sometimes grew annoyed with the frequent, often unannounced, changes in features and the glitches that seemed to accompany any major alteration. Many players left or threatened to leave the game and return only when Reign was no longer in beta mode.
Version 1
As of January 2007, the game is in version 1.2.5. It is no longer active or in development.
Version 2
Reign 2 was developed jointly by Ty and Mark and was released on 07/07/07. It is still active, but no longer in development. It be found at [reigngame.com|http://reigngame.com|.
Version 3
Reign WS, the third Reign, was created exclusively by Ty in 2010. Development began in January 2010. For the first 9 months, the game only had a mobile interface. On September 5, 2010, Ty created the full interface overnight. On September 16, 2010, Ty posted the game on Reddit/r/WebGames which kicked off the beta phase of the game.
Worlds
Reign WS only had one world at this time.
General Gameplay
At the onset of each round, each player selects a world and a real-life nation to represent for the duration of the nation's survival. All nations begin the round with a specific and identical amount of land, money, resource capabilities. The only differences between individual nations at the beginning of a round are the nations' names and flags.
Land
Land is the most important unit/resource in the game. A nation's land count determines its eminence in the world. At the end of each round, the nation with the highest land count in its world is proclaimed to be the winner. However, there is a downside to land, the higher land count a person has, the more difficult it is to defend the land. Also, the more land you own, the more each additional land will cost.
Land is obtained in one of two ways. The first is through the purchase of land. The second is the capture of another nation's land through war.
Money
Money can be used in Reign to purchase land for expansion, to produce buildings and military units, or to give to other nations.
Money is obtained in one of five ways: through tax revenues from a nation's towns and cities; from selling uranium on the international Black Market; from selling units or resources to other nations though the international Market; by selling units already owned; or by being given it by other nations.
Executive Orders
Executive orders are swift government actions that can be issued at any time by you, as long as you have enough executive power (EP). Your EP is automatically recharged slowly over time at a steady rate. There is nothing you can do to increase the rate at which EP recharges.
Units
Wars in Reign are fought with various military units, ranging in scale from individual soldiers and guards to highly destructive fusion ICBMs. A unit has two measurements of its power: its defense rating and its offense rating. Both defensive units and offensive units are generally needed to successfully wage war against another nation. Units are stored in barracks on a nation's land.
Units can either be produced by a nation through means of factories, airbases and silos, purchased from the Black Market or Foreign Trade, or obtained from a nation's alliance's unit cache.
Resources
Resources are another integral part of the game. There are four types of basic material resources in Reign: uranium, oil, metal and trude.
Uranium
Uranium is used in the production of several units, including Nuclear ICBMs and Attila Tanks. It is also necessary for the production of nuclear power plants. In addition to be able to make advanced units, Uranium can be traded on the Black Market for money or for units not able to be constructed. Uranium is able to be extracted by all nations every eight hours.
Oil
Oil is the fuel extracted from oil rigs. There are two forms of oil: crude and refined. Crude oil is the base form of oil extracted from oil rigs. Refined oil is obtained by constructing an Oil Refinery. Refined oil is the final type of fuel used to power and produce certain units. 75 crude oil converts to 1 refined oil. The oil extraction rate per hour is currently up to 120 crude oil.
Metal
Metal is necessary for the production of most military units. It is mined with metal extraction mines on a nation's land at the rate of 30 per hour.
Trude
Trude is the rarest of the resources in Reign. It is a powerful substance that is used in the production of trude power plants and a few very powerful units such as the razorback and trudeship. The razorback has over 1k attack and the trude ship has 2k defense. Trude is randomly extracted from metal mines. The chance of getting a Trude crystal can be increased with National Specializations.
Market
Different types of units and resources can be sold and bought by a user-controlled foreign trade market. Players can set up emporiums to sell a certain type of unit or resource, and can edit them according to what they see fit. Before your 120 hours of protection by the United Nations (see Military below) are up, you can sell a certain cheap unit (such as a Guerrilla) or a cheap resource (such as 1 metal ore) for a high price for another player to buy, allowing cash to be traded. Under normal circumstances, you cannot give money using the Give Money function while under protection.
Military
Unit Damage
Most military units have an attack damage value. A soldier, for example, does 1:0 damage. This means the soldier does 1 attack damage when he attacks and 0 defend damage when he defends. A J11 Tank does 48:36 damage. This means the J11 tank does 48 attack damage when it attacks and 36 defend damage when it defends.
Defense Bonus
When a nation is attacked, that nation gets a defense bonus. The amount of bonus depends on the amount of land that a defending nation is defending. If a very small nation is defending itself in war, it will have a higher defense bonus. If a large nation is attacked and its troops are spread too thin, that nation could receive a NEGATIVE defense bonus, which will actually hurt his chances of winning the battle. To simplify: the more land one has, the more defense needed to defend it properly.
Invading
To invade a nation you must first wait 24 hours for the war to become active due to UN regulations. You have several ways of then starting to invade the nation.
The three primary levels of attack are the following: attacks made with infantry units; attacks made with vehicles (ground or air); and attacks made with nuclear weapons. The higher the defender's defense, the more necessary the nuclear option tends to become. Nuclear weapons have the ability to destroy large amounts of defense, but also render unusable a significant amount of land, which decreases the benefit of the war for the attacker. A common option is to make an initial attack with nuclear weapons, and then, once the defender's defense is substantially diminished, to continue the war with infantry or vehicular units.
Paid Accounts
In order to support Reign's costs, its developers have created a system whereby users can purchase upgrades to their account. By paying the developers and Ataya Creative, the user in return receives several innovative features which, while beneficial to the user, do not directly affect public gameplay (or in other words, make the game "unfair"). Some of the features include:
- Live statistics using AJAX technology,
- Automatic uranium collection, even if the player is offline,
- Extensive anti-cheat support,
- Production queue reordering.