 Public Newsby: Mit on December 5th, 04:51am
This update restores the ability to 'Go Home', which allows your character to automatically eat and drink from the Home's stores while you're offline, so you can stay alive a lot longer without logging in. Your character will also now eat and drink from his inventory while you're offline (if they need to).
You may also notice some new work-in-progress displays on the town building - these are under construction and will be enabled in a later version.
Public Newsby: Mit on November 20th, 08:03pm
- Can now fire employees and quit jobs (though quitting jobs from some scripted buildings - e.g farms, stables - will come later)
- Fix for not being able to buy scripted buildings
- Scores display now shows top net worth and wealth
and in related changes..
- stores now sell seeds
- various fixes for the stables
- bread now requires less flour to produce
Public Newsby: Mit on November 10th, 09:35am
Chapter 5 starts on Wednesday 14th November 2012, from around 10pm GMT (5pm Eastern). Makes sure to sign up with Charlemagne before then if you want to keep your gold and some items.
Public Newsby: Mit on October 31st, 05:27pm
Exactly how and when depends on events, but this'll be the last weekend for Civilization. Last chance to get on the top 10s..
Public Newsby: Mit on October 11th, 07:49pm
Chapter 3 will be ending in about 3-4 weeks time. (Exact date will be confirmed soon). There'll be lots of History Points on offer for the top 10 Gold and 'top 10 oldest ever age' at the end of the chapter, plus some bonuses for those with the most wisdom etc. Gold you've earnt in chapter 3 will be useful in the forthcoming chapters.
Public Newsby: Mit on October 1st, 08:36pm
The latest client provides some extra functionality for those who have subscribed to the membership scheme, details of which can be found on the forums. I've also tweaked the graphics a bit on level 7.
Public Newsby: Mit on September 7th, 06:45pm
0.62.8 contains a few more fixes and improvements to systems and things that'll help custom worlds in the future but is mostly released because it fixes the auto-updater, which has been broken for a little while. oops.
Public Newsby: Mit on August 15th, 09:23pm
New today:
- Forges can employ Blacksmiths. If the forge has one, any player can use the forge to refine Gold Ore into Gold. (For a price, of course).
- Gold mines can now sell gold ore.
- The marketstall has been removed and combined with the trading post.
- The Trading Post and the Store can now buy-in items while you're offline.
Public Newsby: Mit on August 9th, 08:08pm
To avoid any undue excitement, 0.62.5 is a purely 'behind-the-scenes' patch that changes nothing apparent. Move on.
Public Newsby: Mit on July 22nd, 04:52pm
Not exactly 'news', but for the record..
10th July 2012 - 07:34 GMT:
RulerOfNothing invented the Plough
History points will no doubt follow.
Public Newsby: Mit on July 1st, 04:07pm
1st July 2012 - 00:16 GMT:
Kirby invented the Chisel
1st July 2012 - 01:25 GMT
Blaze invented the Pickaxe
Musta been something in the air
Public Newsby: Mit on June 24th, 05:57pm
.. that about sums up the script updates tonight. For more details, um, go play the game 
Public Newsby: Mit on June 20th, 07:25pm
On Sunday this week (24th June 2012), there'll be a whole bunch of new technologies, buildings and economic lines opened up. (As well as a few new major projects). Be on around 10pm GMT (6pm Eastern) for the low-down.
Public Newsby: Mit on June 19th, 09:45pm
Temples have been updated tonight with a new mechanism allowing followers of the temple owner to deposit Gold that will be retained across lives.
Public Newsby: Mit on June 13th, 04:09pm
From 10pm GMT, 6pm Eastern, 3pm Pacific.
Log in for some games, prizes, new technologies and to discover what happens when a drunk programmer decides to start messing about with admin commands and scripts :]
Public Newsby: Mit on June 12th, 01:00pm
Farms have been updated and the 'Farming' skill added, allowing significant extra (and more regular) yields of Wheat if you put in the investment. For more details, see the forum thread here.
Public Newsby: Mit on June 11th, 07:47pm
New tonight.. skills limit increased to 3, new trading post building added (buys ore at a rate determined by owner), Education skill unlocked, Philosophy unlocked.
Public Newsby: on June 9th, 07:55pm
Gold Mines have been updated tonight - They now have increased capacities for ore, and will produce much faster if you're able to find a worker with the 'Mining' skill. The worker takes a cut on the ore produced, providing both owner and worker distribute the proceeds regularly.
Public Newsby: Mit on June 8th, 10:40pm
New today, the temple building has been expanded with methods for distributing Gold, the stores have been updated (they can now sell wheat & seed) and theres been a few tweaks to the wells.
Public Newsby: Mit on June 10th, 09:26pm
Lots of goodies available this weekend.. along with more advances in civilization we'll be having some of the traditional shamanic crow fights and a few laps round our new race course, from about 10pm GMT (6pm Eastern), with plenty of gold and wisdom prizes on offer for the glorious.
Public Newsby: Mit on May 5th, 07:29pm
.. will be starting 'properly' soon (1-14 days). Meantime, you must try to keep yourselves alive with a bit of farming & baking n whatever. As you get older you'll gain wisdom which, for now, will be retained even if you die. When we start 'properly', lots of wisdom will be required to make more advanced buildings.
Public Newsby: Mit on April 20th, 05:46am
.. with things happening from around 8pm GMT (4pm Eastern).
Public Newsby: Mit on April 11th, 08:59pm
April 14th -> April 22nd will be a busy period, starting with a few more king battles, probably an odd event or two, no doubt 1 or 8 crow tourneys, a few races of course, a couple of client patches, the selection of the Great King and culminating with the (long overdue) move to chapter 3. Big Yay?
Public Newsby: on April 1st, 06:07pm
For what its worth.. Aspartans 35, Agrathians 24, but the Agrathians won the post-fight crow tourney. yay.
Public Newsby: Mit on March 31st, 07:22pm
There'll be a battle event starting tonight (Saturday 31st March 2012 from around 11pm GMT) and running till about the same time tomorrow. This includes a custom battle script and settings (See forum for details). On Sunday night from 10pm GMT there'll be a 1 hour war to decide the 4th King.
Public Newsby: Mit on March 25th, 08:27pm
The second part of Sunday's saga started with a long period with Kirby (with his tribe of 5 hanging out near the fire looking mean) looking set to become the second King. Even the old king was a follower.
With 3 minutes to go all hell broke loose, Kirby was killed and out of the scattered ashes of an 8 player battle, the leader by 1 follower and only 2 seconds, pipping TheDabs at the post, was Morvis, a genuine MultiKing today.
Public Newsby: Mit on March 25th, 06:56pm
At the culmination of a week of much wailing and gnashing of teeth, two tribes stood apart, that of McHale, and of Morvis, each with 9 followers. A very dramatic ending it was too. After an arduous final battle, Morvis was crowned the first King of the island.
Shortly afterwards, some chaps turned up and the King was enslaved by goomba, McHale was stabbed in the face by wes (probably), then everyone got done over by Kirby, and it all got messy pretty quick. I hope someone was writing it all down for historical purposes.
Public Newsby: Mit on March 24th, 10:29am
The first King will be crowned (well sorta) tomorrow, Sunday 25th March 2012, from 10pm GMT. At 10pm exactly, whoever has the most followers, by fair means or foul (though judging from the state of the game recently, it'll mostly be foul) will be named King.
The second King will be selected an hour or two afterwards.
Public Newsby: Mit on March 20th, 10:23pm
Various fixes have been applied for the battles and tribes systems, servers and scripts have been updated and the tribes reset. 0.61.5 client includes some key fixes to get things moving. And everything got a little faster :)
Public Newsby: on March 11th, 08:40pm
Tonight's mini-event was won by Stimutacs who managed to cover at least 100,000 years of prehistoric advancement in the space of just 46 minutes. Numerous enquiries have been placed to the Guinness Book of World Records office, but they are no longer accepting our calls.
Public Newsby: Mit on March 11th, 04:31pm
Slight delay getting the battle system ready for use due to life commitments. We'll hopefully have a play with it some more this week and start 'properly' next. Meantime, if all goes well we'll be having a quick look at chapter 1b from around 11:30pm (GMT) tonight.
Public Newsby: Mit on March 3rd, 06:45am
The next steps of chapter 2 require a bit of delicate development, a large part of which is yet to be completed.
Imagine that the game currently has a particularly prominent 'Under Construction' sign plastered all over it (until i get round to adding one :] ).
There'll be a development demo night tomorrow - Sunday 4th March 2012 at 11pm GMT (UK Time) - where (amongst the traditional crow tourneys and races) I'll hopefully be able to show you a bit about where things are going and discuss some ideas, plans etc.
Meanwhile, I think you're going to need more than one sword ;)
Public Newsby: Mit on March 3rd, 07:35am
After hours of careful craftmanship..
3rd March 2012 - 11:26am GMT
McHale invented the sword
Congratulations!
Public Newsby: Mit on March 11th, 02:08pm
Required Skills : Must be a good organiser. May need to be ruthless. Must have own transport and band of followers.
Salary : N/A (Due to money not having been invented yet)
Bonus Package:
The Great King will:
- Decide how chapter 2 ends.
- Create civilisation's first town
- Choose one TU member to get pre-alpha access to the new world server
- Become TU's Technical Director for a day.
Application process starts from 18th March 2012. More details to follow in the coming couple of weeks.
Public Newsby: Mit on March 1st, 02:59pm
Well, almost.
Public Newsby: Mit on February 23rd, 03:44pm
Ah, much quicker than I was expecting :
23rd Feb 2012 - 5:49pm GMT
Blaze invented Steel. Well done, sir!
Public Newsby: Mit on February 23rd, 03:13pm
Just as our Bronze-Age Cavies were starting to think about strapping on some armour and poncing off to Troy for a few years to chase after some bint :
23rd Feb 2012 7:31am GMT
Blaze invented the Smelter
then a few hours later :
23rd Feb 2012 3:03pm GMT
Morvis discovered Iron
Public Newsby: Mit on February 20th, 08:38pm
Like many of the most important discoveries of humanity (I refer you to The invention of the telephone as an example) the discovery of Bronze is "the culmination of work done by many individuals, the history of which involves a collection of claims and counterclaims".
Certainly there's a good argument to say that Morvis was the inventor, having been the first to combine Copper and Tin.
Popiel independently followed this discovery not long after.
But history records that at
21st Feb 2012 - 1:20am GMT
Zaroba discovered Bronze.
Much to the annoyance of Supersonic21 whose vehement enthusiasm for invention has so far only lead to a footnote. *
* Some records suggest that Supersonic21 may well have been the first to formally invent Bronze had he not paused for some time to participate in a pointless race with pedal-driven 'Flintstones' vehicles.
Public Newsby: Mit on February 20th, 04:13pm
20th Feb 2012 - 12:58am GMT
Stimutacs discovered Tin!
20th Feb 2012 - 3:17am GMT
Popiel discovered Copper!
Some short time later there were some mutterings about someone having discovered Bronze, but.. well.. lets just say that Jehovah moves in mysterious ways. ;)
Public Newsby: Mit on February 19th, 04:48am
Just when I thought it looked set for another grind..
19th Feb 2012 - 06:27 GMT
McHale discovered the basic Kiln.
.. a simple design which generations of cavies will come to know as the 'McHale Kiln', as we live in a land before patent infringement.
In other news, recent snow flurries look set to continue over the weekend, with warmer conditions expected early in the week. Now over to Bob for the traffic report.
Public Newsby: Mit on February 15th, 07:59pm
After some days and many, many failed attempts at inventing anything substantial, player Kirby finally achieved a revelation and discovered the first pottery.
Public Newsby: Mit on February 7th, 07:27pm
5th Feb 2012 - 11:33pm GMT
Akatosh was the first person to invent something.
5th Feb 2012 - 11:37pm GMT
Zaroba was the first to discover how to make a basket
6th Feb 2012 - 12:05am GMT
Morvis discovered fire.
Bit of a lull after that one.. i guess primitive man probably would have spent a fair few years lighting farts.
Public Newsby: Mit on January 30th, 08:57pm
This weekend (4th & 5th Feb) we'll be saying goodbye to the land of nothing much to do except wait to die (otherwise known as The Rainy Chatroom with Nutritional Needs). On Saturday from around 11pm (UK time) there'll be an awards ceremony and we'll be partying the night away with some tunes, toys, crow tourneys and maybe even some coracle racing, then on Sunday from 11pm (UK Time) the chapter will be concluding.
Will the Ark Prophet or the Tower Prophet succeed in their mission from Jehovah? Who'll win Chapter 1? What does winning mean anyway? Is everyone going to drown? All will be revealed!
Public Newsby: Mit on January 10th, 06:16pm
Everyone's favourite Wexican will be back at 11pm GMT, 6pm Eastern for another hour or two of potions, prophecies and probably some pottering about. Might also be a little wisdom on offer.
Public Newsby: Mit on January 4th, 09:30pm
Blademaster00 gains a certain noteriety for being the first person to die since the new world was created. After joining last Wednesday, he managed to neglect his character for a whole week resulting in a premature demise at the age of just 32. A ceremony would have been conducted had we invented one yet.
Public Newsby: Mit on December 30th, 11:06pm
A wandering shaman will be visiting our world at 11pm GMT (6pm Eastern) on Sunday 1st Jan 2012. Please do grab the latest client and pop along.
Public Newsby: Mit on December 19th, 07:32pm
In a few weeks theres going to be a bit of a restructuring to how the game works. The galaxy will essentially be reset.
The general concept of 'The History' is that the game itself will progress through a series of chapters over the course of the next year. The chapters will detail how a simple civilisation with but a tiny group of players, struggling for basic survival and with only a primitive comprehension of the universe, grows to inhabit & control a whole galaxy. And maybe this time, at the end, it'll all be a bit more interesting :]
Regularly during The History, certain players (or groups of players) will solve problems, achieve goals and/or turn up at just the right time, and change the course of the game. These people will become famous, in a very very small way. At the end of part 1, one person, i know not who, will make a choice that determines the course of the whole galaxy for the future - and certainly one option will be to do the whole damn thing again.
The History is a gameplay narrative and a game-development one, taking us back through the existing history of this old game. While revisiting we may also be solving some things we've done before, and how these things develop might change The History. See.. its all self-referential and post-modern and stuff.
There are many reasons why I spend a good portion of my spare time (little that there is of it) working on this game - not all of them coherent - but really the main reason is that I just enjoy trying to make a game that i think is interesting and people might like to play. I hope you enjoy it too :)
See you at the beginning again soon.
Public Newsby: Mit on May 15th, 09:36pm
I know its only been a few days since the last update (see below ;]) but i figured its about time we got another. Lots of new space stuff in this version.. I reckon organising a little 8-player fight sometime is well worth a portion of your valuable time. Full release notes for the new version can be found here.
Public Newsby: Mit on May 7th, 06:24pm
A few extra bugfixes today, most notably you should have the new 'faction chat' system available on worlds as well as in space.
Public Newsby: Mit on April 24th, 06:00pm
Hi TU'ers. A new client patch is available now, with a few new bits & pieces (most noticeably, lots of tidyups for the UI on worlds) and a few fixes for some particularly annoying bugs and exploits. Some work has also been done extending the modelling tools and formats, the results of which you'll see in the future.
Please let us know (via the forums) if you have any particular problems with this new version.
Public Newsby: Fooli on February 14th, 06:39am
Rejoice! We've fixed the problem people have been having with the galaxy, whereby buying things caused them to lose all of their stuff. As a result, we've reverted the galaxy to Ocrober last year (again) - this time should be the last time. This change only affects your galaxy character (space ship, credits, cargo etc) and has no effect on your characters on worlds.
We've also sorted out the chat server. For instructions on how to connect to it, and for any problems related to the galaxy fix, please see this forum post...
Public Newsby: Fooli on November 17th, 06:34pm
We've just installed a backup of the galaxy from 12th October, as a sort of crappy fix for the lost items and cash people experienced shortly after that time. This only affects your galaxy character (space ship, credits, cargo etc) and has no effect on your progress on worlds. Any problems, please post on the forums...
Public Newsby: Fooli on October 26th, 07:33am
If you've experienced any weirdness recently, such as losing cash and equipment while in space... we're aware of the problem, and we're looking into it. There isn't any point restoring your stuff until we know why it disappeared, so please bear with us while we investigate. Thanks for your patience (as ever)!
Public Newsby: Mit on September 13th, 07:31pm
Allo. A small client update is now available (0.54.4). Nothing magical, but a few worthwhile bugfixes as well as lots of work on new features that won't be apparent for a while yet. Related to this release, we have a new set of server technologies, allowing more worlds to be hosted with less effort. This will be reflected in the number of worlds running now - including, for example, a resurrection (and refresh) of the perennially enjoyable Biplaneworld, which you can now find in Cirrus Minor. Pop in sometime and have a blast.. (while wondering if the controls will ever get fixed)
Public Newsby: Fooli on July 11th, 07:36am
If you've had trouble getting into the game recently there is now a simple solution. Open the game's /clients/data/space/planets folder.
Look for any .jpg in there created in the last week or so with a very small (about 1kb) filesize. Delete them. Restart the game, and all should be well. The game will automatically find and replace anything it needed from that folder.
Public Newsby: Fooli on July 12th, 04:35am
We think we're on top of the recent problems people have had logging into the galaxy...
Mit has probably solved it and if you read this forum thread here you'll find out how and when and why and who and what and where and wombles and wormholes and a noticeably wristy action.
Public Newsby: Fooli on July 9th, 07:25am
"I've always said there was something fundamentally wrong with the universe".
Arthur was right. Something odd is going on that is crashing the client when you try to log in. Until our Chief Monkey gets round to fixing it you're likely to struggle getting the game to run properly. Sorry about that. We hope to start the fixing process tonite...
Public Newsby: Mit on February 8th, 07:01pm
And i can see what its doing. There may even be a client update comin up soon.
Public Newsby: fhko on September 28th, 12:05pm
On Saturday, Oct 4th at 8PM Eastern Standard Time, fhko will be hosting a fightnite. All players, new and veteran alike, are highly encouraged to attend. Whether you're a blood thirsty pirate looking for some battle or just someone who likes the sounds of coins in your pocket, this fightnite is for you!
A series of four different events are scheduled. The first being a huge race on Zoric! From there things take to the night sky as you use cunning and (space)craft to prove why you and some of your fellow players are a force to be reckoned with by competing in three space events.
See the fightnite forum thread for more information!
Public Newsby: Mit on April 5th, 01:12pm
Apologies for the lack of website over the past couple of months - a combination of webhost-chimpery and a complete lack of time on my part to deal with fixing it. [cut]
I've ended up moving the site to a new host - which saves us a bit of hosting cash, but might mean theres a few bits of the site broken for a little while.
Apologies also for my general absence - a situation that unfortunately probably isnt going to change much over the next few months due to work and life commitments. My hosting server also currently is in need of configuration - hence the lack of Zion. This should get sorted soon(ish).
Sorry if all this means the game is a bit dead right now.. But the galaxy will continue marching on as long as fooli's kind enough to host it, and maybe there'll be worlds out there to keep you a bit interested. At some point in 2008 i promise to do some more coding :)
Public Newsby: Mit on December 6th, 11:59pm
I've just uploaded v0.51.8 of the client and world server. Theres nothing new feature-wise in this release, but it does fix a couple of very nasty bugs in the peer-to-peer connection code, which had various unpleasant effects on the stability of the game. Details are on the bug-reports forum if you're interested..
Public Newsby: Mit on December 4th, 09:02pm
The new client update adds the first stage of 'galactic factions' - or 'Clans' if you prefer.. [cut]
In this initial version you can create, join and view factions - the factions screen is available when you're in a space station. Fighting between members of different factions is 'allowed' - i.e. you won't receive a bounty for killing an 'enemy' faction member.
More faction-related features will be added in subsequent patches.
Also in the 0.51.7 patch are a number of lil bug fixes and tweaks, including a fix for the default player camera on worlds, some fixes to stop trade exploits in space and whatever other things have been squished recently in the bug reports forum.
Public Newsby: Mit on November 11th, 07:23am
This new update is a separate client which isn't available for download.. See here for more details.
Public Newsby: Mit on September 28th, 11:06pm
v0.51.6 updates of the game and the world servers are available on the downloads page now. For full details of the update, see the forum post here
Public Newsby: Fooli on September 21st, 12:50pm
After the roaring success of his crow skin, Jayecifer has designed a new "monster" model (for use as wildlife or whatever) which was turned into 3d by me, and then skinned in a couple of really nice ways by Jaye himself. Check it out on the model library here.
Public Newsby: Fooli on May 18th, 07:00am
Just wanted to highlight a couple of new skins for our Bug crow model, now available on the model library here. Thanks to Jayecifer, who's new to texturing but has already managed to make one of my dodgier models look pretty sweet - check it out.
Public Newsby: Fooli on April 25th, 07:44am
I've added a handful of new models to the library in the last week or two:
A new sheep...
A swarm of mosquitos...
Yorick, a medieval chap...
A sort of pavillion building...
Enjoy.
Public Newsby: Fooli on March 15th, 07:18pm
Owing to some galactic chimpery on the part of fooli and/or mit, the galaxy experienced a slight glitch a day or so ago. It looks like everyone has been reset to whatever state they were in a few days previously. Sorry about that: but at least everyone's affected equally. If we can can do something about it, we will, but it looks like we'll just have to get on with galactic life. Just repeat the traditional mantra: beta beta beta free beta hari beta beta...
Public Newsby: Mit on February 22nd, 09:10pm
This update is mostly intended to resolve a few issues in space (e.g. Not being able to kill people while they are docked at a spacestation). [cut]
It adds a new spacestation 'spectator'-mode and a couple of new weapons (which will be available to purchase sometime soon), and also provides a few features to handle space-events like the recent 'fight-night' - for instance.. players in space can be temporarily assigned to teams so they can fight it out in groups.
The patch should also fix a few issues with players not appearing in space, and theres a couple of small tweaks to some of the camera and subgame settings on worlds (As well as a brand new, but half-finished and currently unusable, cricket subgame).
Public Newsby: Fooli on February 15th, 11:55am
Still waiting for your universal website account to be activated? Here's why... we've updated the site registration process. Read on to find out what to do next. [cut]
The registration changes don't affect anyone who already has an active web account here. However, if you registered in the last couple of weeks and you didn't get your account validated... it's been wiped, as part of our update. Sorry about that (we had to do something about spam - c'est la vie). If you still want a web account here, you'll need to register again. You'll be able to use the same username & email as before.
Thanks to Magicfinger for finally sorting this out..
Public Newsby: Mit on February 5th, 09:41pm
A new update of the game is now on the downloads page - it includes a few new features (see above) and a few gameplay fixes, tweaks & balances. As usual with the old beast, there'll be a few loose ends that you'll need to take with a dose of beta-salt. Join in on the forums if you want to help sort it out more.
Public Newsby: Fooli on January 24th, 05:09pm
Please note: the galaxy will be down for a while during the period 25-27th January. Sorry about that. See this forum post for more information.
Public Newsby: Fooli on November 16th, 08:02am
If you want a head start building your world you might like to check out the Desert Racing World template here...
To drive around the desert I've updated the dune buggy in the model library here...
Meet Ig and Og! The universe needs more cavepeople, and you can find them in the model library here.
Public Newsby: Magicfinger on November 7th, 05:48pm
Apologies to anyone who has tried to register on the site in the past 3-4 weeks: it appears that the registration script only half uploaded via ftp, and so the system was crashing during the registration process. Many thanks to those that emailed me: it is all working again now.
Public Newsby: zaroba on November 6th, 11:16am
Planet Sabrada has been reset and is ready to play... [cut]it's a fully-featured economy world with complex and deep gameplay, for all you number-crunching resource-management cut-and-thrust-of-commerce types out there (this post has been brutally PR-i-fied by Fooli. Sorry Zar )
Public Newsby: Mit on October 10th, 09:11pm
A new update of the game has been put up today.. Space stuff should generally be a bit smoother, and hopefully there's a few fixes that will allow more people to connect to the worlds. [cut]
The space menus & interface have been tidied and improved to help players get started, and to declutter the screen on low-res displays. A new screen has been added that lets you select other players and targets and see a separate (zoomed) view of them. Makes it all feel a bit more connected and its pretty sometimes too
Also fixed are a couple of little bugs in the robocrows, which should remove those times when someone 'seems' invincible.
Theres a fix for the bug that caused ppl not to appear in space after launching from a planet, and for various other bits of space comms stuff, such as tidyups for the private comms channels, and a fix for a bug that was causing ships to appear to 'bounce' around in space when they were supposed to be stationary.
More to come soon..
Public Newsby: GK8000 on August 7th, 06:21am
The next incarnation of Drellis has officially started...set in a city-scape environment, players can use the new FPS features to engage in all-out team CTF warfare!
You can find planet Drellis in the Cirrus Minor system. More information about the world is available here...
Public Newsby: Mit on July 31st, 06:57pm
This update includes new audio libraries, various bug fixes and more stuff in your local starport. [cut]
The starport changes include a new trade system, that lets you trade galactic prestige (which you can now earn on various planets in the galaxy) into space items, such as infimp drives and ship systems. This is an important change - new players now have a way to get that essential infimp drive without having to deal with space trade.
Audio changes include various little additions to the world radio, but more importantly I've upgraded to the latest version of the bass.dll, which contains fixes and improvements that make the music player more stable in general.
Since the last version update, theres also been lots of feature additions that allow servers like 'Bongtrek' to work.
Those of you who've been following the minor releases of the 0.49.8 client probably won't see much else new, but lots of bits have changed since the last public release..
-Mit '06
Public Newsby: Fooli on July 19th, 08:38am
Industrial and Modern added to the forum post here.
Public Newsby: Fooli on July 5th, 04:39am
A message from the monkeys...
Public Newsby: Fooli on July 4th, 10:53am
Any world owners using models from The Republic might be interested in this forum post - I've done what I can to update a lot of the dodgier models & textures. Enjoy (I hope).
f
Public Newsby: Mit on July 4th, 11:51pm
0.49.8.6 is on the downloads page - a few small enhancements and a few bug fixes - including one that might solve why some people have trouble landing on planets.
Public Newsby: Fooli on June 22nd, 06:04am
A supermarket
Trucks!
UPDATE: I spotted a couple of mistakes in the tanker model that I've now fixed. I've also added a tankerless version of the tanker (it's in the zip on that page) and another truck variant with a box container instead of a tank.
f
Public Newsby: zaroba on June 19th, 03:03pm
The new Zoric 16 is open...it's a pretty easy economy setup similar to that of Zion, but with a few differences that make some stuff easier and some stuff harder.
[cut]
like:
- Needing more employees for a building - but there are also more jobs available.
- Lots of items are more expensive except for the end cost which might make for low profit transfers on expensive items, but there will be gov buildings in several cities to act as NPCs who buy most of the items as well
- The world has no overall building limits, but you are limited on a per building basis as to how many of each type of building you can have (like up to 5 oil drills, 10 wells, 5 ore mines, etc)
- Buildings will produce even if not employeed, it just takes a bit longer.
- Buildings are made via cash only.
- etc
Robocrows will be set up soon as well, and possibly ground weapons for vehicular combat, and for vehicle vs. building combat.
Zoric is currently located in the Tau Ceti system.
This world is mostly just going to be a place holder to keep Zoric running while I work on a real economy for it.
Public Newsby: Fooli on June 13th, 06:35pm
A handful of new models added to the library today:
A new monkey (work-in-progress)
A tent and two futuristic buildings
f
Public Newsby: Oropher on June 11th, 06:46am
Although I am a new player, I have started a blog about TU - Heres the link - I am reporting all that I see in the game and bouncing important info from the TU website and forum.. [cut] This blog is intended to attract more people in the game and also contain info and pictures for the regular players. At the moment, the blog is focused on Zion only but later I will start to explore the other worlds of TU. Here is the URL: http://robocrows.blogspot.com
Feel free to check it and drop a comment!
Thanks!
OropheR of Daivania.
Public Newsby: Mit on May 27th, 07:27am
.. and earn yourself kudos. Zion currently has 250+ people playing every week so come join in - theres lots of opportunity to meet some folk, make yourself rich, have some fun and earn some prestige prizes. [cut]
Theres a new level of building on the world now, allowing the richer players to make higher tech level buildings - with the ultimate aim of producing 'Hailes' (from Bobs and Wailers, of course) - using a Haile increases your kudos, which you can then convert to galactic prestige. And galactic prestige will soon mean prizes..
If you last played Zion some time ago, you'll perhaps be pleased to hear that your character will probably still be alive and you'll still have your wealth - despite the intro screen saying you'll be reset if you dont play fortnightly.
This is either because :
1) Im nice, and kind
2) I havent written the 'resetting inactive characters' stuff properly.
Take your pick
New building models are placeholders, by the way, and will be replaced with some funky futuristic zion-specific stuff whenever one of us gets time and can be arsed to do some graphics.
Public Newsby: Mit on May 9th, 08:49am
Your help is needed by an ancient alien race with a mission in mind - and a realworld prize is on offer!
Click here for more info.
Public Newsby: Mit on May 7th, 09:38pm
New version up - lotsa lil new toys and improvements. I'll post some more specifics (including details of a galactic quest that can earn you prizes) as soon as i sober up
Public Newsby: Fooli on April 28th, 05:41pm
It's getting boring now, isn't it (I'm combing my model directory for stuff that never really got finished... until now. Sorta). This time.. it's a sportscar. Find it in the model library here....
f
Public Newsby: Fooli on April 27th, 10:38am
In an unprecedented spate of model-uploading activity I've added a little pack of slightly Mad Max themed models to the model library - some buggies, a driver, some bikes and a gyrocopter... [cut]
I say slightly because they didn't turn out quite as I expected. Still, you might have fun with 'em:
Public Newsby: Fooli on April 27th, 10:35am
I've added a bunch of things to the model library for your sci-fi shooter and cactus-loving pleasure... [cut]
So we have:
[cut]
Who says we never give you anything...The soldiers were textured by me so don't expect miracles, but with first person mode/WASD controls around the corner, they might be fun to play with... f
Public Newsby: Malkiah on April 19th, 05:04am
The Universal Master fansite has been revamped into a sleek forum for the community, so please come on by and check us out. You have to register to get full access to the forums, but you can post in the various help areas if you're looking for help.
Public Newsby: Mit on March 18th, 11:59pm
Mostly a maintenance release this - over 30 fixes for bug reports players have raised on the forums.. [cut]
Many of the fixes are quite crucial to the functioning of some worlds, and many just make life a little bit more bearable.
There are quite a few feature request additions too, mostly extra settings for world owners n suchlike, and there are various other new, WIP additions like space guilds, legal status, encounters, auto-texmap generation, etc etc.
Most of these dont work yet - so if you see anything new and interesting-looking, assume it'll work in 0.49.7
Public Newsby: zaroba on March 5th, 10:37am
I've just reset Zoric since the undersea theme failed horribly. Zoric is now using the settings, map and buildings from an older Sabrada. Sabrada 2 seemed to be liked by many players...now it's back as Zoric 14 with pretty much no changes.
Public Newsby: paintballkev812 on February 18th, 10:37am
I've finally finished Paint's Plaza! It still has some things that need to be added, but nothing major. It's a similar setup to biplane world, but of course different. I have a royalty system up and going and pretty simple to become royalty; get the most cash.
Hope everyone swings by!
Public Newsby: alner on February 11th, 03:08am
Hello everyone!
A competition is being help for The Universal related website owners. [cut] The rules are simple:
- You must have a website already up!
- It must be of a TU genre
- It must have more than 3 pages
- It must have sufficient content (you be the judge)
The winner will get:
- Free webhosting from my company
- Any amount of space they need, with a maximum of 20GB bandwidth
- Their site listed on my site.
- All for free!
Entries can be sent to: alner@internode.on.net
You must include in the email:
- The link to your website
- How much space you need
- How much bandwidth you need
- What your forum and ingame names are
The winner will be announced by the 20th of Feburary.
Public Newsby: oldcynic on January 1st, 01:51pm
and all the best for 2006!
Public Newsby: Fooli on December 28th, 09:39am
Normal service has been resumed. Apologies, etc. Merry Christmas :]
Public Newsby: zaroba on December 27th, 09:19am
The central servers are currently offline for christmas.. Everything should be back up and running by the 28th/29th Dec [cut]
In the meantime, you can use the a-tractor client (http://www.gameislands.net) to play on a few worlds.
Providing the chat server is active, you should also be able to access the worlds on the finite drive by running TheUniversal as normal, selecting 'Dont Connect' when prompted, then choosing Server List from the Front-end menu.
Apologies for the downtime. All should be back to normal soon.
Public Newsby: Freako on December 27th, 09:19am
You can all expect Luca to be up and running again on the 28th of December with any luck...[cut]
This new version will incorp background music, a world first, using the new texture system and a full stroyline.
However there are only 50 places avaible as will become clear on the story, so make sure you get on the world quickly!
Public Newsby: morbydvisns on December 17th, 05:27am
Ariya is now open, and available on the FIPRO drive. [cut] The game is an advancement/production game play, along the lines of The Republic, but on a much larger scale, team play, econo/war
hope to see you there!
Public Newsby: Mit on December 2nd, 11:32am
"In the Restaurant, things were fast approaching the moment after which there wouldn’t be any more moments.."
[cut]
Check out this forum thread for more info on the galactic reset..
Public Newsby: Mit on October 30th, 10:38pm
The Universal World Resource is a website dedicated to helping people build their own world..[cut]
Zaroba, qwerty & freako keep the website packed full of models, textures, info and lots of other game-related stuff. If you want to get involved with the creative side of the universe, become a regular visitor
Public Newsby: Damon on October 25th, 08:47am
Trading Tips to Maximize Profits
--------------------------------
[cut]
1. Make use of paper/pen or Notepad to keep track of changing prices
of goods at various stations.
1a. Note that some prices change after you purchase/sell
goods. Keep track of the changes otherwise you might find
yourself on a run that will lose you money.
1b. Other people trading for the same goods will effect the prices
that you get when you dock at a space station. This change is
usually small, but can turn a good route into one that doesn't make
much money at all, or even cause you to lose money.
2. The Trade Report is your friend. It costs only .1 per system
per log on, which you will make back and more during your first
run.
3. When first starting, buy a cargo transport from one of the
systems around Cirrus Minor to increase your transport load to
20 tons.
4. After you have a cargo ship, you won't be left with much to
start with. Begin by trading water (probably between Biplane and
Drellis) until you can start building up your credits to buy
more expensive cargo that will make you more each cargo run you
do. Make sure you keep an eye on how much you are making per
ton. That is what decides how quickly you will gain credits.
5. Make use of your Stardrive to travel between Cirrus Minor and
Tau Ceti. Uridium is only .1 per 10, and it only costs 4 Uridium
to go between these two systems, which again, you'll make up for
in one run.
5a. There are places that charge .4 credits per 10 units of
Uridium. These prices should also be noted on your paper.
5b. Cross-system trading is a good way to make a larger
profit, but the prices seem more likely to change and
the changes seem larger (see Section 1a).
6. Save up credits to buy extra cargo bays (found on Planitia)
when you can. The more you can store, the more you can make.
6a. Some people will suggest buying a finite drive or
a L8 stardrive before getting another cargo bay. Keep
in mind that a finite drive does not work with any
ship carrying cargo and the L8 stardrive will eat more
uridium.
7. Carry the cargo that a) makes the most profit AND b) you can
buy enough of to fill your cargo hold. Example: your cargo
capacity is 20 tons. You can make 1.0 credits per ton of both
metals and food from Drellis to Sabrada, but you can only afford
10 tons of metals as opposed to 20 tons of food. Carry the food.
As a guideline, try to never make a run without your cargo hold
full. It will maximize profit.
7a. Shorter routes mean more cargo runs can be made
in a given time. If there are identical prices on two
or more planets in a system, go for the closest one.
7a2. Some planets, such as Zyrane in the Tau
Ceti system, take a long time to reach when
coming out of a stardrive jump. Keep this in
mind when devising cargo runs.
8. If there are several goods you can carry and make a profit on
from one station to another, and they are of different profit
margins, maximize your cargo hold. Example: going from Drellis
to Sabrada, you can make 1.0 profit on metals, 0.8 profit on
food, and 0.3 profit on water but don't have enough to carry
a full cargo of metals, carry as much metals as you can then
switch to food and carry as much of that as you can, then
switch to water. It will maximize the run.
8a. Section 8 overrides Section 7 only if there are
varying profit margins in different trade goods.
9. Do not leave yourself without approximately 100-200 credits
after a purchase of a cargo hold, finite drive, or other addition
to your ship. Doing so will turn you into a .3 credit profit water
trader quickly. This is experience speaking.
10. Be helpful on the comm channel when it comes to helping someone
find a good run. Like in any multi-player online game, karma is a big factor
and there will be times you can't find a great cargo run.
10a. Learn who your fellow traders are. In dealing with
the growing threat of piracy, information is a big
commodity.
10b. Most traders are willing to talk, if just to pass
the time between long runs. The Comm Station is a good
way to trade information about runs, pirates, and
strategy.
11. If you are unsure if someone is a pirate or not, it may be
a good idea to use the tracking view (hold cntl, hit F10) while
they are targeted to get their bearing and distance. Keep an
eye out on anyone you don't know moving in behind you and getting
closer.
------------------------------------
General Price Guide
These are the general "good" prices of various goods found in the first three star systems to trade at. Hopefully this will help some that have difficulty in figuring out what is a good price and what isn't. The legend goes like this:
TradeGood - (good sale price) (good buys at price)
Food - 3.2 4.0
Water - 0.3 0.8
Minerals - 9.7 11.3
Metals - 26 28
Organics - 12.5 15
Industrial - 42 44
---------------------------
Anyone is free to use this or ignore it or whatnot. Once I figure out more about deep-space trade, I will add to the guide.
Public Newsby: Magicfinger on October 24th, 08:20am
New Version (0.48.0) of TheUniversal has been released.
Available in this release is the opportunity for all players to try out world building... [cut]
The following services have now been made publicly available
* TheUniversal World Server (limited edition)
* Model Convertor
* World Owners Manual
* Buildings Data File Editor
to find out more read Mit's forum post here...
Public Newsby: Mit on October 24th, 09:17am
Anyone else reckon we don't update the news here frequently enough? If thats the case you should check out The Universal Master..[cut]- its a player-run site, where Kirby & TheSeer do an excellent job of keeping you up to date with all the goings on in the game, from details of beta-releases to info on all of the worlds active in the game. But remember, don't believe everything you read on the internet 
Public Newsby: Mit on October 24th, 09:18am
Please note, galactic trading is going through some changes at the moment, which'll mean prices, items and potential profits may vary widely for the next couple of weeks..[cut] Feel free to explore, but i wouldn't recommend putting a lot of effort into building up your gal cash - everyones' galactic records will be reset once the changes are completed. (Your characters on worlds will be unaffected)
Public Newsby: Mit on October 24th, 07:54am
v0.44.5 is now available.. Details can be found on the forums, here.
Public Newsby: Mit on October 24th, 09:28am
Helloo.
Um, yeh, we're up to 44.0 on the downloads page now.. [cut] Theres various bits of new stuff in there, like space ships moving about and firing, and (optional) proper shadows on the players, plus a few fixes for texture downloads etc. But I have to apologise for the numerous broken & weird bits in this client too. (Nothing too critical i hope, but stuff that might mean an occasional extra relog). The goal at the moment is to progress the versions towards a nice complete v.5 with all the space stuff working nicely and a new tutorial world and building interiors.. nd whateva else comes up from the TDL. In the meantime you may have to put up with a few 'transitional' clients
Public Newsby: Mit on October 24th, 09:29am
Within the next couple of days i'll be implementing some changes to the way the galactic exchange (and subsequent galactic trade system) are set up.. [cut] Part of this will be changing the current world sheckles/kudos -> gal credits exchange system to one where world gains can be exchanged for 'galactic prestige'. Initially prestige will mostly be a status symbol, rather than anything useful in game, but later in the year it will link to extra features for players who've progressed through worlds.
While things are getting changed around, new players to the galaxy will get access to an infimp drive by default - any existing players who get stuck without one, pls put in a request via the forums. Also, please avoid using the galactic exchange system as it may result in you losing world cash.
A full reset of all galaxy characters will follow sometime next week month.
Public Newsby: Mit on October 24th, 09:29am
0.42.5 patch uploaded - Includes a fix for corrupted item names after launching, some tidyups for the graphics in space .. [cut] - including allowing each planet to have its own custom texture, downloaded from the website when required.., improvements to the control mode in space, new sea effects, a new per-vehicle ride-hitching limits system, a few new weapon & team selection variants, and a system for allowing world owners to define buildings that can only be built in specified regions of the map.
Public Newsby: Mit on October 24th, 09:30am
0.41.8 client now on the downloads page fixes a couple of crashes, adds a few more options for world owners and adds a few more shiny exploding weapons (as seen on iridis).. [cut] And theres a free glass of whiskey given away with every download. (Proof of purchase required).
Public Newsby: zaroba on August 16th, 03:13pm
Several new islands are here for you to play!
Planitia - With economic changes and a new design, Junk is remaking Planitia to be better then ever. Located in Tau Ceti. NOW STARTED
Zoric - In recognition of the island I learnt the game on, Zoric 10 will be a remake of the great Apocylipseland 2 island. Located in Tau Ceti. NOW STARTED
Wings Field - Similer to Biplaneworld, Wings Field will be mostly geared around plane combat with a small economic system. Currently located in System M-209. NOW STARTED
-zaroba
Public Newsby: Mit on January 21st, 01:59pm
0.1.38 update now on the page has.. um.. ya know.. normal stuff. Some fixes for that, some fixes for the other, few different new bits, some extra options for the world owners. Typical.
Its a bloody cheek if you ask me.
There you are, perfectly content sitting about with your tiny handheld nintendos, miniature motorised scooter-shoes and .. whatever else you kids are playing with these days.. and then, just to spite ya, along comes another damn free download of that silly space-twang-tractor-monkey-jetpack game. Pfft, it should be made illegal! If the UN find out about this we're in trouble. Get the developers by the neck and string the bastards up, i say! Its the only language they understand.
Public Newsby: DeVice on January 6th, 06:34pm
I just published that new lil game i've been spending some time to code in the Downloads section.
Give it a try before it's available in the universal pubs !
Public Newsby: Magicfinger on December 25th, 08:30am
Merry Christmas to all our players From everybody at The Universal
Public Newsby: Fooli on December 3rd, 05:06am
Our first public announcement!
++PRESS RELEASE++
Magrathea (London branch), 3rd December 2004: the first publicly-available version of The Universal is here! The Universal is a free, massively-multiplayer online game set in a virtual 3d universe of worlds owned and run by other players. Created by Games For May, an independent team of volunteers from the games industry, The Universal brings a totally unique approach to the popular massively- multiplayer gaming genre.
Full story...
Public Newsby: Magicfinger on November 30th, 09:13pm
* RESULTS OF PHOTO/VIDEO COMPETITION *
Congratulations to Ghostdog on the winning video submission, which can be downloaded here, and to XmAkInA who although also submitted a video is winning the Photo competition due to the work he undertook to produce an entry.
Both of you will be contacted shortly to discuss your prizes.
as a side note... the winning entry for placing most ammount of links on one page goes to Zaroba who wins a free link (to his own page) here we go... www.atractorguide.com
Public Newsby: Mit on November 29th, 06:43am
0.1.36 update is available on the downloads page now - mainly containing extra features that let you access Iridis. Its a bit rough at the edges yet, so there'll probably be a further update later in the day or week. (For of those of you new to the game, this sorta thing happens regularly. Do not be afraid.)
Public Newsby: Mit on November 25th, 07:23pm
Apologies to any of you who suffered from a recent glitch in the galaxy server that may have meant you were stuck in a star system without your galactic items. All should be good now. (hopefully )
Public Newsby: Mit on November 2nd, 05:54pm
New 0.1.35 downloads are now available. In addition to the stuff mentioned below, this vers also includes the basis of the space trading system, accessed through the space stations in orbit around planets.
Public Newsby: Mit on October 29th, 05:58pm
Comin' up in the next update of The Universal..
Helicopters
'King of the Hill' + other subgames
6 card stud poker in the bar
Enhanced collision modes allowing bridges and suchlike
Wildlife you can kill
'Wipeout'-style hover control modes
...and some other bits & pieces.
Public Newsby: Mit on October 21st, 06:47am
Galactic characters have been reset today. See the forums for more details. This does not affect the status of your characters on any of the worlds in the game.
Public Newsby: Mit on October 12th, 08:46am
New 0.1.34 client now on the downloads page includes a few fixups for the new player start sequence, some additional weapon script stuff (so worlds can have surface-to-robocrow weapons, for instance), better handling of things when the galaxy is offline and um.. various bits of other stuff. :] A full release notes doc will be posted sometime soon.
Public Newsby: Mit on October 6th, 09:34pm
Zoric island is now back up and ready for play in Tau Ceti. Hunger and thirst have not yet been activated, and it will be non-24/7 until then. It will run from around 8am eastern time to about 10pm eastern time on weekdays, probably the same on weekends. Log in & check the forums for more info.
Public Newsby: Mit on October 5th, 11:40am
Time has been frozen on Zion and the server passworded while we work on and try out a few new settings for the next stage. It will reopen at the weekend for v0.1.33
Public Newsby: Mit on September 29th, 08:27am
Welcome to the new website - thanks to Hedgehog, Magicfinger and Fooli for building it.
Public Newsby: Mit on July 20th, 09:43pm
New downloads are now available on the .. um.. downloads page. Its almost criminal.
Public Newsby: Mit on December 31st, 07:00pm
NEW FEATURE
event sorting now in place works by calculating difference from date posted to today and then adding a score based on Authority of poster... any problems with that slap Mit (it was his idea) and anybody who wants me to change the code for that is likely to be hit with a big stick
(Even if i do have to travel overseas to hit them !!!)
p.s if you wanna see the workings out Click here...
Public Newsby: Magicfinger on June 30th, 07:58pm
Catastrphe !!!!
Last night the Universal.net Database was irrecovably corrupted to the point where all data was lost. Have re-loaded as much as i had from backups and re-creates some of the table from memory...
if i can remember correctly i have most of the information needed to restore the bug database up to 10 days ago. Until i can get to my machine at work the DB will be offline (prob back tommorow)
so cya tommorow :)
Public Newsby: Mit on February 19th, 09:32pm
I moved the galaxy moved tonight. It seeems safe :]
Big thank you to hedge for hosting it for us for the past few months (and for continuing to host the chat server) and for devi for letting me cajole him into hosting the galaxy for the next few months :]
Ya might have trouble connecting initially.. grab the new clients and servers and delete the Data\gateways.lst file in each and it should get the correct address. (if it doesnt do it automatically..)
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 "The Universal is totally unique – we urge you to explore it"
The Universal is constantly changing, with new challenges, storylines, events & achievements throughout the year.
Maybe you'll play for ten minutes every few days just to keep yourself alive... or spend weeks building an empire... or go for an 8 hour session blasting other players to bits. Maybe you'll build your own world.
The Universal has endless variety to keep you coming back week after week.
Features
An ever-changing universe
Themes and storylines that change from month to month.
Different experiences on every planet
A whole galaxy to explore
Online social gameplay
Trading, competition and cooperation between players
Complex economies
Multiplayer minigames
Gain skills, experience and achievements
Action and Minigames
Vehicles to drive about in - land, air & sea.
Racing, jetpacks, arcade machines
Fishing, bongos, Ultrakricket!
CTF, robotic laser-firing crows!
Chess, Hornball, Pubs!
User-generated content
Players can customise their own world in the galaxy
Compete on player-run worlds
Build your own world radio station
A never-ending supply of new, downloadable content
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