Endgame- Google Maps RTS (beta)

jshanman writes "Play the first Google Maps RTS! Online players (2-25) randomly receive a set of countries with troop hitpoints based on real world population data. To play: attack neutral and enemy countries in an effort to try to take over the world. You have a 20% chance of receiving more troops when you overtake an enemy country. More features to come! (currently in public beta status)."

Winner: Slashdot

[by Anonymous Coward]

Nuff said.

New Server

[by Anonymous Coward]

http://s173754370.onlinehome.us/endgame/news.php [onlinehome.us]

After a good slashdot thrashin' I decided it was finally time to break down and get a host, at least for this application. Let's just hope I don't use up the 500GB bandwidth too fast...

Re:New Server...API key.

[aapold (753705)]

new server requires new google maps API key.

Currently /.

[by Anonymous Coward]

All your maps are belong to us !

Re:Currently /.

[snaptography (867263)]

Fast Company Magazine actually just posted an article regarding Google Mashups being used for Games. Check it on out! http://blog.fastcompany.com/archives/2006/08/10/go ogle_games.html?partner=rss [fastcompany.com]

Re:Currently /.

[ooMissioNoo (994313)]

yes... all your maps... and 19.999999999% of your armys. MWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

Already slashdotted

[rminsk (831757)]

The site is already slashdotted.

Re:Already slashdotted

[moresheth (678206)]

Perhaps we can look at some other games using Google Maps.

http://moloko.itc.it/trustmetricswiki/moin.cgi/Gam esOnGoogleMaps [moloko.itc.it]

Re:Already slashdotted

[creimer (824291)]

You would think for a Google Beta product that wouldn't happen. Maybe they're losing their edge?

Re:Already slashdotted

[j_snare (220372)]

I hate to point out that it's not a Google product here, it's a third party who uses Google Maps, and it is in beta.

Re:Already slashdotted

[budgenator (254554)]

Now I'm impressed, after five minutes of spinning on the hosted server, a text only static page gave a link to an alternate server, a personal server in his basement and it works, a bit slow but it works!

No matter what i'm taking Lebannon

[EmperorKagato (689705)]

I'm in your base, killing your doods!

Re:No matter what i'm taking Lebannon

[FinchWorld (845331)]

Also see this [weebls-stuff.com] for more dood killing.

Re:Special Rules for the Player Playing "Islam:"

[RobotRunAmok (595286)]

that should even things up a little

Sorry, I'm afraid you're way behind:

Post As An AC: Deduct 2 Points

Be Un-Funny: Deduct 5 Points

Credit The UN With Any Relevance: Lose a Turn

Gee, you sure you still want to play? Your heart just doesn't seem to be in the game...

How about a game of Chess?

[by Anonymous Coward]

No. Lets play Global (ThermoNuclear) War.

Game Over

[by Anonymous Coward]

Wellp, after the first round of play, it appears that winner of the first ever Google Maps RTS is Slashdot and the loser is the endeavorpub.com server.

By any chance was the beta test ...

[monopole (44023)]

...Held at the White House?

Good idea!

[peterfa (941523)]

Excellent idea posting a link to a MMORPG with the word 'Google' in there somewhere, on a freakin' nerds' site... poor, poor server.

Missed /. game opportunity!

[rts008 (812749)]

Here is where /. is dropping the ball. We could be even more entertained here if /. would take advantage of this. (would require streaming video in a small window on the /. page)

WTF? you ask? Glad you asked, 'cause here goes:

Redo /.'s website (have another contest!) to display a small video window on the main page that plays 5-10 second clips from the "/. Server's a Smokin' WebCam" for each story on the main page, (would cycle through all the vid's for each story on the main page) then on each article's pag

Slashdotted?

[indiancowboy (637150)]

Wait a minute, does that mean people are now reading the story?

Re:Slashdotted?

[EmperorKagato (689705)]

If you are a subscriber, you had an opportunity to.

I had just enough time to create my account and finish creating my profile. Looks like i won't be playing anytime soon.

Mirrorless?

[EmperorKagato (689705)]

I was thinking about creating a mirror and posting the link to my host. I'm not risking my server blowing up.

That's fast

[Pykasye (814219)]

Zero to Slashdotted in 10 minutes!

Re:That's fast

[GrumblyStuff (870046)]

So, what, are you saying we can do better?

Diplomacy

[Speare (84249)]

The game of Diplomacy, except 80 years in the future. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005EBA0 [amazon.com]

Re:Diplomacy

[flooey (695860)]

The game of Diplomacy, except 80 years in the future. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005EBA0 [amazon.com]

You can play it over e-mail as well. www.diplom.org [diplom.org] is a good place to start.

Re:Diplomacy

[flooey (695860)]

I haven't been able to figure out how to get somebody else to be a judge on www.diplom.org (so that me and six other friends can play a game over email). Any pointers?

Just in terms of terminology, judges are computers that run software to determine the results of moves and so forth. You're probably looking for a GM, which is a neutral person who does the administrative work of setting up and running a game on a judge. If you've got six friends together who want to play, feel free to e-mail me at flooey

Dick

[Punboy (737239)]

Whoever posted this to slashdot is a dick. He says he's running it off a home server.

Re:Dick

[C-Shalom (969608)]

Yea, IP lookup shows it's DSL by Ameritech

Re:Dick

[edmudama (155475)]

Look at the email address of the submitter, it appears to be the owner of the server.

Guess he wanted to test the smoke alarm in his home office.

Re:Dick

[kevin_conaway (585204)]

Relax, it was the author himself that submitted it.

jshanman ([e-mail]) writes "Play the first Google Maps RTS ! Online players (http://www.endeavorpub.com/endgame)

He should have known better

Re:Dick

[TheRaven64 (641858)]

Considering the article submitter doesn't know the difference between overtaking and taking over, I don't hold out much hope for the game if the author and submitter are one and the same.

yes..

[konigstein (966024)]

but can it find sarah connor?

Re:yes..

[Footix (972079)]

Dude, Fark is thataway.

0% chance

[hoggoth (414195)]

> You have a 20% chance of receiving more troops when you overtake an enemy country

You have a 0% chance of getting through to the server.

First nothing!

[bunbuntheminilop (935594)]

RISK using the google API. [slashdot.org]

Granted, its not REAL TIME. Then again, the game in this post doesn't exactly sound like its real time does it? Not that I could see, because the poor server has probably burst into flames.

Actually, now that I think about it, maybe its the same developer. Can someone confirm/deny?

If that's the first Google Maps-based RTS...

[Ant P. (974313)]

What's this? [cybernations.net]

Re:If that's the first Google Maps-based RTS...

[WilliamSChips (793741)]

A poor ripoff of NationStates(which fell down the tube about a year ago) with Google Maps.

/. editors:

[snib (911978)]

Perhaps when a story is submitted for /. the person looking at it should look around for something like...

DISCLAIMER: This is currently hosted on my personal server in my basement. Uptime cannot be guaranteed.

When are they going to set up a mirror system for the story articles??

Re:/. editors:

[Millenniumman (924859)]

They can't set one up until it is written. The code for Slashdot is open source, so if you want a mirror system, write one.

It should be named Slashcache.

FAQ http://slashdot.org/faq/suggestions.shtml#su90

[peterfa (941523)]

Slashdot should cache pages to prevent the Slashdot Effect!

Sure, it's a great idea, but it has a lot of implications. For example, commercial sites rely on their banner ads to generate revenue. If I cache one of their pages, this will mess with their statistics, and mess with their banner ads. In other words, this will piss them off.

Of course, most of the time, the commercial sites that actually have income from banner ads easily withstand the Slashdot Effect. So perhaps we could draw the line at sites

Google Maps Flight Simulator + GE Games

[Lord Satri (609291)]

http://www.gewar.net/ [gewar.net]
http://www.googleearthing.com/ [googleearthing.com]
and
http://googleearthgame.com/ [googleearthgame.com]

And the strangest... the Google Maps Flight Simulator [isoma.net]

Re:Google Maps Flight Simulator + GE Games

[advocate_one (662832)]

And the strangest... the Google Maps Flight Simulator

and the saddest comment on current times is in his FAQ...

WON'T TERRORISTS USE THIS TO PLAN 9/11 TYPE ATTACKS?
They could. or they could use google maps, yahoo maps, msn mapping etc
While i realise its a sensitive issue even including New York in there it's up to
individuals to treat it as it's intended: a game about flying.

Webmaster Sabbotage

[Czaries (980959)]

Judging by the email address given before the quote in this article, the author of this game submitted the article to /. himself. I can understand wanting some free advertising and traffic, but posting something like this on /. is just asking for your server to be brought down. This webmaster sabbotaged his own servers, probably without even knowing it.

Melted Router: the game.

[neo (4625)]

Yes, you've drawn the attention of hundreds of thousands of net savy game players... and your $100 linksys router has all the LEDs melted off the front and there is smoke coming from the ethernet cable. Good job. You're well on your way to returning us to the 1999 when people said they could do anything on the web and then failed to be able to keep up with demand.

You've just relived the dot-com bomb.

Play Risk for Free, and no ads

[bryanbrunton (262081)]

I recently released my version of web-based Risk, called Grand Strategy.

It features team games, leader board and a variety of game styles.

What's more it is free and there are no ads. It is an Ajax app so it runs very smooth. Check it out here:

Grand Strategy [denizengames.com]

So much for the interesting commentary.

[Mike Peel (885855)]

I came here looking for comments on the moral aspects of the game - is it right to let people practice war on real-life maps, with points based on how much of civilization you flatten? - or otherwise decent, interesting comments. Instead, I read a series of "The site is already slashdotted." Not quite what I was after...

I guess I must be new here.

Re:So much for the interesting commentary.

[torqer (538711)]

It's kind of hard to have insightful commentary when the site is slashdotted. No one (well maybe the first 3 people had a chance to look at it) has been able to witness the game's dynmanics. No one has any insight, because no one's played it.

You don't have anything meaningful to say, so just complain. I guess you aren't new here.

Re:slashdotted before first post

[tpjunkie (911544)]

you must be new here...

Re:slashdotted before first post

[Millenniumman (924859)]

Ironically, your UID is a lot higher than his.