OGame

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OGame
File:NewOgameLoginScreen.jpg
Developer(s)Gameforge AG
Platform(s)Computer, Mobile
ReleaseSept 5, 2007
Genre(s)Real Time Text-based MMO
Mode(s)Multiplayer

OGame is an HTML management-type, text-based, space-war themed online browser game with over two million[1] active accounts. OGame is produced and maintained by Gameforge AG.[2] [3]

As of September 2007, Ogame.org has a total of 33 universes, with more being added periodically.

Background story

In the year 2087, "impulse drives" are invented enabling mankind to travel to and colonize other planets in the Universe. The improvements in technology and research helped mankind achieve a new era of peace. However, this peace ended when a rare element, "Xentronium", was discovered. The element, described as having "the power of 10,000 terran suns per microgram", caused strife between human organizations, and war ensued. The war ultimately ended with the deployment of the "omega bomb," was used, which wiped out most of mankind's physical achievements. The game takes place after the deployment of the omega bomb, where mankind is trying to rebuild the lost interstellar civilisation.

Gameplay

Alliances

An alliance is a group of people who have banded together and is mostly used for solidarity purposes. However, some alliances also have goals that are beyond going up the ranks. Alliances are created for players to protect each other from attacks, join together to raid other planets, or to promote free trade amongst members. Players who join an alliance can share espionage reports on other planets and view the alliance home page. The ACS (Alliance Combat System) allows members of the same alliance to station fleets on other members' planet, and allows different members of the alliance to send fleets at different times to join together to raid another players' planet. The ACS system has been added to the English OGame in universe 5, 13, and all universes above universe 18. The ACS system has been also added to some universes in the Dutch, Polish, French and Portuguese versions of OGame, to most universes in the German server, to all universes of the Russian version of OGame and to the 3rd universe in the Czech server.

An alliance page in OGame is divided into several parts:

  • Rank: Your rank or status within the alliance set by the founder of the alliance or any authorized member.
  • Members: The number of people in the alliance.
  • External text appears to everybody who visits the alliance page, member or not. It is typically used for general announcements.
  • Internal text only appears to members of the alliance. Announcements of a more discretionary nature usually go here.
  • Alliance homepage, if any, is the link to that particular alliance's homepage.

Many alliances have set up their own homepages/forums to help promote their alliance, and also to discuss game related, and non-game related points. Alliances have partaken in many huge battles on the .org site, and have resulted in some fantastic hits. As a result alliances are seen, by many, as the key to success and building not only the points of new players, but the reputation of experienced ones.

Points

Points are used to rank players, which factors into the ranking of alliances. One point is awarded for every thousand resource units spent; likewise one point is taken away for every thousand resource units lost. Points are gained from constructing ships, defenses and buildings, and researching new technology, but points can be lost from having ships and defenses destroyed and surrendering colonies. There is a ranking system, which is the main reason OGame is so competitive. Since the implementation of v0.76b, the top 7000 players (in points) are displayed, instead of only the Top 1500, as in previous versions. It is also possible to see the Top 7000 ranked players respective to Fleet points and Research points, which is simply the number of ships and the number of tech levels researched.

Resources

There are three resources available in OGame: metal, crystal, deuterium, and, added recently, dark matter. Raw metal is the most abundant resource, and is used in large amounts in everything from planetary structures to building ships to research. Crystal is also used for structures, but is used excessively in researching technologies/drives. Deuterium is mainly used as fuel for the player's fleet. Deuterium makes new ship research possible, as well as ship upgrades. Dark Matter is collected by buying it with real money. It is used to hire officers. Resources, excluding dark matter, can be collected through raiding other players' planets, or mining one's own planet(s). Later on in the game, one option for large players is to "Fleet crash" smaller opponents, which is the act of destroying another players fleet for the purpose of collecting the debris that remain after the battle and recycling the resulting debris (only metal and crystal can be obtained this way) and 30% of all ship's metal and crystal can be obtained in such a manner. Alternatively; players could choose to negotiate a trading sequence where they swap resources, usually at a 3:2:1 ratio, but other ratios such as 2:1.5:1, 2:1:1 or 1.5:1:1 (metal, crystal, deuterium) do also exist.

Buildings

Buildings are used for gathering resources (Mines), for energy (Solar Plant, Fusion Reactor, and Solar Satellites), for storage (Metal Storage, Crystal Storage, Deuterium Tank and Missile Silo), for building your fleet and defense (Shipyard), for research (Research Lab) and for shortening the time buildings, ships and defenses take to construct (Robotic Factory and Nanite Factory). Buildings in OGame are different from buildings in many games in several ways. First, you do not place them, you "build" that structure type and then you upgrade it. Second, is that there are, for all intensive purposes, an infinite number of upgrades (level 1, level 2, etc.). The cost of resources double each level of upgrade, except for Metal Mines, Deuterium Synthesizers, and Solar Plants which increase by 1.5 per level, the Crystal Mine, which increases by 1.6 per level, and the Fusion Reactor, whose cost is increased by 1.8 per level.

Each building takes up a "field" on a planet, and each new level takes up a new field. When the fields of the planet are full, no new buildings can be built, unless a terraformer is constructed, providing more fields for each level of the terraformer. Terraformer will provide 5 fields (one for itself and four for other buildings).

Ships

OGame is mainly known for being a combat game, so a fleet is of the utmost importance. Players with large fleets can attack other players in the game to either steal their resources or to crash their fleets and/or defense. The best fleets are those which are balanced and use a variety of all of the available ships. There are various different kinds of ships, everything from a light cargo ship to a death star.

Defense

As opposed to building massive amounts of ships, there are few advantages to being purely defensive unless you are a miner whose sole source of income are his mines. If destroyed, there's no chance of recovering the lost resources with recyclers or an equivalent of fleet saving. One advantage is that there is a 70% chance that defensive structures will be rebuilt if they are destroyed in battle. This 70% chance is computed on every single "destroyed" defensive structure after an attack by a hostile fleet, so even if all of the planet's defenses are wiped out, 70% of them will typically be repaired and returned to service.

However, if the defenses are destroyed by interplanetary missiles, they will not be repaired. To protect defenses from interplanetary missiles, anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs) can be created. Each anti-ballistic missile will destroy 1 interplanetary missile in an attack.

The combat system is tilted more towards the attacker and as such, encourages the entire universe to attack anyone, for any amount of profit. It is commonly seen that large profits are made against high level players, resulting in a fair game. However, many players target heavily defended planets for the sole purpose of "cracking turtles" and do not care if they make little or no profit.

In essence, joining an older universe increases your chances of advancement, because the larger players are more likely to leave you alone due to lack of large profits. However the new universes have many more players which increases your chances of being attacked by a player only marginally higher than yourself.

However a player joining an old universe has very little chance of reaching a top ten position because of the amount of time the other players have invested. A player can still have a successful empire in an old universe but to be the best in a universe, it is recommended to join a new universe when it starts.

Research

Each player has the ability to research advanced technologies with the help of a Research Lab. Researching improves a player's colony, allowing them to research much better technology or gain access to new ships, defenses, and buildings. No more than one research can be performed at one time. The researching process uses all 3 resources(Crystal, Deuterium, and Metal) and also 10 minutes or much higher(depends on the level and technology you are researching and research lab level) to finish. This time can be reduced if the player has researched the Intergalactic Research Network.


Technologies Player's can research:
•Espionage Technology-Sending probes to spy on other planets and allows player to build probes
•Computer Technology-Increases available fleets and allows building of nanite factory
•Weapon Technology-Increases weapon strength
•Shielding Technology-Increases defense and allows new technology and defenses
•Armour Technology-Increases Defense
•Energy Technology-Allows new technologies
•Hyperspace Technology-Allows new ships and technology
•Combustion Drive-Allows new ships and technology, increases speed
•Impulse Drive-Allows new ships and increases speed
•Hyperspace Drive-Allows new ships and increases speed
•Laser Technology-Allows new technology, ships, and defenses
•Ion Technology-Allows new technology, ships, and defenses
•Plasma Technology-Allows new Ships and defenses
•Intergalactic Research Network-Increases research lab productivity
•Graviton Technology-Allows deathstar to be built and is the only research that requires energy.

Moons

Moons occasionally form after a fleet is destroyed. When a ship is destroyed, 30% of the metal and crystal used to build the ship goes into a debris field. If the debris field from the destruction of a fleet consists of over 100k resources there is a chance of forming a moon (1% per 100k resources, up to a 20% chance). Shipyards, robotics factories, metal storage, crystal storage, and deuterium tanks can be built on either a planet or a moon (plz note that storage tanks are useless on the moon, since you cannot build mines on it). However, there are 3 unique structure(Jump Gates, Sensor Phalanxes, and Lunar Bases) that can only be built on a moon.

Additionally, since a Sensor Phalanx cannot sense fleet activity in orbit around a moon, players will often base their fleets on their moons whenever possible. It is also impossible to target a moon with interplanetary missiles.

Missions

Unlike many other real-time strategy games, Ogame does not give you constant control of your spacecraft. Instead, you tell your ship(s) where to fly (using the game's coordinate system) and what to do when they get there. Your fleet cannot be attacked while in transit to or from a mission, but it is vulnerable whenever it is in orbit around your planet or the one you choose to ACS Defend. Fleet movements cannot be monitored by other players unless one has built a sensor phalanx (these can only be constructed on moons). There are 9 types of missions that can be performed by ships in OGame:

  • Transport - A mission where ship(s) (usually cargo ships) are dispatched to another planet with the sole purpose of delivering resources to that planet. There are no restrictions on what type of ship may perform this action, but most ships have very limited cargo space when compared to transporters (cargo ships). All ships can execute this mission.
  • Espionage - A mission where espionage probes are dispatched to another players' planet with the sole purpose of finding out about that planet's resources, building, research levels, fleets and defenses. Depending on the level of technology between the 2 players and the number of probes sent, some or all of the above information could be revealed. All fleets with espionage probes can perform this mission, but the chances of counter-espionage (being discovered and engaged into a fight) increases with the number of ships sent.
  • Attack - A mission where ships are sent to another players' planet with the purpose of either destroying ("crashing") the orbiting fleet, crushing the planetary defenses of a "turtler" (one who invests only in defenses and mines), or stealing the planet's mined resources. The attacking fleet can be comprised of any number of available ships. All ships can execute this mission.
  • Deployment - A mission in which ships are sent to one of your colonies to stay and work from that planet. Deployed ships do not return to their point of origin. All ships can execute this mission.
  • Harvest - A harvest mission is when a fleet which includes Recycler(s) are sent to a debris field to collect the debris formed either after a battle or as a result of successful counter-espionage.
  • Colonization - A colonization mission is when a fleet travels to a vacant planet and 'colonizes' it, thereby creating a new colony for the player. The colonization fleet must contain a colony ship. The colony ship is lost as part of the colonization, although a few metal and crystal resources are made available on the colony as a result of the colony ship's dismantling. Any other "escort" ships in the colonization fleet return to the planet from which they were sent.
  • Moon Destruction - A risky mission with the goal of destroying a player's moon. There must be at least one Deathstar in your fleet for this mission to be allowed. Depending on the moon's size and number of Deathstars, it is possible to destroy the moon and/or lose your fleet.
  • ACS Attack - Sends your fleet to a hostile planet, you pick the ID of the fleet of your ally that is flying to help you ACS attack that hostile planet.
  • ACS Defend - Sends your fleet to a friendly planet, allowing you to leave your fleet temporarily on the chosen persons planet, this is helpful when an overpowering fleet is attacking. This option is only available to those of your buddy list or in the same alliance as you.


Rules

OGame is monitored by Game Operators, Super Game Operators and Game Administrators. One of the main rules is that each player can only play one account per OGame universe. Playing more than one account in any single universe will result in the accounts being permanently banned by a Game Operator (GO) for "Multi". Also, each account can only be played by one person. Violating this rule, known as "Account Sharing", will also lead to a Permanent Ban of the Account by a GO. Other rules that come up frequently are "bashing" (you can't attack six times the same planet in an interval equal or less than 24hours - the moons and independent planet) and "pushing" (sending resources to a higher ranked player), although there are exceptions to both of these rules. The full list of rules for ogame.org can be found here: http://ogame.org/regeln.html. The rules can be different for each ogame community.

Players who have been banned are put into the "pillory" of their universe. The pillory shows the reason of banning and the admin who made the decision. It also shows the unbanning of a player when they have clarified the fault.

Officers

On February 16, 2007, Officers were introduced to the game by Ogame operators and related associates. The officers allow user to have improved statistics, ie more fleet slots.

Tools

  • ToolsForOgame - Interplanetary Missile Simulator, Calculators, Commerce and More!
  • OGame-World - All Calculators, Converters, Simulators and Tools which you need for the browsergame OGame!
  • OGame Market - A tool designed for trading OGame resources in all OGame domains and universes.
  • Ogame Help - A website containing tips, tricks, and tools about Ogame.
  • Drago-Sim - A tool that may be used to calculate the outcome of a battle.
  • Foxgame - A website from which the Firefox extension foxgame can be downloaded. This extension helps the player navigate through ogame.
  • NeoGame - A website from which NeoGame can be downloaded. Neogame is an addon to foxgame, and it makes navigating through ogame even easier.

References

  1. ^ http://www.labusinessjournal.org/article-46-ogame.html
  2. ^ www.heise.de article (German)
  3. ^ www.br-online.de article (German)
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