   [MMO (HTML5 Based)] Need Beta Testers
 Click here to jump to our forums and register as a beta tester.Team name:Theres no team "name" per sé, the team consists of myself, an artist (Electric), a writer for the background story and quests (luckistoxic), as well as a handfull of beta testers.Project name: Celestial Empires OnlineBrief description:Celestial Empires Online is a browser-based strategic MMO. It uses bleeding-edge HTML5 technology such as the <canvas> and <audio> elements to provide real-time gaming without the use of plugins such as Java and Flash. The game makes heavy use of <canvas> for the graphics, and <audio> for sound effects and music. It also uses jQuery for the user interface.The overall idea of the game is that of a space-based MMO -- a rough idea would be a cross between EVE Online, browser-based space games, along with many other unique elements.The game world takes place in a single non-instanced map that is realistically scaled. Meaning planets, stations, ships, stars, etc are all proportionally sized as they would be in real life. The game's coordinates system is in km. The solar map, for example, has "Zoom: 1 pixel= xxkm" or "Zoom: 1 pixel = "xxm".Planets can be "seeded" with atmospheres if it doesn't already have one, and be colonized. Planetary action is region-based. Although you can fight for regional control on planets, and the resources they yield, the game doesn't show troop/city level detail as this would add way too much "cruft" to the game.The main thing players will be doing is colonizing planets, exploring systems to find rich material deposits, building player-owned stations (or even a defended collection of stations, refineries, etc), researching technology, building ships and items, trading, hauling, running missions, etc.The only ships in the game that are pre-defined as a whole are unmanned drones. All player ships are componentized. Players will create a blueprint of a ship, and then be able to run "batches" on that blueprint to produce however many of that type they want. They can then take different quantities of different ships, and put them into a fleet. Fleets can be controlled directly (like starcraft--ish--), via overview interfaces (like browser-based space games), and can have template AI actions for certain things (like FF12's gambit system).Players aren't tied to a ship either. You can have a window open showing each undocked fleet. So you can have one fleet mining asteroids, another fleet defending a base, and a third fleet scouting an area -- and can see and control all three fleets via their own windows at the same time.Although certain items (and all newbie items) will be seeded by NPCs, most higher level items/ship parts/blueprints/etc will be produced, bought, and sold exclusively by players.We have a team member who's only purpose is to create a background story that drives the game. This isn't just a randomized sandbox game, there is a roleplaying back-story that affects every player in the game. Inversely players will also affect the story.I have more details but the template said to be brief...Target aim:Free (with ad support to cover bandwidth costs, some features disabled)Monthly fee (no ads, all features active)Compensation:All we need are beta testers. Any beta testers that stick with us during the progression of the game will get a lifetime free membership, as well as other in-game perks, and priority over normal users in regards to feature requests.Technology:Languages: HTML5, &#106avascript, PHP5Technologies: 64-bit MySQL, Apache2, Cron, PHP5, Ajax, lots of tags that are new in HTML5, jQueryTarget Systems:No specific operating system is targted. Any HTML5 compliant browser (Latest Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and possibly Netscape). All current versions of IE are so far out of compliance that it is impossible to even attempt to support it.This game uses pure HTML, &#106avascript, and Ajax callbacks to run on the front-end. It will NEVER require plugins or embedded objects of any kind. This includes flash and java, as well as embedded objects such as media and movie players with the <embed src=""> tag.Talent needed:We just need beta testers that are serious. Someone who can log in on a regular basis to help test the stability of the servers, as well as report problems with the game. A tester would be expected to do the following:Test the game in as many browsers and platforms that they canStay logged in as much as they can (even if idle), and test new changes as they appear (the game will kick you out and refresh after updates, new beta tester tasks will be shown at the login page)Report any problems with graphics, UI interaction, or even gameplay elements that seem to be incorrect or annoying/bad.This should go without saying but, you should only request to be a beta tester if you would enjoy this type of game. Beta testing isn't about playing the game, its about TESTING the game.Team structure:Development has been going for several weeks (though designs have been drawn together slowly over the last few years; browsers simply couldn't do what this game needed them to do until recently). Everyone has been on-board since day 1 so I'll simply list out the people:Essial (me): Programmer, AdministratorLuckistoxic: Creative Artist (storyline, quests, backstory, descriptions, anything with text)Electric: Graphic Artist (planets, stations, ship parts, anything with graphics)Diatonis: Not a direct "team member". He is allowing us to use his music in the game free of charge until we start pulling subs, at which point he'll get royalties.Beta Testers:PrinceRoneDiscorpoExodusDaneelshath45(me, Luckistoxic, and Electoric too)Website:Landing Page: http://nesicide.com/empireForums: http://nesicide.com/empire/forumGame: http://nesicide.com/empire/game.html (Don't bother visiting with Internet Explorer, it will redirect you to a temporary landing page).Contacts:tim.sarbin@gmail.com is my email address but I HIGHLY prefer contacting me via the forums via a PM if you must.Previous Work by Team:Honestly, I can't really speak for the other team members as we have just recently formed. I have worked on previous MMO projects back in my younger years. Amazingly, one of my old buddies still has his ancient page up with screenshots from the game:http://home.comcast.net/~zakarth/rancerzero.htmlI've spent the last few years doing business applications for a banking company doing loan amortization and insurance calculations -- heavy DB operations and mathematical calculations:http://www.dbsinc.com/Additional Info:There's a lot more details I could explain but its outside the scope of this post. If you have any questions about anything just ask in our forums and one of us will answer your questions.Please note that this is a closed beta. I will generate new invite codes for people who appear to be good candidates. I will only give out so many at a time as the server needs to slowly grow, so I can monitor CPU usage, bandwidth, and overall design quality.Feedback:ANY[Edited by - essial on May 24, 2010 1:19:56 PM]
  Doesn't work with internet explorer.(And no I don't plan to use other software then the one micro$oft provides me as I am a lazy average user who doesn't care for other browsers. /sarcasm but true)   ;  Maybe in the future IE will work, but the simple fact is that the latest version of internet explorer is missing a shiat-pile of HTML5 features, as well as other things. Lack of true <canvas> support means no real-time rendering of graphics. Lack of true <audio> support means no sound. Faulty CSS2 support and just plain bad CSS3 support means no layout. Not really sure what I have to work with. I have to choose between making things work with internet explorer, or making it work with literally every other browser on the market. To make matters, worse, although IE has 60% marketshare, 34% of that (21% total share) is IE6, which can't even pass ACID2. So basically I have to choose between supporting 47% marketshare of web browsers (covering multiple operating systems like Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, etc), or support 36% marketshare, and only windows.So yeah, you are an "average" lazy user but that average is less than a year away from becoming "below average". And it will take that long to get this thing out of beta anyway.Besides, even before I announced no IE support I never recieved a beta account request where the user said he used IE. I'm sure there was chance involved but it is still telling as they all use Windows.   ;  That is completely reasonable I was jus being funny. ;)The case is I would really be interested to beta test the game and was just expressing my sadness to realize the game does not support my browser. I myself know the flaws of IE anyway.Will you upload some screenshots at least, for us (currently) average (and in future, below average) users? Just curious to see the game.   ;  For IE users being picky, you could add a notice for them to download Chrome Frame.They can still use IE, but with a specific tag on your site it will kick in the chrome renderer inside IE.   ;  Please note the URL is partially censored because it is the path to my working copy. I make updates, then push them to the "live" version, which then causes anyone on the game to get kicked off, and causes their browsers to reload to grab the latest release. I do this so I can work on the game without banning user logins. Worry-free coding ftw.(The starfield is real and comes at you at an angle depending on where your mouse is.Every dot on the starmap is a solar system stored on the server's database. It is NOT faked. The scale is also accurate.This is an older screenshot showing that I am indeed using accurate scaling in the game.;Quote:Original post by AzgurFor IE users being picky, you could add a notice for them to download Chrome Frame.They can still use IE, but with a specific tag on your site it will kick in the chrome renderer inside IE.Excellent suggestion, never heard of that (being I don't use IE :p). I will update that right now!(update)OK I haven't had my tester try it yet, but it ~should~ work. I redirect to a friendlier page if IE is used. If GCF gets installed and they click play again, the page has a tag instructing IE to use GCF, which means they should be good to go at that point.[Edited by - essial on May 23, 2010 10:57:26 AM];  OK we have tested and verified that now Internet Explorer runs our game (and apparently quite well) with the google chrome frame plugin installed. That should round out all of the major browsers.   ;  Hmm it seems it was a very good idea of me to mention the lack of IE support in the game.   ;Quote:Original post by JadeDragonHmm it seems it was a very good idea of me to mention the lack of IE support in the game.Obviously, hence the need for beta testers ;)   