Planet M.U.L.E.

Hello all prototype testers,

There will be a MULE 2 alpha testing game session at:

    Wednesday 24 Nov 19.30 UTC

Please check what day and time it corresponds to in your time zone.

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You play the game by going to this address:

    http://www.planetmule.com/test-mule2 (http://www.planetmule.com/test-mule2)

The game requires Java to be installed. Click here to make sure it is:
http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp

You will need to allow the security request that pops up when you enter the page.

Use your Planet Mule username/password to login.
Preferably use the same name in the Mibbit Chat.

Please try the game alone to get familiar with the new features. You can leave comments and first impressions in this thread. If you find any bugs or have a problem starting the game you can report it here.

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Our long term goal is to find a gameplay which is fun but different from Planet Mule.

However,
The goals for this first game session are mainly:

- Get a feel for how the new game mechanics affects the gameplay.
- See if any part of the game is too confusing.
- Finding bugs.

And we're not looking at:

- Graphics - All current graphics and resolution will be changed.
- Networking - Our test server is slow and networking code is not yet optimized (expect big latencies).

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Main new game mechanics:

- 5 players.
- Players select 2 workers (species).
- Each worker has a special ability.
- Players can change worker between rounds.
- Workers require 3 food for full development time. Each round a worker is used its food requirement is increased by one.
- Run with your worker to grab land.
- Development is done in groups. First 2 players, then 3 players.
- The city and map are shown at the same time.
- The city is in sideview like the NES version of MULE.
- Buntenol is a new good.
- Buntenol outfit costs $50.
- Buntenol is automatically sold for $100 minus 2 times the number of units produced by all players.
- Buntenol yield is 3 on River, 2 on Plain and 1 on Mountains.
- Spoilage and collection is done while showing the map.
- There are no meter-bars showing production and spoilage.

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Log files are saved in the Mule2 directory located in your home directory (My Documents on Windows). The files are named "log.<date>.txt". If the game crashes, please save the latest log file and post it as an attachment here, or send it as a message to me.

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Best Regards,
Peter and The Planet Mule Development Team

I tried playing a MULE 2 game about a couple hours before 13.00 UTC. But, a game never started for me using http://www.planetmule.com/test-mule2. The only thing that came up was Mibbit chat. I was using Safari 5.0.2 on Mac OS X 10.6.4 with the latest Java release.

What happened for you? Only an empty black screen, or do you see the Java icon and loading bar appear? When testing on a Mac with Safari I've seen that the Java icon doesn't appear but the game is loaded in the background. It takes a few minutes for it to load, while the screen is all black, and then you see the game appear.

We will have another test session at Wednesday 17 November 07.00.

(That is 23.00 in Los Angeles and 02:00 in Washington.)

Please reply if you would like to participate and help us with the testing.

I need to double-check (I'll also try with 4 other browsers.), but here was my experience... The page starts to load. Then an empty black box/screen appears (I think it said Mule 2, briefly.), followed by more loading. Finally, the Mibbit chat comes up in the black box, but no game or even a login for the game.

Ok. The page should have a text at the top saying "Test Mule 2", then there's the Mibbit chat, and below the chat a thin white frame around the area where the game appears. I would guess you see the thin frame after the page has finished loading? You'll have to scroll down to see it.

You will need to click accept on a security warning to continue loading the game. Do you see this warning popup? It should appear after the page has finished loading.

On Mac you may have to add the parameter "-Xmx800M" to your Java settings. You find it in Applications > Utilities > Java Settings. Click on "Java SE 6", click "Settings" and then type "-Xmx800M" (without the qutations) in the box that appeared.

Have you checked this link: http://www.java.com/en/download/installed.jsp, to make sure you have Java enabled in your browser?

I'm using a 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo iMac ( 10.5.8 ) with Safari Version 5.0.2. I'm still getting the error message "The game requires more memory. You can either download a new version of Java or go to your Java Control Panel and add the parameter -Xmx700M. Your Current memory limit is 99MB.", even after modifying the Java Preferences to include -Xmx800M

I've relaunched the browser after making the changes but it had no effect.

- WYB

hey guys, I should be available Wednsday night (11PST).  Loading app now to see if it works, will repost if it doesn't load.

You can have both 32bit and 64bit versions of Java installed. To be sure you can add "-Xms128M -Xmx700M" to both. The Xms setting is the minimum memory used. You may also have different settings for the Browser (Applets) and stand alone Java, but the settings should be in the same control panel.

If you still can't get it to work then maybe you can find a Java setting from inside Safari. I'm unfortunately not very familiar with Safari.

Count me in. I probably won't be able to stick around for more than a single game, though, as it'll be quite late in my time zone (2am).

I would like in on the test as well, are we using the website for the test or downloading an app? I am having the same problem as C64 and WYB with that site.

clint

**EDIT**
OK I'm good to go now, Thanks peter entering that code worked once i found the right java settings to enter it in.

See you in 27 min

I gave it a go, using Firefox and it loaded, but it took a very long time. The Mibbit chat comes up quickly, then the game which is in the lower half of the page took about 3-4min to fully load the first time. after about 30 secs a Loading  message comes up with a progress type counter thingy, and eventually the user name password. 

second time it loaded in under 1 min.

One thing I would suggest is putting the chat and game screen side by side instead of over under. Or at least give the option, even the game screen on top and chat below would be better I think.  Wide screens are becoming more common and it would be better to see more of the game and chat at the same time...

remove the door on the bottom of the town, I spent a long time trying to get in there :-)

Thanks to all who has tested the new game client. It will remain playable for anyone who wants to try it. You can drop comments here and they might end up in the next version.

We will announce the next test session after we've adjusted the issues and needed changes we found during this test.

wait... you had the test already?  I thought it was later on tonight.  My two cents from trying playing solo is for the start, when you choose your races, maybe everyone takes turns choosing one then back to the winner of bid to choose their second race, this way everyone gets a chance of getting at least one race they wanted.

That's the way it works but you need at least 2 players to see it.

So I am guessing Wed the 17th is actually Tuesday the 16th on the west cost of USA?  I am on planet mule right now and server time says 07:00 UTC but nobody is here.... 

I made a new user account, and fired up all my browsers to check what they would do with Mule 2.

Firefox 3.6.12 --- java out of memory, but chat loads
OmniWeb 5.10.3 --- java out of memory, but chat loads
Safari 5.0.2 --- java out of memory, but chat loads
Chrome 7.0.517.44 --- game and chat load fully
Opera 10.63 --- game and chat load fully

All testing done without any tweaking. I checked if the game would load, but I did not play a game.

Mac OS X 10.6.4 with Java for Mac OS X 10.6 Update 3 (support for Java SE 6 up to version 1.6.0_22)

Thanks for testing. We haven't tested many browsers but it seems that you are required to do more parameter fiddling in the Java Control Panel to allow more memory on Mac OSX than on Windows.

Could you do the same tests with this applet below?
http://www.minecraft.net/play.jsp

All the browsers warned the digital signature cannot be verified. All the browsers loaded Minecraft with no other problems except Opera. Opera seemed to load everything fully, but the screen was black. You could hear sound, the mouse locked to the game, and it seemed like you were moving. But, the screen was black save for the very first title screen with MINECRAFT in black and white and the following words underneath: Switching applet.

Version 0.18.0.0 is available now at the same location: http://www.planetmule.com/test-mule2

I just want to note that the testing is tonight at 19.30 UTC.

That is 14.30 in Washington and 11:30 in Los Angeles.

Hope to see you then :)