Campus Wars
From UPLWiki
Campus Wars is an in-development web-based game implementing the Google Maps API. Players collect resources for their team and use these resources to complete some as of yet undecided project. Each player has a small squad of units they can use to collect resources, research new technologies, spy on the other team, and steal from enemy players. It is being developed by the Undergraduate Projects Lab at UW-Madison and was started in the Spring of 2007. The completion date is yet to be determined.
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Gameplay
The Basics
Players control a small squad of units, currently four in number. These units will traverse the map in half-hour "turns." In the game world it takes half an hour to get anywhere (this is likely to change in a later version of the game, see Movement for more information).
Interface
The game will be played on a Google Maps interface and will be centered around the UW-Madison campus. Players will move units in an RTS-like fashion, setting up to 25 waypoints per unit. For more information, see the interface section.
Unit Types
Players will be able to pick units from a few different unit types. Most units will be resource gatherers, who collect resources and drop them off at the base. Other units tentatively include spies, saboteurs, and engineers. Players will be able to switch units periodically through the game; how often has yet to be determined, but it will likely be influenced by some sort of research.
Drone
Drones are the normal resource gathering unit of the game. They will wander from building to building on campus, collecting raw resources to take back to their main bases for refining. It will be most beneficial for a drone to wander to multiple resource buildings before taking them all back to his main base; on the other hand, a drone could easily be intercepted by a spy unit and lose a good portion of his resources all at once. They are also the unit that performs research tasks at various sites around campus.
Current drone activities and attributes include:
- Taking raw resources from buildings around campus
- Returning resources to base
- Research various upgrades and abilities
- Moderate sight range
- Large resource carrying capacity
Spy
Spies are very useful units throughout the game and can be used for a wide variety of tasks. Their most important function is to determine the location of an enemy research project. They have a large sight range and therefore make very good scouts, and have a 100% chance of seeing every kind of unit in their sight range. They have a chance of evading being seen by all units except spies.
Current spy activities and attributes include:
- Large sight range
- No resource carrying capacity
- Able to see hidden units with 100% effectiveness
- Chance to evade being seen by non-spies
Saboteur
Saboteurs perform two main functions in Campus Wars. The first and most important is sabotage of an enemy team's research project, thereby giving one's own team more time to complete their project. The second is to steal raw resources from an enemy drone (or another saboteur) for returning to one's own base. They don't have as large of a carrying capacity as a drone and cannot collect raw resources from a building. Like spies, they have a chance of evading being seen by all units except spies.
Current saboteur activities and attributes include:
- Sabotage of enemy research projects
- Ability to steal from enemy drones
- Moderate sight range
- Moderate resource carying capacity
- Chance to evade being seen by non-spies
Engineer
Engineers are a very specialized unit. They can be used to build walls on certain roads around campus. A team can build a certain number of sections of wall throughout the game to prevent other units from passing through the area. The use of gates and ability for a team to pass through their own walls has not yet been determined. Engineers will also most likely be the unit that can destroy enemy walls.
Current engineer activities and attributes include:
- Construction of walls
- Destruction of walls
- Limited sight range
- No resource carrying capacity
Development Team
The game is being developed by the WebSIG group of the Undergraduate Projects Lab at UW-Madison. The team meets once a week in the UPL on Tuesdays at 7:30. Meetings are a mix between work sessions and design meetings and generally last about two hours. Anybody is welcome to come and help out.
Current team members include:
- Tristan Halvorson
- Dave Murray
- Aaron Brown
- Alex Carpenter
Development Team Pages
