The Worlds of Kaomaris

Firstly, I think it's fair to say that WoK 5 is dead. Al has lost the source code so the engine cannot be updated further and the last game to open, several months ago, never filled.

Yesterday, I began to write the Advanced WoK game engine, I don't have much free time these days, so I don't know how long it will take, but hopefully, by the time we have a bigger player base, E-WOK (like WoK 4 became WOOKIE, geddit?!) will be ready to go.

In the mean time, I feel it is important to allow any new players immediate access to WoK games. To that end, I have changed the "Games" menu to hold links to Standard and Duel WoK games, and I intend to hold open a Standard and Duel game at all times. I have also updated the WoK Practice game so that people can run turns as a normal game or as a Duel game (provided autogm players occupy slots 6 to 10).

On another prong, I have updated some of the site content. Brief intoductions to WoK can now be found through the "New visitors look here", "How to Join" and "About WoK" links visible on every page; Han's more complete introduction is linked from these. Any suggestions on site improvement or submissions for articles (I won't be offended if you re-write what I've done, words aren't my thing) will be gratefully received.


Let's get this thing moving again.


Chris/korexus.

You're doing great, Kor. I'll be along to help a bit just as soon as I've seen off Hryllantre in Duel #05 Suburbia. Which, er, after Turn 1, might now take a tad longer than expected ...........

Excuses, excuses. Just quit now and start helping out!

Chris. (Posting for Hryllantre, to get the flame war started sooner! )

Now, this is a surprise!

Every now and then I use to visit Kaomaris just to check if there has been any action on the forums, but I always get the same "no new posts" message. But not today! Today I got a long list of active topics AND several updates!

Hooray!

Now this is really good news! Of course, I don't have time to play (too much going on), but I still like to surf the forums and write some posts.

Anyway. Great work Chris! Did you ask Al about the code for WOK5? I have a copy of the code, but it is from 2003 so I doubt it will be of much use. Let me know if you need it.

Good to see you, Mullog!

A copy of the code certainly can't hurt but, as I recall, we put together Wookie without needing to refer to Al's ridiculously complicated programming...

Send it my way just in case. And join a game while you're at it!

Chris.

Hi Mullog!

Well, Kor couldn't keep the forums lively on his own (no-one to dialogue with). So I came back and Hryllantre came back. With 3 you can have debates.

It's great that you pop back, and we remember all the work you put in.

So, even if you don't have time to join a game, Mull, fellow-starter, fellow-founder of Vulkings, my friend: dip in from time to time and post, we like to hear from you. Then the place will still be around when you DO have time!

Kor, I think this thread started with you saying WOK5 is dead. But that you are putting in time to recreate its engine .....

Nooooooo! Don't waste your time and energy. Nobody here now has the slightest interest in WOK5. Forget it. Some crazy said that our site would survive if we had WOK5 online .... don't believe it. Our future lies in tens or hundreds taking up the basic and better game of Standard WOK. THEN we might re-engineer an advanced form or two .... but they would probably not be WOK5 as it was. There are lots of ways to develop/enhance WOK4, eg Duel and Pincer, or something with tribes and spells that we all devise. But preferably not trying to recreate the defunct WOK5, which was very flawed from a game-inventor's POV...

We should design one or more Advanced WOKs, maybe 6 months from now, but from scratch, not trying to remember the poor WOK5. IMHO.

Han

Hi there everybody!

This Practice game is a brilliant idea, Chris! And it feels so good to take a province after such a long break.

I have some suggestions though. When trying out the Practice game I got a little bit confused which link I need to click to run the next turn once I had already input orders for a turn. I got confused for just a couple of seconds being a rather experienced Lobby user and that got me thinking that we need a Lobby manual or something for newly registered players. I mean, we need to explain how viewing a TR of any player in the Practice game mode is different from clicking the link to your own TR in a regular game (the difference is that it's located in two distant and not in any way related places).

Or maybe... We should think about ideas how the Lobby could be redesigned to be more easily comprehensble and easy to use.

For me, the ultimate (thus unachieveable? ) goal would be to be able to display the map, the TR and the order input form in a single browser window without having to scroll around too much.

@Han: I like WoK 5. A lot of other players used to like it too (it was more popular than WoK 4). WoK 5 allowed for far more stategies than WoK 4, partly because of flaws in WoK 4 which we have fixed but also because the tribes and spells give new options as well as new ways to eliminate the oposition.

I don't think putting WoK 5 online will "save the site" but having the more complicated game available might bring some of the old player base back as well as giving an advanced option to swell players' egos.

The old WoK 5 was not flawed until Al started fiddling around with the numbers then lost the code so I'm going to try and bring it back. If you don't ant to play it, you don't have to!


@trewqh the Lobby can probably be simplified as I've just put things in as I think of them. I've started making life easier by loading pages at the requested box (try clicking on a game link to see what I mean). I'm open to other suggestions though.

Oh and *Please reset the game when you're finished*



Chris.

korexus wrote:@trewqh the Lobby can probably be simplified as I've just put things in as I think of them. I've started making life easier by loading pages at the requested box (try clicking on a game link to see what I mean). I'm open to other suggestions though.

Oh and *Please reset the game when you're finished*.

Sorry about not resetting. I forgot about it while playing with it. And that might show what will happen when newbies start playing with it.

As for the change, I'm not sure I see what has changed. Is it that now all of the menu boxes (GM menu, WOK Games and WOK Online) remain above the game page box when I click a game link? Sorry for not being very perceptive.

I liked WOK 5 (as did many others).

My very infrequent visits to this site of late have been motivated mainly to see if someone is interested in starting a wok 5 game.

I tried to get one going but finally gave up.

Any help I can offer in Programming and/or testing of a new revised online version I will give gladly.

Korexus :- I may be old(ish) but I do know a bit about programming and databases.


For those interested - I have moved to a new location. See if you can find Thursday Island without using Google Earth (or the internet).

Aussie Gaz wrote:I liked WOK 5 (as did many others).

My very infrequent visits to this site of late have been motivated mainly to see if someone is interested in starting a wok 5 game.

I tried to get one going but finally gave up.

Good to see you again, Gaz!
We'll get it back. It may take a while, but it'll happen. I'll hopefully even have time to play myself in the new year, so that makes at least one player!

Aussie Gaz wrote: Any help I can offer in Programming and/or testing of a new revised online version I will give gladly.

Korexus :- I may be old(ish) but I do know a bit about programming and databases.

I've got the transformations and aims pahse written. I'm hoping to steal movement almost direct from Standard WoK. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated. (Do you know php?)

Aussie Gaz wrote: For those interested - I have moved to a new location. See if you can find Thursday Island without using Google Earth (or the internet).

Without the internet? What else is there?! (Can I at least email friends who live in Australia, I vaguely remember some old geography teacher once talking about "Atlases" or something but that's far to complicated...)


Chris./korexus.

Aussie Gaz wrote:
For those interested - I have moved to a new location. See if you can find Thursday Island without using Google Earth (or the internet).

That's easy. It's half way between Wednesday Island and .......

And OK, I stand corrected on the virtues of WOK5, go for it.

Hannibal wrote: That's easy. It's half way between Wednesday Island and .......

And OK, I stand corrected on the virtues of WOK5, go for it.

Very good guess Han.

There is a nearby Wednesday Island and a Friday Island. I am still looking for the rest of the week

Found it.

When I went home over Christmas, I looked up Thursday Island in my Mum's atlas. Ingenious wot?!

You're on a small island, just North of the Northeast corner of Australia, although I couldn't see Wednesday of Friday Island anywhere...

Having gone through the rigmarole of looking the place up in the index and finding it, I discovered that the page you're on is actually the one used as the front cover for the atlas, so I didn't actually need even to open the thing! Oh well...


Chris.

What's an atlas?

I have to vote for WOK5 as well. Nothing like not being able to feed your pezzies.

Well done Korexus.

How much dust was on the Atlas?

Thursday Island is a very small island to the north of the Australian Mainland (3km long by 1km wide, Population about 3000). Google Earth has it slightly wrong and shows TI (as it is known) as the nearby Horn Island.

Nearby islands include Friday Island, Wednesday Island and Tuesday Islands (there are several small islands ) All named by some English dudes in the period between 1770 & 1800.

Here endith the history (& geography) lesson.

Gaz

I know I'm late coming to this conversation but I'd like to see WOK 5 stick around as well. I stink at it but I like it.

Last as usual.

I've never played WoK5 and would like to give it a try...