Does anyone remember Lode Wars? It was a great game, full of teamwork and strategy and whatnot. Unfortunately, its author Leftley removed it from the hub, due to rampant player abuse and complaints and the fact that it was rapidly moving away from his original vision. I have fond memories of the game before it was retired, though; it's one of the few BYOND games I've played more than two or three times, apart from my own games and My Life As A Spy. And, unlike MLAAS, I never got tired of playing Lode Wars.
Well, okay, that's not true; but when I did get tired of it, it wasn't the game's fault. It was the players. They weren't especially nasty players; it was just the typical kind of playerbase, which means that it was whiny, noisy, spiteful, and cheated whenever it could.
But despite my fellow players, I liked the game so much that I used to have a subscription to the game. A subscription had one perk, and only one perk: It allowed you to host the game. I had dial-up back then, so I hardly ever hosted the game; in fact, I remember thinking it was a bit silly of me for buying a subscription. Still, it meant I was giving money to Leftley, which could only be a good thing; god knows he deserved it.
I was reminded of Lode Wars recently, for whatever reason, and decided to go hunting for the host files so I could play it again. Unfortunately, they were no longer on my computer, having been lost in a hard-drive format some years previously. I considered searching old backup CDs, but that's a nuisance.
However, via undisclosed channels, I have found a copy of the hosting files. And I'm happy to report that, contrary to what I'd thought, my subscription was a lifetime one. This means that I am one of the few remaining people who can host the game.
Will I host it for you? Maybe. If you ask nicely. But unless I already know you, don't count on it. =)
EDIT: I'm reading the help file to remind me of all the game mechanics, and I came across the game background section. Hilarious! Leftley is a genius, I tell you, a genius...
Hah. Yeah, there was a lot of that; but if you managed to find a group of players who would play nicely, there was a lot of teamwork you could potentially do. Unfortunately, that was rare; which is one reason why I didn't play as much as I would have liked to.
Even many of the nasty players recognised that teamwork was advantageous; even if one person just bought a truck and drove it up to a lode, got everyone to pile on stacks of ore, and drove back. The nasty, nasty players, though - the team killers and cheaters and such - they were a problem. Thankfully, if I do host it again, I will be taking a very strict line against such people. Oh, and on my servers, ranks and money will always be fixed for all players. No RPG-style benefits here. As a side bonus, nobody will need to worry about the broken savefile verification system! | |
I'd love to play, as I sadly missed out. I think I logged in once, but wasn't around long enough to actually play it.
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It was an awsome game. Pitty he lost the sourse though.
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Lode Wars was one of my favorite games..great teamwork game..thanks for trying to host
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I can still host Lode Wars as well, but there's one big disadvantage. In the last released version of the game, Leftley included a hashing scheme in the client-side savefiles to prevent cheating. His hash however would break whenever characters reached a certain point (apparently monetary), so characters keep resetting on you. A few months ago I hosted it fairly often only to find myself whacked by the bug, and it is to say the least very discouraging.
Unfortunately the reason the host files no longer appear on the hub isn't quite as it seems. The main reason is that Lode Wars was never in the published channels, meaning that when file hosting was removed for most games, Lode Wars' files were removed; Leftley didn't actually remove them on purpose. However he did stop development, and for one major reason: He lost the source code to a hard drive failure. He began work again on a new version but stopped very early in development because he was unhappy with the state of the game as it was. (Although I think he was mostly alone in that.) The unfortunate thing is, the last release is a darn good game and would be tremendous if not for the buggy character resets. It's frustrating never having the money for what you want. I suppose one option is to use the "map cash" command. I suppose if the problem was a very simple one in the bytecode it might be fixable with advanced tools, or the hashing could perhaps be removed entirely (opening the door to cheats). Sadly I don't know if the half-mythical and badly outdated BYOND disassembler is up to the task. | |
Leftley documents the whole affair on the Lode Wars hub page...
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BYOND disassembler? Explain.Now.
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Going to disassemble Zeta, Ol' Yeller?
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_>Ohhh, so it disassembles code? I remember hearing about it back in the forums, but it comes out all choppy. Nevermind then, I already know. :P | |
I plan to use the "map rank" and "map cash" settings whenever I host, thus bypassing the buggy save verification system altogether. Unfortunately that means that your performance in one round won't carry on to your cash level in another round, but oh well, too bad.
What exactly was the problem with the verification system anyway? I seem to remember someone saying it was due to floating-point errors, but that was a long time ago so I might be mistaken. Would it be possible to write a program that patched the savefiles to have the correct verification code? Long shot maybe, but worth a try... | |
No disassemble, Stephanie! Number 5 is alive!
... Sorry, had to be said. | |
Good old Lode Wars. I got to play a couple games one session before the host apparently woke up and botted people for killing them or something (I don't remember). Until then, though, it was a nice game of teamwork. =)
If you host and notice me online, please send me an invite. =) | |
Lode Wars was fun... that is until people began acting like whores and scream at those who join their team... And then there's these other mofo's that ruin the game completely by hooking up a teleporter pad right next to your bin and then constantly sending Blast Packs over to screw up your score counts.. so gay so gay...
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Dude...rehost pleasse? I've been craving a game! Seriously this is the best game on byond!
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We should talk, you and I.
I happen to own a shell server... and should you be kind enough to send me over the files to LW, I'd be more than happy to add it to a 24/7 hosting. | |
I no longer have the host files for this game. You could try a Google search; I think that's how I found them, from memory.
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Heh.. that's how I found your blog post, oddly enough.
I'll figure out where to get them eventually. Lode deserves a permanent home. | |
I agree, I found that game and thought, "Hmm, looks like It's still in progress maybe?" but then read it's hub. It's sad to even comprehend the one type of game I joined BYOND to find-that GEM in a mineshaft, The reason BYOND thrives the way it does- was cancelled....I hope Leftley decides to change his mind, and I would LOVE if you were able to host it, maybe on saturdays or sundays... It would make school worth trodding through.
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"OMFG DON'T JOIN OUR TEAM LOL UR A NUB JONE UTHAR TEEM", so I didn't really like the game.