Delta Engine Blog

AI, Robotics, multiplatform game development and Strict programming language

Coop Commander, New Arena Wars boards and Polynapping Update

Ok, I have a lot on my mind right now, hopefully I will get to most of it ^^

First of all: Here is a new screenshot of Coop Commander. I've implemented laser effects for the ships and improved some of the effects. Today I will finish up the game physic and damage system and tomorrow some multiplayer code will hopefully bring this game to life. While it may not be realistic to release the game together with Rocket Commander, at least not in its final version, I still plan to finish most of the issues till thursday, when Rocket Commander is released. Maybe I will just release an alpha version and then go from there.

I also registered the domain Coop Commander today, maybe this will make me think more seriously about Coop Commander ^^ I will start coding the website when the game is released.


As some Arena Wars players have noticed the Arena Wars boards had a lot of troubles the last couple of month (lots of spam, hacks, etc.). I installed a fresh new shiny version of the boards and copied a spam-free-version (couple of months old) of the board over it. Updating to the newest sql, phpBB, etc. versions was a lot of work. Those open source guys just don't know how to make an easy installer. The most annoying part was php, which is incredible incompatible (versions 4 and 5). First the site worked, but the board didn't, then the board was updated and worked, but the site wasn't compatible to that again. After modifying a lot of php files finally I got it working, but php is no fun at all.

There are also new discussion boards for Rocket Commander and its Mods. Hopefully they will find some use since Microsoft isn't planing to implement any boards on its german Coding4Fun site, where Rocket Commander will be hosted.


Polynapping: What happend? Well, it went ok for 2-3 weeks and I overslept only a few times, but never more than 2-3 hours per day and max. 1-2 times per week. Well it happens, especially if you stay awake for too long. That can really mess up your polynapping sleeping schedule. Then last week I crashed after a party and slept for nearly 8 hours. Must have something to do with the huge amount of alcohol I drunk (again: not good for polynapping) ^^

Then I went for a biphasic sleeping pattern (2*1.5-3 hours of sleep per day) for a couple of days and that didn't work out. I slept monophasic (thats normal 7-8 hours of sleep) for few days and then decided this wednesday I had to go back to polyphasic sleep. More time, more fun and hell, I know what to expect now.


Next week will be very hard for me because of the CeBIT fair (exDream will be there on several booths, I will post some info about that next week). Sleeping somewhere else isn't an easy thing for me, I still have some troubles getting to sleep as it is. That is also the main reason polynapping over a long period of time wasn't succesful for most testers. It is hard to get to sleep every 4 hours. Not only physically, but especially socially.

The last nap I took (only 20 minutes) was incredible refreshing, maybe I sometimes sleep to long (30-40 minutes since I don't know if I fall asleep right away or stay awake for 10-15 more minutes). Steve Pavlina posts here that 20 Minutes worked best for him too and he also gives a lot of tips and information about polynapping. He even was interviewed by the NY Times. I guess he is currently the most famous polynapper.

I nearly forgot to mention that Frederic Schneider wrote a nice article about me on GamePorts (in german). It is about Rocket Commander and my current project Coop Commander. Check it out here: http://www.gameports.net/cms/Kommentare-zu_Der-Erfolg-eines-Deutschen_966.html

Coop Commander: The new ion cannon effect.


ArenaWars.net Boards back up again.


German article about me on GamePorts.net: