OGame

OGame
OGame
	File:NewOgameLoginScreen.jpg
Developer(s)	Gameforge AG
Engine	PHP
Platform(s)	Computer, Mobile
Release	Oct 15, 2007
Genre(s)	Real Time Text-based MMO
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

OGame is a PHP management-type, text-based, space-war themed online browser game with over two million accounts.^[1] OGame was created in 2002 and is produced and maintained by Gameforge AG.^[2]^[3] As of November 2007, Ogame.org has a total of 35 universes, with more being added periodically.

Gameplay

Each player starts with one randomly assigned planet, building from that one planet, he/she later has the option to keep on developing that planet or to expand his/her colony to include up to 9 planets. All constructions, researches, and missions are performed and launched from a planet or moon.

Resources

File:OGame 5 Resources.jpg

There are five resources available in OGame: metal, crystal, deuterium, energy and dark matter.

Metal is the most abundant resource and can be obtained natively from metal mines. Metal is used in large amounts for construction of planetary structures, fleets, defenses, and technological research.

Crystal is the second most abundant resource and can be obtained natively from crystal mines. Crystal is used in smaller quantities for the construction of planetary structures, fleets, and defenses, but is used in large amounts in technological researches.

Deuterium is the rarest resource and can be obtained natively from deuterium synthesizers. Deuterium is mainly used as fuel for a player's fleet to perform a mission, and for technological researches. It is also used in moderate amounts for accessing the galaxy screen to obtain an overview of the OGame universe and in scanning enemy fleet movements.

Energy is required for all mines to operate, the efficiency of a mine depends on the amount of energy surplus on a planet. Energy can be obtained through solar plants, fusion reactors, and solar satellites. Energy is also required for the construction of Terraformers and for researching the graviton technology.

Metal, Crystal and Deuterium can be obtained through:

Mining: Metal mines, crystal mines and deuterium synthesizers obtain metal, crystal and deuterium respectively from one's own planet. The more mines constructed, the faster the rate of obtaining resources, planetary resources never run out and can be continuously mined.
Raiding other planets: A player can decide to send an attacking fleet to an enemy's planet, if the player's fleet destroys all the enemy's fleet and defensive structures, up to 50% (depending on cargo capacity) of the enemy's resource storage can be retrieved.
Harvesting debris fields: destroyed fleets form a debris field around the planet it was destroyed.
Fleet Crashing: Stronger players can "fleet crash" weaker opponents, which is the act of destroying another player's fleet for the purpose of collecting the debris that remain after the battle and recycling the resulting debris (only metal and crystal can be obtained this way) and 30% of all ship's metal and crystal can be obtained in such a manner.
Trading: Players can negotiate a trade sequence where they swap different resources at an official rate.

Players are ranked according to their points, one point is awarded for every one thousand resource units spent, likewise one point is taken away for every one thousand resource units lost. Points can be gained from constructing buildings, ships, defenses, and from researching new technology, but points can be lost when a players ships and defenses are destroyed by another player or when a colony is surrendered.

Dark matter can be obtained only by trading with real money or stealing, it is equivalent to a membership fee. Dark matter allows access for a player to become a commander and hire officers. All effects last 3 months for 100,000 units of Dark Matter and 1 week for 10,000 units of Dark Matter.

Commander

File:OGame Commander.jpg

OGame Commander is a pay-to-use feature which gives the player improved functionality and an improved user interface. Features include building queue giving the player the ability to order several buildings to be built without requiring the player to login and start a new build. The player also gets an “Empire View” that shows the player all details on every planet including ships defenses and even resources and energy. Improved galaxy view and commands, message filters, shortcuts, and free of advertisements

Officers

On February 16, 2007, Officers were introduced to the game. The officer feature gives players who pay for it a real advantage in the game, such as an increase in resource production or reduce the loss of defenses, which has not existed previously. Officers include:

Fleet Admiral: Increases maximum fleet slot by 2.
Engineer: Reduces the losses of defensive structure during an attack by half, gives 10% more energy.
Geologist: Increases metal mine, crystal mine and deuterium synthesizer production by 10%
Technocrat: Increases the espionage level for espionage probes by 2, decreases research time by 25%.

Buildings

Buildings are used for gathering resources (Mines), for energy (Solar Plant, Fusion Reactor), for storage (Metal Storage, Crystal Storage, Deuterium Tank and Missile Silo), for building fleets and defenses (Shipyard), for research (Research Lab) and for shortening the time buildings, ships and defenses take to construct (Robotic Factory and Nanite Factory). Buildings in OGame are different from buildings in many games in several ways. First, you do not place them, you "build" that structure type and then you upgrade it. Second, is that there are, for all intents and purposes, an infinite number of upgrades (level 1, level 2, etc.). The cost of resources double each level of upgrade, except for Metal Mines, Deuterium Synthesizers, and Solar Plants which increase by 1.5 per level, the Crystal Mine, which increases by 1.6 per level, and the Fusion Reactor, whose cost is increased by 1.8 per level.

When a planet is colonized, the number of available fields is determined randomly, but planets near the center of a solar system have better chance to have more fields. Each building takes up one "field" on the planet, every upgrade of a building takes up one new field. When all the fields of the planet have been occupied, no new buildings can be constructed. A terraformer can be constructed to increase the number of fields on a planet, providing 5 fields for every upgrade of the terraformer (one for itself and four for other buildings).

Combat system

OGame combat takes place when fleets meet at planet orbits. Defender can also have defensive structures on the planet. The combat takes place instantly and consists of 1-6 rounds. Each ship fires once per round (may fire more than once with rapid fire). All ships have shielding, which is restored after each round. After the shielding is gone, hull will be damaged. When severely damaged, ships have a chance of exploding each round. All targeting is random, so Plasma Turrets which can destroy Battleships in one shot may instead hit Light Fighters, resulting in overkill.

Rapid-Fire

Ships have an advantage against defenses, not only are they movable and re deployable, they also use an attack method called Rapid fire. A particular ship possessing rapid fire against a specific defensive structure or another ship will be able to fire more rounds at the every round. Here is an example of rapidfire: If ship A has Rapid fire of 5 against ship B, and ship A manages to hit and destroy ship B, ship A has an 80% chance that it will fire again. If, on the second shot, ship A hits and destroys another ship of the same type as ship B again, it has 80% chance of firing again, and so on...

The percentage chance of ship A firing again can be worked out by finding out what rapidfire it has against ship B (in this case 5), dividing 100 by it (100/5=20), and then taking the result away from 100 (100-20=80% chance).

Fodder

Fodder is a term used for protecting bigger, more expensive ships like Battleships with a mass of cheap ones like Light Fighters. Because the targeting in combat is random, the enemy has lower chance to hit a bigger ship from midst of 10 smaller craft. This results in powerful ships or defenses firing at ships they can easily kill with one shot, resulting in overkill and waste of weapon power.

Ships

OGame is mainly known for being a combat game, so a fleet is of the utmost importance. Players with large fleets can attack other players in the game to either capture their resources or to destroy their fleets and/or defense. The best fleets are those which use a variety of all available ships. Most ships are designed for combat, but ships may also be designed for speed, cargo capacity and espionage capabilities. For example, ships with large cargo capacities such as the Large Cargo may be used for trading/transporting large amounts of resources.

Defense

Defenses are built to oppose an enemy fleet attacking one's planet. During an attack, all defensive units on the planet are functional and combine to attempt to destroy the attacker. If any defensive structure is destroyed at the end of a fleet attack, there is a 70% chance that the structure can repair itself. This 70% chance is computed on every single destroyed defensive structure after an attack by a hostile fleet, so even if all of the planet's defenses are wiped out, 70% of them will be repaired and returned to service.

However, if the defenses are destroyed by interplanetary missiles attacks, they will not be repaired. Anti-ballistic missiles are used to counter interplanetary missiles, each anti-ballistic missile destroys one incoming interplanetary missile.

The combat system is tilted more towards the attacker and as such, encourages the entire universe to attack anyone, for any amount of profit. It is commonly seen that large profits are made against high level players, resulting in a fair game. However, many players target heavily defended planets for the sole purpose of "cracking turtles" and do not care if they make little or no profit.

There is a saying in OGame that "Someone in a universe always has large enough fleet to crush any defensive turtle". This is usually true, but attacking a very large defense can result in such losses that any resources raided won't cover the costs. So, one of the main points of defense turtle is that they make themselves unprofitable. But there are players who crush turtler regardless of losses, just for fun or pleasure.

In essence, joining an older universe increases your chances of advancement, because the larger players are more likely to leave you alone due to lack of large profits. However the new universes have many more players which increases your chances of being attacked by a player only marginally higher than yourself.

Research

File:Ogame research lab.gif

A Research Lab

Players have the ability to research new and more advanced technologies with the help of a Research Lab. Each upgrade of a research lab allows new technologies to be researched. Each upgrade of a single research improves a player's research points which allow them to research more technologies or gain construction access to new ships, defenses, and buildings. Only one research can be performed simultaneously on all planets. The speed of a research depends on level of a research lab, the level of a technology and the level of the intergalactic research network.

Researchable Technologies:

Espionage Technology - Each upgrade improves a player's ability to spy on other planets and to detect enemy spy probes. Required for building the espionage probe.
Computer Technology - Increases the maximum number of fleets to be sent on a mission simultaneously. Required for the construction of nanite factories.
Weapon Technology - Each upgrade increases the weapon strength of all offensive and defensive structures by 10%.
Shielding Technology - Each upgrade increases the shielding of all offensive defensive structures by 10%. Required for the construction of shield domes.
Armour Technology - Each upgrade increases the total health of all offensive defensive structures by 10%.
Energy Technology - Allows for more complex technologies to be researched.
Hyperspace Technology - Required for ships which use the hyperspace drive.
Combustion Drive - Increases the speed of ships installed with the combustion drive by 10%. Required for ships which use the combustion drive.
Impulse Drive - Increases the speed of ships installed with the impulse drive by 20%, upgrades some ships to use the impulse drive. Required for ships which use the impulse drive.
Hyperspace Drive - Increases the speed of ships installed with the hyperspace drive by 30%. Required for ships which use the hyperspace drive.
Laser Technology - Allows research and construction of new technology, ships, and defenses that use laser weaponry and technology.
Ion Technology - Allows research and construction of new technology, ships, and defenses that use ion weaponry and technology.
Plasma Technology - Allows construction of new ships and defenses that use plasma weaponry.
Intergalactic Research Network - Increases research lab productivity by linking labs on different planets
Expedition Technology - Allows for expeditions into uncharted space.
Graviton Technology - Allow the Death star to be constructed.

Fleet Missions

Unlike many other real-time strategy games, Ogame does not give you constant control of your spacecraft. Instead, you tell your ship(s) where to fly (using the game's coordinate system) and what to do when they get there. Your fleet cannot be attacked while in transit to or from a mission, but it is vulnerable whenever it is in orbit around your planet or the one you choose to ACS Defend. Fleet movements cannot be monitored by other players unless one has built a sensor phalanx (these can only be constructed on moons). There are 9 types of missions that can be performed by ships in OGame.

Moons

Moons occasionally form from a debris field left by a destroyed fleet. When any ship is destroyed, 30% of the metal and crystal used to construct the ship ends up in a debris field. If the debris field consists of over 100,000 resources, there is a chance the debris field will clump together and form a moon. Structures unique to a moon are jump gates, sensor phalanxes and lunar bases, however shipyards, robotic factories, metal storage, crystal storage, deuterium tanks can also be built on a moon. Additionally, since a Sensor Phalanx cannot spy on a moon, players often base their fleets on their moons whenever possible. It is also impossible to target a moon with interplanetary missiles.

Alliances

An alliance is a group of people who have banded together and is mostly used for solidarity purposes. However, some alliances also have goals that are beyond going up the ranks. Alliances are created for players to protect each other from attacks, join together to raid other planets, or to promote free trade amongst members. Players who join an alliance can share espionage reports on other planets and have access to their common alliance home page.

Members of an alliance can use the ACS (Alliance Combat System) to synchronize fleet movements and missions with members of the same alliance and temporarily deploy a fleet on an allies planet. The ACS system has been added to the English OGame in universe 5 and all universes above universe 18. The ACS system has been also added to all universes in the Russian version, most universes in the German version and a few universes in the Dutch, Polish, Spanish, French and Portuguese versions of OGame, as well as universe 3 in the Czech server.

An alliance page in OGame is typically divided into several parts:

Rank: Your status within the alliance, this is set by an authorized member of the alliance.
Members: The total number of members in the alliance.
External text appears to everybody who visits the alliance page. It is used for general announcements.
Internal text only appears to members of the alliance. Announcements of a more discretionary nature usually go here.
Alliance homepage, if any, is the link to that particular alliance's homepage.

An alliance can set up their own homepage and forums to help promote their alliance, and also to discuss game related issues. Alliances have partaken in many huge battles on the .org site, and have resulted in some fantastic hits. Alliances are seen, by many, as the key to success in Ogame, not only increasing the points of new players, but also the reputation of experienced ones. Lots of OGame Alliances have rules that must be followed by the members. An example of rules for an OGame alliance would be:

Do not insult any members of this alliance.
Do not attack any members of this alliance.
You must join the alliance forum web page as it helps with the communications of the alliance.
If you do not follow these rules you may be kicked out of the alliance.

Ranking System

Since version 0.76b, the ranking system in OGame displays the top 7000 players with the most points, research and fleet number (from 1500 in previous versions). OGame has a newbie protection system, where players with less than 5000 points can only be attacked by other players who have more or less than 15% of the number of points.

A new player joining an old universe has very little chance of reaching a top ten position because of the amount of time the other players have invested. A player can still have a successful empire in an old universe but to be the best in a universe, it is recommended to join a new universe when it starts.

Rules

OGame is monitored by Game Operators, Super Game Operators and Game Administrators each of whom have the rights to ban any player suspected of misconduct and violation of the rules. The full list of rules for ogame.org can be found here: http://ogame.org/regeln.html. The rules can be different for each ogame community. Players who have been banned are put into the "pillory" of their universe. The pillory shows the reason of banning and the administrator who made the decision. It also shows the unbanning of a player when they have clarified the fault. The planets and colonies of players whom have received lifelong bans are not subject to the one month account deletion due to inactivity.

External links

External Reviews

Tools

O-Calc - OGame calculator for various things, In one neat website.
Speed Sim - SpeedSim (Battle Simulator)
OgameBlog - Everything for Ogame in one place.
Ogame new players tutorial
OGame Market - A tool designed for trading OGame resources in all OGame domains and universes.
Drago-Sim - A tool that may be used to calculate the outcome of a battle.
Foxgame - A website from which the Firefox extension foxgame can be downloaded. This extension helps the player navigate through ogame.
NeoGame - A website from which NeoGame can be downloaded. NeoGame is an addon to foxgame, and it makes navigating through ogame even easier.

Official Ogame Websites

References

[1] ttp://www.labusinessjournal.org/article-46-ogame.html

[2] www.heise.de article (German)

[3] www.br-online.de article (German)

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