So I guess we need to play two games against each other. One on every platform?

I went to WarlordsX site but it seemed to be broken for me in Firefox with all my plugins. In other words clicking the buttons did nothing so it looks like a dead site. That's going to be a problem when attracting players.

When I went back from a stock Chrome browser (no plugins) I was at least able to get the buttons to sort of work to let me see the maps/army sets etc and sort of start a game. But it was very very slow (and my PC is quite fast).

Also it appears WarlordsX is just Warlords 2. Most players here are looking for Warlords 3 (DLR) or 4 or a hybrid. The players who still love and want to play Warlords 2 can already do so in a virtual box so there is very little need for an online clone of Warlords 2.

KGB

I’m not the creator of WarlordsX.com, but as mentioned, I’d like more people to join for the multiplayer. I agree the frontpage is terribly slow the first time you visit, but better later on and also from the network traffic it looks like the system is caching various data. I will see if there’s a feedback system in place (I haven’t found any email address yet) and tell him/her. Once in the game, it’s slick and smooth sailing for me and I’m on an old laptop. Is it different to you?

I’ve read other posts by a KGB on the Warbarons forum and from there, it looks like you are focused on solo play? That might be wrong, but to me, the huge advantage of WarlordsX over the virtual box is the multiplayer option (and also creating and saving your own maps).

I remember playing Warlords 3 back in the days, but to you, what are the big advantages of 3 over 2? Maybe we can push people to spend their resources in that direction.

So, now I’ll try to get a pay cheque out of whomever is behind WarlordsX.

Let him create a forum or even a thread here on warlorders dedicated for warlordsx.com so we can track development progress

Actually I pretty much only play multi-player Warlords. About 5 years ago I played a few solo games of War 2 on Dosbox just so I knew how Dosbox worked so I could help players here but that's been my only solo experience in Warlords/Warbarons etc in the last 15+ years.

Obviously the big draw of Warbarons/WarlordsX is the multi-player feature. But the problem for both is that it's essentially turn based and you can go days between turns which turns off all the the most hardcore/dedicated players (I remember a conversation with Steve Fawkner where he told me that of all copies of Warlords 3 sold, only about 3% ever bothered to register and play online. That didn't count playing with friends in hotseat of course but gives an idea of how few do/want to play multiplayer). Warbarons does have a simultaneous mode but browsers are slow still rendering all the animations and so it tends to drag once you get on larger maps with lots of units.

- Simultaneous and email play was the prime feature of Warlords 3 (and somewhat on Warlords 4).
- Unique heros (15 different types)
- Much larger variety of unit skills/bonus system/magic items/boats
- A magic spell system
- Much more varied and unique quest system
- Limited army sets.
- Then there were different victory conditions (capture the flag, king of the hill, battle of titans etc) in addition to the standard conquer the whole map.
- There were also lots game options to enable concerning things like razing (no raze/on capture/anytime), starting units (1, 1-4, pick starting armies of choice), selecting capitol cities (so you guarantee far apart) and lots of control over random map generation (cities, terrain, income etc).

Warbarons/WarlordsX have virtually none of these and so are very stagnant and static by comparison (esp the lack of random & hidden maps so games get repetitive very fast).

KGB

Thanks for your answer. Just as a side note, WarlordsX has hidden maps (if you by that mean fog of war?) as well as random maps (however a bit "dumb" since you can only generate random maps from within a game - they seem to be created based on the currently loaded map if I understand it correctly).

Without me having to install Warlords 3, would it be possible to describe how the simultaneous play worked?

Fog of War and Hidden Map are 2 separate options. Hidden Map means the whole map other than your starting city is covered with Black. As you move units around you uncover the map and discover where things are (cities, roads, ruins etc). This feature obviously only makes sense on random maps but it adds a big element of strategy as you 'discover' the world. Having both options turned on is the best way to play. Warlords 2 had both these options.

Simultaneous play works exactly like you'd think it would. All players are logged on and moving at the same time like RTS games. The difference with RTS is that a turn is set length (I think it was between 1-10 minutes) and of course units have their set movement per turn where they don't in RTS games. The game allowed you to change the turn length every 10 turns so you could start with lower time and increase it as players had more cities/armies and other things (production, vectoring, upgrading etc) to do per turn. Typically players set things to 3 minutes on turn 1 and increased from there as required.

KGB

Thanks. I know it’s a huge ask, but how would you prioritize those features in terms of making the game more interesting?

1) Random Maps - This by far is the biggest thing to prevent the game from becoming repetitive.
2) Hidden Maps - Really goes hand-in-hand with #1 obviously.
3) Unique Heroes/Hero skill sets - Warbarons has done a nice job here without a magic system but you could easily duplicate War 3/4 hero types/skills.
4) Larger variety of unit skills/bonuses/hits - Warbarons nicely blended in a combo of Warlords 3/4 skills and bonuses plus some unique ones of their own.
5) Upgrade-able units/cities/towers - Another area to blend things in from War 1/2/3/4 where you allow players to construct towers, upgrade cities & sites to produce better units with more movement/strength/hits/less time to produce etc (instead of it being random).
6) More game options (razing, starting units, selecting capitol cities etc)
7) Different Victory conditions
A magic system - See Warlords 3 & 4
9) An improved quest system - See Warlords 3

Items 6-9 could really be done in any order so I put them in order of what I think will be hardest to implement code / balance wise.

KGB