Comparison

Feature Comparison d13 vs. Devana

d13 is a bit different in terms of gameplay compared to the old Devana sourcecode. Here are some of the differences explained in detail:

1. New Account
   d13 requires no captcha and reduces the number of fields that must be filled. In addition, email activation is not required. I would like to remove as many entrance hurdles as possible.

2. New Town
   You cannot choose the location of the new town anymore. Instead the new town is created at a random, free spot on the worldmap. In addition you cannot choose the name of your town, a standard name is assign (e.g. Fhizban's Town). Both features are pure vanity. Players can later change the position and name of their towns if the game owner allows it.

3. Town Options
   The town options like moving a town, renaming a town or destroying a town are not part of the main game navigation anymore. Instead you require a special building to access those options. The game owner can decide if the building can be built and what options are available (so you can disable renmaing towns or destroying your own town).

4. Alliance Options
   Alliance Options (like create, list, edit alliance) have been removed from the main game navigation. Instead you require a special building to access these options. The game owner can decide if the building can be built and what options are available (so you can disable alliances as well).

5. Levels
   Technologies, Buildings and Units now each feature a level. All three can be levelled up in order to make them stronger. Levelled Technologies are used to design more advanced tech-trees and their requirements. Levelled buildings have increased production/storage capacity but also increased costs. Levelled units have increased stats (all stats except speed) but also higher cost. The factor of increasement can be stated in game data.

6. Requirements
   Removed the requirement that you "need X buildings of type Y (e.g. 3 gold mines)" in order to built a specific object. Added the requirement that you "need Y buildings with a total level of X" (e.g. gold mines level 3). just makes more sense.

7. User Input
   You cannot assign more workers than available to a building. This is also true for most other inputs in the game. Sanity checks are still performed on the server side, but the client side already filters most of these input errors.

8. Unit Types
   Besides a class, units can also feature a type. This will be used for advanced unit interaction later on and also enables the game owner to limit the amount of units a player can produce. this way, it is possible to balance more powerful units by limiting their potential maximum number.

9. Town Size
   Towns can be much bigger than in Devana, with many more available building spots. It is possible to spread a town across various "city sections". Player can easily "swipe" between sections and construct buildings anywhere they like. I strongly recommend not to abuse this powerful feature as it will lead to A. performance problems and B. gameplay problems. Managing 20+ cities with 3+ sections and 15+ buildingss per section is just a pain for the players and for the server. On the other hand, if you limit your player to just one city each (like in "Clash of Clans") you can easily have 10 sectors with 10 buildings each, for a possible maximum of 100 buildings per player town.