Creating a new strategy game

[Omen]

Any updates on your game Pir?

[piranha]

Screenshot 2026-01-20 at 21.43.47.png (593.48 KiB) Viewed 46912 times

Its still an early thing so I cant promise anything but I started work on a new version of warbarons using AI to help me code faster. First objective is to recreate current version but with a tech stack that allow me to build the things I want to improve the game with. So basically changing PHP to node.js, using DB as persistance instead of acting as a game server and writing a game server in node with websockets which is required to scale with more players. And many of the improvements we discussed in this thread including better AI which I totally underestimated when we made the game. I dont know yet how long it will take but I have made some progress so I can create and load games and do some stuff in the games. One thing I started experimenting with is a isometric render using pixi.js which is a way to use the GPU to render art in javascript. So its faster to do more with art. My idea is to take this to steam and app stores so it needs some graphics refresh for a bit of wow factor and I have created a isometric render and been creating isometric art for it the last few weeks to test it out.

As I have been doing this work with is quite time consuming because I haven't been able to get AI to produce tilable art so its a lot of arranging art in photoshop. I want to ask your opinions about isometric games? The art benefit is you see things from 3 sides which allow for a bit prettier look. Since this is just a render of the current game it doesnt operate 100% like isometric games do since units stand on trees and mountains in our game while its often that you cant walk on such terrain in isometric games. But it also show map in a different way and I'm not sure I prefer it. Anyone have opinion about isometric view in games? The image is only from Photoshop as I have worked on making current art into tilabe iso art.

[KGB]

Isometric was used in War3 and 4 and the Battlecry series too I think.

For me personally it works better in intimate settings like what you see in your shot. That is, showing single units in a close up setting. Battlecry worked well because you were moving around individual troops (a monster, a dragon, a knight, a Skeleton etc) on a close up setting.

Warbarons and Warlords are world view games or certainly continent view or country view games. So ISO doesn't make a much sense there.

KGB

[Omen]

Screenshot 2026-01-20 at 21.43.47.png

Keep it up pir, this looks promising.

[piranha]

Thought Id post on progress. I paused the isometric work as it was taking a lot of time. I will work on graphics later. I have remade nearly everything but its pretty much the same thing but now I can improve it. I have done small improvements here and there already but game wise its the same. Replays work again. Im currently replacing the DOM render engine with a GPU based engine which is currently what Im working on. It had to be done to make replays work without glitching and flickering but it has been tricky to get it work in the mapeditor but I think it will soon work. Once I think its including whats in the current version and I dont see any bugs I will put it online so it can be tested a bit better by you as well. Hopefully using the same DB so its only the code that differs during a transition period.

[Omen]

I would love to test this!

[KGB]

I'd love to test it too.

Did you fix the path finding algorithm? There is a bug in it where it hangs when you click on a spot you can't reach (eg water for land units with no ports to ever allow you to get there).

KGB

[piranha]

Sorry havent posted for a while. I will get a cloud server soon and see if I can get it running so you can test. There are some old bugs that are fixed and there are some improvements to the community pages. Things that are bit bad in this version. The hang when clicking a impossible move is gone. The AI is better but there is room for improvement. There are still some details that I notice that I need to fix. Then you will find all sorts of little issues but its good to get them listed in a forum so they can just be worked away. Most things work okay now.

[piranha]

New version now available at new.warbarons.com

It uses a copy of the DB from 2026-04-06 so you can open your games from that time and play but when everything is working I will copy the DB from the old version again so any games on the new platform will eventually be overwritten.

Some new features:
- You can join multiple teams
- Changed DOM render engine to a GPU based rendering which will allow some nice features in future but for now movement is a bit more smooth.
- Reworked AI that is better (but Im going to make this a lot better)
- Real time games haven replaced with live games. Live = separate turns but you only have a couple of minutes per turn.
- Replays now work but old games won’t generate working replays, only new games started on the new.warbarons.com will work. For now you can look at games that are ongoing so you can spy on the opponent. This is just so we can test this out and find any bugs quickly. Later replays will only be watchable when the game is finished.
-https now works so those annoying warnings will finally be gone.
-Expect bugs and please report them in the forum. Any little detail so they can be fixed. I have gone through a lot of stuff but it’s impossible to detect stuff that happens after playing for a while on my own. Developing a game with AI is like baby sitting an idiot with super powers. It gets it wrong all the time.

-There is a 2d/Iso view toggle. I left the button there for you to look but it’s very unfinished. Not sure if I’ll do the ISO variant or update the current graphics instead and see if it’s possible to use some fun functionality to improve the current view. What do you think?

-And I changed the loader image to a new one with less naked man in it, I remember Igor’s complaint . But running around with a burning sword in that kind of grass seems like a very bad idea as well so I’ll have to fix that later too.

[CaptainHook]

Hey, very cool news that youre still working on updates for the game! I think i found the game 10 years ago for the first time, really liked it but got dirstracted by other things, forgot my accountname, made a new account a few weeks ago and i am happy to hear there might be an update soon. Do i have to make a new account for the new.warbarons or is my account-data still valid?