I have to say, I was not excited about this theme. That said, there's a console based project that I've been interested in trying out for quite a while and what better way to try it out than to make a RTS in it! (okay, maybe not).

Age of Spires IV

• Cutting edge text graphics!
• Multiplayer!
• Computer controlled bots!
• Made with REAL LIGHTNING!

https://youtu.be/OXxSTd2rf2U

Install Instructions:

• (prerequisite) Install the JRE (Oracle/OpenJDK/etc, this is NOT an applet)
• Download the ldjam41-1.1.jar file
• Double click the .jar file
• OR from the console: "java -jar ldjam41-1.1.jar"
• Add custom bot count: "java -Dbots=10 -jar ldjam41-1.1.jar"

Play Instructions:

• (b) Build
• (a) Attack!
• (s) Status
• (i) Show the Help / Information Window
• Arrows (move those text console windows around to your liking!)
• CTRL-[TAB] Cycle through open windows
• (q) Quit
• The game ends 10 minutes after you start. Keep your warriors fed and you'll end with a high score! Let them starve (through lack of planning or wartime defeats), and your game will end in misery!

If you're hosting the game (aka, you just launched the game and it says "1 player joined"), hit the ` key to spawn random bots of three varieties:

• Peaceful
• Rush
• Agressive

General Strategy:

You get 1 free mine, farm and warrior to start the game. Once you've collected 10 ore ( +1 x 2.5 sec per mine ), you can now choose your path.

Mines are effectively free to maintain. They generate you MORE ore. They're the base resource (yea, yea... no one builds a farm with ore - well in Age of Spires, YOU DO!). Mines generate +1 ore every 2.5 sec.

Farms are good, but you need to have warriors to convert to farmers to build them. Your first warrior nets you a quick farm (you also don't have to feed him anymore!) to stockpile food with. Farms generate +1 food every 2.5 sec.

Barracks build you +1 warrior every 7.5 seconds. Warriors are how you eliminate your enemies. Be wary! If you have too many warriors and not enough food (1x food per warrior every 2.5 sec), your warriors will starve to death. (upcoming: I'll probably release a post-compo balance .jar to handle this issue a bit better. Conceptually, this was supposed to force you to send your warriors out to battle. Dead warriors don't need to eat. But once you defeat your enemies, you can't kill them off. It's not the best dynamic.)

Temples generate you points! 100 ore = temple, and it gets you 1 point toward victory every 5 sec.

Other people can join your hosted server!

• java -Dclient=true -jar ldjam41-1.0.jar
• edit the hostname to match the host's ip or hostname (technical skillz required)

Post-Compo submission changes

• 5 bots are auto-added to the game as you start. When bots die, new ones re-join the fray (as can you!) (` to add "max bot count", ~ to reduce "max bot count")
• Game timer reduced from 10 minutes to 5
• Added some balance changes:
  • Farms produce 1.5 food per 2.5s up from 1
  • Every building contributes 1 point to the final score
• Attacking has a chance to generate additional points with heroic wins (pillage)
• Added a "DEFEAT" condition when you're attacked and have 0 warriors left after the battle
• Added score outputs to DEFEAT and STARVATION end game notifications
• Added a market which reduces the food upkeep "per warrior" by 2% per market
• Added server high score keeping (no persistence)