Mobility Site - View Single Post - The iPhone/iPod Touch Multiplayer Gaming Bible

Menneisyys · 08-23-09, 05:16 AM

(UPDATE 08/23 12:14 CET): Reign of Swords Episode II: an excellent multiplayer turn-based strategy

If you like(d) UniWar’s multiplayer (in which UniWar is exceptionally good), you’ll love Reign of Swords Episode 2 (AppStore link) too. Why? It’s simple: it’s a great strategy game with particular emphasis on multiplayer. That is, something painfully (still?) missing from titles like the otherwise excellent Mecho Wars – and, of course, Orions.

Note that, in this quick review, I only discuss the recently released second episode (Ep II for short), not the first one. The reason for this is that Ep I has a vastly inferior multiplayer mode – something more of a joke but definitely not belonging to a decent strategy game. (Please consult the reviews in the last section for more info on the weaknesses of the multiplayer.) That is, if you do want to play multiplayer, go for Ep II (otherwise, the much cheaper ($2 as opposed to $5) Ep I (AppStore link) may do). You will NOT need to play through Ep I either – it won’t teach you any tricks (similar tutorials can be found in Ep II.) The only advantage of playing Ep I through is that you will be able to import the army you create / build / collect in it into Ep II. I, however, didn’t find this essential at all: you can safely build up a decent army without having to play Ep I through at all. Just play through “The Wizard’s Palace” historical battle at least three times (in addition to playing through the other offline games at least once) and you already have a nice, decent army you can already send to even online games. (Other historical battles have considerably fewer spoils of war and, after some practicing, “The Wizard’s Palace” is impossible to lose; that is, it’s probably the quickest way to build up your army.)

Playing the game is far from trivial for a newbie. I too took at least a day (!) to read through the built-in help (which doesn’t seem to have any info on how the multiplayer works and has only vague remarks on what missions need to be completed for multiplayer to become available), replay the tutorials and the intro missions at least three times, until I understood how it needs to be played and how multiplayer should be used. (In addition, due to the bug (?) on the iPhone 3G S, I tended to continuously lose a lot of my progress. It was only later than I found a fix for this.) Both UniWar and Mecho Wars are far-far better in this respect – they have a much more logical single (and, with UniWar, multi-) player interface and tutorials. (Just as a comparison: I’ve played through the entire (!) original [that is, before it receiving a completely new, second part of campaign] Mecho Wars in 4-5 hours after purchasing it and most of the campaign missions of UniWar, particularly on a 3G S where the slowdown of the AI isn’t an issue on large maps with more than, say, 20-30 units used by the computer.) In this title, you are told vague remarks about your “army”, but the game doesn’t really make an attempt of actively trying to explain you how you can systematically build up your army; what the advantage is in re-playing at least twice some of the historical battles (most importantly, “The Wizard’s Palace”) in order to gain as many different, powerful spoils of war as possible. (Of course, you’ll also get some spoils when playing multiplayer games.)

Basically, multiplayer looks like that of UniWar. After, in War Plans, you’ve played through the tutorials (Combat Training) and the raids (Fields of Vuldyne and Palace Assault), a new group (Online Battles) will be displayed. Here, click any of the records:

Then, you create a game (by selecting “Issue new Challenge”), to which you can accept anyone (or your rivals or pre-added friends only):

(After deploying your troops, you can select the type of the game challenge / announcement)

(Creating an open game)

(Creating a game only for a specific buddy)

(The challenge has been registered by the server; now, depending on the settings you’ve used, your buddy or everybody will see it.)

When your would-be opponent (or friend) notices he’s been challenged (instead of “-“, he’ll see “Challenged” in the “Online battles” section of “War plans”), he or she can accept the invitation by selecting Accept challenge:

A welcome dialog of the battle:

If he or she does this, the game starts.

In a pseudo-realtime multiplayer game, basically, currently, there’s not any kind of announcement telling the other gamer you’ve finished making your steps. In this regard, UniWar is far better: in there, “Switch to next game” or “Next turn” becomes immediately available when (any of) your opponent(s) finish(es) his (their) turn. Also, there isn’t any kind of advanced notification features either. While UniWar supports sending out traditional e-mails for notifying your opponents (or you) about their (your) turn, there aren’t such features here. There isn’t Push notification either – unlike in Live Poker or UNO. (Please see bullet 2 in the “UPDATE (08/16/2009 0:19 CET)” section HERE for more info on how it’s working.) Currently, the only way of get notified of your opponents’ finishing their turn is starting up the game, logging in and check the state of your games in either the “Online Battles” section in War plans. If you see a “Your turn, as in the following screenshot, you’ll know it’s your turn:

Also, pressing the sword icon in the upper right corner takes you to a list of current games:

This dialog conveys more information than the “Online Battles” section above; therefore, you may want to prefer it to the former one.

I really hope the developers do introduce some kind of advanced notification scheme (e-mail, OS3 Push etc.) some time.

Currently, if you don’t exit a game you’re playing (because you know your opponent will make his/her turn as quickly as possible; that is, in almost realtime), you need to keep tapping the “Refresh” icon in the upper left corner of the screen:

(after having ended your turn)

(here, you can see the Refresh button in the upper left corner)

Unfortunately, there’s not any kind of in-game or in-lounge chatting. (UniWar is capable of this.) The in-game multiplayer menu:

And, finally, the stats after finishing a battle:

Verdict

This is an excellent game, particularly in multiplayer, assuming you are ready to actively devote some time to learning the physics of the game. Remember: if you are completely lost, you can freely ask for help from me in a public comment (but NOT in a private message).

3G S networking problems

I’ve found the game to continuously become unable to access the net (to synchronize mission data – that is, your new war spoils and the like) on my iPhone 3G S. (OS version 3.0, jailbroken, official, non-pirated copy of the latest (version 1.2) Reign of Swords Episode II, connection via either both 3G and Wi-Fi or via 3G only.) Interestingly, I haven’t run into any problems like this on my iPhone 3G (OS 3.0.1, jailbroken, official copy, Wi-Fi connection only). Then, after finishing a game, when the phone tries to synchronize the new army / inventory state with the server, it fails. Continuous retries (tapping Retry after the timeout) won’t work.

Fortunately, I’ve been able to come up with a decent solution – at least for jailbroken devices only with Backgrounder also installed. Just send ROS Ep II into background (by long-pressing Home until you see “Backgrounding enabled”; if you do it too late, Voice control is activated. Just cancel it and, when you’re automatically returned to the game, just press Home once.) Then, start Sfari or any other Web browser (I’ve also tested this with iCab Mobile) and load any page. When the connection is restarted, you can safely kill the Web browser and go back to the game (by tapping its icon). Then, just select “Retry” in the “no connection” dialog and voilá – the new stuff will be synchronized.

Other reviews of the series

pocketgamer.co.uk

Older reviews (of Ep I)
pocketgamer.co.uk
App Advice
Game FAQ’s (it’s a user review; note that the multiplayer in Ep II has been hugely improved from Ep I)
Side to Play (they also elaborate on the weaknesses of the multiplayer mode of Ep I)
IGN Mobile
TA's announcement

08-23-09, 05:16 AM	#12 (permalink)
Menneisyys Contributing Reviewer Join Date: Jan 2005 Posts: 4,650 Thanked 4 Times in 2 Posts	(UPDATE 08/23 12:14 CET): Reign of Swords Episode II: an excellent multiplayer turn-based strategy If you like(d) UniWar’s multiplayer (in which UniWar is exceptionally good), you’ll love Reign of Swords Episode 2 (AppStore link) too. Why? It’s simple: it’s a great strategy game with particular emphasis on multiplayer. That is, something painfully (still?) missing from titles like the otherwise excellent Mecho Wars – and, of course, Orions. Note that, in this quick review, I only discuss the recently released second episode (Ep II for short), not the first one. The reason for this is that Ep I has a vastly inferior multiplayer mode – something more of a joke but definitely not belonging to a decent strategy game. (Please consult the reviews in the last section for more info on the weaknesses of the multiplayer.) That is, if you do want to play multiplayer, go for Ep II (otherwise, the much cheaper ($2 as opposed to $5) Ep I (AppStore link) may do). You will NOT need to play through Ep I either – it won’t teach you any tricks (similar tutorials can be found in Ep II.) The only advantage of playing Ep I through is that you will be able to import the army you create / build / collect in it into Ep II. I, however, didn’t find this essential at all: you can safely build up a decent army without having to play Ep I through at all. Just play through “The Wizard’s Palace” historical battle at least three times (in addition to playing through the other offline games at least once) and you already have a nice, decent army you can already send to even online games. (Other historical battles have considerably fewer spoils of war and, after some practicing, “The Wizard’s Palace” is impossible to lose; that is, it’s probably the quickest way to build up your army.) Playing the game is far from trivial for a newbie. I too took at least a day (!) to read through the built-in help (which doesn’t seem to have any info on how the multiplayer works and has only vague remarks on what missions need to be completed for multiplayer to become available), replay the tutorials and the intro missions at least three times, until I understood how it needs to be played and how multiplayer should be used. (In addition, due to the bug (?) on the iPhone 3G S, I tended to continuously lose a lot of my progress. It was only later than I found a fix for this.) Both UniWar and Mecho Wars are far-far better in this respect – they have a much more logical single (and, with UniWar, multi-) player interface and tutorials. (Just as a comparison: I’ve played through the entire (!) original [that is, before it receiving a completely new, second part of campaign] Mecho Wars in 4-5 hours after purchasing it and most of the campaign missions of UniWar, particularly on a 3G S where the slowdown of the AI isn’t an issue on large maps with more than, say, 20-30 units used by the computer.) In this title, you are told vague remarks about your “army”, but the game doesn’t really make an attempt of actively trying to explain you how you can systematically build up your army; what the advantage is in re-playing at least twice some of the historical battles (most importantly, “The Wizard’s Palace”) in order to gain as many different, powerful spoils of war as possible. (Of course, you’ll also get some spoils when playing multiplayer games.) Basically, multiplayer looks like that of UniWar. After, in War Plans, you’ve played through the tutorials (Combat Training) and the raids (Fields of Vuldyne and Palace Assault), a new group (Online Battles) will be displayed. Here, click any of the records: Then, you create a game (by selecting “Issue new Challenge”), to which you can accept anyone (or your rivals or pre-added friends only): (After deploying your troops, you can select the type of the game challenge / announcement) (Creating an open game) (Creating a game only for a specific buddy) (The challenge has been registered by the server; now, depending on the settings you’ve used, your buddy or everybody will see it.) When your would-be opponent (or friend) notices he’s been challenged (instead of “-“, he’ll see “Challenged” in the “Online battles” section of “War plans”), he or she can accept the invitation by selecting Accept challenge: A welcome dialog of the battle: If he or she does this, the game starts. In a pseudo-realtime multiplayer game, basically, currently, there’s not any kind of announcement telling the other gamer you’ve finished making your steps. In this regard, UniWar is far better: in there, “Switch to next game” or “Next turn” becomes immediately available when (any of) your opponent(s) finish(es) his (their) turn. Also, there isn’t any kind of advanced notification features either. While UniWar supports sending out traditional e-mails for notifying your opponents (or you) about their (your) turn, there aren’t such features here. There isn’t Push notification either – unlike in Live Poker or UNO. (Please see bullet 2 in the “UPDATE (08/16/2009 0:19 CET)” section HERE for more info on how it’s working.) Currently, the only way of get notified of your opponents’ finishing their turn is starting up the game, logging in and check the state of your games in either the “Online Battles” section in War plans. If you see a “Your turn, as in the following screenshot, you’ll know it’s your turn: Also, pressing the sword icon in the upper right corner takes you to a list of current games: This dialog conveys more information than the “Online Battles” section above; therefore, you may want to prefer it to the former one. I really hope the developers do introduce some kind of advanced notification scheme (e-mail, OS3 Push etc.) some time. Currently, if you don’t exit a game you’re playing (because you know your opponent will make his/her turn as quickly as possible; that is, in almost realtime), you need to keep tapping the “Refresh” icon in the upper left corner of the screen: (after having ended your turn) (here, you can see the Refresh button in the upper left corner) Unfortunately, there’s not any kind of in-game or in-lounge chatting. (UniWar is capable of this.) The in-game multiplayer menu: And, finally, the stats after finishing a battle: Verdict This is an excellent game, particularly in multiplayer, assuming you are ready to actively devote some time to learning the physics of the game. Remember: if you are completely lost, you can freely ask for help from me in a public comment (but NOT in a private message). 3G S networking problems I’ve found the game to continuously become unable to access the net (to synchronize mission data – that is, your new war spoils and the like) on my iPhone 3G S. (OS version 3.0, jailbroken, official, non-pirated copy of the latest (version 1.2) Reign of Swords Episode II, connection via either both 3G and Wi-Fi or via 3G only.) Interestingly, I haven’t run into any problems like this on my iPhone 3G (OS 3.0.1, jailbroken, official copy, Wi-Fi connection only). Then, after finishing a game, when the phone tries to synchronize the new army / inventory state with the server, it fails. Continuous retries (tapping Retry after the timeout) won’t work. Fortunately, I’ve been able to come up with a decent solution – at least for jailbroken devices only with Backgrounder also installed. Just send ROS Ep II into background (by long-pressing Home until you see “Backgrounding enabled”; if you do it too late, Voice control is activated. Just cancel it and, when you’re automatically returned to the game, just press Home once.) Then, start Sfari or any other Web browser (I’ve also tested this with iCab Mobile) and load any page. When the connection is restarted, you can safely kill the Web browser and go back to the game (by tapping its icon). Then, just select “Retry” in the “no connection” dialog and voilá – the new stuff will be synchronized. Other reviews of the series pocketgamer.co.uk Older reviews (of Ep I) pocketgamer.co.uk App Advice Game FAQ’s (it’s a user review; note that the multiplayer in Ep II has been hugely improved from Ep I) Side to Play (they also elaborate on the weaknesses of the multiplayer mode of Ep I) IGN Mobile TA's announcement __________________ MS MVP- Mobile Devices.