[Site] Conquer Club Mobile App

by **alichino** on Sat Jan 13, 2007 6:40 pm

JamesKer1 wrote:This suggestion was previously submitted by the community at large. However, the bigWham administration has made it clear that they do not have the resources nor desire to make an app. This suggestion is now being considered REJECTED. An app is currently being worked on by runewake2, but it is only available on certain platforms.

chapcrap wrote:With the world becoming more mobile and many people performing more and more tasks on phones and tablets, an app for these that is supported by CC is a great idea. There is an iPhone app and a Windows App. The issue with these is that they are user supported and not kept up to date with the ongoing updates that are coming out from the bigWham regime.

Not only would a functional app be great for the site and users, the presence of non-functional apps actually brings the site down. This is creating a negative image for the site. It needs remedied.

Original Post wrote:I've checked on previous posts and I haven't found this proposal before. But if I'm wrong, please excuse me.

I'm a developer for mobile devices (cell phones, PDA and the like) and I was thinking about creating a user interface of this game for those devices since they all lack a very good HTML browser. It would be useful also to minimize data exchange (for money and speed reasons).
This way I could play also when I'm on vacation using just my cell phone

I see 2 steps that would need to be done:
1) get a simple network iterface to the game (via HTTP or directly via TCP) with functions like login(username, pwd), getGameList() and similar. This could be accomplished directly or by scripts "filtering" the standard HTML output.
2) create the client app which uses the interface specified above (C, C++, Java, any technology needed could work fine).

What do you think?

by **lackattack** on Sun Jan 14, 2007 2:08 pm

I have thought about creating a mobile version but I'm not sure how. I figured a good approach is to design a WAP text-only interface that people could use in their cellphone browser. But how to display the armies in test? some sort of matrix??

Now, building a java client inteface is something I never thought about. It would need to contain only display logic so that I can make updates to the game engine without worrying about all those people with cellphones having the wrong version. I have installed a few Java games on my cellphone, but none of them are online games. I wonder whether games and apps on my cellphone are allowed to access the web...

by **alichino** on Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:31 pm

I've kind of experience with that. Almost every mobile phone supporting Java may access the network via TCP, altough the only mandatory supported protocol is HTTP (which is probably easier to support on the server side, too). There is a big mess considering configuration and supported packages but we can start witha minimal app just for playing existing games.
The best way to go would be to specify a protocol (i.e. a list of commands supported by the server with its format, like login, getmap, attack and similar). Those will have to be supported on the server side and used by the client. If the game creators don't have any copyright issue I can also start doing some demo code and then let you know.

by **tals** on Sun Jan 14, 2007 5:13 pm

I like this idea a lot

I use a Palm PDA so th egraphics arn't bad - not sure how playable it will be - but if you pull it off i'm game. Also game for any testing you want to do.

Tals

by **Midgetlover** on Sun Jan 14, 2007 5:41 pm

Word!

This is one of the best suggestions next to the war fog idea, i've read so far, Thumbs up! :-)

i'll support this project all the way. if you happened to need a beta tester, or a self-taught C#.net\C++ programmer, please feel free to leave a message

by **sully800** on Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:15 pm

Gobbledegook :lol:

by **lackattack** on Mon Jan 15, 2007 1:45 am

Question: if you make an online Java cellphone version - would cellphone users be charged for bandwidth?

Would you load the map images? Isn't the map too big for a cellphone? Or is your target PDA / smartphone?

If you want to build a prototype you are more than welcome. It would be your code, like Tr0y's greasemonkey. I could provide those urls for you to hit to get game data, submit attacks, etc. Actually, I'd like it to be the same as now only with an extra parameter for "light output" which would be easy to parse.

One thing to keep in mind, I'm behind on my updates and the stuff on my end would take time to get done...

by **Backglass** on Mon Jan 15, 2007 11:18 am

Any type of Mobility for CC I would applaud...loudly!

I attempt to play on my Treo650 now, but it's a major PIA. The java & frames are funky and the graphics are way to big of course.

Go for it!!!

by **alichino** on Mon Jan 15, 2007 2:45 pm

Hi,
mobile operators rates and prices are the main reason why you don't see many mobile online games, today. I did develop a massive RPG 3 years ago for a (big multinational) company I was working in and it never reached the market because of that reason. That means, yes, you'll be charged if you go online.
However things are changing. At least here in the Netherlands you can get a 1GB per month at less than 30 euro. Not incredibly cheap but acceptable if you use it also for email and other stuff. And I know that many mobile operators are going the same way.
So, if we can manage not to exchange too many data (and I think it's really feasible given the kind of interaction we need), the cost shouldn't really be a problem.

From a tech perspective the big plus would be not to be forced to download maps but only units. That would require preloading maps on the device with upgrades requiring new version of the app to be installed.
I think this would be acceptable.

My development phone is a Motorola V3x. I also have some other phones available (one with touch screen) for testing purposes so that shouldn't be a problem. In any case we will need a big amount of help in testing with the bigget possible amount of phones to "certify" compatibility (somebody writing a test suite would be helpful).

In any case I would like to go one step at the time. If you can post at my email address links/protocol for basic functionalities (login,enter game) I can try starting developing a demo.
Or, if you prefer, I can write down a list of basic commands I would like to be supported.

by **lackattack** on Mon Jan 15, 2007 6:35 pm

you know what, it sounds interesting but i'll tell you right now that it will be months before i'll have time to do the work on my end

by **s.xkitten** on Mon Jan 15, 2007 8:22 pm

lackattack wrote:you know what, it sounds interesting but i'll tell you right now that it will be months before i'll have time to do the work on my end

if you, or anyone, could help, i'd be willing to try...i was thinking about this as i argued with my phone to view this webpage...

by **alichino** on Tue Jan 16, 2007 1:25 pm

ok, then. I'll start with a demo with a fake server. It will probably take some weeks (I have no much time either :-(

).
I'll try to do something as much compatible I can. ThenI'll share it with you so that you can see it and if you want we'll start discussing about client/server protocol and how to implement it.
At that point any help will be appreciated, 'cause there will be many separated tasks.
Ok?

by **s.xkitten** on Tue Jan 16, 2007 11:42 pm

works for me

by **lackattack** on Wed Jan 17, 2007 12:17 am

me too

by **Rustyphonebook** on Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:28 pm

you guys should set something up, where you can make your moves from your cellphone, then games would go faster, and alot of people wouldn't lose turns.