By Vincent Haoson (Vincenthaoson), Onrpg Journalist
Colony-Wars is a browser based MMO that puts you in charge of a planet. It is your responsibility to make your colony prosperous though the means of either becoming an aggressive conquering force or take the peaceful mercantile road and defend your resources.
Game Features
You start off with the bare necessities and you have a planet. From there you are given free reign on where you invest the resources you have. You can upgrade your sources of income or go upgrade your technology.
Colony-Wars doesn’t have a tutorial unlike browser-based MMOs. However, as a means for players to understand what they are seeing, every page you see in the game has a corresponding link found in the upper right part of the page that directly leads to a wiki help page.
Resources and Missions
The game has only two resources which you need to acquire if you want things to roll. You have to acquire Metals and Energies if you want to either upgrade your tech tree or acquire new fleets for your Armada. You earn these important resources from Asteroids and Meteors respectively. An alternative way of earning them is through missions that you accomplish.
Missions are Colony-War’s version of quests. There are four types of missions you acquire which are: Resource Management, Technological Improvements, Varied Fleet and Battle Experiences. Missions earn you three types of rewards, they are cash, resources and units.
Starting players are given three days of free immunity from attacks, which is the game’s means of giving new players the opportunity to get acquainted with the game and to understand how things go. In this mode you cannot attack nor be attacked by other players but you can decide to drop the protection mode if you are that hungry for a fight.
Battling in Colony-Wars is straight up numbers game. You have to setup the planet you are attacking and the amount of fuel your fleet would be using before you set out. The amount of fuel is based on the number of ticks (or the game’s version of periods of time) you are willing to invest n the fleet you are sending. You can invest a maximum of three ticks and a minimum of one.
The majority of what is happening in Colony-Wars is recorded through the Universal Events area that is found in the lower part of your overview. The Universal events page shows a summarized form of what has happened in your part of the universe.
What is usually seen on the Universal Events area are battles that have recently concluded and who won the clash, players who have joined and quit. In the Universal Events you can see the name of the planet where the event happened, the coordinates of the planet and the usernames of the players involved in the event.
Personal Recommendation
At first glance, it would seem that Colony-Wars is a game that you can understand right off the bat. Don’t let that fool you however because the game is harder than it looks, especially for new players. After creating your first planet the game system tells you that there’s a game manual found on the left side of the page but it’s not there.
To compensate the lack of a game manual, Colony-Wars does in fact have a wiki help page that is conveniently placed at the top right area of the page per category. The problem however with the help page is that it only explains what you see and not really explaining how it all fits into the game. The wiki page links lacks the information that really helps new players out.
Next to the lack of a manual, the help pages seem to lack the information that you really need and there is no game tutorial. As a result you find yourself second-guessing almost every action you do, and making your first Colony-Wars experience a living hell.
The Solution
Thankfully, there is a ready remedy for what’s lacking to the game. The game forum provides you with starting guides and tips to make your game experience as enjoyable as possible. Also, you get to figure things out eventually with the help of other players who are very helpful to newbies.
The problem with the forums however is that you have to really dig through the forums to get to understand everything. Also, not all players know that if the game system lacks the information you need, the game forums is the next stop.
However, once you get past the initial problems and get things rolling you would find that the game is enjoyable and worth the trouble. The game provides you everything you need in all aspects of the game. This gives you complete control on everything you do up until other players start attacking you that is.
Battles in Colony-Wars practically a numbers game and the outcome of these battles are highly dependent on your capabilities as the planet’s tactician. Usually if you plan your attacks well everything would have to go to your favor, just as long as you have enough information in your hand.
One of the redeeming features of Colony-Wars is the Universal Events portion in your overview. This is a nice addition to the game because it makes you feel like you are not just a colonizer in your planet. I really liked that the events also record that new players have registered because it helps newbies feel at home with the game. Not to mention that if you are lucky enough to join the game with friendly people on board you’d have friends in an instant.
Colony-Wars is a game that is hard to understand in the beginning and it would have to take a lot of effort to get a hang of the game, but after persevering and trying to understand how the game works it would then take a different shape and hopefully you get to enjoy being “mr. leader” for quite some time.
Pros:
– The game provides a help link on every page
– You get detailed information on everything you own including the computation formula for your population
– People in the forums are helpful and would help anyone in a pinch.
Cons:
– The wiki help only explains what you can see on the page, not on how to use it
– You have to make sure you created your planet on the server or you would be facing a static account from hours on end
– You won’t easily find the manual link as the system says.
