FC21评测

Tribal Trouble 2 Beta

Good games are still rare on the Linux platform. Although we do have some choices, they are nothing compared to the Windows platform. Every now and then we get to see one that could be labelled as good. It's a matter of taste of course. Tribal Trouble 2 beta is my kids' current choice. We already knew Tribal Trouble, which came as a game to be installed on the PC, but Tribal Trouble 2 beta lifts the game from the local PC to the Internet. It's an on-line game that runs from the web browser on the PC.

All you need are a Linux computer with Java installed, your web browser, the link to the web site 'http://tribaltrouble2.com/', and the creation of an account. In this sense it's like Rune Scape, which has a place to play for free as well as an account in which you can buy items.

Tribal Trouble 2 starts full screen, but in the options section you can adjust settings and set it to play in a window. The graphics are great, run smooth and are a joy for the eye. The reference card shows you (left of the web page) how to use the mouse and keyboard for the game. For example, moving the mouse while holding down F or the middle mouse button would give free rotation of view. There are three quest free to play: “Boot Camp The Viking chieftain school”, “Oyster Invasion The Enemy Approaches" and “Rotten Eggs Visiting a friend isn't always peaceful”, which earn you points. The points can be used to buy new items or a new look!

But why not enter a battle with another player? This is the multi-player function. You can even create an battle room and ask a friend to battle you, all on-line. After a fierce battle, check out what went wrong so that you can plan a better strategy next time, and watch the game you played in the “games” section of the website of Tribal Trouble 2. Now, as we said, Tribal Trouble 2 is free to play, but there is also a commercial side of the story. So, let's take a look at how it's done.

Oddies and points

Tribal Trouble 2 is free to play, but extra units, buildings, special skills and avatar clothing must be bought from the Shop with oddies and points. Oddies are purchased from money in the bank, while points are mostly earned by completing quests or winning multi-player games. The bank will also allow you to exchange oddies for more points.

Get more oddies and points

In the bank you can stock up on oddies and points to spend in the shop. For example:

Buy 20 oddies: $4.95

Buy points

You can exchange your oddies for more points, should you need them - press the 'Buy points' button to sell 1 oddie for 100 points.

The game is still in beta development, but as open-source fans we are used to this.

We had e-mail contact with the developers to see how they feel about open source. To our surprise they run Ubuntu desktops and one Mac in their office! Here is the answer we received:

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"Thanks for your interest in Tribal Trouble 2. You can find answers for you questions below, but first I would ask you to make sure your review reflects that it is more of a preview of the beta version, since there will be a lot of major changes and additions to the game before we remove the beta tag."

When, and who, started development of this game, how was it written, did you use some form of open source software?

"Tribal Trouble 2, as well as the original Tribal Trouble has been developed in-house by Oddlabs with graphics and audio outsourced. We did an IRc interview with GameDev.net a while back, which you might find useful if you want more background details on us. Tribal Trouble 2 development started roughly a year ago, where we started porting the original game to our new on-line platform."

Until what stage of the game is it free to play? Will this change after the beta versions? I noticed there is a bank to buy oddies. Very important point for my spoiled open source readers.

"In order to understand how Tribal Trouble 2 can be called 'free to play' you need to understand the currency model. Tribal Trouble has 2 currencies: Oddies and points. Oddies can be bought for real money in the bank. Points are earned by completing quests and playing multi player matches. If you wish to buy a new warrior or a bigger ship to be able to reach more quests, you buy it with these two currencies, so if the price includes Oddies, it will cost real money. However, we intend to expand the bank so players can trade with each other, so if someone who doesn't mind spending money has bought a lot of Oddies, he can sell them to some other player who has a lot of points. This way, someone who doesn't want to pay can put a lot of time into the game to earn enough points to buy Oddies from another player."

It works fine on the Linux platform, is oddlabs planning to make more games?

"We have no plans at this moment since we are focusing on Tribal Trouble 2 right now, but we have lots of ideas for future projects."

Can you tell a little more about the original game, and if it will be available in shops around the world? For example: its not in any shop in the Netherlands, and buying the original game is impossible without any form of credit card.

"The original game was available in stores in Germany and Denmark. We are no longer putting any effort into retail distribution so I don't expect it to become available in stores in the Netherlands."

Any other points of interest that you can think off? With friendly greetings from the Netherlands, from an Ubuntu desktop, on which the kids test your game at this moment.

"Since you are writing for an Open Source audience, I could add that we ourselves are big Open Source fans. Almost all of our development software is open source. The game has been developed primarily on Linux machines with only one developer using Mac OS X, and Windows only being booted for tests. And like you, I'm writing this email on my Ubuntu desktop."

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