Frequently Asked Questions

About FAQ

What is Globulation 2?

Globulation 2, or Glob2 for short, is a Real-Time Strategy [RTS] game which aims to minimize micro-management by automatically assigning tasks to units. The player chooses the number of units he wants to assign to various tasks and the units will do their best to satisfy the requests. This allows the user to focus on strategies rather than managing individual units.

It can be played by a single player, through your Local Area Network [LAN], or through the Internet thanks to Ysagoon Online Game [YOG]. It also features Artificial Intelligence for playing against computer teams, a scripting language for versatile gameplay or tutorials and an integrated map editor.

What are the objectives of a game in Glob2?

The objective is to wipe out your opponents' populations. This can be done by attacking and killing the enemy units, by converting them to your team if you can offer a greater comfort, or by starving them to death if you destroy their resources. To be stronger than your opponent you must first create a lot of new globules while taking care about them to survive. Have a look at the PlayGuide for more details about how to play the game.

Is there a minimum age to play?

The game may not be playable by some because of its complexity, but no specific age is targeted. Despite of the war oriented objectives, the game is not meant to be violent and compared to other real-time strategy games, it is much more amusing. In fact the units are abstract X-shaped globules and there are no violent images, sounds or texts - even when units get attacked or when they disappear.

Install FAQ

Is Globulation 2 free or restricted software?

Glob2 is Open Source and Free Software, licensed and distributed under the GNU GPL. You can download it "for no money".

To redistribute, modify or sell any part of Glob2 or it's derivative work, you must agree to the GNU GPL. Have a look at this page to understand why software should be free.

What version should I choose to play?

It is always recommended that you use the latest version that can be found in the Download Section as with each release there are many fixes and new features. Also probably only the latest version will be supported on YOG, but if you're playing against the computer any version will do. If you like to stay on the cutting edge and help the developers hunt bugs you can also get the latest development version from Mercurial.

How can I be informed about new releases?

The latest releases can always be found in the download section and are announced on the main page, but we have yet to make a mailing list or have a message pop up in game to announce the release of a new version.

What are the minimum system requirements?

• 500mhz processor
• About 100MB of free disk space
• 128MB of RAM
• graphics card with openGL hardware acceleration activated. Glob2 will still work without openGL by using SDL support, but
  • all players in a net game have to live with the speed of the slowest machine
  • SDL is very CPU intensive and the game will very slowly at any resolution bigger than 640x480 on most machines.

On what platforms does Glob2 run?

Glob2's source code is made to be cross-platform and work on Microsoft Windows [98, NT, 2000 and XP], GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and other Unix platforms.

For more details about how to install Glob2 on the different platforms, have a look at the Install Guide.

What additional software libraries do I need?

This game only needs open source software to run. It can use openGL, but you can use MESA which is an open source implementation of openGL. You only need your operating system basic libraries. Here's a list of some software you need to install from your GNU/Linux distribution (if you recompile from the source code you may additionally need the development packages of these libraries):

• SDL: libsdl
• SDL_net: libsdl_net
• SDL_image: libsdl_image
• SDL_ttf: libsdl_ttf
• Vorbis: libogg and libvorbis
• Speex: libspeex
• Boost: libboost, libboost-devel (and in particular, libboost-thread!)

If you run Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X and downloaded a binary of the official release, then you will probably not need to worry about this as the required libraries are included within the build. If you're compiling from source, Windows users should read the Mingw compiliation guide and Mac users should read the mac compiliation guide.

Where can I get more maps and other resources?

that is installed on our server is quite buggy, but you will experience better results using -->

Please check:

• The Maps Forum
• [1] <- These maps will need converting if you are playing a version higher than 0.8.23 (because it uses a new map headers).

I have downloaded other maps, how do I install them?

Unzip the downloaded maps and place them into the maps folder of your Glob2 data folder (~/.glob2/maps in Unix/Linux and %PROGRAM_FILES%/glob2/maps on Microsoft Windows).

Gaming & Online FAQ

I don't know how to play, where can I learn more about the game?

Since Glob2 is a rather complex game and things sometimes work differently than in other games, it is recommended that you first read the user manual and then play the tutorial to become familiar with the environment. To train yourself you can play a few games against computer controlled teams or if you prefer you can go directly to Ysagoon Online Gaming to play with or against other human players. They might also be able to give you some advice if they play better than you.

What are all those Artificial Intelligence? Why are there so many of them?

Designing Artificial Intelligence [AI] is one of the hardest jobs in Glob2, so we've tried to make it easy (for anyone with good C++ background). There are currently five fully working AIs:

• AINumbi: simplest AI. Useful for testing and relaxing games. Phase-based, not very adaptative, not resource friendly.
• AICastor: good basic AI, useful for standard games. Funny vs 3 AINumbis. Context-based, adaptative, resource friendly. *
• AIReachToInfinity: An economic super power. It will quickly build a big industrial backbone and start converting your units if you don't keep up, but it won't actually attack.
• AINicowar: GenixPro's fine tuned AI of war. This is one lean mean fighting machine and will attempt to destroy you in every way possible. It will not always follow the same steps so good luck trying to predict it's next move.
• AIWarrush: Elvish_Pillager's AI that is built for fast tactical battles. It will throw wave after wave of warriors at you until you manage to defend against it or die.

There are two more experimental AIs as well:

• AINull: designed not to do anything, for scripted maps.
• AIToubib: AI that jdm works on, doesn't do anything yet.

You might also use the AI players for online games, you can make fun games by playing all human players against all AI players (if human players ally together, the AI players will automatically do the same). This is a good way to learn some good strategies from an experienced player.

How do I play online?

You must connect to a server, right now there is only one: the Ysagoon Online Gaming (YOG) server. Currently servers are active for alpha 23, beta 1, and beta 2.

What if I don't have Internet access?

You can still play with/against computer controlled teams or setup your own server on a local area network to play against friends.

Are there any rules when playing online?

• Play fair, no cheating (we've made it just about impossible to cheat, but some people can be very innovative)
• Be nice to other players, don't insult them.
• Have fun!

People always convert my units but I never convert their's. Why?

Unit conversion works like this: When it is hungry, a units goes to the nearest inn it sees (not under fog of war) which has the largest set of fruits (bigger diversity). It will choose diversity over distance, and will ignore full inns. This rule is true whether the concerned inn belongs to you or to your opponent, so if the chosen inn is belongs to an enemy then your unit is converted. You must understand that this is all about the diversity of available fruits in an inn and the visibility of that inn.

So first of all, if you want to avoid your units getting converted, you need a lot of fruits of different kinds in each of your inns. Workers only bring fruits to the inns they work for, though, if the fruit trees are in active vision and not under fog of war (a unit or a building must be just beside it). The best way to achieve this is to build a defense tower next to several different kinds of trees, so they all stay in view.

Then, if you want to convert enemy units, in addition of having more diverse fruits in your inns than your opponent, you need to make sure that his units see your inns. The best (and the only realistic) way to make this happen is to go to the alliance screen, and click on the boxes titled 'fV' next to your opponents' names. That will show all your inns to the selected enemies. Note that once you have done that you will start converting the hungry enemy units, (if you have enough different fruits), but your enemies will also be able to see your inns.

I see people with irc signs in front of their name when connected to YOG, who are they?

When connecting to YOG, you also join our IRC channel where many players hang out. You can join us by joining to irc.globulation2.org and joining the channel #glob2.

When there's nobody online, how do I find players for a multiplayer game?

There are not yet a lot of players in this game yet and when connecting to the Ysagoon Online Gaming [YOG] server it may be empty most of the time . But there's a trick: when connecting to the YOG server, the game also connects you to the IRC #glob2 channel on irc.globulation2.org where always several people are connected. You can chat with them just as you would chat with another person inside of YOG. This is very useful when there is nobody connected to YOG, so you can ask the people on the IRC if they are interested in playing with you. And vice versa: you can join the #glob2 IRC channel if you want to wait for people to connect to YOG but don't want to keep the game running all the time.

Please be patient with the people on the IRC as many people idle in there all day and aren't necessarily active when you join. Your best bet is to hang out for a while as people come and go all the time.

I'm behind a NAT and I can't join or start a game. what can I do?

The latest Beta release uses a new YOG system which is based exclusivly on TCP outgoing connetions. This connection is on port 7486. You may need to adjust firewall settings to open up this port. Also, TCP port 6667 is needed to connect to IRC chat.

I'm behind a NAT with some friends and we are playing Glob2 on the Internet. My friends inside the LAN are have problems joining my game. What can I do?

Check that your computer's broadcast address is set correctly. For instance, if your LAN is 192.168.1.xxx, be sure that broadcast is set to 192.168.1.255. If it is set to something else, such as 192.168.0.255, you will probably have some difficulty connecting to each other.

Also, LAN games internally run a version of the YOG server. This requires that the host allows incoming connections on port 7486. If you do not open this port on your NAT/Firewall, you will experience problems while using Glob2 over LAN.

I'm downloading my latest beloved movie using my favorite p2p, but when I play glob2, it is very slow. Can you fix this? I don't want to stop downloading the movie!

Although Glob2 tries to minimize bandwidth usage for the best performance, P2P clients will often hog all your bandwidth if it can to shorten download time. If you experience problems, such as no YOG connectivity or high lag in game, you can either stop your downloads or put a limit in the software of the bandwidth it uses. Also, Glob2 developers in no way condones the illegal downloading of copyrighted works.

Technical FAQ

What is the maximal size for maps?

In Globulation the maximum map is 512x512; this is quite big. Maybe still not enough for 32 players, but like the number of players this can be improved easily. However, until now there were no games yet played with so many players; the community still has to grow. Maps of this size can run slow even for modern computers, due to the pathfinding algorithms strething their paths to the full maximum.

How many players can Glob2 support?

Glob2 is currently limited to support a maximum of 16 players per a game, but how many it can actually support is entirely dependent on the amount of spawn points the map contains.

Why does Globulation use its own translation system and not gettext?

Even if gettext is "standard" in the free world and has good editors, we don't use it for the following reasons:

• gettext is one more external lib, and may not be provided on other platforms than free Unixes.
• gettext works by modifying the source code, which is bad.
• gettext would become one more tool required on any computer where one wants to develop Globulation.

The design philosophy of Globulation is to use only mandatory external libs, and try to have simple, clean and easily maintainable tools to do the job. It is a similar question as to why we created libgag and didn't use GTK/QT/[add your own toolkit there]. Furthermore, not everyone is using unixes: With the actual system, everyone can update a translation with a simple text editor and without recompilation. Even the Windows end-user can update translations, which is good.

Development FAQ

What is Globulation 2's current development stage?

Glob2 is currently in the beta stages of development. This means that Glob2 is fairly stable but there are still some bugs being worked out and users with newer versions will not be able to play against users with older versions.

I would like to help, where should I start?

• The Community Documentation has links to many useful guides explaining how to help. Also take a look at the links related to Globulation2 in order to see how you can access the whole project and interact with the community.
• If you do little improvements or contributions, please submit the files you changed to the bug tracker and/or send them to the developer's mailing list.
• If you want to dramatically change the game, you can speak about this on IRC or on the developer mailing list.

What do I do when I find a bug?

If you want to submit bug reports, please visit the bug-tracking system on savannah. The first step would be to check if the bug has already been reported by using the search functions. If it is not there please submit a bug report.

We would appreciate it if you could include the following files:

• If you executed glob2 from the console, errors will often times be printed to the console so please include the last lines that were printed on the screen. (as many as you can)
• Then, (in linux/unix, in windows go to your glob2 directory) go to your home directory into =~/.glob2/src=, and delete all =*.log~= files; Now you have files named =your_login=*.log Please keep only files that are dated from "today" with the login you used today, when the crash occurred . You can now compress your log folder and sent it into the report
• If your bug happens to be a network crash, it is extremely helpful if everyone playing submits the log reports they get so the developers can see the whole picture, otherwise debugging it becomes a lot more difficult.

Miscellaneous FAQ

Why is everything in English?

Globulation's official language is English because on the Internet everyone understands English better than any other language. Despite this, the game is translated in 12 languages or more -- you can translate it to your own language easily too (have a look at the translation guide). Translating the documentation is not considered a priority for now, not even a good thing since the documentation is not finished yet and may still change a lot.

I still have a lot of questions, where can I find answers to them?

The project has a forum, two IRC rooms, a development mailing list and many other resources. See Links for more details.