Frequently Asked Questions

About FAQ

What is Globulation?

Globulation 2 is a Real-Time Strategy [RTS] game, which minimizes 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 manage more units and focus on strategies rather than individual units' jobs.

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

What are the objectives of a game in Globulation?

The objective is to wipe out your opponent's population. 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. Then you must make the good strategic choices about what to upgrade and how to attack your opponent. 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 funny. 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.

Why play this game? Is it of any use if I play it?

• First of all playing a game is relaxing and a very good way to think about something else than your daily problems. Stop working and play Globulation, this reduces drastically your stress and make you live longer! :)
• Like most games, especially strategy games, playing enhances your ability to think strategically and to organize yourself.
• But of course since games are so cool, they are also addictive. Don't play more than a few hours a day, and take a break from time to time.
• TODO* Email subscription for Globulation news!

Install FAQ

Is Globulation free or restricted software?

Globulation 2 is Open Source and Free Software, licensed and distributed under the GNU GPL. You can also download it "for no money" from Ysagoon.

This is not just open source software and to redistribute, modify or sell any part of it or any 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?

If you only play alone against the computer, you can choose the version you want. Usually the latest release is the most stable. If you want to play online on YOG, please check the download page for the latest official release, otherwise there might be unsuspected bugs. If you can't wait for an official release to see the latest changes, you can get the Mercurial version from the daily generated Mercurial snapshot. But keep in mind that the Mercurial version might be much less stable and is not meant to be used for online play.

How to get informed about new releases?

The game has not yet released a stable version, but the current alpha releases have already reached a quite stable state and actually work fine (the most bugs happen with multiplayer games). The latest releases can be found on the download page.

What are the minimum system requirements?

• 500mhz processor
• About 40MB 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
  • net games tend to crash more often if slow machines are involved

On what platforms does Globulation run?

Globulation's source code is made to be cross-platform and work on Microsoft Windows [95, 98, ME, NT, 2K, XP], GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and other Unixes. The main system used by most of the developers is GNU/Linux, thus new builds will always be released for this platform first. Then there needs to be contributors that successfully compiled it for the other platforms. So if Globulation's latest build isn't yet available for your system, wait some time or do the build yourself and send us a link to it.

For more details about how to install Globulation on the different platforms, have a look at the InstallGuide.

OK, I installed the game. It will not run at all. What can I do?

Now you can try to launch it typing "glob2" in the terminal in linux or unix. Or by typing "src/glob2" if you did not installed it (only compiled it)

Anyway, it will not always work, so it is suggested that you type "glob2 --help" and read about command lines arguments. Under Linux, try to use -G option if you have problems with dri and glx (OpenGL). You can also specify a resolution and a color depth.

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 and downloaded one of the official release, then you will probably not need to worry about this (the required packages are included with the build). If you are compiling with windows and mingw, then please view the Mingw compiliation guide.

Where do I get more maps and other stuff about Globulation?

Please check:

• The Maps Forum
• [1] <- These maps will need converting if you are playing a Globulation 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 Globulation 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 Globulation is a rather complex game and things sometimes work differently than in other games, it is recommended that you first read the user manual. Then, play the tutorial to become familiar with the enviroment. 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 best jobs in Glob2, so we've tried to make it easy (for anyone with good C++ background). Actually, there are five fully working AI in Globulation:

• AINumbi: simplest AI, but 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, meant to grow its vast worker base quickly. Doesn't fight, but does convert units
• AINicowar: GeniXPro's fine tuned AI of war. Designed to destroy you in anyway possible.
• AIWarrush: Elvish_Pillager's AI that continually builds warriors and throws them at you, built for fast tactical battles.

There are two more experimental AIs as well, which may or may not work:

• 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 the AI (if human players ally together, the AI players will automatically do the same). This is especially useful if a good player and a beginner want to play together but not against each other. This is also a good way to learn the game by having fun if you are a beginner.

How do I play online?

You must connect to a server, right now there is only one: the Ysagoon Online Gaming (YOG) server. If you want to add your own server, contact the Ysagoon team to see if the game is ready for multiple servers. The new YOG server will refuse to let you play if you use an older version of the game, however the older YOG versions allowed you to play against people with different versions.

What if I don't have Internet access?

You can still play with/against computer controlled teams (Artificial Intelligence [AI]). Or if you are several players on your Local Area Network [LAN], you can play against them.

Are there any rules when playing online?

Play fair, do not cheat. And be nice with the other players, no insults or such.

People always convert my units but I never convert theirs. 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 voices when connected to YOG, who are they?

Don't be afraid, your computer isn't haunted yet! These voices come from the IRC #glob2 channel on irc.globulation2.org, you see everything that is said in that channel. You can talk to them by simply typing something and hitting enter.

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 because most of them are connected on it the whole day and just keep running IRC in the background while doing other stuff. They check from time to time the IRC's activity, but it may take something like 10 minutes before someone answers your "hello".

I'm behind a NAT and I can't join or start games, 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 666 is needed to connect to IRC chat.

Although older glob2's had a unique NAT'o'matic technology to transparently reconfigure NAT, some are paranoid and still do not redirect ports. When playing with an older glob2 version, try to manually redirect UDP ports 7007 to 7017 to your internal IP. UDP port 7486 is needed to connect to YOG meta server, and TCP port 6667 to connect to the irc chat.

I'm behind a NAT with some friends and we are playing glob2 on the Internet. My friends inside the LAN 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.X, be sure that broadcast is set to 192.168.1.255. If, for instance, it is wrongly set to 192.168.0.255, most of the game could work but you'll have trouble hosting the game.

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

Glob2 tries to minimize bandwidth usage for the best performance. However, P2P clients often starve ressources for other clients anyhow. If you experience problems, Glob2's traffic isn't coming through, and there isn't anything we can do about that. You must stop using your P2P client, or atleast set bandwidth usage limits, so that Glob2's traffic comes through in a reasnoble amount of time.

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 does Globulation support?

Most proprietary games impose a limit of 6 or 8 players in a game; Well, this game has a higher limit of 32. But 16 players can be configured right now in the offline game. This limit can easily be modified if needed in the future.

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's development stage?

The game is still in alpha development. This means that it may still change a lot and that newer versions may not be compatible with older ones, so please check the download page for the latest official release if you play online. Version 1.0 is coming closer now, so there should be fewer (if any) gameplay changes and more bug fixes.

The right way to submit bug reports.

If you want to submit bug reports, you nead to visit the bug-tracking system on savannah. Now you have two choices:

• Upload all the log files to savannah
• If your files are very big, upload them to the ftp, and only post a link to them in your bug report. See Links about how to use the ftp.

We sugest that you include the folowing files:

• If you executed glob2 from the console, 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
• IT IS RECOMMENDED that if there is a network crash, all players submit the logs and the messages in the console, if not, the debugging is A LOT more difficult.

How can I help the development team or start a new game based on this one?

• The CommunityDocumentationEn? has links to many useful guides explaining how to help. And 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, just connect to the anonymous FTP, where you have write access to upload anything you did, then anounce it on the forum or on the developer mailing list.
• If you want to dramatically change the game, you can speak about this on IRC or on the developer mailing list.
• You are, of course, free to start a new project based on Globulation2, but try to get involved to the community first. It is bad to start too many projects based on the same alpha-stage code, because there might be a lot of work that is done twice. And it is also evident that all derivate work must also be released as free and open source software, under the GNU GPL.

Where are the developers located?

The initial members are all located in Lausanne, Switzerland: nct (programming), nuage (programming), slann (gfx), rama (gfx), barock (additional programming), marvelous (additional programming), diz and AppleBoy (web).
A poll was done on July 2004. At that time a few people from USA, Canada and France were involved too.
But now, we hope people from all around the world will join as the project gets bigger.

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.