Show HN: Browser grand strategy game for hundreds of players on huge maps (borderhold.io)
Hi HN,
I've been building a browser-based multiplayer strategy game called Borderhold.
Matches run on large maps designed for hundreds of players. Players expand territory, attack neighbors, and adapt as borders shift across the map. You can put buildings down, build ships, and launch nukes.
The main thing I wanted to explore was scale: most strategy games are small matches, modest maps, or modest player counts, but here maps are large and game works well with hundreds of players.
Matches are relatively short so you can jump in and see a full game play out.
Curious what people think.
Gameplay:
Discord:
33 comments
[ 2.2 ms ] story [ 106 ms ] threadMost interactions are event-driven and the map state updates incrementally, which keeps things manageable even when many borders are shifting at once.
I've successfully tested this with 4096^2 maps and 1024 players and in those tests framerates were stable at 144 FPS, with the server ticking steadily at the standard 10 TPS.
It is built on Rust and Bevy. I'm happy to answer any questions.
In my tests core game loop handles 1024 bots without issues, often running 5-20x of realtime.
Maybe that experience can be improved.
I'm playing on a 144Hz monitor, but the game is struggling to hit over 80 FPS.
I keep getting errors which display in the bottom right of the screen, such as "tick" (tick failed, ZeroInvestment) errors and WebSocket receive errors.
I started a custom game and "things" are just happening super quickly. All I can seemingly do is right click some stuff and do some actions.
There is almost no feedback on the few actions you can do. Nothing much to observe. I don't even know where "I" am on the map.
Sorry but this isn't a game yet. There's no compelling core gameplay loop, too little explanation, and wayyyy too many bugs.
I also use a 144Hz monitor and the framerate is often rock solid at the top. The problem is with browsers and battery powered devices. Chrome often locks up the game at 30, 60, or 120 FPS randomly, on battery or AC. I still haven't figured that one out.
I'm fixing some of those errors up right now. The problem is that I don't have a regular play testing base and for some players that do play it they're based relatively close to the server. I assume many issues reported here are from the US based folks, and I'm in Europe.
Thanks once again, I'll use this to improve it!
About what? The game itself is mildly interesting as some sort of blockchain mega-Risk variant, but without any sort of story about how you came up with the idea, or how you coded it, or a link to your source code, or etc etc etc this seems primarily meaningless/irrelevant here at Hacker News. I see your comment asking us to propose questions that you answer — but where are your own stories, that aren't just replies to the prompts you want us to present you with?
> You agree not to[:] reverse engineer or attempt to extract protected service logic except where the law clearly permits it
Talk about failing to understand your target audience.
The game doesn't really force any blockchain usage on you, but it will be optional in the future to play matches where you can win money.
Also, those terms were more or less vibed into existence so bear with me as I refine them into something solid in the near future.
Thank you for the feedback.
[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ckqSFbwplvY
https://openfront.io/
It's fine if it's just a fan-clone, but you really need to be explicit about where the idea (and code) came from if that's what you've done.
To clarify: I was pretty torn when I had seen the video of your project; I hadn't played a round because of the queue. I was sitting there and thinking, "Well, if you have the idea of spreading between areas over a top-down static map, and you want any kind of modern weaponry in it...how do you not end up looking like OpenFront or some variation of 4x games?" I think the answer is essentially that...you don't. It's just kind of how it ends up looking.
I think I was a little bit more suspicious of your project in particular because the UI layout looks/looked exceptionally close to OpenFront's. But again, it's kind of a standard expectation thing. "Where should we put chat? Well, probably off to one side. Where do you put notifications? In that same area, I guess?" Etc. There's a natural progression of similarities.
Basically, I was wavering a bit, but jumped the gun because I was angry about things that had nothing to do with you or your work. I am sorry about that! I hope your project does well.
a Civ 7...
where you can play with 100 people, in a way that's playable, somehow.
Yea, not really thought out but if anyone could make it awesome, it'd be them and I'd love to beta/alpha test it.
If any Civ 7 dev is reading this, my email is in my profile.
(yea I know, a crazy long shot, lol :') I'm doing it for the hype)
I'd recommend reading some US Navy [0][1][2], Marines [3], and NATO [4] literature on how to better create tactical and grand strategy war games.
Lots of wargaming and intel analyst vets ended up in the boardgame publishing world.
[0] - https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1001766.pdf
[1] - https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/publi...
[2] - https://www.cna.org/reports/2004/Transforming-Naval-Wargamin...
[3] - https://www.usmcu.edu/Portals/218/Forging%20Wargamers_web.pd...
[4] - https://paxsims.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/nat...
Can't enter a game, kicks me out of queue.
Doesn't seem like you played your own game before submitting it.