game news&info

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OGame is a space-themed management-type online browser game with over two million gaming accounts worldwide. The English version of OGame can be found on ogame.org.

Each player starts with one randomly assigned planet, building from that one planet, he/she later has the option to keep on developing that planet or to expand his/her colony to include up to 9 planets. All constructions, researches, and missions are performed and launched from a planet or moon.

Buildings are used for gathering resources (Mines), for energy (Solar Plant, Fusion Reactor), for storage (Metal Storage, Crystal Storage, Deuterium Tank and Missile Silo), for building fleets and defenses (Shipyard), for research (Research Lab) and for shortening the time buildings, ships and defenses take to construct (Robotic Factory and Nanite Factory).

OGame is mainly known for being a combat game, so a fleet is of the utmost importance. Players with large fleets can attack other players in the game to either capture their resources or to destroy their fleets and/or defense.

Defenses are built to oppose an enemy fleet attacking one's planet. During an attack, all defensive units on the planet are functional and combine to attempt to destroy the attacker.

Kovan's OGBot

- Now which planet will be attacked next is determined by a resource simulator that sorts target planets by quantity of potentially produced resources since last attack, and also taking distance into account.
- Possibility to choose which planet or planets are source of attacks. Moons are also allowed.
- Multi-language support. By now Spanish, English and Italian are included with the bot. To add one language just put the .ini file in the languages directory. Non-occidental languages should work also.
- Command line switch to have different configuration sets at once (example: --workdir uni18).
- Increases number of sent espionage probes until defense or buildings information is achieved.
- Redesigned user interface.
Kovans OGBot, Kovans OGBot 2

OgameAnalizer Bot

Most of the time, when starting in a new uni, it can be a tedious process to develop planets from zero. Unless you want to become a farm from the very beginning, you have to be online the entire time for the first couple of days. This is where OgameAnalizer steps in: it will build and research in your predefined order.
The tool consists of both web interface, which you can access with any browser and a client software, which is optional. After setting a few options, such as time to check status, and of course your username and password, the bot is ready to run. The most important feature, in my opinion, is auto fleet save and resource save, on either inactive planets, or debris fields.
OgameAnalizer is also integrated with Galaxy Tool and Ostat.org.
The author, Jeff, plans on making the bot to work with OgameClient only. Currently, the client can only view galaxy, events, fleet, and autospy. Although this bot is not completely translated to english, it can be on request. In the future, auto-save and auto-attack with battle simulation are planned.
There are several other features, you can read more about it on OgameAnalizer website. For those who don't understand russian, you can translate the page with Babelfish.
As far as I know, there are no known bugs. I tested it on ogame.org and it worked - at least for the building part. I didn't get to any ships to see how auto fleet save and other features work.
The bot has a price though. It will cost you $50, and a recurring payment of $10 every month, payable with WebMoney (for other payment options you should contact Jeff). You can also request a 2 week trial for $5.
Jeff used to be #1 in one universe; he is using the bot for a year now and he's still not banned - so I guess OgameAnalizer is worth the price - but that is entirely up to you to decide.

OGame Bot

Although I got this bot a couple of weeks ago, it was released to public today.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get this to work, mostly because I don't understand any french. And to be honest I didn't bother much either. I'm looking forward to the day when I will find a bot translated to english.
Anyway, I'll just list some features of this OGame bot:

* exporting galaxy map to OGSpy/Galaxytool
* usage of proxy servers
* emulation of human behaviour (mmm...)
* auto fleet rescue (fleet save)
* alarm when attacked (sound, external applications, url's ...)

OGAL - OGame Alarm

OGAL is a OGame alarm tool which can send SMS messages when you are under attack.
It's damn usefull, but unfortunately only to polish UNI6 users. The author stopped developing the tool some time ago so there's little chance for the tool to support other languages and universes. I've e-mailed the author to see if he plans on adding new features, when and if I receive a reply it will be updated here.
(old download link removed)
I don't think a tool like this is hard to make, but then again I know almost nothing about programming. If some of you folks have the skills and some time to spare, this might be a nice idea for your next project.

Update:

After talking to the author, it has come to my attention that this tool is still under development, although not on Sourceforge, but on this polish Ogame forum.
You can download the latest version of OGAL and read more about it in this topic (most of you, including me won't understand much due to polish language). You also need to download a patch for OGAL in order for it to work.
The author claims it works for all world universes now, although I am unable to confirm that since my account on .org is only a few hours old :). I'll take his word for it.
It seems there are various options included in this version, including a feature that can launch external applications, for sending SMS messages or e-mails.
All in all, the tool looks awesome, although there is room for improvement.
I'm not sure if it can be traced or not, perhaps the author wishes to post a comment here to clarify that. Perhaps it should 'check' your account in random, customizable intervals, say every 2-5 minutes - I can't find that information.
The only thing I can't forgive is the lack of english translation and documentation. Hopefully that will be added soon.

OGame Multiaccounts & Proxy servers

So, lets start with the basics of 'privacy'.
Admins (GO's or game operators, or game admins, take a pick) can connect your in-game account with your forum account - not just with IP, but also with cookies. Most users don't ever bother deleting cookies, even if they do know about them.
If you're using Firefox, you can delete them by going to Tools > Options > Privacy > Cookies, and press the Clear cookies now button. In Internet Explorer: Tools > Internet Options > Delete cookies button. For Opera users, Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Cookies > Manage cookies.

Next step is hiding your IP address so your multiaccount can't be tracked. You can view your IP adress on this page.
Usually, reconnecting or reseting your modem does the trick, but if your ISP is always providing you with a static IP that won't work. Sure, you can play with more account on the same IP address, but you want to 'play it safe'.
What you need in that case - or in case you don't want to reconnect all the time like me - is a proxy server.

From wikipedia:
A proxy server is a computer that offers a computer network service to allow clients to make indirect network connections to other network services. A client connects to the proxy server, then requests a connection, file, or other resource available on a different server. The proxy provides the resource either by connecting to the specified server or by serving it from a cache.

I hope you understand now what a proxy server is, cause I'm not explaining it further. What you need to know is how to set up your browser to connect to one.
So, let's say you're using Firefox to surf websites, play Ogame, watch porn etc. You can set up IE or Opera to connect through a proxy server. Why use two browsers you might ask - well, you can then be logged in with two accounts, with different IP adresses and cookies. If a certain site, in this case Ogame, sets up a cookie in Firefox, that cookie won't be seen (shared) with IE or Opera or other browsers. It saves you the trouble of deleting your cookies all the time, and there's no way admins can connect both of your accounts.
Just don't do the obvious: don't send resources to your main account (usually higher ranked), that's pushing. But you can set up colonies in your system and farm your multi when needed. Just play like a noob and you'll be ok :)
Just imagine the possibilities: your system can be full with your multiaccount's colonies - nobody can 'move in' to recycle you, and the best part is, you can farm yourself as much as you want to. If there's still free colony spots, just make another multi :D

Ok, now the tech part, setting up your browser to connect through a proxy server.
It's fairly simple, I'll explain how to do it in Opera. If you want to use some other browser for your multiaccount, just digg a bit in options.
In Opera, go to Tools > Preferences, select Advanced tab, find Network and click on Proxy servers button. Check HTTP checkbox, and input your favorite proxy server's IP address and port. Leave the rest empty it's not important, unless you know what you're doing.
If you don't have a favorite proxy server, you can do a Google search and you will find lists with plenty of them. Some might not work but it won't take long to find one. If you're really having trouble finding one, you can check this list of proxy servers.
After you set it up, don't forget to check your IP address again just to make sure everything is allright.
And, one more thing to mention - don't login to your forum account from both browsers.

Greasemonkey

Greasemonkey, also known as grees@ is yet another usefull Firefox extension.
Here's a description from official Greasemonkey site:

Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension which lets you to add bits of DHTML ("user scripts") to any web page to change its behavior. In much the same way that user CSS lets you take control of a web page's style, user scripts let you easily control any aspect of a web page's design or interaction.

You can install Greasemonkey from this page!

What we are interested here is, how can it improve your Ogaming.
Most common uses (scripts) are:

* Directly send recycler, spy a planet or moon from galaxy
* Removes commander ad, and other ads
* Removes Commander info from left menu
* Show colored alliances in galaxy panel, variable size of debris field icon, adds arrival time to flights overview...

You can download Ogame scripts for Greasemonkey and install them just few clicks. No need to pay for Commander anymore.
If you're a bit advanced user, you can make a custom script yourself and add even more functionality. Diveintogreasemonkey.org can help you with the first steps.

I am unsure whether Greasemonkey is legal or not, you should contact GO's in your universe and ask. But even if it's not legal, there is no way you can be tracked if you use it.

Foxgame

Foxgame is a free Firefox extension, and surprisingly, it's legal.

Features:

* Automatic universe selector in login page.
* Reduced galaxy view
* Extra delete options and spy report options: You can control messages from the top or the bottom.
* Fleet arrival and return time: In fleet destiny selection page you will see the time when you fleet will arrive and come back to your planet.
* Fleet retreat time: In fleet page you will see the time when your fleet will arrive if you order to come back.
* Multilanguage support
* Almost all finishing hours: Research and buildings finishing hours, hangar's qeue finishing time, you can see date/time in overview if you wish and even in phalanx.
* Highlight ally and private messages: Ally and private messages now have a diferent background to see them easily.
* Highlight big debris fields: Debris fields bigger than you fix min will have different background in galaxy view.
* Autochoose mision type: You can define mission priorities so FoxGame will select the mission according to that.
* Online DBs integration: Send reports to Milos (only ogame.com.es), EspRep and GalaxieTool directly within OGame (solar systems, stats and spy reports supported).
* In mines and power plants info screens (the ones you see when you click in the name) you will see the diferences between your actual level and the rest.
* Autoselect fleet destination: Select coord text anywhere go to fleet send screen and Voila! the destination is already selected. There is no need to take down numbers anymore.
* Private message signatures.

I find it incredibly usefull, as it will save you a bunch of time. You can install Foxgame and see for yourself.