Yesterday, visitors to WarLight.net may have seen some phantom chat messages appear in their games. There were ten messages that could have appeared:

• Have you heard about the Nuke Card?
• Have you heard about the Time Travel Card coming in the next update?
• Why did you start in that spot, I would have started on the other side.
• Did you hear that?
• Which do you like more, the nuke or time travel card?
• What is your favorite map?
• Huh, Why not?
• I think green or blue was the one! *wink*
• What are you thinking about right now?
• Another day, another game. How about you?

A message would only appear when a game was first loaded, only 25% of the time, and only if there was not any other pending chat in that game. A random message from the list above was chosen. When a message appeared, it only appeared on your local computer — nobody else could see it, and if you refreshed your browser it would not appear again.

Now that April 1st is over, the phantom messages will no longer appear. All messages you see are real messages that were typed by a person.

Happy April fools!

WarLight has just been updated to version 3.07.0! This update adds the ability to play coin tournaments, as well as overhauls a lot of the existing tournament system.

Coin Tournaments

It’s now possible to create and join tournaments that give coin rewards. Coins, for those who are new to WarLight, are redeemable for cash, so this means that you can make real money from WarLight tournaments! Each coin is worth $0.01 USD, and most tournaments will cost only 6 coins to join (6 cents). This gives opportunities for huge winnings! Winning coins from tournaments also counts towards the coin leaderboard, which can help vault you to even more winnings!

Coin tournaments can be created by players, so this also marks the first time we’re allowing players to choose their own settings for coin play. The only restriction is that you must use pure-skill settings since there cannot be randomness in coin games for legal reasons.

Coin tournaments can be single-elimination or double-elimination. Single-elimination tournaments will give 70% of their reward to first place and 30% to second place. Double-elimination tournaments give 65% of their reward to first place, 28% of their reward to second place, and 7% of their reward to third place.

When creating open tournaments, creators have the choice of three modes to use:

1. Entry fee and prize: In this mode, everyone who joins the tournament is charged an entry fee (usually 6 coins). These tournaments have the largest jackpots. Pure-skill settings must be used.
2. Free with prize: In this mode, anyone can join the tournament for free. Coin prizes are still given out, but they will be smaller than the above type. Pure-skill settings must be used.
3. Free without prize: In this mode, anyone can join the tournament for free, and no prizes are given out. We want all open tournaments to have a coin reward to make them exciting, so we hope this option is not used often. This mode only exists for people who really want to use non-pure-skill settings for some reason, and legally we cannot give a coin reward when non-pure-skill settings are used.

Tournament creators also have an option to create tournaments with even bigger than normal jackpots. They can do this by upping the “coin multiplier setting”. For example, setting the multiplier to 2 causes all coin numbers for that tournament to double. For example, the entry fee goes from 6 to 12 and the jackpots are all doubled as well. This is the only case where tournaments will cost more than 6 coins to enter.

In a team coin tournament, the winnings will be split evenly between all members of that team.

Our goal is for most open tournaments have a coin reward, as tournaments should be exciting events that really get your adrenaline pumping. To facilitate this, the tournament creator puts up part of the reward when creating the tournament. It’s easy to experiment and see what the tournament creation options are, simply visit the Create Tournament page, select Public Tournament and you can drag the sliders around and see how it affects the rewards.

New Tournament UI

The tournament pages have all been re-written from scratch, which brings new features and capabilities. Many improvements have been made, so give it a whirl and let me know what you think! Here’s a brief summary of some of the new features:

• In team tournaments, you can hover over a team’s name to see a list of all the players in that team.
• The new tournament pages are pure html/javascript instead of Flash. This means the pages load faster, they’re accessible from your mobile devices through your browser app, you can do things like right-click on a link and select “Open in new tab”, allow Ctrl+F for searching, and copy/paste by selecting works.
• In Round Robin tournaments, the line that connects two players will be shaded green on the winner’s side and red on the loser’s. This makes it easy to see if someone has been winning or losing a lot by how much green/red is near them.
• The Players tab shows how many wins and losses each player has, even for in-progress tournaments.
• When inviting players to a tournament, you can search for people by name, even if they’re not on your friends list. It also allows you to invite based on clan.

Real-time Tournaments

Prior to this update, it was very difficult to get a real-time tournament off the ground. This is a shame, since there are a lots of players who love playing real-time games.

With this update, real-time tournaments are now scheduled for a specific day and time when they are created. They will automatically start at that time if enough players have joined. If not enough players have joined, the tournament will wait 30 minutes to see if enough players join. If 30 minutes pass and the tournament still is not full, it will be cancelled. If a coin tournament is cancelled, any entry fees paid by people who joined it will be refunded.

Misc Changes

– “Fast” for multi-day games now means 25 hours instead of 24. This allows people who play around the same time every day to participate in these games.

I’ve been working on updating the Tournaments section of WarLight. Here’s a sneak peek at a prototype of a single-elimination tournament page:

Here are a few of the highlights:

• The borders you see in this screenshot are resizable, or can be clicked to be collapsed completely. This is a way to give more space for the tournament bracket when you need it, and it’s far more flexible than the current “hide players list” button.
• Clan tags are now shown next to players, and players link to their profile pages
• In team tournaments, you can hover over a team’s name to see a list of all the players in that team
• The page is coded entirely in html/javascript (no Flash). This means you can do things like right-click on a link and select “Open in new tab”, which isn’t possible today. It also means the page will load faster, allow Ctrl+F for searching, copy/paste by selecting, etc.
• In Round Robin tournaments, the line that connects two players will be shaded green on the winner’s side and red on the loser’s. This makes it easy to see if someone has been winning or losing a lot by how much green/red is near them
• The Players tab shows how many wins and losses each player has, even for in-progress tournaments. This makes it easier to see how a tournament is going while it’s in progress, especially round-robins.
• When inviting players to a tournament, you can search for people by name, even if they’re not on your friends list. It also allows you to invite based on clan.

What do you think?

Thanks to everyone who submitted logos to the Logo Design Contest! But it’s come time for us to pick just one to be the winner.

Congratulations to evilfairy for winning with this logo:

Are you an experienced graphic / UI / UX designer that plays WarLight? We’re looking for a professional designer for some paid contract work.

If you might be interested, please e-mail your portfolio and resume to fizzer@warlight.net. Thanks!

Congratulations to Krzychu for winning the first ever season of the coin leaderboard and taking home the $150 prize!

Nine other players also received prizes. You can view all of the winners (and losers) on the Season One page.

For season 2, we are expanding the prizes to encompass the top 20 players instead of the top 10. This means there will be twice as many winners! The new prize structure for season 2 looks like this:

• 1st place: 15,000 coins ($150)
• 2nd place: 4,000 coins
• 3rd place: 2,500 coins
• 4th place: 1,500 coins
• 5th place: 1,000 coins
• 6th place: 450 coins
• 7th place: 425 coins
• 8th place: 400 coins
• 9th place: 375 coins
• 10th place: 350 coins
• 11th place: 325 coins
• 12th place: 300 coins
• 13th place: 275 coins
• 14th place: 250 coins
• 15th place: 225 coins
• 16th place: 200 coins
• 17th place: 175 coins
• 18th place: 150 coins
• 19th place: 125 coins
• 20th place: 100 coins

Seeason 2 is already underway — all coin games played now will automatically be added to season 2. You just need to win 300 coins to qualify for a rank on the leaderboard. Good luck!

NOTE: Due to a technical limitation, the prizes that appear on the website for season 2 are currently showing the old season 1 prizes. However, this is a bug, and the prizes for season 2 will actually be what are listed above. This will be corrected in the next website update.

The first season of the coin leaderboard is almost over! For the final 24 hours of the season, the leaderboard is dark, meaning that the coins won by each player are hidden from view. Instead, it simply shows the number of coins that player won when the leaderboard went dark.

Once the season is over, the real values will be revealed to everyone, and the prizes will be awarded immediately.

Also during the final 24 hours, real-time versions of the 1990, 4950, and 9900 coin games are now be available! These games are normally only available as multi-day, but for the final 24 hours of the season they can be played real-time. Just a few wins of the big game might be enough to take first place! Good luck!

WarLight has just been updated to version 3.06.0! This blog post describes what’s changed.

Jump to top/bottom order buttons

When moving orders up/down in the order list, there are two new buttons that allow moving orders directly to the very top or bottom of the list:

Clicking the double up or double down arrow buttons is equivalent to clicking the up or down arrow buttons an infinite number of times. This saves a lot of time in games where you have lots of orders, as it could be time consuming to move orders up one at a time.

Order List Multi-Select

This is not a new feature, but as long as we’re talking about re-arranging your orders in the orders list, I thought I’d highlight a feature that a lot of people don’t know exist: The orders list allows you to select multiple orders at a time. When building your turn, this is useful to delete or visualize many orders at once, and it can also make moving orders around easier.

To do this, simply hold the Control key down and click on multiple orders. You’ll notice they all become highlighted, both in the orders list and on the map. This makes it easy to visualize them all at once on the map.

If you want to select many orders in a row, select the top order and hold Shift when clicking the lower order.

While multiple orders are selected, you can delete them all with the X, or move them up/down as a group.

Clan Forum Preview

If you’re in a clan, you’ll notice that there’s a new section on the multi-player dashboard that shows recent forum posts in your clan forum. This makes it easier to keep track of your clan’s forum without having to open its page manually.

Other Changes

– When the website home page is accessed from an Android device, it now gives a link directly to the app.
– Viewing a teammates orders before clicking Begin in a no-luck cyclic game no longer produces an error message.

WarLight has just been updated to version 3.05.0! This update brings improvements to coin games, adds an alternate colors feature, and other improvements. This post will explain everything that changed.

Coin Leaderboard

WarLight now has a leaderboard that keeps track of who wins the most at coin games. Best of all, the leaderboard awards prizes to the top ten participants every three weeks:

• 1st place: 15,000 coins ($150)
• 2nd place: 7,000 coins ($70)
• 3rd place: 2,500 coins ($25)
• 4th place: 1,500 coins ($15)
• 5th place: 1,300 coins ($13)
• 6th place: 1,000 coins ($10)
• 7th place: 1,000 coins ($10)
• 8th place: 500 coins ($5)
• 9th place: 500 coins ($5)
• 10th place: 500 coins ($5)

Every three weeks, the leaderboard pays out these prizes, and then resets so that everyone has an equal chance at winning the next set of prizes. These prizes create a huge opportunity for players to earn even more money from coin games.

It’s important to understand that the leaderboard only tracks how many coins each player wins from coin games. It is not affected by losses. Therefore, it doesn’t really show how many coins each player has.

At any time, you can visit the leaderboard page to see who is winning. However, the final 24 hours before prizes are given out, the ratings are hidden. This creates suspense so you don’t know who’s going to win until the final second. While hidden, the leaderboard will simply show how many coins each player won when they were first hidden, and no longer update.

Alternate Colors

On the Change Color page, you can now set an alternate color in addition to your primary color. After you set an alternate color, if you attempt to join a game where your primary color is taken by another player, the game will simply automatically use your alternate color. If neither color is available, you’ll be prompted to pick as you are now.

Map of the week auto game

There’s a new auto game available in the Open Games section that will always be played on the current map of the week! Auto games are games created by website, instead of by a player, so they’re always available under the Open Games section.

The new auto game is an FFA available both in real-time and multi-day variants. This replaces the double earth auto game.

Other Changes

– The four castles 4-player FFA coin game no longer hides the names of players in the lobby.
– The high-stakes coin games are now multi-day instead of real-time. If you are interested in playing a high-stakes games, you can simply join and then wait for the e-mail telling you that an opponent has joined.
– When using no-luck cyclic move order, the speed that each player commits is no longer shown in the players panel until after the first turn.
– When using no-luck cyclic move order, it is no longer possible for spectators to see the map distribution until after the first turn. Additionally, the thumbnail that appears in the My Games section is no longer generated until after the first turn.
– When using no-luck cyclic move order in a team game, the collective speed of the team is now the slowest player on that team instead of the average speed of the team.
– When using no-luck cyclic move order, the “You will get x-th order” indicator no longer includes players who are out of the game.
– The Past Game page simply hides the boot time on archived games, instead of stating incorrectly that they were 0-minute boot.
– Adjusted coin deposit options.
– Fixed a bug that caused the “Recall last game” and “Recall last tournament” buttons to be mis-placed.

Congrats to Gol D. Roger for winning Season XVII!

Season XVIII will be played on the Snow Mountains map:

You can check out the template using these links: Single-player, multi-player.

The season begins on Friday (click the link to see the exact start time in your own timezone, or a countdown).

Good luck!