[Eom-users] Fwd: [Eom-developers] Discussion on the outstanding TODO items:

[Frank R. <cra...@gm...>]

----- Forwarded message from Gareth Noyce <gar...@uk...> -----
+ replies by me marked with {...}

Ok, this should probably go to the users list, but I've not subscribed
yet... I also don't know how many of you have read the manual either so...

{so here it is on the user list}

In manual order:

{...}

-- &TODO; Decide whether a destroyed home castle ends the game

I don't actually think it should, purely as I think it'll be funny to see
the panic on a players face when they realise they better leg it, find some
cover and think of some bloody good way to fight back.

I can see the argument for and against tho, however, I think it'll force the
players to stay pretty close to their home castle if it's destruction
immediately ends the game -- this would limit things and make the strategy
more defensive, not really what we want for all elements... [It's pretty
obvious castle destruction will mean the *imminent* end of the game
regardless, so I don't think we need to force the issue...]

One thing that appeals: certain elements could be reliant on their castle,
so therefore it's destruction *could* mean the end of the game for them,
which would lead to some interesting strategy changes amoungst the different
elements. Some being defensive, some being agressive...

For the record tho: I'm opposed to castle destruction being game-over for
all elements...

{comes down to my opinion. I thought of the castle as a big mana resource
that will hurt if you lose it (forcing you to act in some way?). Of course
once a castle falls this pretty much means an enemy will gain most parts
of the map and get the supremacy.. might take *a lot* of efforts to win
the game then}

BTW, castle destruction should also give some *nice* experience benefits to
the player that wiped it off the map...

{hm.. this seems to have a more serious impact as it would mean a player will
get 2 EP for defeating the enemy by first defeating the castle and after that
the easy-to-kill magician.. I can't say I really like the idea}

-- &TODO; Decide about renaming characters

Seems like we follow the lead of IRC and let them provide two or three
alternatives so they don't get bounced right back to the front character
select screen when they try to connect to a nick-filled server...?

{So you create your character and that strange game wants you to give it
two names? What kind of RPG is that :).. dunno if players would like that?}

-- &TODO; Password authenticated games?

Dunno. How paranoid are we?

{How paranoid are the players? The EoM server is certainly not going to live up
to something like battle.net of course.. but on bigger LANs (student houses?)
there might be a reason for it?}

-- &TODO; more options?

Probably, but we don't need to worry about that for a while...

-- &TODO; more controls?

Erm, I'll stick my neck out here and say "NO!" (as a point of principal,
nothing more)

The challenge is to provide the functionality we want in as few controls as
possible. Keep it simple, *please* don't make it one of those "400 control"
type games -- it doesn't provide any massive improvement to the game
experience, and it's a right pain in the arse for beginners. Advanced
controls shouldn't really provide a massive advantage to more experienced
players either... Keep it balanced, keep it simple, and make it fluid...
That's what being a game designer is all about isn't it?! :-P

{heh.. sure! That question was more like 'did I miss anything in the manual?' :}

-- &TODO; Decide on common commands

Indeed. That's a separate discussion altogether tho... We'll need to hit
these one at a time.

-- &TODO; More options for buildings?

Depends on the building, and even then I think it'll be an "Advanced"
building thing, and not something that's generic across all buildings...
Depends what we design/come up with I guess, so the discussion is a bit moot
at this point...

-- &TODO; mouse movement controlled spells?

I want it, (I'd love it!) but I appreciate the difficulty in implementation.
It does solve all our control problems tho. There's massive scope for use of
the expressive interface, however, I seriously doubt we'll ever get this
done, so we'll need to think about the traditional interfaces pretty hard.

{I still wouldn't know how to properly use it. There is only a certain small
amount of possible "spell moves" we could be using (using more would mean
erroneous spells from time to time) and it's hard to say we're only applying
it to certain spells ruling others out. It's also kinda overkilling it when
the user can apply spells to mouse movements imho}

-- &TODO; Play the game often enough to actually find some working
strategies

Blimey! Calm down man! You'll be asking us to playtest it next! ;-P

{Except that you wouldn't get any work done.. what's the bad point about it? :}
{...}
----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Raiser, Frank aka CrashChaos
IRC: irc.openprojects.net #pygame

It's a metaphor of human bloody existence, a dragon. And if that wasn't bad
enough, it's also a bloody great hot flying thing.
        -- Captain Vimes ponders his problems
           (Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!)