Game Parameter Suggestions

[selfwettingnewbie]

Hello all,

after lurking in front of the RSW homepage for a long time, I decided to register and play around with the the interface a bit. I also took over a hopeless position in a speciality game to get a grasp with the turn tool.

First of, David, You did a great job with the game, the user interface, and the gaming tool. Also, I like the fact the the community is still small. I have some suggestions and questions which came to my mind in the last 15 minutes, and I would like to share them with You

1) I would like to suggest the addition of randomness to the end of game parameter "number of turns". I find it quite nice not to know whether the game ends precisely, but still having a rough guess that it must be around turn x(+y).

2) Another nice addition to the game creation procedure could be a game comments / game announcement field, where the author of the game could state his intentions about the parameters in a short abstract.

3) Are multiple movements of fleets and different fleet key types (see also, StarCon) going to be implemented? Also, what is about the other gadjets (i.e. artifact1 + artifact2 = artifact3 or special ship)?

4) What about a distinction in the definition of general game goals ( i.e. reach score X ) and player dependent game goals (i.e. get all artifacts of type B, eliminate all players of type X)? Is it possible to intergrate such game parameters into the game setup procedure?

Regards,

Piotr

[drwr]

Hi, Piotr, welcome!

1) I would like to suggest the addition of randomness to the end of game parameter "number of turns". I find it quite nice not to know whether the game ends precisely, but still having a rough guess that it must be around turn x(+y).

Seems like a fine addition; I'll put it on the list. Note also, though, that the default end-of-game behavior does achieve this randomness with a random score target. I can see how you might like to have a random turn target instead, though.

2) Another nice addition to the game creation procedure could be a game comments / game announcement field, where the author of the game could state his intentions about the parameters in a short abstract.

This option is already available, after you have created the game.

3) Are multiple movements of fleets and different fleet key types (see also, StarCon) going to be implemented? Also, what is about the other gadjets (i.e. artifact1 + artifact2 = artifact3 or special ship)?

Features like this will be implemented in a new game type, since this fairly radically changes the mechanics of the game. I've been working on the next-level game type in my spare time.

4) What about a distinction in the definition of general game goals ( i.e. reach score X ) and player dependent game goals (i.e. get all artifacts of type B, eliminate all players of type X)? Is it possible to intergrate such game parameters into the game setup procedure?

Traditionally, player-dependent game goals are implemented via scoring; e.g. you get a big scoring bonus for having all artifacts of type B. This kind of implementation allows for a considerable degree of flexibility in game design. Explicit goals of the form "the game ends and you win when you get all artifacts of type B" are theoretically possible, but not part of any current design.

My long-term goal is to provide a framework in which users can contribute their own custom game rules and designs via Python code. This goal is not terribly near to hand right now--there are several problems that need to be solved before this will be possible--but the current customizable parameter set represents the first step towards that bigger goal.

David