Re: Game customization

[Bruno Boettcher <bboett at erm1 dot u-strasbg dot fr>]

> If complete freedom for the player to customize these options is not
> desirable, should one at least make it possible to turn off world-seen in
> more games? I'm talking about games like Flattops, Roman Civil War and
> several ww2 games, where you are now forced to see the whole map. I think
> that these games are  more fun if you hack them so that the world is not
> visible, but this may be a matter of taste.
i agree with you on that one...

> We also discussed other forms of customization, some of which don't even
> exist yet. Right now, I am working on giving the independent side a brain,
> so that these units also can move around and take part in the game. An
> important question is how smart the independent side should be. Should it
> be able to build, do research and at least some strategic planning, or
> should it just restrict itself to defending its own units when attacked? My
> feeling is that this may vary from game to game, and also that different
> players may have different preferences. I would therefore like to put some
> customization in the setup dialog for the independent side.
definitely positive on that, as sayd Keir, independent is only another form of
opponent, a more passive one, that stays in its country but developing it as
any other do.... i do even propose that it sends out patrol units along its
limits as soon as any opponnet shows on some fronteer....

> I'm also working on making the population code in ane.g, where cities can
> grow in size and thus become more powerful, available to other games. The
> question then arises if this code should be on by default (which would have
> profound effects in some existing games) or off (which wouldn't change
> anything in existing games). Again, I feel that customization during setup
> could be a good solution. This would make the new features available in
> existing games, but would not force players to use them against their will.
> As I see it, this could be a good strategy for handling other new features
> as well.
yep, i really would like this to be part of a central customization, beeing
able to add this (from me long asked feature) to the desired games without
needing to tweak the game-file definiitons.

> However, too much customization could be confusing, particularly to the
> newbie. Would it be a solution to hide some of this stuff in a separate
> dialog that is accessed by a "Customize" button, as in Civ I? Or would that
> be even more confusing? Is it perhaps better to have all customization in
> one place, even if it gets crowded? Or in an avalanche of dialogs that
> follow each other, like in Civ II? And should one consider making some of
> these options preferences that can be saved from game to game, in order to
> facilitate the startup procedure?
i am in favor of a hierarchical structuration of the  dialogs, crowded dialogs
a far to user unfriendly in my eyes


-- 
ciao bboett
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http://inforezo.u-strasbg.fr/~bboett http://erm1.u-strasbg.fr/~bboett
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