Re: Saving Games in Xconq

[Stan Shebs <shebs at cygnus dot com>]

   Date: Fri, 12 Nov 1999 01:15:36 +0100
   From: Hans Ronne <hronne@pp.sbbs.se>

   On Wed, Nov 10, 1999 at 08:59:15PM -0800, Stan Shebs wrote:
   > So that suggests to me that Xconq should switch to the document model,
   > where you can casually save as many times as you like, and you can
   > save to different filenames at any time also.

   I agree. Of course, I'm biased since this is how it already works on the
   mac. In fact, I didn't realize that the inability to do so under unix was a
   deliberate feature :-).

The Unix interface (at least this part of it) is from the 80s, the Mac
interface is from the 90s...

   I think the ability to save an interesting game at a given point and replay
   it more than once (which you can do on the mac) is really important. Not
   because you want to cheat, but because it's fun to try out different
   strategies and see how they work.

That's very true.

   As for the scores file, I wouldn't worry about it since I never look at it.
   Never cared much about the Civ Hall of Fame, either. Too easy to cheat in
   too many ways. Also, as Bruno pointed out, getting a high score is not why
   you play xconq. I think scores files are more suitable for network games
   that rank human players and where the file is cheat proof, i. e. kept on a
   server.

To use nethack as an example, since I used to play it a lot, I found the
score listing motivating me to start another game right away, so I could
try to do better.  In an environment with lots of other players, the
shared scores are good for conversation ("heh-heh, I saw that your last
game ended when you tried to mess with a shopkeeper").

But it's true that Xconq's rewards are less about the result than about
the experience of playing.

								Stan