Questions about the game?
 

Hi all, welcome to the Coliseum forum!

Any questions you may have about the game should be placed here.

Also, see the Wargamer.com preview for a very early look at the game (the screens have changed somewhat cosmetically, but the gist is the same).
Use the link in my signature.

Thanks!

Re: Questions about the game?
 

Saw the press release this morning, read the description and went ahead and ordered it. Now, from what I can gather, it's mostly a text game? Are there any graphics or cut scenes? Not that it matters. It does sound like a great game.

Re: Questions about the game?
 

Ok, now this sounds like a really interesting concept for a game. Any sort of multiplayer functionality? I am thinking something like this could be very interesting as an Online multiplayer game. You could have leagues, tournaments, etc. We train our gladiators or whatever in between matches and then go Online and throw them up against the other players best guys. I could see fansites springing up where people could host tournaments, just as smaller cities in the Roman empire might have a small coliseum. But everyone's goal would be to have your guys win in a match at Rome, maybe the official Coliseum website or something. Playing against other players would also make trading your gladiators more interesting.

Anyway, even as single player I can see this being a really cool game, but as Multiplayer it could be something really special.

Geoschmo

Re: Questions about the game?
 

gregebowman: Thank you very much for placing your pre-order!

It has some (very nice) background graphics and the like (similar style to Trader 2, another game of mine here, if you've tried it). No cut scenes, no. Typically those are watched once and skipped past anyway, by most people I know. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Thanks for the comments! I certainly hope people will consider it a fun and cool game.

Re: Questions about the game?
 

geoschmo: You read my mind (in a way)! At some point, I plan on having a contest where people send in their best records as a manager (using a screenshot at first, and maybe some built in Online function later on) or their warrior with the best overall record for some type of contest held by me.

Total MP functionality probably won't be included with this release, but may be considered in a patch later on. Right now the game is mainly tuned for SP; as are most of my games, if you've tried them.

I certainly hope you consider trying out the game or pre-ordering it to get in on the fun! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Questions about the game?
 

I came across this game on the Wargamer website.

This game really does look exceptional.

Is there an estimated date of release?

Thanks, and best wishes for this game!

Re: Questions about the game?
 

i know it will be mainly text battles and stuff, but if this game is a big hit would u consider making the battle slightly controllable to the user and u can actually watch the battle take place in 3d, i think that would be the best game ever then, u could customize ur gladiators armor and choose weapons, if u went all out i know all of my friends would buy it, i think u would have a really great game if u came out with a Coliseum II with those options it would like be one of the best games of the year probably if u did a good job!

Re: Questions about the game?
 

DennisS: Thanks for the kind words! I certainly hope you consider pre-ordering the game.
Estimated date of release is around December 10th or so.

txwarrior_54: If it was a big hit? A big, big, hit? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Maybe, but then if it were a big hit, I might be alienating my audience by making such a radical change in "Coliseum II". The primary audience I think of Coliseum are those who prefer the planning and management of these type of games, and aren't wowed or swayed by 3D graphics (or at least not as much so).

It would depend on how big a hit it is. If YOU pre-ordered it for instance, I would consider it a smash hit right away! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Questions about the game?
 

Derek first I'd like to say congrats and thanks for making a game I've always wanted to play. I have preordered and am eagerly awaiting it's release!

Could you give just a sample of what the text will look like in a given battle? I'm not a veteran of text based games, but I'd imagine each match would have quite varied, descriptive depictions of the action. Is that a correct assumption? Also on the website (either Shrapnel Games or the Wargamer) I read a "mission" would take 1 to 2 hours. Does that mean a fight takes that long to complete? If so what elements cause a match to take that amount of time? I'm curious about it since it seems as a manager you have limited input to the battle at hand.

I do think adding multiplay capability at a later stage would be a welcomed addition. I have a great number of friends I'd like to compete with in a game like this.

In the past I've done some "design docs" on a gladiator game, and I was hoping to making it graphical in nature. I've seen others on these forums asking if that were possible for Coliseum, but unless a very robust graphical combat system were in place I personally don't think it would add enough to justify it. I mean most graphical games only have a limited set of attacking and defending animations where your text system sounds to have a very large number of possibilites and variables. If these various things weren't accounted for by the graphical interface I think the game would be less deep, but this is all a guess since I've yet to see what you've done.

Again thanks for putting together a game I've been wanting to play for quite some time, and good luck!

Re: Questions about the game?
 

Thanks, Brian! I've had a fair number of people tell me that, which surprised me a bit: This is a game that's either crossed their mind, or always wanted to play. I even had a few people write me to tell me they created design docs for similar games years ago, but never followed through with it for whatever reasons. 2 of them even e-mailed me their design docs and their blessings on the project, which was very cool. Too weird though! Yay for procrastination! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

The text will be quite intricate, yes, which is why I shyed away from the "3D graphic" approach to the fights early on. It would require huge resources to create graphics that would mirror all the text i've created (over 1,000 individual lines of text, with about 20 variances or variations of each, plus 10 more different variations of each of the 20 earlier variances that can happen based the warrior's stats; that's a lotta stuff!). It's written in a very Robert E. Howard (author of Conan, if you've heard of him) type style, maybe a tad bit graphic in some spots, but hey, these fights can be gruesome and I wanted to portray that.

Oh no...fights take around 2-5 minutes each or so, depending on the evenness of the stats and what happens. Some can be as quick as 1 minute or so. You can set the speed of the combat text as well, so that matters as well.

Your input to the battle comes right before the match, as you can set your fighter's "attitude" during the match (as well as matching-up one of your fighters against the upcoming opponent, something i've made easier with a match-up screen). You can set your fighter to be: Aggressive (try to get him quickly), Normal (tells the warrior to use his own judgement) and Defensive (try to win, but first try not to get hit). Each is useful in different situations.

Thanks, Brian! If you (or anyone) has any other questions, please feel free to post them!

Re: Questions about the game?
 

Very interesting stuff. Thanks for the info. I've come up with a few more questions as well so thanks for being so open to the prospect! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

What things must you do in a typical game session? I'd imagine you have a season going, and you enter your fighters in the contest(s), but I've read that your fighters can get in trouble outside the arena. What types of activities do you do when not actively engaged in fights?

Are the fights always 1 on 1 or are there various types of fights to be entered?

In Roman times gladiator fights rarely ended in deaths (so I've read/seen). I realize the game is loosely based on this era, so can you expect one of the combatants to die in each fight or every now and then? I assume they not only can die in the arena, but also days later as a result of their wounds?

Regarding seasons and the final tournament, is the choice regarding which fighters get to fight in the championship based on your "school" (ie all 3 of your fighters results for the season), or an individual fighters performance over the season? It seems like injuries will force you to play a couple if not all of your fighters to make it through a season so I'm curious how this will work out.

Thanks again for answering questions about the game. If you don't want to answer something it's ok. I'm just trying to learn about the fun we'll soon be having when it ships! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ November 09, 2003, 23:33: Message edited by: Brian White ]

Re: Questions about the game?
 

Brian:

Here's some of the things you have to consider when not actively engaged in fights.

Like many of my other games, the progression of a turn is pretty freeform. You are assigned 3 randomly generated gladiators that make up your "team". You then (there are starter instructions that tell you this as well) choose a Primary fighter, that will be your fighter for the next bout, and will fight each bout unless you assign a new Primary one, which you can do before the next match starts.

There is a match-up screen where you can see the next gladiator you're going to fight, and compare their stats to your Primary fighter (along with your other fighters as well), and see the rest of the league's schedule as well (and bet Gold on the outcome of other matches, should you so desire). But there is a minor fatigue factor in the game, so you may need to switch out warriors occasionally and give your main ones a rest.

You can also decide on "enchantments" that have various effects on gameplay, and whether you want to purchase one or not. The two spell choices are randomized at the start of each game, and shuffled again after a spell wears off, or the start of each season. There are over 50 different enchantments currently.

Also, you can decide on potions for your fighters as well (think: steroids in the modern day athlete) and whether you want to use them before the upcoming match to hedge your odds a bit. As with real steroids, there can be short and long-term consequences, for some warriors anyway. But they're useful for a quick boost against a tough fighter. But it's up to you whether to use them or not.

The next thing you do is decide on advertising: in this world, getting more people to attend your matches means of course, more money. There are 6 different advertising options available, each a little different and more powerful (and more expensive) than the Last. Some increase revenue, attendance and the chance even of the King himself showing up for a match (which can add a multiplier to your earnings, generally 2X-10X). You can combine various forms of advertising, with varying effects each turn (sometimes it will work quite well, and sometimes it won't, just like real advertising). You decide what works for you.

Then you need to decide what to do with your non-Primary warriors. You can send them to training, and you select from various types of training (there are two intensities for each stat). But they can't do anything else while they're training, unless you remove them from training first.

You can do other roster stuff, like auctioning a warrior off that you don't like to another clan (3 randomly determined from over 100 different clans, with different preferences for warriors they're looking for), or releasing a warrior (both with a possible penalty to your Loyalty rating as a manager, which can affect contract talks down the road, since the arena world isn't overly fond of managers who just dump warriors or sell them off too often).

If you have empty slots, you can sign free warriors (or "free agents" in sports talk) to fill the slots. They're basically cast-off warriors from other clans that are looking for work. They tend to be a little older and not as high ceiling wise, but they're a little cheaper and tend to be a little more advanced stat wise early on.

You can read the news report as well between a normal turn, which gives you details about previous days events, and general Kingdom occurances, along with possibly important events that may involve your fighters or other fighters in the league.

So there are a few things to think about and consider each turn, as you can see. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Fights are 1 on 1.

It does look at an individual fighters record with regard to the playoffs, but its best to try to "ride one horse" most of the season, if possible. Yes, injuries play a role (another decision you have to make: should I keep a guy with a minor injury in there, even though it may slow down his healing, or give him some time to rest so he can heal faster?). The injury system use a "percentage" system, for instance, a minor injury may reduce his physical stats by 5%, or 6% or or 3% or whatever. More severe injuries may reduce a warrior stats by more than that. It's up to you whether to keep putting him out there or not. Managing this type of thing is part of the game.

Yes, rarely, warriors can die, both immediately during combat due to a lucky shot (rare) or due to injuries sustained during a fight.

Feel free to ask any other questions! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Questions about the game?
 

Seems that I read somewhere that "side bets" will take place on various matches. Can you clarify exactly what this does to enhance the managers aspect of the game? My guess is that winning bets would help to enhance the manager.
Am I correct in stating that the goal of the game is not so much to be Mike Tyson as it is to be Don King?
I look foward to the release.( I have already preordered).
Ralph

Re: Questions about the game?
 

Ralph: Winning wagers helps your Gold total, which is necessary for resigning your warriors, paying for spells or potions, buying advertising or promotion, training, etc. of course, losing wagers is a good way to bury yourself in a hole pretty quick.

Yep, very Don King-ish role you play in this one. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Questions about the game?
 

Dude! There is *no way* I will be wearing my hair like Don King!

Heh, sorry, couldn't resist.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif