[licker]

Originally posted by PvK:
licker, I hope I didn't sound like I was ranting against you. I was just trying to be clear. I had a in my previous post too, indicating I was just teasing.

Then I was trying to explain the ideas behind the tease. I think there are extremists and people who lose sight of gameplay and balance in both camps, and both sides tend to misunderstand each other a bit.

PvK

No, I didn't take it personally, I just like the challenge of debating the merits of realism in fantasy based games. Believe me, we are closer to the same opinion than it appears from the Posts in this thread.

The extremeists are annoying from both sides, I like as much realism as is applicable, but I'm also more than happy to accept certain abstractions in the name of game play. I used to love playing board games like Squad Leader and 3rd Reich, until the group that I played with became such rules nazis that it was no longer entertaining to play with them. Not to imply that I wanted to bend the rules, let alone break them, but when more time was spent on the rules than the game... well you know what I mean. I moved back to playing Risk and Axis and Allies, not as much thought involved, but the games were more satisfing since it was no longer about how you interpret some poorly worded paragraph on attrition.


Dom1 and 2 seem to have the right amount of attention to detail without being overbearing. There is room for some improvement I suppose, but its minor, and not so much about making things more realistic, but rather about making game mechanics more balanced. The whole spiel about LI is an example of that. There are several ways to give them a place in the game, but the simplest way is probably the best, otherwise we wind up with changes to the tactical combat model which may or may not be a good thing.

I'm always a proponent of starting with the simple structures, because they are easier to implement, and easier to understand. Once they are in place, and more or less balanced, you can begin to tweek them or add to them to get to the complexity and balance level you want to attain. Your earlier comment about some games trying to be more than they are capeable of is very true, and I want to avoid that line of thinking for Dom as much as possible. Not to say that I don't have faith in the devs to get things right, just that when you start with the complex its orders of magnatude more difficult to get it right the first time