[Chazar]

Agrajag said:I admit, I play [...] with a calculator handy,

You really like that? I am a mathematician, and I like my job, but where is the fun of measuring who can calculate faster and better, especially if you can use computer-aid in PBEM gameplay?

I do prefer complex modern board games, and some friends of mine object that these are too complicated for full-computation - but that is why I play them! I like complex games because I know that my opponents cannot calculate everything and must base their play on intuition like I want to do myself.

Similarly I stopped enjoying chess when I could only advance in the league by learning all those openings by heart rather than playing instinctively. Of course, one could theoretically also learn these by experience of playing over and over again, but it limits the fun if you see all fellow players advancing much faster because they just bypass the need for this slow memorizing experience (as opposed to the difficult experience of juding opponents).

Nevertheless, I do look at all the information available here: All those unit, item & site listings, all those percentage sheets, I even calculate some chances myself, but this is no fun! I do it because I need to do it in order to play competitively, and because I do not have the time to do extensive testings or boring AI-play (for the AI has no intuition), but I would rather like no to do it.

Thus IMHO:

• The game should obfuscate its mechanics as much as possible, so that no one can gain an advantage by extensive simple calculations only.
• It should make available anything that can be learned easily by sheer testing (like the Quick Reference Sheets for Summons, Items or the Spell Infos (including list for Wish), since players who just have the time for extensive testing should not gain a significant advantage. (Like making an AI-game just to experiment with the Wish-spell)
• It should keep many random elements. Otherwise PBEM players who have enough time can gain enormous advantages by simply setting up and running simulations.

Players should win by their abilitiy to intuitively judge their enemies and strategically sensible management of their forces, not by sheer computing power (= time * calculating hardware).



(PS: Before someone comment on that part of my first paragraph: I am aware that a good mathematician does not necessarily need to be good at calculating, but rather be good at understanding how to calculate, which is something different... )