Urgent Interface Problems

[Saber Cherry]

Yes, urgent ones, as in "I think Illwinter is actively losing customers based on the demo because of this."

The one I have noticed: It is too complex and confusing to start a single player game (no, not for me, for newbies)

In summary:

I would STRONGLY suggest adding a "Start Single Player Game" button to the main game menu, so that you can go through the whole process without getting lost, or ever returning to the main menu.

In other words, you click the "Start SP Game" button, then you choose a nation, design a god, choose a map, pick opponents, choose a game name, and start the game, in a streamlined manner without ever returning to the main menu, with no risk of getting lost, and no risk of screwing up and forgetting which race you can set to "human"***, or whatever. Once the game starts, like in Shogun, clicking on "Next Turn" it will advance the game, and return you to the strategic map (or message list, actually), so you don't have to screw around with clicking "host". Putting a "host" button in single-player mode confuses people, especially when the meaning is not very clear.

Already, before the game is out, a couple AOW2 forumers have rejected it because it seems too complex to just start or progress through an SP game. So, I think this is urgent.

-Cherry

P.S. ***By this I mean: When you start a singleplayer game, you choose a nation and design a god, then get sent to the "Choose Nations" screen. But it is now called the "Choose AI Opponents" screen, instead. Your nation is already greyed out and set to human. The other nations can be set to computer AIs, but cannot be set to human. See? Idiot proof! You will always have exactly 1 human nation in the game, and it will always be the one for which you designed a god... which is what people want when playing an SP game, and what sometimes screws up newbies.

[ October 28, 2003, 17:20: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

[st.patrik]

I suppose it would be easier for new players if you didn't have to click 'host' and such, but I am nonetheless really glad of that feature - it makes it way easier to stop playing.

I would suggest having a saved game file, set at around turn 5, with an accompanying written guide, so that people could become familiar with the game for a turn or two while having their hands held. The quick start guide which was available for Dom I was like this, and it was really helpful. Maybe something like that for Dom II, or even for the demo thereof?

[Saber Cherry]

The problem is not really learning how to play... it's the fact that it seems like such a hassle, and is so counter-intuitive, to start a new game. In every other game, you click "Start an SP game", and you're on tracks from there, and never see a misleading "Host" button between turns.

It would do a lot to make the game seem mainstream and normal. The current functionality would, of course, remain for PBEM and hotseat games, but it would be concealed from singleplayer games. There's enough complexity within the game, without adding more outside.

-Cherry

[Mephisto]

I second this. It is confusing for a newbie and people with little to none computer experience.

[Pocus]

yes, but what if you want to save your turn half done and resume it when you can? with the separation between doing your turn / processing it, you can do that.

[Dekent]

Yes but now it makes those turns where you are just passing time waiting 10x more annoying...

[Pocus]

Originally posted by Dekent:
Yes but now it makes those turns where you are just passing time waiting 10x more annoying...

wow, you are playing doms turns at the speed of say master of orion III (nothing happens before turn 80 roughly).

in doms, and especially in MP, but this is true in SP too, each turn is important. By turn 20 you should already have more than 10 provinces and a booming nation.

anyway, I think you are a bit overstating here. I can understand if the issue is newbie learning curve, but to say that clicking on host is a painful is a big exageration.

Thats IMO, we agree that we disagree anyway.

[PhilD]

I don't know, I played very little of the original DomI, and I got it right on the first try with this one. Of course I read the DomI manual a few months ago, but let's face it - anyody trying to play this game without reading the manual is going to have other problems than just "what's this Host command anyway?". OK, maybe they'll get stopped by this one, but they really should read the manual.

Which brings me to one of my complaints - not including even a toned-down Version of the manual in the demo is really bad; effectively, this means the demo of DomII is only attractive to people who know DomI. How much of the documentation for DomI is still valid in DomII? If that's a large part of it, then I suggest they add a link to the DomI documentation on Illwinter's site...

[Dekent]

I don't like expanding too much at the start, its just the way I find fun.

Having to click end turn...then host...then back on my nation IS a major pain in the butt...it would be much better that if in single player it just worked like Dom1 did and it does the turn and puts you back then and there....I was a major fan of dom 1 but this little thing alone could ruin dom 2 for me.

(I also never play multiplayer)

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by Pocus:
yes, but what if you want to save your turn half done and resume it when you can? with the separation between doing your turn / processing it, you can do that.

Adding a pure singleplayer mode without clicking "host" between turns would not remove the ability to save halfway through a turn.