lab vault upgraded?

Mortifer · #1 October 22nd, 2003, 10:50 PM

I think most of us love to play huge games.

Well I think the search option would be nice, but it is not a must have...

[ October 22, 2003, 21:50: Message edited by: Mortifer ]

Jasper · #2 October 23rd, 2003, 12:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Johan K:
I don't like the idea of searching for magic items. It would require a button which complicates the interface. And it feels like a cumbersome thing to make in a good way. Also it doesn't feel important unless you play a very large game.

Being able to give people titles only viewable by oneself (which I believe was mentioned as patch material) alleviates most of the problem, and is simple and general purpose.

A search interface just for items doesn't seem worth it to me. However, a generalized search filter for leaders based upon a selectable range of critea (magic skill, items, type, etc.) would be cool. Then again, it'd also be alot of work.

An alternative would be a function that simply dumped all leader information to a text file, which would be much easier. This could then be searched in a text editor, or used as input for a 3rd party tool. IIRC Stars! had something like this for sharing info with other players.

Taqwus · #3 October 23rd, 2003, 03:11 AM

The one case where I'd really have liked a search for magic items would be to find the items recovered after a large battle involving quite a few commanders -- e.g. after Pythium with a communicant horde.

This could be alleviated without a full-blown search if, say, the battle report had "Commander Foo picked up ..." and made 'em links to the commander, but I don't know how much work that would be.

LordArioch · #4 October 23rd, 2003, 04:38 AM

Note that I really really like Jasper's idea. Some way to save commander status or even more..like known world status...into a text file for inspection or use in 3d party programs could be really nice.

It would be really nice if allies could send map data and a program could combine multiple map data files so an alliance could better coordinate. Of course nobody will stop you from "editing" the data file before you send it. Maybe there could even be a program for falsifying data files.

That could be fun.

PhilD · #5 October 23rd, 2003, 07:11 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Taqwus:
This could be alleviated without a full-blown search if, say, the battle report had "Commander Foo picked up ..." and made 'em links to the commander, but I don't know how much work that would be.

This is one part of the DomI interface I didn't like: it's very hard to get a global, or even local, synthetic view of your empire/armies. I mean, you can't even see a list of the units/items led by a single commander - you have to count them yourself; and you don't get a detailed list of casualties after a battle, either. This made it way too hard for me to really get a feel for how the various units worked.

HJ · #6 October 23rd, 2003, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by PhilD:
I mean, you can't even see a list of the units/items led by a single commander - you have to count them yourself;

Ah yes, that's really one of the more tedious points of Doms interface - how many units does each respective commander has under his command at a moment? Can I give him another 5 or just 3, and how many should I build then? The "fullness" bars were not really useful for this. Hopefully this has been improved in Doms II.

Pocus · #7 October 23rd, 2003, 08:20 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Johan K:
I don't like the idea of searching for magic items. It would require a button which complicates the interface. And it feels like a cumbersome thing to make in a good way. Also it doesn't feel important unless you play a very large game.

ok, taking a deep breath now, but I feel it is my duty to put a recurring problem on the discussion table (telling something that many thinks without daring to speak):

...and again we bump against the style of play that the IW team practice, small to medium games, versus large games (or medium games with a long duration, often the case in pbem) that fans prefers.
I suppose you never used Forge of the Ancients to produce mass of items too (200 items created in 15 turns for example).
And no its not producing items for the sake of producing items. An astral nation with the majority of his mages with spell foci and rune smashers is not a secondary advantage.

Before you flame away, can we have the official position of IW on what they feel is important versus what fans feel is important? Is our opinion really requested, or is this forum just a a place where fans asks for tech questions, and you respond, and thats all?

=>
Is it possible to think that you might consider some of the features requested by fans, even if you deem the feature of poor importance? I need a clarification on this. I make no idea about myself, I'm just lambda fan amongst many others, but at least knowing your position will help me posting (to be exact help me not posting). Perhaps there is a good half of all discussions here pointless if you think that you (the IW team) and only you decide what will make Dominions.

Last, but not least, I dont want the discussion to drift into this silly attitude that we (excluding the team here) are customers and vote with our purse. I like the game, I really like it (my preferred game since I play, roughly 1980 I will say). It even pushed Master of Magic in my heart, and it was not an easy task. I'm just asking that you take notice that you are selling a game, so it means you want people to play with it. The time were you made a game for your sole pleasure has ended, I hope you realized that. This is a fact, people play with a game because they find features in it that please them.

Hope you will take this post for what it is, a constructive critic.

[ October 23, 2003, 07:37: Message edited by: Pocus ]