Sitting on the fence - Page 3

Gandalf Parker · #21 June 16th, 2007, 08:00 PM

Gee that would work well for me.
I have an over-active brain and extremely-lazy fingers.

Gandalf Parker · #22 June 17th, 2007, 12:24 PM

Idea for the next mega-game. If anyone has been watching it they know that much of the games "diplomacy" has been based on the score graphs. Any game on a large map (20/player) and around 10 players or more has seen it. And I have taken note of the requests for games with scoring turned off.

So Im thinking.. run the game --noscoregraphs --scoreboard which kills the graphs IN the game but gives exact numbers to a file that the host can post.

But dont post it. Take the scores.html and process it to give "worlds general impression of" which you post instead. Keep a running total of the numbers and offer the average results by only listing the highest and lowest nation. "The worlds general impression is that Ermor has the largest armies, Arcos has the most magic, Caelum has the most resources". Since its a running average, sudden spikes or losses might not show up. The world would have to gradually get an idea of changes. You might know that generally the worlds impression is that Jotunheim has the smallest army even though sudden losses make Ctis the actual lowest in military forces. Hmmm over long-game that will get less and less useful. Maybe the running total should only reflect the last... 10 turns? year? And OBVIOUSLY Im thinking of automating the process.

It would make spying more useful, trading info more profitable, and make bluffing a real part of the game.

OK yeah, its an RPG thing and the ladder people will probably hate it but then they tend to hate the mega games anyway.

llamabeast · #23 June 17th, 2007, 02:51 PM

I like that idea. It could be a running average with noise. As in, each turn the "army" value for a nation is its true size +=30%, adn the value shown is the average over the values for the last 10 turns. But the noise could be a parameter chosen at the start of the game, offering some kind of continuum between scoregraphs on and off.

I could do this easily if I had any idea how to automatically draw graphs (my knowledge of automated web and graphics stuff is pretty thin). I think at some point a while ago lch said he had some kind of a php script or something for doing it. That would be great.

Gandalf Parker · #24 June 17th, 2007, 03:30 PM

I was going for text rather than a graph. But it could be automatically graphed. Unix/Linux loves such things. There is a script language called ghost, or an old program called gnuplot. Some require more friendly familiarity with math than I have.
http://linuxgazette.net/103/okopnik.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...tting_software

Ironhawk · #25 June 18th, 2007, 05:10 PM

An interesting twist on your idea gandalf: Make the players pay for the information

So, hide the graphs and generate the numbers. And if players want the exact numbers for that turn, they have to pay some gold amount to the GM. Its sort of like the price you would have to pay to support a network of spies to collect said information.

Morkilus · #26 June 18th, 2007, 05:57 PM

I was thinking of using that idea in the mega-age game - spend much of your money on scouts and sell the info to other nations. You gotta earn your money somehow if you're not a "rush" nation.

Gandalf Parker · #27 June 18th, 2007, 07:18 PM

Im surprised that in an older game such as mega game that someone doesnt rush for Eyes of God and then sell screenshots.

Or barter with other nations so that they all contribute gems to the casting of Eyes of God to make it strong enough to last, in return for regular updates on its view. Maybe based on how many gems they donate to the cause

Lazy_Perfectionist · #28 June 18th, 2007, 08:02 PM

Has someone pulled off that civil war mod thing? It would be an interesting, though slow, way of developing a strategy guide.

Gandalf Parker · #29 June 18th, 2007, 08:25 PM

At least it would give us all an idea of who might be best to write the strategy guides. Note the word "guides". I do not think that anyone is likely to be the best choice for the guides of all nations in all game types

Lazy_Perfectionist · #30 June 19th, 2007, 01:33 AM

Good lord, no. First, the scope of a full guide is horrifying to even imagine. You ever own that Master of Magic strategy guide? You know, the one that actually was released after the game was, vs. 1.31, so it didn't have that false crap. You know, the one bigger than some textbooks. I fear Dom3 would turn out worse, but I just might be imagining it.

Ignoring who's best to write the guides, it might give us an idea (especially if we had a record/replay feature like RTS) who has the best idea on how to design and use a pretender.

Personally, I just want an excuse, any excuse, to get involved in as many MP games as I can.