Questions about the game?

StormcloudCreations · #1 November 5th, 2003, 02:08 AM

Hi all, welcome to the Coliseum forum!

Any questions you may have about the game should be placed here.

Also, see the Wargamer.com preview for a very early look at the game (the screens have changed somewhat cosmetically, but the gist is the same).
Use the link in my signature.

Thanks!

gregebowman · #2 November 5th, 2003, 03:52 PM

Saw the press release this morning, read the description and went ahead and ordered it. Now, from what I can gather, it's mostly a text game? Are there any graphics or cut scenes? Not that it matters. It does sound like a great game.

geoschmo · #3 November 5th, 2003, 03:59 PM

Ok, now this sounds like a really interesting concept for a game. Any sort of multiplayer functionality? I am thinking something like this could be very interesting as an Online multiplayer game. You could have leagues, tournaments, etc. We train our gladiators or whatever in between matches and then go Online and throw them up against the other players best guys. I could see fansites springing up where people could host tournaments, just as smaller cities in the Roman empire might have a small coliseum. But everyone's goal would be to have your guys win in a match at Rome, maybe the official Coliseum website or something. Playing against other players would also make trading your gladiators more interesting.

Anyway, even as single player I can see this being a really cool game, but as Multiplayer it could be something really special.

Geoschmo

StormcloudCreations · #4 November 5th, 2003, 05:53 PM

gregebowman: Thank you very much for placing your pre-order!

It has some (very nice) background graphics and the like (similar style to Trader 2, another game of mine here, if you've tried it). No cut scenes, no. Typically those are watched once and skipped past anyway, by most people I know.

Thanks for the comments! I certainly hope people will consider it a fun and cool game.

StormcloudCreations · #5 November 5th, 2003, 06:00 PM

geoschmo: You read my mind (in a way)! At some point, I plan on having a contest where people send in their best records as a manager (using a screenshot at first, and maybe some built in Online function later on) or their warrior with the best overall record for some type of contest held by me.

Total MP functionality probably won't be included with this release, but may be considered in a patch later on. Right now the game is mainly tuned for SP; as are most of my games, if you've tried them.

I certainly hope you consider trying out the game or pre-ordering it to get in on the fun!

DennisS · #6 November 8th, 2003, 05:20 AM

I came across this game on the Wargamer website.

This game really does look exceptional.

Is there an estimated date of release?

Thanks, and best wishes for this game!

txwarrior_54 · #7 November 8th, 2003, 04:02 PM

i know it will be mainly text battles and stuff, but if this game is a big hit would u consider making the battle slightly controllable to the user and u can actually watch the battle take place in 3d, i think that would be the best game ever then, u could customize ur gladiators armor and choose weapons, if u went all out i know all of my friends would buy it, i think u would have a really great game if u came out with a Coliseum II with those options it would like be one of the best games of the year probably if u did a good job!

StormcloudCreations · #8 November 8th, 2003, 06:10 PM

DennisS: Thanks for the kind words! I certainly hope you consider pre-ordering the game.
Estimated date of release is around December 10th or so.

txwarrior_54: If it was a big hit? A big, big, hit?

Maybe, but then if it were a big hit, I might be alienating my audience by making such a radical change in "Coliseum II". The primary audience I think of Coliseum are those who prefer the planning and management of these type of games, and aren't wowed or swayed by 3D graphics (or at least not as much so).

It would depend on how big a hit it is. If YOU pre-ordered it for instance, I would consider it a smash hit right away!

Brian White · #9 November 9th, 2003, 04:19 PM

Derek first I'd like to say congrats and thanks for making a game I've always wanted to play. I have preordered and am eagerly awaiting it's release!

Could you give just a sample of what the text will look like in a given battle? I'm not a veteran of text based games, but I'd imagine each match would have quite varied, descriptive depictions of the action. Is that a correct assumption? Also on the website (either Shrapnel Games or the Wargamer) I read a "mission" would take 1 to 2 hours. Does that mean a fight takes that long to complete? If so what elements cause a match to take that amount of time? I'm curious about it since it seems as a manager you have limited input to the battle at hand.

I do think adding multiplay capability at a later stage would be a welcomed addition. I have a great number of friends I'd like to compete with in a game like this.

In the past I've done some "design docs" on a gladiator game, and I was hoping to making it graphical in nature. I've seen others on these forums asking if that were possible for Coliseum, but unless a very robust graphical combat system were in place I personally don't think it would add enough to justify it. I mean most graphical games only have a limited set of attacking and defending animations where your text system sounds to have a very large number of possibilites and variables. If these various things weren't accounted for by the graphical interface I think the game would be less deep, but this is all a guess since I've yet to see what you've done.

Again thanks for putting together a game I've been wanting to play for quite some time, and good luck!

StormcloudCreations · #10 November 9th, 2003, 06:33 PM

Thanks, Brian! I've had a fair number of people tell me that, which surprised me a bit: This is a game that's either crossed their mind, or always wanted to play. I even had a few people write me to tell me they created design docs for similar games years ago, but never followed through with it for whatever reasons. 2 of them even e-mailed me their design docs and their blessings on the project, which was very cool. Too weird though! Yay for procrastination!

The text will be quite intricate, yes, which is why I shyed away from the "3D graphic" approach to the fights early on. It would require huge resources to create graphics that would mirror all the text i've created (over 1,000 individual lines of text, with about 20 variances or variations of each, plus 10 more different variations of each of the 20 earlier variances that can happen based the warrior's stats; that's a lotta stuff!). It's written in a very Robert E. Howard (author of Conan, if you've heard of him) type style, maybe a tad bit graphic in some spots, but hey, these fights can be gruesome and I wanted to portray that.

Oh no...fights take around 2-5 minutes each or so, depending on the evenness of the stats and what happens. Some can be as quick as 1 minute or so. You can set the speed of the combat text as well, so that matters as well.

Your input to the battle comes right before the match, as you can set your fighter's "attitude" during the match (as well as matching-up one of your fighters against the upcoming opponent, something i've made easier with a match-up screen). You can set your fighter to be: Aggressive (try to get him quickly), Normal (tells the warrior to use his own judgement) and Defensive (try to win, but first try not to get hit). Each is useful in different situations.

Thanks, Brian! If you (or anyone) has any other questions, please feel free to post them!