Re: Odyssey Design Musings

From: jbrowning@hayes.com (Damage Control)

Date: Mon, 06 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000

In article <478rpr$3at@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, dmanva@aol.com (DmanVA) writes:
>>I think that the design of Odyssey is nothing short of brilliant. It has
> such
>>good game balance that I'm amazed that it is so relatively new. The
> balance
>>between role playing/power gaming is excellent. Also, this is a
> close-ended
>>game that has the 'feel' of an open-ended game.
>
>>That said, I've been thinking of things that I think would improve the
> game.
>>I would like to hear what people think of these, and also what their
> ideas
>>are. Perhaps some of these suggestions will end up in future modules, or
>>Odyssey 2!
>
>>1) Status/Standings Information
>
>>I love watching my characters improve and my hamlets, villages and towns
>>develop over time. However, I'm always curious about how other players
> are
>>doing. There needs to be some type of list that gives us some information
>>about the standings or character/army/location statuses. This type of
>>information doesn't necessarily have to be so explicit as to identify
> both
>>the human player and game characters involved. I think it's important to
>>avoid the 'let's all gang up on whomever is currently leading'
> phenomenon.
>>However, some type of list showing biggest glory gains in the past turn,
>>largest player controlled location/guild, highest avg. prestige for a
> position,
>>etc., would really increase the tension/enjoyment of the game. This is
> the
>>biggest missing piece in the current game design, IMHO.
>
> I agree that some sort of mechanism to somehow keep track of who's in the
> lead in various categories would be a welcome addition.  I'm just not sure
> how they would implement something such as this.
>
This was tried during the playtest, and then dropped as it was generally
disliked by the players. (The actual listings were for best warlock, best
priest, etc. biggest army, etc.) I could live with something like "The highest
prestige PC in the game is currently at 312" or somesuch - gives a reference
point, but doesn't target the character for destruction.

>>2) Addition of a command to do an automatic strip/free of every dead
> monster
>>in the current party. This is a minor point, but would save time for
> every
>>den-basher out there.
>
> This would be a welcome addition as it would cut down on the number of
> strip/free orders that I have to issue every turn.  I still strip all of
> the monsters that I kill but I believe that it is really unnecessary.
> Correct me if I'm wrong please but if you kill a monster in combat, don't
> you  automatically strip the monster? Thus, if you are a den-bashing
> position, you wouldn't have to worry about stripping any monsters unless
> you captured them alive and then executed them.
>
>>3) Add the ability to send gold from one location to another (without
> requring
>>a character or army to carry it). This is the sort of micromanagement
> that
>>quickly takes the fun out of managing a large empire (sort of like
> worrying
>>about food in a long RPG game). You could handle it like the transfer of
> glory
>>works, i.e., to transfer X gold from one location to another would cost
> 2X
>>gold to accomplish.
>
> This is something that could really use some work.  Is Gamer's Den really
> saying that I have to use one of me valuable characters to run errands?
> Even if I hired a new scout, as someone suggested, that's still 10 glory
> that I have to blow that could be used much more profitably somewhere
> else.
>
I really disagree here. I like the fact that you must have a character (or an
army) to transport gold about. It forces a "supply line" type of activity, and
opens you up to disruption of said supply line. If you use a character, he can
hide to be safer, but much slower. If you are worried about a paltry 10 glory,
use a tiny army...and hope it doesn't get smacked by a bigger army, or robbed
blind by a good deceiver. I really think this adds measureably to the game.

>>4) I know that Gamer's Den doesn't agree with my here, but I think there
>>needs to be much more data management/user interface improvements built
>>into the game. Mapping utilities, automatic generation of reports, etc.
>>Look around at what other PBEM game companies are doing, and what is
>>successful. If you want to reach a wider market, this will be essential.
>
> I think that Gamer's Den really does need to be more concerned about data
> management improvements in the game.  To keep track of all the info is a
> royal pain in the rear as I'm sure others have noticed.  It would be
> really nice if I had the time and ability to sit down and write up
> thousands of wonderful lines of code so that I could create a program to
> simplify data management but I just can't do that right now.  As Doug
> stated, if Gamer's Den wants to reach a wider market, then they will have
> to put the time and money into developing mapping utilities, generation of
> reports, etc.
>
>>5) Lower the turn prices. (OK, this isn't a design issue, but what the
> heck!)
>>$5.00 per turn for a pure email game with no maps, utilities, player
> aids,
>>is too expensive. When you combine this with the recent turn credit
> fiasco,
>>it starts to leave a little bit of a sour taste in the mouth. (Hint:
> instead
>>of the long-winded and confusing explanation of what constitutes a turn,
> just
>>say that everyone gets a free setup and one turn.)
>
> Five dollars really isn't that exorbitant a price to be asking for a game
> as great as Odyssey.  Let's just hope they don't plan on raising the
> prices anytime soon.
>
>>OK, let's hear other suggestions!
>
>>--Doug Luke--
>

Nitpicking aside, this really is a great game, isn't it? I'm enjoying myself
completely.

JB
jbrowning@hayes.com or 74673.1247@compuserve.com

References

Re: Odyssey Design Musings
sjoerd@cs.vu.nl (Sjoerd Schreuder)
Wed, 01 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Odyssey Design Musings
dmanva@aol.com (DmanVA)
Wed, 01 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000