Re: Odyssey Design Musings From: sjoerd@cs.vu.nl (Sjoerd Schreuder) Date: Wed, 01 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000 DLUKE@msu.edu (Doug Luke) 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. I like the game too. I didn't like commercial games up to now, but playtesting Odyssey has convinced me. ;-) >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. During the second playtest, there have been several tries to do so, (with rewards to top-characters), but none of them were accepted. I recall that the discussion was how to evaluate who's the best: Prestige? Says nothing about abilities: just give all your locations to one guy, and he'll get high prestige. Abilities? But which ones? And is my 5000 melee 5000 stealth ranger better/worse than your 6000 melee fighter and/or 6000 stealth scout? I agree: some sort of ranking for your own characters would be nice. But it can't be done, IMO. >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. Why? One can do that easily yourself next turn. And if you know the character numbers before you attack (from scouting the den), you can add them at the end of your turn yourself. It would be another order, which adds almost nothing to the game. The game has already many orders, and newbies can't learn them all, so why add another one? >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. Would be nice indeed. But it's a matter of taste: one simple scout is easy to hire. >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. Do it yourself: you might earn some $$$ if Gamer's Den approves it. >OK, let's hear other suggestions! > >--Doug Luke-- Sjoerd Schreuder DISCLAIMER: I'm just a player, and I have nothing to do with Gamer's Den. (besides being customer) Referenced By Up