Re: Odyssey Design Musings

From: Rob Rodgers <rrodgers@unex.ucla.edu>

Date: Wed, 01 Nov 1995 00:00:00 +0000

DLUKE@msu.edu (Doug Luke) wrote:
>I think that the design of Odyssey is nothing short of brilliant.

I agree.  There are some odd things missing, like a DROP ITEM command.
Now, to get rid of a club you don't want, you have to either :
a)  give it to a dead prisoner
b)  sell it
c)  keep it

I know keeping it doesn't hurt your character, but it offends my sense of
cleanliness.  No big deal, but it's an odd ommission.  I'd also like for
my flying carpet riders to be able to ignore terrain effects, or at least
have them halved.

>1) Status/Standings Information

I'd like this too, although the mystery of how you're doing is kind of
fun too.  Olympia handles it quite cleanly--ranking number of characters,
nuber of troops, spells, skills, etc., ignoring relative strength of what
has been accumulated.  It's not an exact tally, but gives a good feel.
In Odyssey, for example, a ranking could be given for number of locations
controlled--but don't distinguish between hamlets and capitals.  The
comparable data would be nice, but there would still be an information
gap.

>5) Lower the turn prices.

Of course I would like to see this, but $5.00 for a week of fun isn't too
bad.  What I've done is stop buying computer games that I either figure
out how to win every time or get tired of.

One further suggestion I have is a published news organ, similar to the
Olympia times.  The proclamations report at the end of the turn is too
limiting and uninformative.  Plus, there is nothing that keeps people
from send three periods and getting their prestige point.

Rob