Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)set seen

From: mebonar@sn01.sncc.lsu.edu (MsciDave)

Date: Thu, 24 Jun 1993 10:09:18 +0000

In article <1993Jun23.211025.1@gallua.gallaudet.edu>, 11jkessler@gallua.gallaudet.edu (Jeffrey Kessler) writes...

>The problem with the textual discription is how skilled are the respective
>forces, or simply "How skilled is skilled?"  Formulae allow the player to
>decide at what point should the training stop and the butt kicking begin
>much clearer than a simple text discription.  In multi-player, high
>interaction the formulae really won't tell you what the other players are
>doing and guesses or intelligence may have to supliment the formula.  But
>this way the player doesn't need to waste his effort over-training.  The
>formula are a way of asking the character to rate his skills versus
>possible opponets without actually risking his life.

But is there really any reason that players have to know when the
most optimal time to stop training is?  In the real world no one really
knows this.  What we know is the economics of raising units and training
them.  Thus we can decide how many to have and how much training they
should get.  But I doubt that anyone has a detailed equation stating
exactly how combat between forces should work.  And the few people
in military simulations who do have rough formulae aren't the people
making the decisions anyway!

Obviously, economic and production formulae need to by known
by the players so that they can do some form of planning.  Plus it makes
sense; a lumberjack should know how many trees he can fell in a month
under normal conditions (and under certain other conditions like a
depleted forest or having to march half the time to get to the trees).
But assuming that the combat model makes sense and is explained will
there is no need for a player to be able to quantize it and plug it
all into a formulae.  Simple examples and explainations (and common
sense) can give everything that is needed.  Now, the examples and
description need to be better then anything I've seen in the rules
of a pbem game.  But that isn't a reason to prefer formulae in the
rules; just a reason to prefer better rulebooks.

Dave
__________
Dave Bonar
mebonar@lsuvax.sncc.lsu.edu
__________

References

Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
sjc@cs.purdue.edu (Steve Chapin)
Wed, 23 Jun 1993 18:49:06 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)set seen
11jkessler@gallua.gallaudet.edu (Jeffrey Kessler)
Thu, 24 Jun 1993 02:10:25 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
srt@aero.org (Scott 'Dr. Pain' Turner)
Wed, 23 Jun 1993 17:09:10 +0000
Re: PBM design: give away the formulas? (*FORMULAE !)
bruno@cerberus.csd.uwm.edu (Bruno Wolff III)
Wed, 23 Jun 1993 18:19:45 +0000