Re: MMOG PBM stategy game, your opinion?

From: spambucket666au@yahoo.com.au (steve)

Date: Thu, 16 Jan 2003 02:55:02 +0000

> Have a look at Phoenix for an example of an alternative turn scheme.
> Essentially, the game runs every weekday, however positions maintain a
> queue of orders to work on. Each positions can store up to 5 days of
> 'time' at once, so will normally generate a turn about once a week
> unless the player wants more or has to respond to game events.
>
> One day in Phoenix won't allow you to get very much done, so players
> are generally thinking of a week or more of action at one time. As
> each ship, colony etc. is a separate position, most players will get
> one or more turn results every day, rather than having everything
> appear once a week. People generally seem quite pleased with this.
>
> One concern, however, is that in the event of an unexpected battle you
> will need to respond with new orders within 24 hours in order to be
> maximally effective.

This is the 'tick-based' system, but with queued orders?  (well
'turn-based' systmes are also 'tick-based' I suppose, just with longer
ticks).  Im also going to allow queued orders, so the difference is
1-day v. 1-week per 'tick'.   Again, its a personal thing, but I think
the type of people who would want to play and pay for this particualar
game would like the reassurance that nothing unexpected is going to
happen to their position if they dont have time to pay attention to it
for a couple of days.  1 day or quicker per 'tick' for me is a bit
like having a tamagochi :)

> >My idea
> > was that if a player didnt put in any orders for 3 weeks in
> > succession, their position would be killed off, although their account
> > would remain valid as long as it was paid up.  They could start
> > another position.
>
> I'm not quite sure this is necessary, what do you see as the key
> benefits of doing this? It would, I suppose, prevent players wondering
> if their allies/enemies are still playing or not, which is a problem
> in some games.

Exactly that.  People will drop out of a MMOG on occasion, and some
players will leave their allies wondering.  Also some players will be
prone to keep creating new characters all the time until they get one
in a position that they really like, which would be very inconvenient
to other players.  This 3 week inactivity period is the only way to
'resign' a current character for a particualr player account, in order
to discourage serial character churners.

> > The game will not demand time, as actually entering any orders is a
> > trivial thing that might take 5 minutes.  However, the amount of
> > brainspace and diplomacy the game takes up would be dependent on the
> > player.
>
> I'm with you on this one, this is something that PBM/PBEM supports
> very well.
>
>
> rob

References

MMOG PBM stategy game, your opinion?
spambucket666au@yahoo.com.au (steve)
Fri, 10 Jan 2003 02:36:15 +0000
Re: MMOG PBM stategy game, your opinion?
richardhutnik@hotmail.com (Richard Hutnik)
Sat, 11 Jan 2003 04:21:34 +0000
Re: MMOG PBM stategy game, your opinion?
spambucket666au@yahoo.com.au (steve)
Sun, 12 Jan 2003 02:49:40 +0000
Re: MMOG PBM stategy game, your opinion?
keenuward@hotmail.com (Rob Alexander)
Wed, 15 Jan 2003 11:20:58 +0000