Re: Storm of the Eye

From: "Gavin Kinsey" <ghworg@kinsey.u-net.com>

Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000

I got a message from the man-thing JonMMorris,
> Ghworg enlightened us with his wisdom:
>
> >I was part of the playtest, the problem was that the empires got
> >>big to manage and it took days to complete a turn.  This caused a
> >lot of drop-outs and made the situation worse, finally there were
> >not enough players to continue.  Some players did take over empires
> >in the first proper game which was designed to be much smaller but I
> >chose not to for lack of time, I don't know if that game is still
> >going.
>
> Planning for growth is a common game design issue.  A game should
> allow the players to progress (skills, economics, money, whatever)
> but playing the game shouldn't turn into a full-time job.
>
> Common solutions are to automate the accounting details (consumption,
> production, maintenance, training, trades) so the player can focus on
> the "fun" stuff.  And, provide incentives for players to do/buy the
> same number of things but more powerful/elaborate things.
>
> What happened in Storm of the Eye that made it so unwieldy?

No automation and uncontrolled expansion, basically there were not
enough active players for the size of the map.  Add to that the fact
that everything had to be done by hand, although the frontend was
improving somewhat in allowing one order to apply to many units.  There
was just too much housekeeping needed in order to keep going.

I ended up with well over a hundred towns, I had to keep destroying
units to prevent from crossing the 10000 limit.  It was just too
unweildy in the end, although it was a really good game.

--
Gavin Kinsey     ICQ #20733693
http://www.kinsey.u-net.com/
"I tried to think but nothing happened!" - Curly

References

Re: Storm of the Eye
"Ghworg" <ghworg@kinsey.u-net.com>
Fri, 14 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Storm of the Eye
jonmmorris@aol.comnospam (JonMMorris)
Sat, 15 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000

Referenced By

Re: Storm of the Eye
"Ghworg" <ghworg@kinsey.u-net.com>
Fri, 14 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000
Re: Storm of the Eye
jonmmorris@aol.comnospam (JonMMorris)
Sat, 15 Apr 2000 00:00:00 +0000