Re: It's about time!

From: "Enno Rehling" <rehling@usa.net>

Date: Sun, 07 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000

>Olympia provides both explicit signal/wait and also a priority system
>which usually means you can just write your orders and they work.
>Rich calls it the "do what I mean" system...

I know that system, and while I personally stopped playing Olympia after 3
or 4 turns (not enough time, pity), I overheard that other people here have
problems with it. The priority system seems to be quite well thought out,
but the signal/wait thing can get you mad (for reasons I mentioned in other
posts).

My first thought was something like:

UNIT A
give wood to B
signal B "wood_given"
recruit peasants until "bridge_built"
cross bridge

UNIT B
study bridgebuilding until "wood_given"
build bridge
signal A "bridge_built"
do something else

By means of an "until signal x arrives" parameter to my commands, I can
easily have them do something in idle time. Even if player B messes up
completely, my time has not been wasted. Plus, non-programming players can
probably understand the concept quite easily. (Yeah, I know: I don't usually
trust players to be very bright ;) ). You can even expand that to be
recruit peasants until "bridge_built" or day 15
if you don't want to accidentally spend all your money making recruits.

Then, today, a new idea popped up:
UNIT A
day 0:
    give wood to B
    signal b "wood_given"
    recruit until "bridge_built"
    cross bridge
end
day 7 and not "bridge_built":
    attack B for being an idiot.
end

This unit has a default set of commands, plus backup commands. the backup
commands replace the default program whenever the condition (in this case
"it's day 7 and the idiot B hasn't completed the bridge") turns true.

I wonder if _this_ is now too complex for the average player. But ti's damn
well something I wish I had in a game. Then again, I'd be happy to be able
to write really complex programs, and I'm *sure* no average player wants
that. So where's the thin line between helpful and too complex?

Enno.
PS: Yes, I'm writing a PBeM engine for an OLY-style game. And no, I'm not
sure about the complexity of the command language yet.

References

Re: It's about time!
"Enno Rehling" <rehling@usa.net>
Fri, 05 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000
Re: It's about time!
lindahl@pbm.com (Greg Lindahl)
Fri, 05 Mar 1999 00:00:00 +0000