You seem to have plenty of time playing games.
Kevin Rose
Good start, LG. Some comments:
1) Should we be able to 'drill down' on buildings (click on them to reveal more details or just to a detail screen)? For example, instead of a Loading Docks button, you'd have a picture of a harbor in the 'area' view, and clicking on that would bring up the docks view.
2) Are we going with fixed size colonies? I remember reading in the Col Strategy Guide that the original program actually allowed larger colonies, but it threw game balance off (people would build one or two huge colonies, and win easily).
3) Isometric buildings. I favor it, just because it would separate the interface from the original, and isometric buildings look better (when done well). I can't comment on how much additional work it would be, not being an artist...
4) Production. Sort of a side note, but I don't think production should be 'certain' in all cases. Crops fail, mines collapse, weather plays a part, etc. Maybe there should be some randomness in the production values. Would force players to make a choice; e.g. do I produce just enough food and take a chance, or produce more to make certain we have enough?
On the lighter side, here in CA we have the same 'border disputes' with our northern neighbor Oregon. It's kind of odd, because it is really one sided. I don't think most Californians feel one way or another about Oregonians, but Oregonians really seem to resent us. Must be jealousy. :)
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LandGrabber
1. I'm all in favor of using a graphical interface where appropriate. This style is used in many games including the Pirates Gold! Jason and I've discussed. In the 'Captain's Cabin' you can click on a 'Globe' for maps, a 'Book' for the ship's log, and a 'Treasure Chest' to see how much loot you've collected. This type of system could be easily applied to the Colony Screen. One point I would like to mention, in the old game the image for the 'Loading Docks' was the same for all colonies whether they were ports or landlocked, I'd like to suggest that instead we have a 'Storage Shed' as one of the basic buildings that appear when a colony is established. (This would also serve as a location for the 100 tons of each item you can store before building a warehouse.) This building would be replaced by the 'Warehouse' and 'Warehouse Expansions' when built. By clicking on the 'Storage Shed' or later the 'Warehouse' the 'Loading Docks' screen would appear. This same method could be applied to other building that have functions that the player can control. i.e. The Armory (he can check on which weapons are being produced and how far along production is), the Shipyard (same, but for ships and repairs), the Construction Site (control location for what buildings or fortifications are being built in the colony). Also the Custom House and any other building to which we wish to add special properties or functions.
2. As for colony radius, I'm undecided. Having a fixed radius of two squares would make it seem too much like Civilization, perhaps we could have some sort of system where after all the squares directly around a colony have a colonist working them, a new outer ring would appear around the colony display to be utilized. There would of course have to be some limit (3 perhaps?) to the radius. The biggest problem I see with such a system would be how it affects coding and graphics. Coding is your problem so I'll let you decide if its feasible, the graphic problem would be how do you expand the colony display to include new squares? It could be worked out I'm sure, but maybe we should save this for future versions.
3. I agree with you about isometric buildings, my only concern is how they'll look when we start putting colonists in front of them. However, like with coding (which is left up to you), I think we should make it clear to whoever does the graphics, that the choice is theirs. If they feel it'd be simpler to have 'face on' buildings, I want it made clear I won't object (at least not at this stage). Of course all graphics for the game should be in a form where they can be easily changed.
4. Again I agree with you about production. There should be random factors as well as disasters. Still, I think this aspect can be included later as an 'add on'. Right now, in my opinion, I think we should keep it simple until we have a working model with which we can later tinker with and improve. Of course right now the group's top priorty should be keeping you happy, Oh Great and Mighty Programmer! If you want to include water spouts that suck up the cargo from galleons heading for Europe, then so be it. We'll include them. (Just kidding around Kevin! Still it is true we need to keep you interested. If you feel the need to work on some aspect like 'eye candy' or whatever, go right ahead. I think every one will certainly support you)
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SoL in Buckeye State
1. I'm also for this idea because of the reasons you mentioned. Additionally hotkeys seem like a good idea for me.
2. Like I said many times before everything will have to be rebalanced, this is not a remake of Colonization. So we might keep the radius of 1 square because there are farms and such, but we might also increase it because we have an increased map size and the resources might not be that close together...we'll have to see.
3. Isometric buildings look good, I don't really care that much.
4. Random factors like "hard winter" sound good to me however the effect should always be shown to the player (because he visits his colony just every quarter of a year). So telling the player "There was a hard winter, one colonist died because we had so many people mining and noone took care of the farms." isn't fair IMO. Instead ther should be a message that says "It's a hard winter" and then the player can actually see that his farmers are producing less food in the colony screen and can order one of his other workers to farm.
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civgaming.net
If anyone wants to try to improve on my design (an easy task), or have a go at the colony screen, they should send their results to Kevin and me. Kevin, since as programmer he's the only one that matters in this project, me so I can upload it and post it on the forum (if you have access to your own web space you don't need me for this. BTW, I've managed to come up with another 20 megs so we should be good for a while.)
E-mail Kevin at:
kevin_m_rose@hotmail.com
(Kevin I hope you don't mind my posting your address here)
Me at:
jd2starsky@netzero.net
Oh yes! Here's the link to my EuroDocks Screen.
www.envy.nu/col2project/col2/eurodock/eurodock.html (http://www.envy.nu/col2project/col2/eurodock/eurodock.html)
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