Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!uunet!ogicse!milton!plague
From: plague@milton.u.washington.edu (Jack Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Looking for Comments/Suggestions for Spaceward Ho! Version 2.0
Message-ID: <1991May30.223919.18833@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 30 May 91 22:39:19 GMT
References: <1991May30.185345.10261@neon.Stanford.EDU>
Organization: University of Washington, Seattle
Lines: 52

In article <1991May30.185345.10261@neon.Stanford.EDU> commons@Sunburn.Stanford.EDU (Peter Commons) writes:

>1. Multi-Player Games. What can be done to make them easier?

I think this part of the game is just fine.  It really doesn't need improving.


>2. Message Passing. Do you want to send messages to other players? If so,
>   what do you want to send? And how would you do it?

Novelty.  Not necessary.  Amusing, but not necessary.


>3. Battles. Does it make sense that every battle is fought to the death? Would
>   you like to retreat, fuel remaining? What would you like in a battle 
>   summary? What would make a battle more fun to watch?

I like the battles to the death.  Mainly because currently, you cannot really
tell if you are fighting a computer or human player.  If you gave a retreat 
option, the two human players involved in the battle would both have to look
at it and decide to retreat or not, making it obvious you are fighting a 
human and not the computer.  

I very much like the idea of not knowing which you are fighting.  It adds all
sorts of intricacies to the game..

What I think would make the battles more fun to watch and more informative
is to use something like the following scheme:

Line up the opposing ships with some sort of generic icon to indicate
relative size, etc.  Then they shoot at each other and disappear when
destroyed.


		x x x X X X F F F C

		g g H H H k k s s s

Something like tha above.  Then shows a quick "laser beam death weapon" 
ray go from say, the first g to the first X, whichever is getting shot
at.  Just do the beam zapping and removing of dead ships until the battle
is over.

Those are my two (thousand?) bits.



-- 
Jack Brown
aka plague@milton.u.washington.edu
Make sure the milton part is in there.  Else it goes to another system
where I won't see it for months...