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From: moore@tc.fluke.COM (Matt Moore)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games
Subject: Re: Spaceward Ho 2.0 Suggestions
Message-ID: <1991May31.185759.24553@tc.fluke.COM>
Date: 31 May 91 18:57:59 GMT
Article-I.D.: tc.1991May31.185759.24553
References: <12981@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> <1991May31.170041.9305@tc.fluke.COM>
Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA
Lines: 56


 A) Better and better computer opponents, of course.

 B) It would be nice to know, and be able to adjust, the discount that the
"Ingenious" computer opponents are given on the money and metal prices of
ships and research.

 C) Lack of retreat from battles is not a problem for me: it adds a major
element of uncertainty of the game, which is OK, because the game is all
about long range planning in the face of uncertainty.

 D) A battle report half way between the present brief report and the full
"Graphic Battles" would be nice. I find myself wanting to know how many
ships and satellites the enemy had, of each type. Also, its a pain to pore
over the pictures of ships in the "Create New Ship Type" dialogue looking
for pictures to match to figure out range and speed; putting in all 4 (or
even all 5) numbers about a ship would be nice. It would also be neat to
know if any colony ships were there, and if any were killed. Here is a for
instance battle report, which would show up in the reports window:

 "Your Fleet 7 destroyed at Diphda. You lasted two rounds. You had 3
(4/4/8/3) ships. You have 0 left. Player 4 had 6 (6/4/0/0) satellites; he
has at least 5 left. Player 4 had 1 (4/4/7/4) ship; he has at least 1
left."

 Or perhaps you could use a tabular format, for instance:

 "Your Fleet 7 destroyed at Diphda.
  The battle lasted two rounds.

 Your Ships	#in	#left
 (4/4/8/3)	3	0

 Enemy Ships	#in	#left
 (6/4/0/0)	6	5
 (4/4/7/4)	1	1"

 Colony ships could be indicated by square brackets instead of parens, or
some such convention.

 E) Just out of curiosity, what happens if fleets from two or more
different players arrive a yet another player's planet at the same time?
Do the invading fleets whomp each other first? Or do they cooperate to
whomp the defending fleet before fighting over the spoils? Or does each
fleet pick another one to blast at random? Or do they allocate their fire
equally over all the enemy fleets? Or proportionally? Or does the program
just crash?

 Maybe the easiest solution would be to treat this situation as a series of
individual arrivals, and two-player battles. Ownership of the planet might
change hands several times in the same turn.

 This situation has never arisen for me, but inquiring minds want to know.

						Matt Moore
						John Fluke Mfg. Co.