Quitch wrote:
1. Which is why it shouldn't be entirely random and never should have been. Who enjoys starting a game with an SA distribution which can only be carried if your opponent is a monkey?
I'm definately a proponent of pseudo-random SA distribution. Making sure that you have at least two of your territories neighboring would definately go a long way to give you a better chance.
Quitch wrote:
2. Which is why the player going first advantage should be balanced by benefits for the other players, such as bonus starting cash, or even an additional territory for player four.
Hmm... how do you balance the cash you give against the random advantage of SA placement? If problem 1 was solved, this might be something thats managable to playtest.
Quitch wrote:
3. A map the size of NP could easily handle four players.
Yeah, NP could do it. 27 territories... 4 large, 7 medium, 16 small. NR Might be able to handle 3 players, but anything smaller than that wouldn't work. But geez, imagine how long those games will take? Lets be optimistic and suggest that each turn takes a person 1-2 days to respond. You get a turn a week approximately. On NP, that game could take 20 turns, so you've got yourself a 5 month commitment. And what if someone drops?
Quitch wrote:
People seem too stuck in the MA thinking. If this is just going to be MA again, then don't bother making it since everyone here owns MA in one form or another.
The problem here is that a good strategy game is a very fine formula to work with. Those of us still here that MA is a gem in the strategy sphere, a game of simplicity of concept yet incredible depth of strategy.
Quitch wrote:
Time to add some new ideas and fix the old balance problems. Rather than going "that's hard" it's time to come up with a solution. Its been three years and three games, if you haven't been testing out new ideas then... wtf??
Experimentation on this concept would be great, but I don't think Wargaming are the ones that are going to do that too much. They have a formula that works brilliantly, they tweak it enough to be better without destroying the aspects, and they do it all with brilliant graphics. The game itself is fairly simple, but the AI that they've included and the advanced graphical engine definately make it very difficult to experiment, especially considering their limited development team.
What is needed to really play with this formula is an engine that focuses on modability and flexibility at the expense of AI and graphics. Unfortunately something like that will not sell. It would have to be an open source spare time project most likely, with the possibility of going live if theres enough interest.
This is such a niche genre... Very few people want pure strategy without adding every frill they can think of. There are a lot more that like a strategy game that complicates things and tends towards realism (fog of war, random damage, etc etc).