Re: Solo vs. multiplayer, campaigns, and difficulty

[Patrick Forhan <pforhan@muddyhorse.com>]

Quoting Dave Fancella <david.fancella@comcast.net>:
> On Monday 08 March 2004 06:10 pm, Jens Granseuer wrote:
> > That's another interesting possibility. I keep thinking that those
> > generalized approaches can easiliy go wrong, but this is mainly gut
>...
> The problem with the generalized approach is that it's too mechanical.  It's
> too easy to tell that the game is exactly the same, just harder.  Generally 
>...

Isn't "Same Map, Same Units, Just Harder" what we are looking for?  By nature, a
more difficult battle will play out differently.  If we are wanting different
units or an entirely different experience, isn't that really a call for
flexibility in starting units (ie, random units or random placement or such)?

I would think if you want a radically different experience, perhaps it should be
a different map.  If you just want to make AntHill a bit easier or harder, it
should be a similar experience to Normal mode.  And I would make everything
relative -- Normal for one side in a map may be easier or harder than normal
for the other side.  That's just up to the mapmaker.

I think the trickiest thing here is not completely unbalancing the game.  For
example, if advantage for a side means the other side has only five units in a
full contingent (rather than six), it would make a difference, but it may be
too much to be fun.  I guess playtesting to find that point would help here.

> > > In fact, you specifically, Jens, who has been
> > > playing this game ever since it was first playable, might start wanting
> > > that feature soon.  ;)
> >
> > Heh, already giving up? ;-)
> 
> Are you talking to me?!

Crimson Fields: Cage Match.

> I'm in favor of this, too, actually.  ;)  I've also been thinking that it 
> would be cool if there were some way to score the entire game based on 
> campaigns won and give the players at the end a score, like Marginal victory

At the very least, perhaps a scorecard could be presented, with things like
kills, loses, top-ranked units, number of turns, etc.

Pat.