Re: A patch

[Nikola Smolenski <smolensk@xxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday 01 May 2007 20:16, Jens Granseuer wrote:
> On 01.05.2007 14:32, haruspex wrote:
> > These changes are:
> > * User-friendliness:
> > - the exact amount of XP of a unit is shown next to its HP at the bar
> > in the bottom-left corner;
>
> The gory details are hidden on purpose. If that wasn't intended we
> could just have XP from 0 to 15 or something. I never missed the
> exact numbers and don't think they are important to know. Just some
> meaningless numbers.

I agree with this. To me, not knowing exact amount of XP adds to the game.

> > - you can see how far an enemy unit can move during its turn by
> > clicking on it, in the same fashion as with your own units (reasoning:
> > knowing how much movement points a particular type of unit has you can
> > predict where it will be able to move - so this feature just saves
> > your time);
> > - removed the window "Access Denied" when trying to find out the stats
> > of an enemy unit (reasoning: if you want to know the stats of a unit
> > everything you need is to find your own unit of that type - maybe in
> > another level. So disabling "unit info" on enemy units just creates
> > troubles for the user without really changing anything).
>
> These two were done on purpose as well, but maybe the reasoning wasn't
> quite as sound. The original idea was that during campaigns you would
> occasionally encounter new units that you know nothing about. Being
> able to just look up the stats somewhat works against that. On the
> other hand, unknown and mysterious enemy units haven't been a strong
> focus as of yet, so maybe changing this would be ok. Not sure.

A compromise could be that you are only allowed to see enemy unit stats if you 
have units of that type. This would allow for quick overview of stats, but 
would still retain the element of surprise.

I am unsure about seeing where could enemy units move. First, if stats for 
unknown units are disallowed, it should be disallowed equally. Second, not 
knowing exactly what is going to happen adds to the game in the same way that 
not knowing exact XP does.

One similar thing I was thinking about is being able to see how far enemy 
units (and why not, your own units) can shoot.