jkufner

Every option is designer's failure to make it right. Imagine, you want to play a game, you don't know much about the rules, you just want to play. So you start a game and screen with 20 options appears. Now what? Should you check this one or that one? Is it better to play for 30% or 80% of something? How long the timer should be? Try to answer these with only basic knowledge of the game. The game should provide only few options without unnecessary details. If the victory condition should be "control majority of land", then you as the developer or game designer, should figure out what "majority" means and how much it is for the best game play. If there is a timer, you should test how much time is needed to save the day. Don't be lazy, don't leave it to users. For advanced players and developers, there should be a custom mode with all options available. You, as the developers, will need theese options to test the game. But these options should be hidden behind an "advanced options" button, configuration file, or something like that. From the implementation point of view, it is a very good idea to keep all these values as configurable parameters. Even better is to keep them in a separate file (one file per game profile/mode; presets are loaded from two directories - game defaults and user's profile) which can be easily shared and discussed between developers/players. This way you can avoid the "advanced button" as you can edit/create a config file with many many parameters and tune them over time and switch between the files/profiles easily.

Indeed I don't think 120 minutes is a realistic option, but I do think people should be able to chose whatever value they want. There is psychological aspect of this. If you set boundaries to 0–20 minutes, people will assume that 20 minutes is a long game. If you set boundaries to 0–120 minutes, people will assume the game is meant to last long, therefore there is not enough time to play it at all. Therefore, the availability of a long timer actually causes damage.

because most ppl play annihilation/conquest anyways in multiplayer. That is why the timer should be short. Once player looses his relic, he should be screwed. The timer should be there to avoid short glitches when oponent has nothing and just sneaks there — for such cases there should be some time for retribution. When I played some wonder game modes back in Age of Empires, the influence of the wonder was so small and timer so long, that after my wonder was built I got bored and wiped the oponent anyway. That is why ppl don't play these modes. On the other hand, we often played regicide mode, because there was one simple task to do. No hunting for a last peson in a forest. No waiting for meaningless timer. Just go there and kill the target.

The countdown once all relics are captured should be in few minutes. The goal should be to capture the relics and wait for the current battle to be decided. Not to starve to death in mean time. So… how much time it takes to build and send another wave of soldiers to recapture the relic assuming the both parties are weakened by last combat? Make the countdown 1.5× of that.

Or we can add a flag on the vagon ☺

Flags were used all the time trough the history. According to http://history.stackexchange.com/questions/7399/who-invented-the-first-flag the oldest documented use of flags is from around 5000 BC. So, yes, flags are fine.

I think the flag is completely fine.

I think the best amount of flags to capture would be the smallest prime bigger than number of players. E.g. 2 players -> 3 flags, 3 or 4 players -> 5 flags, 5 players -> 7 flags, etc. To make game a bit more interesting, the second smallest prime number could be used. The flags could be placed manually or automatically. Manual placement provides an easy way to deal with complex maps. Automatic placement allows to play on any map or to generate random maps. Mannual placement is easy -- author places sufficient number of flags on map and that's it. Automatic placement is a bit more complicated as we need to deal with two aspects: uniform flag placement and fair strategical dispositions. The automatic flag placement algorithm: Build Voronoi diagram using walking distances between players. Use edges of the map as additional "player", so the each player's region will end half way to edge of the map. This will provide additional edges in the diagram Find points V in the Voronoi diagram, where more than two regions meet. Find points P which are in middle between neighbour points V (in middle of boundaries between the regions). Place desired number of flags on points V and P, which are nearest to center of the map. I have not tested this, but I think it should provide reasonable and mostly fair flag placement. At least on maps without significant terrain features, like a river between players with a single bridge. But it should be possible to deal with these features as well.

One important note on the rigicide game: Hereoes are not supposed to be the "kings" to kill, because it would change gameplay too much. At least this was the idea when I proposed the new gametype. But in discussion under the issue http://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/2160 use of heroes came up and since it is simpler to implement than introducing a new unit Sandarac took action and made the first patch (which is good). The discussion settled on two new gametypes: Rigicide (kill the new unit "king" or "queen") and Heroicide (kill existing hero). The strategy for Rigicide game is to garrison king/queen to CC and play as usual. Benefit is in simpler game objectives. AI should have little to no problem with this. The strategy for Heroicide game is much more complicated, because it may be important to use the hero in battle, but it must survive during the game.

Capture the Sheep The Sheep is a dumb sheep which can be controlled by any nearby unit just like ordinary sheep (they will change color). Sheep is immortal. (And villagers will not eat them.) Other player must capture all Sheeps and bring them to their territory. Sheeps cannot be garrisoned (but you can build a wall around them). Sheep can be transported by boat. If boat is destroyed, sheep respawns at nearest home territory or CC. Or we can let Sheep swim. See http://trac.wildfiregames.com/ticket/4075