Phoenix-TheRealDeal
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Posts posted by Phoenix-TheRealDeal
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Indeed... and happy is a civ designer that begins to see the troops come to life.
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I like him.
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As proponent civ designer for carthaginians, I approve of Michael's concept for the fortress. If anything, it is a bit more "interesting" than they probably were.
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I like 'em, Michael.
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Ah, OK.
I don't have a problem with that except that most people have to go where the work is unless they have some sort of skills that are 'universal' in nature.
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I take it then that you do believe that it has been "a step in the right direction", though not a "be all, cure all"... and I think that is the most that anyone COULD expect.
With regard to 'building something yourself', we can but even at that we don't... the reason being that we are social beings who do not live in isolation as hermits, thus anything that we DO do has interactivity with others and has a 'political' nature in the broader sense.
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Yieul,
Ah yes, "Borda Count".
Does it work? I mean, do you think that it works better to meet with the needs/desires of the people?
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Check, mate.
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OK, so far 5 of you have voted.... all as indivduals having 'preferences' albeit strong or not. I've abstained for a couple reasons, the most important for illustrative purposes being I didn't post my results correctly (and can;t find them in this mess on my desk) and the other being I'm an 'oldster' by comparison with ya'll youngsters.
So, let's suppose now that the 5 of you represent ALL of the voters in a country (any) other than the candidates, Libby, Greenie, Demie, & Repie... who can be presumed to have voted for themselves (700 possible points for each). So, a total of 9 votes.
In a 'winner take all', Greenie WINS! with 5 'first place votes', 6 if you consider Adam's split first-place with Libby. So 66% of you are happy, happy, happy and Greenie has a decided mandate to pursue his/her platform.
Notice too that every one of the 5 of you had at least SOME issues wherein you 'agreed' with stances taken by ALL other party platforms.But suppose that your country is really a federation of sub-states that has an electoral college like we do in the States. Depending upon the split and the elctoral votes allocated to each population it is conceivable that Demie would have won even though Demie him-/herself was the only voter voting the stright-line party platform. In this case, Demie is winner takes all even though only 44.4% of the voters, actually 33% being you non-candidate voters got your '2nd choice' (Demi alone getting 1st choice). So is everybody happy? Noooooooooo. 55.6% of the vote didn't even 'count' even though the point spread was 2179 Greenie to Demies 1784. Even worse if Greenie was prohibited by the entrenched interests of Demie and Repie from even getting onto the ballot.
This may seem a bit confusing, or even overly simplistic to some, but it's sort of illustrative of what kind of a system we are faced with here in the States when it comes to electing presidents, and in some places governors and mayors.
During the 2000 election Al Gore would have won on the popular vote count but the electoral was so close that it ultimately had to be resolved by the Supreme Court for a decision. Did Al Gore feel outraged that he'd lost the elction? Yes, but to a system that HE and his party has perpetuated throughout the years. It is an archaic form that no longer serves the purpose of serving the 'highest and best interest' of the people today (and he isn't the first to have lost the popular vote to that system), but tightly held onto because it does serve the interest of the two BIG parties... at the expense of any other 'interloper'. So, the choice for us mainly boils down to often choosing "the lesser of two evils" or 'wasting' our vote on a so-called "spoiler" 3rd party candidate.
This is why there is now a movement afoot in the state of Colorado to change the voting laws there, pushed mainly by younger people who ask, "Since when does 40% WIN?" The answer is, of course, in perpetuity... unless enough people get together to DO something about it.
Anyway, thier push in a people's initiative that young people got onto the ballot there is to get legislation enacted that would enact Instant Reverse Voting (IRV) into law in Colorado (google on it).
That would enact a system of balloting whereby individuals vote their preferences rated something similar to the little exercise you've just participated in wherein virtually ALL of the voters, or at least a great majority, end up by getting their 1st or at least 2nd choices as result. Thus a much greater percentage of the voting population really does have something to look forward to in voting thier choices. As it stands now you 'bet the farm' and you either win or you lose, and sometimes even when you win, you lose.
I'm an old duffer and just learned about this, and it takes time (aned effort) that I probably don't have to effect major change in any 'system' entrenched, but you guys could! Those of you who live here as voting citizens of the United States.
As for the rest of you and ALL of you, it is of high interest to me how much you have an shared affinity for the issues posed by the 4 platforms... that methinks in a microcosm bodes well for the 'world-at-large' which will one day be led by the likes of you, 'God Willing and the creek don't rise', or the oceans too much due to exacerbated global warming in the meantime. So, GOU!
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Thank you Michael for pointing me to this thread. It is with pleasure that I see so much 'level headed' thinking in it... by both those from within America and those without... or outside.
Here is a little something that you can ALL participate in, if you choose to. It is a website spnsored by Zogby International Polling and another outfit, though it is NOT a poll itself. Intentionally, it is meant to help those who are undecided about which of the presidential candidates to vote for to make up their minds.... but it doesn't send or display the 'results' to anyone except the person doing it.
It has the form of a poll, except that it doesn't specify any candidate... merely 'issues'. There are two forms, a short one and a long one... for anyone interested in such a thing I suggest doing the long one, though I'll grant you that it took me more like 30 minutes to step my way through ALL of its more than a hundred items to be rated (5 ways) than the 20 shown for 'long'.
What happens is that as you've rated all the issues as to their importance to YOU, then a readout is given as to what percentage of your preference going through them you have supported one of the candidates by YOUR views. The outcome can be very interesting, as it was to me.
One of the reasons, too, that I think it is so interesting is that even people who are NOT voters in the USA, too young or from toher countries, can find out where they stand on the issues... relative to the candidates, and of course, it IS of interest to the 'world-at-large' who the president of the United States is, or might be.
So, If you are interested, you might wanna try it out and then post what you find out there... and of course, there are a LOT of issues to be concerned with.
You can find it here=> Platform Issues Comparison
I was somewhat surprised by how my own came out:
Kerry = 66%
Bush = 34%
Nader = 0%
I take it that the percentages are rounded off to the nearest 1. I think that because noone of the other candidates appear on my readout, but Nader did. What surprised me is that though I've been leaning toward Kerry, I am strongly in agreement with his platform by comparison with any other... moreso that I'd realized... and I in fact like Ralph Nader very much. But I reckon when it gets right down to voting the issues I wasn't quite in his 'ball park' and see that he got less than 1% of my stated preferences. By the same token, there does appear to be somewhat of a 'conservative streak' running through me. I should also say that I am a registered Independent voter, have long thought of myself as being Libertarian with a conservative bent, and recently thought that I had a pretty strong affinity with the Greens. Well, neither the Libs, Greens or Contitutionalists even made my 'list'! Hmmmmm.
Well, anyway, I hope you guys, Americans, Canadians, Europeans, or from wherever, find it an interesting little exercise... and will suggest that you might find some surprise within for yourself.
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This would allow a minimap that will rotate with the main view, either just top-down but oriented to the view angle, or going a step further and matching the view perspective also.
Now this is a very unteresting idea when it comes to speaking of immersive qualities. Picture the soldier. He is standing somewhere in the world. He has in his hand a map of some scale, perhaps 1:62,000, 1:50,000, 1:25, 000... etc. this map in his hand is his mini-map. How does he use it for navigation upon the terrain of the real_world? Well there are a number of little technique that he uses to locate himself or locate 'targets' on the terrain... we do that for our soldier/player by marking his minimap for him. But the one thing that he ALSO does... is orient the map from his viewpoint to where he is looking, or going.
As an old soldier, I've done that a LOT. MY personal job was also working in an aircraft having 'video' screens displaying areas of the terrain on them (aerial surveillance & reconnaisance systems). This was before the days of computerized touch screens, but the way in which we plotted and tracked targets on the screens was in the same manner... by having a map in lap oriented to the flight path as terrain was revealed on the screen... again, the simile of the minimap.
It is intuitive. It is easier to 'find oneself' and find 'the enemy'... or where you suspect he might be.
It is the best and highest use of the gamescreen with its organic minimap that I've seen mentioned yet. And it is a darnsight better than trying to rotate the camera around that is disorienting as is done in some games. Another breakthough idea, methinks.In actual practice, it is just as well that the minimap be on the flat plane from vertical viewpoint as the perspective on that would dither clear and instantaneous view of the whole of the terrain.
Now then, I was excited when Stu mentioned (at length) his idea for putting all the game data items at the top and related to what he said about there being a closer perspective at the bottom of the screen. But wrt to Michael's thought, and subsequent posts, if not too difficult to do I'd go for creating that at the top then having a toggle in the game setup screen permitting it to be toggled to the bottom as the player wishes. The only thing that would be 'lost' is a bit of the 'closer perspective' while nothing is really lost of the greater expanse in viewing of the gameworld on the screen itself. So, just toggle to top or to bottom as one would wish..... flip---flop.
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You seem to have 'forgotten' that I had a dream, too.
A dream upon awakening is often the synthesis of the compilation of a multitude of 'facts' coming together that enables one to think entirely anew about something he has been muddling over for a long time... thinking out of the box.... thus a "breakthorough". Kudos to you, and kudos to me for having palmed off GUI design consideration onto you in the first place. I LIKE it. Give ME more of the gameworld and less of the supporting paraphanalia... as long as I can interpret or access that easily enough... anyday!
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It IS 0 A.D., HD.
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Hello, Timothy, and welcome to WFG community forums.
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Go check the links on the 0ad Website and you will find some of them.
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Yes, he's done very good work on the shields as well as other things. Thank you for recognising his good work.
Being a member of the Graphics Department working on an effort as large as this is often, usually, involves what many would think of as 'drudge work'. It can take many days of work on something as simple as making, appropriately, such as a hundred different terrain patches or a hundred different shield faces, then move on to the next item and have to make a hundred more of something, the next thing. So, not only has he done good work on these, but he has consistently done such good work for more than two years now working on the game... and that is the BEST of the work that he's done.... sticking with it and being consistently dedicated to what he is doing.
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do just this one guy from this reference of an iberian warrior
I will be particularly interested in seeing that.
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We'll be looking forward to seeing what you are able to come up with.
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That is true.
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Same to YOU, pard.
It is not so much that it is "all that secret stuff" as it is that a lot of that stuff just ain't really ready to 'show off' yet. And if it is not ready, then the showing of it misinforms rather than enlightens people who see it. We are sensitive to that because people who find out they've once been told something that turns out to not be true are often turned off by that... and we really don't want that to happen with respect to the game we are making, eh?
At the same time, we've all made some mistakes along the way, it's been a big learning process. We hope we are getting better as we learn together.
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Welll... maybe someone will whisper it in yor ear so that you know what it really sezzz.
That is if I interpret "hort" correctly.But I'll 'condense it for ya, pardner.
=> It says that we really are not low on ideas for specialty RMS maps, and that we are gonna make a certain kind of RMS maps (script 'em for release with the game).
=> It says that WE aren't gonna make more than one RMS specialty map, and that we are gonna leave the making of MORE of them to you guys when the came comes out.
=> It says that some of the ideas you've listed you will see as already being done when the game comes out, and some not, but that I'm not at liberty to go into detail about ALL of that at this time (nor is Mythos_Ruler, for that matter).
Now then , looking at your sig and seeing that your are a modder extraordinaire and 0ad fanatic, and looking at your list, I see some GREAT ideas... so the point of the thread is in listing WHAT you guys think you will be wanting to do YOURSELVES... and in that case it is not pointless.
I just wanted to clear up a few points for you because I thought that it would help your understanding of what you can expect... but if you aren't going to read it... *shrug*
someone else probably will. -
0ad is going to have two types of RMs, historical ones like the nile and central mediteranean etc and specialty ones just for fun.
Somewhat of a misstatement, so let me clarify.
1. All maps will be fun to play, some moreso for some folks and some moreso for others.
2. There are no RMS maps to be developed that are "historical" in the strictest sense of that word. The entire game being developed has a historical basis and most of the categories of RMS maps will support that to the extent that they reflect some degree of accuracy with respect to the geophysical attributes of the terrain and "biomically" with respect to what part of the gameworld they 'depict'. So, this is to say that within a given category of RMS map, you will see something of the flora, fauna, and geological formation characteristics that existed regionally 2,000 years ago.
We hope to have so many different entities that can be placed upon the maps that the biomic packeting of them along with certain physical relevances will indeed permit one category from looking exactly like another. Biomic packeting restricts the number and individual entities that can be loaded to a type map, also preventing the overloading of it so that the game just won't run. Those entities have been spec'd, it remains for them to all be artistically rendered and the programming developed to support the generation of the maps. That's work in progress. It will take time. We are not at this time adding to that list; building the game is like building a skyscraper, you don't change the architectural drawings once you have the building half way built and specialist everywhere working according to the specifications.
3. The RMS maps to be supplied with the game as a matter of being done 'up front' for release with the game, WHEN ready for that, fall into 9 categories that are tied to what we call "biome packeting" as mentioned in 2., above. These are such as "Temperate", "Steppe", "Desert", etceteras. All of these biome packeted maps have a relevance to 'places', geographical regions, that were to be found as the historical homelands of the 6 civilisations we are featuring in the game, with exception to 2.
One of those 9 is "Polar" and the other "Tropic", though for the latter we can do a bit of a stretch by knowing that the Carthaginians visited tropical Africa during the voyage of Hanno, and probably via trader caravans; Polar is included because we've known since time immemorial that people have wanted it. Remember, unless you don't know, that this game has been being worked on for well over two years now. NOTHING about it remains in its infancy.
These maps then represent the extent of our "game world" regionally, though in fact players recognise the greater truth that the game world is being anything presented to them in the GUI and at the keyboard or by sound. So, it's merely a matter of definitions for the purposes of design specifications.
4. Each of the RMS map categories has spec'd for development at least one each of a "land map" and one of a "water map", for it, some more than others; and each of these maps are given a name that generally depicts what they 'are' and the region they represent. Thus, "Nile River" is but a 'sub-category' of "Desert--Water map" because it has some major extent of water upon it and the designed characteristics overall lend to certain aspects of gameplay affecting players strategies and tactics on that map. And while each as a randomised map will 'come up' differently, they will always have those characteristics that relate it to that particular region of the 'game world' in a more-or-less recogniseable fashion to the player... helping him to get his 'head into' the Nile River and adjacent lands. By design, merely one of many aspects of the game we define as enhancing "player immersion" into it during a gaming session.
5. In addition to the 9 categories just mentioned there is a 10th category that has but a single map spec'd to it. This is the one wherein we said "just for fun" because it indeed bear NO relationship nor historical relevancy to the 'regional game world'. The generation of this ONE "specialty" RMS map by the team prior to release is merely to give a single 'example' of what ANY fan, mapscriptor, scenario designer, campaign developer, or modder... might want to do him- or herself once the game is released and in their own hands.
So, you see we are not short on specialty maps.... and Michael is not one of the game designers who've written the specifications for the work to be done, but a graphics artist who has currently been working with me to "mock up" some marvelously good visual 'representations' of those map types specified.
The Scenario Editor will provide the tools that provide for that, for making up many different and wonderful maps and stuff limited largely only to the creativity of the fans. That's one of the principal goals we are working towards, say, coming under the term of "great moddability". Now then, if anyone wants to design (at that time) a world map such as AlexanderTheGreat3 did for AoK & AoC, or an Australia map that is 'good' such as others did (both FAR exceeding the scope of our game-relevant game world), they can certainly do that... and we hope that we'll be making it easier for you than has typically been before. You can go into competition with Bobbo for making of an even better World Map.
OK, I hope that'll give you a little bit of a 'better idea' where we are going wrt RMS maps.
And that's about all I can say on the subject at this time because all is yet a work in progress, we have much yet to get on with, governed by milestones for accomplsihment as needs be, except that some of what has been proposed here in fact are game types rather than map per se, some are already 'in there', and some are simply not relevant to our development effort at this time... BUT YOU will be able to make them then as relevant as you, yourself, want to... when we get the game done to the point when that becomes possible FOR you.
I take no responsibility for the forthcoming insanity.why would you be responsible? just because this was your Idea I post themBecause he knows, in light of recent developments with respect to the team organisation and effort, that he may have 'spoken a bit out of turn', and doesn't now want to take any 'heat' for it.
I think, he did. And hope, I haven't. But I didn't want you left 'hanging' here once started the thread, especially in view of how I suspect it came about. Soooooooooo.....You see, there is a 'New Sheriff in town', goes by the name of the PR Department, has certain responsibilities they are working on toward getting ya'll better informed, and some of us are just going to have to get used to the fact that they are the ones who are charged with disseminating information about the game's development and progress. Good idea, really, as it will cut down on the amount of misinformation that 'gets out and about'.
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E-mail notification of PM and link in PM to this forum works for me, Tim.
If other notifs work, I shant reply again... but to say now Thank You, Pardner. Makes it so much easier to get around.
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Tim,
I wrote you some weeks ago now about it but didn't get an answer. Maybe you didn't get my message. The 'problem' for me is that I don't get e-mail notifications in a form that I can just click on the URL cited as being a new topic or a reply to a thread in a forum that I have subscribed to.
This circumstance has always been the case for this iterqation of the WFG forums, but didn't used to be the case for the 0ad forums where I spend most of my time. That started just some weeks ago.
What it entails is that when I receive an e-mail notification, then I have to:
=> highlight the URL in the body of the message,
=> copy it to the clipboard,
=>then in an active page, highlight whatever is in the address bar there,
=>paste the clipboard stored URL into that address bar,
=>and then hit GO.
When I have a dozen or more e-mail notifications backedup that I am trying to get to to read and/or reply to (because I am subscribed to quite a few forums) this constitutes an inordinately large amount of time I am spending just trying to 'get around'.
That's strange to me because otherwise we have great boards... and NO other boards that I visit nowadays that I am subscribed to do I have to do anything more than just simply click on the URL in the notification to gain direct access to the 'post' indicated.
We are all busy, and I sort of 'shined it' before when it only applied to WFG forums cuz haven't been going there (though I used to go there often to welcome new 'members' to our forums) much, less so now that harder to get to, and I thought, oh, I'll hear something back sooner-or-later, and also thought, well, maybe it is only me and is something in my own comp that isn't 'right'. You know... but it's become a real pain in the nether region AND I've recently learned that someone else is experiencing the same problem(s).
So, do ya reckon we could find a fix for that?
Hellenes: Sparta: Unit: Hero: Leonidas
in Unit Concepts
Posted
:bigsmile for awesome looking dude.