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Post by Daneel on Sept 21, 2009 8:11:41 GMT -5
So let's say we change Para... OK, now what? Are hordes of gamers gonna suddenly start flocking to the site to play a game that they can basically already play on RB (minus a few variations) ? Sadly, I think not. Couple of ideas: Live variant for VFs with, like, 1-minute log limit. While not truly a strategic game, it would allow players to get to know the rules in a quick, light, fun way. Awesome graphics. Oh yeah, I cast Fireball on myself to cancel the opponent's Ice Storm spell, while the Mailing List Troll and the Badly Named Ogre burn to ashes. Flash is your friend! (Note that there is something to be said about the accessibility of Warlocks in its current form - any ancient machine with even a trickle of Internet will do.) Split scoring into "current" (which creeps down if you don't play any ranked matches for a while), and "achievement" (which shows your best ever, so you don't have to stop playing if you feel you are at your peak). Option (default even) to limit games to players with similar overall potential (calculated from a combination of score and # games played I guess) to keep the challenge constant. If the community consists of 50 players scattered evenly from 1400s to 2000s, the number of choices are limited, but I'm sure a couple of n00bs decided to go back to Armor Games after they got pummeled by experts in their first few games.
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Post by ourjake on Sept 21, 2009 11:11:13 GMT -5
actually getting the crap kicked out of me when i started was the most fun. you get to see all kinds of new weaves and everything is fresh. some people don't like waiting for moves; and that's part of the game unless you set something up in advance. speaking of pummeled by experts. my favorite opening was from early on against Bio he opened f/f and i was entirely unable to stop it from going to para/fireball.
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Post by deleted on Nov 2, 2009 16:26:50 GMT -5
I think what will end up happening is that those of us who are working on our own Warlock variants will each decide how we want Para to work (or not work) for our own respective versions. I already know how my version of Para will probably work now, but I know that it's still not gonna be accepted by everyone. And that's just how it is... there are too many ways that Para can be changed, so each possible Para variant is gonna have it's YAYmen and NAYmen. What I am wondering about and concerned about more than the issue of Para is the issue of why there are still so few players. Is it just the learning curve of this game that repels most, or is the game just too hidden on the internet? For myself, the learning curve of Waving Hands is what originally turned me off, but now it doesn't seem like a big deal. My original idea was to dumb down my version of Warlocks so that anyone could play it, and if you go to my link I posted in the other thread (warlocks clones) you will see that it is indeed a dumbed-down game, but it's hardly anything like Warlocks at all. It's more like a guessing game with very little strategy, if any, to speak of, but I decided to leave it up because it's kind of a nice diversion if all you want to do is see how many players you can smash through without having to think too hard. However, that type of game gets pretty boring pretty quickly for those of us who are craving real strategy, which is why I am working on the 2nd phase of my game, which will have all the good stuff that Warlocks has. But, in the back of my mind, I still don't see how just changing a few spells is gonna make a ton of people want to play the game. So let's say we change Para... OK, now what? Are hordes of gamers gonna suddenly start flocking to the site to play a game that they can basically already play on RB (minus a few variations) ? Sadly, I think not. when I tried this game almost exactly a year ago, I found that the game was interesting but it didn't feel like I would find something that wasn't already known. When I start a new game the first thing I do is try to understand the not immediately obvious implications of the rules that will allow me to beat other beginners. Without many other beginners there wasn't there weren't enough peers for me to discover my own tactics, I had to borrow them off of other people with doesn't work well since I didn't fully understand them. My solution to getting more players would be to make a simple bot for them to practice against. Make it not pay attention to what the player is planning so that the raw beginners are able to pull off obvious tricks and get the mechanics down before they have to worry about the psychology. There is plenty of smart in here, it needs to be balanced with a little dumb.
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Post by ellipsis on Nov 3, 2009 4:00:46 GMT -5
Definitely having bots of any kind would contribute a lot to smoothing the learning curve (and even if they're not that brilliant, experienced players could always try taking on 2 or 3 bots at once for fun...oh man, or a co-op 2v4 would be awesome). It would also give players the ability to play as fast they wish, since the bot always moves quickly.
Of course, having some kind of graphical representations would also go a long way, but I don't foresee that happening any time soon.
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Post by deleted on Nov 3, 2009 10:55:07 GMT -5
scripted with a few strings then it can just stick those together and we have a bot.
I figure I'm easy enough to beat so here's a small string for the bot to try.
LH:WFPSFWSSC RH:SSFPPWSDC
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Post by mikeEB on Nov 3, 2009 11:37:29 GMT -5
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Post by nawglan on Nov 3, 2009 17:10:51 GMT -5
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Post by xade on Nov 3, 2009 17:41:39 GMT -5
There was a time- not too long ago, when the xkcd forums found this game- the place was flooded with a bunch of intellegent "noobs" and really regenerated the feel of the place. I've forgotten now who has stuck around from that period- but if it's possible to tap into internet sub-cultures like that and get groups of new players coming in- who are happy to play against each other. Particularly from the midset of playing against their already established peer-groups, in a new battle of minds; then only good things can come from that!
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Post by deleted on Nov 3, 2009 20:09:14 GMT -5
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Post by nawglan on Nov 3, 2009 21:12:06 GMT -5
mebby we should ping 4chan
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Post by ellipsis on Nov 4, 2009 3:33:36 GMT -5
mebby we should ping 4chan Yeah, then we'd get like 300 SCARYGHOST's.
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Post by ourjake on Nov 4, 2009 13:15:41 GMT -5
i'm from xkcd also. but i didn't stumble onto the thread till way after it was done
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Post by deleted on Nov 4, 2009 23:17:05 GMT -5
ok bay12 is having the exact same reaction xkcd did. But judging by xkcd it's a one time thing. We need to hit up Something Awful, they have a similar enough temperament they should have the same type of one time buzz. With the size of SA it could get enough here for a self sustaining reaction.
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Post by saypin on Nov 5, 2009 4:30:09 GMT -5
mebby we should ping 4chan omg! no-no-no
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Post by ourjake on Nov 5, 2009 11:32:35 GMT -5
is there something about that site that i'm missing? nothing there seems to hold any interest to me. and everyone seems to swing back and forth between "i'm so emo" and "show me your boobs"
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