I'd rather have MM work on AI as opposed to TCP/IP

[Jubala]

imperishable, I can't agree with you there. It's all about finding the right crowd to play it. When I was an active AoW player Online I rarely had problems taking up saved games with 6-8 players in them.

[phalen]

quote:

---

Originally posted by The Puke Empire:
I think very few people will have the time or want to spend their entire weekend multi-play a turn based game. At least I will never try that, even if I do get 10 hours free I wont spend it all on a game (and if I do, my friends don't).

I vote for AI.

(ps, how many turns can u play in 10 hours anyway, 40? probably won't even meet your human adversary ).

---

if you play a simultanious ... trust me you can easly get lots of people playing. turn based is a little harder.. but still heros of might and magic... 1-7 warloards just to name a fiew others that i can remember playing for over 24 hrs at one setting with around 5 other guys warloards was tcp and helped... specaly cause we could all use our own puter... it could be a BIG asset if done right... or a nightmare if wrong... but it has every chance of making it worth wile... plus what about seIV con (ie quake con) the email option is kinda cool in one respect... but i couldent see spending a year to finsh a game... one turn at a day... and i play a web based game that is real time..

[pathfinder]

having never played a strategy game in multi, I'll defer judgement to you who have. willing to try though if/when implemented.

as for improving the AI... I am in only the second game where I have survived long enough to be in a dead heat for 3d or 4th place. most time I get glassed ...so the AI is bad enough for me

[This message has been edited by pathfinder (edited 15 February 2001).]

[Seawolf]

I'm going to make a few real silly points.

1) Those who want to TCP/IP and can play for hours at a need are younger persons who have lots of free time on their hands. (IMHO)

2) The rest of us don't have hours or money to sit and use up a phone/cable line to play a game.

3) If you can be Online to do TCP why can't you just open up and send out the files via e-mail?

4) not to mention if you do it via e-mail you can play from work with little effort.



------------------
Seawolf on the prowl

[Triumvir Emphy]

Besides, for those who don't want to wait for email because it might be slow, you can always x-fer files through icq/aol/yahoo messenger/etc/etc, or if you are adventurous set up a PPTP tunnel with your buddy and share folders and have a direct write going. You have to wait a few minutes to finish turn anyway, what is 2 seconds to reopen SEIV and start the next turn.

[klausD]

I agree fully with seawolf.
As the game is now there is no really reason for me (old fart) to play it Online or even per pbem.

This would change if MM introduce a scenario generator with its MP-addon. With such a generator we could create short to medium scenarios which could be played in a reasonable time.

If MM does not make such a scenario generator, I fear for a lot of people the Multiplayer addon is not very useful. In this case the time should be rather used for AI-improvement.

bye
Klaus

[Lefty]

TCP/IP doesn't necessarily mean internet games. I work in an office with about another 5 guys willing to play a couple of hours after work or during lunch.
Lan play in simultaneous works well. Alpha Centauri was brilliant. Warlords was cool.
AI is important but you will never get an AI good enough to challenge a good player.
Fo a challenging game human is the only possibility.

[phalen]

sending email on a lan with no internet or email server wouldent work to well and lots of collages get kids renting/reserving a large conferance with no internet access...(or wont allow the students to access it from there) plus its a pain to explain how to use the mouse to some people... let alone explain to them how and WHERE to place the file sent via email.. (if im remembering correctly never played email.) plus as i understand alot of moder's are working on helping the ai as well.. (not shure if its hard coded..expecting it mostly is)

i would like to see a form of live play be put on back burner... weather it be using say icq Messages or some form of network play.

[Spyder]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Atrocities:
Yes, time limits on moves would be a must for TCI/IP play....

---

I like the way it was done in Global Conquest...you could select the time limit everyone agreed upon. You had selections from unlimited to 'Firecracker', with 5 minute turns being the default. I personally liked the 'Firecracker' option....where, the first person done ended the turn for everyone else. There was also an option that ended the turn 1 minute after the first person finished (ie, player 1 just hit the 'Done' button and now everyone else has exactly 1 minute to finish).

But in all cases, you should have the option to choose your time limit.

As for whether or not Malfador Machinations should work on TCP/IP interface, or on game AI...depends on what will sell more games I'd like to see an IP option. With exactly the same amount of conviction, I'd like to see a smarter computer player too....

Paul E. Mason
Senior VMS Systems Administrator

[Triumvir Emphy]

you don't need email to play PBEM, hehe contradiction in terms??
All you need to do is transfer the files to the host computer. You could do that by mapping a drive on each client computer to the seIV directory on the host computer.
So the only issue right now is the fact that SEIV exits when you finish a turn. There is no need for tcp/ip for a lan game (i mean a tcp/ip interface for the game, tcp/ip-netbue or ipx/spx are still needed for network) You can already play a langame, all we need is an option to keep the game running after your turn. True, the host still has to send the files to each client, but you can write a batch file to do a copy directory to do that.

with a little skill anybody can set this up, if only the game didn't stop.