Temporal Ramblings...

[WhiteHojo]

Ok - this post may challenge the "what types of MP3s do you listen to while playing" as the most ridiculus, off the wall, idle nonsensicle ramblings of a over exposed SE4 player, but I feel I need to ask it.

While reading some of the other Posts, as I find myself doing on a regular basis (does anyone else find this a little compulsive?), I found that I have warped the time periods of our little game and I began wondering if anyone else does this...

I realized that in all my games that I've played, I tend to think of the turn period as 1 YEAR instead of 1 TENTH OF A YEAR.

To me this seems to fit my predisposed temporal system better. Converting an atmosphere in 30 years seems more appropriate than in 3 years.... Building deep space faring ships in 2 to 6 years doesn't seem as unrealistic as in 2 to 7 months.... And noone turn my "realistic" argument back around on me either - I know its a game but to me 1 year incriments seem better suited than the 1/10th incriments.

Anyone else got any input?

(& no I'm not on any medication)


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Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.

[Suicide Junkie]

What about population growth?
15% to 30% every year?

Yet they manage to stop when they reach the population limit. Wow.

Getting 150KT of ship to the edge of the solar system in 5 weeks?
Thats amazing.

Creating a planet (with a full atmosphere) in five days? (1/8th{from movement used} of 5 weeks {per turn})
Dude!

I would agree with you there.

The only difficulty with one-year turns may be in explaining repeated combat (8 attacks at the same location takes up 1 turn (year?) Does it really take a month to recharge shields & reload weapons & get prepared?

[alasyr]

Now noone claimed that games runs in Earth's years.It doesn't have earthly number of months for sure (10 in game compared to 12 on Earth).So that "year" could be as long as you want it to be, it alos applies to "months" too.

[DirkHowitzer]

My only question is: What's the point? Does it matter? A time unit is a time unit. The game is fun. No game ever made perfectly modeled reality and neither does this one. It has rules for time, as do other games, and we adjust to those rules. It shouldn't matter whether they mirror time as we know it, all that matters is that we adapt to having fun playing the game as it is. This is it's own special challenge.

If we worry about such inconsiquensial(I apologize in adavance for my lack of spelling prowess)things, then we rob ourselves of a much more basic enjoyment of the game. That being deployment of strategies and maximizing the time as layed out by the game.

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"He's dead, Jim."-- Lt. Commander Leonard "Bones" McCoy |Chief Medical Officer / USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

[WhiteHojo]

alasyr - you are getting my point and missing it at the same time - probly my fault... you say "no one claimed that games run in Earth years" - after reading lots of Posts for many a long day at work, I would have to disagree w/ya - while MM might not have ever said "a turn is 1/10 of a year", several players seem to use that period of time to define a game turn.

My point was that in my mind a game turn somehow, somewhere & somewhy took on the time limit of 1 earth year.

I am wondering what others define the turn as (if anything - not sure my little mind could grasp that concept though - a game turn is simply a undefined period of time?)...

Alasyr & Dirk, what do ya'll think of when you think of a "game turn"?

I'm not making these statements as any type of criticism, just more as a ramble... a questing mind game so to speak...

As far as enjoying the game, enjoyment is diferent things to different gamers. Some enjoy simply playing the game while others tend to submerge themselves into the role (& all that that entales) of leader of their fictional race. I'm pro'bly somewhere inbetween the 2 extremes. To me, the defining of the game turn enhances my enjoyment of the game - to others, it may not be so important.

The point is - what is YOUR opinion on it?

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Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.

[This message has been edited by WhiteHojo (edited 06 March 2001).]

[alasyr]

What I was thinking is that year in a game doesn't have to be of same length as our year (it might be 10 our years or 20).I do know that in game a year is ten turns (I think the MOO2 have same thing 1 year=10 turns, although in MOO2 there was nothing that used years in a way SEIV used it) but that didn't stop me for thinking that value improvement plants do 0.1%-0.3% value increase in a game turn not a game year.Analog for a game turn in my mind would be month.

[This message has been edited by alasyr (edited 06 March 2001).]

[dmm]

quote:

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Originally posted by suicide_junkie:
What about population growth?
15% to 30% every year?
Yet they manage to stop when they reach the population limit. Wow.

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LOL!
If every woman of child-bearing age on earth had a child this year, we wouldn't have that kind of growth rate!

The SEIV females must be having litters, and reaching sexual maturity awfully early.

And then the self-control of their males when it's time to stop! Talk about sci-fi!!

[DirkHowitzer]

quote:

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Originally posted by WhiteHojo:
As far as enjoying the game, enjoyment is diferent things to different gamers....To me, the defining of the game turn enhances my enjoyment of the game - to others, it may not be so important.

The point is - what is YOUR opinion on it?

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The point is, and my opinion...is that your point is well taken;-). You are quite correct that the game is enjoyed in different ways by different gamers. Some enjoy figuring out exactly what the measurements of time and other things in the game entail. Others, such as myself, worry mainly about the strategy...

I hope no one took offense to my previous post in this thread...

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"He's dead, Jim."-- Lt. Commander Leonard "Bones" McCoy |Chief Medical Officer / USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)

[This message has been edited by DirkHowitzer (edited 06 March 2001).]

[WhiteHojo]

{doing my best bowing and apolgizing act}

I took no offense to your post, I was under the impression you were taking offense to my original post... isn't this how wars start???



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Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.