Areas to Revamp in Alamaze

[Olorin]

Alright folks, we have recently finished revamping the brigade ratings.  Brekk will be posting those for comments and discussion.  The question for us is what to work on next.  The areas I can help him on are the ones we can  change without changing code.  This includes the Spell Lists for the Kingdoms or the Companion List and Reinforcements.

The question is which of those are the most immediate in need of change.  So I thought I would ask the players which items are your most important priority.

1) Updating and correcting the Spell Lists

2) Updating the Companion Lists and Reinforcement Schedule [This may include Summon Spells]

3) Something Else that we did not think of.

[Tacticus]

At online order menus, map areas scrolling down from AA is time consuming and sometimes annoying whenever mistakenly choosing the wrong letters. might be much easier if letters could start from current map location of figure, group, fleets etc.

[Xerro]

At online order menus, map areas scrolling down from AA is time consuming and sometimes annoying whenever mistakenly choosing the wrong letters. might be much easier if letters could start from current map location of figure, group, fleets etc.

when you are on the scroll down wheel if you type a letter it will go down to that letter. However if you are in kingdom or list of city coordinates it will confine letter switch to those sections. Once i found that unpublished feature it did make my life easier. 
  On the matter of improvements I too have seen some tweaks I think could make life better.
1. Standing orders can be a pain for new players. If my agent has a standing order to spy on PJ having that filled in on my order sheet on that agents name would be helpful. Maybe in a different color so you could see it was a standing order.
2. The turn maps are wonderful and do list a lot of great info. I think having the groups movement points listed next to it would be helpful especially for newer players.
3. Where the mithril ore deposit is can be hard to see. There is a map Icon to the side if it could have current map coordinates for the deposit that would help.
4. Group sizes have grown since the game began. I think a new size category, for information purposes only, would help. If a group has 20+ brigades in it call it army group ( legion)  for example. This should only effect scouting of various sorts. If I am fighting a army group it could be between 10-50 brigades. A little more info will help.
5. Turn results end up in spam folders a lot. Its a problem that frustrates newer players and causes drops. No clue how to cure this.
6. Maybe more map options to keep the game fresh longer for players.

I do think spells should be the next focus on balance. How a kingdom performs is based largely on spells and brigades. Once those are in place you can then see where and if kingdoms as a whole will need tweaks. By fixing spells and troops the amount of tweaking that some kingdoms need will probably be much smaller.  Lets face it most players want the DK to be hit with such a large nerf hammer that they will need tweaking to strengthen them when done. In the short time since I have returned to the game I have seen many improvements and can see that things are progressing in a good direction. Any and all of my suggestions should be viewed as positives and never as a criticism as that is not my intent.

[JohnnyUtah]

If you're interested in attracting and keeping new players then the rulebook and order entry systems need to be updated to be fully accurate. As we've discussed in previous threads there are many things are not documented or are just wrong in the rulebook. This is a real hindrance for new players. Properly documenting game play should be the first priority -- and it should be an easy fix.

[Tacticus]

Atlanteans have both food and gold efficient on pop.center improvements. Though at setup says only gold.
Meanwhile Atlantians surely should have mithril trident weapon.

[davekuyk]

I echo what others have said. Several quality of life improvements can be made to the order entry program. The improvements to Standing Orders would likely help most players in most turns. I also support what Johnny mentioned about the rulebook. There are a number of small inconsistencies that add up. When I returned to play, I had to double-check the forums for updates that were not reflected in the rulebook. I am still unsure about some items, such as the bonuses Trolls and Orcs provide.

[Brekk]

If you're interested in attracting and keeping new players then the rulebook and order entry systems need to be updated to be fully accurate. As we've discussed in previous threads there are many things are not documented or are just wrong in the rulebook. This is a real hindrance for new players. Properly documenting game play should be the first priority -- and it should be an easy fix.

Agreed on the rulebook, it's a monstrous process and others have already helped a lot with it. The reason I haven't released the latest version is the same reason I haven't updated the current webpage: all the changes to troops, spells, etc., that are finally coming together. My plan is also to rewrite every kingdom description with the same kind of changes you're seeing in Olorin's post, just like we did for troops. Once we apply those same changes to spells and the rest, I'll make a final revision. If you want to see the current version, I'd be happy to post it. A lot has been removed already, but there's still plenty that needs updating.