(03-11-2013, 03:30 PM)Lucky Tiger Wrote: (03-11-2013, 02:22 PM)Ry Vor Wrote: We will have a new map with the next scenario after Classic.
I would love to hear more about this. Are you planning on reshuffleing the kingdoms for this (bringing back the halflings, Swampmen, etc?). How difficult is the programming for this? Are we looking at months or years?
Thanks for all your work we appreciate it.
First of all, I want to make sure everyone understands we would never be able to do this project without a lot of volunteer help. Most especially, the programming and game mastering that will be done, at least until we have over 100 players, by an original Alamaze player who will be your game master and is now known as Cipher. Cipher has been fantastic: productive, organized, knowledgeable. You are in good hands. He also already has a way to see that Alamaze Classic turns are processed very timely - I think we are comfortable saying at least that if a turn is due on Thursday, it will be run and available to you on Thursday, in general, barring the unforeseen and even Cipher may take a vacation at some point.
That said, Cipher has been optimistic that the expansion ideas we have discussed are not threatening from a coding or production point of view. So what that means is if the designer doesn't screw things up, we should be good.
Here is an excerpt I shared with the playtesters after it was apparent we were on good footing with Alamaze classic from a processing perspective - we will need to grow the community, of course. BTW, we have an initial unpublished take on a website that should be up about the time #100 and #101 start.
The following doesn't format properly on the forum software, sorry.
1. I have in mind the first expansion (better phrase needed) will be a smaller game in terms of players, but maybe about the same size map, although proportioned differently.
a. I believe both Cipher and I are wanting to go to hexes. So the map might be shaped differently (not 26x26 square), obviously have a different topography and graphics, have hexes.
b. The kingdoms might be something like 9 instead of 15;
i. I’d like a little breathing room for players the first few turns to have a chance to execute a planned (instead of reactive) strategy and cut on early drops;
ii. I want games to start fast if we don’t have a big player base.
c. We might be able to introduce new maps about once every three months – TBD. These will likely not be works of art (especially if they are not farmed out for art), but provide new variety and challenges, keep things fresh.
d. I was thinking today that instead of set kingdoms stationed in a preset method, we might do something like this:
i. You pick a kingdom from however many we have – at least the 15 discussed now, maybe revivals of the other established ones, however;
ii. Your kingdom is named by you incorporating your persona. So, something like, “The Paragon of Destruction of Ry Vor”, instead of “The Witch Lord”.
iii. You name the kingdom as above, but meanwhile in a new Turn O actual turn, you are selecting an existing kingdom, eg, Witch Lord.
iv. In Turn 0, you also can rename all your characters, so it is not immediately evident who the hell you are from the character names. I cringe though at allowing Power 4 “Billy Bob” when such decisions are left in the hands of <others>. LOL.
v. You can pick from a list of ESO’s which might have to be somewhat generic to accommodate all the possibilities, but could be political, military, covert, magical in nature.
vi. You might get to choose one customization – add a brigade, a wizard, a noble, +2 influence, etc. Choose one from a list.
vii. With the above, a single game can have any number of multiples of a single Alamaze kingdom. For example, a 9 player game could have 9 High Elven positions.
viii. I have, again, discussed little of this with Cypher. My only comfort is he was as attracted to some ideas we discussed on moving the platform forward as any of us.
How to balance out the geographical advantages (corner positions, etc) TBD, but not insurmountable, could be as easy as starting treasury or restricting the ESO list, or selecting a starting location is one of your customization options (requiring a backup in the event another player also selects).
Buddy/Ignore List
