ZOOMIE1980
Posts: 1284
Joined: 4/9/2004 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins quote:
ORIGINAL: nihilimus Actually, I think the defensive nature of Matrix staffers is where the point is lost. It does not serve your company well to act so defensively when a portion of your audience offers suggestions. While I agree great graphics are critical to pulling in an audience, so is usuability and much of what is being said here crashes the core of this very complex game's workflow. Points made about easy access to maps, addition quick keys, modular windows available to the user to popup, drop, hide while seeking the data for important decisions. All of this is to streamline workflow. Yes... Some of our less visually-oriented friends don't need that and may be happy with either writing details on a pad or trying to remember across the vast expanses of the Pacific. I -- like military leaders past -- prefer a visual representation backed by quick access to data. Since I was one of the first to reply I thought I should throw in a few more pennies. I've been reading this thread very closely, not looking for problems but absorbing all of your suggestions. We have a very small staff (buy more games! ) and until we expand, there's simply not enough time to post back on everything. However, there are at least three people going through these suggestions. What we can do in future revisions is not up to me, but we are definitely watching, listening and as always we will try our best to continue improving the title after release. Honestly, I was interested in the suggestions from the first post and remain so, I just couldn't agree with the idea that not much had changed since the original PacWar. Regards, - Erik ZOOMIE'S basic design suggestions in a nutshell. And these are just "suggestions" born out of near total ignorance of this side of the business. Not so much Matrix, but anyone desiring to be a Matrix Partner. I know you are basically the marketing, distribution arm of a consortium of many small partners that offers some development assistance in the form of programming services and graphic arts support. However any current or prospective Matrix partner might keep these in mind 1) Incorporate Object Oriented design in EVERYTHING you do. 2) Start from the bottom up, and develop robust, multi-tiered class libraries to handle the every day, ordinary, rudimentary chores. This includes a large library of reusable, easily derived from, GUI Widgets, and associated graphical overlays. (Maybe Matrix could do this part as part of their "Programming Assistant Services" function). 3) Investigate using SQL databases in a client-server style paradigm for more robust, flexible management of data and place ALL the game's rules in that database in form of database constraints. These are mostly turn base wargame titles, NOT Halflife IV FPS's and can make use of large disk IO without a loss of performance. 4) Utilize the above database system in the AI. 5) Base all UI's on standard Windows UI Widgets and consider using off-the-shelf third party object oriented toolkits like MFC, wxWidgets or Fox and go from there. Fox and wxWidgets are cross-platform, too, meaning MAC and even Linux opens up. 6) Once mature, consider selling licenses to an honest to God WarGame Developers API for a modest fee. Then new ideas come to market without the developers having to reinvent all these wheels all the time. Maybe as limited as incorporating some of GG's (or other's) best generic forumula in a series of API calls (and of course GG/others gets a royalty for each sale....). That way programmers get the benifit of his genius without him giving away all his secrets! 7) Possible consideration of a subscription based (very modest rate to basically cover server hosting costs + reasonable margin) client server type game along the lines of the old Wolfpack Empire game. Not for everyone, but the PBEM crowd might be enthused by this. Opens the door to massive-multi player titles in the turn based genre and steady, even if small revenue stream. 8) Publish this sort of stuff in a "Developmental Guide for prospective Matrix Partners". That's just off the top of my head..... PS: Don't throw out Java out of hand. A WitP is could definitely be done via Java. With Java, all the really HARD stuff, someone has already done!
< Message edited by ZOOMIE1980 -- 7/26/2004 10:32:20 PM >
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