[Abandoned] Research & Conquer

[-=- Tanarri -=-]

Like the other line that carl pointed out, the 'Top Secret facilities can bombard all researches' should probably be rephrased to 'TSfs can bombard all of its nation's researches' or something similiar, so that people don't think that TSfs are a way to disable their opponents researches. Given the name of the tech, I could see it easily be thought of as a spy tech instead of the research tech that it is.

You missed this one TaCktiX, if it was going to be addressed.

[-=- Tanarri -=-]

I'm not sure if the question of National Pride ever got resolved. Are we having National Pride count towards all homelands that a player starts with or just the one that has it researched? This is an important distinction in 2-3 player games and may require some rewordings depending on which way its dealt with.

Any feedback for this? If it is to count towards all homelands, then I think changing the text to '+6 bonus for holding own homeland(s)' would add a bit more clarity and if it's only counting towards the one homeland that researched it, then I would suggest '+6 bonus for holding same homeland'. Not sure if the second one is worded the best that it can be, but I think it should at least give the idea of the point I'm trying to make clearer.

[OliverFA]

I like the Secret Conscription and Open Conscription text of "per 6 regions". It's easy to understand while making things much more easy on the code front.

I also think that it will be very rare to see "888" in researchs and lab except by a couple of players. Which means that this land won't get too much crowded with lots of 3 digit values.

The only concern I see is with the TSF text. Maybe "Top Secret Facilities can bombard all Researches" could be changed to "TSF can bombard all its researches". Since you have already established previously in the map that TSF=Top Secret Facility, you could use the abrebiation.

That's a bit nitpicky. But the capital "F" looks a bit like if it was small caps.

Other than this, I see the map perfect

Thanks to all our friends who suggested all the little fixes in the image

So I understand that once we have the XML we can move to the beta phase. Am I right? I will work in finishing the work to see if we can have everything done in a matter of days.

[OliverFA]

I'm not sure if the question of National Pride ever got resolved. Are we having National Pride count towards all homelands that a player starts with or just the one that has it researched? This is an important distinction in 2-3 player games and may require some rewordings depending on which way its dealt with.

Any feedback for this? If it is to count towards all homelands, then I think changing the text to '+6 bonus for holding own homeland(s)' would add a bit more clarity and if it's only counting towards the one homeland that researched it, then I would suggest '+6 bonus for holding same homeland'. Not sure if the second one is worded the best that it can be, but I think it should at least give the idea of the point I'm trying to make clearer.

No. It did not got resolved.

The only techs that are set in stone are
- Capitals
- Standing Army
- Mobilized Army (by the way I like this name more than "Activated Reserves" )
- Open Conscription
- Secret Conscription
- Zeppelin Strikes.
- Deep Mining (twice the value of Mining, wathever it is)

I think that TSF has an almost consensus, but would have to review the discussion because I am not sure right now.

It was decided that the rest of the values would be decided during the beta phase. For the moment we are using the values in the map as something to start with.

I am thinking about creating a tournament to help playtesting. Something in the lines of gifting 3 months of premium among all the alive players in the tournament each month the tournament lasts.

[isaiah40]

Which version are we referring to? Small or large.

He's referring to the small version. I see the problem he's talking about. It's because they're in the shadows of the pipes going around the outside edge of the map. The SW6 isn't a problem for me, but on certain angles on my LCD monitor NE3 disappears a bit.

Sorry Tack, thought I mentioned it, but yes it is on the small map.

[-=- Tanarri -=-]

I'm not sure if the question of National Pride ever got resolved. Are we having National Pride count towards all homelands that a player starts with or just the one that has it researched? This is an important distinction in 2-3 player games and may require some rewordings depending on which way its dealt with.

Any feedback for this? If it is to count towards all homelands, then I think changing the text to '+6 bonus for holding own homeland(s)' would add a bit more clarity and if it's only counting towards the one homeland that researched it, then I would suggest '+6 bonus for holding same homeland'. Not sure if the second one is worded the best that it can be, but I think it should at least give the idea of the point I'm trying to make clearer.

No. It did not got resolved.

The only techs that are set in stone are
- Capitals
- Standing Army
- Mobilized Army (by the way I like this name more than "Activated Reserves" )
- Open Conscription
- Secret Conscription
- Zeppelin Strikes.
- Deep Mining (twice the value of Mining, wathever it is)

I think that TSF has an almost consensus, but would have to review the discussion because I am not sure right now.

It was decided that the rest of the values would be decided during the beta phase. For the moment we are using the values in the map as something to start with.

I am thinking about creating a tournament to help playtesting. Something in the lines of gifting 3 months of premium among all the alive players in the tournament each month the tournament lasts.

Do we have any preferences for how we're going to do National Pride for the beginning of Beta then? I would be inclined to suggest that it works for all of the homelands that the player starts with, simply because I think it will be a bit more intuitive and easier to explain, since all of the other techs aren't single homeland specific (such as Propaganda). If this is the case, then I have my suspicions that the neutral value will need to be tweaked, but that can be done in Beta.

As for TSFs, I believe the current map revisions are accurate for what the concensus was. The only thing on the map that needs to be changed here is the text tweak that both of us suggested, though I like your wording much better than mine.

I like the idea of running a tournament to help with the Beta testing. Running one that pays for 3 months premium for all alive players may get expensive for you though. Perhaps one where first place gets 6 months and 2nd and 3rd get 3 months? I may have read somewhere that sometimes the site will double what you pay for out of your own pocket for tournaments with premium prizes... if this is the case, then you could probably get more creative with the prizes. Still, premium prizes tend to attract a fair number of participants. I think it would be great if the tourney was set up in such a way that it would test all the different game types.. something like 2, 3, 4, and 6 player standard games, an assassin game, a terminator game, and one each of dubs, trips, and quads. It would make for a pretty big tourney though.

[TaCktiX]

Big tournies I can do if I'm sufficiently motivated. I've finished one of the biggest tournaments in CC History (aside from the Map Blasters, to the best of my knowledge), and it specialized in Every Single Setting, to include all those gametypes.

The other concerns, I'll see what I can do, and yes I missed the TSF fix.

[Industrial Helix]

I'm looking forward to playing this one.

[Victor Sullivan]

I'm looking forward to playing this one.

Bravo, TaCktiX and OliverFA! And also to Tanarri and carlpgoodrich, who stuck by this thing. I'll try to get a bunch of games started once Beta hits to help refine the neutral counts and such.

[-=- Tanarri -=-]

I'm looking forward to playing this one.

Hooray! One step closer. Thanks for the stamp Helix. Excellent work on the graphics TaCktiX.

How's the XML looking Oliver? I believe that's the last step to getting this map into beta and playable

[carlpgoodrich]

I'm looking forward to playing this one.

SOOOO CLOSE! And TaCktiX, again, this map is beautiful. I know it was particularly challenging to get everything to fit in right, but you did an amazing job. Congrats!

[OliverFA]

How's the XML looking Oliver? I believe that's the last step to getting this map into beta and playable

Almost finished! Now that it's the only thing left to reach the beta, working at full speed. It's a matter of few days that we have the Beta XML file to be uploaded.

And about the premium for the tournament, I wasn't meaning to gift premium to everybody that joined (I wish I could!). I was thinking about radomly giving premium to one of the active players each month, encouraging them to continue playing during the tournament.

[-=- Tanarri -=-]

How's the XML looking Oliver? I believe that's the last step to getting this map into beta and playable

Almost finished! Now that it's the only thing left to reach the beta, working at full speed. It's a matter of few days that we have the Beta XML file to be uploaded.

And about the premium for the tournament, I wasn't meaning to gift premium to everybody that joined (I wish I could!). I was thinking about radomly giving premium to one of the active players each month, encouraging them to continue playing during the tournament.

It's great to hear that the XML will be done in a few days. I'm really looking forward to playing this and it sounds like it's only a couple weeks away at this point

As for the tournament, that sounds like a good idea for keeping people in the tournament.

[TaCktiX]

I'll be posting the last pre-Beta version addressing last nitpicks today.

[OliverFA]

Progress report for territories:

2 out of 6 tech trees completed (name, borders, bombardments, coordinates, neutrals and bonuses).

Remaining work:

Create 4 out of 6 tech trees
Create 176 land territories
Review technologies part of the XML

Just made an online backup of the XML as a precaution just in case something happens in my PC

[TaCktiX]

Version 8

Updates:
- Tweaked legend text
- Tweaked locations of territory text
- Lightened the drop shadow of the pipes (interfering with gameplay)

NOTE: I'm only posting update images that matter. No substantive changes occurred with any unposted versions.
88 Small:

Click image to enlarge.

888 Small:

Click image to enlarge.

Large:

Click image to enlarge.

And I did another count: 1722 total layers in both PSDs (separately, 'course).

[SuicidalSnowman]

I haven't been following the discussion close enough to offer any meaningful advice, but I wanted to say BRAVO on the next stamp!

I will be willing to do some heavy play testing on this map. I would also be willing to play some private test games with gentleman's rules (like go for research, go for elimination, etc) to test balance.

[-=- Tanarri -=-]

Excellent work on the map TaCktiX

One little nitpick, whether for pre or post Beta doesn't matter, is that in the small version for where it says 'A TSf can bombard all its researches', the 'its' seems to be capitalized or something. It looks weird and can be difficult to read compared to the 'its' on the line above.

Thanks for all of your work :applause:

[TaCktiX]

Der...all the lower-case "i"s on the map were replaced with a similar font's less bulbous i, and I didn't do the same for the new text, didn't even think about it. I'm going to stab myself for missing the obvious.

[-=- Tanarri -=-]

Der...all the lower-case "i"s on the map were replaced with a similar font's less bulbous i, and I didn't do the same for the new text, didn't even think about it. I'm going to stab myself for missing the obvious.

I wouldn't worry about it, it's a really easy thing to miss. That's why we have a number of eyes looking over the map before it escapes to the public

[Victor Sullivan]

Hold on, stop. Hammertime. Anyways, how are you supposed to control the D-Day Device if the TSF's bombard? And should the text read, "TSFs can bombard all Advanced research"? Seems like a clearer explanation.

-Sully

[TaCktiX]

TSFs can bombard all researches, so that would be a constraining explanation. And you're misreading the map. You can only attack or bombard your own stuff.

[-=- Tanarri -=-]

Hold on, stop. Hammertime. Anyways, how are you supposed to control the D-Day Device if the TSF's bombard? And should the text read, "TSFs can bombard all Advanced research"? Seems like a clearer explanation.

-Sully

D-Day is attacked from the labs. TSFs can bombard basic researches as well, not just the advanced ones.

[OliverFA]

Progress report for territories:

6 out of 6 tech trees completed (name, borders, bombardments, coordinates, neutrals and bonuses).

Remaining work:

Create 176 land territories
Review technologies part of the XML

http://www.arrakis.es/~oliverfa/ResearchAndConquer%20v%200.18.XML

[carlpgoodrich]

Awesome Oliver! I don't envy you right now as this must be time consuming. You're doing awesome work, keep it up!