quote: Original post by ducksoup
Do I have to know how to program or know C++ [to use Klick n'' Play]?

No. I''ve never used it, but I''m told that you simiply define rules and so forth in a visual environment and the program sorts out the necessary scripts to make it happen. Realize that tools like Klick n'' Play are very limited in scope (I mean, how general can a tool become before it''s rendered useless), so it may not have the power to even prototype all of your features. But give it a whirl; a positive experience with it may encourage you to move "up" to "real" programming languages (tongue firmly in cheek).

Good luck.

Ok, just my opinion, but it sounds like fun. It does sound like a lot to handle though, and a little like the Caesar series of games. Are the civilians autonomous? I mean, do they think and act for themselves based on whatever need they might have at the time? If so, then that''s not too complicated I guess, but the logistics of a big city (100+ civilians) would be a huge load on the processor (or mine at least ). If not, would there be an option to automate those that you currently are not working with?

The leisure activities would be nifty, though. And nifty is the highest praise you can get in my book, even above the almighty "neato". Don''t ask.

And finally, nothing is cooler than when strategy games (another question, will the genre be called RTS? I mean, it sounds like something similar, or is this an entirely new genre name?) than when either the history or the story is factual (or in the case of Starcraft and such, well developed).

[Edited by - ducksoup on March 10, 2006 2:39:57 PM]

Civilians in a strategy game could be interesting. Most importantly, you would have to protect them. It would also be interesting to implement a way to recruit people by using advertisements. What interests me about the idea is that you could have the ability to manipulate people. One of the biggest motivations that have caused people to come into power, inspired rebellions, and sadly, have caused millions of innocents to die is an individual''s ability to manipulate the people through compelling speeches and propaganda. Dynamic leaders and their use of propaganda films, biased news publications, etc. could actually be used as elements in a strategy game that could add some much needed originality to the RTS formula.

Oh, ok. Those were just a few things I was a little sketchy about. Just a suggestion, but outside of seige machines, and possibly even those, would the civilians turn into your warriors? Or would it be like every other strategy game where you go to your Barracks, or whatever, and just queue up the units to build? Wouldn't it be funny if you were playing a multiplayer match and your opponent couldn't convince his OWN civilians to join his military?

[edited by - TearsKnight on August 24, 2002 1:07:19 PM]

<SPAN CLASS=smallfont>quote: Original post by TearsKnight
Oh, ok. Those were just a few things I was a little sketchy about. Just a suggestion, but outside of seige machines, and possibly even those, would the civilians turn into your warriors? Or would it be like every other strategy game where you go to your Barracks, or whatever, and just queue up the units to build? Wouldn't it be funny if you were playing a multiplayer match and your opponent couldn't convince his OWN civilians to join his military? :)

<SPAN CLASS=editedby>[edited by - TearsKnight on August 24, 2002 1:07:19 PM]</SPAN> </SPAN>

Well, after reading what is involved in producing RTS games, I really have no interest in producing this idea myself so if you (or someone else) wanted to do it (and computers could handle it) I don't see how having civilians turn into warriors make any difference to the original idea. As long as I could both have a civilian infrastructure and promote or conscript citizens I'd be happy with that.



[Edited by - ducksoup on March 10, 2006 2:48:36 PM]

Perhaps not quite what you are looking for but the game Majesty did have something along the lines of your bank acount system. The heros in your kingdom would slay beasts and find treasure then spend that gold in buildings you built like blacksmiths and marketplaces then you would gather taxes from those buildings to run your kingdom. The gold could be used to lure heros to certain goals or build buildings to provide more services. It had a very hands off control system of the actual units since they all where under thier own AI control.

[edited by - St_Shadow on August 24, 2002 9:27:53 PM]

IMO RTS''s are already frenzied click fests. Build and fight at the same time has never really appealed to me ( except Battlezone ). A few thoughts on what I''d like.

1. Make it turn based. Though that kind of takes out the RTS aspect... A good guns or butter strategy game combined with a good tactical combat engine is fun.
OR
2. Keep it real time, but keep the building and fighting apart. As in you build until an enemy attacks, then you go in combat mode and are unable to build anything until the battle is over. This would make the player keep a standing army.

3. Having civilians to defend in battle would be great. Kind of like X-COM.

4. Having to tax or otherwise get money from your citizens like you described with government buildings rather than arbitrarily controlling all money and action in your empire would be interesting
Jack

It sounds like a collection of interesting ideas, but they need to be put together - in the right way - to make a good game. With such a spread-out design, the game either has to move very slowly, not challenge the player overtly through requiring them to "keep up" with AIs or somesuch(like the Sims itself, with the freeform feel), or be very streamlined so that while you can take care of all those different things easily, you also get time between making decisions to watch the effects of your work and not feel pressured.

Making the world furry one post at a time

<SPAN CLASS=smallfont>quote: Original post by RTF
It sounds like a collection of interesting ideas, but they need to be put together - in the right way - to make a good game.


[Edited by - ducksoup on March 10, 2006 2:30:05 PM]