Hey,
>>I would just like to get a summary of the features everyone would like to see in Beta 4
My list of things I'd like to see (mostly comprised of what others have mentioned of who I agree with):
* Visual notification that alliances are locked in game (padlock icon or dark gray covering on alliances screen or something)
* Visual update to the YOG pages (with all the new features, the GUI is a bit cluttered or too thin in various places).
- Mock design of just one of the four YOG places:
http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/1989/redesignbd8.png - Puts alliance and team buttons side by side like most game and makes the buttons a big smaller (who made them that big, we're not seeing impaired!)
* As in the image above, a "Ready to Play" option, and visual indication to others who is ready and who isn't (so the host can kick accordingly). Ready = map not downloaded fully OR checkbox not ticked. The notification doesn't need to say which. Just highlight their name red or something if waiting on them.
* Also as in the image above (although hardly noticeable though), is the change of a cycle nature to a dropdown menu for the alliance and team color pickers. Nct said it may be hard with the current system, but with the right change, this would be extremely handy (to change player #2 to alliance 1 for example, on a 8 player map, you need to click 7 times, instead of 2 if we had a dropdown)
* Password encrypted in the preferences file. Not for the sake of protecting hackers from using your account (they'll just steal the preferences file), but so that if someone did steal it, the password isn't usable elsewhere, for example on the forums or wiki (they might us the same pass)
* The size of a map displayed before downloading ingame (dial up users will appreciate this)
* Standard IRC commands work (/me, /slap) and have YOG recognize when someone talks to you (the same way IRC picks up "someone: yo", have YOG highlight the text in a different color.
>>We need media, like a complete campaign (I could create one), and we need to include more maps with the game.
I'm still happy to make a campaign like I said back in June last year, but refer to my SGSL improvements for idea on how to make much richer, interactive campaigns, instead of simple "do this, then that" type ones we have at the moment.
As for more maps, I disagree (at this stage). I think, if we have a full campaign, we should actually take out maps (the bad ones), and offer them in a separate download pack, or upload all of them up to YOG. The download should try to stay below about 15mb (too many more maps and it'll pass download size that too quickly).
And as for YOG using too much bandwidth, we could have map servers. Savannah would be a good once (unlimited bandwidth and hosting from what I can tell, so it would be ideal). It would mean though that the server would need a one time download from the client, then one time upload to savannah. But further downloads would come from savannah, reducing most of the strain I'd think.
>>being able to sort the list of maps by name or size, or having a new tab that would show you the current top rated players, and players near your rank (a fairly simple tab). I don't think we need to make YOG too advanced.
YOG is getting there. There is still a few things that other games have that we don't (a couple are listed above), but with a few changes to the now existing system (e.g. searching for players information in game (so they dont have to be online)), it'll be up there with the rest soon enough.
>>After those, we pretty much have all of the meta-features found in a modern real time strategy. I think the biggest thing that hinders growth of the game is the gameplay itself. Its more of a novelty to most people I talk to, they'll play it allot for one weekend and never talk about it again.
I agree. Glob2's micro management gameplay style is its strength and its weakness. For new players its great, but when they get the gist, its too dang easy (can ANYONE beat Giszmo :O ). For advanced players, we need mico features like priority settings, road pavings, and repeat suicide flags (i.e. auto setting a flag to build up 20 free warriors THEN (and not before) bring them to the flag, and keep doing so until all are dead (no going home, no hunger issues) then build another 20). And things like search patterns would be cool too.
>>Also, our game play doesn't have much depth. 10 kinds of buildings, and in most maps, its expected that all of the available area is to be entirely filled with base. Part of it is that units can't travel that far, another is that buildings are big, and maps are small.
The 1024 unit limit needs to be removed too, so armies of any size can be built. Some extra useful buildings too would be fortified walls (tower combined with a wall), warehouses, and a palace/castle/wonders for those who are familiar with the knowledge win condition games (AOE, RON etc). So players can win by force (attack), or brains (wonders or prestige).
>>I'd recommend that all graphics are standardized. This means they are all put into the same perspective, and given the same shadows and lighting. All buildings would have the three graphics for different damage levels. It would require allot of effort to recreate the graphics in Blender, but it would be well worth it.
Indeed. I've read several articles about Globulation 2 which state that the gameplay was nice and the graphics left wanting (I can't recall the exact location, but I know I had to translate it from either French, German, or Spanish though to read it). Perhaps its time for a complete visual refresh (including menus and screens)?
Regards
Kieran
