[Fwd: Re: What to do with Xconq]

[Stan Shebs <shebs at shebs dot cnchost dot com>]

Some good comments from Mike Howe. -s

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: What to do with Xconq
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 21:26:51 EST
From: MLHowe@aol.com
To: shebs@shebs.cnchost.com

Stan,

I read your emails about XConq with interest, though not being very 
technically inclined, not always with understanding.  You might be interested 
to know that they came on the very day that I posted a "Best Free Games" 
thread on the c.s.i.p.g.s newsgroup, listing XConq as one of the seven, of 
course.  Here's what I think of XConq and what it needs:

Graphics:  I don't care.  They're fine.  I care about gameplay and interface.

The incomplete or buggy libraries are a problem.  I'd like to see only 
fully-implemented libraries in the game, with "in progress" libraries clearly 
separated out.

If you want more users to design libraries for XConq, you might need to make 
the language easier, though I'm the last person to be giving advice about 
this.  For example, Zillions of Games has a language that I was able tolearn 
well enough to implement several chess variants.  I doubt if I could write an 
XConq library given an equal time investment.

To attract a broader audience, you definitely have to stabilize the PC 
version and add some interface conveniences, especially a city/production 
screen.  After giving it several honest tries, I found that the Windows 
version kept crashing, even crashing my system, and I took it off my hard 
drive.

I don't think that XConq lacks a genre.  I think of it as a 4X game, similar 
to Empire Deluxe, which still has lots of fans.  And I didn't understand what 
you meant by it being not state-of-the-art.  I would much rather play a 
considered, turn-based game of strategic conquest than any number of 
Starcraft-like clickfests.  And please don't turn XConq into a realtime game.

So I guess for me it just comes down to getting a good, bug-free PC version 
with some display glitches fixes and an interface enhancement or two.  Then, 
give me some good modules that don't crash because they have missing 
components. To extend longevity, every modules should have a random map 
generator and a choice of world sizes and number of opponents.  Then, when 
the game looks stable, I might become interested in learning how to author my 
own modules.  What modules should the game come with?  Ancients, 
age-of-cavalry, WW2, late 20th C, one or two SciFi, one or two fantasy 
settings, and each era should come in a range of complexities from few units 
to many and from no economics to complex.  I realize that it's a lot to ask 
for, but a lot of it seems like it's already in place, or at least the 
framework for it is there.

I hope this non-technical feedback from a gameplayer, not a programmer, is 
helpful.  XConq is an exciting system that I would love to see continued.

Regards,
Mike Howe