Re: What to do with Xconq

[Erik Jessen <erik dot jessen at home dot com>]

Stan Shebs wrote:

> Hans Ronne wrote:

Lots of snip...

>
> >
> > I think the most important thing, as Bob Carragher and Martin Burke already
> > pointed out, is to get the network game to work, and on all platforms. That
> > would really boost interest in Xconq.
>
> It's worth working on, but I'm not convinced it's the most important - the
> network code has been in there for three years, and the improved network
> game setup has been in for some months now, but I've had almost no feedback
> from anybody who's tried it, and when I solicited people for test games a
> while back, I got zero responses.  Networking is the one thing that I can't
> completely test and debug by myself, and yet nobody else seems much interested
> in it...

I'm a "hardcore" strategic game player.  Which means:
- I play v. humans, not AI.  No AI has been good enough
- I want an AI assistant to handle things I tell it to do (like telling a
transport to
    keep doing a load/move/unload/return until all the cargo at A is moved to B)
- I play v. people across the planet (so I need pbem, not interactive network
play)

I look at it this way: the only sort of play-aide that has made it out there is
Aide-de-Camp.
If you get something that works as well as their setup & is free, you'll get lots
of people
using your system.

ADC does allow die rolling, but there's not easy way to enter terrain or combat
effects.
Basically, units teleport from hex to hex, and it's up to the players to make sure
everything's legal.



Xconq is table-driven, I'm told (I've not really dug into the format, other than
the tutorial with
Godzilla).

I'd like to recommend the following, to make it easier to generate games:
- use a free spreadsheet program (Linux has one, doesn't it?) to write up the
documentation
    on units, and have a way to convert its spreadsheets into Xconq data files.
This is the mantra of software design - have the spec. generate the software.

I am willing to document games, if someone can recommend a relatively simple
'standard' combat
game for me to start with (I'm not up to speed on the engine or how to read the
tables).

I have learned - make the process of doing something easier, and people will do it
more often, and better.

I'll document a game if someone has a relatively simple combat game for me to
start with.

Erik