Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 7:14 pm Post subject: GREAT game! some suggestions
it seems a bit unfair to have the player order determined before picking starting hands. that leaves player 1 free to go ballistic on one object type, and stay neutral on the others until they see how the board starts to play out. if player 1 goes temple-heavy and the other 2 players start contesting buddhas, he can make a run for patties. it seems like knowing turn order ahead of time lets player 1 target one object type, and forces the others to specifically balance their hand because running into player 1's preselection could suck.
- pick starting hands before player order is determined.
- allow selection of player order. this is useful as a teaching tool, and maybe even a handicapping method if the bit i mentioned above holds weight.
- allow random initial hands. again useful for teaching and handicapping. you could put an asterisk next to somebody's name if they take a random hand, for example.
- have tracking of your opponent's potential pieces. on a play-by-web version people are going to count it down a lot anyway (just like they would do with "closed" scoring by looking at the game log or writing it down).
i'm absolutely loving the game and i have a newfound and deserved appreciation for it as a result of playing here. awesome site, awesome implementation.
Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2006 10:26 pm Post subject: Re: GREAT game! some suggestions
Thanks for your comments and suggestions, always appreciated.
astroglide wrote:
- pick starting hands before player order is determined.
Hmmm, I'm not sure I really buy your argument, maybe because I've never used or even thought about adopting that kind of start, but I'm inclined to accept your suggestion and postpone player order determination.
astroglide wrote:
- allow selection of player order. this is useful as a teaching tool, and maybe even a handicapping method if the bit i mentioned above holds weight.
This would require a bit of work, and I don't think it would be worthwile: in the vast majority of games players would choose a random order.
astroglide wrote:
- allow random initial hands. again useful for teaching and handicapping. you could put an asterisk next to somebody's name if they take a random hand, for example.
I had initially discarded the idea of implementing this, but I'm now reconsidering it. I will probably add soon a 'give me 5 at random' button to the selection screen, and later maybe adding a 'random starting hand' option at game creation (where the game would automatically start with random hands for all players).
astroglide wrote:
- have tracking of your opponent's potential pieces. on a play-by-web version people are going to count it down a lot anyway (just like they would do with "closed" scoring by looking at the game log or writing it down).
Yes, I was already thinking about this. Not sure where to put this info on the page.
Another thing I would like to add is some kind of highlight of the last captured figures: instead of empty villages and cities, some 'shadow' images of the captured figures, in the color of the player who has won them.
astroglide wrote:
i'm absolutely loving the game and i have a newfound and deserved appreciation for it as a result of playing here.
Me too! :)
Of course I liked it even before, otherwise I would not have implemented it, but now that I have had the chance to play more than the usual few games, i really appreciate it. It's short and simple, but full of agonizing decisions.
yeah, of the things i mentioned manually selecting player order is the least of my concerns.
i think an ajax mouseover might work well for tracking player pieces - if you hover over their name, it could consult the server to see what they've played and display the remainder. that way a player could see relevant info without flipping or readjusting windows, and going back and forth between several users' "inventories" would be a breeze.
many, many thanks again. rgg should start giving you commission on samurai sales!
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