Yeah.
Some suggestions:
1. Make distinct the difference between explosion radius and diameter, possibly setting limits.
2. No overkill weapons like big bombs, big lasers/beams or mass teleporting. Perhaps a kill limit per unit per turn?
3. Theme-based, no robots in a medieval map and no steampunk in a space map - althrough quite obvious.
4. Stricter declare rules. Let's just make them so that you cannot get confused easily.
5. No gradients for effects like explosions, at least make them limited to 2-10 colors. Also, no anti-aliasing lines/brushes/whatever. If you cannot draw something in MS Paint, don't do it.
6. No image-screwing file formats, hosting sites or image editors. Pixel art is meant to stay the same color.
7. To determine if your army is too big, here's a simple test: Could you draw every single unit in 5-10 minutes without copy-paste?
Criticism is appreciated, I just thought them up (brainstorming FTW) in about 5 minutes, just considerations of what to add to the rules.
Also, BTW, I have a map-making script for random landscapes. It's still pretty useless, though.
EDIT: I know diameter is 2 times radius - Miclee didn't, so he told me to make an explosion with radius 150, which I made, while he meant diameter 150, so then he said I was doing it wrong. Mmph.
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<Quatroking> Minecraft is a dozen of puppies and kittens smashed into cubes, then mixed up with a few ounces of pure liquid rainbow and after that it spends two hours in the oven. Ready to be played by another drooling ten-year old
PLEASE make only one declare at time, 3 at once was Terrifying.
Well, 3 at a time seemed to much, I'd say 2 at a time.
While we're discussing better rules, It'd be best if people weren't allowed to join mid-game, to keep it from going on forever, meaning at least the majority of the people should join early.
After seeing this thread I started playing a similar game with my friend over email. We made the rule that you can only edit a 200x200 pixel area in one turn. That stops players from making armies/bases too large.
After seeing this thread I started playing a similar game with my friend over email. We made the rule that you can only edit a 200x200 pixel area in one turn. That stops players from making armies/bases too large.
That's okay for building, however when it comes to WHAT you build and more importantly for weapons/troops HOW you use them. There is still a major problem.
Missiles for example, they vary in power, 10MT and 50MT are going to cause considerable amounts of damage. Of course those are over dramatizations for this game, as 50MT would pretty much wipe out the map and lots more.
After seeing this thread I started playing a similar game with my friend over email. We made the rule that you can only edit a 200x200 pixel area in one turn. That stops players from making armies/bases too large.
Nice, but if you already have a base larger than 200x200, you should be able to move your units anywhere in the base. I think "200x200 pixels of terrain digging in one turn" would be better.
Loosely defining a turn as "the things your army does in about X minutes" would stop creating too many units in a single turn. X should be something from 5 to 120, maybe it could vary among games. Over 30 is actually overkill, as it would make combat too easy for the attacking player.
I think explosives must have an area limit. Was a gun ever fired in this round? :/
2 declares at a time sound good, and if we get limited players, a good rule would be: No player can play more than 4 turns before all the other players have played at least once inbetween.
Else, two players in an alliance could ping-pong-declare and attack a single enemy while (s)he's unable to post. Maybe lower 4 to 3 or 2? Also, a player losing his/her turn should count as a turn.
...wait, I totally forgot about making this turn based for each player without time limits, like this:
Player 1 starts turn, posts nothing
Player 1 finishes turn, posts it
Player 2 starts turn, posts nothing
Player 2 finishes turn, posts it
...
Player finishes turn, posts it
Player 1 starts turn, posts nothing
...
No declares, but there's the problem of different timezones. Starting 4 games for GMT 0, -6, +6 and +/-12 could help a little.
What about players who quit? Should their armies just stay there? Also, is this round pretty much finished?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
<Quatroking> Minecraft is a dozen of puppies and kittens smashed into cubes, then mixed up with a few ounces of pure liquid rainbow and after that it spends two hours in the oven. Ready to be played by another drooling ten-year old
After seeing this thread I started playing a similar game with my friend over email. We made the rule that you can only edit a 200x200 pixel area in one turn. That stops players from making armies/bases too large.
Nice, but if you already have a base larger than 200x200, you should be able to move your units anywhere in the base. I think "200x200 pixels of terrain digging in one turn" would be better.
If you're thinking realistic, yes, your units should be able to move at any time, but in game dynamics, if you can only edit in a defined area, then you have to choose between building your base, moving your troops around you base, or attacking with troops you have outside your base.
It becomes a balancing act:
If you spend all your time building your base, you might have good defense, but you might end up being the one attacked all the time since you're not on the offense.
If you spend all your time building new units, you won't have a base to put them in.
If you spend all your time attacking, you'll have a small base with no defense.
Concerning moving units, we have the rule that you can move units into the edit zone, but not out of.
As for nukes, and missiles, I'd just disallow them. Maybe rockets from trucks or planes, but no large, base eliminating nukes. Then the only way to attack a base would be to either invade it or constantly hit it with smaller explosive artillery (say with an explosion limit of 15 px diameter). Either would give the defender a chance to fight back.
Some suggestions:
1. Make distinct the difference between explosion radius and diameter, possibly setting limits.
2. No overkill weapons like big bombs, big lasers/beams or mass teleporting. Perhaps a kill limit per unit per turn?
3. Theme-based, no robots in a medieval map and no steampunk in a space map - althrough quite obvious.
4. Stricter declare rules. Let's just make them so that you cannot get confused easily.
5. No gradients for effects like explosions, at least make them limited to 2-10 colors. Also, no anti-aliasing lines/brushes/whatever. If you cannot draw something in MS Paint, don't do it.
6. No image-screwing file formats, hosting sites or image editors. Pixel art is meant to stay the same color.
7. To determine if your army is too big, here's a simple test: Could you draw every single unit in 5-10 minutes without copy-paste?
Criticism is appreciated, I just thought them up (brainstorming FTW) in about 5 minutes, just considerations of what to add to the rules.
Also, BTW, I have a map-making script for random landscapes. It's still pretty useless, though.
EDIT: I know diameter is 2 times radius - Miclee didn't, so he told me to make an explosion with radius 150, which I made, while he meant diameter 150, so then he said I was doing it wrong. Mmph.
diameter = radius*2 ?
You really need that spelling out for you...
Well, 3 at a time seemed to much, I'd say 2 at a time.
While we're discussing better rules, It'd be best if people weren't allowed to join mid-game, to keep it from going on forever, meaning at least the majority of the people should join early.
That's okay for building, however when it comes to WHAT you build and more importantly for weapons/troops HOW you use them. There is still a major problem.
Missiles for example, they vary in power, 10MT and 50MT are going to cause considerable amounts of damage. Of course those are over dramatizations for this game, as 50MT would pretty much wipe out the map and lots more.
Nice, but if you already have a base larger than 200x200, you should be able to move your units anywhere in the base. I think "200x200 pixels of terrain digging in one turn" would be better.
Loosely defining a turn as "the things your army does in about X minutes" would stop creating too many units in a single turn. X should be something from 5 to 120, maybe it could vary among games. Over 30 is actually overkill, as it would make combat too easy for the attacking player.
I think explosives must have an area limit. Was a gun ever fired in this round? :/
2 declares at a time sound good, and if we get limited players, a good rule would be:
No player can play more than 4 turns before all the other players have played at least once inbetween.
Else, two players in an alliance could ping-pong-declare and attack a single enemy while (s)he's unable to post. Maybe lower 4 to 3 or 2? Also, a player losing his/her turn should count as a turn.
...wait, I totally forgot about making this turn based for each player without time limits, like this:
Player 1 starts turn, posts nothing
Player 1 finishes turn, posts it
Player 2 starts turn, posts nothing
Player 2 finishes turn, posts it
...
Player finishes turn, posts it
Player 1 starts turn, posts nothing
...
No declares, but there's the problem of different timezones. Starting 4 games for GMT 0, -6, +6 and +/-12 could help a little.
What about players who quit? Should their armies just stay there? Also, is this round pretty much finished?
If you're thinking realistic, yes, your units should be able to move at any time, but in game dynamics, if you can only edit in a defined area, then you have to choose between building your base, moving your troops around you base, or attacking with troops you have outside your base.
It becomes a balancing act:
If you spend all your time building your base, you might have good defense, but you might end up being the one attacked all the time since you're not on the offense.
If you spend all your time building new units, you won't have a base to put them in.
If you spend all your time attacking, you'll have a small base with no defense.
Concerning moving units, we have the rule that you can move units into the edit zone, but not out of.
As for nukes, and missiles, I'd just disallow them. Maybe rockets from trucks or planes, but no large, base eliminating nukes. Then the only way to attack a base would be to either invade it or constantly hit it with smaller explosive artillery (say with an explosion limit of 15 px diameter). Either would give the defender a chance to fight back.
Sorry, went kind of mad, but seriously. The grave of the thread was good until you came.