From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 22100 invoked by alias); 28 Sep 2004 16:34:20 -0000 Mailing-List: contact xconq7-help@sources.redhat.com; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Subscribe: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: , Sender: xconq7-owner@sources.redhat.com Received: (qmail 22066 invoked from network); 28 Sep 2004 16:34:19 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mail1.panix.com) (166.84.1.72) by sourceware.org with SMTP; 28 Sep 2004 16:34:19 -0000 Received: from panix5.panix.com (panix5.panix.com [166.84.1.5]) by mail1.panix.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id DBE1B48713; Tue, 28 Sep 2004 12:34:18 -0400 (EDT) Received: (from kingdon@localhost) by panix5.panix.com (8.11.6p2-a/8.8.8/PanixN1.1) id i8SGYId25590; Tue, 28 Sep 2004 12:34:18 -0400 (EDT) Date: Tue, 28 Sep 2004 18:24:00 -0000 Message-Id: <200409281634.i8SGYId25590@panix5.panix.com> From: Jim Kingdon To: xconq7@sources.redhat.com In-reply-to: <41596A1F.5080102@phy.cmich.edu> (message from Eric McDonald on Tue, 28 Sep 2004 07:41:51 -0600) Subject: Re: New Windows Installer and Source Tarball References: <4158CF06.9080900@phy.cmich.edu> <200409280325.i8S3PXu03085@panix5.panix.com> <41596A1F.5080102@phy.cmich.edu> X-SW-Source: 2004/txt/msg01268.txt.bz2 > I also think that it is mentioned somewhere that Elephants are > considered to be an archery platform. If so, then perhaps Joinery (the > advance needed for Archers) should be required Makes sense. I don't remember in what order I was in the habit of doing Joinery, but perhaps not at all (it appears to be a dead-end advance, since Horsemen are just as easy to get as Archers, and generally as good or better at combat). > some sort of construction advance should be required, since I seem to > recall images of elephants with little towers on their backs. Joinery already depends on artisanry and carpentry. Barring a new set of construction advances, I don't really see anything else which fits the bill (it needs to be 4th generation, at least the way the rp values are set now, because 3rd or lower will be easy to get by the time one is thinking of going for Elephant, which is 5th generation). > Additionally, there is the animal training/guidance aspect; perhaps > some animal guidance skills (like a caravan) should be required. That would appear to be already covered; elephant depends on a whole line of animal advances (horse, donkey, camel, etc). Another thing to tweak is construction points. Right now the game board quickly gets overrun with units, and it is really tedious to move them all. There are some commented out values for construction points in advances.g which I thought were an improvement, but Hans didn't like the slow start to the game. The slow start could be speeded up by making a few early units cheaper (say, slingers and spearmen - I'd probably leave colonizers kind of expensive as they are the source of the exponential growth). We shouldn't go too far overboard on elephants; since Elephant is a dead-end advance, it does make sense for the units to be kind of powerful. Making the player choose between Elephant now (for short-term gains) or setting themself up for Phalanx some turns from now is an interesting trade-off situation. I suppose if we really wanted to take this to an extreme, we wouldn't seek to have Elephant depend on existing advances like artisanry, but instead to have its own set, which don't mix with the advances which take you towards Phalanx.