CW: The FusionSpace Saga

[sanctioning]

Just an idea.  Generate a fixed number of worlds, say, 10,000 (or whatever number can be managed).  Each player or team of players have an 'identity' name. When an identity conquers a world it then bears their identity.
A schematic of the 10,000 worlds can be accessed by all players and the identities with the top 10 (?) number of worlds conquered have their worlds shown in an assigned color (red for number 1, blue for number 2 etc).   The identities do not 'own their color - they win or lose it as the game progresses.
Any identity could conquer or reconquer any world. It would need to be possible to search out worlds conquered by other identities so that tactics of conquest can be applied.
The aim is to conquer the universe (10,000 worlds) and the first to gain 50% plus wins. An identity would know how many worlds they have conquered and, thus, how far they are away from the 'top 10'.
The main idea is role reversal  - in the game as it stands the blue stuff conquers and spreads but in this battle it is the identities which conquer and spread. When the game is complete it starts over but a role of honour keeps the name of the winning identities.
It  might be simpler for teams to have a forum upon which you can adopt an identity if you want to be in a team rather than going to all the complexity of online gaming?

[Dranar]

the thing that a lot of people either miss/forget/overlook is that KC is only one person, to do wat he did took how long now, and im guessing to make a CW 2 would take 2/3/4/5 times as long if he were to implement all of teh things we've suggested in teh forums let alone come up with another EPIC story

we know that kc is only one person (or some of us do at least) we're just eager to put our many ideas forward, even though we know the poor guy cant keep up :P

Thats why I keep suggesting a developer team.  ;)

[Karsten75]

Thats why I keep suggesting a developer team.  ;)

And before Virgil takes you up on it he should read  The Mythical Man-Month by Frederick Brooks.

[Kamron3]

Keep it to one person, don't have to pay anyone or listen to anyone.

Don't hire anyone, Virgil and keep it all to yourself.

_k

[Dranar]

:(

I don't want to be paid, I just want to be helpful.  ;D

[knucracker]

I do appreciate the offers for help that I get.  Now honestly, CW for me is a solitary effort as I need it to be that.  Group work and management is already something I get more than enough of in other endeavors.

Professional software development is also something I try to do with CW and it's a little different than a casual group, or open source style development.  It takes a ridiculous amount of time, skill, and experience to do even simple things at the 99th percentile or higher.  And it takes 99th percentile ideas and implementation to get noticed in today's market (on average... there are always exceptions to this rule).

So I plan to keep CW solo for now... but thanks again for the offers of help, it is very flattering.

[firereaction]

Hmm... How about some Extra chalenge maps that dont let you build blaster and mortars but you start out with some on the map, or  maps without anti air rocket thing but still shoot out spores, you would have to build blasters everywhere. Do you get what i mean? Limit certain things to make it alot more chalenging. An all mortar map would be evil

[Aurzel]

you can already do that when you make your own maps

[Crisalys]

you can already do that when you make your own maps

Speaking of map making, considering that wide screen monitors are becoming more the norm, new maps should reflect this, whether the maps are 16:10 ratio (like screens with a 1920 x 1200 resolution) or 16:9 ratio (like screens with a 1920 x 1080 resolution).  I'm partial to the 16:9 ratio- more people are connecting their large-screen LCD and Plasma TVs to their computers today, which use the 16:9 format (1080p).

The Map Creator program creates 70 x 48 maps, which translates roughly to a 4:3 ratio (4.375 to 3 actually); Simply expanding the map to a full size wide screen view would only require expanding the width of the map to 85 units... 85 x 48 is somewhat of an odd resolution to mess with, but if we decrease the height from 48 to 45 units, a map grid of 80 x 45 will give us a perfect 16:9 format. A 72 x 45 grid is a perfect 16:10 ratio too.

I don't know if we want to increase the grid size too much... As it is, the in-game maps can require a half-hour or more to complete... Increasing the playfield size may make the time to complete each map too daunting.  The current 70 x 48 maps have 3,360 square units... grids of 72 x 45 and 80 x 45 are 3,240 and 3,600 square units respectively.

Playing a 16:9 CW2 on a 4:3 monitor should, if the window were expanded to full screen, produce the black bars above and below the map the same way viewing a 16:9 DVD on a 4:3 TV does (in the same way expanding CW1's game window to full-screen on a 16:9 monitor produces black bars on the left and right).

Of course this is all moot depending on whether you want to retain "total" backward compatibility with CW1 or not.

If CW2 were to use wide-screen maps, then (eventually) either CW1's Map Creator program would have to be modified to make 16:9 maps, or a second Map Creator program would need to be written specifically for CW2.

Furthermore, if the Map Creator program is modified to create 16:9 maps as well as 4:3 maps for CW1, then you'll either have to use a new extension, like *.cw2, to differentiate the new 16:9 maps from 4:3 maps used by CW1, or modify CW1 accept both size maps.  Although, I don't know what it would entail to modify CW1's code to accept newer 16:9 player-created maps...

[knucracker]

Thanks for all of the wonderful and helpful feedback.  I think I have enough from this thread, so I'll lock it and un-sticky it so it can fade away.

Thanks again for the input!