Re: exploring_worth sub-module functions (Was Re: Side Mask)

["Erik Jessen" <ejessen at adelphia dot net>]

Hi,
Some questions: if one adds a "single combat-result" CRT (like most
board-games have),
instead of multiple hits, is there some way to:

a) slow the rate of change from one battle to the next (since each battle
gets resolved in
    one "die roll", the user may want more time to see the effect).
b) turn off the animation, other than to simply highlight the units in
question.
c) have some sort of a "replay" function, so the user can see or list all of
the combat results?
d) allow ordering of combat, in the case of PBEM (i.e. one lines up all the
attacks, but
    none of them occur.  Then they all occur simultaneously, then user
advances-after-combat
    those units that win.  Or, the user can make one combat occur one after
the other).

Thanks,
Erik

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lincoln Peters" <peters2000@mindspring.com>
To: "Hans Ronne" <hronne@pp.sbbs.se>
Cc: "Jim Kingdon" <kingdon@panix.com>; "Xconq mailing list"
<xconq7@sources.redhat.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 2002 3:45 PM
Subject: Re: exploring_worth sub-module functions (Was Re: Side Mask)


> On Wed, 2002-07-24 at 14:07, Hans Ronne wrote:
> > You are right in assuming that it wouldn't work on all platforms. But
even
> > if it did, to what purpose? The idea is presumably to let the kernel do
> > something useful while the animation is running. But since the kernel
> > handles one unit at a time, there is little it can do until the
interface
> > is ready to proceed to the next unit.
>
> Well, if nothing else, it would allow me to run SETI@home in the
> background more efficiently.
>
> >
> > I think that if we want to speed up the interface further, we have to
think
> > about how to make it easier for the human eye and mind to grasp what is
> > going on. One possible improvement would be to briefly highlight the
> > attacking unit so that you get a sense of where the attack is coming
from
> > (like you do with fire). The splash animation could be improved. Little
> > things like that could make it possible to run the interface at a higher
> > speed while still being intelligible to the human player.
>
> I suppose one thing you could do is figure out how to animate the unit
> images.  For example, with the "soldiers" image, perhaps when they
> attack, they should be animated so that the player sees them aim their
> guns at the target and shoot.  Of course, that would require a lot of
> work to re-program all the existing images, but I haven't seen a
> commercial game with static images for at least 8 years!
>
>