New strategy game, please read and help Thread

Hello, my name is Derek Bartram and I am a final year student studying Software Engineering at the University of Birmingham. As part of my final year I am required to complete a project of some significant size; I have opted for a project in the area of strategy gaming. As part of the project I need to do requirements elicitation; i.e. getting to know what the end-user [i.e. people like yourself] wants.

Please could you take a few minutes of your time to complete the following questionnaire [by adding a reply with your answers numbered]. Please try to keep the topic directly related to this post as it will be included as part of my final report. Thank you.

1) Within this project I aim to produce a strategy game which is only devoted to online play, containing no ‘computer player’. The game would be constantly running and all players inhabit the same game environment. How important would you rate a ‘computer player’?

2) This game is intended to run continuously, so at times your units will be left unattended. How would you like your units to be maintained while you are not playing?

1. Left to an ally
2. Locked so they cannot be altered in any way [paused]
3. A scripting mechanism to allow behaviors to be defined for your units to follow
4. Other; please specify.

3) Given that the game is to run long-term [i.e. longer that one gaming session], how would you rate the need for integration with email, instant messaging, sms, etc? And why?

4) What features do you think current strategy games have that they do particularly well?

5) What features do you particularity dislike in current strategy games?

6) The following features have been suggested for inclusion within this project; please rate them in order of importance [most important first]. Please feel free to add your thoughts on these features.

1. Realistic weather; including features like day/night, wind, rain. Could include interaction with certain weapons [e.g. nuclear missiles which produce fall-out]
2. Realistic terrain; terrain is modeled on real forces such as erosion etc.
3. Natural disasters; floods, earthquakes, etc.
4. Unit customization; the ability to modify unit’s appearance.
5. Unit construction; the ability to make totally new units from unit components [e.g. wheels and engines].
6. Better ally options; sharing of units, resources, etc.
7. Video messaging

7) What features not included above would you like to see [and why]?

Once again, thank you for your help with this process; I shall endeavor to produce a game which shall be appreciated by everyone. A webpage for the project shall be available sometime before Christmas 2004; details to follow. Thank you.

Can you give us a more information on the game its self.this could be usfull in determing what gamers want in a game.

1) some players prefer to 'test' out and learn the gameplay of a new game without beeing worked over by advanced players or looking like a newbie. for that purpse a computer player is a good way. set up a locale server with some cpu oponents to learn and then go into the real game.

2) depends on the gameplay. if the gameflow is quick and beeing away for a couple of hours can eliminate you then it's better to be able to define some defense strategy for your units while you are gone. a locked state like a protection zone i would prefer if possible because you do not always have the time to play.

3) always include PM possibility. direct char is one thing but due to different time zones it's sometimes hard to catch each other. PMs are thus a must.

4) networking code and point-play. with point-play i mean that you can join a game and play without beeing completly disadvantaged. thus it doesn't matter that much if you enter at the beginning or more in the middle.

5) balancing. although mostly done not bad most times you end up with one good combination and in the end all people that know to play use this combo. it starts to get repetitive.

6) 5, 4, 3, 6, rest (sorry, really not able to classify this... all not important)

7) seperate unit appearances from stats as far as possible. with this i mean if you have units of the same strength to not priorize one stats. it's more fun to see users use different units on the playfield instead only the most powerfull one. thus allow that different players can have different stats for their units and not a globally fixed one. makes it more interesting and less monoton.

1) Within this project I aim to produce a strategy game which is only devoted to online play, containing no ?computer player?. The game would be constantly running and all players inhabit the same game environment. How important would you rate a ?computer player??

Somewhat important for "Neutral" Countries or forces or NPS, whatever you call them

2) This game is intended to run continuously, so at times your units will be left unattended. How would you like your units to be maintained while you are not playing?

Left to an ally
OR
A scripting mechanism to allow behaviors to be defined for your units to follow

3) Given that the game is to run long-term [i.e. longer that one gaming session], how would you rate the need for integration with email, instant messaging, sms, etc? And why?
i'd like to get an im or email if im taking heavy losses or something major is happening

4)
Interface, graphics
5) What features do you particularity dislike in current strategy games?

limited plots, cliched units and similar civilizations

6) The following features have been suggested for inclusion within this project; please rate them in order of importance [most important first]. Please feel free to add your thoughts on these features.

in order important 1st:

Better ally options; sharing of units, resources, etc.
Realistic weather; including features like day/night, wind, rain. Could include interaction with certain weapons [e.g. nuclear missiles which produce fall-out]
Natural disasters; floods, earthquakes, etc.
Unit customization; the ability to modify unit?s appearance.
Unit construction; the ability to make totally new units from unit components [e.g. wheels and engines]. Realistic terrain; terrain is modeled on real forces such as erosion etc.
Video messaging

7) What features not included above would you like to see [and why]?

Something more like an MMORPG that wasn't just rush straight forward to the enemy base, that required thought and strategy.

1)I would call them quite important for when your bored/new or if your interenet dies.

2)I would go with 3 or 2. But personally it also depends on howl ongyour are going to be gone, if its not long you gcould just patrol them.

3)Fairly important. Mainly a direct chat option or pming would be better than email or sms.

4)When training soldiers or whatever it be it trains withm ore than one to make armies look bigger and feel more realistic. Examples Rise of nations and Dawn Of war (still in beta)

5)Not many units or originality.

6)5,6,3,2,1,4,7

7)Every unit with a ability or something unique. And a weight system changing units speed.

Cheers

Firstly, thanks to everyone who has replied so far; this is really useful stuff!

STRATCOM wrote: Can you give us a more information on the game its self.this could be usfull in determing what gamers want in a game.

Basically I don't want to give too much info as I am interested in what everone thinks. I'm trying to produce a game which is as popular as possiable with as many people as possiable.

duckedtapedemon wrote: Something more like an MMORPG that wasn't just rush straight forward to the enemy base, that required thought and strategy.

It'll definiatly not be just a case of rush base, kill, win. Neither will it be base sit; get resources; build loads of tanks; win. Personally that's the thing I hate the most with strat games [made C&C RA2 and C&C Generals quite boring; sadly it works against most people, so most people do it [including me i'm sad to say]]. I'm unfamiliar with the accronym MMORPG; whats that mean?

Thanks once again, keep replying please, this is a really big help.

- Edited By derek_bartram On Thu 26th, Aug 2004 @ 5:59:49pm

MMMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game. See: Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft and Lineage II

I ment more in the way of RTS or a FPS type game. You said you wanted to make a strategy game but there are many types of strategy

in german: Massiver Mist ORPG... translated massive crap orpg... ... MMORPGs tend to squeeze together in one place as many players as possible... some people seem to like this although it's nothing more than a torture on bandwidth *sad*

- Edited By Dragonlord On Fri 27th, Aug 2004 @ 1:44:51am

Thanks for the clarification .. I'm aiming to make it so there is plenty of space so hopfully there shouldn't be too many of the problems that Dragonlord mention, however at times there will be huge amounts of units in a small space. I shall try and make it optimised for this, but no promises ... This game will require a pretty fast net connection anyway.

don't get me wrong... i talk here of things like this medieval MMORPG some pal of mine liked to play... you ended up with around 1000 or more people on one battle field (around some castle) fighting... nice nice... but to be honest it's more of a mass destruction dirby than you playing and showing your cunning skills... but that's a matter of taste, not a downside.