*Problems* Bit of a rant here, but please read the ideas at the bottom. I could really use your input… doesn’t matter if your in the game or not
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OK, things are not going well with this… Firstly, ive been lazy all this week, no excuse for that. Secondly, I spent all last night fixing my computer. While removing some malware, I managed to f**kup my windows registry so that it kept resetting itself on startup. Luckily I was able to fix it without loosing anything, so I can continue the game...
But, thirdly, I spent over three hours today just editing the save to implement people’s orders, and im not quite finished yet. Then ive still got more editing and fiddling to do as the game actually progresses. It occurs to me that ive gone well past the point at which it made any sense to use this method, as opposed to just working the game out myself like a normal NES. I felt it was working quite well earlier on, but as the empires get bigger and more developed, I have to add lots more units etc to have any effect, which takes time using fiddly methods. Im also encountering more bugs and problems with the save editor. Overall, the workload is getting way too much for what I had in mind
. I simply don’t have that much time available, and anyway I do not want to run something that is taking so much time for little result.
My original idea for this was a simple random/vanilla map, with not much input needed from me once things got started, really very little time needed to update. I thought Civ3 could provide a world that pretty much updated itself… But now im trying to make it into a realistic world and have interesting things happen, while fiddling about with tons of cities and units, and its a nightmare. I don’t feel good about this anymore
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BUT, id still like to keep people’s civilisations and see what happens with them over the course of the future. So, I would like to know if/how people would like to continue…
My ideas are:
A = morphing this into a normal NES, but keeping it simple – it would be heavily inspired by civ3 (and 4), using things like the tech tree etc, so there is still something everyone is familiar with and less need for new rules etc. But, it wouldn’t use the game itself, except for the graphics. Keeping it low-budget, with the simple spending point system. Basic stats like government, economy, production, infrastructure, science, leading techs and military status (food and city sizes would probably be on the map). Im not sure yet how i’d do the world map, but it would probably be something like DNES, with civ3 unit graphics pasted over it to show the location of major armies and forces.
Basically, the game would work the same as it is now, except with me deciding everything instead of running it through civ3. It would take a day or two to set up, but once ive done it I feel it would actually be a hell of a lot easier to run than it is now.
B = carrying on with civ3 – either having longer and more spaced out updates, allowing even less input than there is now, or moving to a simplified and downsized map. To be honest, im not feeling that enthusiastic for doing this at the moment, but I will if people want to do it.
C = calling it a day – ending the experiment and drawing up the final update.
D = your choice, im open to suggestions or anything else…
