And that is the conclusion of my thoughts on the matter. While it isn't a perfect system, it is a thought. And on a side note..RavenX, I've been a fan of yours for a long time, and agree with most of what you say, however in one of the other threads, where you took it upon yourself to expand the horizon of thought in an effort to give new ideas a chance to grow..You seemed a bit too timid. If it was your job to go over to Closed-Mind Street and kick in the door on the big house of Stubborn..I wouldn't expect you to knock first and ask politely if anyone was home. Just kick in the door, and proceed to kick ass and..repeat.
That's a very Good Post, Rath3130. Firstly, thank you for being a fan. There was a time (on MySpace) when I had hundreds of "Fans". How many of them actually "meant something" to me? Very few. A few of my "Fans" became very close friends. Others though acted more or less the same way we see people respond to Frogboy and other Staffers here on the Elemental forums. Ass-Kissing Sycophants who are "Yes Men". Even when they hate a thought or idea, they say they like it and ass-kiss their way around it. I don't do that...Ever.
Although...
During my time in The Industry, I had to learn to walk a very fine line between being the "Yes Man" and standing up to my employer over what I Knew the players wanted, because they were saying so all over the place. Some of it I agreed with, others I did not. Either way a compromise must be made as to "appear" to be Diplomatic in my response. In other words, being strong willed and then a few sentences later having to rebuke my previous statement while still keeping the original point. I Understand Completely what you mean by having to be "timid" at times.
As for dealing with MP games. I too am Greatly Looking Forward to spanking some ass in MP games. I want them to be fun and have strategic and logistical depth. In a SP game this level of depth can work extremely well. When you take those same mechanics though and apply them to MP games...well, you get a big clusterfuck at that point. Even though the game plays the same, those very same Fun and In Depth mechanics turn a MP game into a grand epic that will take you and a few friends a whole week of play time to get through because everyone has to wait (or be a spectator) when another player goes into a battle with someone else.
Napoleon:TW does a great job of mixing these. In that you can play a "Drop In" multi-player game. Meaning I can play a Single Player Campaign, but when I come to a battle, ANY BATTLE, if I have the "Drop In" option turned on, then when I enter that battle the server the game is tied to will find another person playing on-line, pause their game, and put them in charge of the other army I'm fighting for the length of that battle.
I'm STILL playing a Single Player Campaign, once the battle is over, all other "enemy strategical moves" are handled by the AI just as in a normal Single Player game. The only difference is, for actual fights, someone else online takes over my enemy so we can have a good fight. I don't have to worry about it being a "easy win" against the AI, because another actual Human is playing against me for the length of the battle.
It's a awesome system to implement. I'd love to see a "Drop In" system like that implemented for Elemental. That also raises the problem, what if the MP game in question has more then 2 people playing, which again in turn leads to people sitting around and waiting for-ever and loosing interest in the game.
There won't be a simple answer to this in Elemental. No matter what though, I just don't want them to go back on what they said and compromise the single player gameplay for sake of faster MP games.
Some mechanics simply Can Not cross over to a "Fun" multi-player game.
This is why I think they are headed more towards a "Wizard Duel" when it comes to battles in MP. Something that could be over relatively quick or last for a little while, without everyone else who's waiting getting bored and quiting the game.
Still, even if I end up looking like the Biggest Prick on the forums, I won't let them compromise the SP game, plus they said they wouldn't.
Again, excellent post my friend.