Mage Wars > General Discussion
Mage Wars on OCTGN
sIKE:
When is the last time you played on OCTGN? There is a bit of automation there, what do you think is missing from an automation point of view? Mind you I am constrained by the limits of the OCTGN system itself. I can tell you that after working on this for over a year now what you ask of Arcane Wonders (that OCTGN is not meeting) is quite the under taking. They would have to develop the engine first and then the rules to make the game automated. It is quite the task!!!!
I also believe that with either OCTGN or their own solution, that there will be a bit of a learning curve that all players will need to master to be able to play online. I know many many players find that fact daunting and skip playing as a result. Some get frustrated and walk away from it. Those who have worked through the process (typically 3-4 games (some partial)) and then it is like old hat.....
Schwenkgott:
@Ganpot
I honestly do not unterstand your critics. When was the last time you played online?
OCTGN - in the state as it is now - provides some comfort automated features, but as player you are still in control and feel that you manage the gameboard. There is no important rule, that you can miss or will never hear about when playing via OCTGN. Everything that happens it written down in the chat box, so there is no accidental cheating. And btw. why would anyone try to cheat? Mage Wars is a game that you play for fun, to see if your spellbook works out against certain other mages ... not for winning at all cost.
Maybe some day, the guys from Arcane Wonders will decide to create an online version of their game. But until now, it's a module imspirated by the fans. And i think it's done in a way, that every player can be excited about Most of all, Sike is putting a lot of his time and passion into this project with all the updates, fixes and patches. He himself has hardly the time to play Mage Wars ... and he is not payed for that.
So why don't you enjoy what you can get for free. Of course, if you have some good ideas what can be improved to make Mage Wars on OCTGN even better, you're always welcome.
Ganpot:
--- Quote from: Schwenkgott on September 15, 2014, 12:37:34 AM ---I honestly do not unterstand your critics. When was the last time you played online?
OCTGN - in the state as it is now - provides some comfort automated features, but as player you are still in control and feel that you manage the gameboard. There is no important rule, that you can miss or will never hear about when playing via OCTGN. Everything that happens it written down in the chat box, so there is no accidental cheating. And btw. why would anyone try to cheat? Mage Wars is a game that you play for fun, to see if your spellbook works out against certain other mages ... not for winning at all cost.
Maybe some day, the guys from Arcane Wonders will decide to create an online version of their game. But until now, it's a module imspirated by the fans. And i think it's done in a way, that every player can be excited about Most of all, Sike is putting a lot of his time and passion into this project with all the updates, fixes and patches. He himself has hardly the time to play Mage Wars ... and he is not payed for that.
So why don't you enjoy what you can get for free. Of course, if you have some good ideas what can be improved to make Mage Wars on OCTGN even better, you're always welcome.
--- End quote ---
Please understand: I'm not trying to belittle OCTGN. For an non-commercialized product, it is pretty good. But from my previous experiences with it, I didn't view it as extremely new-user friendly (and I fully admit that it might be much better at this point).
There are most definitely rules that can be missed/misinterpreted while playing on OCTGN (just like they can be missed in real life). Mage Wars is a complicated game, and therefore has a LOT of minor rules. There are rules which even the devs haven't formed a full consensus on yet (Nullifying a Reverse Magic anyone?).
Again, I am not saying that OCTGN is bad. I am only stating that I hope Arcane Wonders takes the opportunity to develop an official online program. It isn't an insult to say that a decently well-off company should be able to design a more polished and robust program than a group of volunteer fans. After all, the company has a lot more manpower and resources at its disposal.
--- Quote from: sIKE on September 14, 2014, 10:36:45 PM ---When is the last time you played on OCTGN? There is a bit of automation there, what do you think is missing from an automation point of view? Mind you I am constrained by the limits of the OCTGN system itself. I can tell you that after working on this for over a year now what you ask of Arcane Wonders (that OCTGN is not meeting) is quite the under taking. They would have to develop the engine first and then the rules to make the game automated. It is quite the task!!!!
I also believe that with either OCTGN or their own solution, that there will be a bit of a learning curve that all players will need to master to be able to play online. I know many many players find that fact daunting and skip playing as a result. Some get frustrated and walk away from it. Those who have worked through the process (typically 3-4 games (some partial)) and then it is like old hat.....
--- End quote ---
My knowledge of OCTGN is a bit out of date, I admit. I would like to compare these two videos in order to illustrate my point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=209u9ykbbtI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MthVaZ0fN_c As you can see, DotP performs very fluidly and automates things such as viable targets, mana consumption (from what I remember, OCTGN doesn't take spawnpoint mana into account by default), and combat damage. Mind you, OCTGN is perfectly functional (so long as at least one player is actually familiar with the rules), but it lacks a lot of those ease of use functions.
I'm fully aware that developing a fully-featured online engine for Mage Wars would be a fairly demanding task, which is why I didn't suggest that OCTGN do it (that would be unreasonable). I would be shocked if Arcane Wonders isn't already considering the possibility. They've already got an online spellbook builder and an IOS application. The success of Hearthstone also clearly shows that there's a big potential market for online card games.
There will always be a learning curve with games like this. But with a decent set of tutorials/explanations, a helpful community, and a good presentation, a lot more people can be convinced to stick with it until they learn enough to really start having fun.
jacksmack:
@Ganpot
How much thought have you given the secret face down enchantment aspect?
Do you realize how cumbersome a fully automated game would be when each player would have to pass each and every opportunity of revealling enchantments? (or do you want to program to be able to backtrack?)
Just imagine what revealling an enfeeble, stumble, fumble would do to your options. (And there are MANY more.)
Now consider the options of enchantment transfusion combined with the above.
OCTGN takes 1 or 2 games to get used to. OCTGN does not provide more errors / false plays than reallife - its the other way around.
As Schwenngott said - its all tracked in the chat.
Schwenkgott:
Mage Wars is much more complex than magic, because you have a gameboard with zones, range aspect, blocked sight, hidden enchantments etc. Certain things cannot be automatized that easily.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version