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Ancient or Age-Spanning?

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Fri, 07/07/2006 - 18:03
FateTriarrii
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Joined: 01/04/2009

I am designing a game which I need your opinion on. It is really new, and I am just designing it for fun, but I would like to know before I go further.

The basic idea is that each player is a god. And because you are immortal, and really bored, you have fun be screwing with human history. Points for the most interesting situations. The basic equation is:

Reason (how good/touching/cool) * Difficulty (for the humans, not you) * Novelty

How those numbers are decided I am working on. What I need help on is technology. Seeing as it is a mythologically based game, should it stay in the classical era, or should it trace all the way up to modern day (and possibly beyond)?

Also, how much independent human involvement should there be (anywhere from dumb piles of goop that don't think unless you tell them to to annoyingly intelligent humans who will second guess whatever you say...)?

Your thoughts...

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Fri, 07/07/2006 - 23:11
#1
Hedge-o-Matic
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Ancient or Age-Spanning?

I'd go for some definate classical age, here, either from Earth's antiquity, or made up entirely by you. The whole idea of gods relies on a cultural base, and you'd be best served by creating that base first. Then the gods have something to mess with. Otherwise, its just stirring empty air, as it were.

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Sat, 07/08/2006 - 10:53
#2
NetWolf
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Ancient or Age-Spanning?

I'd stick the era somewhere around 0 BC. That way you can still have the Romans, Gauls, Gemans, proto-vikings (I'm not sure if they were full-fledged vikings at that point), Egyptians, and some of the Middle Eastern gods. Should make for an interesting game! I can just see the gods now:

Zeus: "Hmmm...ok. Today I think I'll try to seduce a lady in the guise of.......a winged, purple, hippopotamus!"

Thor: "I wonder if I can make it rain Blueberry Jell-O?"

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Sat, 07/08/2006 - 14:47
#3
FateTriarrii
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Ancient or Age-Spanning?

Thanks, it sounds like I should go for the ancient cultures. Thank you for you help with that decision.

On question #2, I just wanna spell out some choices I think I could go with:

1) Humans are represented by dumb chips with some attributes based on location/race/holy empowerment. Beyond that, the gods themselves define all human interaction. Added downtime = less than 1 minute.

2) Humans are represented by societies and maybe some major figures/heroes. Some autonomy would be involved, where the world *could* function (in a really boring way) without holy interaction. Added downtime = 2 - 5 minutes.

3) Humanity is displayed with a thorough model that will essentially replay a different version of history (minus the myths) unless the gods get involved. This would include the *possibility* that every human be represented with their own personal thoughts (though the human population would be severely limited due to this). Additional downtime = 5 - 15 minutes.

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Tue, 07/11/2006 - 04:52
#4
MPT
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Ancient or Age-Spanning?

I think that your decisions on era and autonomy of humans should depend on how complex a game you are intending to make.

The advantage with the ancient era is that it is a period that naturally links to the idea of gods interacting with humans, and having multiple gods. The more modern the era, the more complex society has become and so the more complex the game is likely to be.

'Dumb Humanity' (option 1) puts the emphasis of the actions of the gods and would be perfect for a 'beer and pretzel' type game. The more complex the actions of humanity, the more complex the actions of the players (gods) will need to be to couteract them since you do not want a situation where the 'humans' effectively run the game and the 'gods' actions become meaningless.

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Tue, 07/11/2006 - 23:23
#5
FateTriarrii
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Joined: 01/04/2009
Ancient or Age-Spanning?

Thanks for all your help. I will keep this in mind...

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