Jul 1st 2013, 19:15:22
Originally posted by tulosba:
I can't remember tha name of the shareware game I used to play. But it had 7-26 star systems you had to conquer, each star had x number of planets (you could build more, or destroy them) and you could play against 1 or multiple computer opponents. Computer AIs are programmed by humans, and so are inferior opponents by default unless given advantages (such as being omnipotent about the whole map, or the player's situation, or simply having more damage, or a production boost, or in this case, random harmful events).
Just like Risk, it would take hours to finish. But it had a feature called random events, that made it harder. Because you couldn't be sure your attacking fleet would make star system N or whatever it was that was on the other side of the screen without getting hit by a random event that caused it to get lost or off track..
And once you were good at the game, you had to have random events at max to make it challenging so you wouldn't beat the computer as easily every time.
That's why in the summer of 1999 when Mehul had his chat to develop earth 2025 I suggested random events to him, both good and bad. And he and the others in the chat liked it.
That's why we have earthquakes
Just like Risk, it would take hours to finish. But it had a feature called random events, that made it harder. Because you couldn't be sure your attacking fleet would make star system N or whatever it was that was on the other side of the screen without getting hit by a random event that caused it to get lost or off track..
And once you were good at the game, you had to have random events at max to make it challenging so you wouldn't beat the computer as easily every time.
That's why in the summer of 1999 when Mehul had his chat to develop earth 2025 I suggested random events to him, both good and bad. And he and the others in the chat liked it.
That's why we have earthquakes
Your argument and reasoning is flawed. That shareware game of yours is a single player game. You add random elements to a single player game to make it unpredictable and more challenging, sure. It is your own game, and doesn't affect anyone else. You could cheat in it and nobody would care.
However, EE/Earth2025 is a multiplayer game, a game where the best vie for the top spots. The playing field is no longer even if different players get different amounts of earthquakes or random events. If you cheat, everyone else would cry foul.
Random events and earthquakes have no place in a competitive game - and that is why you'll never see random earthquakes in a game like DotA, Starcraft 2, Team Fortress 2, or even Chess that can shift the balance of the players or teams - because competitive games are about player skill, not about dumb luck. In these games, you'll find that both teams start with similar resources, the maps are almost always symmetrical (rotational or reflectional), or if the goal is asymmetrical (plant the bomb or capture a point), then both teams take turns to complete the same task and see who can do it faster/better.
You mentioned Risk and Risk is a multiplayer game - but Risk wasn't really about player skill - it was a game that really combines a bit of both - but a lot of it still comes down to the dice rolls. This is why a leaderboard for Risk or Monopoly is silly, and they will never be competitive games.