RE: Strategy games (was something else and Texture mapping)

[Gareth Noyce <GarethN@solvera-inform.com>]

> Yep, but it's very hard to come with conclusions without more or less
> bad generalisation...

'Spose... ;-)
 
> <flame snipped>
> 
> >I thought this was a given?! Blame the console generation. 
> Although saying
> >that I don't mind some jaw dropping GFX to stare at after the pub :)
> 
> Ok. I too don't mind som enic gfx, but not at the cost of the
> depth and gameplay. Currently gfx seems to be 75%+ of the total
> development time/cost in modern games. Sound adds another 20%, leaving
> some percent to the plot, AI, depth...

Depends if we're talking about commercialy sucessfull games. In which case
you're spot on.

> >Panzer Strike was cool. Cimputer Ambush is a new one on me. 
> What format was
> >that out on?
> 
> That's a really ancient one. I think it was first on the Apple II, but
> later (1983?) on the C64. I bears some similarities to Laser 
> Squad on the
> Amiga. It's tactical with a squad of 8 men, basically 
> realtime, but you
> give your men orders for ~30 seconds. After that an actin 
> phase executes
> the orders and you review the results and issue new orders. 
> It had several
> different weapons, grenades, explosives, advanced line-of-sight (the
> battle was in a small town), sneaking, crawling, running, sniping
> fire-on-area etc etc. Some nice missions too. I still have 
> the manual for
> the game, so it should be fairly easy to copy the 'contents' 
> of the game
> in a newer version.

Yeah, that reminds me of that game on the Spectrum (done by the same people
as the Amiga Laser Squad original) where you had 8 wizards. Same turn based
thing, with action and movement. How I remember nights spent sending 'Green
Ooze' on my foes...

Those were the days.

Now in my mind there is one /hell/ of a big need for games like that again,
but with shit-hot CPU opponents, and some great topdown GFX. When I was
playing the wizards game (whose name I've forgotten) I started doing the GFX
for an updated version. Nice terrain (I was going to add terrain parameters
into the movement phase, account for hills etc.), great spells (with nice
effects) and some funky animal friends to throw into the mix...

If you're working on something along those lines then I'd be interested in
participating. Time limits me to GFX/SFX at present. I've got a couple of
coding projects underway already... Oh and I'm always up for playtesting. 
 
> >I wouldn't mind having a play with the Amiga version (I 
> still have a 500 &
> >1200 up and running @home)
> >any chance of getting hold of a copy?
> 
> No, it's unfortunately sold long ago, along with all the software.

Shame that...