Re: Thoughts on Alterra?

[Douglas Loss <dloss@csrlink.net>]

I've read the comments on Alterra and have a few thoughts of my own.  I
looked at the Empire URL--it's very interesting and somewhat along the lines
of what I was trying to do, but it's heavily weighted toward the military
aspect of the game.  I was trying to balance things so that the military
aspect was only one interesting aspect, and other things could be just as
interesting.  Still, Empire has some interesting aspects, such as being able
to toggle various features in the server software.

That leads me to my second thought.  It appears that most of you who have
responded think Alterra would probably be better if it were less complex.
You may be right.  I'd like to try to make some of the features optional to
allow this while still retaining the full feature set for those wanting it.
The Empire server is GPLed and may be adaptable for use by Alterra.  It would
 bear looking into.

Are any of us on the list educators in the areas of economice, jistory, or
international relations?  I'd like to get some idea of whether Alterra might
be useful in an educational setting as is, with minor modifications, with
major mods, or not at all.  Please critique it with an eye towards its
applicability.

I'd like to continue this discussion for a little while and then put Alterra
on the back burner for a bit.  I sense that it could take a fairly heavy
development effort to get it together properly, and I think our efforts are
probably better directed toward our other projects at the moment.  But I
would like to work on it (with some help) eventually.  Thanks for your
comments.

--
Doug Loss            Democracy substitutes election by the
dloss@csrlink.net    incompetent many for appointment by
(717) 326-3987       the corrupt few.
                        George Bernard Shaw