Thanks to FIRAXIS: The Diaries Are Great!

[djdhy]

I know that we dont know whether its going to be tb or rt but if its going to be a mixture of both, (for example, tb for main game and switch to rt for the battle scene) maybe we counld solve it with having the smac/civ2mge type of multiplayer and also having the option to do short realtime battles aswell. If any ones played games like Myth and Myth 2, they have short games(probably lasting about 5 mins)on small maps of capture the flag, king of the hill, etc. They could also incorporate this into the single player game aswell, so that for example, if the attacker decides to just take the terratory with out killing the opponent, it would be like king of the hill or something.(not a very good example but i cant think of anything better at this time)

[Adm.Naismith]

Glak, I want to assure you that I respect your opinion (in case my bad english didn't help to underline it correctly).

I keep my opinion, also because figures I know are different. Simply no one tell the true about user access on the net

I mean no offence stating the joke about "too much spare time", I only miss the smile

Me too spent some nighttime playing games, with my wife's disapproval, so I never want to shoot on my own feet

I only think the scenery you describe is over optimistic (from your point of view) respect of actual worldwide state of the art, from Internet speed, to cost of long or permanent connection, to level of developing playable persistent worlds to keep up with long games (Ultima On-line is almost the unique, really succesfully example).

But aren't we going off-topic with this tread?

------------------
Adm.Naismith AKA mcostant

[NoviceCEO]

So, forget the diaries. We're talking about internet connection costs.

I live in Brazil, so maybe you guys would like to hear my example. I spend about R$35 on my ISP and about another R$40 on the telephone bill. I'm pretty sure it is that value, because I have a second line here in my house, which is used exclusively to the inet. Brazilian currency (R$) is worth about half of an US$ and just a little bit less (10% or 5%) than DM (deutsche mark). But keep in mind something: a Brazilian salary in R$ is lower than an American salary in dollars or a german salary in dollars too. So consider my total internet cost (without, of course, considering energy and computer) as US$75, and not R$75, what it truely is. Faster connections are being available only now, in a few big cities. Most of them cost R$68, so it should be a very nice businness for me when they arrive here.

I doubt that Europeans are in worst than Brazilians (it's not harder for them to pay than us), yet there is a reasonable number of Brazilians playing games.

The big news here in the New Year is that many companies have announced plans to provide internet freely, without costs. So I just can't wait 'till I get rid of those R$35 every month to my ISP. I heard that's a common case, so why the hell are you complaining about the Europeans can't be connected on the inet. You don't have to pay an ISP!

novice
off to play Q3

[Mergle]

I'm based in the UK, and for my internet connection I have no standing charge to my ISP. It costs me just under a penny (£0.01) a minute at weekends, and just over a penny a minute weekday evenings for the telephone costs
[This message has been edited by Mergle (edited January 24, 2000).]

[NoviceCEO]

Please explain, how much is a penny (£0.01) in US dollars? I'm not aware of British currency, sorry.
A 4 minute local call costs R$0.08 here, which is about DM 0.07, or US$0.04. You pay the double in "commercial hour", which is from 8am (or 9?) to 12, and 2pm to 6pm in weekdays. There are discounts in weekends, dawn,holidays and other periods of low phone usage.

[Mergle]

US$1.00=UK£0.60, so a penny is about 1.5 US cents.
Calls cost more between 8am and 6pm, but I'm at work then anyway.
[This message has been edited by Mergle (edited January 25, 2000).]

[NoviceCEO]

Man, then in UK, a call costs more. Here, a local call costs about one US cent, although we pay for each 4 minutes.
I had heard the telephone costs a little bit more, but anyway, everything costs more in Europe than here even though in Brazil things usually cost more than it's usual in "not-so-rich-countries".

novice

[Imran Siddiqui]

quote: Here, a local call costs about one US cent

Here in the US, local is free, while in other places it costs more. That means that I can't really play multiplayer games with my friends around the world, who I'd rather be playing with! Just make a good single player game and forget multi-player.

[Qilue]

In Australia, local calls are charged a flat rate of 25c per call, whether it lasts 3 minutes or 3 days. For Isp's using a landline connection as opposed to a satellite connection are charged 27c/mb of data recieved plus rental of equipment(satellite connected isp's only pay rent on equipment). This is passed on to the user usually as an hourly charge. Some isp's charge a flat rate and allow unlimited time, but have an addon charge according to how much is downloaded (my isp charges me 35c/mb after 150mb).

[NoviceCEO]

Imran... what's the percentage of total internet users that are American? 60%? 50%? Or even 40%? Anyway, you'd have plenty of people to play with in America. A good multiplayer game doesn't mean a bad single player game.

novice
(waiting for both, single and multi)

[Bossman]

Going back On Topic, I know you have heard all this before Yin, I used to give it to you non stop at OWO, in fact a lot of the story threads included me pissing you off!

Anyway, I do actualy agree with you, the Dino diaries are great, they have done a good job of them. Its a shmae that they had to patch SMAC so many times to get it right though. That infinite missile range bug really got you gonig didn't it Yin!

Bossman
-Rehashing on old times-

[yin26]

[memorylane]

Yes, the IRM bug got me going for a couple of reasons. One, it ruined my style of play, which is huge maps. I wanted epic battles that would take a few days to resolve.

But more than that was the "It has been fixed. User error." stuff that drove me nuts. And don't forget they threatened to ban me after my first post there, so I was not in the mood to cut anymore slack for bad PR. This PR issue also hurt their now-closed forums.

So if direct interaction is not their strength, something like the diaries is at least enough to keep people intrigued. Frankly, they really need a people person there at any rate.

[/memorylane]

[Bossman]

Well my spelling wasn't quite up to scratch in my last post, I must have been typing to quick!

Yes, I remember that after patch 3.0 the bug was supposed to have been fixed but the AI still did it! Yin, I think you should come back to ACOL and meet some of your old friends!

[yin26]

I spent a lot of time at the Age of Kings forum at ACOL, but it seems to have been erased.