Nuclear War - Video Game?

[vovan]

Originally posted by ADG
Nuclear War card game?

Yep:

http://www.flyingbuffalo.com/nucwar.htm

Read the first couple of paragraphs... It speaks of this card game there.

[Nubclear]

EMERGENCY TEST

http://www.yahoo.com

[Grumbold]

Originally posted by vovan


You mean this one:

http://www.mobygames.com/game/shots/p,2/gameId,206/gameShotId,839/

?

By New World Computing, released in 1989? I thought you said there was one like that recently?

Hey, it seems like yesterday to some of us

I finally threw away my copy when I realised that even if the 5.25" disk had not crumbled, I had not seen a drive capable of reading it for years

The computer games are based on an older board game.

[vovan]

Oops, I just realized I forgot to add the Revolution order. How's one supposed to change governments otherwise?

Although come to think about it, I am not sure such an order is even needed. I mean, the game would be fairly short in general. The thread one lasted what? About seven turns? Thus, I don't expect the computer one to go over, say twenty, turns... Maybe it would be a better idea to have governments fixed? Would make it a bit more important to choose the right one from the get-go. Ideas?

[Skanky Burns]

I can't see anyone leaving themselves open to attack for a whole turn just to gain benefits of another government, particularly at the cost of their current government's benefits.

[vovan]

Yup, that's what I figured, too. Just that since this is an option in the thread game, I thought it'd be worthy considering.

[Jamski]

I would like to hear some input from Jamski, though, him being the original starter of this nuking deal. *hint, hint, Jam*

Ok

One thing the game really MUST NOT HAVE is a mechanism where more cities = more power. This just encourages building too much. The number of nukes, propaganda, spies etc MUST be independant to the number of cities remaining. Assume nukes are launched from secret bunkers or submarines, not cities.

The only really hard thing to programm will be the AI, unless you make it MP only. Or you could just randomise everything for the AI, with weighted rolls to make the AI more likely to take revenge, and less likely to start fighting you if you nuke its enemies.

-Jam

[vovan]

Aha. Thanks, Jamski.

First, as far as the AI goes... I am not currently worrying about the details of implementation like this. What I really want to flesh out first is the dynamics of gameplay. For instance, as we have seen in the thread game, propaganda in general may be a little too strong and may need some kind of restriction. Also, should change of government be allowed or not, and the point about cities, which you bring up and I will address shortly. Such things. I think they should be well taken care of before the actual coding model is designed. That's why I posted these initial thoughs so much in advance, so that with the help of the posters here, we could polish up the dynamics of the game.

Now, as far as your suggestion about the cities not influencing the power of the nation goes... On the one hand, I'd like to say I agree with you, because the cities already play a large enough role. They are like your lives, where with each hit of the nuke, you get weaker.

On the other hand, the reason I thought it would be good to have the cities influence the ability to act is that I thought it would be good to reward the player for doing well in the game. Even though each game is going to be short, I believe it is crucial to give the player some kind of feeling of advancement, which you just don't get with a fixed limit on the Action Points.

An alternative, and obvious one, would be to have the maximum number of action points be determined, once again, by the government type. But I felt that that might be a little too much, because for one, the governments already determine a whole lot of things, and the more there are, the harder it would be to balance all the different advantages or disadvantages, and the governments may just end up either too different - to drastic balance effects; or balanced, but too similar to really make a difference.

So, like I said, I think that nukes, propaganda, spies, etc. should be dependent one something. While it is a good point that maybe one shouldn't give any more significance to the cities, I wonder what else could it be?