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I'd like to just add that I think Richard's idea of mil units entire campaigns taking place in one turn sounds like a brilliant one. The coding might actually be a little more involved, time-wise (combining this 'thread'-based idea with a 'turn' based program), but I think it would be worth it.
And as far as a customizable game program, customizable programming relies on a good object hierarchy model, so ya'll might benefit by moving on to that part of the modelling/analysis/design process pretty soon.
It would be in ya'lls long-term interest to develop these models with more programmer input anyway, so you can know what is possible and what isn't, and what could have been included but wasn't. This interaction would likely save months of coding work. Find out who is going to be doing the coding, and get them to draw out a simple object model. Because remember, these formulae will only be as good as the objects that represent them. Will the 'base' techs be superclasses? Or seperate objects? Will Application objects extend a basic tech object? Or will they include the basic techs as instance variables? These seemingly small questions have a huge impact on the final product, you will likely find.
You don't want a brilliant idea for a movie that ends up as something entirely different than you intended. Remember, ya'll are not writing the actual models that will be used by the player -- you are only creating descriptions of what you want turned into code later. And so it might be best if right now ya'll consider some of the 'translation' difficulties that always arise when programmers turn a requirements document into code. Start the communication immediately. Believe me, please. Both 'Alpha Centauri' and 'Call To Power' have basically the same requirements, with vastly different implementations. The devil is in the coding details.
Just the project-manager in me, rambling again. Sorry if this is off topic.
And as far as a customizable game program, customizable programming relies on a good object hierarchy model, so ya'll might benefit by moving on to that part of the modelling/analysis/design process pretty soon.
It would be in ya'lls long-term interest to develop these models with more programmer input anyway, so you can know what is possible and what isn't, and what could have been included but wasn't. This interaction would likely save months of coding work. Find out who is going to be doing the coding, and get them to draw out a simple object model. Because remember, these formulae will only be as good as the objects that represent them. Will the 'base' techs be superclasses? Or seperate objects? Will Application objects extend a basic tech object? Or will they include the basic techs as instance variables? These seemingly small questions have a huge impact on the final product, you will likely find.
You don't want a brilliant idea for a movie that ends up as something entirely different than you intended. Remember, ya'll are not writing the actual models that will be used by the player -- you are only creating descriptions of what you want turned into code later. And so it might be best if right now ya'll consider some of the 'translation' difficulties that always arise when programmers turn a requirements document into code. Start the communication immediately. Believe me, please. Both 'Alpha Centauri' and 'Call To Power' have basically the same requirements, with vastly different implementations. The devil is in the coding details.
Just the project-manager in me, rambling again. Sorry if this is off topic.
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, this won't be a problem at all, provided that what you have in the begining historically corresponds with the date.
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