segallion

Join Date 02/2007

Content will it be too much?

Having played Spore for a bit, will there be issues with too much content?

For example, when I think of a Troll I think of a D&D regenerating monster that you need fire and acid to destroy. So I go about creating this unit. Someone else comes along and makes a Troll similar to those in Lord of the Rings movies. A big brute of a fighter. Someone else decides to be cute and creates a peasant type of creature but names it "Troll".

How will this type of scenario work? Will Stardock make an "official" version as such? One that pertains "best" to their game?

Do you have to download each and when playing against an opponent do they also have to have the exact same version as yours?

If someone makes a Race called Trolls, and makes Troll units, won't things become confusing, and having to watch for the latest updated material?

What are your opinions?

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Alstein

Join Date 07/2004

+55

My concern is from the gameplay side of things- that Stardock may put in so much content , that gameplay becomes warped and skewed.

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Maybe SD could let us change the names of units we download from other people? That said, I'm interested to see how custom content will be dealt with in multiplayer. I think maybe the best way to do it is to give the host a list of his store of custom content and let him select what he wants to be in the game. If other players don't have some of it, it would automatically download it for them (and maybe give you the option for it to delete itself after the game if you don't want clutter.

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My concern is from the gameplay side of things- that Stardock may put in so much content , that gameplay becomes warped and skewed.

as pigeonx2 says, Stardock already addressed this. They said they will be keeping it simple in terms of what comes with the game (only human races and basic unit designs, for example) but allowing for infinate expansion by us the players. So the content will only be as diverse as we make it (or you allow it to be)

That being said, rulling out the things like having units with bizzar weaknesses and things such as that (which will be user driven) the rest of the content I imagine will be no more complex then say, Master of Magic or Civilization.

They were plenty complex and full of content, but not too much that you couldn't still see most all of it.

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Poorly explained and thought out units will only make thier way into your games if you allow them in. Stardock screens content but it is up to the players to decide what to include.

Thats how it was explained to me anyway.

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Alstein

Join Date 07/2004

+55

Quoting landisaurus,

reply 3

My concern is from the gameplay side of things- that Stardock may put in so much content , that gameplay becomes warped and skewed.
as pigeonx2 says, Stardock already addressed this. They said they will be keeping it simple in terms of what comes with the game (only human races and basic unit designs, for example) but allowing for infinate expansion by us the players. So the content will only be as diverse as we make it (or you allow it to be)

That being said, rulling out the things like having units with bizzar weaknesses and things such as that (which will be user driven) the rest of the content I imagine will be no more complex then say, Master of Magic or Civilization.

They were plenty complex and full of content, but not too much that you couldn't still see most all of it.

My worry is the core game, not the space salmon pink bear cavalry ponies that some of you will make.

Stardock is being very ambitious here, and it's a design tendency for ambitious games to end up with bloated features.

Then again it anyone will do it right, it will be Stardock.

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ScottTykoski

Join Date 03/2001

+132

I'm not positive how Spore does it, but in Elemental the player will be the one downloading and activating content (which can be automated, but only if you choose). One new content is dowloaded, you can turn it off in World Setup.

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

BoogieBac, is there any 'packaging' system in the plan yet? I'm thinking about something like a major set of themed additions, e.g. "Tolkien Elves for Elemental" or "Spawn of the Monster Manual" that might include a wide range of related content items.

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ScottTykoski

Join Date 03/2001

+132

GW: Yes, because of the interdependent nature of data, we'll need something like that to keep things in order. No specifics have been planned out, however.

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I'm sure we can help with that once the beta version of the product comes out and we see how it works.

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Denryu

Join Date 07/2006

+93

I do not think the user created content will be anywhere near the levels of Spore. My impression has been that content to be broadcast will be carefully moderated by StarDock before being broadcast - I may have the wrong impression though!

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We appreciate the responses Boogie, thanks for that!!

Here are some of the scenarios I was thinking about. How often will we have to constantly "maintain" the downloads? For example. Person creates a Troll, balances well within the game at release. A month later, with a bunch of new content that same person re-creates the Troll to balance it within the current game, do we constanlty get updated with that, or will it require us to continually maintain and keep up to date with that "one" piece of content?

Also, could this possibly cause problems with strategy? Again several Troll creatures created out there, but are vastly different, but require the same possible materials. I see my opponent gearing up those materials and I then try to help my side out by compensating for that. To my horror I find out his type of Trolls are magical and not fighter based like what my trolls are.

Hope I'm making sense here.

Can't wait for the Beta.

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segallion

They've (the devs) previously stated that in multiplayer you'll only play with units etc that you and your opponents all have in common, so unless you both happen to have a couple different versions of trolls that you use to play this hopefully sholudn't be a problem

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I Think what Segallion is getting at is more of issues with BASE stuff in the game, Not added content. Let's do another example.

Player A makes a Pike wielding, heavy armor using, helmet having unit and calls it "Guardian" because he see's this very long trained elite unit to guard his cities and important places.

Player B makes a cheap peasnt who has a sword and calls them a "Guardian" because he see's this cheap unit as something to have at his cities as he plans to not let the enemy get close but want's something "just in case".

Player B realizes he's in trouble and needs player A to send supplies to make some Guardians, Player A goes "Oh ok" and sends pikes and armor and helmets.... and Player B Goes, But.. where are my swords I asked for?!

This is the confusion I think he's speaking of. Using in game items but different people have different naming conventions when you get going. Can vary greatly on strategy ect. Or sometimes people name stuff silly things for fun. in Gac II I had "Kittens" which were a basic part of my fleets early game. Oh yea, where was I? OH yes.

As a player base we'll just have to learn to realize when we name a unit that's not standardized that we'll have to be more pacific. Like if you need help with your "Troll" production ask the players for the armor/weapons, special iitems you need and not go "I need help making trolls!"

Does that help at all?

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Ahhh right, I see what you mean. On a point of pedantry it seems unlikely that outside of custom content you'd actually be creating "Troll" units using the unit creation mechanism given that the only races in the game are Human and Fallen, unless you happened to call some spear carrying men "Trolls" or something similar, but that would be insane! I'm not sure whether there'll be that level of unit variation when it comes to summoning creatures but I suppose it's not inconceivable...

That aside though I do see what you mean, and yeah I guess people will just have to remember not to use terms they've created as if they're commonly known when talking intra-alliance, just seems like common sense doesn't it? More specifically to the subject of what segallion said about noticing what materials your oponent is gathering and then trying to accommodate ahead of time to units they might create.. it strikers me as a bit unlikely that you'd know with any real exactitude what your opponent was preparing in terms of resources unless you had some sort of espionnage system in effect, and if that was the case you'd probably know exactly what they were buildnig anyway (and I'm assuming that would include stats and not just whatever name they've happened to come up with)

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Well the "Espianage system" Could be you have some units raiding thier caravans and go "Uh oh, why is he moving all these mithril swords... OH NO!" type of situation

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Philocthetes

Join Date 10/2003

+153

My guess is that however the packaging system works out, there will be both published packages and local, user-defined packages and you'll always be working with one sort of package or another, not just a stack of whatever came down the pipe. Both user-made and downloaded packages almost certainly will require that every component in the group have a unique name, so the only way to have two types of troll or guardian in the package would be to have related names like Knight Guardian and Guardian.

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