Blockland Forums > General Discussion
Mini Empires: Seperating the Kings From the Peasants
otto-san:
i personally think mini empires should be played like an RTS but that may be just me i guess
and in RTS games graphics aren't extremely important as long as you can tell what everything is. i mean, it's nice if it looks good but w/e. i think it might be a bit too much to ask of your players to make all their units and buildings beautiful lol
if you do that it people start spending too much time designing things rather than actually playing the bloody game
AdinX:
--- Quote from: otto-san on January 04, 2014, 10:25:03 AM ---i personally think mini empires should be played like an RTS but that may be just me i guess
and in RTS games graphics aren't extremely important as long as you can tell what everything is. i mean, it's nice if it looks good but w/e. i think it might be a bit too much to ask of your players to make all their units and buildings beautiful lol
if you do that it people start spending too much time designing things rather than actually playing the bloody game
--- End quote ---
That's why the more dedicated players make dup plates. I'll add that to the OP's definition.
We make all of our stuff pre-made.
Yes it still takes a long ass time. But when we're ready to play, it's all there for us if the host lets us load it.
Also, if you had to pick between an RTS with a top down grid where everything was represented by a single colored square, or an RTS like Sid Myer's Civ 5, which would you pick?
otto-san:
--- Quote from: AdinX on January 04, 2014, 10:39:23 AM ---Also, if you had to pick between an RTS with a top down grid where everything was represented by a single colored square, or an RTS like Sid Myer's Civ 5, which would you pick?
--- End quote ---
i answered that more broadly already
--- Quote from: otto-san on January 04, 2014, 10:25:03 AM ---...as long as you can tell what everything is...it's nice if it looks good but w/e.
--- End quote ---
in my experience people get bored after building units for extended periods of time, but maybe the group i played with had a small attention span or something.
AdinX:
--- Quote from: otto-san on January 04, 2014, 10:40:39 AM ---i answered that more broadly already
No you didn't. You said "in RTS games graphics aren't extremely important as long as you can tell what everything is." Well I've given you a choice now. Two games, same cost, same file size, same mechanics, same play style, same everything, but one has nice graphics, which do you pick.
in my experience people get bored after building units for extended periods of time, but maybe the group i played with had a small attention span or something.
They have to have a 5 second attention span to not be capable of building a dup plate, it really is not that hard.
--- End quote ---
I just wanted to try and present my case a little better.
Here is the boat of someone who just recently started playing Mini Empires:
Here is his boat after I showed him a few tricks and explained things to him realistically about size and being able to actually walk onboard a ship.
Here is a ship he helped me design after I gave him a little more input and asked him if he'd like to maybe see what it's like to make a larger, more realistic ship
The first ship is boring and flat, but allows for quick RP
The third ship has depth, some form of scale, a variety of details, better color, and overall actually catches the eye, but takes longer to make in terms of building it, but once it's done you can just replicate it and then you have a fleet (provided your fair about it)
Making a canoe IRL takes months
Why should it take you 10 seconds to make a capital ship?
Put in a little effort, if that's not asking too much.
That isn't directed at anyone. That's a general statement.
otto-san:
--- Quote ---No you didn't. You said "in RTS games graphics aren't extremely important as long as you can tell what everything is." Well I've given you a choice now. Two games, same cost, same file size, same mechanics, same play style, same everything, but one has nice graphics, which do you pick.
--- End quote ---
how is that not answered by what i said?
if everything is just a coloured dot, you can't tell what everything is.
if it looks better, looking better is nice, and so that's a plus.
--- Quote ---They have to have a 5 second attention span to not be capable of building a dup plate, it really is not that hard.
--- End quote ---
typically, we started out building a few units and some buildings and added on as we went. if we spent extra time to make them look exceptionally fantastic, building units usually took upwards of an hour. at that point, nobody wanted to play anymore. i'm not opposed to things looking good, i'm opposed to being distracted from the point of the game by the desire to look good.
needless to say, we weren't skilled builders. that's the point i was making here:
--- Quote from: otto-san on January 04, 2014, 10:25:03 AM ---i think it might be a bit too much to ask of your players to make all their units and buildings beautiful lol
--- End quote ---
if the player isn't capable of living up to the building code, maybe they shouldn't play, but that doesn't make it OK
add onto this that the scale of mini-empires is unusual for blockland and it's something you'd need to practice before being good at
the examples in the OP are (i'm assuming intentionally) lazy. the first boat in your above post is passable.