Opponents and leagues
 

Hi Derek,

While looking for information about Dominions 2 I noticed your new Coliseum game. I played some of your demos a while back and quite enjoyed Overlord. This new game sounds interesting and I'm tempted to pre-order (even though shipping to Australia costs almost as much as the game itself http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon8.gif ). I have a few questions:

Could you describe in more detail what happens in a season? Specifically:

- How many different "teams" (AI opponents) are there in the league, and do they control three gladiators like you? Are there any team bonuses you can choose?

- Is there a leadership table made up of teams and you play a round robin series followed by finals, or do you "sign up" your gladiators into a competition comprised of a tree structure (like tennis)?

Also, I'm wondering about how long gladiators live. For the potential rating to be worthwhile and for players to connect with their gladiators' persona, I would guess that not all battles end with the loser being killed. If this is the case, how does the game decide whether a gladiator is killed off in a battle?

Thanks!

David

Re: Opponents and leagues
 

"- How many different "teams" (AI opponents) are there in the league, and do they control three gladiators like you? Are there any team bonuses you can choose?"

Hi David, thanks for your interest!

There are no specific "Teams" in the game; the other warriors are controlled by a conglomerate of all of the other clans. The other warriors in the league are your opponents.

Team bonuses come in the form of spells or "enchantments" you can buy that Last for awhile. They only affect your team.

"- Is there a leadership table made up of teams and you play a round robin series followed by finals, or do you "sign up" your gladiators into a competition comprised of a tree structure (like tennis)?"

You play randomly against the other 9 warriors in the league through 40 battles (or days) of the season, and then the structure becomes a "tree" structure, single-elimination, for the playoffs.

"Also, I'm wondering about how long gladiators live. For the potential rating to be worthwhile and for players to connect with their gladiators' persona, I would guess that not all battles end with the loser being killed. If this is the case, how does the game decide whether a gladiator is killed off in a battle?"

Gladiator deaths rarely occur (in the newest build of the game), but like any sport like this, deaths do rarely happen. The balance of that i've been tweaking carefully. As far as deciding, there is a carefully written formula that decides if a warrior gets killed or not, combination of luck, stat calculations and combat progression (whether a warrior gets hit really hard early in a fight). But you're right, unless it's done balanced and carefully, then you would never have a chance to develop any of your warriors (not to mention if warriors get killed, you owe 50% of their remaining contract amount - seasons left X per season salary - to their families, so it hurts the wallet a little too http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif ).

I certainly hope you consider pre-ordering and getting in on the fun!

Re: Opponents and leagues
 

I realize it might be a little late in the game for a change like this but I was playint the demo and had a few ideas about what I wish the game would do.

</font>

• <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">1. Create computer managers whose stats you can see. This increases the roleplay aspects of the game by 100%, not only are you fighting the fighters but their bosses...
  2. Let some of those bosses "retire" each year as they get older... and new bosses come onto the scene to create new rivalries.
  3. Increase the reports. Any good stats game shows all kinds of jucicy little tidbits. I saw another post where they asked for head to head stats. This is an example of what I would love to see.
  4. No limit betting... and handicaping. Betting should not be 1:1 if one fighter is 5.0.0 and the other is 0.1.0. In real life this would be like a 5:1 or 10:1 bet.</font>

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">
I realize that betting is not the focal point of the game, but in the demo it is about the only way to stay afloat early on if you are trying to get quality training and advertising going... buy putting so much emphasis on that you require us to focus on it some.

Also, I would like to see an estimated attendance for the event before I buy advertising. This wouldn't be an exact number but could give you an estimate for how much you would bring in as a purse w/o advertising.

Interested in feedback. Love the game so far and see great things for it.

[ December 03, 2003, 00:24: Message edited by: Trebor1503 ]