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Old December 17th, 2004, 10:03 PM
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Default (OT) Do you prefer to know game formulas?

When playing a strategy game such as this one, do you prefer to know exactly what the rules, values, and formulas are that determine what happens during play?

Some players prefer to know what the formulas are, often so they can strategize against the game mechanics, and figure out the exact odds of success of failure in certain cases.

Some other players prefer not to know the exact formulas, for various reasons such as so that the mystery and illusion of reality Last longer, and/or so that players can't game the system and skill requires learning from experience how well different things work.

I'm also curious how many players prefer simple formulas to complex formulas for game mechanics. Do you prefer the movement system to be something like Movement = speed, or would you prefer something more like Movement = Inertia + Force(Friction)/(Vehicle.Mass + Crew.Mass + Cargo.Mass + Fuel.Mass) * Behavior(Driver.Skill, Driver.Caution, Traffic.Laws, Traffic.Density) * Terrain Modifiers * Weather Modifiers?

Similarly, some players may prefer to see actual data values for their units, equipment, terrain, and so on, so they can compare and choose the best of a type. Other players may prefer to be given vague and/or inaccurate estimates or descriptions, so there is uncertainty about how things will actually perform.

I'm posting this poll in each of several game forums, to try to get a feel for the opinions of the fans of different game types. If you like, you could take the poll in other games' forums. If you do, please answer what you would prefer for a game like the forum's game (which might or might not affect different people's answers. Someone might like simple game mechanics for one genre, but complex mechanics for another genre.)

PvK
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