Matrix Games Forums

One more vote here for expanded PBP!!!

I play through the games, and I'd definitely be in favor of a revised pbp.

By "revised," I mean that there doesn't necessarily have to be *more* pbp, but a more varied pbp would be great.

ORIGINAL: dneely

Heck I have pounded on adding HTH online play which I feel would be a crowning achievement and boost sales tremendously.

Here! Here!

I think the difficult thing is that almost all the major feature additions from here are for the 'minority'.

Except improving the AI - I think that is something we can all agree on .

Another plug for more PBP, either enhancing what we have or simply adding more. I would love having an option to customize PBP. I manage most of (90%) my games and feel the PBP gets kind of stagnant after awhile. Regardless thou I Love this game for all of its other features and Shauns commitment to its growth.

LOL!! Have we finally reached the OOTP plateau where you alienate half the fans trying to please the other half?????[:D]

I don't think that more PBP would alienate the simmers. I'm a simmer and if improved PBP makes the game more commerically successful, then go for it. Improved PBP doesn't make the game worse from the simmer's point of view, unlike many of the OOTP 'upgrades' which took away good features.

The simple solution is to add expanded play by play with a toggle switch whether you want to use it or not.
 
The question is, is Shaun going to listen to his customers and add it, or not bother because he doesn't like to read play by play?

I'd really rather have more options, improved AI, gameplay, etc. before play-by-play is added. I played a bunch of OOTP 6/6.5 and I could not stand playing out the games because of the play-by-play...it was just too much and it was still not that interesting after maybe five or six games. Play-by-play gets old when you watch live games on TV because the announcers can only say so many things even when they are real human beings with the ability to improvise. If it's a computer game, there are even more definite limits.
I do understand there are some people who really want play-by-play, but since adding that would take up a decent portion of Shaun's time, I woudl rather see it as an add-in where players can create their own. I'd rather see other gameplay options and improved AI before play-by-play.
Trust me, we all haven't bought PureSim for the play-by-play, so try to think about the reasons you did buy it. For me, play-by-play is not even near the most important.

tbear2b - That is the best articulated point in the thread to date. And I am not just saying that because I agree with you 100%.

I'm just curious... does Shaun still do all the work on the game?  Since its owned by Matrix now, can't they hire a professional writer and maybe another programmer to work on the PBP?

The typical arrangement between developer (Shaun) and publisher (Matrix) retains both creative control and license to the source code in the hands of the developer. That way, the developer can change publishers if things aren't working out, without having lost the house.

However, publishers do sometimes contribute in similar ways to what you describe; when Jim Ginden published FOF through EA, EA had him integrate with a contract UI-design team that did some of the UI work, leaving Jim to concentrate on the simulation engine.

Shaun owns and maintains control of the complete PureSim game.