Reinforcement Systems (Scenario/Campaign)

[Pixman]

Fionn, Fo4, etal, with all due respect, I will never stop putting forth ideas I think have merit. I am the customer. My job is not project management and scope control. That is Steve's and Charles' responsibility and, from what I can tell, they do a damn fine job of it. Ideas are ideas. In and of themselves, they do no harm.

A lot of what we talk about here has merit. If something does not make it into CM1 because of wanting to meet a certain release schedule, then so be it. That doesn't mean it was a bad idea or that it was wrong to push for it. It may just go into a later module or future enhancement, or not at all.

Scope or feature creep is not caused by presenting ideas. It is caused by design teams (or those with authority over design teams)that do not have proper discipline in determining which ideas fit the stated scope, theme and timeframe of the project. Consequently, they program things that do not have sufficient return for the investment and they invariably miss deadlines.

I know I have only been monitoring this board for 6 or 8 months but, as far as I can tell, BTS has not pushed back a date since I showed up. That says a lot.

Bottom line -- all of our collective ideas, combined with BTS' vision, excellent focus and discipline, will result in a game many of us never imagined possible. Praise the lord and pass the white phosphorous!!

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The enchanter may confuse the outcome, but the effort remains sublime.

[Doug Beman]

Dar, NO FAIR putting MATH on here. You evil, sick, twisted person!

Fionn, we can do this? Watch other people's battles, start to finish? Impressive.

Pixman, keep the ideas moving! This debate stuff RULES! And if you ever feel *really* besmirched, just challenge the sod to a best-of-three CM tournament!

DjB

[Fionn]

Pixman,

I wasn't trying to stop debate in any wya. it has been good for CM BUT there comes a point when the design team says NO and beyond which bringing it up is not getting anywhere and distracting from other useful points..

I'm just saying I think its time to abandon this topic now since its gotten as far as its gonna go..

Still, if you want to keep posting away that's cool. i was just trying to impart some advice...

Cheers,

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___________

Fionn Kelly

Manager of Historical Research,

The Gamers Net - Gaming for Gamers

[Dar]

Steve & Doug:

Sorry about the math. They shoved so much of it down my throat when I was getting my computer science degree that I have to take every opportunity to show I got something for my education. (Computer Science degree = Math degree w/2-3 programming classes... well, almost)

___________________________

Oh, and let *me* tell you about feature creep! I've been working on a project for a company right now since February, and *I*, an intermediate-level developer, not the project manager, took it upon myself to write a spec after three months of meetings full of "oh, we should include this," and "it'd be cool if..." so we could see what the hell we were supposed to code. And who's the person who keeps suggesting additional features four weeks before release? The Project Manager, who's supposed to be keeping us insulated from such requests from the users! Oh, if I survive this thing, I am *never* working with these people again!

/rant... Sorry... I had to vent!

Anyhoo, on a more serious note, I want to thank you, Steve, for not releasing this game yet. No, not because you don't feel it's ready yet, but because there are still a few more weeks of good weather out here in western PA that I need to get out and enjoy.

This BBS alone is taking up so much of my time as I try to keep up with all the news and investigate every thread and search on topics to find out everything I can about this game. If you released now, I would have no social life and a pasty-white complexion and the equivalent of bed-sores on my butt from playing CM 24/7.

No, I'm not being sarcastic--I'm serious! Please release this right around the time the snow starts to blow and I can stay glued to the screen all day guilt-free!

Dar Steckelberg

[This message has been edited by Dar (edited 09-04-99).]

[Mike D]

Fionn,

The idea of being able to download the movies from somewhere of others games and watch them sounds really interesting and probably quite fun. However, if one were doing it in order to see a future opponents playing style, tactics, etc., I wonder if that is really a "good" thing. Isn't another element of the FOW in playing a wargame to play someone that you've never played before and NOT have any previous knowledge of their playing style, tendencies, etc.????? To me, the FOW and excitement of not knowing what to expect from my opponent actually sounds like a more engaging gaming experience vs. having any sort of prior knowledge of these things. In general, out on the real battlefield did either of the two commanders facing-off really know much about the style and tactics of the other commander?, probably not. Anyway, just some food for thought.

Regards,

Mike D

aka Mikester

[This message has been edited by Mike D (edited 09-04-99).]