Health & Energy

Again, I don't mean to be insulting, I think the phrase helps to understand the point. The way that the health and energy bars work is another example of “programmer game design”. I can still remember that the Spathi's aft missile did 2 damage. Quite possibly the #1 “Golden Rule” among table-top game designers was “use the lowest numbers that work”. In the “serious” Avalon Hill/Amarillo Design Bureau/SPI, etc branch of the hobbyist game industry tree they used complex math to design their games (SVC is an engineer, for example) but then translated what they had arrived at through that back to simple math that kids could understand. People expect Star Control to be like this, they expect to be able to “do the math in their heads” as they play the game and use that knowledge “on the fly” during the fight. They can't do that with your “programmer math” because they don't understand it, and whatever the numbers you are using are probably too high for them to do that. The fact that I have no idea what those numbers are is a good example of the point that I am trying to make. Most of them have never even heard the word “algorithm” before and certainly don't get the mathematical coolness of what I am sure is there... for other programmers to see. Do it that way, because you often must in making computer games, but then translate what you present to the player back the way that the designers at places like Avalon Hill and ADB would. “You know... for the kids!” [Draws picture of a circle and smiles...]

The story of the most impressive defeat of an Iraqi plane during the first Iraq (Kuwait) war is a great example of what the players want. The best pilots (especially in the top air forces like the US, Russia, and Israel) know their enemy's own planes better than their own pilots do. During the first Iraq war an Iraqi MiG-29 began to pursue an American EF-111 Raven. The Raven is an electronic warfare support aircraft and the MiG-29 is one of the best dogfighters ever built. The EF-111 shouldn't have had any chance at all. But the American pilot quickly “did the math in his head” and decided to dive straight for the ground. Just as Sheridan later did to the Shadow ship in the atmosphere of Jupiter, he went as far as he safely could before pulling back up... then watched the MiG-29 do the lawn dart thing in his rear-view mirror. Not only is a MiG-29 a lot faster than an F-111, but an F-111 can extend its wings to turn around a lot faster in this situation. This is what the players want to be able to do, be able to do the math in their heads, come up with a plan, and then see it all work out the way they planned. They can't do that with math that they don't understand. In Star Control they are expecting weapon, health, and energy math to be very simple and use very low numbers that they can know and understand and calculate in their heads as they are playing the game.