On the moment this blog entry is written I am still working hard on completing Advanced Tactics Gold. So far as I can see… there is a pretty good chance it will make release in the end of Q1 2011. But as said before: no promises!
One of the problems I ran into while coding and adding features is that the existing Advanced Tactics game was already a feature heavy game. Adding more stuff to it has proven more involving then I thought it would be. I think I discovered a law of game design here… More probably: rediscovered…
The law I rediscovered is the law that every extra feature added causes more and more complications and interactions with the existing features. There is a semi-exponential relation between game complexity and coding time. Especially if your not starting from scratch but ammending and changing an existing game. On the AI front the relationship between features and coding time needed is actually beyond exponential. On that front I had to cut some corners, but the AI opponent is there and slightly better (among others I added the option to overrule its production) and much faster then before.
At the time of writing I have completed adding in all the features into AT Gold that I wanted. But it took more time then expected.
I think it was worth it… Because on the positive side of things the added features will give scenario designers the same exponentional increase, but this time in scenario design options. The adding of the feature to play action cards on hexes or units… and adding the features of hex sharing (alliances) and resources… combined with all existing features will make a lot of creativity possible.
Which leads me to pose a second law… If you have three properties of a game you desire to make: (1) good AI, (2) completeable in a reasonable ammount of time and (3) wargame design kit… you can pick only 2 of those. In the case of Decisive Campaigns I chose for 1+2 and in the case of Advanced Tactics Gold I chose for 2+3.
And yes there are lots of nuances to the above law as well as other reasons for doing things as they are done. But I hope this blog has provided some insight to the choices VR Designs had to make and the difficulties encountered.
Also I want to thank all the players,testers and scenario designers and may I say in some cases… fans… that have been playing Advanced Tactics throughout the years… and in some cases Peoples Tactics before it! Without them I could never have brought the game to the stage of Advanced Tactics Gold. A lot has been done already, but the series’ horizon seems to extend even further! And if people keep playing and designing scenarios I can keep improving the game.
Best regards,
Vic
