Re: The SDL client

[Stan Shebs <shebs at shebs dot cnchost dot com>]

Hans Ronne wrote:
> 
> One advantage with the current new game dialog is that you can see what
> scenarios are available right from the start. Might be difficult to find
> the scenario you are looking for with two consecutive dialogs.

That's a good point.  My thinking is that it's uncommon for game players
to start by looking for a scenario irrespective of game rules; it
would be like saying "I want to play the Mongol hordes invading
Europe, and it doesn't matter whether it's Civ II, Age of Kings,
or Risk".  Certainly there are the cognoscenti who might think
that way, and the Xconq crowd probably has a higher-than-average
percentage of those :-), but most game players fixate on a single
set of rules, play under those until they get tired of them (which
may take a while!), then look for a new set of rules to play.

The two step process would also help for differentiation.  Right
now for instance, we have two different Coral Sea scenarios, but
with the current setup sequence, you have to choose one or the
other without getting very much information about the game rules.
An expanded scenarios+variants dialog could go into more depth,
in fact if it were set up right, the base module could be loaded
and the prospective player could see the game rules in detail
before choosing a scenario or random setup.

Stan