What features to cut for round 2

[chemical_art]

Chris has been asking for this on the KS but I figured we could discuss it here as well: What features would you cut as part of the reduced budget for AIW 2? Keep in mind that features must be cut but it is possible they can come back through other means.

As for me, I would cut the multiple campaigns. There should be one campaign, although that campaign can have branches. Each campaign added multiplies the time it takes to get them all right, and with such a small staff it means, by default, the attention is split. As a result of this split time not only does it take longer to develop but the quality of the work drops. Sticking with one campaign prevents fragmentation and previous experiments like this have just not worked. I imagine all the work that went into TLF to make three game modes. In the process the quality dropped as a whole. The two new game modes simply are not nearly as polished as the time put into them would expect.

[Draco18s]

Player Race Choice.

I'm not sure this feature is meaningful enough (there've been a few comments about "how does this actually play differently?" with the answer being "well....") for the time investment to be worthwhile at this juncture.

[kasnavada]

Not to mention that... as long as the player start and build option can be modded, making the actual race is irrelevant.

[z99-_]

I don't think playing as the spire should be cut. From my understanding, the spire race would just be different, stronger units with more AI response to compensate. In my mind, it seems like that would share 99% of the code with the basic human faction, so the coding shouldn't be a time sink; the graphics would all be different, but in the KS campaign, Chris wrote "Design and art get done before programming, which gets done before balance and QA." I don't know if that's still true with the reorganization, but if it is, the graphics wouldn't be a bottleneck either. That leaves the balance testing, which seems like it should be pretty simple and straightforward - once again, with my current understanding, it would just be changing stats in XML, which could even be done by the alpha and beta testers. All that for one of the main tangible improvements over AIWC that I have seen a significant number of people on the KS express interest in, it seems like it should stay.

Of course, something has to be cut. I would just suggest considering the cost to add in as well as the benefit to add in. But even that is difficult to determine. For instance, I was thinking that the solar systems thing could be dropped, but when looking at the KS page that lists how far along in development different parts are, it says that is already in progress. In fact, looking at everything listed there, it seems that most of the candy ideas that were new to AIWII are already partly coded, while the core things like UI improvements are only "designed", which I take to mean 'we haven't started doing this yet'.

TLDR:     rock < Arcen < hard place, as usual

[Tridus]

Without knowing what the budgets for individual things are, it's hard to have any real discussion on what should be cut. Although the impression I got was that it was "most of the things".

[Aklyon]

Without knowing what the budgets for individual things are, it's hard to have any real discussion on what should be cut. Although the impression I got was that it was "most of the things".

I'd really like to keep the play as spire part, even though its like Tridus said. it sounded like the most ready of the alternate player races.

[garion333]

If we're talking about a paired down AI War 2, alternative races seem like something better explored in expansions than in the base game.

[Tridus]

Without knowing what the budgets for individual things are, it's hard to have any real discussion on what should be cut. Although the impression I got was that it was "most of the things".

I'd really like to keep the play as spire part, even though its like Tridus said. it sounded like the most ready of the alternate player races.

Me too. I mentioned that in a KS comment. It's the thing I'm most excited for, and if you chop everything I'm excited for, then as a parent on a budget, I have to re-evaluate my pledge amount. It's hard to explain to my wife why I'm pledging significant money for something I wouldn't actually play, you know?

[chemical_art]

One idea I just had:

There is no reason you can only have one race yet they be the spire. Make the spire campaign the starting one. It would neatly present itself as why you should play AIW 2 instead of one. You could then focus on making videos, etc showcasing how cool they are.

[Apathetic]

I can't say what I'd suggest cutting at this point.  Without what amounts to a list of features / implementation time it's very hard to list the features that I can do without in a game.  Having only glanced at the design document, I can't say I'm in a position to list the features that I don't feel are necessary for a game and take significant implementation time.

The main things I'm looking forward to in the remake are : new map shapes due to Solar Systems, and playing as the Spire.

[z99-_]

Derelicts and ship husks are both listed as 'designed' on the KS page, so I guess those could go without any wasted effort. Personally, I thought they were really cool additions, but I don't see them as being a marquee feature/ advertising point that could get additional backers.

From what I recall, people were lukewarm on the tech upgrade system. It shows up multiple places on the Feature Status table, some of which are listed as ongoing, while others are listed as designed, so that may save a fair bit of time without crushing anybody's dreams.

[WolfWhiteFire]

Zenith seems like pretty much a slightly different human faction to what little I know about it, so that could probably be initially cut. I feel Spire and Humans both need to stay, humans for the default AI War experience, Spire due to how many people seem excited for them and for offering a completely different play style. Solar systems maybe cut, but from what little I know they aren't all that more complicated than planets. It looked like just a circle around planets which have a special relationship with each other. I wish I could say what should probably be cut (other than 3D which it sounds like will most likely be cut anyway), but I doubt anyone here really knows how much time and effort would go into each mechanic. The changing AI personalities and per planet personalities seems like it might be expensive and time-consuming but I am not really sure.

[Sounds]

Chris has been asking for this on the KS but I figured we could discuss it here as well: What features would you cut as part of the reduced budget for AIW 2? Keep in mind that features must be cut but it is possible they can come back through other means.

As for me, I would cut the multiple campaigns. There should be one campaign, although that campaign can have branches. Each campaign added multiplies the time it takes to get them all right, and with such a small staff it means, by default, the attention is split. As a result of this split time not only does it take longer to develop but the quality of the work drops. Sticking with one campaign prevents fragmentation and previous experiments like this have just not worked. I imagine all the work that went into TLF to make three game modes. In the process the quality dropped as a whole. The two new game modes simply are not nearly as polished as the time put into them would expect.

I was going to comment after the first KS finished, but seeing this thread I thought I'd just add this:

Focus on one campaign but also don't do any others as stretch goals. Whilst additional campaigns sounds great, I suspect the amount of effort in time and cost would be drastically underestimated.

[iob]

First, we need to see how big the new ks will be. My guess it will be arround 50-100k usd. If it's really 2 guys inventing the game and they ask for 2500k bucks per month each, that would be only barely more than 10 months of development, which isn't much.

I would cut out complex stuff and too much units and focus on ui and core gameplay. Rest can be added with expansions if its a success.


Also, I read that "designed" is ready to go. No it's not. The feature has neither been implemented or playtested. Designed just means that the feature has been thought through and makes sense on paper - imho.

Just as a designed building isn't there yet...

[Tridus]

Chris said that the new amount would be something that would fund in a couple of days based on how this KS went. That means < $50,000, as it took five days to get there this time around. If it's the one day amount, then it's more like $25,000.