Planet Orion: the
new phase
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My
Space
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Greetings to all Orions! Here for July is the third MySpace, entitled "In Defense of IFPs." The IFPs, or Imperial Focus Points, have been highly controversial at best. I believe, though, that they are one of the best, most innovative ideas for Orion III. Here's why...
In Defense of Focus Points By Ezixl. |
The idea behind IFPs is simple: an emperor can do anything, but not everything, during a given peiod of time. Many objections have been raised to this idea, mostly coming from veteran players of MOO and MOO2. I would like to give 3 reasons that I support IFPs in hopes that it helps get others "on board."
1. It's not the first time.
All you old-time gamers should remember Interplay's classicgame, Castles II: Seige and Conquest. That game employed a point system that wouldn't allow the player to do too many things at one time. The availabe points were affected by the king's actions and by outside forces in the storyline as it unfolded. Now if IFP's worked here, they can work in MOO3. This idea isn't untried or untested.
2. It adds to the eXperiance of the game
Think about it- you are playing the part of a real emperor of a real group of people. You cannot do anything at all, because you are limited by space, time, other leaders, and possibly government structure. I think that this is an excellent idea for making the player feel like an emperor, rather than feeling like some controlling force outside of the empire.
3. It adds to the strategy
With IFP's in place, all decisions by the emperor will be crucial to his people's success. If he makes a mistake, wastes his IFP's with petty dabbling, or tries to do too much and is unable to deal with a crisis, then he (the player) will learn from this mistake and come back stronger the next time. Use of IFP's will be highly strategic, and will potentially lead players to specialize in various areas. For instance, a master tactician might let the AI leaders run his planets, but fights nearly every battle himself, while a different sort of leader micromanages every system, trying to achieve maximum efficiency. All sorts of strategies might asrise from this IFP situation, which is why Ezixl and Planet Orion completely support IFPs. 
ARCHIVES:
6/01: Why The Elerians Had To Be Removed From Orion 3
