SFR, Inc.

[namsilat]

There is an old Dragon Dice game from Interplay years ago, but I wonder if SFR ever considered releasing a PC game for Dragon Dice with the new rules. I know it's a major undertaking, but the computer version of the game would certainly serve to promote the actual dice game itself. I remember back in good old days, I started collecting MTG cards not because of the cards themselves in the first place. I actually first started by playing the PC game, got fascinated by the game, and ended up buying the actual cards.

[chuckpint]

If you ever have read the discussion on how much work it takes just to setup a computerized game between two humans, you would have some idea of the undertaking. This is a really complex game. Just the rolling of the dice on a computer is fairly tough undertaking.

But as soon as SFR becomes a $10 million company, I'll make sure it's on the list....

_________________
You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Dice sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Dice, 20,000 Daemon Dice, and others (too many to count).

[piMaster]

[goldbh]

[chuckpint]

Sure, let me send you my Swiss bank account number, and just deposit $10 million and it will be on pre-order....


_________________
You can never have too many dice.
First Place at the first ever Daemon Dice sealed starter tournament.
Battlefest tied for first GenCon 2012
Single Race Champion GenCon 2008-2009, Sealed Box Champion GenCon 2007,2009,
My collection is 21,500 Dragon Dice, 20,000 Daemon Dice, and others (too many to count).

[goldbh]

[DEEPBLUEB2]

I thought that maybe someone could invent a dice Rolling Station for online play.
Basically, a player would roll their dice on a small rolling area,
and then a camera clicks and uploads the image.
The entire station would be small, and USB.
This eliminates complex programming.

It would be like rolling your army on a scanner,
but the top of the dice would get scanned instead.

[KilljoyKing]

Yes, throwing dice at a glass plate. What could be damaging about that?

Someone could program a DD game, two-player at least. I think graphics would be more annoying than a lot of the mechanics. Most of DD just boils down to tons of state checks: is X spell cast on army, is X army in possession of Eighth face, and so on.
The rules are hard for us humans, but in a stringent, formulaic environment, it could be possible to make a program that operated with little exceptions.
_________________
Dragon Dice Musing and Such @ Reality's End

[DEEPBLUEB2]

The Rolling area would be velvet.
The scanner or camera would be on top.
I was trying to paint a picture of the small compact design by describing a scanner.
I did not intend on rolling on glass.

[KilljoyKing]

If the scanning device is on top, it would have to be lowered post-roll in order to capture the image. That, or take a photograph of questionable quality.
Or maybe there is a new crazy horizontal rolling method I haven't heard about.

I wonder how much demand a dice camera would be in, especially since it doesn't help eliminate cheating much more than textual honesty. All it requires is flipping a die over to a SAI without anyone the wiser. (Assuming, of course, that there isn't a live feed, which would result in horrible and entirely unreadable quality, no doubt.)
_________________
Dragon Dice Musing and Such @ Reality's End

[DEEPBLUEB2]

If you wanted to eliminate cheating,
perhaps the dice are rolled into a box.(You can't see the results)
Then a Picture is then sent before the door opens to retrieve the dice.

I am trying to envision this Rolling Station.
It seems like it would work.

[cliffwiggs]

[KilljoyKing]

Unfortunately, several of the spells have no types. What is Haunt like? Nuthin'! The presence of a single Frostwing in an opposing magic army? Or a Swamp Stalker in any army and the DUA? They're state-tastic, but fortunately enough, they are simple checks. (I'm seeing a contains_race(army, a) function...)

Generalizations could only be done for the modification spells (which couldn't be generalized with other modifications such as Eighth Face doubling because of magic's non-effect on SAI's that produce standard results) and not much else.
Sure, you have your Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dusts, but those aren't the things that are making everyone else say this task unpossible.
_________________
Dragon Dice Musing and Such @ Reality's End

[cliffwiggs]

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Dice Box Rolling Station Scanner Anti Cheat Device:

Ok so here is how it works.....
A box is built over a small scanner...
then the dice are rolled into the box,
though a series of mixing walls.....
the dice roll gently onto the scanner glass...(Maybe the glass could be replaced with clear plastic)
press the scan button,
and the bottom of the dice are scanned...
this image is uploaded.
Simple
Eventually it could be perfected.

[KilljoyKing]

If I wanted to make this, I would just use Windows since I already have an internet communications library made for two-player games on it as well as a graphics library. I love Linux to death, but gaming doesn't seem to be in its best interest. (And screw Macs )

Of course, I don't want to because my plate is currently very, very full of other programming projects, including the things I originally developed those libraries for!


As for the Dice Box Rolling Station, "simple" seems a li'l out of place, and I do believe programming the whole game would be easier than designing, producing, and attempting to sell that thing.

Wait, didn't some other company own the rights to developing DD online? Whatever happened with that?
_________________
Dragon Dice Musing and Such @ Reality's End

[DEEPBLUEB2]

Well at least I tried

The scanner is already designed,
The Rolling Box could be made of foamboard.
I could make one in 5 minutes.
I was just trying to join in the fun.
I'm not a programmer.

[chuckpint]

[KilljoyKing]

Huh, I wonder what I was thinking of... or what I what I was reading. Bleh, too much meta-goop on the brain.


I just really wish C wasn't the optimal language to write this sort of thing in, but what with all the variables for every troop (spells, mostly), it seems to be. Although it would be horrible, a Perl implementation would be really fast, cross-platform, and require no download, but saving state every turn would be such a pain for all those li'l guys... although scripting flexibility would certainly ease other aspects.
And allow for the slow-play that is currently enjoyed in on-line battles.
_________________
Dragon Dice Musing and Such @ Reality's End

[cliffwiggs]

Soon as my life settles a little I'm going to start a java implementation (actually I'm gonna take my vb asp implementation and rework it as Java)

All the SAI's and spells are easier to implement via inheritance.

my only issue is finding a server to host it once it works.

I would not make this a two player game or use a library that directly connects two users. It's too easy to lose the connection between them and then the game is lost.

my approach is to persist the state of the game after each action and then you can allow a game to span days, span power outages and allow any spectator to view it from the website.