03-26-2011, 06:56 PM
(03-26-2011, 02:58 PM)JonO Wrote: One of the things that used to turn me off quickly in PBMs is having to learn a lot of codes. People are not supposed to have to figure out how to talk to computers any more, they should be able to give orders in something approaching standard English,
Yes, "Feed/Rations" is harder to program for than "G9/ST-FU" and it will require that either you give the player an input program so he can select "feed rations" and the program will translate it into back-end-readable code or you turn to regular expressions so that "Fedd/Ratons" is recognized as close enough for government work.
Hear hear! The games I have played are mostly so code-intensive it's like the 80's. I put up with it out of love and devotion, but one of the real strengths of a web-based approach ought to be a really good, intuitive interface. Instead of manipulating spreadsheets and encoding your intentions, you ought to be able to click and drag bits of your empire around, move a "quantity" slider up and down, have intuitive default values auto-populate with your orders, etc.