Tales Of Tamar

[bhoggett]

wow, I am so going to get that game, sounds like a blast!

Well, it certainly has a lot of potential, as well as room for improvement.

I've been playing it for just under a week, which is nothing (think of how much you can achieve in the first three or four turns of Civilization and you'll get the picture). There's not much to do so far, but plenty to aim for. Sam has already covered many of the good points.

IMO the game also has some glitches and niggles, none of which are fatal, but can be a bit annoying at first.

Like Sam said, I wouldn't worry too much about being stomped on as a new player. I'm still to meet anyone else, and my guess is that there's plenty of spare game-world to claim.

(Yes Sam, I'll be sending my feedback to Eternity)
 :-)

[bhoggett]

@Blade

Wahey! Some nice feedback. That makes the effort worthwhile. Thanks.
 :-)

I LOVE writing and playing adventures and it had been a forgotten hobby of mine.

The Amiga is very well supported when it comes to adventure authoring systems, and thanks to the portable nature of most interpreters, there are literally hundreds of new games than can be played on it. See the boxout for interesting links.

If there's enough interest, I'll do some more coverage in the future - maybe a feature on writing adventures or reviews of new games - but space is limited in Total Amiga, so I'll need readers' backing if I'm to persuade Robert to grant me some on a more regular basis.
 

On the ToT point, all I have seen is over someones shoulder while they played around with a Linux early version which didnt do much. I love the potential of this game  - it could be the best thing since the mud "Ragnarok".

Well, there's little to see at every turn, specially in the early stages. It's also worth noticing that the Amiga client for ToT is the most advanced, with the others lagging a bit behind. In simple terms, it's a bit like playing Civilization by e-mail, but since I'm a big fan of Civ type games, this isn't a problem...

[bhoggett]

@Blade

"If there's enough interest, I'll do some more coverage in the future - maybe a feature on writing adventures"

YES PLEASE.

Well, I asked the same question on the Total Amiga mailing list, and to put it mildly, the response was lukewarm.

To put it in simple terms, I doubt I can persuade Robert to grant me space for any more articles on the subject under the circumstances.

You got it, if you need a petition no problemo. I can fake names as much as the next man ;-) Seriously
though its the only article in there I have read more than once. In old magazines ( Crash etc ) I used to flip straight to reviews of adventure games. It is also the best way to start to learn how to WRITE games in general because it forces you to think about game state.

I agree with you. The fact is that those people who are interested are very interested, but the numbers are low.

If you don't carry on writing articles like that one Ill buy software from Haage & Partner as revenge.

NOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, this feature came about because I had mentioned starting up a web site focusing on interactive fiction (or text adventures) on the Amiga, and Robert picked up on it. The web site is still a possibility - I haven't decided yet - but unless Robert or the Total Amiga users demand otherwise I'm mothballing any plans to write any more I-F articles for the magazine, at least for the foreseeable future. There just doesn't seem to be enough interest to justify the space.

Getting things back on-topic, does anyone else here besides me and Sam Bifford play Tales of Tamar?

[bhoggett]

Balti wrote:

Sure !! And if you want you can find me (Baltasar) on an penisula (sp) in the north-west of Nonakesh.

Good to hear, although I still haven't made  a note of the name of the island that I'm on. Must do that when I next load it up.  I'm on the east coast of wherever it is, so I'm probably not that close to you.

[/quote]Bin there for 4 years now, and gonna send out my first amy tommorow (gotta have some more land).[/quote]
Not quite that long for me, though I'm not far behind. I've met one other scout and located two other unoccupied villages not far away, but I'm having trouble working out how to build a marketplace. I've built a drill ground, sawmill and blacksmith, and I can build stables, but not a marketplace. (and yes, before you ask, I do have the required tech level)

Oh well, at least there don't seem to be any orcs in the vicinity.

[bhoggett]

@Balti

AFAIK you also need enough people to build a marketplace (maybe 7500 ??).

Aha! That could be it. My population stagnated for a bit because I set my customs taxes too high before I realised what the "normal" level should be. Shame really, because the customs tax hardly brings in any revenue at the moment anyway.

Looks like I'm going to have to be patient a bit longer. While I'm at it, I have another question: can the blacksmith be accessed in any way? Can I tell him what to make or buy things from him? I mean, someone has to make the weapons and armour, right?

[bhoggett]

@Balti

No I don't think you can tell the blacksmith what to produce, but you can always buy what is produced at really low prices (one gold-piece per unit). And now guess where  :-D  ;-)  :-P

You tease!!  ;-)

But I didn't know that the custom tax had such a big influence, so I might try to lower it.

It does if you set it 10 times higher than it should be! :-o

You got <7500 people, but have to finance all those buildings ?

Man your in trouble

I noticed.  :-(

Still, nothing that can't be remedied if I abstain from building stuff for a bit.  :-D

[bhoggett]

@Balti

You wouldn't have any use for those weapons anyway as an army is quite expensive (~1000 goldpieces for the minimal 50 men).

I know, but knowing how to do things is important.

I'm not sure if you still got a chance or if you are allready over the point of no return. The buildings you have should result in cost at ~8000 plus the cost of research. Could be hard to press that out of so few, and still attract new people.

Hmm, maintenance costs aren't as high as that, and I'm still making more per quarter without taxing people to death. I'll just have to see how it goes.

Under what nick to you play, and are you anywhere near the coordinates I've send you ?

See the PM I've sent you. Don't want to give away too many state secrets in public, you know.  ;-)

[bhoggett]

@Bifford

First off your all (both ;-) ) aware of the tot web forum, right? if not goto:
http://www.eternity-computer.de/phpBB/
On there you will find a section for hints/tips/problems/ideas etc etc.

Hi Sam. Yes, I'm aware of the forum. It was just a bit on the quiet side there though!  ;-)

Besides, me being thick isn't eaxctly a game problem, eh?

Bill - certain buildings require certain population levels - to date I still dont have a trade center even though that game has a barracks and stuff.

Seems that way. I guess I'm too used to games live Civ etc., where the requirements are there for the player to see.

Seems in my case I just don't have enough slaves..err.. inhabitants.

also - be warned not to move too fast with buildings, my beta game i built as soon as i could, researched as much as i could, then people died or left and population plummeted as did gp so i didnt have enough money to keep things up - 4 turns in a row 0gp.  only just recovering from the depression!

Yep. Hopefully I've caught the trend in time, but we'll see over the next year or so. If I can turn things round over that time I should be alright, having only lost some development time in relation to my neighbours.

If you're a Civ player, it's very tempting to build and build quickly, but in Tamar it seems that can be a fatal mistake.