The Worlds of Kaomaris

I finished the Standard WOK Manual, and emailed it to Trewqh for posting on his webpage. Perhaps he can post the link to it in this thread, so everyone can comment on it and make changes. Some comments from me:

1. I designed the manual mostly for newcomers, and kept it simple, although all of the formulas and detailed info are still in there for easy reference by experienced players.

2. The "Welcome to Newcomers" link on the main page can probably be reduced considerably, since much of it is already contained in this new manual. In fact, we could perhaps incorporate the map graphics from there into the manual.

3. After we are done with this, we need to simplify the Home Page and reduce the number of links there. I would think that a newcomer would be overwhelmed by the information.

Just my 2 cents.

Here's the link:
Egbert's New Manual

It's an RTF file but don't worry, it'll open in any version of MS Word and it's safer and a bit smaller.

It's late so no comments from me today.

Cheers!

Wow, is the manual that good, or that boring, that no one wants to comment on it. Or maybe you guys are too lazy to click the link in Trewqh's post?

Here are some comments to start of a discussion. Some of these are important some are nitpicky, but here goes (in order of appearance in the manual:

The very beginning:
Maybe we could explanations where the names wok-ON (online) and wok 4 (fourth ver.) come from. But maybe not that important and only makes things more wordy.

Basics:

turns running every 2-3 days

Not true. I'd say 3-5 days. We should be frank with the anxious players who expect action... they won't get it here unless they start valuing the "action" of diplomacy and the "action" of waiting for your TR

How to play:
setup:

map from a map database, which has 60 territories on it, known as “provinces.”

"from a map database" is not needed and the way it's used now makes the "which has..." reference ambiguous (the database does not have territories)

TURN 1:

bombing instructions

(also found later in manual)
I think we should stick with 'orders'.

+.006 per attack round

-> combat round

armies gain +.1 Level

(+similar later on)
-> +0.1 (to make it more clear for people from countries like... Poland )
or even + 0.100 (to stick with the way that army level is usually presented)

1 worker increases level by .003

-> increases ARMY level by 0.003

7 sets of instructions to move things around

We usually call the whole AOF a set of orders so here -> 'orders' instead of ' sets of instructions'

spying:
I'd merge options A and B together since this is the same spying option
AND I don't think D, E, F options are allowed on non-neighbouring provinces

other matters:
maybe we could add info that any parameter may vary from game to game depending on the GMs houserules. "Thus, players should always familiarize themselves with their GM's houserules before joining a game" or something

Overall, the new manual is great AND twice as short as the previous one.

trewqh wrote: TURN 1:

bombing instructions

(also found later in manual)
I think we should stick with 'orders'.

7 sets of instructions to move things around

We usually call the whole AOF a set of orders so here -> 'orders' instead of ' sets of instructions'

I originally had the word "orders" throughout the manual, but it seemed very confusing. Each player sends in a set of "orders." If you refer to each line within that set, then they are "suborders." It just seemed confusing to me, but if other people like the term, I certainly wouldn't have an objection to changing it back.

trewqh wrote: spying:
I'd merge options A and B together since this is the same spying option
AND I don't think D, E, F options are allowed on non-neighbouring provinces

I just separated A & B for clarity, but you can combine them if you like. For D,E,& F, I took that from Al's original manual as to non-neighboring provinces. I know for a fact that you can steal pop from a non-neighbor, even though our current AOF form says you can't.

trewqh wrote: Overall, the new manual is great AND twice as short as the previous one.

Thanks. I agree with the rest of Trewqh's suggestions. Anyone else care about this?

Egbert wrote:I originally had the word "orders" throughout the manual, but it seemed very confusing. Each player sends in a set of "orders." If you refer to each line within that set, then they are "suborders." It just seemed confusing to me, but if other people like the term, I certainly wouldn't have an objection to changing it back.

The way I understand it, a couple of 'orders' (as in a couple of lines of the AOF) simply make up a set of orders (the whole AOF).

Egbert wrote:I just separated A & B for clarity, but you can combine them if you like. For D,E,& F, I took that from Al's original manual as to non-neighboring provinces. I know for a fact that you can steal pop from a non-neighbor, even though our current AOF form says you can't.

Separating A & B (while not separating short from long range modes of the other spying options) is, actually, confusing to me since it makes the impression that there are 5 spying options whereas there are 4 options (each has two modes)

Can someone "fill in the blanks" in my draft, so we can have a complete manual?

Also, does anyone know the quote from the game review magazine that Al used to have on the front page of WOK? I would like to put that at the beginning of the manual.

Also, does anyone besides Trewqh care about this?

The Wargamer. - “…the game is intense.Rarely have I seen a game that requires such an incredible amount of planning, yet is playable in a few minutes if you so wish.”

trewqh is right about the map database bit. Go with either "picking a map from a map database. Each map has 60 territories on it, known as “provinces.”" or "a map which has 60 territories on it, known as “provinces.”"

[signup page] = Lobby (Open Standard WoK Games link, on the right)

Print out text version of report. - Save a lot of ink!

Workers usually start at 24, Armies at 12 (Level 1.75) and Spies at 10 (Why didn't you know this?! )

Neutrals start with 16 WOK, 5 ARM (Level 1) and no spies. Population growth is dependent on the amount of POP in the province (same as for player owned provinces)

Note that turn 0 runs, so by the time a player can do anything, neutrals have 7 armies, a touch more DEF and the player's EFF is 98.


Attacking: All orders count towards the limit even if an order is invalid.
PATT/PDEF (if your power is 0, the engine rolls between 0 and 1 to stop infinite draws.)

trewqh is right, please make it 0.003, 0.006 and 0.1 for level boni.

Transforms: I think Al described WOK->POP transforms as "a desperate act" has a better ring than "not normally recomended" imho.

Movement: "You can only move things between neighbouring provinces" would work better than "You can only move things from 1 province into a neighboring province."

Everything else looks great. Thanks, Egbert!



korexus.

korexus wrote:trewqh is right, please make it 0.003, 0.006 and 0.1 for level boni.

Boni?

Thanks for all the input. I will create a revised version based on all of the above comments, and any additional ones received. Trewqh, I'll send it to you soon.

Egbert wrote:

korexus wrote:trewqh is right, please make it 0.003, 0.006 and 0.1 for level boni.

Boni?

Er, it really is "bonuses", Kor, even for us Brits! Mind you, Egbert used some funny English in his new rules, too ....! (which I just glanced through a moment ago ...). Hmmm, must comment on the CONTENT some time ....

I always say that "departures" from standard American/English ( I accept both), are a) pretty irrelevant and only for fun b) mostly a means of teasing (hence this) c) often a perfect environment for "the biter bit", ie anyone who has the temerity to query someone else's use of English/American is fair game to have their own usage scrutinised/scrutinized !! So, Eg, about yours in your draft Rules?!!

Hey, this is just for fun, right? There are only 4 of us reading this thread? Let's treat it as in-jokes, not public pronouncements? For fun teasing, OK? Feel free to tease me back, right?

Cheers,

Han





Cheers,
Han