WoW Games - War of Wizards

Hi guys,

Another update on WoW progress and a chance for input. The sign-up system and the back end data-base surrounding it, are almost complete. You guys will soon be able to do your first bit of testing by SIGNING UP!!!! Not particularly exciting I know, but it will lead into some real play testing. On the subject of play testing I've currently got expressions of interest from;

Jay
Rob Newcombe (Rathnagz)
Darrell Lias
Darrell Penning
Neufeld, John Jeff
dhillwheal
S Kennerley
John Weaver
Aaron Schwarz
Göran Örnhed

Drop me a mail if you want your name added to the list.

Although it appears to be still working, we're not 100% sure our map generation application is still compatible with modern O/S, so the first test will be on a old map. Any request for a favourite world people would like to play? To an extent it will be dependent upon how many players we have.

The aims of the first play-test will be;

1) Get all you guys enthusiastic about WoW again and refresh you memory in regards to the ins and outs, strengths and weaknesses of the game.

2) Test the new sign-up system/database

3) Over the period of the playtest develop and test the automated turn running system. We have various options from running at a set-time, to more advanced systems such as automatically running the turn when all orders are recieved or when everyone has checked a run-turn box.

4) Start planning and development of the Graphic Interface. One of the first decisions to make will be whether to use basically the same system and add an application over the top or to write something completely new. In the old system we began experimenting with the creation of parser code at the bottom of each report which could be read by a program to generate a graphical representation. We have an option of further developing this parser code and then developing a Java application that can read and generated a map from this information to be displayed on either a webpage or off-line application. This approach would maximise the amount of the old system we could still use, decreasing development time. Thoughts?

As always, we look forward to any comments.

Regards

Harry