Design Documentation

Do we have any formal design documentation already in place? If not, is there any chance that we might be able to start working on one? From a programmer perspective I am already entering a lot of what-if questions while just designing the base building class. Having something that says how things are related and how things evolve (upgrades, characters, etc.) woudl be really helpful. Plus, it keeps all of us on a common vision.

Just a suggestion. Would like any comments.

JSMOORE

I'm such a newb. Hehe. I had to Wiki "Design Document"... And I have to say I still don't get it completely. Which, I suppose, is why I'm a writer and not a programmer.

It's ok, I am not much better, this is the first time I have really put any effort into anything out of theory and class assignments from the college. Basically a design document is the creative and technical blueprints of the game. As a writer you have a large say in the creative side, where the programmers try to figure out how to implement and design (code wise) the way to program things.

For example, I am currently working on the buildings routines and structure, but have no clue as to what buildings we have or how the building changes anything in the world. As a writer and a designer, you help fill in that gap by saying something like "A stable allows unit x to be created and at level 4 the troops get y as a bonus. To build a stable you need a blacksmith and a mason shop." or something like that.

From what I can tell, we are all going to have to come up with a design document together.

Hope this helped a little.

J.S. Moore

Yes I belive we need to get together and make some sort of document of what we hope to acheive in the end game.

So what you mean is we should decide exectly what we want the buildings to do, then name each building that we will include,

ie
Name: "Stables"
Level: 4
Wood: 230
Stone: 100
Metal: 50
Gold: 25
Function: Trains Troops
Training Points: +30

Requierments: Level 3 Town Hall, Level 2 Barracks

but do this for all the buildings we wish to include, then do somethng similar for all the other aspects of the game. . . . Right?

p.s I'll move this to the ideas section later.

Posted some General Class Design statements in individual text documents to the wiki, as well as a Player, Territory, Building Class relationship diagram.