I can't speak for most other Gloranthaphiles, but I do like the existing game as-is. It's complexity makes for a longer-lasting game, one requiring some thoughtful consideration and planning. I know the game is not an action-adventure type game; I am not going to kill things to satisfy my short attention span and hunger for action. The game gives me stories, short and long, puzzles, and economy balancing/planning.
A few comments on the Wafe Thin Ninja's answer: 1. I do sometimes use the grain sliders, but not commonly. The effect does not seem to matter much over the long haul. Perhaps if the three grains had a mroe pronounced difference, they would matter more. Further, their relation to the food and morale is not clear: perhaps barley should affect morale better (makes the best beer, right?), while wheat provides more food value, and rye of course is safest.
2. You might ditch the grain and patrol sliders for the "short" game and keep them for the "long" game.
3. I am of two minds about the livestock types: I like having the four types (pigs, sheep, cows, and horses) but their impact on the game doesn't seem clear in play. Horses are valuable for war and trading, but little else. Cows are valuable for food and trading, and seem most important. Pigs and sheep, though, seem auxiliary and have little connection to the game in any specific part. No shrines seem to deal with them, nor heroquesting. Perhaps an additional story element? Otherwise, they might very well be abstracted down to something like "farm animals."
4. I've never had a "long" game in which I used hunters to any significant effect. Crafters give me trade goods (yay!) and farmers bring in crops (good!). But hunters have never seemed to bring in that much food, nor is their effect on giving warning before raids ever seemed clear. You might get rid of them.
5. It does seem overly complex to have to figure out with whom one should trade. You might simply set the game to default to the best trade good option(s) for a picked clan.
I do agree that the game as-is is not a casual game, and likely cannot be turned into one. It's too complicated at its basic level. But you can make the game progress more quickly and smoothly if more information is given to the player immediately, providing for better suggestions and more guided play.
Michael
I think most existing fans consider its complexity to be a good thing. A simplified version for the casual market probably wouldn't appeal to people who love the game as it is.
You could pare down quite a few things without losing much though. Off the top of my head:
- lose the grain type sliders (I almost never move these)
If the goal is to create a "casual" game though, I would say start from the ground up rather than trying to hack bits off the existing game until it fits into the casual space. KoDP just isn't a casual game.
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