Thanks for the constructive comments chaps.
Greg, I wish you a speedy recovery and a pleasant period of recuperation.
Mic Fair wrote:
I enjoy playing Epic but issues and ambiguity in the rules can sometimes take away from that enjoyment.
Yes, that's exactly how I feel and such rambling rules are off-putting for newbies too.
I've rewritten a lot, but then also some things just needed joining up a little more. For example, I've added datasheets into all the training missions. People have got enough to focus on with the rules, so why make them hunt just to find the various datasheets they need for each mission?
Mic Fair wrote:
So there is a precedent for what your doing.
Interesting to hear about other precedents, though I feel must reiterate — I'm not changing anything about the game play. I'm only making the existing game play easier to understand (though this is bound to throw some light onto rules people misunderstood in the first place, so I expect them to accuse me of 'changing things' when in fact I haven't, genuine mistakes notwithstanding).
Kyrt wrote:
Personally I think the bigger issue is that, despite the FAQs, there really is a huge amount of ambiguity and trying to remove it you are forced to confront all those edge cases that the community either hasn't even come across yet or doesn't agree on what the rules are trying to say.
Yes, I believe I totally get where you are coming from with this. Ambiguous points can sometimes be impossible to resolve unless you can talk them through with the originator.
However, in most cases I found that when I made a close examination of related texts and FAQs there was actually a common thread of logic, and thus I could resolve things with a high degree of confidence. Meanwhile, many things were difficult to interpret and absorb because of poor sentence construction, but actually only really have one logical interpretation when you unpick them.
Of course, certain types of people may expect me to explain and evidence all this in minute detail. But to them I say: 1) read the rules and FAQs closer yourself and you'll find it if you're that bothered, and 2) you don't have to use it if you don't like it — I'm just offering something more obvious and consistent for the rest of us.
That said, I'm only human. So once it's up and running I'll see about setting up way to gather feedback so that — when I can make the time — I can correct any real mistakes and act on sage ideas for further improvement.