Romaq,
I like the test app idea a whole lot. *thumbs up*
Scorecard, no. Don't like that. There is no market for RTS's, thanks to Blizzard, MS, and the Civ chain cornering them. And consoles stealing PC customers. It also sounded to me like the Quake standard for FPS games. I don't really want to compare DF with a Blizzard, MS or other game. Its wholely unique enough, as it is. But if it were to have a RTS standard, I guess it would serve some purpose, in comparison shopping. We don't really purchase this, so I can't see the bonus of consumer comparisons.
Instead of the Scorecard, I could see DF turned into a burn-in application, completely. Remove the locks, and crank up the size, and the heat. Watch the temperature on the mobo in your system tools. This game would be a wonderful way to test stability of overclocking and overvolting at various resolutions. Something to unmystify graphic processing units and their memory is needed in my life, how about yours?
I don't think we need to tally a score system, wouldn't that indirectly assumes Bay12 would have a responsibility of the game performing at a certain low end stat? When it really shouldn't have that responsibility. Each box is different, and for a good many PC operators, proprietary, no scorecards need to be generated, outside what the gamer himself mods. I couldn't see what the benefit of having side-by side comparisons would be, because tech changes every 3mo.
Sincerely,
Knutor