OK, many of you are probably thinking "What?!?", so here''s some background. Basically the overall object of the game is to collect all the pieces of a device that will give you ultimate power yada yada yada.. (I know not very imaginitive, but it was the best excuse for the game I could come up with.) Unlike most stratergy games, i.e. liniar, The aim of mine is to give the player a choice about which levels, and to some degree which enemy they face. This is fine and good, and the idea is your enemies (which are Wizards who summon the units to do the fighting, like Sacrifice, but based upon a MUCH MUCH older game), act in a more "RPG" maner, i.e. they can come and go as they wish, (within reason). Each level is connected to other levels by portals which come and go periodically. The thing is these pieces are scattered randomly throught the maps at the very start of the game, and the NPC''s can (and in the case of the Wizards WILL) collect all there pieces and take them arround with them. The big question is.. How much of a clue do I give the player as to who has a piece, or where it is located. I mean, not telling them at all makes it frustrating when they have all but one piece, but giving them too much information I feel make take something out of deciding where to go. Opinions? NightWraith

What about "incidental" characters--villagers, barkeeps, whatever--that see, and take note of wizards and what they''re carrying? Their memories will fade over time, but they''ll be able to tell you what they''ve seen recently.

*** 500 ERROR ***


Don''t listen to me. I''ve had too much coffee.

Yeah, I agree with Sneftel. If you want to give the player clues, use the world around them to communicate all the nessesary information. I would warn you though, you might want to make some alternative solutions available so that you do not have to find this one wizard guy floating on the other side of the world god knows where. This is essentially a non-linear puzzle, becasue there is only ONE way to solve it.

You could have some sort of tracking device though that could oporate on batteries or some limited thing that would show the objects general location in the world and make the challenge for the player figuring out who actually has it in that area (this detector can''t home in exactly, maybe just knows the city or whatever.)

kool?

peace


-Sage13