I''ve noticed several recent games use the "magic voice" method of instructing the player.

For example, in Deus Ex (and in System Shock 2), the magic voice was someone contacting you over your built-in com. This voice informed you about what you needed to do at the very beginning of the game.

In Halo, you had an AI riding around with you that would occasionally spout important information at you.

It might fall in category 3, but it''s a good mechanism. The added bonus is that you can have your player character interact with this magic voice, and therefore give you a clearer idea of what sort of person you are roleplaying.

It''s important not to overwhelm the player, however, with information. Some early PC games were guilty of this by starting out giving the player literally entire short stories that they must read before progressing.

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Also if the character is supposed to know something and do something(or not doing something), the player could be taken out of it and let the character do it instead without the player''s intervention.

But that makes the game less interactive and also if the shooting could cause a explosion in certain circumstances, the character would just refuse to do it and think or say "Darn, I want to shoot but I know that I''ll just blow up all this", but limiting the player options is annoying.

Also for example if in a fps you need to shoot demons in the eyes and the player doesn''t knows and the character is supposed to know, the first demon that is encountered would be killed by the character and he could say something like "Right in the eyes.." so the player would understand. But doing so makes the player feel him and the character aren''t the same person.

And well I think was I was saying is number three but not only NPCs are the only way of telling it.. so probably using many ways together of teaching the player what he should know and removing the control of the character for the first time he encounters a situation that will repeat you can have a game that includes deep knowledge of it as a requirement to advance and a wise character.

If neither of you know not to shoot the gun, then you probably will, because your character probably would. I think it''s poor game design to put in a booby trap like that.

So, have somebody tell the character, and let the player overhear it. Or, if you want to avoid such overt exposition, have a cutscene where a demon finds such a gun and prepares to use it to kill his leader, mutiny-style. He draws down and says, "Hey, boss, I want your job," and the boss stares him down. The little guy pulls the trigger, vaporizes himself, the boss chuckles, and walks out. Your guy comes around the corner and picks up the gun, knowing its secret, or at least having an inkling of it.

The time it''s a real problem is when your character already knows something and you do not. Nobody would presume to tell a professional demon hunter how to use a demon-killing weapon. The cut-scene I describe above could work, or maybe even a cheezy voiceover, like in a hardboiled detective story.

Maybe when you get a new weapon, a little window will show you a schematic and list its properties. Or you could have an "equip" screen that contains a description of each item, based on the character''s knowledge. So the gun would only blast players you don''t have the brains to check their screen before using it.

I don''t consider it a booby trap or poor game design. Its simply the idea of inculding a system of physics into a game world. I think of it as realisim. For instance in the real life if you where standing waste deep in a room full of gasoline fighting someone. Would you use a flame thrower??

No, of course not thats just common sense. Its not a booby trap, its simply how things work gasoline+fire=bad.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

I live in a world that has gasoline and fire. If I lived in a world that had magic weapons and magical fields, I might have the same common sense knowledge.

The problem is that the character DOES live in such a world, and should have such sense. I do not, and I am in control of my character''s actions. I should somehow have access to his common sense. It is your responsibility, as game designer, to give me his privelaged and intimate understanding of his world.

If I get a magic gun, and I''m faced with demons, I''m not going to think, "Wait a second! a property of magical firearms is that they fail catastrophically when used in a magical field! I''ll sniff around and make sure I''m not in one!" That''s up to the character and his designer. you could just make it impossible to equip that weapon under those circumstances. Some game from years ago wouldn''t let me use guns in stealth levels. You couldn''t even draw them.

How about this: You equip your magic gun, and when you walk into a magical field, your character holsters it and pulls out his non-magical gun. If you command him to get out the magic gun, he won''t. You could have an alert window pop up and explain that, and even include an override command if you really want to blow yourself up.

Thats whole point of this thread. The character is suppose to have that common sense and knowledge, but the player doesn''t have it even though they need it. So how do you get the info to the player?

So far it seems that people think the best solution is just have a npc tell them what they need to know before they need to know it. This can work and is used in most games but the main problem is that it makes the assumption that the player is a relativly unexperinced and isn''t relistic in situation where the player is suppose to be an experinced agent.

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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

I agree, but if you''re looking for an in-game way to pass information to the player, it''ll be either a training mode, a pop-up info window, a cut-scene, or some other event that not only occurs in the player''s presence, but is pointed out to him and presented for him. The specific nature of the event is a matter of storytelling and game design.

There''s no revolutionary new way to do it. You won''t innovate a whole new way to transmit information to the player unless you invent a synaptic interface or something. It''s not a question of doing something new, it''s a question of doing something better. If you write a really natural, flowing cutscene in which the hero discusses the finer points of using the X button to pick up items and open doors, then good on you. If you have to just tell the player outright, that''s fine too.

You won''t give the player an intimate understanding of the gameworld in the opening thirty seconds of the game. Things like controls and game mechanics can be made more intuitive and taught quickly, but things like the exploding gun will require a conception of the metaphysic of the world.

You could put it in the manual and have people be surprised if they don''t read it. You could make them figure it out for themselves. It''s up to you.

quote:

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Original post by TechnoGoth
For instance if the player''s primary weapon is a heaven''s gate pistol that banishes demons with mystical bullets. However if you fire this weapon in a highly magicly charged environment then it will cause a massive explosion and kill/destroy everyone and everything nearby.

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I don''t really see why this is a problem. Sample interface: right-click on any item for more information. It brings up a pop-up box saying something like:

"''Heaven''s Gate'' Pistol
Classification: weapon
Takes mystical bullets as ammunition and is primarily used in banishing demons. However, it is reported to be dangerous to use this in magically-charged environments due to the volatile nature of the ammo."

RPGs have been taking this route for years, and it doesn''t feel artificial to give out key information like this if the player should know it.

For other things such as background information, it''s a little more difficult. But nothing that can''t be worked into conversations with NPCs - not necessarily NPCs "telling you when you need to know it", or by putting it in in-game literature.

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"I don''t really see why this is a problem. Sample interface: right-click on any item for more information. It brings up a pop-up box saying something like:

"''Heaven''s Gate'' Pistol
Classification: weapon
Takes mystical bullets as ammunition and is primarily used in banishing demons. However, it is reported to be dangerous to use this in magically-charged environments due to the volatile nature of the ammo."

RPGs have been taking this route for years, and it doesn''t feel artificial to give out key information like this if the player should know it.
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The problem with that is that it implies that the rule is item specific rather then part of the games physics. Which isn''t what I''m going for after all its not just that gun that causes the explosion its the mixture of incompatible mystical energies.

At the same time I don''t want to force the player to be unable to use the gun in those circumstances because sometimes they may want to take the risk, or even use the explosion to their own advantage. Maybe there is a large concentraion of enemies inside a magic field the player could fire their gun into the field in hopes of killing the enemies and allowing themselves ot escape.



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Writer, Programer, Cook, I''m a Jack of all Trades
Current Design project
Chaos Factor Design Document

You could let the player find out by trial-and-error. They shoot their gun in a highly-charged magical environment and it kills them. Whoops. They won''t be doing that again.

As others have said, the only other ways have to involve the game specifically giving the player the information somehow.

Maybe you could have a sticker or a warning label on the gun itself "DANGER: EXPLOSIVE RISK" or something like that. Or have a funny commercial about the gun appear in the gameworld on a TV or something ("Tonight on funniest home videos watch this guy get roasted by his BFG-2000...."

It seems somewhat academic anyway. Yes, the character living in the gameworld has more intimate knowledge about the gameworld - but the player is supposed to ''become'' the character anyway (in most cases I guess). If you really want the game character to appear that sentient itself, have the internal dialogue of the character audible - so the player walks the character into a highly charged room and we hear the character think "hmmm.... smells like magic, better not fire my gun."