quote:
Original post by dwarfsoft
Just wondering at exactly the number of people who are interested in this doc. I would definitely like to hear from people about what they think needs to be in the doc... c''mon guys, I need your help. This thing has been asked in reference to XGDC roundtable, and I would like to see your opinions get there as well as mine 
OK, Im reading the doc right now. It''s pretty late so we''ll se how long you manage to hold my attention (and keep me awake). But I''ll comment on the text as I go:
1) Font Size:
Your HTML version didn''t work so I''m reading the RTF version. Do something about the font size! I had to increase it several times to get it readable.
2) NPC''s:
I''ve recently finished System Shock 2 and it was an awesomew experience. But there wasn''t really any NPCs! Every time you found another person they where always dead. All "contact" was performed by replaying Audio Logs left behind by the dead and and sometimes (audio) Emails recieved from other people. But still you never relly felt alone in the game and I think the key to this achievement was that all the "communication" was always "in context" with what you very doing. Example: on straying from your task to explore some not relevant area you first got a warning and then an email saying something like this: "I hope you enjoyed your little burst of disobedience. Now get back on your task servant!". Another thing was that the Audio Logs found laying about was very clever written and some of them even contained rumors about your progress. Example "I''ve heard that someone on the 5th floor is fighting back too. He managed to restart the elevators". My point is that you don''t always need advanced AI to get the right result. Simple means may do the trick. Seeing newspaper acticles, TV shows or letting NPC''s tell rumors of something the player did previosly is very revarding and will let the player feel that his/hers actions matters and has consequenes.
3) Conversing with NPC’s, “click here for this quest”:
I think you have a good point in this paragraph. I''ve seen this done somewhat in the old Fallout where you could click the "Ask" button and type in a subject. But it useually just resultet in a lot of "I don''t know about that" messages. To make this work propperly I think you need to make some initial vocabulary for the NPC but also make the vocabulary able to "grow" by an in-game-algorithm. So when the story progresses and something happends in the general area of the NPC''s they would start to find out about it and be able to respond (somewhat) intelligent to questions about the new situation.
4) Murder based experience or “End Goblin Genocide”:
I think you might want ot add a reference to Ernest W. Adams here. In one of his excellent monthly articles he wrote a "Letter from a Dungeon" (I think that was also the title of the article, try find it on gamustra or ask me for a link) and complained about that running around slaying monsters and stealing from their dead bodies wasn''t very heroic.
5) “Learning through death sucks…” the advent of the save game:
You''re right about this one but saved games are necersarry because CRPG''s are useually too long to be completed in one "gaming session". You need to be able to save the game and take a break. Also it is very frustrating too lose ones progress just because you made a mistake or got unlucky in a battle. To relieve the "Save Game Syndrome" you described I think you could do a number of things:
- Pay (in advance) some clerics at a temple to ressurect you. If you die later you will be ressurected by the clerics at the temple and can continue the quest (maybe after reclaiming your inventory from the place of death). It would be less "dangerous" to die and therefore not necersarry to save so oftent.
- Remove all "suddent deads". Always give the player a warning before stepping into a dangerous situation. No traps that suddently kills you without warning (unless you KNOW the area to be dangerous and filled with traps).
- Always allow the player to "back out" of a dangerous situation and to return later with better health or equipment. Let the player be able to flee from most or all battles.
6) RPG’s and Character aging, and the implementation of timing in games:
Well, I think aging could be usefull in some online games with persistent worlds very you return and play again and again. But in single-player CRPG''s the story very rarely spans longer that a couple of months (or years at most). Aging effects would not be noticable in such a short time. Also, remember that many of these characters are not humans but elves, orges and other fantasy creatures with a differend life-span and aging pattern. And in many fantasy-books powerfull mages is oftent granted a very long life by their strong powers.
7) Linking eating and sleeping with energy:
I think you need to be a little carefull with the eating and sleeping idead. It very easily degenerates into boring micro-management. In books you don''t constantly hear about characters eating, sleeping or going to the toilet. It''s just not entertaining. Only add it when it is relevant to the story.
8) Putting the mystery back into magic: When click casting defeats the purpose:
Again, I think you need a reference to Ernest W. Adams. You have practically "stolen" the title of one of his articles. But the idea about "drawing" symbols with the mouse is very good. For a similiar text-based system you might require the player to type in special magical words or series of words. Maybe you could even design a "language" the player can try to learn to create their own combination of symbols/words to get new spells?
9) Automating tasks: How players can implement scripting
Nhaa, I don''t think scripting is a good solution to boring tasks as eating and sleeping. If a task is trivial, tedious and boring better leave it out of the game in the first place.
10) A new combat system: “Come back or I’ll bite your legs off!”:
This could be interesting. But its hard to design an interface that is easy enough to use to allow this (without making it a tedious task). And it would probably require a turn-based battle system (especially if you are controlling a whole party of characters). Fallout allowed you to make "standard" attacks or "aimed" attacks. When you made a aimed attack you where given a picture of the body of your enemy and you could select an area to attack. If the aimed attack was sucessfully you could criple your oponent (blind him if it was the eyes you damaged).
11) Monster Generator:
It would be interesting to apply this principles to make monsters vary even when they are in the same specie. Some goblins would be a bit taller, some a bit fatter, some maybe a bit more brownish than green in their skin colour. Its quite unrealistic that all goblins are exact copies of each other. But I think this is also something I have read about somewhere in Ernest W. Adam''s articles.
12) Combating PKing. Playing God “…And Justice For All”:
I like the idea of "Karma" and using reincarnation to reward/punish players for their actions. I''m not sure I understands or likes the idea of the virtual “law enforcement agency”. Should they be "all knowing" and just turn upå magically and drag the player away to court without the player having a chance of resisting or escaping? I don''t think that''s such a good idea. I would like some more realism here, so someone have to see what you''re doing (or the dead body left when you killed the other player) and alert the guards. You could be banned an outlaw (free for all) or even get a "dead or alive" reward on you head. Or maybe killing would be more of a religeous matter (along with the reincarnation idea) and you could go to a temple and pray for forgiveness (but the god may get mad an punish you if you do it too oftent).
14) My own comments: About Realtime and Gametime.
OK. I will stop reading here and skip the "implementation" and the "learning experience" paragraphs. Maybe I''ll return to at some other time.
Instead I will add a subject (or rather a question) of my own. Gametime vs. Realtime. You have discussed time at some places in the text but never how it should be implemented. Should it be realtime or turnbased? Should there be different time systems when exploring and when battling (only turn-based in battles)? What about multiplayer games or even online games. They can''t be turn-based can they?
What about performing mundane tasks such as sleeping, traveling or training (even with a teacher)? In a single player game you would most likely just accelerate time during these tasks but you can''t really do that without getting "out of sync" in a multiplayer game. So how would you solve this?
15) My own comments 2: Nice work!
It is really late and I have to stop now. But I have enjoyed reading the document. It sums up most of the things that have been talked about in the Game Design forum here at GameDev. And it was written in a nice easy-to-follow language. Good work!
Regards
nicba
. I would like to see more choice in what the player can do, because it just opens up a whole new world.
