OK, so the last thread was getting a little crowded. I am just starting anew so that people can have their say in a less crowded environment. THE DOC is available from my site Or more directly; from the discussions page. It has had a facelift from its original form, and it is about 3 times as bloated as the last time I tried to inform everyone about it . I would like to know anything that you have to say on these matters:

• Pictures: It needs pictures, you tell me where and tell me what kind of pictures, and I will do so (or try, within reason)!
• A legend? Well, I have been considering putting in a legend of all the acronyms that I used in the doc. Good idea or do you think that it has been covered enough?
• Layout: Well, I have added sections and a Table of Contents, and I will be adding numbers for each section and its subsections. Do you have another idea for this?
• Implementations: I need some more ideas. I am thinking of including game ideas in it as well, just so that there can be some diversity in the doc.
• Index: Do you think that there should be an index? I have ignored this for a while, but it may be useful if the doc continues to grow
• IDEAS: I do want to hear any ideas that you have about what could be added into the doc. I need some more substance in there, this is OUR production remember. It is OUR doc, and it is going places . Make your contribution...

We want YOU!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- -Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft "The Philosophers' Stone of Programming Alchemy" IOL (The list formerly known as NPCAI) - A GDNet production Our Doc - The future of RPGs Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche

quote: Original post by dwarfsoft
Pictures: It needs pictures, you tell me where and tell me what kind of pictures, and I will do so (or try, within reason)!

I would like a picture of a goblin holding a sign reading: "End Goblin Genocide!"

quote:
A legend? Well, I have been considering putting in a legend of all the acronyms that I used in the doc. Good idea or do you think that it has been covered enough?

That depends on the intended audience for your doc. All the ''regulars'' here at gamedev knows pretty well what you''re talking about but if it must have a larger audience then a legend may be a good idea.

quote:
Layout: Well, I have added sections and a Table of Contents, and I will be adding numbers for each section and its subsections. Do you have another idea for this?

Nope.

quote:
Implementations: I need some more ideas. I am thinking of including game ideas in it as well, just so that there can be some diversity in the doc.

What do you mean by game ideas? Plots and such? I don''t really think that it belongs together with the rest of the doc. If you really would want it maybe you could make some kind of ''Appendix'' containing a couple of examples of how a game could be designed to incorporate some of the new features.

quote:
Index: Do you think that there should be an index? I have ignored this for a while, but it may be useful if the doc continues to grow

I don''t think it necersarry quite yet. Your document isn''t that large. And it would be a pain to maintain when the doc is constantly growing.

quote:
IDEAS: I do want to hear any ideas that you have about what could be added into the doc. I need some more substance in there, this is OUR production remember. It is OUR doc, and it is going places . Make your contribution...

Nice of you to share the credit with us . I''ll let you know if I come up with any ideas.

Regards

nicba

I think it needs a small eye-candy lifting and a better looking table of contents.
If i have your permission i''ll try to make it better to access and read.
But it is really unbelievable how big it is and how many good ideas there are at the moment!Let''s keep it growing!

Voodoo4

I''m downloading it (again!) and I''ll see if I can come up with some nice ideas. Maybe it''s a good idea to host the doc on other sites as well? The ideas you mentioned in your post are good ideas.

It would be really nice if the HTML version used frames. Like have the table of contents along the left side.



"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." --William Blake

"The road of excess also just ends up making me tired because I'm too lazy" --Nazrix

Thanx all, I will try...

Nazrix:
The TOC for HTML is kinda stuck. I just update the document in Word97 format, and then just before upload I save RTF and HTML versions. Because I am doing it this way I don''t really have a choice about the TOC and its placement. I will try to get that done at some point though. One small problem is that if you access a framed version from my site, you end up with a rather confusing set of navigation bars, and you wouldn''t have much screen space left then would you? . I am trying to find a way to stop word from making the TOC into "each line is a paragraph" but it is near impossible without screwing up the formatting. I will try to fix this stuff up soon. It is going to require a manual edit. It needs to be done

Arjan:
Yeah, I am going to upload it to tripod and angelfire (if I can remember my password). I will post those locations up here when I do

Tripod Site is here and you can get to the doc via the links. It may or may not be uploaded by the time that you read this, I am having some u/l problems though.

I wonder if I can get my old geocities account back, just for another distribution means. I will have to keep tabs on where the source of the doc is, so I can distribute new versions. Crosswinds will be my main distribution centre though

Voodoo4:
You are welcome to make it better, I need all the help I can get, as you can see from what it is currently, I have a high expectation on it. I need to do some adding to forum links . Concequently though, how do you propose to do this... I do agree that the HTML TOC is screwed beyond recognition, but that is because of Paragraph formatting, and for some reason word doesn''t like using a new <BLOCKQUOTE> in the same paragraph (ie, if I was just using <BR> for the new lines instead of Word''s Naziesque <P></P> combinations ).

Eyecandy is something that needs to be done. It just isn''t me without the gamedev Smiley Faces so I think I will add a few in, for charcter.

I am proud of all that we have achieved here, and I would like to see that this document is continued on, for a long time in the future (if for some reason I cannot continue its update).

Who wants to be nominated as heir to the throne.. er... work?

nicba:
Goblin with EGG on it? Hmmm, how good an artist do you think I am? . I will see if I can theive MKV''s goblin from his board, and I will do a bit of a touch-up so that it has the ability to hold a sign... If I get time .

The audience for the doc is more than just those from GDNet. I intend for any person to be able to understand it. That is why I need for it to be proofread by newbies who have not seen a lot of the threads where these ideas have come from. I often forget that sometimes I am mentioning an idea that was developed over 20 pages (EGG ) and I am compressing it into a paragraph, it sometimes loses its meaning. But I think I will add in a legend anyway, in the Notes section...

By game ideas, I kind of was meaning a combination of systems designed to work together. This way it can be possible to show mock-ups of how each system can work interconnected with others. Does that make sense?

Credit is given where credit is due, I have got most of my ideas from this board, so I think that it is only fair to give credit to the location of my thoughts. Also, a lot of the content of the doc is actually other peoples ideas that I have worded differently. I have started giving credit specifically to people in the newer sections, but I am having a few problems there. I am falling a little behind with new ideas on this board. That will be a challenge for the readers of this thread (I came to this decision last night).

The challenge:
I seem to have dug myself into a little bit of a hole of late. I have been saying that "I will add this" and "I will add that" in various threads, but I have not had the chance to add it at the time (the reason why I post the one liner "It will be added" is so that I can remember to add it ). Because I haven''t added it, my memory has failed and I have still not added it... so?

I want people to report back here and tell me of any ideas that I said that I would add, but are not in the doc (the one that I uploaded yesterday). I have not done any modifications yet, so that is not an issue. If you find it, then tell me . Thanx all.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft
"The Philosophers' Stone of Programming Alchemy"
IOL (The list formerly known as NPCAI) - A GDNet production
Our Doc - The future of RPGs
Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche

dwarf,
Oh I see...Do you mind if I try making an HTML version? I''m not the greatest at HTML, but I could give it a shot just for the hell of it.




"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." --William Blake

"The road of excess also just ends up making me tired because I'm too lazy" --Nazrix

sure Nazrix ... welcome to. I can easily just do a "delete TOC" and save a body for a frames version, and I could also save the TOC in a seperate HTML file for you. If you wanted to fix up the HTML TOC then you are welcome to. All it needs is for each line at the end of the TOC to have a <BR> instead of all those annoying <P></P> tags. The headings "Notes" "NPC''s" etc are like this example... Actually, here is an example from the first few of the entries:

      THE FUTURE OF RPG''s  <BLOCKQUOTE>    Table of Contents<BR>    Introduction<BR>    <BLOCKQUOTE>      Foreword<BR>      In The Beginning...    </BLOCKQUOTE>    Notes<BR>    ...  </BLOCKQUOTE>    

You get the idea? Thanx man.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-Chris Bennett of Dwarfsoft
"The Philosophers' Stone of Programming Alchemy"
IOL (The list formerly known as NPCAI) - A GDNet production
Our Doc - The future of RPGs
Thanks to all the goblins over in our little Game Design Corner niche

Yeah, I see what you''re saying. This would give me something to do when I am supposed to be actually working

How''s this so far?