The screen has to represent the graphics at a certain extent. The rendering needs a certain degree of precision towards the units. Players do not want to see their characters stab another character completely through and see that their enemy has taken no damage. Never mind, I got stuck up with the not decoupling the world coordinate vs the graphics coordinate earlier.

My mistake, the average mass is true average of adults, but the height was only considering males (I was thinking of simulating soldiers at the time I write it). The average height is closer to 160 cm.

kindji, thank you for your suggestion.

[Edited by - Platinum_Dragon on July 30, 2009 12:54:00 PM]

um, why would you make an overly complex and convoluted game as an EXAMPLE for a tutorial on writing game design documents? This game sounds tedious, frustrating, and generally tries to do too much. Let someone who knows how to make games make a design document.

Simple means to break down to the smallest form that cannot be broken down further. This is the goal of all learning, and this is essentially the computer language. Simple would therefore means the document will be very long because I have to not only write down the tutorial to write the codes with full explanation, but also to write down each step that complicates the structure of the program. Each step needs to be clearly calculated so that I can teach them in a step by step method to create complex algorithm. Simplicity is the simpleness of each and every individual steps. When multiple easy steps are look at in whole, then it is complex.

Think of school. You start at first grade. You are learning at a very slow pace, approximately 1 unit for 180 hours class + 30 hour homework. Of course, if I tell you that you are going to speed thousands of hours right off the bat, then you will not be able to code the design. But like schooling, a step by step process needs to be taken slowly. If you say it is too complicated, then it is to say that going to school is too hard for you. Education is more complicated, but why are they able to even teach you in the first place. Sorry for the flaming, but I have to compare this to reality in order to make this clear that simple is the step by step process of complexity. Complex is when you are trying to look at the whole at the same moment of time. You need to look into each individual steps at the very end. This design will probably take a few years to complete and that I am certain because even though I read all the C++ tutorial, hearing words is not like speaking words is the analogy to reading the C++ tutorial without trying it yet.

Read a tutorial = hearing words as a baby
Practice each individual codes in the tutorial = speaking the words like a baby.
Program with high level language = speak sentences like a baby.
Learning assembly or another low level language = learning the alphabet as a kindergartner.
Applying the low level language in your high level language = grammar in lower education.
That is step by step analogy of the programming language.

If you find my analogy is simple, then my documentation is simple. If you find my analogy is complex, then my documentation is complex.

The big picture is not the entire picture. Quite stereotyping.

I apologize for the flaming in my post. I am sorry, but I cannot currently think of a more civilize analogy at the moment. If I can find a better analogy, then I will definitely edit my post to remove these flames.

are you saying that this game has so many facets so that you can teach all aspects of making a design document? Otherwise you completely went around what I stated.

That is precisely the final my final goal, but it will take a long time because I have specific genres Titled the topic, and that is essentially the first genres that will start this long term goals. Not may people are able to endure a long term goal, and I am still not certain how far this topic can be maintain. There is no guarantee in any long term goals, as long "term means" that any variables can change.

Edit:
It is like what happens to geniuses. To become one of them, you have to be humble about it because teachers will 90% of the time insult anyone whom try to compare with famous geniuses. It is true that the worlds education system is flawed because I can tell you that we can learn at least 4 school years in a year if we have a good enough reform, but they [the education systems] are unwilling to teach at the highest quality and pace. Essentially, my topic is consider too arrogant, and someone of similar qualities as the bulk of the educators will comment how I will be unable to reach my goal instead of helping my find my flaws. It's insulting when some of the teachers compare you to geniuses in a sarcastic way, but does not take the steps to teach what they can. Most of the teachers are unwilling to teach at the pace that students can handle. I know that humans can handle about four times the current pace if we increase in a proper and gradual way, but they are unwilling to even attempt any improvement because they use the old way that they see always works. You have to know that the age of geniuses, age of criminals or the age of most active towards constructive or destructive towards society is the same age range, in the late teens to the twenties. Why is it that the new ideas are mostly found by those in their twenties? It is because the older generation do not use their brain as much as the younger generation. How so? Because the older generation does not get any challenging problems, or they are unwilling to attempt challenging problems. Researching does open up as much brain potential as solving an already known problem with known tools but the process is slower. The rate of challenging is lower, and so the brain does not get as much of a challenge. Like all form of sensitivity of humans are logarithmic, our brain needs a logarithmic change in the difficulty level. And by spreading the difficult problems through time, we are essentially having a harder time maintaining our brains as we age.

In a sense, I believe the most abstract level of this design is complete. To further this discussion, I need to decrease the abstraction and increase the simplicity of the design slowly towards "algorithm."

[Edited by - Platinum_Dragon on July 29, 2009 10:24:19 PM]

Hmm this became a bit longer than expected... Anyway,

While you come across as a bit arrogant and flamey, I admire your ambition and will to admit simple mistakes.

Quote:

Original post by Platinum_Dragon In a sense, I believe the most abstract level of this design is complete. To further this discussion, I need to decrease the abstraction and increase the simplicity of the design slowly towards "algorithm."

Assuming you mean the gameplay level as the most abstract level, I respectfully disagree. It might be finished in your head, but here's what I know:

Bunch o' stats that affects things, an overworld map with potentially simoultaneous turn-based battles, another bunch o' tactical buzzwords like terrain and logistics, size of the character and point of view.

That game sounds great! Like one of my eternal favorites Fantasy General except with all the things I wanted to add to it! But that is how I envision it, your view is probably a lot different. And that's a bad thing, because your DD should communicate your view, not inspire me to come up with my own.

[flurry of questions]
For example, is the game modern, fantasy or something else? The modern military grades and use of a modern human as default got me thinking of a modern game. However you mention spell strength, so now I'm thinking fantasy. Which is it?
You tell me of stats that affects things like fatigue rate. But how does fatigue rate works? This might be what you mean by algorithm level, this kind of mechanics, but I think that's wrong. You need to figure out the goals of these mechanics first. What happens when you are fatigued? Is it a continuous rate? Or is it a boolean fatigued or not? How many can a fully rested unit keep fighting (approximately of course) before become fatigued? How does equipment affect it? Experience? I realize just now that this seems to be only for your character. Or is it for all your troops? Does troops surrender or fight to the death? What about morale in general? Which tactics do you envision being used? How does spells affect all this? What kind of spells are there?*
Oh I forgot; apply all these questions to all other stats where appropriate.
[/flurry of questions]

Some of this stuff was probably obvious to you, some not. But nothing is obvious to me since it's all in your head. Especially when I get into pretending-I'm-going-to-implement-this mode. Try writing some use-cases or scenarios where you describe a battle or game situation. It's a great way to hammer out all these little questions and communicate a gameplay experience. Right now I just envision my own idea of a turn-based tactical game with the features you mention. Which is an awesome vision btw, but it's not your goal, right? It's to communicate your idea

Btw, Never thought I'd ask for a "pun intended" commentm but is the roll/role playing pun intended or a spelling error? Laughed when I noticed it. :D

*=Please don't use fire/water/wind/earth. It's so overused I vomit on my keyboard each time I see it (the spell system, not the keyboard). I have a nasty keyboard. :)

Even though there are mentality and intelligence, that does not necessary means there will be magic, but there will be if this goes toward fantasy or towards science fiction. How about my spell system be physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, literature, history, etc.

The reason to separate the two stats of MAX ability with the ability is to link to the fatigue. As a player fatigues, their ability decreases but their standard deviation increases because their skills reach less consistency. The MAX ability is to state their strongest possible critical hit. It is still abstract because I am still not certain about the rate of decrease of abilities as the player fatigues. Should it be consistent, or maybe a logarithmic curve. Maybe linear curve? The fatigue will be through a continuous flow dependent upon the rate of motion and the current fatigue level, the more fatigue you are the longer it takes to recover the same amount of the bar.

Oops, still did not completely remove all of my spelling mistakes.

Part of my goal is to stimulate others to create games that can fit my template, and also to create a template that can cover all games.

A good idea will always inspire others. And a gentleman should always allow their ideas to inspire others because this is the way that our world progress.

Sorry for the gendered term, but historically wereman and woman were used, and man is a gender neutral term; were- as a masculine prefix, wo- as a feminine prefix, and man refers to the species, there is no female werewolf, but the proper way is wowolf, but not many people look into the history of terminologies.

Edit:
People takes courage to do anything, so even physical attacks require a person to maintain a certain level of mental strength.

[Edited by - Platinum_Dragon on July 30, 2009 12:55:17 PM]