Book of DM139 Chapter 3: I have +3 INT therefore I am

DarkMage139 · 2001-10-18T18:20:01

Well, it's been long enough since my last chapter (too long perhaps). I think you've all recovered nicely from my last attempt at GD ranting and raving. Well, this time, I'll be discussing two of my favorite subjects: Experience (the basis of End Goblin Genocide ) and magic. And so begins Chapter 3 of my book of warped ideas... --------------- Part I: I've got mad skillz A lot of people here are quite familiar with the concept of 'skills'. If you aren't, I'll explain. If you've ever played Daggerfall (and if you haven't, you're missing out on a lot. Get the demo at least!), you might notice that when you go around hitting things with a broadsword, your 'Long Sword' skill gets a little bit better. Of if you go jumping around like Neo from The Matrix , your 'Jumping' skill improves. And of course, if you like making people spontaneously explode, your 'Destruction' skill goes up. And if you like teleporting into your girlfriend's bedroom, your 'Mysticism' (or is it 'Thaumaturgy'?) skill goes up (among other things... *wink*). Now, this is all nice and good, but why am I bringing this up? Well, the answer is simple. [waves hand like a Jedi] You will get rid of the levelling system... [/waves hand like a Jedi] Sound weird? Yes it is. Sound insane? Absolutely. Sound stupid? Only to the infidels untrained minds. You see, you can successfully replace levelling with a fullscale skill system. When you perform certain actions (such as teleporting into your girlfriend's bedroom *winks*), certain skills boost upwards. And of course, over time, certain attributes (strength, dexterity, intelligence, speed, etc.) boost over time (though a bit more slowly than your skills). For instance, as you keep on casting spells, your intelligence level boosts. If you keep whacking monsters, your strength goes up. If you keep getting impaled every 5 seconds (and live through it), your toughness (and perhaps your maximum health) goes up as well. And if you keep running around like you have an army of Orcs on your tail (if you're like me, you probably do have a horde or two out to get you), your Speed increases ('Speed' allows you to do things faster, such as slashing at people, loading arrows, and chasing babe-, I mean, uh... goblins). Still not convinced? Well, you can use the traditional levelling system. But ask yourself for a moment... is levelling really more interesting? (NOTE : I can feel my 'Writing' skill boosting already! Woohoo! ) --------------- Part II: Magic If you read fantasy novels (and if you don't... good heavens, what the !@$% is wrong with you?! ), you might have noticed how wizards describe the consequences of continually casting spells. It goes something like this: The strain of spell began to weaken me physically. My head swam and I felt a great weariness come upon me... All right, so that's a nice passage. But what's the point? Well, I've yet to see any fantasy novel describe the experience to be something like this: As I cast the spell, I felt my mana meter going low... Are getting my point now? THERE ARE NO MANA METERS IN FANTASY NOVELS! Constant spellcasting results in a 'great weariness', not a low mana meter. Mana meters exist only in our games! And it's one of the reasons that magic no longer seems so magical! Some of you might remember a post that was made saying that we should keep magic 'magical'. Even in Daggerfall, it seems to be more of a science than anything. Now, some of you may think that's cool, but I happen to be a fan of keeping magic a non-scientific practice. If you've read enough fantasy novels, you might notice that magic is something that springs forth from the ethereal realms (which is beyond mortal comprehension). OK, so what's the point of this ranting and raving? Well, I happen to be in favor of getting rid of the mana meter (or at least the part of the interface that keeps track of how much mana you have left). Now I know you think that this is a pretty weird idea. But I have a good alternative to 'mana'. In Daggerfall (which is an awesome game, though its got a few bugs), there's something called 'Fatigue'. In the interface, there's a 'fatigue meter', which keeps track of how much strength you have left. As you keep running around and beating stuff up, you start getting tired, and if your Fatigue Meter reaches zero, you faint from weakness (and while you're unconscious, some wandering monster can come by and eat you). My suggestion is that instead of using mana, we use the Fatigue Meter. As you keep on casting, you get tired. Eventually, it's possible to cast so much that you just drop from the energy drain. Another interesting aspect is that as you grow tired, your brain works less well. So after a good deal of spellcasting, you can't really focus very much, and things start to get messy. That fireball spell of yours just fizzles out before it even leaves your hand, for one. Makes for a much more interesting situation, don't you think? --------- P.S. Due to the fact that I can't get online very often these days, I may not be able to respond to replies anytime soon. I apologize in advance for this. - DarkMage139 (Neokatana Software) ============================== Memorable Tibera\GDT quotes "I'm hungry. Can you shove some food into the monitor for me?" - MattD "That has to be Max. He's the only one who can get girls." - Facehat "I won't fight you. I believe that nothing can be resolved by violence. However, if you really want me to kick the crap out of you..." - SonicTsunami "They kicked us out, remember?" - snes16bit (upon being told to 'go to hell') Edited by - DarkMage139 on October 15, 2001 10:55:09 AM

Game Design and Theory Game Design

Started by DarkMage139 October 15, 2001 09:51 AM

10 comments, last by DarkMage139 23 years, 3 months ago

DarkMage139

Author

294

October 18, 2001 05:24 PM

Thanks for all the ideas! I''m reworking my stuff and design already.

_martin_: Thanks for the comment about the meters. I''ll think of an alternative...

Ronin_54: Hmm... I don''t even want to know how to program that

Silvermyst: In Daggerfall, you use the mouse to control swordfighting.

hapaboy: Yeah... I think that the notion that great warriors and great wizards should be equal is applicable in singleplayer as well as MMORPGs.

- DarkMage139 (Neokatana Software)
==============================
Memorable Tibera\GDT quotes
"I''m hungry. Can you shove some food into the monitor for me?" - MattD
"That has to be Max. He''s the only one who can get girls." - Facehat
"I won''t fight you. I believe that nothing can be resolved by violence. However, if you really want me to kick the crap out of you..." - SonicTsunami
"They kicked us out, remember?" - snes16bit (upon being told to ''go to hell'')

- DarkMage139

Nazrix

307

October 18, 2001 06:20 PM

DM:
I agree with everything you''ve said especially the part about everyone should at least play Daggerfall''s demo

A CRPG in development...

Need help? Well, go FAQ yourself.

Need help? Well, go FAQ yourself. "Just don't look at the hole." -- Unspoken_Magi

Book of DM139 Chapter 3: I have +3 INT therefore I am

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Book of DM139 Chapter 3: I have +3 INT therefore I am

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