 |
| |
|
|
Velociryx
|
 |
of Candle'Bre
Apr 1999
time: 05:19
|
|
Yet another topic of discussion on the game.
Having recently read till my eyes bled the excellent suite of articles that Papa GP pointed out to us not long ago, one point was underscored for me and really stood out in my mind.....okay, so actually there were several points like that in those articles, but I wanna take a moment to zero in on one of them in particular.
The Writing.
I think it's a safe bet that most everybody who spends time here prolly plays their fair share of computer games. I know I have.
And in all honesty, much of the writing in most of the games I've played has, well....sucked.
I think this represents another opportunity for us to shine, in the sense that if we weave into the game world excellent, descriptive (and dramatic, where warranted) writing, we'll add yet another layer of detail to the game world.
It's not enough to say "the citizens of province X are revolting!" Yeah, that gets the message across, but wouldn't it be refreshing if you got something a little...MORE?
For example - How hard would it be to come up with half a dozen different ways of saying that, and have one selected at random when something like that occured:
"Highness, the citizenry of Province X feels that their concerns have gone too long unheeded....they've armed themselves and are demanding satisfaction!"
"M'lord, the citizens of X have taken up arms against us!"
"Majesty! Our garrisons in X have been turned out! Rebels now control the province!"
etc.
How hard would it be to...I dunno...jazz it up a little? I know that when I'm playing a game, I get tired of the same old messages popping up for the gazillionth time, and that strikes me as being very easy to fix. Text files have an extremely high rate of compression, so it's not like adding in numerous variants for game standard messages would take up an ungodly amount of room or anything....and it's details like that....those are the things that tend to stand out in my head. Those are the kinds of things that make the game experience more immersive to me.
So...am I alone in this thinking, or on the right track?
-=Vel=-
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Velociryx
|
|
of Candle'Bre
Apr 1999
time: 05:19
|
|
Good points all 'round so far...I agree that our opportunities are more limited in a strategy game than they'd be if we were crafting an RPG, but I *do* think there are some opportunities for us to let that aspect shine. A few things that come to my mind (and building on the comments so far):
1) Province effects, esp. unhappiness. Given the fairly complex nature of the societal model that we'll eventually be introducing, we can subtly change the message to be displayed, based on what's causing the unhappiness....that way, the central message is clear (there's trouble in province X), and the writing, slanted in different ways will provide cues as to exactly what's causing the trouble. (Examples: "The Free-Folk of Trentare are chaffing under the presence of our garrisons" or "Foodstores run critically short in Eastgate!" "I fear that the Merchants in Ironport, unhappy at the recent Temple expansion may not be paying their fair share of taxes.")
2) Fate Cards...the plan is to have a listed effect and then some Magic: The Gathering-style "flavor text" that's relevant to the game world....in my mind, this is the *best* opportunity we've got to really show off our ability to write.
Total agreement though, that help text and tutorials need to be clear and concise, but one of the things I have *always* found to be a nice touch is that, for example, if you're playing a middle agesy type game, to have in-game text come at you that sorta *feels* middle agesy....true, there's nothing wrong with saying:
"Pestilence has been cast on Province X." That's clear, concise, and to the point.
In my mind though, it's just got more oomph to it if you dress it up a tad:
"Sire! The cursed Wizards have lain down Pestilence across the lalnd! Our people in province X are dying!"
Same message, but the first method is simply reporting the fact, the second makes it feel like a personal attack to me....am I barkin' up the wrong tree tho?
-=Vel=-
|
|
| |
|
|
|
BigRich@home
|
|
Wales
Apr 2002
time: 05:19
|
|
Interesting thread.
A (probably unnecessary) word of caution though. Beware the Call to Power 'random words in stock sentences' model. To me, that just looked and felt like what it was - a cheap and dirty way of introducing 'variation' into game messages.
Rich.
|
|
| |
|
|
|
JMarks
|
 |
formerly known as the artist
Mar 2000
time: 05:19
|
|
Personally like the idea. For events it can be extremely varied based on: Why the event is happening, where the event is happening (is it a main province, outlaying, newly conqured, etc), to whom (faction, honorability, military strength, economic strength), who did it.
Just mix and match whatever flips your wig. Add more where needed of course. However, those who play the same stratedgy over and over again will probably not see a lot of the varients. I noticed this a lot when I look at similar stuff in other games. (hey, how do I get THAT message? It looks cool) You get the idea. But pop-ups (at least when I've played a while) I usually just click right away.
Which brings me to another idea. Could we have a messages/events window/column to one side? What I'm thinking is you can have those messages in length, making them clickable and zoom to where the 'action' is. This way, you still know what is going on but you don' t have to be interupted and dragged across the screen for the pop-ups. Save those for real important stuff like quests or something. Anyway, the events then can be organized by turn, and one can go back/scroll up and check on previous turn's concerns. Just an idea.
Am I making any sense?
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
DeepO
|
 |
supporting Candle'Bre
Jan 2002
time: 06:19
|
|
Sorry to keep reviving old threads, but I'm more or less reading everything here (long weekend, not much to do), and I want to chime in with some comments, and add some ideas.
I basically agree with both moomin and alva. While many distinct, well written messages might give that extra level of detail, they will grow old at one point or another. Further, non-English players do have a disadvantage when needed to decipher things, there's more then one game term I use, but don't know the exact translation of.
Moomin's idea of having a clear icon (which doesn't change) for a message is part of the solution, and the other part can be given by adding titles: If you have a title of "Unhappiness in X", you can add whatever text you want, it will satisfy both types of players. Scripted messages (like "your people are starving in X" type stuff) again can be implemented in a title(bar), by having a summary there, and then have a large, literature, RPG like text below. Further, additional texts can be added by patches, XPs (if there will be) etc. thus lengthening the time it takes to get bored by the texts.
DeepO
|
|
| |
All times are GMT. The time now is 05:19.
Apolyton Time is 00:19. |
top of page
|
|
|
Forum Rules:
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
|
HTML code is ON
vB code is ON
Smilies are ON
[IMG] code is ON
|
|
|
|
|
|
01-06-2002 06:58
|