From: <han...@he...> - 2003-11-25 08:59:41
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Hello, Thomi Richards wrote: > I've just gotten off the telephone with Caillan, and we've agreed to formalize > and open the design process to once. From now on, any large changes to the > design document will undergo the following procedure: <snip design process> Sounds good! Should help in keeping up a shared understanding of the design, as long as it doesn't get too bureaucratic (but it probably won't, and I believe design and vision sharing are important in projects). Is this intended for the game design document only, or for collecting general ideas about implementation and other aspects of the development process too? Btw, could we mention the things we are discussing in the subject, so that it is easier to find stuff in the mail archives later? > > I propose several additions to chapter 10 "Player Attributes" these span > several sections: > > section 1: Diary/notebook > > Players should have a notebook which contains A list of quests that have been > accepted by the character, their current status, point of origin, place where > the next step in the quest can be achieved (if known). This information would > be automatically provided and updated as the character achieved the goals of > his/her quest(s) > > character should also have a personal diary that they can write important > information in. This could either be like a sheet of paper, where players can > type whatever they want, and it's up to them to keep it organized, or this > could take the form of a planner style page, where entries are organized into > date and time, and possibly subject as well. The time and place of these entries could be provided automatically by the game (client), making it easier to keep them organized. Perhaps even automatically log some things, such as perhaps what foes the character killed, or what herbs he found in what place and at what time of the day and year, or whatever the players are interested in keeping track of (should be easy to add new logging triggers as requested, once the basic log system is in place. Then just allow players to select the triggers they want to keep active from a list). Logs like these might be useful for administration or debugging purposes also, although it might be better to keep that a separate system.. Still, if there's overlapping functionality it might be faster to implement just one system than two. As a somewhat far flying idea, how about being able to log different kinds of numerical values, and creating graphs of them? E.g. a player could log character skill levels or network latency, and see how they change over time, or an admin could log number of online players, and see the graph floating or docked somewhere in the UI, or a developer could log number of objects in the game or the frame rate, and easily spot problems as they appear. > > Section 2: Mapper > > The world of once is vast. Players should never be able to unlock all it's > secrets. To aid players in this world, characters should be in the possession > of a map. When players first enter the virtual world, only the start location > is shown on the map. As characters explore the on line world, more of the map > is filled in. Characters can also purchase portions of the map from > professional cartographers for differing amounts (the map of the dragon's > lair is going to cost you more than that of the local fishing villiage - for > obvious reasons). How about being able to trade parts of maps with other players? It seems this could add some interesting bussiness opportunities, especially for explorers. The notes set by the map maker could also be transferred, allowing the maps to be pretty informative and useful. > As players discover new special things in the world, the > map should automatically update itself. For example, once you have taken a > ship from one isle to another, this should be shown on your map, int he form > of a dotted line (colored, to show transport type?). Could the map simply show a trace of the players movement? E.g. sample the position every in-game hour or day, and add a path point. Shouldn't take up too much space. > Physical special objects > should be shown with map "pins". When the player moves his/her mouse over > this pin, a text message is displayed showing the pertinent information). > Players should also be able to add their own map pins, with whatever text > they like. How about being able to tell the game to automatically walk their character to one of the points? (the character would start walking in a straight line (or possibly later by following roads), and the player could sit back and reorder the inventory or something..) Although this is probably not the best way to do long distance traveling... > > One final (and important) note to add is that the maps should be based on what > the client "sees", Rather than what the server knows is there. This is > possibly one application that the client can fulfill quite safely. The reason > for this is that the on line world as it is stored on the server will change > from month to month. A war torn area one month may be peaceful the next. > Where there was a great forrest, there's now a lot of burnt tree stumps ;) Good point. If trading maps is allowed, this could result in some extra space requirements though, especially if the maps store things at treestump level.. Do we want to use some kind of abstraction for these kinds of overview maps? E.g. 1 x 1 km squares with some elevation and terrain type? It seems that there would be two different but useful scales of maps; in-door or town maps, displaying things at a 1 x 1 m resolution or so, and outdoor maps, at a 1 x 1 km resolution or so. The detailed maps could be slower to draw or something, so players would only activate that drawing where it is really needed. -- Hans Häggström (zzorn) |