Several Questions concerning my map

[claptomanic]

hey all

i colleceted all the questions i got during working on my map and now i want you to answer them xD

so here are the questions:

1. concerning the story of the main character (your hero) and the land youre in...would you prefer a summarized story of your past at the beginning whenever you start a new character or the possibility to find parts of your story (the past of your hero) and the story of the land for example in books or get the informations from certain npcs?

2. would you prefer a pre-alpha version release with just 3 of 5 cities finshed (at least finished to be playable) and not all heroes finished/playable etc. or a finished alpha version with everything possible in the finished version?
bugs, glitches, etc. will be in both versions....that version is planned to fix them xD (hopefully they arent there but id say its sure they will be there)

3. can you think of a neat way to show a personality value (good/evil) whenever the value is requested (dialog button clicked)? if yes, please explain it ;D i disliked all my ideas ^^



these 3 questions are the current ones ;D (will open a part 2 when ive got new questions ;D)

+rep for all useful answers.


thanks in advance

greetz clapto

 

[sonofjay]

Hmmm, I'll just think that this is a SRPG map.

1. It is always great to know the background of your hero, specially if you're playing a SRPG map/game, it always gives you a grip of your character. But also having a plot where you lost your memories also a good one, it always keep the player interest of finding out the past of the character, but you should be able to plot it well to keep the player hanging.

2. I prefer a almost finished version and the following patches will only do bug fixes and some minor additions.

3. Need more details so I can answer it

 

[TwoVenomous]

1. I would prefer the hero to find part of their pasts. it would be lovely to know how your heroes being a heroes
2. I choose pre-alpha version, because that way, we could report you any bug we get and you could fix current bugs before you make any more bugs(hope you won't) since a bug is easier to spot with smaller regions
3. I'm thinking about love points, where everytime your heroes help any NPCs, the NPC's love points would increase/decrease based on how helpful or not the help your heroes did, and when the NPC's love points is reaching any specified points (e.g 100 points), they would do/offer something special for your heroes (e.g decreased price of items, special items, etc,etc) and vice versa (increased price when NPC's love is getting specified negative points). I know i explain it too vague and If you think this ideas are too hard to be achieved then don't push yourself to do so since i'm just giving you my opinion

 

[Xthreo]

1. I guess the real challenge is to please a maximum number of players, including noobs. A great comprise is to do both: an epic intro cinematic putting the player in the ambiance (which is the most important in my opinion), but make it skippable for those who prefer instant action. This cinematic could summarize 50% of your past, the other 50% could be revealed in random events, as, like you said, books or npcs. Since random events are also facultative, every type of player is happy and any player who discovers a random event shall be intrigued and might look for the cinematic the next time he plays.

2.Like sonofjay, I prefer an alpha version. I really dislike this new way of pre-pre-pre-releasing games.

3. I'm not sure to understand what you want. If you want to show the evil/good value (whatever it is called) in an original way when you need it (like spending it?), I suggest you use trackables.
Let's use TwoVenomous' value: the love points.
Here's my example: When you need 50 love points to perform a good action, a really small angel appears above the left of your head with the floating text "50". If 50 hate points are required for an evil action, a really small demon appears above the right of your head with the floating text "50"
It would represent the conscience of your hero like in cartoons where you have to choose between good and evil. Since the angel and the demon are trackable, you can easily know if the player clicked on the angel or on the demon and subtract the corresponding amount of love/hate points.

 

[claptomanic]

okay....first of all thanks for the answers guys

then to my replies

@sonofjay:

Hmmm, I'll just think that this is a SRPG map.

nope ^^ its for an ORPG ;D

1. It is always great to know the background of your hero, specially if you're playing a SRPG map/game, it always gives you a grip of your character. But also having a plot where you lost your memories also a good one, it always keep the player interest of finding out the past of the character, but you should be able to plot it well to keep the player hanging.

okay thanks for that will have that in mind.

2. I prefer a almost finished version and the following patches will only do bug fixes and some minor additions.

1:0 for the alpha version ;D

3. Need more details so I can answer it

okay will make it more detailed at the end of the answers xD


@TwoVenomous:

1. I would prefer the hero to find part of their pasts. it would be lovely to know how your heroes being a heroes

2. I choose pre-alpha version, because that way, we could report you any bug we get and you could fix current bugs before you make any more bugs(hope you won't) since a bug is easier to spot with smaller regions

1:1 draw

3. I'm thinking about love points, where everytime your heroes help any NPCs, the NPC's love points would increase/decrease based on how helpful or not the help your heroes did, and when the NPC's love points is reaching any specified points (e.g 100 points), they would do/offer something special for your heroes (e.g decreased price of items, special items, etc,etc) and vice versa (increased price when NPC's love is getting specified negative points). I know i explain it too vague and If you think this ideas are too hard to be achieved then don't push yourself to do so since i'm just giving you my opinion

thats nearly the reputation system ill add to my map but the reputation system is not different for every npc...it differs between certain cities/group/camps/etc ;D

@Xtrheo:

1. I guess the real challenge is to please a maximum number of players, including noobs. A great comprise is to do both: an epic intro cinematic putting the player in the ambiance (which is the most important in my opinion), but make it skippable for those who prefer instant action. This cinematic could summarize 50% of your past, the other 50% could be revealed in random events, as, like you said, books or npcs. Since random events are also facultative, every type of player is happy and any player who discovers a random event shall be intrigued and might look for the cinematic the next time he plays.

nice idea i like it^^ will think of it ;D

2.Like sonofjay, I prefer an alpha version. I really dislike this new way of pre-pre-pre-releasing games.

2:1 for the alpha version

3. I'm not sure to understand what you want. If you want to show the evil/good value (whatever it is called) in an original way when you need it (like spending it?), I suggest you use trackables.
Let's use TwoVenomous' value: the love points.
Here's my example: When you need 50 love points to perform a good action, a really small angel appears above the left of your head with the floating text "50". If 50 hate points are required for an evil action, a really small demon appears above the right of your head with the floating text "50"
It would represent the conscience of your hero like in cartoons where you have to choose between good and evil. Since the angel and the demon are trackable, you can easily know if the player clicked on the angel or on the demon and subtract the corresponding amount of love/hate points.

its not like you thought it to be but your example made me getting an idea DD
Thanks man !


so now the summary:

1. i really dont know up to now what ill do but your ideas were great thansk

2. seems like the alpha version will win the fight against the pre-alpha ;D

3. here i know exactly what ill do but i wont tell the idea here ^^ it will be a little eyecatcher secret ;D



thanks to you 3 +rep (EDIT: just for 2 of you....TwoVenomous sorry the system here dont want that i rep you...sorry)

 

[TwoVenomous]

so now the summary:

1. i really dont know up to now what ill do but your ideas were great thansk

2. seems like the alpha version will win the fight against the pre-alpha ;D

3. here i know exactly what ill do but i wont tell the idea here ^^ it will be a little eyecatcher secret ;D

but there's only 3 people voting on these
maybe wait for some more people to vote but it's hard to notice your thread here, since it's on Idea Factory

bumping on this thread might attract people to be viewing

 

[APproject]

Do not find this post offensive, it is my subjective opinion only. I got fired up.

What is pre-alpha? Like 10% of the map? Or less? And what is full-version-alpha? 35% done? In my opinion all these pre pre, alphas and betas is a method to spoil entire game. If one is making a map, complete it 100% before publishing. Personally I do not find it interesting to follow map's development step by step, this way there is no excitement when downloading fully finished version because you know all / too much about it.

2. I choose pre-alpha version, because that way, we could report you any bug we get and you could fix current bugs before you make any more bugs(hope you won't) since a bug is easier to spot with smaller regions

Creator should test the map and play it by himself, this way he find bugs. Of course some minor bugs can be missed by accident, no one is safe from this. Why would anyone make 10% of the map, publish it and say *Hey guys, check my bugs, I am too lazy to check it by myself*, probably the one who seeks attention and spends more time at forums than actually working on a project, it goes like this all the time. Creator must check how his map function in all aspects and not to spoil his project by publishing 20% of map and asking for public to do it.

So what I would suggest, add some screenies, introduce to the map and publish it for public when it is 100% done.