Messages

1

Programming / Re: No number statistics

« on: November 10, 2012, 09:49:29 AM »

Thanks all for replying to my post, you gave me enough material to play with in my mind.

In the mean time I was working on my game, and some things just became clear as I worked on it.
Like I said the game I'm working on is a bit unconventional because I experiment with the lack of a map, and space isn't there always as you expect it to be..... Anyway, I started giving monsters the property 'in sight' 'approaching' and 'within reach' as a description of their distance to the player, but even in this extreme alpha playtesting I find it annoying not to know how much feet the monster is really away, so I started displaying numbers for that :-)

It's a balance I now see, some parts in the design should maybe feel random until you played enough to know what the chances are ('checking the foliage for food, a berrybush gives food 90% of the time and there's a 4% chance of waking a sleeping snake' is information you don't want to spoil, it will become apparent (or not) to the player one day, and she can base her chances on it.)

Hitpoints, distance and attack (possibly after identification spell) are a must,even when it's only to give the player the feeling it can make a difference by planning her moves, playing tactics.

And then there's a big grey space in between where the developer decides. I see that in Brogue there isn't much to guess about the monster stats while in other games that's something you find out about while playing.

I would not like to make a game that's basically a spreadsheet even when it's a challenging spreadsheet, but I understand now that an adventure without clear stats will probably become a linear experience to the player where she doesn't feel what went wrong or what she could have done else in tactics, and therefore easily gets bored.

Sorry for my elaborate sentences and silly english.

2

Programming / Re: No number statistics

« on: November 09, 2012, 02:07:32 PM »

Thanks again for this (quick) reply,

I am going to play the devil's advocate here a little, although I'm totally not an expert in roguelikes.

I can understand you want to know what your exact amount of hitpoints is: you experienced that a certain monster doesn't hurt you more than 5 hp in this stage of the game and you have 6 left, you decide to save your magic for later and hope to heal by resting after the fight.

But in terms of stamina, armor class, dexterity, vitality etc. When you are playing a game, do you really use and therefore need these numbers to calculate your chances? Or do you just try to level them up, depending on your playing style or player class?

Hunger isn't displayed as an integer regularly, that would be unrealistic. Why are we expecting to see our health as an integer then?


 

3

Programming / No number statistics

« on: November 09, 2012, 05:41:54 AM »

Hello,

in the process of creating my pretty non-conventional rl, I'm playing with the idea of discarding numbers from the screen. Stats will be displayed in words, for instance HP will be described as 'unwound' , 'scratched', 'bleeding', 'wounded', 'heavily wounded' and 'almost dead' depending on the numeric value behind it. Experience levels will have names like 'rookie', 'the new kid on the block', 'apprentice', 'warrior', 'killing machine', 'monster from hell'. But enchanted weapons also won't be described with a plain +2 or something. I think you get the idea..... What I'm wondering about is: if stats are all descriptive is a roguelike is still playable, does it boost it's difficulty enormous (player has to memorize the descriptions of everything what's actually just plain numbers), or do you think it could be a good idea?
I hope it could benefit to push up the imagination of the player. What does have a better feel?: 'HP:3/34' or 'Heavily wounded'. 'STA:6' or 'Your overall condition is good'. 'DEX:2' or 'You still have problems handling those weapons like a pro'.

Thanks in advance for your reply,
Wouter