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Message:
 | composed: 18-10-2021 16:52 |
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| quote: |
Originally posted by Thepal
Checking for every possible thing the player can do is kinda... complex. And insane. But still, I think that's what makes a great game. Letting the player play as they want, get around situations if they want, skip a step if it makes sense, etc. If the player finds the Amulet of Amazing Mystical Power (tm) without being told where it is first, then so be it. I don't see that as breaking the main quest. I see that as just doing things a different way. |
I'm glad you know it's complex. That's the main downside of open and divergent gameplay... a major headache to say the least, but if you have the will and determination, more power to you and good luck.
Just remember:
0 --- 1a --- 2a --- 3a
__--- 1b_____|--- 3b
____________|--- 3c
Is one thing, but let's say:
3 actions per event, leading up to 3 more possible results and choice, leading to 3 more situations and choices result in:
3*9 = 27 possible end paths (results)
3*13 = 39 different possible branches in the story
...all from one event.
Ralph Dragon
Dialogue Writer/Editor
Titans of Ether
~~{UDIC}~~
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| Message:
| composed: 18-10-2021 22:51 |
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Thepal 
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| Location: Gold Coast, Australia |
| | Favourite Ultima: Ultima 7 Serpent Isle |
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Yeah, I know. That's why it's gotta all be kept mainly seperate somehow. Not having it a case of "If this has happened, and this has happened, and this has happened, and this has happened, and this has happened, then do this". Gotta kinda act like there is no main plot. Treat everything like it is its own independant part (checking only on what it needs to be based on).
Let's say... um... someone is meant to send you on an errand to someone else. If that person is dead, then the person obviously shouldn't send you to them. So that dialogue isn't displayed if the other person is dead. You might also check if some other condition is met (you've already done another quest or something). But besides that, you don't link it to anything.
Basically, the only problem that can come about from this is if the player decides to kill half the main people in the game. In which case they couldn't finish it. But that is how it works in every game anyway (that doesn't have invincible main NPCs). But what it does that other games usually don't do is make the game very non-linear. By saying it is only based on things it is directly related to, the player might be able to skip other parts if they do things differently.
Still, requires an insane amount of work. You gotta keep in mind the entire time possible ways the game could get broken if the player does something unexpected (I'm thankfully very good at this). And the worst part: The dialogue becomes insanely huge. But meh. I think it's worth it.......
-==Thepal==-
"We have nothing to do with the mass of men, we two. We walk across the many worlds; by our actions, entire nations crash down or are saved from death." - Mors Gotha
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| Message:
| composed: 19-10-2021 16:49 |
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But this is the tricky, rope-walk, thin-line that you'll have to walk. You can't just say there's no main plot, or de-emphasize the main plot, since in that case all you have is a sandbox game with effects and consequences and little else. That could be fun for only so long.
Take Morrowind as an interesting example; they had a 10 hours main plot you could 'choose' to go through or not, and 130 hours in non-main plot quests and an open free environment you can play around in that could add more hours of gameplay.
Ralph Dragon
Dialogue Writer/Editor
Titans of Ether
~~{UDIC}~~
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| Message:
| composed: 20-10-2021 12:28 |
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Thepal
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| Location: Gold Coast, Australia |
| | Favourite Ultima: Ultima 7 Serpent Isle |
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Yes, but lots of people didn't even bother with Morrowind's main plot. It's completely linear. You can't choose how to go about things.
But take U6 or U7 for example. In U7 after leaving Trinsic the world is open to you. You can follow the Crown Jewel leads. You can go join the Fellowship. You can go do something completely different. Following Elisabeth and Abraham isn't needed to finish the game. Most things in the main quest aren't needed to finish the game.
That's how I think of Ultimas. You put these main questlines in place, and it is the player's choice how to proceed. I didn't do everything in the "main" quest in U7 or U6 when I first played. But I still completed a main quest. I fought the gargoyles, found out they weren't evil, I didn't get the stone tablets translated (Mariah was just some useless woman in the Lycaeum to me... didn't realise she was meant to be anyone important). I don't think I found the treasure... I flew over the mountains using the hot air balloon to get to the shrine (mainly because I didn't know you could talk to shrines I think... can't remember how you get the sacred quest...). In fact, not talking to shrines meant I was on level 3 for the entire game.
But I still finished it. The story of U6 was told. It was different from the story some other people would of had, the same as some. And that's the way it should be. We aren't all the same. We should get to play it differently.
-==Thepal==-
"We have nothing to do with the mass of men, we two. We walk across the many worlds; by our actions, entire nations crash down or are saved from death." - Mors Gotha
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| Message:
| composed: 21-10-2021 01:57 |
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So how is Infinity Eternal doing?
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| Message:
| composed: 21-10-2021 03:42 |
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Thepal
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| Location: Gold Coast, Australia |
| | Favourite Ultima: Ultima 7 Serpent Isle |
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Not as well as I would have hoped. I'm studying to become a teacher, and that has occupied me a lot this year. I finish in 3 weeks though (though it's currently looking like I'm gonna fail... which would be bad. I pissed off my supervising teachers at the school I'm practicing at, and they're the ones that give me my grade).
I've basically been planning everything in word/notepad/etc, not doing much in the engine yet. Dialogue is the biggest part of it, and so it's what I've been focusing on. I might finally try to world-build Britannia once I finish university, so I can really start to get stuff visibly done.
-==Thepal==-
"We have nothing to do with the mass of men, we two. We walk across the many worlds; by our actions, entire nations crash down or are saved from death." - Mors Gotha
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| Message:
| composed: 21-10-2021 09:11 |
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So, since the thread topic is the new forum software, I'm posting this here, even though the thread took a different direction...
I've read what you've written about changing the board software to avoid spam, but is it intentional, that visitors have to log in to even *read* threads on these boards? I think this is detrimental to creating more interest in the project.
For me personally I can say that when I have discovered a new website that I'm interested in and it immediately wants to force me to register, this turns me off to the point of simply closing the browser window and not consider visiting again.
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| Message:
| composed: 23-10-2021 19:59 |
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You've got an interesting point Rodric, but at least guest can browse all the topics and know the subjects people are discussing, which should encourage them to sign up in my opinion.
Ralph Dragon
Dialogue Writer/Editor
Titans of Ether
~~{UDIC}~~
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| Message:
| composed: 24-10-2021 01:41 |
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They(admins) should probably set the boards to allow viewing by guests. It's a simple edit (at least for php) and it should not make the board more likily to be super-spammed.
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| Message:
| composed: 26-10-2021 00:30 |
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Awefully quiet around here.
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