The best gd elements are?

I REALLY liked the character development of a game called Twilight 2000. Each character received a full training, where the player could choose which skills he wanted his student to train in (and I think each choice led to another path).

I like the ''zoom'' function in games like Goldeneye. I wonder if they''ll ever implement something like that in a fantasy game, where good archers can aim from far distances away...

Loved the fencing in Prince of Persia (took me a LONG time to find out that I could block opponents by moving my sword up ) I still found fun when I loaded that game up the other day, and just fought one guard for about 10 minutes...

One word...Dragonstrike! Flight sim with fantasy elements and slow flight speed (I never got into flight sims except for Red Baron...I like to hunt watching the sky...not a little bleep on a monitor in the cockpit)

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Original post by Paul Cunningham

I got hung up on diablo''s inventory system for eon''s. It was brilliant.

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Yeah. I loved the way that they managed to simulate the issues associated with both item shape and item size in a very simple and intuitive system.

Thief: The Dark Project was brilliant in how it added true stealth to a game. All it involved was that monsters only get triggered only when they see or hear you, and that you can control how visible/audible you are.

Perhaps all rpg/adventure games should have some sort of weather/day and night system. It adds to the feeling of immersion and atmosphere, which is what those games thrive on.

Apart from those however, nothing outstanding jumps to mind. I will give it some more thought

I like the Zoom funtion in FPS too. I was just thinking along these lines today actually.

When i was admiring the auto aim (computer assisted targeting) in Perfect Dark i was thinking that it would be good to have the ability to select the parts of the body you wish to shoot at in the options menu under targeting.



We are their,
"Children of the Free"

Yeah, people may say what they will about Diablo not having much depth of story, but they did have an incredibly well-thought out interface.

I think that weather/day/night is absolutely essential in RPGs. It adds so much immersion. Furthermore, I think weather/day/night should have a fair amount of impact on the mechanics of the game. Like, weather can make it more difficult to travel or make you tire more quickly if you're cold. Night time could make it easier to hide perhaps...etc

Paul, I don't know if this is common knowledge, but I recently realized that in Quake all they did to make the zoom function is lessen the FOV to about 10 degrees or something...I thought it would be more complicated than that

"The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom." --William Blake

Edited by - Nazrix on July 2, 2000 1:19:48 PM

Edited by - Nazrix on July 2, 2000 1:29:55 PM

For those of you that haven''t tried counterstrike or know about its history: Counterstrike is a mod built on the halflife engine it''s free, people develop it without any massive profit (not yet at least). The games is FPS, only exists as multiplayer, terrorists fight it out against counter-terrorists in a large variety of maps and missions. Once you are dead you are out for the rest of the game you don''t respawn like in quake and kill kill kill. Every kill you make in CS is 10 times more fun than in Q or UR, and every death you make is like losing your mother. The stakes are HIGHER.


CS is really a team game, there is a scoreboard between rounds that shows each team''s score but also the individual scores of each player. At one point they removed the individual score, and only had team vs. team scores. This is an exciting idea! Guess what the players hated it, they ranted and cried and finally the CS crew changed it back. The idea is pretty revolutionary think about it! To bad it never was kept.

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Original post by Spyder

This is an exciting idea! Guess what the players hated it, they ranted and cried and finally the CS crew changed it back. The idea is pretty revolutionary think about it! To bad it never was kept.

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I wonder what percentage of players it was that were ranting and screaming.



We are their,
"Children of the Free"

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Original post by Anonymous Poster

only allowing one worker to build a building in an RTS. That fixes the build time of the structure, thus allowing the designer to control the earliest possible time something can be build. It is essential for balance.

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Actually, I think that is bad. The option of being able to take workers off one project to help on another is one of those lovely resource-management dilemmas that the whole strategy game concept is built on. All my tanks on the western front, or hold some back for the east? All my farmers collecting food, or move some to get trade and resources? I like giving the player that kind of decision to make. They are still only able to produce the same amount of buildings in the same amount of time. If allowing the player an extra decision to make is throwing out the game balance, then perhaps there is some other way it needs to be tweaked.

You could certainly have a system of diminishing returns, though: the 2nd worker works at 90% capacity, the 3rd at 80%, etc.

Why should the designer be able to control the earliest possible time you could build a structure? Surely that would be sufficiently dictated by the length of time it takes to ''make'' a worker, or to gather the required resources?

I prefer the idea of not having to handle workers manually. The system of contructing a building and ordering takes for that building greatly helps the player to control his/her force.

I understand that it could be seen as a balancing of the game structure when a player gets big it becomes harder for them to control their force as a consequence.. but i think this is a fundermental misconception of game design.

I always believe that the game designer should alieviate as much frustration as possible and whenever possible for the sake of enjoyment. It's probably the only one rule that i truely liveby as a game designer.

Note: I'm not talking about mental frustration but the kind of frustration that can cause irritation.

I love Game Design and it loves me back.

Edited by - Paul Cunningham on July 6, 2000 9:29:29 AM