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cowgod
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 Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 4:56 pm Post subject: UgaritRL Upgrade Design Document |
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http://www.orbitalcows.com/games/ugaritrl/upgradedesigndoc.php
I'm thinking about splitting the upgrades in my game into 3 categories and 2 different tiers, and I described it in the link above. I think it's easier for the player to understand the system this way. I dumped the prime attributes because they are partially made irrellevant by the Tier II abilities.
You have to learn a Tier I ability before you can learn a Tier II ability, so it's progressive. Sort of.
This whole thing is inspired by something Coyote said in another thread:
| Coyote wrote: | I guess the thing you want to strive for is ... progressive complexity. Start it out simple. (And the more I talk about this, the more I realize Frayed Knights is kinda this way, but I'm not presenting it very well).
Maybe you have only four "stats" to begin with ... easy to understand. Combat, Magic, Education, and Survival. A point in any of these offers a small general-purpose increase in all of the specialist abilities that come below them.
But in order to max out, say, hit point regeneration, you will also need to buy Regeneration explicitly. Maybe sub-skills only become available after the primary attribute that governs it has been raised at least half-way (five out of ten? Six out of ten?).
And the specialist skill is either much cheaper than raising the general attribute, or it's influence is significantly higher. Maybe Survival only gives you 1 hit point per (game) hour of healing, but Regeneration offers you 4 or 5 hit points per hour.
Anyway, that would conceal the complexity for the beginning player until they have a better grasp of the basics. |
I really wanted to have some sort of progressive complexity all along. My aspect system had this, but it was impossible to come up with aspects that made sense.
When I finally put together the upgrades, it seemed fairly generic. And there was no progression at all. I kept thinking about having Tier II abilities, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it until now.
I think this way is a bit better. There's only 15 different options at first, but you'll be able to reference the 15 Tier II upgrades as well to help you decide what to get. It may actually be more complex overall, but the complexity is only doled out a little at a time.
It will be a while before I implement this in the game. I have other stuff to do that's more important, but I thought it would be a good idea to get some feedback. |
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Coyote
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 12:32 pm Post subject: |
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I'd say it makes perfect sense to me, but one would assume I'd say something like that. 
We might need to see more details to really make useful comments.
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cowgod
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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Hmm... I was mostly just looking for feedback about having multiple tiers, but I guess it's hard to comment on it without seeing how it all fits together.
Looking over the page I linked to, it doesn't make quite as much sense as it did in my head.
I guess I should make it so that you can actually do something in the game and then worry about how it's turning out. |
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Coyote
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| Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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Trust your feelings, Luke... er, Cowgod!
But I like the tiered system idea (duh) in general. I don't have a clear mental model of how it all works (I'm sure you do), but if presented properly it looks like a clean progression that could be a lot of fun to experiment with.
Is that weird? I think exploring game mechanics are cool. Many people think that's the opposite of fun - that it should be all about the world and story, and the mechanics should be hidden under lock and key. I like transparent mechanics where I can tinker.
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cowgod
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 11:52 am Post subject: |
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| Coyote wrote: | | Is that weird? I think exploring game mechanics are cool. Many people think that's the opposite of fun - that it should be all about the world and story, and the mechanics should be hidden under lock and key. I like transparent mechanics where I can tinker. |
I agree with you, and I think alot of other people around here probably do too. It's probably especially common among people who make their own games.
Even when playing a game, I always enjoyed minimaxing my character. In an RPG design book I read, it actually had a name for people who do that ("Navel Gazer" I think). |
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Coyote
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| Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2011 12:03 pm Post subject: |
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I don't usually min-max, but I do like exploring what cool things could be done with the rules. One of my favorite hobbies is figuring out how to make an apparently weak skill or spell or build and find a way to really take advantage of it. I guess that's kinda like min-maxing, but it feels more like exploring the possibilities of a system rather than trying to make a god-character.
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