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Numbers, and System Transparency
On my way home from work today, I began thinking about the numbers that games show us next to character stats. No, I don't know why. Specifically, how pointless and confusing they are.
Anyway, I got to thinking about how meaningless they tend to be, especially early in the game. Alice has a "5" in their primary Magic stat and Bob has a "6." We know 6 is higher than 5, but without any unit of measurement or point of comparison, it's a pretty useless fact to be given. 5 and 6 out of what? A one point difference in magical ability doesn't really mean anything in a game like Disgaea, where getting any given stat to five figures is no big deal, but in a game like Fire Emblem where you're not going to bust 20, it could mean the world.
For that matter, what about equipment? Is a ring that gives me a +5 in Magic more useful than a piece of armor that gives me an extra 20 HP? That can be even harder to know, especially because HP never seems to follow the same rules as the rest of the character's stats.
What I'm getting at here is that I think there should be some effort made towards transparency in character capabilities. I'm not sure what the best way to do this might be. Percentage based scores are one thought. "+20% chance to dodge enemy attacks" tells the player a lot more than "Dodge: +20."
I've been thinking for a long time that it'd be a cool idea to try and do away with all the meaningless numbers altogether--just give the player more descriptive but less specific information. Like rating their stats as "Good," "Excellent," "Bad," "Awful," or the like. Or maybe just using letter grades. I dunno, though. Any thoughts on the Numbers Racket?
Anyway, I got to thinking about how meaningless they tend to be, especially early in the game. Alice has a "5" in their primary Magic stat and Bob has a "6." We know 6 is higher than 5, but without any unit of measurement or point of comparison, it's a pretty useless fact to be given. 5 and 6 out of what? A one point difference in magical ability doesn't really mean anything in a game like Disgaea, where getting any given stat to five figures is no big deal, but in a game like Fire Emblem where you're not going to bust 20, it could mean the world.
For that matter, what about equipment? Is a ring that gives me a +5 in Magic more useful than a piece of armor that gives me an extra 20 HP? That can be even harder to know, especially because HP never seems to follow the same rules as the rest of the character's stats.
What I'm getting at here is that I think there should be some effort made towards transparency in character capabilities. I'm not sure what the best way to do this might be. Percentage based scores are one thought. "+20% chance to dodge enemy attacks" tells the player a lot more than "Dodge: +20."
I've been thinking for a long time that it'd be a cool idea to try and do away with all the meaningless numbers altogether--just give the player more descriptive but less specific information. Like rating their stats as "Good," "Excellent," "Bad," "Awful," or the like. Or maybe just using letter grades. I dunno, though. Any thoughts on the Numbers Racket?
Professionalism, Now With Less Exit Fate
author=Max McGee link=topic=3159.msg62193#msg62193 date=1234834199Unforgiving tactical RPGs are a niche genre, even on a forum that is made up by and large of fans of the ALREADY niche genre that it's a sub-genre of. It was never destined for mainstream popularity, even as good as it is.author=Karsuman link=topic=3159.msg62127#msg62127 date=1234817463author=Max McGee link=topic=3159.msg62121#msg62121 date=1234814131It just became popular on its own merits.
This is a complete and total crapshoot that is based just as much on random chance as it is merit or advertising. I'd list examples but do I really have to? Is anyone contesting this point?
If you think a game's popularity is entirely a crapshoot than you really haven't been paying attention to this community.
Hell, RM* game popularity is starting to get predictable at this point.
Two Words: Aurora Wing. This is a game, both complete and by all accounts excellent, that several people have actually made a conscious effort to make popular and in spite of that it is still largely unknown.
Vista vs. XP and Formatting Your Computer!
author=GreatRedSpirit link=topic=3161.msg62040#msg62040 date=1234763714Well that's what I meant. Turn it to "low security" mode, not hack the registry or disable the service.
Disabling it fucks up with several of Vista's security measures which I believe is completely unacceptable in today's world. Enable any UAC prompt to auto-accept but don't turn it off.
Vista vs. XP and Formatting Your Computer!
author=GreatRedSpirit link=topic=3161.msg62037#msg62037 date=1234763400The UAC is more trouble than it's worth for someone who knows what he's doing, security-wise. Like a lot of Vista's features, it's there for casual users--not power users. Like a more annoying, less effective sudo.
Also don't disable UAC unless you're one of those people who thinks that they don't need some sort of antivirus.
If you regularly run programs that you download from the internet from people you don't trust, or surf websites that might be loaded with malicious code, by all means keep UAC on. Otherwise it's not worth the trouble.
Custom Game Engine
author=Aten link=topic=3149.msg61906#msg61906 date=1234700131After a certain point, there's no real benefit to using RMXP/VX. I'm as in favor of middleware as the next guy, but if you're using fewer of the built-in features than you are customized ones, you're just wasting resources to even have the ability to do those other things.
I don't really think theres any need to make custom engines, since using rmxp/vx you can pretty much do whatever the heck you want to do.
Vista vs. XP and Formatting Your Computer!
author=myersguy link=topic=3161.msg62029#msg62029 date=1234760683I can't give you the address, but there's at least one free downloadable utility on the internet that will detect unidentified devices and tell you their names, which should make finding drivers easier. I assume you've already tried going to the laptop manufacturer's site and searching by model or serial number for drivers?
UTTER FAILURE!!!
Well, I got my laptop formatted and installed XP on it, only to have my fears be realized. Yup, NO DRIVERS! Nothing works, not even the built in wireless card. Luckily I have a USB wireless adapter and install cd nearby. I am posting from a near useless machine at the moment. I tried updating drivers now that I have internet, but to no avail, since everything is just detected as "Video Adapter" and "PCI Device".
I might have to go back, NOOOOOO!
I wonder if there is a way to go back to vista, somehow pack all the drivers together onto my external, and then bring them to XP...
Professionalism, Now With Less Exit Fate
author=AznChipmunk link=topic=3159.msg62020#msg62020 date=1234758652I'm kinda okay with development blogs, but then I think of them as more something to be kept for the purposes of a post-mortem resource. When the project's done (remember, this is a hypothetical situation), going back and looking at the blog can help you figure out what you did right, and what you did wrong. Keeping them as a way of building up interest for the project is silly, but keeping them so as to just have a chronicle of the development process seems entirely reasonable to me.
huh, WIP is Christian Bale?
psst, am I progfressional?
EDIT: On a more serious note, I do totally despise things like devlogs and advertisement topics. They should be obliterated to make way for people who release stuff.
I mean, I haven't ever posted a game topic without releasing and my games don't get noticed as much as some of the real well-known ones, but, idk, posting advertisement topics everywhere feels d-dirty
Also, I think screenshot topics are a major problem because there is never enough criticism. Most of what I see is "hey looks good" which doesn't really help at all (which should be the purpose of showing screenshots: receiving feedback.)
Of course they would work best with an ACTUAL post-mortem. Sorta like how Wikipedia works best with real research on top of it.
Professionalism, Now With Less Exit Fate
author=Blindmind link=topic=3159.msg62016#msg62016 date=1234758037I don't think that's the problem. Trying to entertain the audience....I mean that's the whole point in making a game. The issue is more about how people are trying to make their game popular at the expense of spending time making it entertaining.
Everyone's so stubbornly competitive that members are almost inherently conditioned to have the mindset of "What will people like?" rather than what will lead to genuine substance.
Vista vs. XP and Formatting Your Computer!
author=myersguy link=topic=3161.msg61995#msg61995 date=1234753404Have you reformatted it since buying it? With laptops, like any OEM computer, the large amount of crapware that gets stuck on the thing and the just generally shoddy installations you get with them have them performing way worse than they ought to--a good wipe and reload as soon as you buy it will probably bring its performance to at least 150%.
Me, well I feel that a format is necessary at any time that I feel a large slow in computer performance that I just can't figure out. That is happening right now. Thus, I have spent the last thirty minutes backing up everything I need to an external hard drive, and I have decided to give Vista a big middle finger. I am going to reformat my laptop to *GASP* XP. I have never tried this with my laptop before (every other time I used the vista disc that came with the laptop) and I am hoping that nothing important will stop working. The main reason I am changing back to XP? Well, I just don't feel that my laptop is as "Vista Ready" as they say it is.
Post Service Pack 1, Vista's really not that bad, especially if you disable UAC and Aero and all. But the only reason to avoid going back to Windows XP is that newer devices might not have any drivers for XP.
But if you're actually buying an OS, I'd say wait for Windows 7, which will probably be out by August or so. I've been running the beta on my laptop, and I'm just very pleased with it all around. Much better resource usage than Vista, some pretty neat features (I love the libraries, for example), and seems only slightly less stable than XP--being a beta, I imagine the stability will improve for the RTM, anyway.
Professionalism, Now With Less Exit Fate
author=arcan link=topic=3159.msg61994#msg61994 date=1234753093Competition is in very short supply in a market with no scarcity and no economy to speak of. Just like with fanfiction, such a situation leads to a very large chaff-to-wheat ratio and a lot of difficulty in finding the stuff that's worth your time.
I thought the whole reason for this forum was competition. You see how crappy your game is compared to others and you get your ass to work.
That's why I prefer places like the Game Design and Theory section, where we can discuss how we can improve the stuff we're working on, rather than trying to get people to tell us how great we are. I see it as an agent of change in entrenched dogmas about game design.
Games - Tester
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