🚀 go-pugleaf

I.  Interface suggestions
II.  Plot suggestions
 
I.  Interface suggestions
 
1.  No arcade sections.  No arcade sections.  No arcade sections.
     "Arcade section" = any obstacle that a typical player has to
try more than three times to get past.  Maybe even two times. 
Absolutely the most annoying part of U8.
 
2.  Pathfinding function (as in U7) is a must.
     The second most annoying part of U8 was trying to find the
one tiny spot on the ledge where the game would let one climb.  I
want to be able just to click where I want to be and let the
computer find the appropriate route.  (This includes jumping.)
 
3.  Lots of hotkeys.
     I want to be able to hit (C) to get a list of spells to Cast
and (R) to Rest and so on.  I do not like mouse-only interfaces. 
And I'm tired of mucking about through my inventory all the time. 
Speaking of which --
 
4.  Special inventory for "typed" items (esp. reagents).
     If I pick up yet another piece of sulphurous ash, I want the
game to automatically put it with the rest.  In general I want as
much inventory handling automated as possible.  Let there be a
"Reagent bag", "Weapons sack", etc.  
 
5.  Idiocy-free combat.  
     I do not ever again want to see my character sheath his
sword in the middle of combat in order to move.  If I click on an
enemy, I want to move up to him and swing.  If I click on a
location, I want to dash over there.  I want my relevant objects
and a list of spells available by hotkeys, no inventory-mucking
required.  If it makes the player look stupid or feel clumsy, get
rid of it.
 
6.  View rotation.
     I'm tired of not being able to see what's going on.  And
it's very aggravating to knock a chest where you can't see it.
Alternatively a hotkey to turn all walls to transparent glass
would work quite well.
 
7.  Automapping and/or lots of premade maps.
     Do you have any idea how big those isometric places feel?  I
want a nice 2D automap, or else a regular supply of 2D map
vendors and dead bodies with maps on them.  Or both.
 
8.  Text optionally visible during speech.
     It was impossible to make out what Hydros was saying...
 
9.  Full speech is NOT necessary.
     Not if the storage required gets in the way of a rich,
multiple-paths, highly dynamic world.
 
II.  Content suggestions
 
1.  Game flags must make sense.  Game flags must make sense. 
          Game flags must makes sense.
     Whenever the game won't let one do X until one has done Y a
reason must be explicitly given.  Nothing does more to destroy
the suspension of disbelief than a senseless requirement.  "What,
if the dog sniffs the medallion the barrier around the castle
disappears?  What the heck?"  [In U8:  Why wouldn't Hydros speak
to me until after I completed the Shrine of the Ancient Ones? 
Why did I have to free Pyros before I could get the Ethereal
Travel spell?  Stupid, stupid, stupid.]
 
2.  Satisfying resolutions.
     If I kill a local dragon I want every single villager to
thank me for it when they see me and most of them to have changed
habits as a result.  If I save the world I want a big, flashing
YOU HAVE SAVED THE WORLD sign and I want every single citizen to
come up and shake my hand and tell me a personal anecdote about
how I have made their lives better.  The closing animation should
be blindingly explicit and triumphant, and resolutions during the
game should be similarly direct.  Don't assume I know I've done a
good deed, don't just tell me "You have done a good deed", SHOW
ME.  There should be no doubt about the consequences of my
actions.
 
3.  Evil people should be evil.
     I want motivation.  I want dead bodies and crying widows
strewn in the wake of my enemy.  I want lots of HATE and MISERY
and ANGUISH to lay at the feet of my enemy.
 
4.  Evil people should be evil during the game, too.
     I want to make good friends and useful allies only to have
them kidnapped with taunting notes left behind.  I want to see
innocents taken away screaming.  I want Blackthorn and the
Shadowlords (U5) -- enemies who make my quest difficult on a
personal, direct and regular basis.  I want personal reasons to
be upset with the enemy.  
 
5.  No unjustified red herrings.
     No "tomb of Moriens" nonsense, please.  If there are going
to be red herrings, put them in a situation where it's clear
there are false as well as true leads.  If characters are going
to lie, their motivations should be made clear later on.  Never,
ever assume the player will figure out why so-and-so did X.  Make
it explicit.
 
6.  No scavenger hunts.
     The Avatar is a hero, not a catspaw.  Don't give me lots of
directions -- give me clues I put together myself.  "You got the
blackrock?  Good.  Now go to the Wisps with this book..."
 
7.  Lots of small figure-it-out-yourself puzzles.
     Using brain = fun.  Give me lots of opportunities to piece
information together.  I'm investigating the Widgets, say:  an
apprentice says the Mage of Veils was interested in Widgets but
has now "vanished, I know not where"; but the innkeeper says that
a bard told him there was a carnival with caged Widgets in North
Vespers.... so where might the Mage of Veils be, hmm?
 
8.  Lots of common knowledge.
     Everyone in town should be able to give me directions to
buildings in town; and if there's a plague, everyone should have
something to say about it.  "No man is an island."
 
9.  Lots of [well-justified] surprises and mysteries.
     If I want "Kill Foozle" I'll go play an SSI game :)  There
should be multiple twists and turns -- as long as they are
properly explained afterwards.  And make sure the player doesn't
have an opportunity to kill anyone ahead of schedule...
 
10.  Lots of dynamism in the world.
     Gypsies and bards who move from town to town.  Roving
brigands.  Armies on the march.  Lots of things to keep the
Avatar on his toes.  Just don't make any obvious links to
unrelated game events -- if the army marches into York right
after I free the Princess, every single time, it looks stupid. 
Instead, try "The army will march into York as soon as the player
has completed one of plot objectives A, B, and C and has visited
1-6 (random) more cities."  (Time-based flags don't work too well
if the player works quickly.  Instead, increment the counter each
time the player goes into a city different from the last city
visited.  Or count the number of conversations.  Or both.)
 
11.  Genuine time pressure.
     Repeatedly emphasize the urgency of the situation - "The
BigNastyFolks take more of us away each day."  Count the number
of visits I've made to cities so far.  Trigger something
upsetting every N+(1-4) visits.  An army blockade?  A fire?  Lots
of ways to make players' lives unpleasant without making the game
unwinnable.  Just make sure we know the time pressure exists.
 
12.  Rewards for the clever and alternatives for the rest.
     Let there be a wandering Oracle who requires onerous tasks
in return for hints.  If you can't figure out where the Mage of
Veils is, you go hunt down the Oracle.  This lets there be
serious brain-working puzzles without making the game impossible. 
Just heavily advertise the Oracle, and make the tasks harder each
time.  "Back again so soon?  Good -- I need the skulls of three
dragons from the northern mountains..."
 
13.  Avoid artificial / physical puzzles.
     Lever puzzles and logic puzzles and word puzzles look and
feel contrived and have no role-playing in them at all.  BORING. 
Give me puzzles in the form of problems natural to the world --
"How can I find where the Mage of Veils has gone?"  "Who killed
the smith?  Why?"  "What will persuade the Baron that I'm on his
side?"  Puzzles should center around people, not things.  Puzzles
should be solved by talking to and investigating people and
making deductions based on the results.
 
14.  Give the player an advising companion to keep him going.
     Let one or more of the NPCs have a ready answer to "what the
heck should I do now?" so that there's never any confusion. 
"Well, I think we ought to try and find out where the Mage of
Veils went.  Probably we should talk to and investigate the
townsfolk.  If we can't figure it out ourselves, we should
probably seek the Oracle."  Such an NPC could also serve as a
note-taker.
  
15.  Motivation, motivation, motivation.
     Why do I have to do X to win the game?  Has this been made
clear to me?  Why did Joe do Y?  Has this been explained to me?
-- 
Daniel Starr           |  Graphics CPU demand will peak in 1995;
starr-...@yale.edu  |  AI is the processor hog of the future.
                       | --------------------------------------------------    
"Scuppers. Hosepipe."  |  PC with 10^10 neurons: 40-80 years. (Moore's law)