skadoomer
Member
Posts: 535
Registered: 01-01 |
Scuba Steve said:
Ska, I'm not sure why you feel you need to rework this into a new mod. This first part feels entirely fleshed out, like a beginning installment of a longer game. Why not put more work into finishing the second half of the game instead of fixing what most people agree isn't broke?
Perhaps I should be clearer on my intentions with this. Currently that is the direction I’m going in, however when the second half of the game is finished, I’m going to re-tweak the first part. There are two reasons for doing this:
1) The story.
Because you can take both sides in the game, building up the nightmeres character within the first section was basted totally on the perspective on the sequas (the taller talking guys wearing robes) and to some faint extent, the nuus (those bouncing squid guys). Ultimately the game splits at that point that it ended in the demo, where you can choose to fight on the nightmere's side or the world’s side. Having the player understand that choice is something that needs to be driven through by an evenly balanced story. Currently it feels very one sided.
2) the pacing.
I read an article in Game Developer which focused on the power of pacing. Currently the actual gameplay you find in the mod doesn’t appear until midway in the second map. In my mind that takes too long. Don't get me wrong, leading the player through story first does work (ex. half-life), but it detracts from the re-play value. The dialog only goes so far before it becomes repetitive, and ideally I’d like the player to be introduced to an actual weapon sooner as opposed to later.
Now don't get me wrong, I love the mod I have released. It is not by intent that to state a 'reworking' of this playable version that I will be deleting in entirety any maps or events. I just believe that things will be changed in terms of event sequences for the final release.
I'm also doing a re-write of the code for two reasons. Primarily I have new content to add in for the second half of the game. Things like new weapons, new monsters and new abilities are making their way into the code. Secondly, this code was written largely in a sleep deprived state and has some visible flaws. For example, the player can't transition through maps in the hub (and yes, it is supposed to be a hub). This is because I mucked things up with the dialog storage that broke the functionality of the talking actors. In my mind, fixing these issues sooner than later wouldn't benefit just the current release, but the final release as well.
I would like to see this reduced to a single wad file for easy use with the latest ZDoom, so I don't have to keep an entire folder for Foreverhood (maybe 2 downloads, one with everything, the other with just the wad and documents)
Planned.
Also, make the axe part a bit more intuitive.
Easy fix. If you talk to the green nuu after receiving the axe, he tells you where to chop. I think making him spawn a glowing exclamation over his head when the player receives the axe will clarify the confusion in this area
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09-09-06 23:42 
