Game Suggestions

[jab2565]

One suggestion about the script guide, a great way to learn could be having an example mod in it and show all the text written needed to produce it.

[scott_wakeling]

GeorgiaBoy, I'll see what I can do for the native modding guide, and pfreak, I'll see if I can combine your request with GeorgiaBoy's.

As for multiplayer and a map editor, let's see if we get a reasonable amount of interest first, and if we do, we'll do it!

[scott_wakeling]

pfreak, did you see the Zombie Fest MOD? Would this satisfy your request?

[jab2565]

Where is that again?

[DarkStar]

You can find the mod on the dev's website:

http://www.chronicreality.co.uk/mods.html

Have Fun!

[Saxon]

The game idea is good and the graphics are reasonable, when you can see them. The problem is a game design choice. Recognizing that dungeons are supposed to be dark and unknown, there is the variable lamp with a fuel supply. When you turn it down, you save fuel, but can not see as far.

In the games I played last night, I died several times due to fuel shortages. So I turned down the lamp and found that I was not able to see much. All working as designed. The problem is that it is not much fun. I run around looking at the minimap, turn the lamp up and down quickly and am always watching the fuel level. I am not hacking and slashing, I am playing a fuel management simulator.

Truly. There are twice as many controls for the lamp as there are for combat. Fuel is more dangerous than the enemies, because you can at least run away from enemies. Your stats don’t really matter, but the number next to the fuel level is critical. I learned where that was before I learned where my health bar was. The focus of the game is oil.

To make it worse, the better you manage your fuel, the less you see. Instead of rewarding good play, it punishes it with less visual stimulation. The reward structure of the game needs to be looked at. I would not go so far as to say gold is needed, as another poster has, but gold is a popular reward. Look at Diablo. You don’t need the gold and eventually it is just a scoring system, but everyone still picks it up and likes it. You get something for doing well. Here, you lose something (visuals) for doing well. I know the concept is fairly integral to the game, but I feel it needs to be reviewed.

[S.R. Krol]

Saxon said:
Your stats don’t really matter, but the number next to the fuel level is critical. I learned where that was before I learned where my health bar was. The focus of the game is oil.

Sorry to hear that you feel the quest for fire overpowers the rest of the game. The beauty of Scallywag though is that with a few keystrokes you can change that.

If you look at the Scallywag directory there is a subdirectory called config (should be Game\Media\Config). There are several files in there that you can open with notepad. For oil you could change how it burns in the 'Core' file (look for OilBurnRate at the bottom) and make it burn much, much slower. Or you can change how often you come across it by modifying the 'Items' file. You'll find a rarity line for oil.

For complete modding instructions check out:
http://www.chronicreality.co.uk/mods.html

Hope this helps!

[scott_wakeling]

If you watch any player of more than a couple hours' experience, they just roll around the dungeon sliding their lantern up and down as they need without really thinking about it much - the emphasis turns to looting, mapping, and playing with objects.

It's a fair point though Saxon, I don't dismiss what you're saying, but as Mr Krol pointed out - the config files are right there, so feel free to have some fun with that.

As an aside, what do people think of the oil/lantern feature with regards to further developments? For example, Moria makes good use of needing fuel to light your way, with the final punishment being just a black-out (which I actually find more annoying than just dying, flailing around in the dark getting picked on is just so annoying!?).

[jab2565]

I was one of the beta testers for the game just FYI, and I don't know if I'm just lucky but not once during my time with the game did I ever run out of oil. I just kept the oil level at 2 or 3 and I never had a problem. I like to keep a stock of 20 oil in my inventory at all times which seemed to work fine.

[S.R. Krol]

scott_wakeling said:
As an aside, what do people think of the oil/lantern feature with regards to further developments? For example, Moria makes good use of needing fuel to light your way, with the final punishment being just a black-out (which I actually find more annoying than just dying, flailing around in the dark getting picked on is just so annoying!?).

I think any RPG that has consumption elements in it will probably always lead to divided opinions on the subject. I haven't felt Scallywag's oil usage was too draconian, but at the same time I get really annoyed with RPGs that force you to eat. There's nothing worse than being a bad *** barbarian who skins demons with his eyes closed on level twenty, slowly dying because you forgot to pack enough Powerbars.

Of course a lot depends on how it is handled. If you starve and the effect is you lose a couple hit points and that's it, fine. Likewise, yeah, if you're punished by flailing around in the dark that sucks.

Perhaps for future development oil consumption is an option that could be toggled off and on? If on it works as normal, if off the lantern becomes a magic lantern that never burns oil.