Make it all internally consistant, by that I mean that everything in the universe has to fit together seemlessly, and that nothing should stick out like a sore thumb like it doesn't belong there. Also, everything adds to your storyline. In Nova a lot of the storyline and the history of the Nova Universe is actually contained in planet and bar desc's throughout. So as the player just flies around and lands everywhere, they learn about the story as they go. Make everything a seamless whole, planet descs (and their picts), bar descs, outfs (their picts and descs), ships (their picts and descs), missions with their descs, etc make a whole package. You don't just get packages where the graphics look cool and biological, but the planet scenes look cool and industrial, and the missions seem to indicate the universe is cool and technical. That kind of package just doesn't gel right.
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(This message has been edited by Frandall (edited 03-15-2000).)