statement and question

First, the statement:

I've finished writing the rough draft of the main Retribution mission string, all many, many more than 100 typed pages of it, so however closer that brings me to the completion of aforementioned plugin, now you know. (FYI, Retribution features one large mission string and several smaller sub-strings that are optional, somewhat like the RPG/Martin Turner model.)

Now, the question:

In lieu of writing really long preambles, I'm writing a bunch of short 'encyclopedia article' type mini-informational-articles that the player would be able to access in-game by accepting a self-aborting mission and reading through the text. Some would be available near the beginning of the game, some later on, and they would cover aspects ranging from ship capabilities to specific game mechanics to stuff about the universe/story itself. Would anyone actually read those, or do you prefer the long preambles, or do you just not read any of the documentation, period?

Thanks for your consideration, and have a nice day.

Sounds like a good idea.. I never read the preambles for Nova until after a certain time of playing.. This will be kind of forcing it onto people though, but i still think you´ll give them a better insight in the universe, and therefore enjoy the story more..

UE_Research & Development, on Oct 3 2004, 01:35 PM, said:

In lieu of writing really long preambles, I'm writing a bunch of short 'encyclopedia article' type mini-informational-articles that the player would be able to access in-game by accepting a self-aborting mission and reading through the text. Some would be available near the beginning of the game, some later on, and they would cover aspects ranging from ship capabilities to specific game mechanics to stuff about the universe/story itself.View Post

That sounds awesome. I'd read them. Bear in mind, though, that your plugin's story ought to still make sense if one doesn't read the extra material - if it's necessary, you'd need to say so in a mission, or something. Actually, that could be a cool mission - go to a planet and peruse its library, looking for hints to a situation, and once you've accessed them either you could figure out what to do next, or a new mission pops up stating that your character has figured it out.

Guy, on Oct 3 2004, 09:54 PM, said:

I'd read them. But if you make the mission available from the mission computer or something then you wouldn't be forcing it on the player and maybe they could come back and read it later if they felt so inclined.
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That's what I was planning- you could open up the BBS and click on, for example, 'History- Naztain War' and read all about said war. Should have made that clear :).

I'd read them. But if you make the mission available from the mission computer or something then you wouldn't be forcing it on the player and maybe they could come back and read it later if they felt so inclined.

I'm doing something really similar in Kemet... Kind of like the 'verbose' option in old Infocom games. Like when you land on a planet the first time, it would fire a silent mission that would expound upon the description of the planet that is normally displayed. Buying a new ship, it would do the same thing only so the desc can display a little movie or something. All of these things are optional, set by another silent mission that fires when the pilot starts the first time.

This post has been edited by rmx256 : 03 October 2004 - 05:30 PM

If you do that, you should have two additional messages as well. One that will disable the missions (remove a bit, perhaps), and the other will enable them (set a bit). That way, if you really don't care for them, you can always hide them (excepting the re-enabling bit, just in case).

Just a suggestion, but I'll be sure to read them regardless.

I'm really looking forward to it!
~ SpacePirate

UE_Research & Development, on Oct 3 2004, 09:54 PM, said:

That's what I was planning- you could open up the BBS and click on, for example, 'History- Naztain War' and read all about said war. Should have made that clear :).
View Post

It will still be kind of forcing, since they´ll take up space in the mission comp..They should at least be located at the bottom..

But it sounds like a really great idea..

sounds like a good idea to me. I would read them. I actually didn't know there were nova preambles for a LONG time, so If anyone's as stupid as me, this would make it easier.

I'd probibly read them either way. I think I read all the Nova Documentation before I played and liked how they were writen.

The Real Darth Bob, on Oct 3 2004, 10:00 PM, said:

I'd probibly read them either way. I think I read all the Nova Documentation before I played and liked how they were writen.
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As I recall it, the Preambles were released more as a teaser into the Nova universe than anything.

This sounds to me like a pretty good idea. Metroid Prime operated in a somewhat similar fashion with its scan visor, allowing you to put off the longer reading (ship logs, pirate data, etc.) for later on.

My suggestion would be to try to integrate the supposed source of these elements into the world of your plug, so it doesn't sound like you, the author, explaining a bit of pertinent information when the time comes. Not that you wouldn't have thought of this already...

Suggestion: make an Encyclopedia planet, where you could have the BBS full of articles.

Guapo

Well, this could be cumbersome, but you could make one mission that autoaborts and spawns a bunch of categories, which in turn autoabort and spawn all the articles in that category (which autoabort and restore the original "mission"). At least this would keep the BBS down to 1 mission when you're not using the encyclopedia.

Alternatively, perhaps there's a way you could move this to the outfitter or something. I'm sure the Nova engine is flexible enough to allow some way to provide a not-to-intrusive encyclopedia.

Also, at least in my case, I like to print out any game documentation that's particularly long, especially if I'm going to need it to play the game. It probably wouldn't hurt too much to provide some out-of-game version of this as well.

Just a quick question:

Is anyone actually looking forwards to this conversion? Do you have any thoughts about it? Do you have any expectations, or want to know more about it?

I know I am looking forward to this. Besides just having something new to do with Nova, the graphics that have been posted in the image gallery (especially Death Throes) look great.

Hope to see it come out soon UE.

UE_Research & Development, on Oct 21 2004, 02:56 AM, said:

Just a quick question:

Is anyone actually looking forwards to this conversion? Do you have any thoughts about it? Do you have any expectations, or want to know more about it?
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Hell yeah. I'm definatley looking forward to this TC, Now the SFA public beta is on hold, this is my most anticipated TC. I'm sure many others are looking forward to it aswell. It also seems to be well on the way to completion, which is always a good thing.

The graphics I've seen for it look sweet, and the story must be good, you've written it. I've read some of your chronicles work, and it's all great.

As for knowing more about it, I don't really want to. I don't want too much to be given away you know? But maybe a screenshot of what some of the ships look like flying round in game would be nice

Keep up the good work everyone on the Retribution team, It looks amazing.