First- and third-person text

Traditionally, all EV writing related to the players actions has been in second-person. You do this, you do that, you dance inbetween weaves, you shoot somebody, you eat a quesadilla, you sleep with a hot member of the opposite sex, whatever.

Well...what if you didn't use second-person?

What if you, say, chronicled a part of someone's life in the mission descriptions, and merely had the player follow that person's actions? For instance, "I" would get briefed, the player would take off and compete the mission, and then "I" would collect my pay and get debriefed. Essentially, the player's role could be carrying out all non-text-based actions of the person the story is about.

Thoughts? (Nothing about quesadillas, please.)

What's a quesadilla? (Honestly, I didn't even think of asking that until you brought it up. Never even heard the word before.)

Seriously, though - at least in the case of Nova, which person you write in seems to be a matter of personal preference. Even third person would probably work, although the character might get a little confused as to who you're meant to be playing. The main catch with first person is that it'd probably feel like you're just reading someone else's diary whenever you happen to have a spare moment, rather than actually carrying out the mission yourself.

This post has been edited by Belthazar : 30 June 2006 - 07:17 AM

"kay sa DI ah" ... like mexican grilled cheeze. Delicious.

@belthazar, on Jun 30 2006, 08:15 AM, said in An Interesting Idea for a TC:

What's a quesadilla? (Honestly, I didn't even think of asking that until you brought it up. Never even heard the word before.)

Seriously, though - at least in the case of Nova, which person you write in seems to be a matter of personal preference. Even third person would probably work, although the character might get a little confused as to who you're meant to be playing. The main catch with first person is that it'd probably feel like you're just reading someone else's diary whenever you happen to have a spare moment, rather than actually carrying out the mission yourself.

Well, there was that Noir appeal. In noir movies, theres always that first person voice over. It would feel like that.

T'would be a bit easier to distinguish if you could change the color, perhaps make it italic or something.

@belthazar, on Jun 30 2006, 05:15 AM, said in An Interesting Idea for a TC:

Seriously, though - at least in the case of Nova, which person you write in seems to be a matter of personal preference. Even third person would probably work, although the character might get a little confused as to who you're meant to be playing. The main catch with first person is that it'd probably feel like you're just reading someone else's diary whenever you happen to have a spare moment, rather than actually carrying out the mission yourself.

Yeah, i think it would be preference. Its a great idea, but it still depends on whether the player likes the feeling of reading his or somone else's diary. If he doesnt then second person is probably better for him. If you can make a first person choice and a second person choice at the main menu, that would be great. So if the person wanted his/her pilot to be in first person, he could. If he/she doesnt, then he/she can choose second person.
I dont think it will take much more time to do that. The only extra thing for u to do is to make a new box at the pilot creation screen.

This post has been edited by chronodrago : 30 June 2006 - 09:26 AM

How about first person, but not from the perspective of the pilot?

"My name is Flem -- Copius Flem. I've been an undercover operative of the Aggregate Collective here on Metro 6 for what seems like forever, watching over the actions of one of the local bigwigs. My quarry is on the move now, though, headed for some dump of a planet in the Nebulous Cluster. So I hired myself a pilot to get me there. The guy's a nobody; he's just some slob I found eating a quesadilla in the spaceport. The fool has no clue what he's getting into, and I gotta keep it that way."

that would work...but after awhile it might get old.
Whats with teh quesadilla? :huh:

@chronodrago, on Jun 30 2006, 08:25 AM, said in An Interesting Idea for a TC:

I dont think it will take much more time to do that. The only extra thing for u to do is to make a new box at the pilot creation screen.

It would take at least 1/2 the time of the original storyline writing to take on modifying the text, which is a lot of time, plus it would take twice as many missions: the player would have to start with either a second person or a first person character, each with a completely different set of missions available to them. It would take quite a lot longer.

Why edit the stock missions? Just follow a different storyline with the 1st person, or just model it after the stock one( using teh same missions, but the desc just changed). Cuase you would be doing that anyways. The only thing thats different is makin it a menu choice.

Colosseum TC will be written entirely in third person past. There will be alot of use of the <PN> tag so it seems more third-personish and the player doesn't forget who they are playing.

For example, the end of a basic BBS mission might be written: < PN> carefully docked his ship at his assinged space and, after the usual post-flight routine, went for the reward's booth. After a dull thirty minute wait in line, he collected his payment of ten thousand credits.

Of course, you could get much better than that, I just wrote that on the fly.

@chronodrago, on Jun 30 2006, 10:35 AM, said in An Interesting Idea for a TC:

Why edit the stock missions? Just follow a different storyline with the 1st person, or just model it after the stock one( using teh same missions, but the desc just changed). Cuase you would be doing that anyways. The only thing thats different is makin it a menu choice.

No... to make it a menu choice would require an engine change, and we cannot do that; the only way one could manage it would be to create multiple char resources that the player could choose when creating the pilot. Each char resource would start out with a NCB set that would allow them to follow the storyline through whatever point of view they had chosen. It would also need every bar, planet, weapon and ship description changed that mentioned the player switch to the point of view they had chosen, which means that the entire galaxy, every single system and planet, would have to have one copy for each of the points of view; choosing a different character resource would mean going into a completely separate galaxy that's only difference was "I" instead of "you". Every mission, including cargo missions, would have to have doubles, not to mention the fact that STR# resources would have to be either, for example, "free cargo space on your ship:" or "free cargo space on my ship:", and that couldn't be changed by which character one chose. And all of that is before you even figure in the time it would take to actually go over every single piece of writing in the entire game, duplicate it, and make sure that the person is changed. Just about the ony thing that wouldn't have to be doubled, and wouldn't take many months of long tedious work to get right would be rle resources. The games size would be effectively double the original, and making this happen would take at least 1/3 to 1/2 as long as it took to make the original game.

Plug-in development as a hobby is not done to please the player. The SS team has a little saying for intances when somebody notes that whatever feature we had just been talking about would not please some people: "Screw them."

Belthy, it's a Mexican...umm...I don't know what the word would be here. Basically, it's two tortillas with cheese inbetween them, often also with chicken, steak, mushrooms, peppers, you name it. Agreed: delicious.

Actually, Dr. T, that would be cool. And nice quesadilla reference.

@crusader-alpha, on Jun 30 2006, 05:35 PM, said in An Interesting Idea for a TC:

<snip>

Actually, it could be handled in a very easy fashion. Use multiple chars to set a point of view, with each one setting a specific bit. In each desc, you'd run a bit test (and gender test as approperiate) and it would display text approperiately, allowing you to just modify existings descs instead of tripling them. Not every desc would have to be edited either. Most planets, outfits, ships, bars, etc. don't even refer to the player, but just give information in a fashion acceptable for all three view points. For example (making one up), "Earth has blue oceans" would work in all three views.

And strings could be handled by changing "Cargo on your ship" to something like "Cargo on the ship" "Cargo in holds" etc. A few more examples...

"You have no outfits on this ship" to "There are no outfits on this ship"

"Your escorts" to "Active escorts"

"You don't have enough free space to accept this mission" to "The ship needs more cargo space to accept this mission"

Its all quite simple really. It'd just be time consuming unless you saved it for a small plug.

@joshtigerheart, on Jun 30 2006, 09:23 PM, said in An Interesting Idea for a TC:

Actually, it could be handled in a very easy fashion. Use multiple chars to set a point of view, with each one setting a specific bit. In each desc, you'd run a bit test (and gender test as approperiate) and it would display text approperiately, allowing you to just modify existings descs instead of tripling them. Not every desc would have to be edited either. Most planets, outfits, ships, bars, etc. don't even refer to the player, but just give information in a fashion acceptable for all three view points. For example (making one up), "Earth has blue oceans" would work in all three views.

And strings could be handled by changing "Cargo on your ship" to something like "Cargo on the ship" "Cargo in holds" etc. A few more examples...

"You have no outfits on this ship" to "There are no outfits on this ship"

"Your escorts" to "Active escorts"

"You don't have enough free space to accept this mission" to "The ship needs more cargo space to accept this mission"

Its all quite simple really. It'd just be time consuming unless you saved it for a small plug.

Indeed, I suppose I got carried away :blink: , but it would still take a while, unless, as you said, it were for a small plug; not as long as my original estimate though.

so my idea is pluasible? :blink:

One could pull it off, but it would still take a while, and it wouldn't be done by making a new menu choice. The concept could possibly be worked into a plug.

@belthazar, on Jun 30 2006, 08:15 AM, said in An Interesting Idea for a TC:

What's a quesadilla? (Honestly, I didn't even think of asking that until you brought it up. Never even heard the word before.)

Seriously, though - at least in the case of Nova, which person you write in seems to be a matter of personal preference. Even third person would probably work, although the character might get a little confused as to who you're meant to be playing. The main catch with first person is that it'd probably feel like you're just reading someone else's diary whenever you happen to have a spare moment, rather than actually carrying out the mission yourself.

Ever play Myth: The Fallen Lords (or Myth II: Soulblighter or Myth III: The Wolf Age)?

Following someone else's diary is awesome.

www.answers.com said:

queˇsaˇdilˇla (kā'sə-dē'yə)
n.
A flour tortilla folded in half around a savory filling, as of cheese or beans, then fried or toasted.

(American Spanish, from Spanish, diminutive of quesada, type of cheesecake, from queso, cheese, from Old Spanish, from Latin cāseus.)

Mmm, savory! And indisputable proof that the Americas are better than Australia! =Ţ

I completely deny any suggestion that the equals-thorn smiley is something I ripped of from Belthazar. :innocent look:

@belthazar, on Jun 30 2006, 06:15 AM, said in An Interesting Idea for a TC:

What's a quesadilla? (Honestly, I didn't even think of asking that until you brought it up. Never even heard the word before.)

Queˇsaˇdilˇla (Kay-Sa-Di-Ya)
n.
A flour tortilla folded in half around a savory filling, as of cheese or beans, then fried or toasted.

This is mostly a mexican food. It is made with a flour tortilla (Tor-Ti-Ya) then filled with some cheese, chicken, chili, beans, and maybe some beef. The tortilla is then folded in half or another buttered tortilla is added on top of the first tortilla, and place in an horno (mexican oven, normally made from mud and adobe its pronounced Or-No 'H's are silent) it is then baked until the cheese is melted and the tortilla is crispy. The quesadilla is cut into small portions (good appetizer) or eaten whole. They are usually found in the south western area but you mght be able to find one somewhere further north. The Taco is also like the Quesadilla except it is made with a corn tortilla.

I think that this first person idea is very cool, I would be interested to see where this idea goes.

@qaanol, on Jul 2 2006, 02:16 AM, said in An Interesting Idea for a TC:

Ever play Myth: The Fallen Lords (or Myth II: Soulblighter or Myth III: The Wolf Age)? Following someone else's diary is awesome.

Actually, come to think of it, the Myst series of games also involves reading someone else's diary(ies), and they work pretty well also.

Quote

Mmm, savory! And indisputable proof that the Americas are better than Australia! =Ţ

Only the South Americas. =Ţ

Mexico is in North and Central America.

Oh, and Taco Bell's quesadillas are awesome.

I don't care what you say. You don't have Taco Bell. Therefore, YOU SUCK.

This post has been edited by orcaloverbri9 : 01 July 2006 - 08:27 PM

@orcaloverbri9, on Jul 2 2006, 11:26 AM, said in An Interesting Idea for a TC:

I don't care what you say. You don't have Taco Bell. Therefore, YOU SUCK.

Maybe not, but we do have ATMOS. We win.