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Author Topic: My burning question about this game...  (Read 12586 times)

EmperorSpleen

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My burning question about this game...
« on: May 13, 2002, 08:09:00 am »

I've read through a bit of the long term goals for the game, and, well...

The nice way of putting it is that the plan for this game seems very ambitious. The other way, what I'm really thinking, is: Do you guys think you'll be able to achieve any of this? Even one page of 'The Future' sounds like it would take several generations to actually achieve it.

If so, great, I'm just asking  :). But it does seem a lot. I get the impression that before it got anywhere near the original vision, you'd all find yourself unable to work on the game because of jobs or families or terminal cancers or something.

One more thing... is the game going to look anything like it does now? Because, frankly, it's... well, I don't mean to just randomly criticise, but it looks horrible.

Sorry if that sounded down, but, well, that's what I think.

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Toady One

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Re: My burning question about this game...
« Reply #1 on: May 13, 2002, 09:44:00 am »

Do I think I'll be able to achieve any of it?  Well, yeah.  I've already achieved a number of the ambitious elements that were in those pages -- just look at the description of your species on the status screen.  Almost all of that information has meaningful effects on gameplay.  Some of the elements in the future page are harder than others.  I think the Civilization page is by far the most difficult.  I'll never be able to clean that out.  I think I have a chance with most of the other ones, that is, I would, if I didn't keep adding everybody's ideas to them.  The future page is in part there for people to let me know what they'd like to see emphasized, since I can't do all of it.  Did anything in particular look totally impossible?

Essentially, I don't want to finish.  I'd rather keep adding things.  As for intervening responsibilities, well, I already have a job that should take up all of my time :)  The project has already weathered some heavy real-life storms, and we're still at it.

The game looks trashy.  The terrain and creatures in the main window are going to be completely changed.  Nothing there will look the same in a year, except possibly the stars.  The creatures will already look very different with the next version.  The interface used to look a lot worse -- basically, the look of the game moves upward at the same pace with the rest of the concepts.  If I spent a lot of time making it nice now, I'd probably just have to gut it later as new game elements move in.  In any case, what were your major specific "this game is ugly" criticisms aside from the critters and terrain in the main window (which is already slated for a complete overhaul)?

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EmperorSpleen

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Re: My burning question about this game...
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2002, 07:37:00 am »

quote:
In any case, what were your major specific "this game is ugly" criticisms aside from the critters and terrain in the main window (which is already slated for a complete overhaul)?

Well, I think the critters and terrain pretty much make up all of the graphics  :). The buildings and items are ugly too, but you knew that.

The one other thing is that both the icons for the inventory and the status screens aren't very clear, as they both seem to show people. How about just a backpack for the inventory screen? The status screen is a little more difficult as it serves a more general function, but maybe a stick figure with some green status bars surrounding him would get the message across.

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