Re: EndgamesI remember the SNES game Theme Park (TP) and the later game Roller Coaster Tycoon (RCT) and what I loved about TP was that you just play and play and play the park for as long as you wanted. When you were ready and after a set time (say 2-3yrs) you could sell it up and use your profits to buy the next bit of land and start developing. After researching you could also build almost any ride, stall or feature in your park and in any park, and there were only a few unique variations amongst the countries.
RCT was different in that it set the environments you played through and the conditions in which you played in (i.e., whether it was a large area or a very small area, whether it was all land or just several islands) and then moved you onto the next scenario once you had reached a criterion and without giving you a choice. This is like Istrian's initial comment above re: missions and scenarios. You would be given the scenario at the start and told at what point you will have "completed" the park. RCT also set limits on your capacities and slowly unlocked them as you progressed to each land. You really only had all of your capacities in the last scenario, and once again, that land was very tailored and specific in its landscape. Essentially if you wanted to play with all of the rides available, you had to play through the whole damn game and even then you didn't get a choice of where you could play with those rides.
I personally liked the TP way of doing things. You had choices about when to stop yr park ("You can now auction yr park. Would you like to?"), and as long as you had done the research you had most of the rides and features available (almost all of the flexibility - every time). TP was obviously limited to 2D while RCT had the 3D element, so in RCT you got to play through a lot of different landscapes such as mountainous, flat, sandy, and rocky landscapes with varieties of pools, lakes and rivers. However, if you liked one particular landscape you couldn't just play it endlessly and without limitations. I also think TP was great in that your profits from one park would carry over to the next, whereas in RCT, the game set your starting funds because the scenarios were so defined (I THINK, I'm not quite sure). Hence in TP your efforts in one park had impacts on the rest of your game.
On the other hand, RCT graded out the difficulty more. You learned progressively (albeit sometimes TOO slowly!), and you were given one tool at a time like tutorials do. It did not just give you the keys and leave you to it.
This all applies to the DF persistent world in that I'd like to see how the end of a fortress impacts on the world and your successive forts. See this thread here (Topic: Continuing a legacy; don't abandon, resign!) for one previous suggestion about ending your fortress.
I also think that if we knew the fortress would expire at a certain limit or criterion then the game becomes more about doing everything in your power to prevent that condition (like how storing food, building defences, noblecide and not too-deeping is done now). I think Toady has mentioned that if nobles and too-deeping/end-game exist, then he would like players to have a reason for wanting them rather than them being things to manipulate and avoid.
Re: the Bay12Games Forums
Dunno if this is the place to continue the discussion, but in addition to the above comments I'd like to see a "Track/Subscribe to this thread" option, too!
Re: Derek Smart
Wow that sounds like a guy with a lot of determination and big ideas! I can definitely see differences in Toady in that Toady fills us in on developments, takes and discusses ideas, and they (TO and TT) ultimately makes the decisions themselves in a patriarchical way. While Derek would cause havoc when he was feeling good, I get a sense from Toady that he is interested in being creative through other means (tho I know I'm second guessing here. Toady and TT could be trolling these boards regularly!).
Re: Neural Network
Loved the end of that article! "The pig go. Go is to the fountain. The pig put foot. Grunt. Foot in what? ketchup. The dove fly. Fly is in sky. The dove drop something. The something on the pig. The pig disgusting. The pig rattle. Rattle with dove. The dove angry. The pig leave. The dove produce. Produce is chicken wing. With wing bark. No Quack".
Reminds me of some old tribal story!
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Topic: Future of the Fortress (Read 158036 times)