Oh, c’mon - They’ve got two whole months to rewrite the game. I could do that blindfolded. It wouldn’t compile let alone run, but still!
This looks exactly right to me. (Although I’m an old fogey who took notes about Ultima games, too.)
I think you risk alienating a good chunk of the potential audience without the breadcrumbs. Make them on by default but toggle-able off in the options.
I feel much the same way. It’s such a fine line. We want the writing itself to provide the clues and for the player to put it together. But at the same time, we understand that people are used to a lot more guidance.
It’s all VO’d (English, German, Chinese and Russian) for the key story elements.
What we’ve done is add a training area the player can optionally go to and a Codex that that includes lots of help and lore and basically acts as a Galactipedia for the player.
What we don’t have is VO narration while traveling. It doesn’t really fit in with the style (though I’d love to find a way to make it work).
As long as the game compiles… ;)
There are cases where you have breadcrumbs. For instance, if we tell someone “You must GO HERE” we’ll provide breadcrumbs to that destination.
What we don’t do is tell people that they must go here. The characters will inform the player where something is but if they don’t want to go there, that’s fine too.
Hopefully having the Commander explain things to you plus having a Training center plus having an in-game interactive manual will be enough for those having trouble getting used to playing a Star Control game. :)
I have found the perfect solution. :-)
Take the modern approach and create a “Streamlined Enhancement” DLC package for $10 that enables all the hand holding features.
Given that you’ve already implemented breadcrumbs for some quests/events/stories/whatever, would it be difficult to add them to all and then allow a selectable ‘story assist’ slider or similar to determine how many are provided as breadcrumbs? I suppose it could be a checkbox, too. Just don’t name it something dickish like, ‘Pansy mode.’
That said, I’m all about finding things out the hard way. I just recognize that not all users/gamers are that interested/invested in that level of grog.
I like your ideas and would like to subscribe to your newsletter. :)
Not for the most part. Probably easier to show it than to explain it: (spoilers)
So here I have my log and it will have hyperlinks to various places based on what I want to do.
If you click on a hyperlink, it will give you breadcrumbs to that destination. But because there are no rails in this game, there aren’t breadcrumbs in the sense of selling you what you need to do next. You are simply given information.
If I hear about a place I might want to go to, I can type it in and it will find it:
And then I can auto-pilot my way there.
But as you can see, because there is no “You now have delivered the Flux Capacitor. Now go see see the Great Space Wizard!” (not typically).
Instead you would have something like:
"The Flingons are pleased that we delivered the Flux Capacitor. "
But elsewhere in the log will be things like “Earth has asked us to return home.” or “The Space Wizard guys are reportedly attacking Mimbus 3 with their space magic.”
You could go back to Earth, you could go to Mimbus 3 or you could just go fly around.
It’s a tough call. Since things are so non-linear, I am hoping that the navigational support will satisfy both camps.
We don’t force you to go anywhere. But if you want to go to Shuzbot, you can search it (or if it’s in your log, click on the hyperlink) and it’ll take you directly there.
A fine line indeed. I enjoy having to use my brain to figure out the path to take…most of the time. Sometimes I can find it cumbersome. A big part of how I feel about it is if the breadcrumbs are interesting in and of themselves. An example would be Morrowind. You can talk to an NPC at random, and they hint at a treasure to be found along a path, over a hill to the west, and beside a large tree. The conversation is in your journal for future reference. Cool! I’m all over it. The NPC has an interesting appearance (perhaps that’s why I decided to talk to him) and his dialogue is well written. The description of the treasure is intriguing, and I want it. The journey to find it is an exploration of the environment.
Frustration can be found in the same game, when directions are vague, or the trigger is difficult to find. It’s not something you can really add a difficulty slider to. Perhaps it was my own stupidity…
I like what you have a lot and think that players won’t have much problem with it. It’s an open world game; I think what you want are points of interest or places to explore with some promise of finding something.
I guess if I were to suggest any compromise position, it would be to maybe breadcrumb you along whatever is the “main” quest line (if there is one).
But honestly, yuck. I don’t even like that.
This looks good to me.
Earth and other points of interest are clearly noted. And it’s obvious I should go back to Earth.
I personally would like some kind of indicator of what choice advanced the main quest line. I have had experiences in games where I was following some quest line and then almost completed the game, skipping most of the side quests because I did not know it was the main quest and that made irrevocable changes in the world when followed. Or at very least, if you do this next quest, then a bunch of shit will happen and any side quests will be forfeit / whatever.
Agree there.
Sometimes it’s as simple as a “There’s a radio signal coming from the star system ahead” and then landing and finding a structure (like this).
And then that ends up starting a whole subplot. Even though I work on the game every day, the writers have so much more to it than I ever realize because there’s all sorts of interactions that lead me to finding items that I’m not sure what they will do other than that I have them in inventory and may find use later.
My point being, there is a Myst vive at times which I think, hope, people will like but like you said, if you are given instructions that are too vague, it can get frustrating. That’s basically what the next 60 days prior to release is going to be about. Lots of playing over and over.
In this case, when you solve the “main quest” the game isn’t over. Just that main quest is. So then it’s up to you what you want to do. Take a break and do some R&R, refit your ship or immediately go out and find out what else is going on.
One of the interesting balances I think players will find interesting is how much do they want to invest in helping Earth expand versus saving it from alien annihilation? Earth isn’t capable of building FTL drivers in 2088 so you have the choice of obtaining hyperdrives from other species so that Star Control can build colony ships and send them to other places (so that Earth isn’t our only planet) or use them for defense cruisers or rely on other aliens to help us from the various threats.
BTW, as part of the upcoming launch of Star Control: Origins, those who pre-order or buy it near release will receive a bunch of free DLC along with it:
https://www.stardock.com/games/starcontrol/store
The first three just went up:
Arilou
Chenjesu
Mowlings
Includes the classic music (when applicable) + new remixes plus story and art.