Xref: utzoo comp.sys.mac.games:1744 rec.games.misc:12051 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!agate!shelby!portia.stanford.edu!elaine0.stanford.edu!draphsor From: draphsor@elaine0.stanford.edu (Matt Rollefson) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.games,rec.games.misc Subject: Re: RPG opinions (was Re: Programmer...) Message-ID: Date: 8 Nov 90 04:14:31 GMT References: <(cross-listed> <1990Nov3.234058.23166@magnus.ircc.ohio-state.edu> <32224@netnews.upenn.edu> Sender: news@portia.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System) Organization: AIR, Stanford University Lines: 46 lwl@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Lydia Leong) writes: >I believe that inventory management - food, torches, and the like - is >necessary in a truly excellent RPG. Well-implemented, it becomes part of the >game world, enhancing rather than detracting from the gaming experience. Once >again, look at Ultima VI. Here, players may fish for food, buy meat, or even >buy flour and take it to a bakery and have it made into bread. This helps >bring the world to life. Having unlimited resources is good in a dungeon >hack 'n slash game, but not in a game where discovery is important. Well, it depends on what the object of the game is. If the game is basically just combat and exploration - how far can I get on how much money, etc - then inventory management becomes an element of strategy. If your game focuses more on role-playing and doing things in different places (exploration, but of a less war-game orientation), then it becomes annoying. After all, you'd think that characters who lived in those times would have developed certain 'standard' procedures to deal with things like getting food. Options: Make the player do everything. Grittily realistic (assuming realistic rules - not a given by *any* means), but can become tedious as you prepare for your tenth overland journey and have to go to the same five shops to get the provisions you need. Let the player create 'standard operating procedures'. Go through the gritty realism once, then save that as a macro (basically) and reimpliment it whenever the same situation comes up. This can be more or less automatic. Forget about all this boring stuff, and get to the excitement. Makes the game play more like a 'high fantasy' novel, where the mundane concerns of when to go to the bathroom and where to get food never seem to bother the characters, except when it adds to dramatic tension. Runs the risk of losing suspension of disbelief, though. For instance, if there is no way for the player to make an intelligent choice and avoid (near- this is heroic, remember) starvation in the desert, the player is going to get frustrated by the lack of control. Well, that's enough for this posting. Comments? >Anybody agree? -- Draphsor vo'drun-Aelf draphsor@portia.stanford.edu