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Re: Ealdorlight (from Sol Trader's dev)

#121
chrismdp wrote:Well done Victor - backer #1 :)
:) Years of honing my keyboard stabbing skills on auction sites, Chris. I'm hoping to keep in touch with progress on Ealdorlight but I have some crazy busy weeks ahead of me so the chances are my visits will be infrequent. With this lot giving you some great input in the way of suggestions etc. I'm sure you will find your follow up experience to be as exciting as Sol Trader...hopefully even more so. :thumbup: :angel:
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Re: Ealdorlight (from Sol Trader's dev)

#127
Kickstarter Update #3 wrote: [...]
In Sol Trader the history finished at game start, and the world in which you played was fixed. In Ealdorlight, the history never stops generating. Similar events that happened in the past can happen in game in front of you, whilst you are in the middle of something else. When the game speeds up for long distance travel or when the player is captured or recuperating after serious injury, the world keeps on turning: the player will start to feel the effects of age and characters can get move away, get injured themselves of [, or] die of old age...
[...]
Minor typos in there. :P

But more importantly: I love this. I wantsit. :mrgreen:
"omg such tech many efficiency WOW" ~ Josh Parnell
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Re: Ealdorlight (from Sol Trader's dev)

#128
While I normally steer clear of roguelikes -- because the lack of ability to save game state penalizes exploring options -- I think there are a couple of game styles where it works.

One is the high-sensation game, where you're basically on an exciting roller-coaster ride. Allowing unrestricted save/load would interrupt that excitement. Call of Duty-style shooters are the exemplars of this kind of game.

But I think Chris has found another. By emphasizing progress through social interaction as an important gameplay activity, rather than stuff-accumulation, there's less feeling that a "mistake" (for most of the game) is a game-over problem. (Which is what dooms most roguelikes for me.) Even with real consequences, the cost of exploring the social terrain of the game world may be low enough that the occasional game-over seems earned, rather than an unpleasant surprise.

So, all that is prelude to a question for Chris: What's your design intention for the replayability of Ealdorlight?

Will a typical game last long enough to feel interesting, but not so long that a game-over condition hurts from feeling too abrupt, with too much progress lost? How different will each replay feel from the others, and in what ways?

If this question about replayability (and, more importantly, your response) seems useful for helping to describe Ealdorlight to potential backers, please feel free to repost any of my comments anywhere you like.

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