Stat-Based games
Author
There are some people who love stats in RPGs: They love to see actual numbers. Then there are others who prefer not be bothered with numbers and would rather a quicker view to guage something, such as a description or a percentage bar.
My question is: If the stats in a game are not intrusive, but are there for those who want to see them, will this detract from the game for the player''s who hate stats?
No preference here, but i see several games with a gauge and then a ratio of life unerneath (xx/100)
Seems to fit both rather well.
Seems to fit both rather well.
I personally prefer gauges, because I don''t think that (even if it''s stored internally as such) there should be rigid limits of skills, so a pretty graphical gauge seems to say "you''re right about here"
The above suggestion seems to fit both possibilities rather well, and I wouldn''t mind something like that.
Later,
ZE.
The above suggestion seems to fit both possibilities rather well, and I wouldn''t mind something like that.
Later,
ZE.
A guage is better in fast combat, because you can browse it out of the corner of your eye and continue fighting. Any changes in the gauge can be recieved instantly. With numbers you must stop to adjust your eyes on the exact spot, and changes are hard to catch as your math must be precise. 73 quickly turning to 37 takes a second to register. |___| to |_| is must faster.
Personally I think the best approach is to have the numbers pop-up when you move the mouse over the gauge, as the only time exact numbers are useful is when you have time to do that.
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The Audacious Engine - After briefly disappearing (aka being deleted), Audacious is being rebuilt. Although it''s not ready yet, so don''t you dare go there. I mean it.
MSN: nmaster42@hotmail.com, AIM: LockePick42, ICQ: 74128155
"It''s all part of the conspiracy of conspirators conspiring to conspire their own conspiracies..."
Personally I think the best approach is to have the numbers pop-up when you move the mouse over the gauge, as the only time exact numbers are useful is when you have time to do that.
------------
The Audacious Engine - After briefly disappearing (aka being deleted), Audacious is being rebuilt. Although it''s not ready yet, so don''t you dare go there. I mean it.
MSN: nmaster42@hotmail.com, AIM: LockePick42, ICQ: 74128155
"It''s all part of the conspiracy of conspirators conspiring to conspire their own conspiracies..."
Put the bare bones on the front screen, probably through gages for reasons already discussed. But let there be access to the rest through menus somehow. This way both types of players are happy...I personally like to know numbers, so I can just open a menu to find them. But my brother doesn''t, so he''s not bothered with them.
CM
CM
For the main playing screen, reducing clutter should be first priority when it comes to displaying data. I always prefer bars over numbers when going to zero is very bad. Numbers can always be overlayed over the bar, on the side, or used as a pop-up as Lockepick said. Most bars are visually showing a percentage rather than a quantity. In RPG's that have HP and MP capacity increasing every level, the percentage is more valuable than the quantity.
When players are muddling through equipment choices, they often need to see exact stats to feel secure about their choices. Players that don't want to look at the numbers will usually just spend less time figuring out what is better. The game can help guide the player for some of the decision making process. It can highlight the items that are obviously better and dim the ones that are obviously worse or unusable. This should not require enormous coding to add.
If the combat system is very complex and uses many stats, try to find simplified solutions for expressing them. STR, DEX, AGI, STA, etc. could be calculated with the current gear to come up with an averaged Attack power and Defense power. This becomes a guideline that is easy to understand at a glance.
CDV
[edited by - Warsong02 on August 18, 2002 12:32:30 AM]
When players are muddling through equipment choices, they often need to see exact stats to feel secure about their choices. Players that don't want to look at the numbers will usually just spend less time figuring out what is better. The game can help guide the player for some of the decision making process. It can highlight the items that are obviously better and dim the ones that are obviously worse or unusable. This should not require enormous coding to add.
If the combat system is very complex and uses many stats, try to find simplified solutions for expressing them. STR, DEX, AGI, STA, etc. could be calculated with the current gear to come up with an averaged Attack power and Defense power. This becomes a guideline that is easy to understand at a glance.
CDV
[edited by - Warsong02 on August 18, 2002 12:32:30 AM]
Do the stat thing, but make the visual more obvious. I do think the gamer should have a bit of both. I sometimes like the careless hack ''n slash game, although there are times when it''s exciting to know that your future rests on the flip of a coin.
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