Looking at a current game, for what works

[Callan S.]

So I'm trying out

http://moonstone-rpg.com

Basically just the adventure option. And It seems to work on me - I keep clicking to see what event comes up (it's not just fighting, sometimes a treasure, sometimes a trap). There's the basic choice of whether to fight on after taking damage or heal and use up an adventuring opportunity. Does this work for anyone else and not just for me? I'll like to just know what I code will just work for a certain amount of players.

The CSS is fairly simple - I could probably set up that layout. From it's project wonderful bid page you can see it's traffic
https://www.projectwonderful.com/advert ... #placeabid

What do you all think?

[hallsofvallhalla]

i like it, simple, but the ads are horrible! They are flashy while the game is not. It drives me nuts.

[Callan S.]

Well, it could be more simple - could just have a single percentage roll instead of multiple rounds, rolls to hit, hitpoints, etc.

I just wonder how much of that stuff actually impacts peoples play, Vs simply being legacy content, just repeated stuff because D&D did it. Which parts are the real meat and which parts are chaff?

[hallsofvallhalla]

hmm hard to tell, i will say all the combat done in a instant is boring. No action or excitement,

[Callan S.]

Would fiction fit that better though? Like a description of combat like "You hit him in the face, blood expoding from his nose!" rather than "Rolled 86. Hit! Did 3 damage!"?

[Callan S.]

One thing that drew me in was that it stated an objective on the front page - kill the dragon, save the princess. Indeed it made me think I should have a big objective stated for my game as well (I'm thinking about some massive black tower, bristling with guns and power armoured soldiers, to destroy and bring peace to the land). So it's like your not just leveling up for it's own sake - it's toward a big objective. I like how they implemented part of it as well - you don't have to level up to the dragons level, you can by chance find crystal armour, and each piece you have drops the dragons level alot. Once you beat the dragon, the crystal armour turns to dust. It just seems somehow cooler to beat the dragon not just by accumulating loads of XP, but through a special method. I'll have to steal that idea!

[Jackolantern]

You can set end-game goals for players without actually removing persistence. In an older intro to the MUD Achaea (which was changed for some reason some time ago), new players had a part of their tour that included being told what some of the loftiest goals in the game were, such as being the leader of one of the 5 cities, hitting level 99 and becoming an incredibly powerful dragon, or the loftiest of all goals in that game, becoming a god (aka a paid game staff member). That way, it does still give a purpose to the leveling, but without having to basically tell players that they are eventually going to get booted out the door once they hit the top of the game.

[hallsofvallhalla]

yeah goals are great. More than quest goals though, Give the player something to work towards that means something.

Back on combat, to me it doesn't matter how descriptive the system, if it the whole battle is done in one refresh it kills it.

[Callan S.]

Halls, you didn't like the combat in this one, then? It's a one page battle?


Jack, well, in terms of continuing to play because you want to, that's a good thing about the crystal armour in this game because it dissapears after you kill the dragon (turns to dust). So if you want to beat the dragon again, you collect them again. And of couse you don't lose your levels. Where in a system where you could only level up to the dragon, once your high enough level to beat it - well, there's no point leveling more. I like the crystal armour design in this.

[Jackolantern]

Ohhh, ok. I thought you meant the game basically ended when you beat the dragon. If not, then we were basically talking about the same thing.