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shadowfyr · 07-19-2003, 04:25 PM

There is a good reason why graphics based systems don't innovate much. Atually, two. The first involves graphics design. Even the new game that lets you DM a campaign for AD&D is limited to 'its' graphics, 'its' colors and 'its' skeleton designs for mobs. Until a more proctical and universal means to do these things, that doesn't require hundreds of hours of development to impliment, becomes available, you are not going to see someone making an online game with 10000 types of monsters and 60 unique player races. The other issue is how much the players machine can/must store to make it work and how to get it to them. Add-on packs are nice, but you end up paying extra from them and then they can't and won't extend things in the game in quite the way that you can in a text system. Though a text based game is also limited in what is possible by its mechanics (like trying to do real time room description changes, without coding 90 different versions to show depending on situation). There are serious weaknesses in both types which will only disappear when the graphical versions support the level of customization needed to match what a text based game can do. Maybe when Internet 2 is finally available and you can download the needed patches as needed in a few milliseconds, but not now. lol

But I have to agree with comment made here about races. Ages of Despair has around 32. They where never well balanced, with a few being at the top of the food chain and over used, while other are rarely used at all and literally at the bottom of the food chain. Only a hand full have special abilities, and a few of those are useless since they only give a bonus to certain skills (and then only if 'in' that guild). The admin are last I heard doing a complete reworking of the system and I would not be surprised to find 1/4 to 1/2 of them removed completely. The rest it seems are going to get unique abilities added to them. However, such takes time...

One thing for certain, you have to make sure to consider such things and make them each unique from the start. It is probably far less complex than fixing other things more closely tied to complex game mechanics, but still a royal pain in the rear to have to go back and redo if you goof.

07-19-2003, 04:25 PM	#29
shadowfyr Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 310	There is a good reason why graphics based systems don't innovate much. Atually, two. The first involves graphics design. Even the new game that lets you DM a campaign for AD&D is limited to 'its' graphics, 'its' colors and 'its' skeleton designs for mobs. Until a more proctical and universal means to do these things, that doesn't require hundreds of hours of development to impliment, becomes available, you are not going to see someone making an online game with 10000 types of monsters and 60 unique player races. The other issue is how much the players machine can/must store to make it work and how to get it to them. Add-on packs are nice, but you end up paying extra from them and then they can't and won't extend things in the game in quite the way that you can in a text system. Though a text based game is also limited in what is possible by its mechanics (like trying to do real time room description changes, without coding 90 different versions to show depending on situation). There are serious weaknesses in both types which will only disappear when the graphical versions support the level of customization needed to match what a text based game can do. Maybe when Internet 2 is finally available and you can download the needed patches as needed in a few milliseconds, but not now. lol But I have to agree with comment made here about races. Ages of Despair has around 32. They where never well balanced, with a few being at the top of the food chain and over used, while other are rarely used at all and literally at the bottom of the food chain. Only a hand full have special abilities, and a few of those are useless since they only give a bonus to certain skills (and then only if 'in' that guild). The admin are last I heard doing a complete reworking of the system and I would not be surprised to find 1/4 to 1/2 of them removed completely. The rest it seems are going to get unique abilities added to them. However, such takes time... One thing for certain, you have to make sure to consider such things and make them each unique from the start. It is probably far less complex than fixing other things more closely tied to complex game mechanics, but still a royal pain in the rear to have to go back and redo if you goof.