Offtopic:
I somehow read that in Yatzee's voice from Zero Punctuation.
Ontopic:
Almost everything about motivation in games derives from the skinner-box discussion so I'm not going to repeat that. I'd just like to point out that a game designer should always treat number inflation in terms of levels and stats completely separate from player advancement in terms of knowledge about his environment and the gameplay mechanics and execution of the gameplay.
It is completely valid to use number inflation to open up gameplay content gradually in order to always give the player just enough new content to maintain a sense of discovery without making him feel lost. One typical way of doing this is restricting complex magic-systems to higher levels. That way the player can gradually learn about what the specific resistance-stats actually do one after the other.
On the other hand you should also very consciously think about what level of player-skill you expect at what point. You intuitively wouldn't put the hardest fight of the game in the tutorial, but you need to think well about what skills the player must learn and master at what stage. Some Castlevania games did this very well. You started out fighting against almost static zombies and ended up evading multiple types of flying enemies and projectiles near the end. The original Super Mario Brothers is also an example of this gradual growth of both mechanics and difficulty.
@Shotglass:
I'm an avid follower of Extra Credits. Anyone who wants to design games should be forced to sit through the whole series. Many disasters would be averted.
Vain
I somehow read that in Yatzee's voice from Zero Punctuation.
Ontopic:
Almost everything about motivation in games derives from the skinner-box discussion so I'm not going to repeat that. I'd just like to point out that a game designer should always treat number inflation in terms of levels and stats completely separate from player advancement in terms of knowledge about his environment and the gameplay mechanics and execution of the gameplay.
It is completely valid to use number inflation to open up gameplay content gradually in order to always give the player just enough new content to maintain a sense of discovery without making him feel lost. One typical way of doing this is restricting complex magic-systems to higher levels. That way the player can gradually learn about what the specific resistance-stats actually do one after the other.
On the other hand you should also very consciously think about what level of player-skill you expect at what point. You intuitively wouldn't put the hardest fight of the game in the tutorial, but you need to think well about what skills the player must learn and master at what stage. Some Castlevania games did this very well. You started out fighting against almost static zombies and ended up evading multiple types of flying enemies and projectiles near the end. The original Super Mario Brothers is also an example of this gradual growth of both mechanics and difficulty.
@Shotglass:
I'm an avid follower of Extra Credits. Anyone who wants to design games should be forced to sit through the whole series. Many disasters would be averted.
Vain
I really liked CTRA a lot. But I did so only because I had a free license for all tiers due to being a STCC driver. If I hadn't I would've despised it and not played LFS during CTRA's reign of terror.
I don't like any sort of leveling system that withholds content from me. The last time I enjoyed anything of that sort was in RTCW: Enemy Territory and I believe I liked that game despite the leveling system, not because of it.
So in short, I hope CTRA stays dead forever, unless I get a free license.
Vain
I don't like any sort of leveling system that withholds content from me. The last time I enjoyed anything of that sort was in RTCW: Enemy Territory and I believe I liked that game despite the leveling system, not because of it.
So in short, I hope CTRA stays dead forever, unless I get a free license.
Vain
There has been a discussion in Germany regarding the prosecution of foreign websites that offer child pornography and the consensus among politicians was that it was apparently completely impossible to have any sort of impact on their operations because they are in a different country, even if the provided content is illegal there.
But apparently dropping the hammer on a Hong Kong registered company from the US and jailing a New Zealand resident at the same time is easy when it's about copyright infringements by the users of a website. I still don't know what exactly the exact allegations are and on what basis the arrest was executed.
I have personally done things that are considered illegal in other countries but that aren't in Germany. Do I have to live in fear of foreign prosecution?
Vain
But apparently dropping the hammer on a Hong Kong registered company from the US and jailing a New Zealand resident at the same time is easy when it's about copyright infringements by the users of a website. I still don't know what exactly the exact allegations are and on what basis the arrest was executed.
I have personally done things that are considered illegal in other countries but that aren't in Germany. Do I have to live in fear of foreign prosecution?
Vain
@Butz:
Many greetz to you too.
Vain
Many greetz to you too.
Vain
Very well put.
I also toy around with simulated tyres in Matlab once in a while and I can see why it takes Scawen so long to come up with something really better than what we have now, but I would've struggled to put it so nicely. Again, well done.
By the way, I didn't realize before that the virtual tyre rig would allow the automated generation of (a large set of) Pacejka-constants. I wonder whether that's the route Scawen is taking.
I still firmly believe Scawen is devoting way too much time to issues we as players mostly don't even notice while he neglects issues as secondary that we very much notice, but that's his decision to make.
Vain
As far as I know BMW uses the same engine components in its lower range engines and the respective "Efficient Dynamics" versions. If you had a wizard's hat, a laptop and an electronically reprogrammable ECU you could switch between the two versions of the engine any time you wanted.
The lower consumption version doesn't generate less power because it has a sub-optimum mapping but because the engineers took desperate manners in order to avoid inefficient states of operation for those customers that want even the last bit of efficiency possible. Those customers that don't want to sacrifice 10% engine peak power to gain 5% of average fuel efficiency can choose the other mapping and be happy with their car, too.
Vain
I love how you were going 200 km/h in a tunnel and then you were passed by a subway train. I'll think about that on my way to work tomorrow.
Vain
Make your co-workers/-students play Skyrim and talk about Skyrim whenever you see them at work/university/school.
I'm still not convinced I'd enjoy Skyrim so instead I fired up Morrowind and continued my last attempt at playing.
It's going rather smoothly at the moment because I almost maxed out on alchemy so whenever I have to go anywhere I make a few potions of levitation and then I fly there. It's a bit boring though because I have to fly very high to avoid airborn monsters which means I can only see fog below.
Vain
Did any of those people who like Skyrim also play Morrowind?
I used to try to get into that game but it was extremely unfocused story-wise. Either I felt like I was getting lost in side-quests upon side-quests without making any noticeable progress or I felt like I was leaving out a lot of interesting stuff by focusing on the main-story. Out of about 7 honest attempts to complete the game I never managed to keep at it until the end.
I've been watching videos of Skyrim on youtube out of curiosity and I think it is extremely similar in its gameplay and story.
Is there any improvement over the way Morrowind handled the story?
Vain
I used to try to get into that game but it was extremely unfocused story-wise. Either I felt like I was getting lost in side-quests upon side-quests without making any noticeable progress or I felt like I was leaving out a lot of interesting stuff by focusing on the main-story. Out of about 7 honest attempts to complete the game I never managed to keep at it until the end.
I've been watching videos of Skyrim on youtube out of curiosity and I think it is extremely similar in its gameplay and story.
Is there any improvement over the way Morrowind handled the story?
Vain
Page 404: Error not found.
To add to the discussion:
A talented driver doesn't need a simulator, but a less talented driver (like myself) can definitely take a good bit of knowledge from looking at a virtual track a few hundred times. So yes, every bit of accuracy helps, but it won't elevate the sim-driver above average.
Vain
Apply the most recent official patch and then learn how to play.
Afterwards, when you know all cars and all stages by memory, consider going for mods.
Vain
Afterwards, when you know all cars and all stages by memory, consider going for mods.
Vain
Definitely B.
Features:
1. Not bad chance of survival.
2. A freezer that doesn't need energy!?! Once you're off the island you sell that little trinket to the highest bidding company and then, after you've become rich and famous for having solved the whole planet's energy-problems you buy yourself ... Europe or something.
Vain
Features:
1. Not bad chance of survival.
2. A freezer that doesn't need energy!?! Once you're off the island you sell that little trinket to the highest bidding company and then, after you've become rich and famous for having solved the whole planet's energy-problems you buy yourself ... Europe or something.
Vain
I'm completely baffled by this thread. Yeah, specific doped superconductors can't move relative to magnetic field lines without applying a comparatively high force. Next week: The speed of light is (spooky voice) finite.
Vain
I'm not a lawyer, but I recently studied german patent and copyright law for my own purposes. Since no one else said anything about this yet I'll give a quick answer.
According to german copyright law (which is identical to pretty much the rest of the world due to international copyright agreements):
You can sell your edit without the original artist's consent only when your own changes to the object are more defining to the object than the original item you edited.
E.g.: If your car model only looks the way it does because it was based on a Ford you have to ask for Ford's consent. If your model looks the way it does despite being based on a Ford you don't. So no, changing the name is most definitely not sufficient.
(Yes, I realize that this means quite a lot of LFS's cars inflict on existing copyrights. But since they do so only partially (Eric did add his own ideas) a lawsuit wouldn't be very productive and thus not worth the effort.)
I hope this helps.
Vain
Well they already thought that they had done a good job on the original physics and ai, so it's anyone's guess what they mean by "better".
Vain
Watched it in full yesterday. Very nice video. Thanks for posting it.
Vain
This game can be seriously improved with the right soundtrack.
In other news, the scientists of my space program have recently discovered that the standard throttle setting isn't 100%! The future pre-launch check will now include the throttle setting. Rocket science is hard, isn't it?
Vain
[Edit]
The experimental "100% Throttle"-technology has apparently been applied successfully during the last mission! Radio contact with the test vessel was lost at 2500km distance at which point it was still going at several km per second. Jebediah, Bill and Bob will be remembered as heros forever...
...If we had known this earlier, we could've saved us a parachute... Such a waste...
In other news, the scientists of my space program have recently discovered that the standard throttle setting isn't 100%! The future pre-launch check will now include the throttle setting. Rocket science is hard, isn't it?
Vain
[Edit]
The experimental "100% Throttle"-technology has apparently been applied successfully during the last mission! Radio contact with the test vessel was lost at 2500km distance at which point it was still going at several km per second. Jebediah, Bill and Bob will be remembered as heros forever...
...If we had known this earlier, we could've saved us a parachute... Such a waste...
Last edited by Vain, .
FGED GREDG RDFGDR GSFDG