Hi,
I was not able to play the game yet but I wanted to know if this feature would be implemented in the future (Or if this is already the case)
The captain's log.
The thing I love in this kind of game, is the stories players share on forums.
Will you implement a log that narrate the events that happened during the game, with 2/3 short texts for each events for the player to download when the game ends (Game over or Goal achieved)
Maybe in a .txt file with some light ASCII art.
#Colony Alka-Seltzer/.Stardate 2178.11
#Weather Forecast : Sunny
Entry#1 :
Today, a bunch of pirate tried to steal our cattle but we successfully pushed them back, sadly we lost Garry during the fight.
During its patrol, Rachel found a stranded container full of medicine, looks like it fell from the sky and was almost completely buried in the sand.
Lenny looks sick, the medicine will come in handy.
Entry#1 OVER-
I think it could add a lot to the roleplaying experience and help people to share stories (And spread the word about your game).
I remember reading great stories about Dwarf Fortress and your game have the same potential for epic tales.
PS: Please forgive my awful english.
From my experience, stories are better told by humans that can more easily relate facts to each other. A computer-filled captain's log would look cold and factual, lacking the personal touch only human can currently fully enjoy and share by writing.
I agree, but I'm not a great story teller, including this would serve as a frame for sharing a story.
And it can even be used in game to track down events since you can't have your eyes everywhere.
Quote from: CrayonMechant on September 18, 2013, 12:18:51 PM
Hi,
I was not able to play the game yet but I wanted to know if this feature would be implemented in the future (Or if this is already the case)
The captain's log.
The thing I love in this kind of game, is the stories players share on forums.
Will you implement a log that narrate the events that happened during the game, with 2/3 short texts for each events for the player to download when the game ends (Game over or Goal achieved)
Maybe in a .txt file with some light ASCII art.
#Colony Alka-Seltzer/.Stardate 2178.11
#Weather Forecast : Sunny
Entry#1 :
Today, a bunch of pirate tried to steal our cattle but we successfully pushed them back, sadly we lost Garry during the fight.
During its patrol, Rachel found a stranded container full of medicine, looks like it fell from the sky and was almost completely buried in the sand.
Lenny looks sick, the medicine will come in handy.
Entry#1 OVER-
I think it could add a lot to the roleplaying experience and help people to share stories (And spread the word about your game).
I remember reading great stories about Dwarf Fortress and your game have the same potential for epic tales.
PS: Please forgive my awful english.
I love, love, love this idea. It fits really well into a general class of story-recording mechanics I've been thinking about.
Have you ever played Civilization and seen how at the end of the game you get to see a fast-forwarded replay of the whole world map over the whole game, showing every civilization growing and swallowing each other? I think it's great for storytelling. It just records key info about what happened and shows it to the player, kickstarting the player's own ability to invent stories from it. I wrote about this sort of thing in an article once: http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/TynanSylvester/20130602/193462/
So yes, I think a log of events is something we want. Perhaps a graph of population and resources over time, with markers for specific events. Or some other format. But something that keeps records would be great for storymaking. I hadn't ever thought of just a straight up text log, but it's another possible way to do it. The tough thing is making the computer understand the significance of events and ignore the ones that don't matter. I wonder if we could even ask players to write their own logs as they play? Hmmm.
Hi,
I'm glad you thought of this before me ;D
No, I've never played Civilization before but I'm going to read your article.
I've found another exemple for the log, something that I really liked in Hitman Blood Money.
At the end of each mission, a newspaper generate the text accordingly to your actions during the game, it was pretty fun to read.
(http://imageshack.us/a/img295/7198/sluggerpaper1hh4.jpg)
Good example. I always loved those newspaper articles. I always wished they did more with them. They're so fun to read.
Quote from: Tynan on September 19, 2013, 01:58:27 AM
*snip*
I wonder if we could even ask players to write their own logs as they play?
It would have to be optional if this is the way it's going to happen imo, I just think that a lot of people wont be bothered with the deeper rp mechanics and will just want to build stuff instead of writing about how their in-game week went. Again, just my two cents.
Oh yes, definitely optional.
For me, the important thing is not if players will be able to edit their own log, but how they'll be able to put them in front of other people. I like the Steam way of allowing people to share guides on any games via the Steam interface. If user-written captain's log are available, they should be shared with the other players in a central place in the game interface.
Quote from: Hypolite on September 19, 2013, 01:30:50 PM
For me, the important thing is not if players will be able to edit their own log, but how they'll be able to put them in front of other people. I like the Steam way of allowing people to share guides on any games via the Steam interface. If user-written captain's log are available, they should be shared with the other players in a central place in the game interface.
I think that would depend on how hard that would be to code.
I can't speak for Tynan as I never had to code with Unity, but if sharing is too complicated to code, allowing people to write their own captain's log inside the game makes no sense anymore. Exporting a game-generated captain's log would still be interesting.
DF used to have a feature like this. The dwarfs would comission paintings and art on the wall that depicted traumatic and heroic event.
"This wall depicts a massive heard of flaming elephants standing ontop of a mountain of dead dwarfs..."
something like that.
There is a feature like this in Europa Universalis III in which you get to see all of the wars you've fought and why you fought them when the game ends. Like a historical record. "In the year 1658 of our beloved Lord, King James II defeated the Scottish Kingdom in the War of the Lancastarian Succession", or something like that. It is a nice feature which I've always enjoyed.
Quote from: elemenofi on September 19, 2013, 06:22:28 PM
There is a feature like this in Europa Universalis III in which you get to see all of the wars you've fought and why you fought them when the game ends. Like a historical record. "In the year 1658 of our beloved Lord, King James II defeated the Scottish Kingdom in the War of the Lancastarian Succession", or something like that. It is a nice feature which I've always enjoyed.
I feel I should play that game... I am just afraid it would eat my life.
Yes indeed. Be carefull. All of Paradox Studio games are real fun to me. You just need to be ready to stare into a map for really long periods of time.
You may start your game with Crusader Kings 2 from 867 to 1450, then convert it to EUIV and play from 1450 to 1800...
Real fun.
Quote from: Tynan on September 19, 2013, 06:24:05 PM
Quote from: elemenofi on September 19, 2013, 06:22:28 PM
Blablabla... Europa Universalis is good... blablabla...
I feel I should play that game... I am just afraid it would eat my life.
It might not...
But the desire to mod it...
That ate my life.
Im currently in rehab... forced by my wife.
Don't worry. You can start modding RimWorld instead (soon enough) :D
Quote from: Ogaburan on September 19, 2013, 06:45:46 PM
Quote from: Tynan on September 19, 2013, 06:24:05 PM
Quote from: elemenofi on September 19, 2013, 06:22:28 PM
Blablabla... Europa Universalis is good... blablabla...
I feel I should play that game... I am just afraid it would eat my life.
It might not...
But the desire to mod it...
That ate my life.
Im currently in rehab... forced by my wife.
I got my girlfriend to play Hearts of Iron III, and I didn't see her for about three days.
In Hearts of Iron you get some nice logs too. For example, when capital ships are sunk, it gets recorded. There is a ledger which keeps track of the whole statistics in the game and I think it is the last page that records which ship sunk which ship with the name of the battle and the date.
It is beautiful. When you have a ship which has lasted many battles, nerds like myself, enjoy goin back to the ledger to check all the victories and the powerful enemies defeated.
Lets be honest, keeping written record is something we are pretty good at doing.
It would also be cool if something like a weapon/ that has defeated many enemies of a special type or something gets a special title ( Ex. "The Great Squirrel Slayer" ), or maybe there can be a bill on the sculpting table to "Record Recent Event", giving a buff with the name "Good Memories" if they won, or if they lost many friends a debuff like "Bad Memories" or something.
Quote from: elemenofi on September 19, 2013, 06:27:46 PM
Yes indeed. Be carefull. All of Paradox Studio games are real fun to me. You just need to be ready to stare into a map for really long periods of time.
You may start your game with Crusader Kings 2 from 867 to 1450, then convert it to EUIV and play from 1450 to 1800...
Real fun.
Actually, with the Charlemagne DLC you get to start in 700-something where parts of the world is still tribal, pre-feudal lands. It's also the tipping point for actually being able to create a 1000-year kingdom.