ID:152701
 Jan 17 2006, 3:29 am
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In my new RPG, I am kind of wanting more use of the browser. I am thinking of setting many things in the browser, such as your stats and skill tree, as well as of course the information needed to play the game. Many people like to use the HUD instead though. What are your opinions? I feel the browser system is a better idea, as there would be less lag for you, and it is more definite in terms of that it will work. For some things however, such as verbs, I will use buttons on the screen to access them. I will also add in the Health, Skill Points, and Experience globes so you can tell about how much longer you can go without dying. So please tell me, what are your opinions about this system? Is it a good one?
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HUD! Get used to it! Part of being a great developer is the ability to manage your screen space. Remove the browser and info tab and set to up your game to be wide screen. That's something you don't see often.
Bad HUD A lot of space was used for useless crap and the buttons are huge words with lots of space between. Good HUD This was better, and not as much space was wasted. It coulbe be improved by resizing the upgrade buttons and changing the pictures to buttons. Great HUD The best HUD of the three. The construction trees may be brought down and there is little useless clutter. The only down side is the lack of art skills. | |
Great HUD I actually found that game's HUD to be a little too complicated, when I gave it a whirl on my localhost... mostly due to the lack of a well-written manual. It's hard to understand why some of the buttons are disabled at different times if there's no indication of tech trees, available actions, etc. in the manual. I like exploring gameplay, but I'd prefer not to have to explore a game to learn how to play (another reason why SS13 ultimately started to piss me off ;-)). | |
A good mix of the both is good. I have found that using a 32-16-32 size format is good for a hud, running across the bottom. 32x32 on both sides for stats, and a 16x32 bar running between them for verbs. Also, try to condence verb usage to a minimum, make a browser page for most anything that requires multiple levels of clicks(Say preferences, or expanded stats and skills). One of the worst things I see in games today(at least on byond) is the need for 70 verbs. You have one for fishing, one for cooking, one for attacking and so on. What you could do is have an action verb and use mouse for targeting. If you have targeted a, lets say, wolf, and you click action, you will attack it.But if you select a stove, and click action, you will attempt to cook something, if possible. Well, you get my point. The browser is a great place for bulk info, but not really good for anything that is real time(like health meters), huds are great for easy access to the most common functions, but not that great to give a large ammount of info or an expanded list of commands.
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Scoobert wrote:
Also, try to condence verb usage to a minimum, make a browser page for most anything that requires multiple levels of clicks(Say preferences, or expanded stats and skills). One of the worst things I see in games today(at least on byond) is the need for 70 verbs. You have one for fishing, one for cooking, one for attacking and so on. What you could do is have an action verb and use mouse for targeting. If you have targeted a, lets say, wolf, and you click action, you will attack it.But if you select a stove, and click action, you will attempt to cook something, if possible. Well, you get my point. I like your point here Scoobert. You are saying keep it minimized verbs, and one verb can do more than just one thing depending on what it is used for. I plan on having it very interactive, so a verb like that would be very good. I plan on the attack system more like that as well, but I am not sure how that will work out, I may use the HUD for stuff like that, although I also do not want the HUD filled with useless stuff... Eh, I'll toy around with all 3 areas, and try to find what looks best. I do plan on using the browser for the Faq, as well as many of the level-up, skill tree, a screen for telling you what quests you have, etc. Hopefully this will be a great system, thank you for the ideas. If you have any more input, please tell me. | |
Some people like to use verbs, though, so what I usually try to do is make every HUD/browser operation able to be triggered via a verb; but then I set the verb's category to null so that it doesn't show up on the verb panels.
Also remember that Unix Dreamseeker people can't use the browser and find HUDs inconvenient, so if you have verbs then they'll be happy. =) | |
Interesting, so you are saying that always have verbs just in case for the Unix people, but maybe like, let players toggle it if they would like the verb panels or not?
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Well, I have taken an all or nothing angle at Unix when it comes to game support. I don't want my *nix players to feel like they are second class citizens in my games, so I either give them just as much control, or I ignore thier existence.
Why? I don't want them coming in, trying to play, and wasting thier time. I have found that the unix version of DS is quite sub-par, even for only beind text based. Leaving many, many areas that make playing an RPG type game impossible, or darn close. Not being able to scroll though history is horrible, all the color formatting issues are not nice(sometimes the rgb translation into the standard 16 shell color is not so smooth), resizing the window causes some odd and very annoying effects, no browser support(which means no bulk text because you can't scroll either). I could keep going, but I am not going to, it brings up bad memorys. Point is, in the type of game he is making, trying to keep support for the unix version is just silly. In a chat environment, I would totaly agree with you(even though most of those flaws effect chats too, but not as bad), but the type of game he is making will rely on graphics and many features that the unix version cannot provide at this point. Now, keeping your hud commands as verbs is a great idea. if I can't/don't want to click the "action" hud button, I could type /action, or even have a macro predefined to say, I don't know, "a". I do find myself, in games with way too many buttons(like MLAAS), typing is verbs, because it is far faster than finding them on the ever shifting verb panel. But if the commands where narrowed, you would need that less, but macros would be very nice. | |
and as you pointed out, some things can't be done without too much time/effort ;0