Re: Turnbasing 3DRL

jude hungerford wrote in
news:1134668383.945669.79120@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx:

> Diablo is indeed more acceptable for non RL players than
> RLs, but as an RL gamer, I found the gameplay experience to be
> utter garbage. Click-wait. Click-wait. Click-wait. Repeat ten
> thousand times. Not much fun.
> There are at least two ways to integrate 3d graphics with RL games
> which I would find acceptable (the second of which I hope to
> implement... maybe ten years down the track when I have a stable
> game).
> 1) use 3d graphics, half-tile movement, whatever, but allow
> players to switch the animations off and play at keypress speed
> (with the keyboard, no mouse required). Having the game run at the
> speed I type is a fundamental requirement for me.

The animations shouldn't need to be switched off; the only possible
reason for doing that would be to save computer resources. As far as
game-play is concerned, animations are not things which should
require waiting; the game should simply give the player the option to
continue playing even as the animation is running, perhaps cutting
the animation short if the player chooses to not wait for it.

Of course, that's only for a roguelike with it's turn-based timing.
In a real-time game like Diablo, the waiting is absolutely necessary,
because actions cannot be instantaneous or else the real-time nature
of the game is defeated. The animation only exists as something to
fill the time and hopefully keep the player from being annoyed by the
wait. Specifically, you aren't supposed to be watching the walking
animation; you are supposed to be watching the monsters that are
approaching and judging the time it will take for them to get to you
and how far you can make it before that happens.

> 2) Run the game in ASCII. Keep a complete record of everything
> that happens in the game. When the player dies or wins, offer the
> option "Render animation?". If the player chooses "yes", the game
> then renders a complete, beautiful animation of that character's
> life. I'd be very happy to sit back and watch such a thing. But
> integrating it with the gameplay experience would ruin both for
> me.

That's a very cute idea, but it would probably end up looking like
just a very tedious replay of every little thing, or else it would be
an enormously difficult project.

I suppose the most practical way to make it interesting would be to
remove duplicate actions from the final animation. By that I mean,
the game would find uninteresting events and strip them out. If the
PC crosses a room from one door to another, and nothing happens
between here and there, then animate that crossing as if it were a
direct straight line, instead of square by square. If the PC crosses
several rooms like that, then show only one; don't repeat the almost
identical animation.

When it comes to fighting monsters, we'd want to forget the turn-
based back-and-forth that happens in the actual game and instead
animate a fun, real-time fight. If we can't do that, then it would be
best to make all the battles seem to be just one or two blows, so as
not to bore the viewer.

Ideally, what we would get would be some kind of movie inspired by
the game that was just played (with a moving camera, nice lighting,
all the extras), instead of a simple derivation that was mechanically
ground out.
.

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