Re: bonus parameters progression

At Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:17:38 -0700, Ray Dillinger wrote:

Xecutor wrote:

i.e. there can be useful numbers on low level equipment, and ever
growing numbers (but not too fast)
on equipment of higher levels.
But actual bonus parameter will still have reasonable value.

What do you think about this?

It's a game. You're in the business of mapping numbers to
meanings anyway, so why not just map the numbers to a different
meaning rather than mapping them to a different number which
is mapped to a different meaning? Seriously, think about it;
you're essentially converting units here - maybe from a linear
to a logarithmic scale, but still converting units. Why not
just do everything in the other system of units instead of
embedding a conversion into the game?

I remember a paper about some experiments on how users perceive
progress bars. They tested several different schemes of growth
of the progress bar: irregular, linear, exponential, logarythmic,
multi-stepped, continous, etc. In all cases, it took the same time
for the progress bar to finish, but users reported great differences
in perceived speeds. The conclusion was that linear, continous
growth was considered the second fastest. Exponentially accelerating
progress bar was perceived the fastest.

I'm thinking that similar distortion of perception might happen
when you are displaying bonuses and stats. Using certain non-intuitive
scales, like logarithmic and exponential, can be used to greatly
reinforce the feeling of satisfaction, for example.

--
Radomir Dopieralski, http://sheep.art.pl
.

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