VBU proposals

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Aegohl
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VBU proposals

Post by Aegohl »

Before I begin I want to say the game is more fantastic than ever and I realize that it's still a work in progress and that some of these things are likely already on your todo list. That being said, these are some of the things I've considered as I explore the vbu:

1. When you have your inventory and bag open it can take a lot of the screen. This could be fatal in case of an ambush or embarrassing in the case of someone stopping to rp and leaving before you can exit everything. My natural reflex is to hit "esc" but doing that just asks me if I want to leave the game. Would it be possible to program it so that when you have other menus open and hit esc it closes all menus and if not it asks if you want out? That would be helpful and in line with what I think most people are used to from other games, allowing an easier learning curve.

2. Speaking of how things usually work in other games, in most online games just like Illarion when you hit enter you can then enter text into the chat window; however, in most of those games when you end your sentence and hit enter the text entering field is toggled back off so you have to hit enter again to enter text. While I assume Illarion does it different because a lot of chatting is done in rp at one time, I find that instead I'm entering text and hitting enter, walking away, and then, for example, hitting i to open my inventory only to realize I'm entering text in the chat window. While I could learn not to do that with practice, I think it's easier for people to learn when the game conforms to how most games on the market run.

3. This might seem odd, but the vendors just have too many items. The menus are daunting and I have a hard time remembering who sells what as a result. I think a lot of the bits and pieces could be player-made only. Maybe the craft system could be simplified to use less items. I haven't really messed with the craft system to say if that's also complicated.

4. Character creation has gone virtually unchanged for half a decade and I think there's no getting around the attributes being misleading or confusing no matter if you have example classes to work from or descriptions or whatever. I think in the future a system where you pick a cascade of characteristics might be better both to avoid the boredom and confusion of just sliding points around and in character building rp-wise. For example, you might pick a class (knight, rogue, wizard, peasant, noble, etc..), a patron god, an element (fire, water, spirit, etc..), a race (halfling, elf, human..), and a zodiac sign (from Jen's old Illarion zodiac linked to from the calendar). All attributes would have a base of, say, 8 points and each of those choices would add or subtract from that base. The advantage of this is that it allows you to pick concrete things about your character rather than abstract numbers and it makes it so even rp noobs with no past experience at least have the basics of a character design.

Anyhow, I'll probably add more as I go as long as this thread remains friendly. If anyone else wants to add suggestions please do so but keep it positive and concrete. Thanks. =)

P.S. It looks like you could use some art for buttons and such. I noticed the inventory and character sheet buttons are pretty ad lib. I'll see if I can make something and I'll post it.
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Aegohl
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Re: VBU proposals

Post by Aegohl »

I forgot another one that I had on my mind:

5. It would be nice if you could leave weapons in your weapon hand and just hit a button to "sheathe" the weapon and then "unsheathe" when you plan to use it again. This would be far preferable than the current state of going through your inventory and finding your sword and putting it in the slot.
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Achae Eanstray
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Re: VBU proposals

Post by Achae Eanstray »

If you look at Mantis and change the right hand button to "Feature" you can see quite a few proposals for improvements there.. some you listed may be a duplicate there and I am sure all are welcome though.
http://illarion.org/community/forums/vi ... =1&t=33488
Damien
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Re: VBU proposals

Post by Damien »

Small side hint: Don't waste time trying to remember who sells exactly what if you need standard items. Every smith will sell and buy almost everything of his ware category.
You'll find it much easier to search items by scrolling down instead of searching by walking from one npc across half the map to another.
You may still have to teleport to another town though since you don't have every handcraft in every town, but in my opinion that's way simpler than finding single remote NPCs to hopefully get what you need. Could end very fatal on this map too. :mrgreen:
kitmubet
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Re: VBU proposals

Post by kitmubet »

i dont know about number 4 some parts may be considered "class based"
while for the Race part each race has different min and max already so the same as that in a way

the only isue i think there really is just #4 of the 5 you said so far

but yes there are learning curve especialy right click attack :twisted: that would be nicer if it wasn't
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PurpleMonkeys
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Re: VBU proposals

Post by PurpleMonkeys »

Something like Mount and Blade's character creation would be amazing. Gear and attributes determined by parents, childhood, previous occupation, and reason for departure.. with a few points at the end to touch up what you're given. Or like in TES: Arena and other games I can't remember at the moment where you are given scenarios and answer how you would handle the problem. But if this ever happened I think it would be restrictive to some so it should probably be optional.
Damien
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Re: VBU proposals

Post by Damien »

Yeah, right click and then an interaction menu popup would be indeed nicer.
I really miss the old "report to Gamemasters" tag.
:twisted:
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