(This obviously isn’t me)
My attempt to finish Captain Jameson’s bounty system wandered further off track when I realized that ol’ Captain Clippy would also need to store and retrieve messages. What’s more, lengthy text fields really don’t belong on the main game screen anymore. I need to put this in the terminal window. I ditched Clippy and started building a simple mail system for the game. It’s functional at the moment, but it needs things like message notifications and new-message counts before it’ll be of any use. This led me to work on arguably the most critical part of the system – the notification beep.
I can’t just use a single beep or it’ll get lost among the general interface noise. No, I need to play a 3-4 note sting. It’s surprising how expressive these can be. Depending on which scale you use you can create something despondent, triumphant, alarming, or discordant. The difference between your first and last notes can suggest that something has finished, or that something is still in motion. I’m sure there’s a lot more to it than that, but I’ll have to leave music theory study ’till I’ve finished the game.
I ended up picking out a 0-5-7-12-7 pattern, since the first four notes neatly congratulate the player (“You completed a goal!”), and the last implies unfinished action (“Go read your email!”). I was about to blutack a microphone to my PC speaker (Yes, this is how I make Captain Forever’s beeps) when I realized why the tune held such appeal. I was pretty sure it was from Gradius. In fact, it reminded me of the tune played whenever you drop a credit into the machine. “Congratulations on your purchase! Your game is about to start!”. You can hear it in the youtube clip here. Luckily they turned out to be slightly different, so my version should be okay. Heck, after the thousandth time I hear it I might drop the second and third notes anyway.
<3 Farbs
Why don’t you just swarm info-buoys around important structures, and center the messages when they are activated?
I found this quite interesting. I think that sound works well for notifications, perhaps have the longer version for important objectives, the shorter version for brief notifications, to save the player from fatigue of hearing it over and over. I had a go at myself, it think the best I could do so far was 9-7-4-0-2. It sounds like it would fit for ‘completing an objective’ since it’s quite triumphant and still feels continual. I tried to combine the two and it turns out you get a great sound. I guess that would be…
(0 and 19, 0 and 17, 5 and 14, 5 and 10, 7 and 12)
If you want to try it
The only thing I’d say about the Clippy system (or quest ui, or journal or mission hub or whathaveyou) is that they either become a nightmare mesh of interfaces and micromanagement, or they simply break immersion. One of CF’s strength is making everything feel natural and believable though, so I have faith you’ll break the trend.
This is why i like you. You care about the smallest, obsolete things. Which without, the game would fail.
All I can say is that the chromatic laser sounds from the previous games are so awesome..
the sounds themselves, or the fact that they play a tune when fired repeatedly ?
Both! But yeah, the lazer spam melody is, as you said in your previous post, one of those lovely little touches that really makes the game so rich.
A few requests/suggestions/thoughts:
1: Undefined quests. I completely agree with Vaconcovat’s comment a few posts back. It’s discovering how to scrap modules, then playing effectively to capitalise on it, that makes it enjoyable. If you give the player an objective but no directions, it’s a puzzle. An objective WITH directions feels like a a chore.
2: Some kind of flight log. When you export your ship from Successor, the evolution of the craft can be spooled through. An expanded version of this that also could record your resource management, use of modules, opponents defeated, path through the universe etc would be very cool. Exporting this data for comparison with other players would be even better.
3: Derelict ships. Imagine wandering is some distant, unpopulated area of the verse, and stumbling across a huge derelict craft. Coming across the remnants of older battles would give the verse a sense of age; in Successor, everything seems new-born. The modules that comprise the wrecks could be heavily damaged, faulty, and often completely inoperative, ensuring the player doesn’t receive a bunch of free modules for nothing.
4: Strong atmosphere. The slow decline of oxygen is a nice touch, but I’d like something a little sinister to happen occasionally; for example, you could receive distress signals from unarmed craft under attack, or encounter a ship that silently follows you but flees if fired upon.
5: More interaction. You get a lot of messages in Successor, but you can only respond with attack or indifference. I’m not sure how, but a way of communicating other than gunfire would be nice. Speaking of which…
6: A peaceful option. In my very first attempt at Forever, I was reluctant to fire upon passive ships, and felt guilty when I did. Once I realised there wasn’t much of an alternative, it didn’t seem to matter. The ability of advance without the use of weapons could restore the moral implications of attacking a passive ship, and might increase the overall immersion.
7: Keep the lovely little touches. The laser spam melody (term coined by Berin), symmetry cultists and command line interface all contribute to the game’s unique feel, and I’d love to see all of them and more in Jameson.
Lastly, I’d just like to thank you for listening to your community. When reading your blog, it’s clear that you value the suggestions and opinions of those who comment.
ZS
In concern to point 3, everything IS relatively new-born, due to the “Sector-wide explosion” created by your ship. The idea is that when you start playing, you take up where another pilot left off, after s/he exploded.
And i like the idea of distress signals coming from ships in need, like the stations do when you attack them.
Forgive me, I was writing at around 3:00am (I live in the UK). I’m aware of the sector wide explosion, and I enjoy triggering it when my ship gets decimated, exacting petty revenge on the huge cruiser that just pummelled my hard earned modules into space dust. I believe the story is that you take command of the Eris (or the Nemesis in Forever) because the previous pilot is weary of the verse, and wants you to take care of the vessel in his/her absence. That adds a sense of age by itself, but I think Jameson is about the exploration of an existing verse, and doesn’t follow in the wake of such an explosion, so other ways of making the verse feel old might be appropriate; such as derelict ships.