Readables in Fan Missions – too long, Audiolog Syndrome

ffox on 12/12/2017 at 16:14

I reluctantly agree. A player is more likely to read it all if it is in small chunks. My usual practice is to give up on the 3rd page of a long epistle!

However I still reckon that authors should aim to emulate the OMs and reduce readables to a minimum.

SilenHorn on 12/12/2017 at 17:18

Very interesting disscussion. In my experience, readables in OM tends to be much shorter than in FM.
I personally love to figure out which readables bits are important gameplay wise and which are just flavor text. The best is when a readable do both, for example love letters alluding to secrets rendez-vous, directing the player to hidden passages/ places.

Judith on 13/12/2017 at 11:42

Maybe it's also age thing, and matter of priorities. Games with long texts like Torment were all good in high school, when you had a lot of time. When you spend most of your time at work and with family, you want your time with games to be a quality time too. It may sound a bit harsh, but when I have an hour and I want to play an FM, I don't want to spend more than, let's say 10 minutes of that time going through readables. Now go watch one of Fen's FM letsplays, and see how much time he spends reading.

gamophyte on 13/12/2017 at 13:46

I will say that, if your world is interesting, in that it has features that intrigue you, you won't mind reading things that may explain them. Also pacing is just as important with readables as it is in mission design.

My early readables, early in thinking the player will be in certain areas early will have short blurbs about some products of the world, and even some establishing texts that there is a conflict of standards of time in the city and how it annoys people making them late. I can expand on what that is later, all while giving clues to some loot as well. The player will forget how many pages there are if it's done well. I clung to text in OM however short or long, because things were so new, I wanted to know why certain things were happening.

Zoro on 13/12/2017 at 14:57

I never mind reading if i have time, but as myself -- I would like to put important stuff into small notes, or automatically written in Notes/Map section (like in CoSaS missions) after reading certain books. I don't want to obligate anyone reading readables in my missions no longer, but I also don't want to limit myself adding side-story books somewhere in a library inside mansion, even with long texts. Perhaps, I should add a note about that in FMs readme as well.

trefoilknot on 13/12/2017 at 15:22

But then you just pass the buck, and make players read the readme!!

Jk :cheeky:

john9818a on 13/12/2017 at 17:59

In my last mission I set up the readables do that the relevant information or clues were in scrolls that the player could pick up, but any readable that wasn't necessary simply remained in place. IMO information that isn't really relevant to the player's reason for being there should be short and to the point. The readables are already breaking the emersion but this is an inherent feature of Thief. I can deal with a few pages in a book as long as the text keeps me interested and doesn't sound like someone rambling just to fulfill a minimum word count.

PinkDot on 13/12/2017 at 18:27

I also think using more specific artworks for the books and maybe replacing the books system completely with pre-made artworks only (so that would limit it to one screen - two book pages, unless we can have a slide-show) can bring back interest in certain readables. Especially these, which have specific purpose, like ledgers, which would have rows and columns of small digits. The bookkeeping notes with the default font and book artwork look just so clumsy and not convincing at all.

Letters could have custom handwriting, which could be really chaotic on those "my-last-words-before-death" type of letters etc... which again would make them more believable.

I know somebody will say you can use decals, which is great, but still often not enough to achieve certain effects.

Judith on 14/12/2017 at 08:45

Instead of debating the length of readables though, I'd rather see a discussion on how to make a level interesting from a gameplay perspective, so FMs can have more options like this: (https://youtu.be/lamAqI8v7Y0?t=1m12s)

trefoilknot on 14/12/2017 at 12:19

Sure, but isn't this thread specifically about readables?