Bulgarian_Taffer on 10/2/2019 at 20:35
Quote Posted by marbleman
How exactly will a decade and a half experience with Thief/DromEd/creative writing help you communicate with the community?
Okay, I give up. I admit that I have a certain problem with soft skills :) But I'm still learning :) By 2020 my soft skills can improve :P
Random_Taffer on 10/2/2019 at 20:45
Quote Posted by Bulgarian_Taffer
Yes, I want it. Just fix my nose please, it's not crooked :) :)
Let me guess - I have a decade and a half experience with Thief/DromEd/creative writing... Actually, I wanted to tell you I'm not happy how a certain group of people (many of them registered post-2010) treats older members on this board. It has already been hugely disturbing to watch how they treated Cardia for his FTM mission. Now, they've already been jumping on me for my "epic failure" comment. Memes and jokes are cool, direct insults are not - no matter if they're here or on other platforms. The problem is that we're not treated equally, mkay? Somebody deliberately names me and shames me on Twitter, and a lot of people have no problem with this. Yet they blame me for my "epic failure" comment, even if it's not insulting. Clearly a double standard. Either treat us equally, or don't bother with any of us. I know I don't belong to your hug-club, but I'm still an old TTLG'er, rright?
You are incapable of self-reflection, my dude. Play the victim card if you want, but
you started it. The "epic failure" comment was absolutely insulting. Not sure how it could be taken any other way. It was non-constructive and just kind of childish and nasty. Not fitting of someone your age. Not sure how you could expect to be treated any other way after that, honestly.
Nothing to do with being a hugbox, either- this isn't the same thing as critiquing someone's mission. This is just throwing a temper tantrum (for a retarded reason) and then holding resentment after you were put in your place.
DarkMax on 10/2/2019 at 21:02
Butthurt of epic proportions.
Bulgarian_Taffer on 11/2/2019 at 11:02
Quote Posted by Random_Taffer
You are incapable of self-reflection, my dude. Play the victim card if you want, but
you started it. The "epic failure" comment was absolutely insulting.
I have a spare napkin. I can offer it to anyone who wants it.
Yandros on 11/2/2019 at 13:49
I will be moving all of these vitriolic and somewhat off-topic posts to their own thread when I have the chance. I am just starting a long day of work, though, so you will have to wait - something not everyone here is good at.
I will remind everyone here that the TDP20 contest missions were released precisely within the window I announced before the deadline, and not even a single minute later. BT, you just objected to the fact that it was some number of hours after the deadline, I guess because you expected me and Brethren to get up at 3am our time on a Saturday to do it so you wouldn't have to sit around waiting in your time zone. How you can continue to expect anyone to consider that a reasonable viewpoint is honestly beyond me.
Judith on 11/2/2019 at 16:41
Quote:
I am a gamer. I'm impatient. Impatience is a virtue of modern gaming, which centers on instant gratification.
This is one of the things we should consider when we create our Fan Missions. They have to be rewarding, rather than frustrating and time wasting. Endless lockpicks, hard puzzles, having to come here and ask for guidance isn't cool.
While I think that's anything but a virtue, a question of pacing and valuing the time of your audience is important. Since most of FM players have jobs, spouses, family duties, etc., do you really need an 8-hour campaign (or mission) to say what you want to say, or you just want players to spend a long time with your maps (because you worked so hard on them)? How about 1-3 hours of
quality time instead? The build to play time ratio will always be unfair to creators, but that's something you can't do much about.
Bulgarian_Taffer on 11/2/2019 at 17:07
Quote Posted by Judith
While I think that's anything but a virtue, a question of pacing and valuing the time of your audience is important. Since most of FM players have jobs, spouses, family duties, etc., do you really need an 8-hour campaign (or mission) to say what you want to say, or you just want players to spend a long time with your maps (because you worked so hard on them)? How about 1-3 hours of
quality time instead? The build to play time ratio will always be unfair to creators, but that's something you can't do much about.
That's an excellent question! I can speak only about myself, though. As you know, I am focused on short FMs. Although some people could say that my FMs are short, because I'm already too impatient and that's why I'm unable to create a large one, I also tend to like shorter missions.
There's always that problem - the developer is going to spend on the mission much more time than the player. So yes, my missions are relatively short. But on Lord Alexander's mansion (my latest FM, released last year), I worked for several long grueling weeks - just to create a level worth of 20-30 mins gametime.
The developer (including me) always want for the players to spend in the FM as much time as possible. But there are good and bad ways to do this. Good ways include a captivating story with interesting puzzles. So you don't feel the boredom and get impatient. Bad ways include ridiculously long lockpicks, idiotically placed hidden switches and rings in giant bushes, etc.
Thus said, there are certain well-made missions which don't play on your nerves, even if they're long. The first that comes to mind is Rowena's Curse. This is an excellent mission in every aspect: atmosphere, AI, storyline, puzzles, etc. It all depends on whether the author will succeed in capturing the player's imagination. That's it.
As I said : I love sucking my time into computer games, but I hate when they're an obvious time suck.
czyys on 11/2/2019 at 17:29
Quote Posted by Judith
(...) do you really need an 8-hour campaign (or mission) to say what you want to say, or you just want players to spend a long time with your maps (because you worked so hard on them)?(...)
You want authors to respect the time of players, yet your 2nd assumption here is pretty disrespectful towards the FMs makers. What I hope for is that every FM author makes missions mainly for themselves, as in missions which they would enjoy playing the most. It may not be what the most players end up liking, but it will be a work of passion. And also this way, the group of players who share similar tastes with the author gets an experience almost crafted specifically for them.
Random_Taffer on 11/2/2019 at 18:20
Quote Posted by Bulgarian_Taffer
The developer (including me) always want for the players to spend in the FM as much time as possible. But there are good and bad ways to do this. Good ways include a captivating story with interesting puzzles. So you don't feel the boredom and get impatient. Bad ways include ridiculously long lockpicks, idiotically placed hidden switches and rings in giant bushes, etc.
Nah, I want them to
want to spend more time in my FM, but I don't want to arbitrarily require it. I like putting a lot of extra side questy type stuff in my maps so that players can spend more time in them and feel accomplished, but I don't want to require it. Sometimes high loot goals are a quick and lazy way to force more time spent. I've definitely made that mistake before.
Judith on 11/2/2019 at 19:15
Quote:
You want authors to respect the time of players, yet your 2nd assumption here is pretty disrespectful towards the FMs makers.
Not really, it's a mental exercise and being honest with yourself. That's what writers do: they trim out the excess, until all that's left is the stuff necessary. Same thing happens in video games when you're narrowing down the scope.
