Obtaining Materials

[Qwerty]

I'm having some trouble thinking up a way players can obtain materials from places on my text based game. At the moment the player just clicks 'fish', and they have a chance of catching a fish, which makes the game very boring as all they have to do is keep clicking on 'Catch another fish' over and over until they get bored.

Does anyone have a different idea or suggestion?

[luvva]

how about including some kind of battle system, with rewards for defeating particular things?

[Qwerty]

I'm going to have that but I don't want everything to be combat related

[codestryke]

Give the players a stat like stamina...

When they go fishing and cast that uses 1 stamina, that way you limit the number of times they can fish. Then you could change it so the player can enter the number of hours or whatever they want to fish. They enter say 5, you loop your fishing code 5 times and display all the results for those 5 hours of fishing and then, of course, take away 5 stamina or whatever you use as a cost for fishing.

Repeat for chopping wood, sift for gold, kill fury things for pelts etc.

- or -

Add a little random in there... Player presses cast button a message comes back (lets say they got a fish). The next time they try to cast you give them something like "The last fish you pulled in was a real whooper, you need to rest 2 minutes before you can cast again"

Add a time they have to wait between casts or maybe successful casts....

Hope this sparks some ideas

[Qwerty]

I think I'll have energy or fatigue, and you get a set amount of energy, and doing activities (fishing, fighting) will decrease your total energy, and you will need to sleep. The higher level you get the less energy you need to do something. Sleeping could take like 1 minute for 1% of energy or something.

Thanks for the ideas.

[Zeggy]

You could add different fishing rods that they can use, or different locations that they can fish in. Both would affect the chances of getting a fish, and what kinds of fish you can get.

[Qwerty]

Yeah but mroe of the repedetiveness of it (clicking 'fish' over and over). But I think I'll just have batch fishing (fish for a specific amount of time).

[luvva]

How about having some kind of minigame involved? Though it would take a lot more effort, you could do something similar to gaia online for it.

It'd take a bit of effort, but it'd make it far more interesting

[Qwerty]

Yeah I will have both minigames (less exp, more fish) and just normal fishing spots (normal exp, normal fish). The same for other materials.

I've made a fishing spot, lumber pile, apple orchards, etc that people can obtain materials from and it works. Click the link in my sig to see.

[die4me]

Mining and forestry are always good to have and construction where people can use those materials to build homes, businesses, cars , etc

[Pdquinn]

I really despise the ideas of stamina and fatigue. It's played out and a new system needs to be introduced. Stamina and Fatigue ends up being a tool to force players to spend money or suffer when compared to other players.

Do I want my game to limit how much time I can spend playing it. Hell no.
How spectacularly crappy would it be if Half Life allowed you fifteen minutes ever half hour of play time and simply didn't work otherwise.

You could introduce a catch limit to the fish. Just like real life, they can purchase licenses with in game money giving them a weight or count limit on fish. However this does not effect the amount of time they can spend playing the game like a fatigue or stamina system would.  Different licenses also allow the player to enter different (npc) tournaments, the prizes being rare ores,fishes,trophies, money or just experience. The different levels of licenses also allow the player to use different and higher quality fishing rods and bait.

See, two minutes of thought and I have a working  alternative.

[Scion]

a valid point, and well worth considering.

However Im sure your also aware of the reason why many games use the limited actions per real time unit approach....

Most online games include a progession of character development so the more actions one performs the more powerfull ingame you become, without using limits you will have some players that are simply able to outplay others because they are able to be online for longer.

As i understand it half life doesnt have this problem. (ive never played it myself so correct me if im wrong)

My conclusion, If at all possible look for solutions that do not limit the amount of time people are able to play your game... but allways consider the impact of this on the balance within your game.

In fact this little reminder has just made me re-examine the leveling scheme i have been designing and i will make some alterations to it so that progression includes a realtime element to control for 24/7 players.

[Pdquinn]

Sorry I'm of the opinion that we shouldn't punish players for being more diligent and having more time.

[codestryke]

Do I want my game to limit how much time I can spend playing it. Hell no.
How spectacularly crappy would it be if Half Life allowed you fifteen minutes ever half hour of play time and simply didn't work otherwise.

And this is where the break down in your theory lies. Comparing HalfLife to a PBBG is like comparing a motorcycle to a horse draw carriage.

The motorcycle is going to get you from point A to point B as fast and as exhilarating as it can.

The horse draw carriage will do the same but the journey is longer and it's the scenery that you can get to look at enjoy that makes getting to the destination fun.

Fatigue and Stamina are a part of real life, no one can fish 24/7 even if they have to stop and buy a license. Also the stamina for chopping down a tree and logging it is going to take more then casting a reel all day in a pond. Game developers use these real life instances to draw out the gaming experience and create a game that will take months to play. HalfLife is an instant gratification model get to the end, kill as many as you can and your done. HL and other FPS's are designed for hours of enjoyment not months.

[Pdquinn]

...

Apparently you of the opinion gaming should follow real life?

[raestlyn]

I think he meant the games need atleast some realism. If they lack all of it they are not that exciting.

[sokii]

They made games to get out of reality...
Why make them closer to reality?
Of course unless you are making a Sims Game... ;]

Try adding a minigame for it and require certain things for them.

[raestlyn]

I guess you are fine with strategy games where ordinary foot soldiers can equip 3 nuclear bombs and throw them few feet away from themselves and not get killed because they were the ones who used them?

I, for one, need some reality in the games I play.

[sokii]

I guess you are fine with strategy games where ordinary foot soldiers can equip 3 nuclear bombs and throw them few feet away from themselves and not get killed because they were the ones who used them?

I, for one, need some reality in the games I play.

Friendly fire is just one of the stupidest thing to include in a game unless its an option.
On online games you have retards who go about having "fun" shooting partners to piss others off...
Reality is something I'd sacrifice over other features...

[Pdquinn]

I love strat games, but I am not aware about the nuke portion. Let's see Starcraft (best strat game imho) the ghost luanches from a relatively far distance, low yield as well. But if he is too close he is toast.

[xBleuWolfx]

I love strat games, but I am not aware about the nuke portion. Let's see Starcraft (best strat game imho) the ghost luanches from a relatively far distance, low yield as well. But if he is too close he is toast.

That's what I like about StarCraft. It's a somewhat realistic besides it being based in the far future.