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I think its rather difficult to say when a story is good. It needs some drama-like scenes, but not too much. They would have to be something... , well, distinguished. The story should create emotions, the player should be able to feel how the defferent characters are feeling. On some, few, points, I think there should be pictures or cinematics, since "a picture is worth a thousand words and imagine how priceless a movie is". For example a picture that shows the wastelands the once green and lively sites of the planet you fought so long for have turned in, so the player actually feels desolate, as the hero would. Not too much, however, since the more pictures you use the smaller becomes the effect of them.
A good story should also be somewhat realistic (that's what makes Matrix 2&3 suck), but not too realistic either (that's what makes Matrix 1 great). There also should be something to fight for (like in ares).
And just as important is that there must not everything be explained. Some hints that the story's playing in a real universe, with a history, iths inhabitants, its laws, standards, believs, struggles, wishes and so on, and not just in some on-purpose-galaxy some idiot imagined thats just there to have a location. Any real place contains its seemingly useless things. Maybe the real world seems just to be so real because there are, umm, frogs or so or those incredibly stupid people we all know. What I want to say by this, not everything should be explained, not every mystery solved. Take as example The nearly 300 posts containing thread "speculation" on the EV:N board. Take as example the Wish Fountain in Cythera (if someone got a solution, please let me know...).
So a good story is like a good picture. The colors, its style, its background etc. must fit all togheter and if they do it will be a great image.
------------------ Obstacles are those fruitful things you see if you take your eyes off the (url="http://"http://www.benjaminmaerkli.ch")goal(/url)
Well, I'm sorry if I'm not posting a true continuation of this thread, but I just wanted to throw in my two cents on some of the topics discussed thus far.
Going back to the importance of graphics vs. story question, yes, on the surface, I would agree that a good story is more important than having stunning graphics. But over the years, considering some of the best plug-ins that have been made, which ones stand out? Certainly, you have to admit, a lot of them have good graphics.
What I think is that, while good graphics aren't essential to having a good plug-in, they help in two ways. First, most successful plug-ins have had very small development teams, and often times, the ideal team size is one person. It seems to me that a majority of successful plug-in developers are good, or at least, have a decent amount of experience in 3D graphics. Now I don't want to make any blanket statements, but I have to say that these same people tend to have more of the patience and determination to see plug-in projects through. Of all large, good-looking plug-ins that we've seen, the ones that make it are the ones that are developed by these people. Look at EV Game Expander, Final Battle, Pale, to name a few on the EV side. Or look at Frozen Heart (okay, some of the ships themselves looked a little different, but the 256 color limit didn't help and, other graphics in the game were, I think, pretty darn good, don't just look at ships) or F-25.
Of course, that isn't to say there are exceptions. But it's far more difficult than it seems for any ordinary person to turn out a good plug-in. It takes a lot of time and effort, and I think most people give up only a small part of the way through a large project.
Now, for the second reason graphics carry immense importance; I don't think that plug-ins (and games in general, for that matter) should necessary be judged in terms of such factors as "Graphics" and "Sounds" and "Gameplay" and "Story" and "Buginess" etc. I prefer to think in terms of more abstract qualities like "Immersiveness" or "Character Embodiment" or "Gameplay Depth." What this means is that I try to characterize the entire experience of playing the game/plug-in. Anyone would laugh at me if I said that EV Game Expander had a good story, but the experience was pretty satisfying, and it was a rather immersive plug-in, perhaps due to its expansiveness and, well, pretty good graphics.
Now I know a lot of people would probably disagree. Some would probably cite EV Nova, and say that its plot ruined it. Maybe, but in that case maybe it's more because of our expectations; as a plug-in it may have done better. Others would cite the seemingly hundreds of 3D graphics gurus (often self-proclaimed as such) who never as much as touches ResEdit. Certainly, being good with graphics doesn't mean you're good at plug-in development, I'm just saying that good plug-in developers are often pretty good with graphics, and the fact that the graphics matter augments that quality.
Okay, now that I've ranted about that, to touch on UE R&D;'s little bit about ground stuff. I believe that may be the single thing that the EV engine needs most. Forget EV 3D, forget EV multiplayer. It's the ground element that would do most for the game. And currently, the only way to do much with it now is with long descs. I really find that a lot of plug-ins quite lacking in their treatment of what goes on down there. But anyone who's felt that landing pictures -- as simple as they are, being just nice pictures of computer-generated scenery -- are remarkably good at drawing you into the atmosphere of a particular spob, would probably agree that one of the things that makes EV so great is that it's not just a pure space-oriented game; you're not always just flying around. If there's one thing I was disappointed about that EVN didn't introduce, it would be the lack of ways to add to the "places" you could go on a planet -- instead of just the bar, commodity exchange, outfitter, shipyard, you could add your own buttons for "Northstar Bar and Grill" and "Polaris City Central Park" and "Rick's Starship Outfitters" and so on. The desc-oriented approach would still work, but going down to a resolution below that of just a particular planet or station would have been nice. I liked how the Frozen Heart introduced multiple ports per planet, but it would have been so much nicer to have that built-in.
Alright, I'm starting to rant about features I want to see. Enough of that.
So one last thing -- realism. I've always felt that a level of realism would really add to a plug-in experience, but as most everyone will probably say, it's just a game. And it's true, you can write pages about how EV and all the plug-ins have all these realism issues, but it doesn't matter. On the other hand, I do believe that some degree of realism is warranted in the story. The Frozen Heart gets great mileage on its virtues here, and its depth with all the governments, the way languages work, and so on, not even to speak of how much the characters are developed (few plug-ins come close). And of course, that plug-in with the realistically scaled EV ships is something that I think would provide a rather fun experience too.
Okay. Enough ranting. Back to real life.
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The Matrix: Revolutions didn't suck. It's certainly not as bad as Reloaded (where Neo "kicks ass, continues kicking ass, and then proceeds to kick yet more ass").
I for one would read a megabyte-long (= 1,048,576 characters) dësc if it was well-written and the story matched. On the topic of drama, the way you present it affects how it is received. If you make it too much like a soap opera, it will go over as cheesy and annoy the reader. And limit the drama scenes to those with strong emotions, or the effect is just as if you feed the player a soap opera. You don't want people being filled with rage because someone threw a pencil at them; however, if they just witnessed the murder of their sibling, it's a good time to use drama. But don't think of these as rules of writing, merely guidelines to avoid bad reception and/or misinterpretation. And if you don't want to follow them, go ahead and write the story the way you want to write it.
UE: I personally feel that anyone who will simply click through the dëscs really quick is not worth attempting to please. You could rewrite the story a la Peter Cartwright, but what would that do? Not much. In the end, it raises the size of the download. And, while "every byte of a TC should be a golden byte", that certainly wouldn't be true of Retribution; the player would be forced to download double the storyline, when they will only be playing one version, something that is less than trivial for modem users, who can only doenload 6,625 bytes per second, in contrast with DSL/Cable's 48,000, 62,000, or 96,000. To me, bmac's style all the way.
------------------ The programmer's code of entomology: there's always another bug. There are 10 types of people in the world: those who understand binary and those who have friends. Windows users: stop asking for plugins. (url="http://"http://www.aznt.com/EVN/EVNEW/")Make one yourself.(/url) (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")Sephil Saga Website(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.evula.org/infernostudios/search.html")Add-ons Search Engine(/url)
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Here I agree on every point. (And: Yes, I too found Revolutions not as bad as Reloaded, along with many others, but it still cant match Matrix 1).
Regardless of all the wonderful pointers presented here, I firmly believe that a good story is written from the heart- it's personal, it's the story you want to tell, and the one you would want to hear. People hate insincerity. Basically, if you like it, then other people will too- no ifs ands or buts about that. You can't make everyone happy, nor should you try to. Make yourself happy, and other people- the ones that matter- will like it. Of course, Martin already hit all this.
But the same can be said for all plugmaking, IMHO- if you make the plug you want to play, other people will too. Just don't try to make everybody happy- people will bitch about even the best work. These are not the people who matter. Listen to them- they may have a good suggestion, one that fits your vision, that was perhaps left out, whatever. But don't be trodden on by them. If YOUR plug has 50-meg descs, so be it! I'd still play it. I'd even DL it with my modem- it's not that big a deal. If it has NO descs- well, I probably wouldn't be very interested, but that's fine- other people will say it's the best thing ever.
In summary, listen to advice, listen to the people who've been around, listen to plug-in guidebooks. But don't take it as gospel. If it's not what you want, then it doesn't have to be there.
------------------ ~Charlie Sephil Saga Homepage: (url="http://"http://www.cwssoftware.com")www.cwssoftware.com(/url)