NMA Info - Design concepts

[Katarn]

Many of you have submitted your game concepts for consideration and feedback from other NMA members. My difficulty in reviewing these concepts is that people tend to think of the overall concept first and then attempt to work it backwards to fit into the EAW structure. That process (while VERY common) is completely backwards from my way of thinking. The approach I like to take for devising game concepts is to start by considering what the game’s current structure is. What does it allow? What assets are available? How are the rules structured? What are its limitations? etc...

 

This leads you to ask the next round of questions: What changes could easily be made which would enhance the gameplay? Are there basic rules that could be changed in new and interesting ways? Can the game flow, AI, timeline, resources, etc... be rebalanced to improve the structure that already exists? How can you use the existing models, textures, sfx, VO, etc... in new and interesting ways?

 

 

Here is one basic ideas that would come out of this thought process.

 

 

Use all of the existing structure, models, AI, etc.... and simply reverse the values for Imperials & Rebels. All of the heroes and units would stay on their respective sides. This mod would be called mirror-mirror. The Rebels are the evil oppressors and the Imperials are the good guys. The Rebels are rich and their ships are cheap to build. The people of the galaxy hate and fear Rebels the and their planets tend to rebel against them. Darth would be on the Imperial side but he'd now use the good force powers instead of his force crush. (Luke would use force crush)

 

 

Anyway you get the idea. This is just a stupid idea that I had while typing this message after I considered the game's structure and what I could easly do within that structure. My point is I think we should start small by focusing our attention on these types of ideas first before designing the more ambitious ideas that may become very difficult to create and thier fun factor is unknown. We need to build up from smaller and more contained ideas. Once we have the basics mastered we can get a bit more ambitious with the designs.

 

The simple little idea above would be:

a) feasible to create and balance.

b) would require very few new assets.

c) would probably appeal to wide range of players

d) it's always fun to take something that people already know and turn it upside down

 

Not every idea has to go through this thought process from the start. But very quickly we'll need to come back down to earth and compare the concept against the feasibilty of implementing the idea into the EAW structure.

 

-Katarn

[Guest JediIgor]

Katarn, how do you recommend we make our ideas fit the structure from the start when Petroglyph isn't releasing any *real* info about the game structure and moddability potential?

 

Furthermore, what's wrong with trying to completely rehaul the game experience? I for one think that if some of my ideas aren't possible, I can either scale them down on-the-fly to fit the game structure, or abandon the project because the game is too rigid.

 

Isn't the scale what separates the mini-mod from the total conversion (which most NMA ideas are anyways)?

[Katarn]

I don't think there is anything fundumentaly wrong with "trying to completely rehaul the game experience." It just much more difficult to start off with a complete revamp. While it's true we don't all know all of the limitations and possibilties there are many things that we do know or can be deduced. For example we know that planets have resouces and heroes have special abiltities that can probably be reworked in intresting ways. We also know that there is only one space and land enviroment for each planet. Knowing that... what if we thought it would be cool to created two space and two groud locations for each planet?? Multible fatctions could fight for control of those spaces. If desired we could change the resource allocation for each location. Player would recieved 1/8 of the resources for controling 1 of 4 locations, 1/4 for controling 1/2, 100% of the resources for controling 3/4 of the locations, double the resources and unlock a new hero for controling 4 of 4. We could reconfigure how heroes are unlocked, how powerful they are, how loyal they are,etc.. There are only two factions i nthe game! What if we created one or two new factions? Ok, these are not well thought out ideas but you get the idea. I think right after the game is released we are going to find out that there are exploits that needs fixing. Now either Petroglyph will fix those or someone will mod a rebalance. For the first months I think most people will want to play the core game with maybe some minor tweaks here and there. After that people will want to play the well balanced MP mods. Sometime around the third or fourth month people we be looking for that rehauled SP & MP experence. And maybe your right and it is best to think about those rehauls now due to the complications. It's just hard for ME to get MY head around a complete rehaul when we haven't spent much time thinking about minor rehauls & medium rehauls first.

 

>Isn't the scale what separates the mini-mod from the total conversion (which most NMA ideas are anyways)?

That is often true. As long as the assets needed for a total conversion can also be scaled back without leaving large holes in the design.

 

I don't want to appear that I'm discouraging anyone from taking on a huge project if that's their passion. And if asked I'll do my best to give constructive feedback on any proposal.

 

-Katarn