Suggestions for Geneforge 3

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AuthorTopic: Suggestions for Geneforge 3
Apprentice
Member # 4904
Profile #0
Just a few suggestions for the interface (I think Jeff will do his best for the content so there's no point to interfere with that).

First, it would be better to have more options for sound volume, like 1-100% slider.
Reason is that even 'quiet' is sometimes much louder than winamp at maximum.

Second, please make options for higher resolutions by scaling or a larger view frame.
I've seen scaling done via DX in The Ur-Quan Masters open-source project (for 2d graphics), it looks quite good. Probably it could be done the same way. Or at least simple pixel doubling.
Reason: many people have higher resolutions, and they have problems. On my 21-inch CRT (Eizo F930) I have 599 thin horisontal black lines across all screen caused by low v-freq. That's unpleasant, though it doesn't trash the graphics, but many LCD users have a much worse problem with image blurring because of poor monitor rescaling - they would clearly benefit from hq software scaling. Or a larger viewframe without scaling.

[ Monday, November 22, 2004 18:54: Message edited by: Varg ]
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
Guardian
Member # 2238
Profile Homepage #1
Go away.

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The critics agree!

Demonslayer is "a five star hit!" raves TIMES Weekly!

"I've never heard such thoughtful comments. This man is a genious!" says two-time Nobel Prize winning physicist Erwin Rasputin!
Posts: 1582 | Registered: Wednesday, November 13 2002 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 5181
Profile Homepage #2
Varg, I wouldn't bother. Jeff Vogel knows what his players want (cue eye rolls here) and requests shall do you no good.

(Do I sound cynical?)
Posts: 262 | Registered: Thursday, November 11 2004 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #3
1. You can't adjust your system volume to get Geneforge sounds at the level you want them?

2. I can understand the suggestion, but I doubt it will happen. I'm a pessimist like that.

—Alorael, who also doubts that Jeff will ever see your suggestions here. He doesn't read these boards except right after a new game comes out as far as anyone knows.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 5181
Profile Homepage #4
Does he ever even really read them then, or just randomly post stuff? :-/
Posts: 262 | Registered: Thursday, November 11 2004 08:00
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #5
No, he does read them right after the games come out. We know this because of various posts in the BoA and BoA Editor forums (like, for example, this one).

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 5181
Profile Homepage #6
Did he after Geneforge? If so, I wish I was here.

(I so hated Geneforge.)
Posts: 262 | Registered: Thursday, November 11 2004 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
Profile #7
If you have a suggestion, then e-mail it to him personally. The chance that Jeff notices this topic is close to impossible.
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #8
quote:
Originally written by Arenaqs:

(I so hated Geneforge.)
GF is more enjoyable (but still not that great) if you dismiss it as a Pokémon clone. Because really, the games for Gameboy et al aren't bad. Hell, I bought myself Ruby Version- but it's in German so I can practice the damned language more than anything else. Lots of small words in that one, so it becomes difficult for me to get confused. I also played Legends of Dragoon in German during downtimes at the family's house- needless to say, I was substantially confused. (Trying to understand a plot written in a foreign language with only three years under one's belt is possible, but slow.)

Anyway, sorry to derail- GF's plot sucks, but fighting with Pokéforged monsters is entertaining for a while.

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私のバラドですそしてころしたいいらればころす
Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Warrior
Member # 3480
Profile Homepage #9
TM ill just ignore what you just said to stop my INSANE KILLING RAGE! Lol I really hate the pokemon games, they are no comparision to geneforge,+every pokemon game ive played is pretty much exactly the same each time, wow such fun plx

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What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it.
Posts: 169 | Registered: Wednesday, September 24 2003 07:00
Shake Before Using
Member # 75
Profile #10
Interestingly enough, it's you who comes out sounding like a raving moron, not TM.

I personally liked the first Pokémon game, and it's apparently gotten more strategic since then, even if I haven't really had the wish to play any of them.

Geneforge, on the other hand, makes me want to go and play Fallout immediately.
Posts: 3234 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 5181
Profile Homepage #11
Fallout is second to none.

EDIT: Except donuts. Donuts are awesome.

[ Monday, November 22, 2004 09:42: Message edited by: Air 'N Ax ]
Posts: 262 | Registered: Thursday, November 11 2004 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 4214
Profile #12
"Interestingly enough, it's you who comes out sounding like a raving moron, not TM, because I disagree with you."
Posts: 356 | Registered: Tuesday, April 6 2004 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 5181
Profile Homepage #13
quote:
Originally written by Mind:

"Interestingly enough, it's you who comes out sounding like a raving moron, not TM, because I disagree with you."
Let's see that brilliant poster's comments:

quote:

TM ill just ignore what you just said to stop my INSANE KILLING RAGE! Lol I really hate the pokemon games, they are no comparision to geneforge,+every pokemon game ive played is pretty much exactly the same each time, wow such fun plx

Setting aside his horrendous grammar, unfamiliarity with apostrophes and the shift key, and his definite unfamiliarity with how an acronym should work--he definitely comes off as raving and not too bright.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Thursday, November 11 2004 08:00
Warrior
Member # 4345
Profile #14
There's already a "suggestions for geneforge 3" topic like this on the geneforge 2 forum....board....thing.

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"Damn Scots. They ruined scotland!"-Groundskeeper Willy, the Simpsons
Posts: 96 | Registered: Tuesday, May 4 2004 07:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #15
Pokémon is interesting, and has enough variety to stay fresh most of the time. As compared with Geneforge, which has less variety, whose main challenge is inventory management, and whose plot epitomises pretentiousness.

Pokémon ain't great, given. But it ain't godawful until Pikachu is on my TV screen.

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私のバラドですそしてころしたいいらればころす
Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #16
Is the full version of Geneforge so substanially worse than the demo in plot? I dislike the engine, but the story didn't seem very bad. It was a definite step up from E3/A3.

—Alorael, who has seen how a good plot can start to fall apart a la A2. Geneforge didn't seem to have chapters that could discombobulate so easily, though.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 5181
Profile Homepage #17
quote:
Originally written by Adagio ma non tanto:

Is the full version of Geneforge so substanially worse than the demo in plot? I dislike the engine, but the story didn't seem very bad. It was a definite step up from E3/A3.

—Alorael, who has seen how a good plot can start to fall apart a la A2. Geneforge didn't seem to have chapters that could discombobulate so easily, though.

Hey...I liked A2's plot.

But anyway, Geneforge is not fundamentally a bad game. It's just sloppy and the plot, while interesting, loses cohesion a few times.

I have problems with Jeff for A3, BoA, GF, and GF2. Up until he recoded the Avernum engine, they ran like a dream on my laptop (which is exceedingly ancient). With A3, it takes about five seconds for a blood-splatter animation to play.

Anger.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Thursday, November 11 2004 08:00
Apprentice
Member # 4904
Profile #18
2Dres&Air'n'ax: Well, I guess Jeff knows what the players want. But I doubth he knows small problems like these with sound and resolution.

2Adagio: I can't adjust only the Geneforge (Avernum) volume. If I adjust the system volume, XMMS or winamp sounds too quiet.
Fixing this is 2-3 minutes for Jeff or several hours of disassembling for me.
Posts: 10 | Registered: Thursday, August 26 2004 07:00
Master
Member # 1046
Profile Homepage #19
Adagio = Alorael

just a quick clarification. :P

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Polaris - Weather balloons, ninjas, and your big daddy Wise Man. What more could you want?
Undead Theories - Don't Ask, Don't Tell
Posts: 3323 | Registered: Thursday, April 25 2002 07:00
Off With Their Heads
Member # 4045
Profile Homepage #20
And Air 'N Ax = Arenax.

In the direction of Alorael's latest comment, I wonder if perhaps Jeff's problem with plot late in games is that he thinks almost exclusively about gameplay during the course of the development process. I don't think anyone can argue that the gameplay (and here I mean stat-building, inventory management, combat, individual scenes and towns) isn't the most well-developed aspect of JV games, but I wonder if anyone else has noticed that JV games, while they fail utterly to climax in plot — no new surprises, developments, interesting points after the very first few sections, by which I mean that everyone knows that you're going to kill Hawthorne at the end of A1 and it happens in a completely predictable manner — they do succeed pretty well in climaxing in gameplay. The Hawthorne fight was fun — not challenging, but fun — and so were the Garzahd and Rentar-Ihrno fights. I remember rather vividly some of the tactical challenges late in GF2, even though the plot had ceased to progress at that point.

If Jeff spent a little more time thinking about plot in conjunction with his thinking about gameplay, his games could progress from fun to good. I don't know if that would matter as far as profit margins go, but it would be nice to see.

I personally think he may be getting there, but we'll have to judge from GF3 and A4.

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Arancaytar: Every time you ask people to compare TM and Kel, you endanger the poor, fluffy kittens.

Kelandon's Pink and Pretty Page!!: the authorized location for all things by me
The Archive of all released BoE scenarios ever
Posts: 7968 | Registered: Saturday, February 28 2004 08:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 5181
Profile Homepage #21
Jeff's plot is fine with me--it's just that it fails to remain coherent in some of the games.

Avernum/Exile did it fine. Those games are advertised as dungeon slogs and I don't expect plot twists left and right from them. (I also view BoA as a dungeon slog and don't particularly care for abundant plot there, either.)

Geneforge, however, promises a more involving plot. When I play that, I expect a plot better than that of BoE scenario designers. I didn't get it, so I tossed it.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Thursday, November 11 2004 08:00
Law Bringer
Member # 335
Profile Homepage #22
Avernum has potential. A2 even starts out with a good plot. Then it mostly dissolves into the usual in the fourth chapter (i.e. most of the game). It's better than A1 or A3, but not stunningly great. I don't see why Jeff couldn't have put in the extra effort to make it Geneforge level, or rather at the level of what Geneforge should be.

—Alorael, who can't see why you'd expect Jeff to be better at making storylines than BoE designes. He's a programmer. He makes his money programming first and by making plots second. With most of the coding already done, it's not so surprising that there are plenty of people who can churn out a more interesting and surprising scenario.
Posts: 14579 | Registered: Saturday, December 1 2001 08:00
BANNED
Member # 4
Profile Homepage #23
quote:
Originally written by Air 'N Ax:

Geneforge, however, promises a more involving plot. When I play that, I expect a plot better than that of BoE scenario designers. I didn't get it, so I tossed it.
You're saying that Jeff has done this before.

I would argue that for over three-fourths of the designers with a work above 8.0 on the CSR, Jeff is a storywriting imp. His stories have always been total crap, with the one exception of Small Rebellion. (And even that has taken a turn for the worse in BoA.)

Don't underestimate us. ¬_¬

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私のバラドですそしてころしたいいらればころす
Posts: 6936 | Registered: Tuesday, September 18 2001 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 5181
Profile Homepage #24
quote:
Originally written by Wilfred A. Spurts:

quote:
Originally written by Air 'N Ax:

Geneforge, however, promises a more involving plot. When I play that, I expect a plot better than that of BoE scenario designers. I didn't get it, so I tossed it.
You're saying that Jeff has done this before.

I would argue that for over three-fourths of the designers with a work above 8.0 on the CSR, Jeff is a storywriting imp. His stories have always been total crap, with the one exception of Small Rebellion. (And even that has taken a turn for the worse in BoA.)

Don't underestimate us. ¬_¬

And in my opinion, "less chat, more splat" would be beneficial to some of y'all. :P

I are twitch gamer, hear me roar.
Posts: 262 | Registered: Thursday, November 11 2004 08:00

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