Hiding numerical information I think is a great start to something more interesting than a bunch of question marks everywhere. Information in real life is rarely presented as numbers. Information should be fuzzy meaning give the player approximate descriptions of numerical information. Such a mechanic would require descriptions of various scales of in-game "attributes" such as: character attributes, character skills, health, damage, accuracy, penetration, defenses, armor ratings, action speed, area of effect, duration, experience. These scales and descriptions need to meaningfully describe differences in the levels.
I did a quick inventory and created some scales that I think would be a good starting point to something more fine-tuned if such an information system is desirable. This may be a bug but I think Gold should be counted and represented as a number even with challenge active since it is a quantity.
- Time Format: Anywhere time is displayed (e.g. action speed, duration) format values from seconds to text.
if = 0 = "instantaneous"
if < 1 = "less than a second"
if >= 1 and < 2 = "a moment"
if >= 2 and < 3 = "few moments"
if >= 3 and < 9 = "few seconds"
if >= 9 and < 19 = "about quarter of a minute"
if >= 19 and < 45 = "about half a minute"
if >= 45 and < 60 = "about a minute"
if >= 60 and < 180 = "few minutes"
if >= 180 and < 900 = "about quarter of an hour"
if >= 900 and < 1800 = "about half an hour"
if >= 1800 and < 3600 = "about an hour"
...
- For Recovery Time: Same as above but because it is percentage based format as,
if > 0 and <=5= "negligible"
if > 5 and <=15= "short"
if > 15 and <=30= "medium"
if > 30 and <=50= "long"
if > 50 = "very long"
- Percentage format: For abilities and effects that have minor effects giving latent abilities such as Uncanny Luck change percent to display as "Latent".
- For "Versus Damage Type: Tell if the armor is stronger or weaker than the base.
For example "Mail Armor" has base armor rating 7 and 5 vs. Crush and Freezing. It could say instead, "Weaker vs Crush, Weaker vs. Freeze".
- Instead of health ?/? format the numbers into a description scale already used: unconscious/dead(0), near death(1:25%), bloodied(26:50%), hurt(51:99), unhurt (100).
- Damage: For damage use a relative value based on the damage of the attack divided by the character's hitpoints.
0% : 1%Negligible
2% : 4%Minor
5% : 14%Light
15% : 24% Medium
25% : 50% Heavy
50% : 74%Severe
75%+Lethal
A character casting a delayed fireball that does AOE damage 65-95, assume the character's health is 100. This spell would display as Severe to Lethal. How to decide which one to display could be random or maybe depend on some already available aspects such as reputations. A "Stoic" character would display an estimate simulating over-confidence; for example, displaying severe instead of lethal in the fireball example. A "Rationale" character would display the more likely estimate. In the fireball example a Rationale character would use the Lethal description instead of the Severe as the attack is more likely to be greater than 75% total health.
- Armor Rating: Something to the effect as these below armor rating ranges.
None (0)
Negligible (1:2)
Light(3:5)
Medium(6:10)
Heavy(9:12) [terminate here and make it more fuzzy at higher armor ratings]
Super Heavy(13:16)
Ultra Heavy(17+)
- Penetration: Low(1:2), Medium(3:5), High(6:10), Very High(9:12)...
- Defenses: Low, Medium, High, Very High
- Range: melee, melee reach, close, medium, long, very long
- Area: single, small, medium, large
- Skills: Should be based on the actual checks that can happen. Many skills do not need to be loaded up too much to pass the check and is a bit deceiving knowing what values represent. A descriptive system could greatly improve the player's understanding of the skill system.
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Xelos
Edited by Xelos
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