couple of questions
Xecutor
1) What is the best tense to use in messages journal of rl?
The game have internal time and most events in a journal are already
happened.
i.e. events that have happened during your turn.
Is present perfect is acceptable?
2) What is you first thought about spell called 'Fire nova' ?
The spell is circular blast of fire around the caster.
Joshua Day
>
> 1) What is the best tense to use in messages journal of rl?
> The game have internal time and most events in a journal are already
> happened.
When the message is first printed, simple present is preferable, it
being the usual tense of story telling or literary review:
"You miss the dragon."
"You strike the dragon."
"The dragon dies."
If you want to change to another tense in the message history, you could
write:
"You missed the dragon."
"You struck the dragon."
"The dragon died."
But it must be stressed that you must not print messages in this
tense the first time they are presented to the player.
Present perfect isn't often used in story telling, because it indicates
the reason that a state changed -- I have eaten, see, so I'm not hungry
now. You can only use it to explain to the player why something is
happening, or to describe the way things are now, or to present
something that has been happening but has only just been discovered:
"You have eaten too much!"
"You have already removed your armor."
"The dragon has begun to rot away."
Which is to say that in practice you won't be using it much.
> 2) What is you first thought about spell called 'Fire nova' ?
> The spell is circular blast of fire around the caster.
Sounds fine.
--
Joshua
Paul Donnelly
> 1) What is the best tense to use in messages journal of rl?
> The game have internal time and most events in a journal are already
> happened.
> i.e. events that have happened during your turn.
> Is present perfect is acceptable?
That would be generally inappropriate.
> 2) What is you first thought about spell called 'Fire nova' ?
> The spell is circular blast of fire around the caster.
Why not just "nova"?
Xecutor
> Xecutor <konstantin.stup...@gmail.com> writes:
> > 1) What is the best tense to use in messages journal of rl?
> > The game have internal time and most events in a journal are already
> > happened.
> > i.e. events that have happened during your turn.
> > Is present perfect is acceptable?
>
> That would be generally inappropriate.
Damn. I need english speaking betatester :)
But I don't have english manuals yet...
> > 2) What is you first thought about spell called 'Fire nova' ?
> > The spell is circular blast of fire around the caster.
>
> Why not just "nova"?
There are different kinds of novas.
There is "Cold nova" and "Lightning nova".
i.e. "nova" kind of spell is general spell type that
spreads outward of caster in all directions.
Is there better a word for this?
Preferably relatively short...
Risto Saarelma
> 1) What is the best tense to use in messages journal of rl?
> The game have internal time and most events in a journal are already
> happened.
> i.e. events that have happened during your turn.
> Is present perfect is acceptable?
Does this mean the backlog of the event messages that are shown during
play? I'd expect the messages to have the exact same present-tense
format as they had when they were first printed. Anything beyond
grouping repeated lines into "The killboss hits you. (x8)" just feels
like useless complexity.
On the other hand, if there is some more concise journal about quests
received and completed, past tense is good. But these have past tense
even when they are printed as live messages, "You received a quest...",
"You completed the quest...".
> 2) What is you first thought about spell called 'Fire nova' ?
> The spell is circular blast of fire around the caster.
Aren't 'nova' spells already used in Blizzard games and have pretty much
this meaning? I'd suppose it's a reasonably well-recognized name for
caster-centered area-of-effect spell.
Paul Donnelly
Xecutor
> On 2009-12-31, Xecutor <konstantin.stup...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 1) What is the best tense to use in messages journal of rl?
It's so hard for a russian to understand this tenses tricks...
In russian present tense is more like present continuous,
and only one past tense from grammar point of view.
And in russian message log of a game would be in past.
> > 2) What is you first thought about spell called 'Fire nova' ?
> > The spell is circular blast of fire around the caster.
>
> Aren't 'nova' spells already used in Blizzard games and have pretty much
> this meaning? I'd suppose it's a reasonably well-recognized name for
> caster-centered area-of-effect spell.
Ok. I'll leave it as it is (at least for now).
Gerry Quinn
35g2000yqa.googlegroups.com>, konstanti...@gmail.com says...
>
> 1) What is the best tense to use in messages journal of rl?
> The game have internal time and most events in a journal are already
> happened.
> i.e. events that have happened during your turn.
> Is present perfect is acceptable?
I think both present and past tense are both quite standard here; use
whichever you like best.
> 2) What is you first thought about spell called 'Fire nova' ?
> The spell is circular blast of fire around the caster.
My first thought is: "Burn, grid-bugs, burn!".
I see no problems with it. It will be a spell particularly suited to
casters who like to get in melee, but would have situational uses for
casters who avoid melee, such as clearing small monsters that are
blocking your retreat.
- Gerry Quinn
Gerry Quinn
josh...@gmail.com says...
> Xecutor <konstanti...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 1) What is the best tense to use in messages journal of rl?
> > The game have internal time and most events in a journal are already
> > happened.
>
> When the message is first printed, simple present is preferable, it
> being the usual tense of story telling or literary review:
>
> "You miss the dragon."
> "You strike the dragon."
> "The dragon dies."
>
> If you want to change to another tense in the message history, you could
> write:
>
> "You missed the dragon."
> "You struck the dragon."
> "The dragon died."
>
> But it must be stressed that you must not print messages in this
> tense the first time they are presented to the player.
I don't see why not. The player will soon get used to it and not even
notice.
- Gerry Quinn
Xecutor
> casters who like to get in melee, but would have situational uses for
> casters who avoid melee, such as clearing small monsters that are
> blocking your retreat.
Krice
> What I mean - is 'xxx nova' is more or less standard type of spell? :)
If it's fantasy world you could use another name, like
"ring of firestorm", because nova is an exploding star which
fantasy goofs should not know.
But maybe it's not that important, because fantasy rpg games
have already been fucked up carefully by MMORONRPG's.
Xecutor
I'm asking about this because I'm not sure.
And I'm open for recommendations.
Probably 'Ring of fire/cold/lightning/etc' is better.
But IMHO 'ring' do not express the fact that spell effect is
expanding.
Any more ideas?
Pender
> I'm asking about this because I'm not sure.
> And I'm open for recommendations.
> Probably 'Ring of fire/cold/lightning/etc' is better.
> But IMHO 'ring' do not express the fact that spell effect is
> expanding.
>
> Any more ideas?
"Nova" is fine, and in my opinion the best choice. Another option
would be "blast" -- fire blast, cold blast, etc.
Present simple or past perfect are both absolutely acceptable for your
messages. I would generally stay away from present perfect just
because it takes more words and can get tiring to read "you have hit
the kobold, you have eaten a ration of food, you have opened a door."
But if you prefer it stylistically, it can work for particularly
noteworthy events: "You have defeated the dragon; you have leveled up;
you have escaped from the Dungeons of Doom."
Pender
If we followed this chain of logic, "ring" doesn't work either because
it's a small metal band that you wear on your finger, which has
precisely nothing in common with a circle of burning ground centered
on the caster except that they're both circular -- and if that's the
reasoning, why not "coin of firestorm"?
I don't think "ring" is particularly objectionable, but neither is
nova, and the latter has the advantage of having been popularized by
Diablo I and II.
Paul Donnelly
> On Dec 31, 9:59 am, Xecutor <konstantin.stup...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm asking about this because I'm not sure.
>> And I'm open for recommendations.
>> Probably 'Ring of fire/cold/lightning/etc' is better.
>> But IMHO 'ring' do not express the fact that spell effect is
>> expanding.
>>
>> Any more ideas?
>
> "Nova" is fine, and in my opinion the best choice. Another option
> would be "blast" -- fire blast, cold blast, etc.
>
> Present simple or past perfect are both absolutely acceptable for your
> messages.
You mean simple past? Past perfect would be like "the goblin had hit
you". Simple past would be "the goblin stabbed you", and would be most
appropriate for a journal, although delivering messages in this tense as
events happen wouldn't be wrong, even if it isn't my first choice, as it
conveys some distance from the action.
> I would generally stay away from present perfect just because it takes
> more words and can get tiring to read "you have hit the kobold, you
> have eaten a ration of food, you have opened a door." But if you
> prefer it stylistically, it can work for particularly noteworthy
> events: "You have defeated the dragon; you have leveled up; you have
> escaped from the Dungeons of Doom."
Yes, any event that creates a difference between before and after itself
is a good candidate for the present perfect. You can ask yourself: in 50
turns, will I still care that I have done this? If so, you "have gained
a level" (present perfect). If not, you "stab the kobold" (simple
present).
Gerry Quinn
@s3g2000yqs.googlegroups.com>, konstanti...@gmail.com says...
Yes! I misunderstood you ;-)
As someone pointed out, there are several spells in World of Warcraft
that use exactly this formulation.
- Gerry Quinn
Gerry Quinn
@u7g2000yqm.googlegroups.com>, konstanti...@gmail.com says...
Ring of fire makes me think of Johhny Cash.
Go with nova - it's concise and clear.
- Gerry Quinn
Gerry Quinn
@m26g2000yqb.googlegroups.com>, pende...@gmail.com says...
> On Dec 31, 9:59 am, Xecutor <konstantin.stup...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm asking about this because I'm not sure.
> > And I'm open for recommendations.
> > Probably 'Ring of fire/cold/lightning/etc' is better.
> > But IMHO 'ring' do not express the fact that spell effect is
> > expanding.
> >
> > Any more ideas?
>
> "Nova" is fine, and in my opinion the best choice. Another option
> would be "blast" -- fire blast, cold blast, etc.
And Magtheridon calls his version 'blast nova', covering all bases...
- Gerry Quinn
Paul Donnelly
Circular Expanding Fire Blast Nova Ring
Now all our bases are covered.
Billy Bissette
news:MPG.25a6bdd58...@news.indigo.ie:
I agree. I don't even have a problem with it. The game is just
reporting what you have done the moment after you have done it.
Arguably, the player really doesn't find out what has happened until
afterwards. By the time that the game informs a player that he is
striking a dragon, the character has already struck the dragon.
Paul Donnelly
I wouldn't say you must not print messages in the past tense when they
first appear, but you should consider whether the phrasing of your
messages is making your game less exciting, atmospheric, or whatever. In
a roguelike, these little bits of text establish much of the mood. It
might be hard for a non-native speaker to judge the tense's effect, so I
promote the simple present as the safe choice.
Whichever you do, be consistent.
Billy Bissette
846e-d20...@u7g2000yqm.googlegroups.com:
If you like it, use it. If it is a consistent name between
multiple forms of damage, all the better.
I'd say you should be more concerned with preventing confusion
between spells. You don't want one spell to be given a name that
would better fit a different spell. Don't use "Ring" here if you
think you might make some other kind of spell that better fits
"ring".
Darren Grey
Nova is better than ring, even if it is a rather nonsense name.
Another option would be "ball" - fireball, ice ball, lightning ball,
etc. ADOM uses this for its elemental area of effect spells that are
centred on the caster (which are bigger balls for more powerful
wizards). Use whatever you like though, as long as it's consistent.
--
Darren Grey