Orion: Day 3 - A Tale of A Design

[Gammer Took]

Many comments from previous blogs are questions. Thought I should answer some.

Avaril says: Why in heaven’s name is there a NEED to bring old content into line with a new development design concept?

New players are seeing this content for the first time. Maybe some old players will see this content for the first time; there is a responsibility to the game and to the players to introduce concepts that are prevalent early enough to have impact on character and player development. Bringing older content into line with current design helps to prepare these players for the future.

Harperelle says: How are you testing these fights?

For my initial purpose - functionality - I test them with multiple clients running at the same time to ensure that the skill plays are happening the way that they should. If they do, I move on. QA handles the testing once I hand it off to them after verifying the initial functionality.

Ararax2 says: Oakheart still there?

Yes. She is in the Barrows wing.

Lunasea says: Are you designing each wing as separate instances, or a big 3-man instance with different entry points and a 6-man with the same?

These are all separate instances.

Joe-Phi says (kinda): Will you be revamping Moria too?

We will see what happens when I finish this, something tells me that I will be tired and in need of something different for a while.

TheOneRinger says: Will the 3-man areas of Garth Agarwen be 3-man only?

Yes. I will not be scaling the instances to deal with smaller and larger groups.

On to today.

This morning was a little slow. It always seems that Monday moves slower than any other day. Got started by creating the new files necessary to send players into the instances. These files govern the locations that the player will land in the world, where the string tables are located that govern the instance name and the opening information. If there is voice-over, it is referenced within this file; loading screens, found here too. Restrictions on locations - yup, in these files.

After creating the files, I verify the location overrides to make certain that players are not going to end up at a strange place in the world. I fire up our world building tool and head to the location of the instance and begin breaking the instance into three separate instances. This is going to require a scalpel, a cleaver and one of those suction things that the dentist uses to turn your mouth into a mini-Sahara. I place the new teleport pads, name them according to the files I previously created. I create the new teleport objects, align them with architecture in the space that makes sense. I remove architecture. I add architecture. I start looking at all the places that players will attempt to jump out of the instance. Will have to adjust some of the walls to be much cleaner than they are now.

I look at my original creation one more time and say good-bye.

On to bug fixing for other areas. I needed a break while I thought about the new quests that will be featured in this new version of GA. I close out 40 bugs in about 2 hours. I had already fixed many of them and just been lazy about closing them. My bad, I have been slacking on my bookkeeping. Head back into the world and continue the process of cutting the area up.

Lots more work to do. Lots more. Seems like not much happened today, but there are ton of changes in place by the end of the day. No new creatures yet. No new skills yet. Lots of new strings generated, lots of new files generated. Areas of the world now exist because they have telepads. The new instances are broken out and can be accessed by players.

Tomorrow promises to be a better day in terms of getting “meaningful” work done. I will be focusing on getting the ruins up and running. This will require a massive gutting of current content there. I counted the monsters in the initial space turns out there were about ~80 monsters in that initial space. Ugh, no wonder folks were slogging through them.

I sit down to start writing today’s blog and realize that it is going to be a little sparse. Decide to put some questions up in the front.

This one is not that full of super interesting information. Tomorrow will be a better day.

I am closing this blog with an aside. Actually, not really an aside - more of a statement I guess.

I read through every response that people on my blog posts and I see that there are a lot of hard-line opinions. I enjoy opinions. I think that they are very helpful when trying to discern what the true problems surrounding an issue may be, or what someone is really feeling. I also really enjoy it when people call me to task, because it reminds me that I still care. It gets me fired up, in a good way. Passionate stances are great!

I wanted to take the time to answer one post directly, earnestly and with as much passion as it was written.

Lurkerinthemist says:

So, why in the world, Orion, would you think that exposing yourself like this would bring anything but criticism?

You’ve just told us that you do not consider the player base in your design decisions. At no point in this process have you reached out to the players to ask what is wanted.

You’ve told us that what you envision doesn’t make it into implementation.

You’ve told us that even though we want certain things in the game, it’s up to you to determine what’s best for us.

Get off your high horse, start listening to the player base. LotRO is not your personal opus.

I can only imagine that this was in response to my statement in this post http://my.lotro.com/orion/2009/07/23...n/#comment-256

Lurker, you answered your question in your response. Though I will dispute some of your statements. First, the statement that I don’t consider the player base in my design decisions, because that is untrue. If the above link to my answer was the impetus for this response, then you missed some context. No one of my superiors is forcing me to make these changes, that context comes from my responding to a direct post from another poster. My decisions are made from quiet observation in-game, experience in-game, data compiled from the game and review of materials that I can read online, put together with a few years of playing and making these games.

The very fact that I am writing this blog is me reaching out to players.I am getting responses from you - being social network or forum posters - who are certainly a cross section of the player base. In essence, this is my way of peeling back those layers that separate us and letting you in to respond real time to the decisions that are being made. There are differing opinions over the proposed changes but they appear more positive than negative.

Yes, I explained that not everything that I envision will make it through the full implementation process. Experience has taught me that ideas on paper do not always translate well in action. Though the logic may work, the fun may not happen; in that case I redraft and find a way to make it more fun. Again, subjective as always, so I cast a broad scope to that idea of fun. Ultimately, that is what it is - an idea of fun. It is not always spot on, but I certainly hope that it is close enough to make most people happy.

Another point that I disagree with is your statement: “even though we want certain things in the game, it’s up to you to determine what’s best for us”. I disagree with this because it is my job to make educated decisions as to what the mass may like to do. Sure we have data, sure we have surveys, but I cannot poll every single person and get a direct answer on what they want. I make educated decisions and supply players with options. That is my job. Not all options reach across the spectrum of players.

I ride no high horse, I do not look down my nose at players. I am a player, a gamer and I have the good fortune of making games. I love making games. My level of passion is damn high for this project, not because I view it as a personal opus - I am making a game not a piece of art - but because I believe that I can deliver a great experience every once in a while to the players. I doubt that I will make everyone happy with every single thing that I add to the game, but I work hard to make certain that many people will find fun and have options available to them that make the game fun. That is what I do.

I guess my point in answering this post is this: I am listening to the player base. That player base is made up of thousands and thousands and thousands of opinions. Not just mine, not just my bosses, not just yours or hers or his. I have to navigate those opinions to make the most educated decisions that I can, and sometimes I do, other times I do not. When I do not, I am not afraid to admit my mistakes.

I come here, and I expose myself to you all so I can gain a better appreciation of what it is that you are really saying. I have to move beyond the passionate anger that can be displayed, or the frustrations and read into the words as best I can. All I hope is that I do that well enough to make thousands and thousands and thousands happy a little bit - each moment, hour, day or week or month. Because to me, there is nothing better in this life than making people smile, even for a short time.

That’s my thought on that and I am sticking to it.

Until tomorrow, good night folks.