A Brief Post on the Nature of Post-Ascention Gameplay

Now, for those of you who don't know, I'm the one who actually coined the term "God Mode" when describing my idea for what is now Strategy Mode. (Made as a joke in reference to the nature of most Strategy games' failiur to put you in a position of leadership but instead making you more like an aloof sky-god.) Obviously as people began adding the new ideas of what we now call Post-Ascention Gameplay, I was strongly opposed, it took away all the challenge. Even as it came into it's current form I have been wary of the idea. I see no fun in the idea.

Now, recently I saw a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the University of Delaware. In one scene, Oberon tells his servant Puck to fetch a rare and magical flower. In this production, Puck existed the stage by gleefully leaping into a well diguised trap door, and so seemingly disappeering into the ground.

Suddenly I got it.

I had been thinking about God Mode in terms of my own God. A subtle, back-stage manipulater who never really did anything you can see. When seeing that scene I realized that while that's all well and good, Post-Ascention Gameplay should be made not to favor that, but to play like the ancient, mythical Gods. Tricksters, weirdos, drunkards, teasing and joking and playing eternities away. Instead of turning the Universe into one big editor (Which should be done too, but you get what I mean), let the player explore their new found power in other ways. Allow them to manifest themselves as an organism. Let this organism fly, and breath anywhere, and hover, and walk through walls and the very planet itself. Let them find some primitive civilization and confuse and terrify them by suddenly appearing on a pedestal and dancing like a lunatic. Let them change their appearance and the appearance of others. Let them be Puck.

Sorry, just saying I finally got how this could be an actual fun game-mode you'd want to work for.

EDIT: Comment if you agree/disagree

You understand, finally. But it should also be for those who want to create something they've always wanted. Someone with a very specific idea of a certain race they've dreamed up can do it God Mode. But yes, i think i'd make a right good Loki...

Tenebrarum wrote:

I had been thinking about God Mode in terms of my own God. A subtle, back-stage manipulater who never really did anything you can see. When seeing that scene I realized that while that's all well and good, Post-Ascention Gameplay should be made not to favor that, but to play like the ancient, mythical Gods. Tricksters, weirdos, drunkards, teasing and joking and playing eternities away. Instead of turning the Universe into one big editor (Which should be done too, but you get what I mean), let the player explore their new found power in other ways. Allow them to manifest themselves as an organism. Let this organism fly, and breath anywhere, and hover, and walk through walls and the very planet itself. Let them find some primitive civilization and confuse and terrify them by suddenly appearing on a pedestal and dancing like a lunatic. Let them change their appearance and the appearance of others. Let them be Puck.

Quoted for truth.
But yes playing "god mode" (or observer-mode-with-god-tools for the pedantic) should allow us to manifest ourselves , perhaps we could get to chose which organism we want to look like? That way you could impersonate several gods to the mortals's disdain.
I think with some AI coding we could even make they recognize their deities differently.

Or maybe there would just be a God Tool which gives an organism superpowers.

ParadoxJuice wrote:

Or maybe there would just be a God Tool which gives an organism superpowers.

I don't think that's what they meant.

I actually think this is a good idea. Let the player have this kind of power, it would make the game even more fun.

I think that is a great idea. although, what would be very fun is wars between different gods, (like in runescape if anybody here got that into it) with different people beliving in different things and people doing miracles (like profits) but that is stopped by it all being one big minipulating nothing-but-like-thing-thing. It would better if there were more big minipulating nothings.

Tenebrarum wrote:

In this production, Puck existed the stage by gleefully leaping into a well diguised trap door, and so seemingly disappeering into the ground.

Suddenly I got it.

That is the most random thing I have ever heard.

Apart from that, no comment. And what is Agrestrife talking about? I didn't really get a word of that... Except for thing...

ParadoxJuice wrote:

Or maybe there would just be a God Tool which gives an organism superpowers.

To be frank, just what I was thinking.

We need to start actually discussing this, far though it may seem, the relationship with an org mode style post-ascension is going to have with our engine will determine alot of the things we'll be able to do. We need to descide what we want fairly early on.

ParadoxJuice wrote:

Or maybe there would just be a God Tool which gives an organism superpowers.

Well, there is. The OE.

Step 1 - Use OE on organism of your choice
Step 2 - Implant hyperadvanced cybernetics
Step 3 - Watch him become superhero

Well, that's not really what I meant.

I guess that was a silly suggestion, though, since omnipotent powers are accessed through a menu instead of a separate mode, so you could access them through organism mode.

Sorry about that. I'm still used to the older Evolutions! concepts.

I like it. Attatching God Mode and observer mode sounds like a lot of fun - whether surveying your own creations or exploring your neighbors.
(PS: guys, I'm pretty sure the "superpowers" were suggested as being applied to one individual organism - whichever one you were playing as an incarnation. Though you could probably use your OE to create a caste of superheroes or whatever... which would still be fun.)
I think it's good to integrate the "sandbox" and interactive parts of the game. While I like building, regardless of the game, there's always a bit of anticlimax when you're done - this will keep people from focusing on the god mode and becoming burnt out, and move them back into normal gameplay.

I think Keen was talking about using the OE on one organism, therefore changing that one organism. But then how do you change them all?
...
Hm...
...
Ah...
A simple choice when you save: Apply to one, or apply to all?

Yeah, I was talking about one organism.

You just found a huge hole in the Godly Tools concept. I think we should just implement a Godly Selection tool, select things we want to modify and run the appropriate editor.

I think post-ascension gameplay should have no restrictions at all. Let the player do whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want.

god of war book:....and then kaosrain the lord of kytiis kicked kratos belgium

~sciocont wrote:

I think post-ascension gameplay should have no restrictions at all. Let the player do whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want.

As lovely as that sounds, remember that we have to program every single ability we want the player to have. That's how games work.

Tenebrarum wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

I think post-ascension gameplay should have no restrictions at all. Let the player do whatever they want, whenever they want, wherever they want.

As lovely as that sounds, remember that we have to program every single ability we want the player to have. That's how games work.

I know, i'm saying we take off all of the restrictions- you can control any organism you see, for instance, instead of just a member of your species/nation.

~sciocont wrote:

I know, i'm saying we take off all of the restrictions- you can control any organism you see, for instance, instead of just a member of your species/nation.

Got it. Still. A lot of ths stuff, the superpowers for instance, we'll have to sit down and talk about.

Tenebrarum wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

I know, i'm saying we take off all of the restrictions- you can control any organism you see, for instance, instead of just a member of your species/nation.

Got it. Still. A lot of ths stuff, the superpowers for instance, we'll have to sit down and talk about.

Most things you could do with superpowers would be god tools anyway, right?

~sciocont wrote:

Tenebrarum wrote:

~sciocont wrote:

I know, i'm saying we take off all of the restrictions- you can control any organism you see, for instance, instead of just a member of your species/nation.

Got it. Still. A lot of ths stuff, the superpowers for instance, we'll have to sit down and talk about.

Most things you could do with superpowers would be god tools anyway, right?

That's basically the idea.

Superpowers and godtools are synonymous, but my point is, we have to descide on what we'll have.

Can I make creatures fall in love? Can I transfigure others? Can I make one creature immortal? Can I fly through the ground? Can I teleport? Can I run at the speed of sound? Can I breath fire? Can I have laser-vision? X-ray vision? Can I haz cheezburger?

yes,yes,yes,yes,yes to the infinite
the trouble is coding that great quantity of magical god stuff( and its a lot unrealistic )

kaosrain wrote:

yes,yes,yes,yes,yes to the infinite
the trouble is coding that great quantity of magical god stuff( and its a lot unrealistic )

Basically, i think the whole "greek god" asthetic will help us a lot here- you won't be perfect, you won't be all powerful, but you will have a lot of powers available to you. However, I think thios should just be covered by the god tools you already have.

I'm not sure about flying through the ground. Teleporting, yes, but going through the ground is just...

1. Boring
   
2. Pointless
   
3. Glitchy (what happens if you stop when in the ground? Buried alive, or burnt in the planet's core. Which leads into...)
   
4. Dangerous
   
5. Impossible (Well, these are god tools, but still...)
   
6. Possibly hard to program, too.

And yeah, god tools should cover everything. (except going through the ground! )

The Uteen wrote:

I'm not sure about flying through the ground. Teleporting, yes, but going through the ground is just...

[list=1][*]Boring
[*]Pointless
[*]Glitchy (what happens if you stop when in the ground? Buried alive, or burnt in the planet's core. Which leads into...)
[*]Dangerous
[*]Impossible (Well, these are god tools, but still...)
[*]Possibly hard to program, too.

And yeah, god tools should cover everything. (except going through the ground! )

Flying trough the ground difficult to program? It is easier to do than having a charachter walk on a surface. Ever heard of "noclip" options for games such as FPSs and such?