It's the little things that count.

Here is a suggestion I gave a developer awhile back that I figured I'd share here.

"Hello and well met!

One of the major concerns of players for any game is the available of not only content, but new content. This is difficult for a developer, as content costs a lot of time and money to create. On top of that, the attention span of players are really short, and although it could take months to design good content, the player often loses interest within a couple of weeks. In order to help combat this problem, I put together a system of a completely different kind of content to maintain interest at little to no cost. This content targets the curiosity and performs at a psychological level.

I used to work volunteer online in a few gaming industry areas such as GameSpy and Sony Online Entertainment along with other smaller companies. Primarily, I was someone who created and performed live events for a game. Please allow myself to explain.

Most players log in and know EXACTLY what to expect for their session, and generally they have already pre-planned their goals. They get on, do the usual, and they get off. In (game), this has been heightened recently with the mindset of "log on, get my maximum points for the day, log off". They feel they have no reason to play beyond that. When a player logs on and knows exactly what will happen, the only thing that will maintain their interest is the content available to them. This is not enough to keep the players around for long. However, there is a completely different field in other to keep that interest alive. This different field simply comes down to "What if?"

I'll be honest with you. The reason I have messaged you personally about this is because of something you slightly tapped into. The fact that you logged in and was just "having a little fun" (with the PVE bosses within the town) has caused a great spark in interest among the players. Since I have seen your willingness of this, I'd like to share with what my offer is. One thing though is to be careful not to do so in an idle manner. What I mean is, if you are to be having such things appear, they need to have a real reason behind it and not just for play. You have a great tool at your disposal, and you could use it for the game's advantage. If it is done "just because", the guts behind the pretty scene is shown and the illusion of a real world is gone.

When I was a GM for a Star Wars game, I would go into areas where not much was going on. One of my favorites that I remember was when I put together a small team for an event. I had one of my members spawn as a smuggler-type character. He was just sitting there in a cantina minding his own business. People are talking and generally enjoying themselves when suddenly I show up with a handful of stormtroopers. I start going around the cantina asking players if they have seen someone with the description of the smuggler. Eventually it is only inevitable that I find him hiding in the corner. A lot of the players are just curious as to what the heck is going on. I walk over with my stormtroopers over to his table and start talking. Players start going back to their usual business when suddenly the smuggler jumps up and bolts for the door. My stormtroopers open fire and quickly gives chase. Once we're all outside and around the corner where no one is, we simply despawn. That event was talked about for WEEKS and player activity was much higher for awhile. The reason for this is because what was "expected" out of the game was no longer all there was. When logging in, there is a "What if?" possibility that causes the player to think, "You know, I have a real chance of seeing something cool happen today!". Such things are really small, and sometimes you can even have players involved with rewards. If this is maintained on a semi-usual basis (not TOO often), then it becomes a big part of your success campaign.

The best part of this is that it's pretty much costs nothing. While your development team is busy at creating gameplay content, a second team, or person, can be keeping player interest with stories, small events involving players, and general "ambient" activities (such as my stormtrooper event). This second team is what keeps player interest alive during the in-between periods of gameplay content additions. When a player logs in, it is no longer about, "Oh, I'm gonna log in, get my tokens, and, well, no more reason to stick around for the day." but about, "I wonder if something cool is going to happen today?" This in itself is a very small yet incredibly effective tool in maintaining interest in a game. If you want an extreme of something "simple", you could have someone (not a normal player) take control of a special character in a group's mission. Once that person is in play, the music changes and the lights darken. If the player group manages to take them out, the mission ends with success and they get a guaranteed epic quality reward. Due to the challenge, perhaps a lower quality reward if failure. It's a real challenge taking out a live player behind an NPC character, and it would also be a very rare event. Now, not only are players thinking "What if?" in town, but also the same when they enter a mission. Most players might even consider this as a new gameplay mode.


In a nutshell, I would like to offer my assistance in helping the team with creating this second layer of content. This will help maintain player interest during the periods of time that new gameplay content is in the development process and not available to the players. This could range from stories, lore, spreading news directly ingame (i.e. rumors of upcoming content in a story fashion as opposed to just news announcements on the website), potentially battle content as mentioned earlier, and once the open world comes out, there is a whole new realm of possibilities and potential missions.

Thanks for your time!"


and there you have it.

Are you suggesting scripted events in-game? I don't see it happening.

InvaderZim wrote:

Are you suggesting scripted events in-game? I don't see it happening.

What I'm suggesting are small things, nothing big, nothing truly significant, that are designed to catch you off guard a bit, and occur infrequently. It helps keep the game alive and fresh and helps prevent the game from being so predictable. It goes a long way.

RpTheHotrod wrote:

InvaderZim wrote:

Are you suggesting scripted events in-game? I don't see it happening.

What I'm suggesting are small things, nothing big, nothing truly significant, that are designed to catch you off guard a bit, and occur infrequently. It helps keep the game alive and fresh and helps prevent the game from being so predictable. It goes a long way.

Well, with the sort of game we've got here, it seems like it would happen naturally. So, I guess that means your idea's already been accepted!

To sum your comment, the game should not be predictable, else it becomes boring. I wholly agree, since it gives the ilusion that things are happening everywhere even without you. Whether it is something like the stormtrooper ambush you talked about in Org. mode, or some unexpected diplomacy actions in Strategy, it's certainly needed.

What exactly is this a suggestion for? Thrive mostly will be offline, so people couldn't control the other organisms around you...

If this is a suggestion simply for random interesting events to occur, then yes, but not often. Preprogrammed interesting events could be added, like a predator and prey hurtling past you out of nowhere and disappearing out of sight, but if we did, then hopefully we could have quite a lot. If every one of these events were either event 1, 2, or 3, then players would get used to them and just find them boring again. But a wide variety of infrequent events would be pretty cool, but we need to be careful about it. Too often, it becomes obvious they are there to make it interesting, and so are no longer surprising. Too little, and they just wont happen often enough for players to notice them. Just the right amount, and they catch the player unawares every time, while not revealing the fact that we are trying to achieve that very goal.

So, suggestions for 'little things that count' in organism stage:

Inquisitive organism approaching and examining you.*
Predator and prey appearing ahead of you in a chase, hurtling right by you, close enough to touch, at top speed, and vanishing behind you.**
Immobile plant briefly moving in a purposeful manner.*** (Most players wouldn't realise what they are seeing, so this is slightly more common than it should be)
Alien encounter in which the player glimpses the alien (usually just the ship), but it isn't around for long.****
Alien encounters involving alien interaction with surrounding organisms.*****
Crashed alien spacecraft of an average size, explorable.****** (no-one would crash that easily, Spore)
God tool use, ie landmass changing form, creature acting particularly odd, moon blowing up, moon appearing, living carcass etc.******
Huge alien deathstar-sized super-ship fairly near the planet, visible about the size of a second moon.******

*Could happen as often as once in each save.
**Maybe once every two or three saves.
***A player will probably have it happen at least once in their entire game (including all saves).
****This should occur for slightly more players than not at least once in their entire game.
*****Only a few players would ever see this.
******You can be pretty certain this will never happen to you.

And all of these would only occur when the camera is focused on the location. In other words, these things don't happen in locations off-camera, or when the camera is moving particularly fast. So if it happens, it will be visible to the player, whether they notice it or not, it's up to them to keep an eye out.

Comments? Is this what you had in mind? Other?

The Uteen wrote:

What exactly is this a suggestion for? Thrive mostly will be offline, so people couldn't control the other organisms around you...

If this is a suggestion simply for random interesting events to occur, then yes, but not often. Preprogrammed interesting events could be added, like a predator and prey hurtling past you out of nowhere and disappearing out of sight, but if we did, then hopefully we could have quite a lot. If every one of these events were either event 1, 2, or 3, then players would get used to them and just find them boring again. But a wide variety of infrequent events would be pretty cool, but we need to be careful about it. Too often, it becomes obvious they are there to make it interesting, and so are no longer surprising. Too little, and they just wont happen often enough for players to notice them. Just the right amount, and they catch the player unawares every time, while not revealing the fact that we are trying to achieve that very goal.

So, suggestions for 'little things that count' in organism stage:

Inquisitive organism approaching and examining you.*
Predator and prey appearing ahead of you in a chase, hurtling right by you, close enough to touch, at top speed, and vanishing behind you.**
Immobile plant briefly moving in a purposeful manner.*** (Most players wouldn't realise what they are seeing, so this is slightly more common than it should be)
Alien encounter in which the player glimpses the alien (usually just the ship), but it isn't around for long.****
Alien encounters involving alien interaction with surrounding organisms.*****
Crashed alien spacecraft of an average size, explorable.****** (no-one would crash that easily, Spore)
God tool use, ie landmass changing form, creature acting particularly odd, moon blowing up, moon appearing, living carcass etc.******
Huge alien deathstar-sized super-ship fairly near the planet, visible about the size of a second moon.******

*Could happen as often as once in each save.
**Maybe once every two or three saves.
***A player will probably have it happen at least once in their entire game (including all saves).
****This should occur for most players at least once in their entire game.
*****Only a few players would ever see this.
******You can be pretty certain this will never happen to you.

Comments? Is this what you had in mind? Other?

Exactly what I'm speaking about. The good thing is, some could be so rare, but possible, that months down the line, there'd be an illusion of continuous new content, although it was always there from the beginning waiting to be discovered.

I don't see any problem with having "scripted" random occurrences or something of the like.

Sounds like a good idea to me. But what are you talking about with the god tools part? God mode just being unlocked for no reason?

Poisson wrote:

Sounds like a good idea to me. But what are you talking about with the god tools part? God mode just being unlocked for no reason?

It appears that "God" In your game before you ascend has done something.

At least that is what I think it means.

The Uteen wrote:

... stuffs : P
God tool use, ie landmass changing form, creature acting particularly odd, moon blowing up, moon appearing, living carcass etc.******
... and more of them

And all of these would only occur when the camera is focused on the location. In other words, these things don't happen in locations off-camera, or when the camera is moving particularly fast. So if it happens, it will be visible to the player, whether they notice it or not, it's up to them to keep an eye out.

Comments? Is this what you had in mind? Other?

I'd say that if the moon blew up, we'd have to record it : P Otherwise, not bad.

caekdaemon wrote:

Poisson wrote:

Sounds like a good idea to me. But what are you talking about with the god tools part? God mode just being unlocked for no reason?

It appears that "God" In your game before you ascend has done something.

At least that is what I think it means.

Yes, that. You are seeing the effects being used, implying some other ascended species is using god tools on your planet, reforming the landscape around you. Or not on your planet, as I said with the moon thing. Big things would be far away though, it shouldn't be able to make a boulder fall on your head or anything, that would be unfair, the living carcass is bad enough, you could eat it unalive.

This should stop happening later on in the game, you don't want sentient species seeing this, civilisation would collapse. And you don't want another god competing with you when you ascend.

The Uteen wrote:

caekdaemon wrote:

Poisson wrote:

Sounds like a good idea to me. But what are you talking about with the god tools part? God mode just being unlocked for no reason?

It appears that "God" In your game before you ascend has done something.

At least that is what I think it means.

Yes, that. You are seeing the effects being used, implying some other ascended species is using god tools on your planet, reforming the landscape around you. Or not on your planet, as I said with the moon thing. Big things would be far away though, it shouldn't be able to make a boulder fall on your head or anything, that would be unfair, the living carcass is bad enough, you could eat it unalive.

This should stop happening later on in the game, you don't want sentient species seeing this, civilisation would collapse. And you don't want another god competing with you when you ascend.

Essentially, I agree with the first part and partially with the second. Maybe the Gods got bored and went to another universe? And why not in Civ mode? I'd like to see that =D

Darkgamma wrote:

The Uteen wrote:

caekdaemon wrote:

Poisson wrote:

Sounds like a good idea to me. But what are you talking about with the god tools part? God mode just being unlocked for no reason?

It appears that "God" In your game before you ascend has done something.

At least that is what I think it means.

Yes, that. You are seeing the effects being used, implying some other ascended species is using god tools on your planet, reforming the landscape around you. Or not on your planet, as I said with the moon thing. Big things would be far away though, it shouldn't be able to make a boulder fall on your head or anything, that would be unfair, the living carcass is bad enough, you could eat it unalive.

This should stop happening later on in the game, you don't want sentient species seeing this, civilisation would collapse. And you don't want another god competing with you when you ascend.

Essentially, I agree with the first part and partially with the second. Maybe the Gods got bored and went to another universe? And why not in Civ mode? I'd like to see that =D

Because everyone would panic and think the gods are going to destroy the world in some way, either by making zombies, moving land to make maps inaccurate, destroying the moon out of anger, creating another moon to tear the planet apart, or some other crazy reason for the end of the world... I wouldn't want the end of the world to ruin my game, really.

Oh, other civilizations using it? Yeah, that would be cool or at the very least interesting. Could we possibly use just some pre-generated civilizations for some of this stuff (the stuff that actually involves intelligent species messing around), seeing as as having to let the game make them up on the spot would be unnecessary processing power used.

I don't think a random godly interaction would be very good, and the predator and prey running past should happen on its own.
Great idea. Really great.
-Waap.

Waap wrote:

I don't think a random godly interaction would be very good, and the predator and prey running past should happen on its own.
Great idea. Really great.
-Waap.

But usually the predator and prey thing would be distant, and not that important to the player... The predator and prey situation I'm talking about would be very fast, and very, very close, making the player jump and be concerned of a collision which may end nastily.

And the god tool thing would not be doing anything which affects you. (At least in organism mode, that's why I don't think it should happen in civilisation, because any change in the landscape/satellites would matter)
If it was a land changing tool, you would see hills rising up, but in the distance, almost certainly in an area you haven't been and is far enough to put a player off visiting.
The large scale tools would be something like destroying the moon or creating another.
The living carcass would be the godly moving tool, making it appear alive. It isn't alive, so it couldn't really bite you or anything.

Still, the idea of random god-tool use - even in a way which doesn't directly impact the player - feels a little off for a science-based game. The others are good - random events will help make the universe seem more active and "alive" - but the god-tools one just seems off-putting for some reason.

Xenopologist wrote:

Still, the idea of random god-tool use - even in a way which doesn't directly impact the player - feels a little off for a science-based game. The others are good - random events will help make the universe seem more active and "alive" - but the god-tools one just seems off-putting for some reason.

It actually obeys the laws of science-fiction more than most other situations:
We are a "stupid, caveman" organism while a giant hole in technology leaves them bored =(

Darkgamma wrote:

Xenopologist wrote:

Still, the idea of random god-tool use - even in a way which doesn't directly impact the player - feels a little off for a science-based game. The others are good - random events will help make the universe seem more active and "alive" - but the god-tools one just seems off-putting for some reason.

It actually obeys the laws of science-fiction more than most other situations:
We are a "stupid, caveman" organism while a giant hole in technology leaves them bored =(

So, we have two options:

1. We include random god tool use, which may appear unrealistic.
2. We do not include random god tool use, which is also unrealistic - someone else will get god tools first. Not all the time, though, so this is a uber-rare sight.

Both are perfectly good options. I think we might need a vote, or something.

Or there is the third option: Allow God-tool moments, but not destructive, only creative (you won't see a moon blowing up or continent being cut in two, but you might see a sudden creation of planets and stuff).

Commander Keen wrote:

Or there is the third option: Allow God-tool moments, but not destructive, only creative (you won't see a moon blowing up or continent being cut in two, but you might see a sudden creation of planets and stuff).

This can be destructive, as well xD I'd say splitting the continent is perfectly ok, and maybe change of atmosphere colour? Or more clouds?
This is a dilemma

Commander Keen wrote:

Or there is the third option: Allow God-tool moments, but not destructive, only creative (you won't see a moon blowing up or continent being cut in two, but you might see a sudden creation of planets and stuff).

Speaking of, if we include random god-tool use, it will have to affect the gameplay somewhere along the line. For instance, the destruction of a moon would have immediate consequences gravity-wise even in creature stage, provided that the physics will be as realistic as we're hoping. It could throw the planet's orbit out of whack, altering the climate drastically.

Quote :

This can be destructive, as well xD I'd say splitting the continent is perfectly ok, and maybe change of atmosphere colour? Or more clouds?
This is a dilemma

And if the continent splits along your species' migration route and the atmosphere conditions change to toxic, will it still be okay? Congratulations, your save that you was working on for five hours was just randomly destroyed in just five minutes.

Quote :

Speaking of, if we include random god-tool use, it will have to affect the gameplay somewhere along the line. For instance, the destruction of a moon would have immediate consequences gravity-wise even in creature stage, provided that the physics will be as realistic as we're hoping. It could throw the planet's orbit out of whack, altering the climate drastically.

And that's the problem. These events are supposed to make the game look more realistic and interesting, maybe affect the gameplay in a non-intrusive change, but suddenly changing the planet to hell on earth is NOT a good thing.

Commander Keen wrote:

Quote :

This can be destructive, as well xD I'd say splitting the continent is perfectly ok, and maybe change of atmosphere colour? Or more clouds?
This is a dilemma

And if the continent splits along your species' migration route and the atmosphere conditions change to toxic, will it still be okay? Congratulations, your save that you was working on for five hours was just randomly destroyed in just five minutes.

Quote :

Speaking of, if we include random god-tool use, it will have to affect the gameplay somewhere along the line. For instance, the destruction of a moon would have immediate consequences gravity-wise even in creature stage, provided that the physics will be as realistic as we're hoping. It could throw the planet's orbit out of whack, altering the climate drastically.

And that's the problem. These events are supposed to make the game look more realistic and interesting, maybe affect the gameplay in a non-intrusive change, but suddenly changing the planet to hell on earth is NOT a good thing.

Um, if you split the continent along your migration route, that is a major change that will affect you, which will not be allowed to happen.

Besides, that would not have a direct visual effect, and so would be rubbish for the purpose these things are for - keeping the players interest. Splitting a continent will not keep a players interest. Each god tool random occurrence would be specifically, individually added. Not every god tool will make it.

As for destroying the moon, or creating one, I suppose that may have drastic consequences if you live along the coastline. That should definitely not happen. Let's not include that one, then.

And allowing and disallowing groups of tools is not how this is going to work, it shouldn't work like that. These wont be god tools, or at least not the ones we use. They should just look like they are, indistinguishable. But they are only a few of all god tools, and they will almost never affect you, short or long term (of course it might, sometimes, slightly, but we can't help that).

I had another idea - if you are in a herd (>30?), a member of it nearby could vanish. This shouldn't affect you too much in a herd that big, and would make you interested as to what happened.

And I shall use this to make my point clear - this can be explained as god tool use, and it is god tool use in gameplay, to the average player, but it isn't, when it comes down to the programming it in. Firstly, it would have to be visible, it wouldn't happen if you couldn't see it, or it wouldn't do anything to keep interest. Secondly, the effect would only occur to creatures of the same species in your pack. God tools are not restricted like that. These events would happen under specific circumstances, to specific things, at specific ranges of distances. So basic god tools are not used. So each will be added individually. So we aren't going to ever include one that blindly ruin your game. Surely we have faith in ourselves to get that right...