View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0004891Valley 1Bug - GameplayOct 17, 2011 12:25 pm
Reporterlisa107b Assigned To 
Severityminor 
Status closedResolutionduplicate 
Product Version0.525 
Summary0004891: Emit Light scrolls seem a little unnecessary
DescriptionForgive me for just a little thought here, it seems to me that, and I'll admit I make the assumption that, most players will use the Emit Light scrolls all of the time, and as such it may be useful to incorporate it into the standard player experience (without having to craft/carry them). For me it would seem to be a logical step, as they seem to be critically important for game experience, e.g. the player would have a very hard time exploring without them - especially in the caves.
TagsNo tags attached.
Internal WeightNew

Relationships

duplicate of 0004713 closedChris_McElligottPark Emit light of too obvious utility 

Activities

Terraziel

Oct 17, 2011 7:05 am

reporter   ~0016630

Light scrolls are a bit of a weird one I must admit, because they are so prevalent they are almost meaningless, for instance I have 112 level 1 emit light scrolls which is something like 15 hours worth of them so at no point am I in the dark for longer than a couple of seconds. That said I have seen people complain about the scrolls being useless because they just explore in the dark anyway

I seem to remember some talk about light\dark actually making a difference at some point in the future (enemies that don't go in to the light that sort of thing), so the obvious reaction to just ditch the scrolls entirely and just give the character a light radius seems like it would interfere with that.

I think the best thing to do is to switch the scrolls to deploying a variation of the light ball spell. or make the the radius of the light much, much smaller.

The other option, somewhat more complex, and tying in to the light\dark actually making a difference thing, is adding stealth elements, ie playing in the dark makes you less likely to be attacked, something to encourage not using the scrolls, or at least make it an actual choice.

lisa107b

Oct 17, 2011 7:25 am

reporter   ~0016631

Ah yes :) well if that's a planned dynamic it would certainly *cough* put a different light on it ;)

zebramatt

Oct 17, 2011 8:07 am

reporter   ~0016636

See issue 0004713.

tigersfan

Oct 17, 2011 8:29 am

reporter   ~0016641

Yeah, this one's a dupe.

lisa107b

Oct 17, 2011 8:46 am

reporter   ~0016643

I'm still not so sure it adds anything, unless you have high gamma/brightness, you wont be able to see anything in the caves or dungeons (thus no real gameplay to speak of) unless you have some form of light emission.

Given the Minecraft example, that's a game where crafting is the aim - to get torches you need to get coal and sticks, or burn some wood to get charcoal and therein lies the purpose, you hunt for the materials so you can go deeper and get Diamonds, or Iron, if you don't get torches, you can still play the game if you don't mind being blown or shot to pieces by creepers or skeletons and enjoy the challenge.

In this game, crafting doesn't seem to be the principle mechanic, that seems to be more about exploration right now, and without light emission, there doesn't seem to be any enjoyable gameplay as yet.

You have the elements to make light emission spells/scrolls from the start and you have no other options for using those materials so it still seems a little pointless to me.

Chris_McElligottPark

Oct 17, 2011 12:25 pm

administrator   ~0016689

"and you have no other options for using those materials"

That's a factor of early beta. Every material is going to have dozens of uses by the time we're done.

And I'd argue that crafting is just as central here in Minecraft, but rather than building being the other central thing, exploration is. The fact that crafting is in a really early state is neither here nor there, really.

For example: arguably, in most FPS games ammo doesn't really add a whole lot. You always get enough so that you always have some, right? It's not like there are periods where you don't have any bullets for any gun in most such games, and so isn't the only thing ammo is preventing is your shooting guns constantly everywhere?

That's somewhat true -- but the mix of guns and all their various ammo types actually does add a lot to most of those games, in terms of how your overall strategies take place. But if you take one of those games, and narrow it down to just the pistol and the SMG, and try to analyze where there is ammo from just that, it would seem utterly pointless.

Not that I don't want feedback at this stage -- but when it comes to "this sort of material isn't useful enough" type comments, that's one of those things that's just a factor of the early nature of this.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Oct 17, 2011 6:15 am lisa107b New Issue
Oct 17, 2011 6:26 am lisa107b Description Updated
Oct 17, 2011 7:05 am Terraziel Note Added: 0016630
Oct 17, 2011 7:25 am lisa107b Note Added: 0016631
Oct 17, 2011 8:07 am zebramatt Note Added: 0016636
Oct 17, 2011 8:08 am zebramatt Relationship added duplicate of 0004713
Oct 17, 2011 8:29 am tigersfan Internal Weight => New
Oct 17, 2011 8:29 am tigersfan Note Added: 0016641
Oct 17, 2011 8:29 am tigersfan Status new => closed
Oct 17, 2011 8:29 am tigersfan Resolution open => duplicate
Oct 17, 2011 8:46 am lisa107b Note Added: 0016643
Oct 17, 2011 12:25 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0016689