Dark-Star on 26/3/2008 at 14:46
I'm looking at a new idea for my fan mission. :idea: Would it be fitting to include books/binders/notepads/billboards/etc that actually contained pertinent information? They would be 'read' by either right-clicking for immobile objects like billboards or via the question mark in the inventory view for pickupable objects. (this would all be explained to the player very early on.)
Besides providing amusement and a new thing to explore in SS2, it would also help get my FM away from something SS2 players keep getting tied to - relying on emails and logs for critical information like codes and item/place locations.
Comments?
JediKorenchkin on 26/3/2008 at 15:20
It would be a neat idea if you portrayed the idea to the player that he would NEED to do that kind of thing. System Shock 2 hid a code in the paintings. As long as the player knows to go back and look for that kind of thing, I think it would work fine.
Dark-Star on 8/4/2008 at 16:37
Don't worry, I'm putting in a custom Infocomp that gives all the details.
I just got the first two 'readable' objects implemented in my FM; one pickupable and one not. The one you can carry has a slight change. It doesn't make sense that you (the player) would really want to stop and read anything of length in a dangerous environment...but what about using your research software? It should be able to scan an object and extract relevant information from it. So that is what I'm doing for now. Almost all books/binders and the like can be researched with skill 0 - nothing alien or wierd enough about them to justify much more.
There will be a handful of items that you actually read in your MFD by using the scroll bars, usually to go through specific prodecures to attain a goal (diagnostics, system reboot, etc). But the text in them will be limited to relevant information so as not to drive the player insane.
icemann on 9/4/2008 at 10:28
Could always have parts in the game where the player will be completely stuck unless he reads something on a wall or whatever.
Dark-Star on 9/4/2008 at 12:30
Already planned for. If a certain manual is not recovered and researched, the player will not know how to shut down the main reactor.
Unfortunately, I've recently discovered that most carryable readable objects will now have to be 'read' in the MFD, due to a hard limit on research reports. Xp
