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Author Topic: Items descriptions  (Read 141785 times)
Tuomas
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« Reply #105 on: December 14, 2008, 08:31:37 am »

Lovable descriptions. They bring extra depth to the setting.

I prefer reading about the lore. You can compare the effectiveness of the armors by looking at stats.

There's some repetition here:
"During the War well-trained, lightly armored auxiliary troops provided support to the Imperial legions during the War."
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Vince
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« Reply #106 on: December 14, 2008, 09:57:28 am »

Full descriptions look like this:

Lorica Segmentata - segmented armor made of metal strips overlapping downwards fastened to internal leather straps. Simple and inexpensive, lorica segmentata became the standard legionary armor and an unofficial symbol of the Empire that was recognized and feared everywhere.

Iron, DR 7, Max AP 9, Dodge/Sneak penalty 40%, Protection vs Criticals 75, Upgrade: Hardened.

vs (for example)"

Studded leather Barbari armor - a studded leather armor of the southern nomadic tribes. The term "barbari" is a remnant of the good ol' days when the world was divided into the Empire and anything else. The anything else part was arrogantly called "barbaricum", roughly translated as "out there".

DR 2, Max AP 12, Dodge/Sneak penalty 5%, Protection vs Criticals 25, Upgrade: None

So, the numbers tell you all you need to know and the text doesn't really need to repeat it. Or does it? I'm open for suggestions.

Re: typos - that's the first draft [after I changed the descriptions]. If that's acceptable, then I'll go over them with a fine comb.

Re: space - we don't have a lot of space for descriptions, so what I posted fills 90% of the available space. In other words, longer descriptions aren't an option.

Re: display method - no mouse overs. You click on an item and see its descriptions in the text box (inventory, trading, looting screens).
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Oscar
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« Reply #107 on: December 14, 2008, 10:08:59 am »

Here is an old shot that shows how descriptions look in the game.

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"Hasta la victoria, siempre."

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Vince
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« Reply #108 on: December 14, 2008, 10:33:40 am »

So Vince is finalizing lore for a demo...
Descriptions, not lore.

Quote
I don't visit this forum too often so can anybody tell me when the demo is due?

I don't want to piss off anyone withe this question. I'm just curious... Salute
It's a combat demo and it's planned to be released in about 3 months assuming that everything goes well, which includes having enough available time on daily/weekly basis.

The demo will be set in the arena district (so you’ll be able to see what AoD towns look and feel like). You’ll fight different opponents, ranging from local scum and captured criminals to professional fighters looking for easy coins and guild recruiters showing off their skills and prowess. You'll fight against single fighters and groups, fast lightly armored opponents and heavy, ironclad juggernauts. That should give you a good feel of the combat and give us plenty of feedback to work with.

You'll earn skill points, improve your skills, loot dead bodies, sell & buy equipment, commission special weapons (you won't be able to craft weapons yourself in the demo), etc. Your opponents aren't random. It's more of a ladder structure and it would be interesting to see how high you'll be able to climb.


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Brother None
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« Reply #109 on: December 14, 2008, 11:31:40 am »

Studded leather Barbari armor - a studded leather armor of the southern nomadic tribes. The term "barbari" is a remnant of the good ol' days when the world was divided into the Empire and anything else. The anything else part was arrogantly called "barbaricum", roughly translated as "out there".

Huh. Any reason you changed that from the original onomatopoeic heritage of the word? I always thought it was one of the more poetic onomatopoeias in any language.
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Vince
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« Reply #110 on: December 14, 2008, 11:34:06 am »

Sorry, didn't get it. What do you mean? Changed what?
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Brother None
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« Reply #111 on: December 14, 2008, 11:36:36 am »

Sorry, didn't get it. What do you mean? Changed what?

Well, unless you want to separate fantasy from reality strictly, one would figure Barbaria -> Barbarian -> Greek onomatopoeia βάρβαρος.

In any case, the heritage of βάρβαρος is a bit more poetic than simply a term meaning "not here".
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caster
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« Reply #112 on: December 14, 2008, 11:43:51 am »

Yeah... but its the decadence times and none remembers what it means.
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Vince
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« Reply #113 on: December 14, 2008, 11:51:30 am »

That's historically accurate.

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Barbaricum

"It is also a Greek version of the term Barbaricum, designating areas outside civilization and/or the Roman Empire."

http://books.google.ca/books?id=DWiyzw91atgC&pg=RA1-PA185&lpg=RA1-PA185

"On the most simplistic level in Roman terminology, barbari meant, as it always did, those who were not Romans, and barbaricum meant 'out there', ..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Roman_army

"The auxilia were mainly recruited from the peregrini: provincial subjects of the empire who did not hold Roman citizenship, but the auxilia also admitted Roman citizens and possibly barbari, the Roman term for peoples living outside the empire's borders."

I have quite a few books on the Roman Empire and the ancient world in general, and did a lot of research. Some things aren't accurate, of course, like the one-handed crossbow that was invented much later and the mongolian Horde, and I'm well aware of that.
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Brother None
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« Reply #114 on: December 14, 2008, 12:15:57 pm »

"On the most simplistic level in Roman terminology, barbari meant, as it always did, those who were not Romans, and barbaricum meant 'out there', ..."

Crazy Romans. Just saying, they took the word from Greek, where barbaros was an onomatopoeia that would literally be translated as "blahblaher". I always thought it cool how the Greeks - in all their arrogance - basically couldn't understand people, so they just said "listen to that! Sounds like they keep going bar bar bar bar bar, bunch of barbarians"

Ah, the Greeks. The Americans of the BC times.
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serious
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« Reply #115 on: December 14, 2008, 03:18:08 pm »

(...)
vs (for example)"

does "vs" mean "versus" ??

... So we should compare the two descriptions and chose which one we like better, right ? Question

Well in this case, I would prefer the first one, because the description is more referring to the looks, the components and the use of the armor - compared to the lore-part of the second.

So, the numbers tell you all you need to know and the text doesn't really need to repeat it. Or does it?

No, it doesn't (!), but ...

I think, it would be sad, when you discard any of the two description types, because the history/lore in the second description is also very interesting. 8)
Therefore I would once more vote for displaying both of them, but not at the same time. With "clickable keywords", for example, you could use the same space, without the need to discard anything of them.
I think this would also have the advantage, that (as a player) you wouldn't have to read all the lore-part every time you look at the item. It surely would be  interesting, when you first buy/find the item, but I don't think that it'll ad much to the fun of the game, if you'll see it any time, when you, for example, only want to compare some items, or if you are searching for something particular in the inventory, etc.

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Vince
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« Reply #116 on: December 14, 2008, 03:30:22 pm »

... So we should compare the two descriptions and chose which one we like better, right ? Question
No. Compare two different armor and decide which one is better for you. I posted that in response to "your text descriptions don't tell me much about armor".
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« Reply #117 on: December 14, 2008, 03:36:52 pm »

No. Compare two different armor and decide which one is better for you. I posted that in response to "your text descriptions don't tell me much about armor".

Thanks for clarifying ! - But how about my "keyword suggestion" ? Would it be too difficult / time-consuming to implement it ?
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caster
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« Reply #118 on: December 14, 2008, 03:40:13 pm »

Its fine like it is now.
This way these armor and weapons feel more connected into the setting . like they are a part of it. Part of history, tales, and general culture.

Cant wait to play that demo... how heavy do you think it might be? Few hundred megabytes or more? A gig?
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I don't know, I don't care, and it doesn't make any difference! - Albert Einstein


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Oscar
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« Reply #119 on: December 14, 2008, 03:47:05 pm »

Less than 200mb for sure.
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"Hasta la victoria, siempre."

"Who has time? But then if we do not ever take time, how can we ever have it?"
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