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Add a "Recommended" button to build choice screens
Archived Post
Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
I know you have a tricky balance to navigate... if you force people to make optimal choices, people who want to divert from that for perfectly good reasons will be unhappy, and if you leave it all open, other people will unintentionally self-gimp.
I would suggest taking a page from other games that gave people a lot of latitude for self-gimpage, and have a nice, friendly "Recommended" button on any screen where someone is making build choices. Clicking it would make the optimal selection, which the player could either ratify or decide to change.
The problem, of course, is determining what the optimal choice is. You'll have to maintain build templates for various types of characters which are always the min/max wet dream build for that character type. Then you will have to have a way for people to choose that build template. You could just list them all with descriptions, I guess. I would prefer them to be less visible to the player, though.
I'd suggest having a set of branching questions that the player would answer as their character. If the character had a theme (like fire) they could pick that, if they wanted to stay primarily at range, that would be another choice, etc. The reason I suggested "branching" is that some choices would preclude some other choices, and that would be a useful lesson for a new player, as well.
The questions could be used as an opportunity to inform players about the game consequences of certain choices. For instance, if they pick something like, "I don't have any particular defenses, so I am completely vulnerable to every attack" you could have it pop up a warning they would have to "OK" that would tell them the character would not be effective for solo play unless they took great care in choosing protective gear, or somesuch. Since only people who made that choice would see that information, it's a good chance to explain the stuff that you would think would be obvious, but which some folks are not going to realize is important in the game.
The goal will be to guide people into how the game works in a bits-and-pieces way, without overloading them with text which may not apply at all to what they want to do.
You'll probably want to add a way to opt out of choosing a build template based on some set of criteria, or after a scary popup of warning text about the dangers of self-gimpage or somesuch.
For serious bonus points: Have a Recommended button for suggesting gear slotting, as well. >_>
I would suggest taking a page from other games that gave people a lot of latitude for self-gimpage, and have a nice, friendly "Recommended" button on any screen where someone is making build choices. Clicking it would make the optimal selection, which the player could either ratify or decide to change.
The problem, of course, is determining what the optimal choice is. You'll have to maintain build templates for various types of characters which are always the min/max wet dream build for that character type. Then you will have to have a way for people to choose that build template. You could just list them all with descriptions, I guess. I would prefer them to be less visible to the player, though.
I'd suggest having a set of branching questions that the player would answer as their character. If the character had a theme (like fire) they could pick that, if they wanted to stay primarily at range, that would be another choice, etc. The reason I suggested "branching" is that some choices would preclude some other choices, and that would be a useful lesson for a new player, as well.
The questions could be used as an opportunity to inform players about the game consequences of certain choices. For instance, if they pick something like, "I don't have any particular defenses, so I am completely vulnerable to every attack" you could have it pop up a warning they would have to "OK" that would tell them the character would not be effective for solo play unless they took great care in choosing protective gear, or somesuch. Since only people who made that choice would see that information, it's a good chance to explain the stuff that you would think would be obvious, but which some folks are not going to realize is important in the game.
The goal will be to guide people into how the game works in a bits-and-pieces way, without overloading them with text which may not apply at all to what they want to do.
You'll probably want to add a way to opt out of choosing a build template based on some set of criteria, or after a scary popup of warning text about the dangers of self-gimpage or somesuch.
For serious bonus points: Have a Recommended button for suggesting gear slotting, as well. >_>
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