What you think about ingame readables

[BlueSkyBullet]

Readables are great. As long as they are good, they are great, that is.

 

Pandering to or compromising with any audience that finds reading a bother is not great. Do that and you might as well retire for reals.

[Xarg]

Well, there's an optional bow aimer, why not have an optional readable-assister? There are always gonna be people who just skip through readables. I guess it's whether or not you want to enable them to enjoy the mod as much as someone who has no issue with reading 6-7 pages just for the hell of it (I personally read the whole thing, or only perform minor paragraph skims if it looks like a long diary etc.)

[pusianka]

And I think this is worth a try! It's very unconventional, I am for!

[Fidcal]

I already developed such a system to help players at all levels. It's called Player Notes. You can read readables as normal or read them then get help or just read the help. The help is in three levels: hint, nudge, or easy push. Everything is optional. Everybody is happy. Except they're not. Sort of lukewarm reception. Nobody likes options. They like things limited to how they like them and to hell with everybody else.

[ungoliant]

Sorry Fidcal, but if somebody puts the big red 'cheat' button in front of me, I simply must push it. I do not like cheating, I think it is bad. But if the cheat button is in front of me it must be pressed. Pandora knows what I'm talking about.

[Fidcal]

Sorry Fidcal, but if somebody puts the big red 'cheat' button in front of me, I simply must push it. I do not like cheating, I think it is bad. But if the cheat button is in front of me it must be pressed. Pandora knows what I'm talking about.

 

So, if you're stuck do you abandon the mission or cheat and ask for help in the FM forum?

 

So, you always play on Easy Difficulty because that is a cheat with easier clues, less guards, etc.?

 

The idea of Player Notes being optional is that you do not enable them so they are not in front of you so you can't cheat. Even if you try to enable them later they won't work for the clues you've already passed (interesting idea - I could make it so unless Player Notes are enabled at the start of the FM then will never work for any clue without a complete restart. )

 

Furthermore, even if you are totally unable to even resist keeping Player Notes enabled all the time is your weakness any reason to deny other players the opportunity for help?

 

Furthermore, I absolutely refute the idea anyway, that using Player Notes is 'cheating.' They are crafted like any other clues - indeed they are clues - to make more complex, difficult, and challenging FMs as playable as those that have the easy clues in the first place. If you play one of the easier FMs where the clues are obvious ('the key to the safe is in the desk drawer') then why is that not cheating if, as you say, the most explicit Player Note also says 'the key to the safe is in the desk drawer' in exactly the same situation. Instead of it being a cheat it provides the option for more cryptic clues to be tried first. ('He must have something here somewhere to open his safe because...')

[nbohr1more]

I think it's a good system. It also helps augment the external mission support for TDM missions.

 

Many FM authors do not frequently visit TTLG to answer their TDM FM threads.

[AluminumHaste]

I liked it Fidcal, great system. I always play on Expert unless of course there's a "No Blackjack" clause in the objectives in which case I drop down a level.

[BlueSkyBullet]

Furthermore, even if you are totally unable to even resist ... is your weakness any reason to deny [others]...?

 

Sadly it seems the norm. And on much more serious levels too. There are apparently a whole lot of people who are all too happy to stamp out liberties gained because they cannot control themselves... and so they endeavor to control others.