Avatar's age

[gregers]

OK think what you think and do what you have to do...

What I\'d like to play is a game where you have some other reason to play than only to slash monsters...

The idea of ageing and exchanging genes would make such a game somewhat exceptional and unforgettable, but I see you want just to have another videogame clone.

I understand it is the easy way - and such an easy way would be understandable if you\'d need to develop the game as quickly as possible to get money out of players.

I cannot understand such thinking in the open-source game.

Or perhaps you are just alpha-testing under the \"opensource\" cover.. ?

[Seytra]

Originally posted by gregers
Yeah I thought so...

So why did you post, then?

Originally posted by gregers
You\'ll get another hack&slash boring game with all the bells and whistles like nice graphics quests and all the crap that already exitst in so many games...

Right, so forced aging will instantly make it less H&S, and also means that lack of it will mean that there can\'t possibly be anything that makes PS differnet or that might even make it interesting? Riiiight.

Originally posted by gregers
It won\'t differ at all, will be just cheaper.

Again, riiiight.

Originally posted by gregers
Have fun

I so totally will if no age is being forced upon me.

Now to aging: it may be realistic, but as I always point out, there are several unrealistic things that make games games (i.e., fun to play), and lack of aging is one of them. The reason is simple: either you\'d need to make aging slow so that ppl. will not die during the holidays, so it\'ll not be noticable at all, or you\'ll make it quick, which would mean that your char will be an old, useless wreck that can barely lift a knife, let alone a sword after about 1 RL year.

So how cool would this be? Not cool at all. I don\'t want my char to rot away and become useless against my will. I don\'t enjoy creating characters, and it would require continous recreation and restarting. It would so totally taka away any percieved sense of achieving anything ingame, which would mean that the game wouldn\'t even feel worthwile.

I don\'t see why you ppl. continue to wish for all the things that suck so badly IRL? Do you want to have to eat / sleep / drink / shower / pi$$ / pay taxes / whatever in games, as well? It\'d be nothing but repetitive, tedious and plainly boring. I\'d certainly not play any \"game\" that actually forces me to do things that I don\'t want to, and these are some of them.

Really, you could just as well add diseases that cripple or kill chars no matter what, and things like that. Yeah, wouldn\'t it be cool to have just become guild leader (or whatever) and then die of one of them? Sure, Iit\'d be realistic, but actually my usual statement applies here: realism isn\'t always an improvement.

So no, I don\'t want to see any of these points in PS. I would like different graphics options for models so that you can actually have your char look like an old or young person, but it should stop at where it becomes ridiculous. Little children or halfway dead old ppl. should be left out, since it\'d be ridiculous to have them wield anything of power. You might as well have yellow-pink bunnies with broadswords.

If you enjoy playing ppl. who can\'t do anything than please do so all you want, but don\'t try to force it onto everyone.

[Seytra]

Originally posted by gregers
OK think what you think and do what you have to do...

What I\'d like to play is a game where you have some other reason to play than only to slash monsters...

If you would have read anything besides your own threads, you\'d have found out that there are many things that can make PS different from the usual H&S game. I have posted approving comments to some and have also made some proposals, so I\'m obviously not wanting a usual H&S game. However, judging by what you post, you haven\'t read anything.

Originally posted by gregers
The idea of ageing and exchanging genes would make such a game somewhat exceptional and unforgettable, but

Yeah, the gene exchange idea is something interesting, but if you don\'t have absolute control over what you get, it\'s just like randomising char creation. Again, if you like it that way, fine, but don\'t try to force it upon everyone!

Originally posted by gregers
I see you want just to have another videogame clone.

As said before, I don\'t see you understand anything. RTFF!

Originally posted by gregers
I understand it is the easy way - and such an easy way would be understandable if you\'d need to develop the game as quickly as possible to get money out of players.

I cannot understand such thinking in the open-source game.

So you want to have everyone play elves because they\'d be able to have their chars for longer in this case?

Just because it\'s OpenSource it doesn\'t mean that the devs need to undertake the greatest possible effort, or that the hardest solution needs to be implemented. OpenSource, however, enables you to do whatever you please with it. If you want aging so badly, go ahead and implement it, or find someone who will. The devs don\'t seem to be keen to have it, and neither does the community (except few, of course), so why would they implement it?

Also, IMNSHO forced aging is absolutely superfluous for RP purposes, and wouldn\'t serve any purpose in any game, except to drive players away.

Originally posted by gregers
Or perhaps you are just alpha-testing under the \"opensource\" cover.. ?

Of course this can happen, but it seems unlikely judging the history of PS. Therefore, I don\'t think this will happen. And if they do, I\'ll just say \"goodbye\" to PS, if only because they\'d have betrayed my trust. But again I don\'t think it\'ll happen.

[Adeli]

Well Seytra, you said most of what I was thinking.
Gregers, grow up, I don\'t care how old you are, you are acting childish, and if you are a child, respect your elders...
The idea was rejected, you\'ll live.
This gene pool thing... I don\'t even know what to call it... Let me get this right, two people (opposite gender) meet and err... exchange genes... under special circumstances..?
This sounds way too far fetched and scientific, a little science in a fantasy game is okay, but please this is way too futuristic. How does gene swapping work? How does exchanging genes transform you into something younger, stronger etc... (on that note: do you want people to power level by exchanging genes??)
I see it like this: People get together and have errr.. intimate relations without the fun of course... and somehow give birth to two younger, stronger beings that they then become... this is confusing.
Please explain this process... trust me, this community will not accept \"It just happens.\"

Oh, and what in the hell are special circumstances?

[gregers]

Hello again,

I\'ll prepare a more RPGish scenario that will explain the idea and you\'ll see it can expand the game without loosing fun from hack\'n slash.

Acting childish? Hmm we\'re all children - we don\'t want to grow up - would we play RPG games then?

[smoak]

give your little scenario alot of detail while your at it, your current explanation leaves way to much to the imgination

adeli - he said they mutate not give birth but i agree with how the stat thing would probably go and i dont want to think about how people would go around requesting this..geneswapping thing

[Seytra]

Originally posted by gregers
I\'ll prepare a more RPGish scenario that will explain the idea and you\'ll see it can expand the game without loosing fun from hack\'n slash.

You do that, but please bear in mind that this game isn\'t about staying alive, it\'s about adventuring. Therefore, while what you propose might be a valid concept for The Sims, because this program AFAIK is about daily life and things like that, it IMO isn\'t good for PS, since living isn\'t an important factor of RPG, at least not for me. Don\'t get this wrong, I like to occasionally RP some everyday situations, but only when I feel like it, and this doesn\'t happen very often. If it were required to keep playing, it\'d take up so much time that the game wouldn\'t be worth it.

Just imagine what would have happened if you, when playing Elite (this space simulation game) you\'d have had to do toilet breaks, or eat or sleep...

Anyway, gene exchanging sounds much like what these one-cell beings do. They don\'t age (therefore, aging isn\'t even a prerequisite), but to change their properties and to create diversity, they meet in pairs of two and combine, thereby mixing their chromosomes. Then they separate again, each taking one set of chromosomes with them, which are one random half of the input set.

This option is, however, only available to one-cell beings since multicell-beings can\'t merge in this way, if only because the numbers of cells differ, and also because you can\'t get to the inner cells.

The only way I could think of is that they\'d have a set of \"mixing cells\" that are loosely connected and that melt, then mix and get moved into the bodies of both afterwards. Then these would start a copying process, sending out cells with the mixed genes through the body, which then will compare their material to the one of any cell they encounter, and if it differs, copy thir own stuff into the body cell, thereby gradually mutating all existing cells.

This process, however, is insecure because every single flaw in one such cell will propagate to the entire body. One might require several of them, with equal copies of genes to change every body cell to have some redundancy, but still this process will take very long and there may be problems not accounted for by this simple scheme.

However, Krans will have a problem with this anyway, for they aren\'t even life in the regular way.

Originally posted by gregers
Acting childish? Hmm we\'re all children - we don\'t want to grow up - would we play RPG games then?

No, there is a big difference betwenn \"acting childish\" and \"staying a child\". The first one means that you\'re unable to solve conflicts in a responsible way, and also are just generally immature, while the latter means that you haven\'t gotten bitter and overly serious but still enjoy playing, despite knowing it\'s \"useless waste of time\". The first one is bad, the second is good.

[Adeli]

Smoak, I know what he said, I meant birth as in the logical equivalent...

Seytra, do you mean Meiosis? (or is it Mitosis? I forget)
I doubt complex beings would be able to perform such feats. But even then, they replicate themselves, not... err Mutate into a younger being, this part confuses me.
I agree with you about the difference between acting childish and staying a child.

Gregers, as for your remark, see Seytra\'s comment, though to further it, I can see healthy adults playing RPGs with no problems, it\'s called having fun...
I look forward to your explanation, it may shed some light on the situation, which is particularly hazy at present. As for your attitude, lighten up, I\'m beginning to tire of it.

[Seytra]

Originally posted by Adeli
Seytra, do you mean Meiosis? (or is it Mitosis? I forget)
I doubt complex beings would be able to perform such feats. But even then, they replicate themselves, not... err Mutate into a younger being, this part confuses me.

AFAIK, it\'s neither. Mitosis and meiosis both are, as you said, reproductive activities (one cell splitting into two). The process I mean is not, as two cells merge, and two cells separate afterwards. It\'s really just mixing genes. However, I too don\'t think anything more complex than a few cells will be able to do it, because if it were, there\'d be something at least remotely like this IRL.
Judging from new research, I\'d even say the \"mutate to something younger\" would be the easy part of the process.

Regeneration is another thing, as sea stars can AFAIK regenerate completely from only one arm (I\'d even say you can \"clone\" them by ripping them apart and having each arm regenerate into a full star (however, that\'d not be a nice thing to do to the poor things). Therefore, it\'s possible to heal missing limbs with normal sleep-healing, which is good.).