The main issue I am having now is being productive enough with these quest/story elements. It really is the meat of vex gameplay, and while it is steadily coming along it's really not coming along fast enough. I think that ultimately I need to be more disciplined, always moving on to the next item in the list without worrying too much about other gameplay design issues.
@p
I've also decided to put the fighting engine back in. I think that the engine is usable as it is now, but will maybe require some fine tuning (I don't really remember, but I'll take a look.) I will definitely want to keep it simple, much more than the original direction was, and for basically the same reasons that I had originally decided to just take it out completely (I had figured that it was going to slow down/complicate gameplay too much, and I basically feel that way)
@p
Now, fighting will be much, much simpler and depend basically on your fighting skill with each weapon, and what weapon you are using. I think, also, you will only ever face-off against one opponent, although the engine supports multiple opponents so I don't know.
@p
The bottom line is, a simple fighting mechanic is convenient. When you are in a store, and a robber comes up, what better thing than to challenge him to a duel. Or if you are robbing somebodies house and are caught, will you fight or flight? Fighting I guess will give you items and money, but I don't think experience. I will save experience points for ship-to-ship or ship-to-alien combat.
@p
Voila!
2004-07-01