Richard Kettering wrote:
On Feb 20, 2005, at 9:14 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
1.) We especially disliked, that the unit-descriptions are not really
coherent. Some units got only a short "good at - bad-at" description
while
others (drakes) got a more epic and rpg like descriptions. We came to
the
conclusion that both have their place in the game. But it should
somehow be
one "style" for the whole system. We came to the conclusion that it
would
make sense to have the short descripions for beginners and beneath a
more
epic one for rpg fans. The short version could be done in few words like
"good-at:" and "bad-at:". This system would make it more friendly for
beginners, because they would have such a list for every unit without
having
to search the big bunch of tables.
Personally, I think most of our descriptions are terrible. I would
jump at the chance to make really nice, new ones, and could probably
grab a friend or two from my college to help.
I concur. Unit descriptions are one of the oldest features in Wesnoth,
and the original descriptions were written by me more as an attempt to
show that "hey we support descriptions, now someone please come and
write proper ones!" than serious attempts at good descriptions. From
there, we haphazardly went forward, with each new unit having a
description written usually by the person designing the unit stats,
rather than someone gifted in created writing.
Re-doing all the unit descriptions would be alot of work, but I think it
could be worth it. Moreover, I think it could actually be quite fun.
I think though, that not just the unit descriptions need an overhaul,
but all of the help content. I think what we need is someone who likes
writing, who is in charge of content for the help system, and makes it
their job and passion to make the help system both informative and fun.
I would like some means of having more generally wesnoth-centric unit
descriptions, allowing us to add more dimension to our currently
rather shallow fantasy world. They would be structured to be useable
in virtually any time period in wesnoth's history - if someone needed
to use them in a completely different world, it would be easy enough
to simply redefine the few ones that would have place-specific
references (the strange elensefarian practice of thieves dying their
hair blue, for one example).
IMHO, unit descriptions should consist of a creative, flavorful
description, and then a paragraph which more formally and succinctly
explains the unit's abilities.
I would also like to STRONGLY REITERATE my suggestion of having
separate character listings in the help section as well. All of those
portraits I did for HttT are full-size portraits, and it would be nice
to use those, it would also solve some problems from other hacks we
have had - it would be a solution to the reason we currently do not
show any portraits in help, because they would be used by all units of
the type, not just main characters (for example - in TEI, all white
mages would currently use dacyn's picture).
I concur with this.
David
