12-03-2009, 06:45 PM
To create an infinite stream of interesting events that the player can use to improve or decrease their polarity you'd need some kind of content generator. I think it's impossible to create the thousands of situations required on sheer inspiration alone 
It's a difficult one because content generators have the tendency to look the same across the board. Which is the opposite of being interesting.
We wanted to include the octave of rays associated with the chakras. Forgive me I'm unfamiliar to the colors, I'll use the associated body parts to name them in stead. Lets go a little abstract. How about we use the rays as variables. Added with a polarity variable. We allow them the value of -100 to +100 but starting randomly between -10 and +10, these rays are hidden to the player (the veil
) but their actions affect the value associated with the ray. And the ray affects the procedural content generators. So for example a player who has a strong root ray will find it easy to accumulate money and wealth. He will not be bothered by financial challenges as much. And this allows him a surplus which which he can affect his other rays, for example his heart ray by sharing his wealth. Which will strengthen the heart ray giving him friends and popularity and the ability to do well unto others. The friends together with the strong finances allow him to send his message into the world, creating a strong throat ray. His positive actions finally polarize him into a positive direction.
This is random of course, so you could also start with a strong navel ray and use it to influence people to give you money, strengthening your root but weakening your heart and starting down the negative path.
Basically it's about increasing polarity which requires the use of the other rays.
The content generator is a difficult issue. We can place entities around the player similar to his current ray configuration but with variations offering polarity. If you have a weak navel ray then others will be more inclined to try to dominate you.
I'm thinking maybe going iconic like in a card game will allow for more freedom of expressing these concepts. How do you express jealousy or dominance in 3d ?
So my suggestion would be a screen with a set of playing card like icons on the bottom. On the upper part of the screen a face will popup with a short oneline situation description below it. Like: "Your boss is complaining" or "A stranger smiles at you" And you respond by hitting one of the cards below. Each card is a different combination of the rays and you tend to get cards that are similar to your own balance but still varied enough.
Your choice will affect your own ray balance, the balance of the popup person and affect a binding ray between you. A person also moves closer or further depending on the choice. Closer persons will show up more often in challenges than persons at a distance. Also maybe they should affect your rays stronger.
So both your selection of cards and your encounters are influenced by the balance of your rays. You affect your balance by your choice of cards. And the goal is a state where your rays all approach +100 before this happens you can introduce all kinds of magical encounters with increasingly more fantastic entities.
It's relatively easy to build. It allows the player to learn and understand the ray mechanism by going though a large amount of choices in a short time. Content is limited to representations of actions and representations of entities. There's probably a simple mathematical model which can be used to affect rays and distances between entities.
I'm just throwing out an idea. If it works it works, if not we'll arrive at the next idea in no time
It's a difficult one because content generators have the tendency to look the same across the board. Which is the opposite of being interesting.
We wanted to include the octave of rays associated with the chakras. Forgive me I'm unfamiliar to the colors, I'll use the associated body parts to name them in stead. Lets go a little abstract. How about we use the rays as variables. Added with a polarity variable. We allow them the value of -100 to +100 but starting randomly between -10 and +10, these rays are hidden to the player (the veil
) but their actions affect the value associated with the ray. And the ray affects the procedural content generators. So for example a player who has a strong root ray will find it easy to accumulate money and wealth. He will not be bothered by financial challenges as much. And this allows him a surplus which which he can affect his other rays, for example his heart ray by sharing his wealth. Which will strengthen the heart ray giving him friends and popularity and the ability to do well unto others. The friends together with the strong finances allow him to send his message into the world, creating a strong throat ray. His positive actions finally polarize him into a positive direction.This is random of course, so you could also start with a strong navel ray and use it to influence people to give you money, strengthening your root but weakening your heart and starting down the negative path.
Basically it's about increasing polarity which requires the use of the other rays.
The content generator is a difficult issue. We can place entities around the player similar to his current ray configuration but with variations offering polarity. If you have a weak navel ray then others will be more inclined to try to dominate you.
I'm thinking maybe going iconic like in a card game will allow for more freedom of expressing these concepts. How do you express jealousy or dominance in 3d ?
So my suggestion would be a screen with a set of playing card like icons on the bottom. On the upper part of the screen a face will popup with a short oneline situation description below it. Like: "Your boss is complaining" or "A stranger smiles at you" And you respond by hitting one of the cards below. Each card is a different combination of the rays and you tend to get cards that are similar to your own balance but still varied enough.
Your choice will affect your own ray balance, the balance of the popup person and affect a binding ray between you. A person also moves closer or further depending on the choice. Closer persons will show up more often in challenges than persons at a distance. Also maybe they should affect your rays stronger.
So both your selection of cards and your encounters are influenced by the balance of your rays. You affect your balance by your choice of cards. And the goal is a state where your rays all approach +100 before this happens you can introduce all kinds of magical encounters with increasingly more fantastic entities.
It's relatively easy to build. It allows the player to learn and understand the ray mechanism by going though a large amount of choices in a short time. Content is limited to representations of actions and representations of entities. There's probably a simple mathematical model which can be used to affect rays and distances between entities.
I'm just throwing out an idea. If it works it works, if not we'll arrive at the next idea in no time