Bay 12 Games Forum

9999 levels

what
i must try this

I used to play a Nascar game in the old days. One that tried to be realistic, as much as games in that era could be. You could play a full race, which in Nascar terms is a marathon.

Heh, I remember a similar game for the Sega Genesis (yes, with mode 7 graphics or whatever). It definitely had a full marathon length race.

Okay. I think this is the first time I've made a topic specifically looking for a certain sort of game. Or, rather, recommendations for a very specific kind of video games. To sum up what I'm looking for, see this elegant and finely crafted link: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MarathonLevel.

I love games with replay value. I also like games that have enjoyable core concepts. Unfortunately, not all enjoyable games have a lot of replay value, and that's where this comes in: a dungeon, or cave, or maybe a temple, or WHAT HAVE YOU in-game that is a massive timesink in the sense that it has a truly gargantuan amount of floors/levels compared to other areas in the game.

The only other real requirement I have is that the game is not an MMO of any sort. I know WoW and such have several variations of No Social Life: The Dungeon, but I don't enjoy doing that while inside an MMO.

To better refine my preferences (though not at all requirements):

Better: Each floor is at least somewhat different/varied. (The marathon levels that tend to crop up as bonus content in certain Final Fantasy games, for example)
Worse: All floors have similar layout, enemy type, etc. (Disgaea's item world comes to mind, even though the world depends on the item)

Better: The dungeon/level/whatever is 100+ floors long. (I love the idea of an insurmountable dungeon)
Worse: The dungeon/level/whatever is less than 50 floors long. (A lot of "bonus dungeons" in RPGs)

Better: If the floors are procedurally generated, they're at least interesting (think Unangband's dungeon generation, only with the "interesting" amp'd up several levels, as implausible as that is)
Worse: If the floors are procedurally generated, they're more of the same, just with increasing difficulty (think a lot of early roguelikes)

Better: The game is not a roguelike. (I already know most roguelikes feature this, but with undesirable results due to the example in "worse" just above)

I think that's about it, really. I wonder if anyone will actually read this. Oh, and I've skimmed through the tvtropes article -- I've played most of the ones that sound interesting enough (usually with disappointing results)

Absolutely incredible. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen done in Google Sketchup. I'm posting here and looking forward to seeing what sort of things will be done to this.

One thing of note: are you able to change the water textures for somewhat prettier water?

Today was the day I caved.

I am now a shipper. That's right. I was not a shipper of anything before, but MSPA has made me one. There is simply too much shipping to be had, with little to no consequence from the act of shipping itself.

Since I haven't contibuted anything (for a while at least), I drew this last night when I was approximately 20% awake. What you're looking at is raw subconscious, here. I don't even remember what this was supposed to be.


Lofn, that is amazing. My art will probably never be that good.

And once these measures are established, what's from keeping these companies from selling a new game at full price and then simply stopping its sale altogether as opposed to discounts? You'd have to buy it at full price to play it before it's lost in the annals of time and company protection.

Profit. If a company sells at full price for a certain period of time and then just decides to make their possibly four-year work DISAPPEAR, they've lost an incredible amount of potential profit. You see, there are these people who are "informed" "consumers" (I know, crazy, I still have met very few of them), and know how likely it is for the price on something to go down and when, and I can guarentee you that they will not buy it on the initial day, or at the initial price. The profit margin to be lost there is more than likely disproportionately higher than the profit margin lost when a certain fraction of their userbase decides to pass the product around (and even there, the assumption that they lose profit on this is based on the idea that all of the people who will be passing the work around are horrible people, and even if satisfied with the work, will not buy it after sharing, buy the upgraded/limitedplatinumdiamondsuperduper edition, or just plain buy it to support the producer/developer).

Surprised this didn't generate much of a reaction, too. I probably won't live to see these implemented. However, I'm not really AGAINST the idea of a multiplayer fortress/kingdoms mode being based around PBEM style interaction (even though it would go well with the forums, and it's one of the most logical ways to do it), but I can bet there'd be some other ways to model it. Some work well in theory, very few would in practice I'd bet.

I would love to live to see Kingdom Mode. Honestly, it's like a fixation I have on the idea -- playing as some dude just sitting on his throne giving orders, having his servants come up and ask for advice, resolving complicated disputes and so on. It would be wonderful.