I’ve always been keen on Roguelikes (mainly because of the depth and replay value of them) and I always used to prefer tile sets to ASCII characters. But then I started to prefer ASCII, because I never liked the tiles much, seeing them as a distraction, preferring instead to use my imagination with ASCII.
So this made me wonder, how far do people take their imagination when playing Roguelikes in ASCII mode? Do you see a letter Z and automatically think zombie without imagining it? Or would you picture a zombie tile there? Or would your imagine go all the way, picturing yourself in a movie in your mind, running from or fighting that zombie?
I ask because sometimes when I play Roguelikes I get bored and stop playing, and now I wonder if it was because I was just playing and seeing the game as a bunch of ASCII characters rather than using my imagination to enhance the experience.
Excellent game by the way, a Roguelike in the zombie genre is a dream come true for me.
Well i am using my imagination to the point that i can dream up actions i did vividly in broad daylight. I use tilesets though because i find the ascii very ugly regardless.
Usually I don’t imagine while playing, but after that… You remember what happened. You remember the epic fights. The time you stayed next to the fire in the cold, next to the NPC while building stuff in the shadows of the night. When you fighted that cougar with a bloody nailboard under the rain, in the road. When you rushed through the woods fleeing from that jabberwocky, only to be found by it when you cross a road. When the zombie horde swarmed the house you were, surrounding you rapidly, while your chances of surviving get lower each turn and you need to think smartly. When the bota where running after you and when you were almost about to die in a the lower floor of a waste dump, and discovered radiation. When you slashed your way with a broadsword though a science lab, and then started hearing babies crying. The first time you were grounded by a bear, and your sight went red. When your car crashed, destroying its wheels, and dogs started to bite your legs and arms while you try to defend yourself. When you make your first settlement, and get attacked by a horde. When you die to your first zoose. When you get that food you badly needed. When you survived one more of all those daily challenges. When you played the game. When you enjoyed the cataclysm.
I suppose theoretically you should be able to use your imagination just as vividly when laying with a tile set too, if you just think of the tiles as being markers to represent what’s there, like you do with ASCII
Never liked tiles. They usually don’t suit huge screens and playfields. It’s pretty hard to paint something nice and comprehandable having only mere 256 pixels.
Anyway, I don’t imagine something visually. When I see Z on the screen - I understand that’s a zombie. I don’t imagine any zombie, I just understand who is that.
I have poor visual imagination (it’s hard for me to come up with imagery), instead I use systematic imaginary (I come up with facts, which make a system - if I come up with some thing, I imagine how it works, what it’s made for, and so on). Another type of imagination - situational. I can easily come up with stories with details, but not with images.
Of course thats how it works the tiles arent close to reality so imagination has a lot of place there too.
[quote=“EditorRUS, post:9, topic:8126”]Never liked tiles. They usually don’t suit huge screens and playfields. It’s pretty hard to paint something nice and comprehandable having only mere 256 pixels.
Anyway, I don’t imagine something visually. When I see Z on the screen - I understand that’s a zombie. I don’t imagine any zombie, I just understand who is that.
I have poor visual imagination (it’s hard for me to come up with imagery), instead I use systematic imaginary (I come up with facts, which make a system - if I come up with some thing, I imagine how it works, what it’s made for, and so on). Another type of imagination - situational. I can easily come up with stories with details, but not with images.[/quote]
to me the tiles are much easier to comprehend then the ascii. Ascii i ll have to learn every single tile. With the tilesets i am able to identify almost everyhing by how it looks.
To be honest, when I use a tileset like Retrodays all I’m able to see is a birdseye view of my character, breathing and equipped with all the gear they’ve got on.
Then they suddenly exclaim: “Why the fuck am I wearing two pairs of cargo shorts?”
No thats not taste . My opinion that it looks better thats taste.
Me understanding it better has something to do with my brain processing pictures.
Theres usualy no link from an ascii sign to the real thing . You have to learn them.
There however are a lot of tilesets that do resemble the real thing enough that just looking at them will make you understand most things.
[quote=“Jakers, post:12, topic:8126”]To be honest, when I use a tileset like Retrodays all I’m able to see is a birdseye view of my character, breathing and equipped with all the gear they’ve got on.
Then they suddenly exclaim: “Why the fuck am I wearing two pairs of cargo shorts?”[/quote]
well i hope your yelling back some smartass answer
…I gotta say that at least with Cataclysm it’s “compatibility” with my imagination is what makes the game so great for me. I’ve tried getting some of my co-workers to enjoy the game, as well as my friends. Most of them can’t get into it because of the low graphics quality. A few got interested, but I strongly believe part of it is being able to use your imagination to make the game better.
I can view my game as my character wandering about, doing the actions as played. The RMCC not just a chunk of steel, but as stupidly over furnished as I imagined. I don’t just build a massive rolling cargo carrier, there’s aisles, I waste four tiles on a bed because that’s the size of a full bed in the houses, I make the effort to get or make proper pillows, down filled pillows because that’s what I damn well like. I make the effort to find and keep my waistcoat repaired because I’m positive Ekarus would look great with a waistcoat.
And that’s what I image as I play this crazy game. A stupid space-snake slithering about the cataclysm.
[size=1pt](try not to be disturbed by how often I make human-based foods…)[/size]
When I put threads into my sewing kit/needle, I always imagine the character reloading it like scout from Team Fortress 2 reloading a scattergun.
It’s because of the “you reload your needle” message.