More World Options that influence Items "Power Levels"

[Uneron]

[quote=“Uneron, post:19, topic:5125”][quote=“One-Eyed Jack, post:18, topic:5125”]Part of “accessibility” involves not presenting the new player with a lot of options that have unclear effects. Going through a list of global variables, finding one for solar panels, and changing it to 1.5 (or whatever) is not something that a new player is likely to do of their own accord, and if you have spawn variables for a lot more things then it becomes even more complicated and confusing. As mentioned, creating a UI would be very hard, but even if it were implemented well you’d have a very large amount of things you would need to learn before even starting the game. There is already a learning curve for the game itself (although less of than one than many roguelikes I’ve played.) Adding an exhaustive list of world options would really only benefit experienced players.

Hear, hear! I recently introduced someone new to the game and the actual start of the game was the most confusing part to him. ‘What are black roads? How does city size matter?’ etc. Also there are like a billion traits, many of them with little effect. Adding an option for every little thing is not the way to go.[/quote]

So… a play now (generate default world, generate reasonable char) would be a good function?[/quote]
The existing ‘Play Now’ is nice and all, needs to be improved somewhat. For one thing it is far on the right side, making new players rather chose ‘Custom Character’. It should be the first option. As you say, it needs to generate reasonable characters, which it almost does, but not quite. The characters are often less then ideal when it comes to survival.

My point regarding the ‘Black Roads’ stands. It is a really confusing option. Should be named ‘Surrounded by Zombies’ or something similar.

[Binky]

A few more easy to understand options would be great. I think DF has 5-6 world gen options and that’s enough to get the balance you need. Some things (monsters/sci-fi weapons and so on) will get modularized to make it easier. There could also be an ‘easy’ and a ‘hardcore’ mod made to suit people just starting off or who want more of a challenge.

However, the ‘main game balance’ should be central to this as the argument of ‘well just put an option in for it’ leads to horribly disjointed game design with no balance for the central game. It also overwhelms new players and leads to a lot more things needing to be factored in all the way along (so that options don’t completely break everything).

Uneron - couldn’t agree more about Black Road, it’s a bit confusing as to what it does. I feel many people will think it does more than it actually does (just surround you with zombies at the start) and I don’t think any ambiguity is good at an option stage.

[Soyweiser]

Yeah black road is badly named.

Issue: Renaming the black road option.

[Uneron]

[quote=“Soyweiser, post:23, topic:5125”]Yeah black road is badly named.

https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/issues/6223[/quote]
Great! Always nice to see the advantages of open source.

[Iosyn]

Thought black road was rather apt.

Ah well, how about YOLO, Panic or Surrounded.

[Soyweiser]

Made a pr to make it into

“Surrounded start”

How about we make a context sensitive start? Something that detects if you have played the game before (save games, modified options etc). And if it doesn’t it gives you the option to “Start now” which generates an easy to use char (we will define some good start options) and world using the defaults. And a “main menu” option. That goes towards the current menu.

Think that would make it more accessible to first timers.

Edit: 3 options. Also add the tutorial as an option.