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Chris Pruett 11/3/00.
Hi. Every six months or so this list starts generating a whole lot of mail about the direction of Aleph One. Every time people have complaints and counter arguments, and every time nothing really gets resolved.
We are all here for the same thing: to work on improving Marathon, one of the coolest games of all time. The problem is that we have different definitions of "improve", and this makes it hard for us to agree on what we should do. The easy way out is to work on things that don't really change the way the game is played, such as graphics and networking.
Rather than comment on why I think this problem exists, I am going to cut to the chase and offer an idea to fix it (people complain my e-mails are too long).
My rant is about feature set. Lots of features doesn't equal fun game. Realism dosen't equal fun game. Good game design equals fun game. Marathon has good game design, that's why it's way more fun than, say, the Quake series (again, my opinion). Personally, I think the basic game design is fine the way it is. I also understand the arguments for more standard FPS features, such as fall damage and naked cartwheels. What I do NOT agree with is making these elements optional in a user-evident kind of way. What I mean by this is that I think that if such features are implemented, they should (a) be only selectable by the map maker, and (b) require a separate binary or settings file so that players understand what they are playing. I think the old physics model approach is great for this kind of thing... the player must willingly select the physics model they want to use. This condones consistency, which is one of the important pieces of good gameplay.
Marathon is already very customizable. I believe that we should allow people building levels to choose which kinds of features they want... and let them be responsible for the gameplay of their levels. Personally, my maps will probably all follow the old Marathon standard, as I feel that it has great game design and doesn't need to be screwed with. Old Marathon maps should have their intended gameplay preserved.
Finally, I want to say (again) that this is an open source project. If you want it, go implement it yourself if you can't find someone else to do it for you. Also, stability is more important than gameplay (even the best game won't get played if it crashes all the time). I would prefer that coders concentrate their efforts there first.
As I step off my soap box, let me finally say that Deus Ex is the first FPS game to hold my attention for more than 5 minutes since Marathon Infinity. This is because the developers have taken the game play in a completely new direction (and expanded on the ground work that games like Half-Life laid). If you try to play it like a traditional FPS, you will be dissipointed. It is a different kind of game. It is excellent in my opinion.
