[INPUT] Design Guidelines for event Mods

[Whale Cancer]

Hi folks,

So, as my signature indicates I'm working on an event driven mod. Now, I'm not here to pimp that mod (since it isn't even out yet [Ok, ok, pimping here: Expect the demo this Saturday!]).

What I want to know is what people think are some good guidelines for designing 'event Mods'; first, what do I mean by event mods? I mean mods that modify events as a large element of their functionality. As it stands, most mods are ship mods, weapon mods, or individual events that change game behavior (such as disabling or slowing the rebel fleet).

With that in mind, some questions.

1) How many events (as a percentage of those available in Vanilla FTL) would you expect from a mod that replaces all Vanilla FTL events?

2) How do you feel about quest chains? For instance, the stasis pod/crystal homeworld chain of events in vanilla FTL is what I would call a quest chain. Do you find this enjoyable? Or are more random 'open world type' events preferred?

3) How much reading are you willing to do? Guesstimate in terms of the entire message box being filled. How many of those filled message boxes for important events and how many (fractions of a box are fin) for more mundane repeatable events?

4) Do you think 'meta-hints' are a good idea? For instance, you blow up a ship and the dialogue box hints that you regret not having been able to salvage some portion of the ship. That way, on next play-through, you might now to try to capture/get them to surrender.

Please also use this thread for any general input/discussion on what you expect from an events driven mod! Thanks!

[Agent_L]

ad 1) Same. Maybe little more.
ad 2) I feel good. Maybe limit long quests to one at a time.
ad 3) Now this depends on amount of information. I have no problem with long texts as long as they are meaningful. But if same info can be passed in less elaborate style, I'd go for shorter version. An idea: maybe sometimes give an option "Tell me more about it" which will lead to longer, more storytelling version of same screen. (that is, with same choices)
ad 4) Hell yeah! I'm always paranoid about missing things.