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    Your Elvenar Team

Silliness in game design

DeletedUser12171

Guest
Before you go on and waste your time on this post, I'd just like to qualify that this is a rant of sorts, just an airing of opinion.

I don't know from where exactly do the designers draw their influence, but some things I just find very silly. E.g., the description of the Dark Signpost, says "Black light. Absorbed directly from the dark side of the moon. Created by forbidden magic". First of all, what do they mean by "black light"? A real "black light" is a UV lamp, which I guess this thing "created by forbidden magic" surely is not. What could they mean then? A light that "shines black"? Darkness is the absence of light, so a light that "shines black" would not only be silly but also impossible. Next, "absorbed directly from the dark side of the moon"? The dark side of the moon is dark because it doesn't receive any sunlight NOR does it radiate anything in visible wavelengths. So, how does this thing absorb anything from the dark side of the moon? And if the dark side of the moon were illuminated somehow, it wouldn't be dark anymore.

Another one: the description of the Maze of Dark Matter reads, "Maybe this evil, spirit obsessed building should never have been built". Do the devs mean that this building has an evil presence (then it would be haunted, not obsessed), infused with an evil spirit (then it would be possessed, not obsessed), or that the building itself is sentient and is itself evilly "obsessed with spirits"? Sounds like a pretty silly building to me, since it can't even move anywhere and all it does it sit there being obsessed. Even in the realm of fantasy, I don't think it's standard that buildings gain sentience but for the act of some living being.

So yeah, just a couple of things out of many. I understand that Elvenar is basically a fantasy game, but to be honest, some of the game design strikes me as downright lame, even when looking at it from a fantasy point of view. Perhaps some of these stuff is supposed to sound cool or something, however I find it anything but.
 
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Pheryll

Pheryll

Set Designer
RandomNo. said:
E.g., the description of the Dark Signpost, says "Black light. Absorbed directly from the dark side of the moon. Created by forbidden magic". First of all, what do they mean by "black light"? A real "black light" is a UV lamp, which I guess this thing "created by forbidden magic" surely is not. What could they mean then? A light that "shines black"? Darkness is the absence of light, so a light that "shines black" would not only be silly but also impossible. Next, "absorbed directly from the dark side of the moon"? The dark side of the moon is dark because it doesn't receive any sunlight NOR does it radiate anything in visible wavelengths. So, how does this thing absorb anything from the dark side of the moon? And if the dark side of the moon were illuminated somehow, it wouldn't be dark anymore.
Click to expand...

If this is related at all to earth's moon, then there is sunlight getting to the dark side (or far side) as the moon orbits the earth. To me, all this is saying is that sorcerers have created a secret base where they can harness sunlight without the base ever being seen.
 

DeletedUser2768

Guest
1) You're overthinking this by leaps and bounds. It's a game, not a scientific experiment.

2) The devs are in Germany I believe. Many things get lost in translation from one language to another. I took 3 years of German in high school, as well as lived in Germany for a couple of years when I was in the Army.
 

DeletedUser17667

Guest
RandomNo. said:
Sounds like a pretty silly building to me, since it can't even move anywhere and all it does it sit there being obsessed.
Click to expand...

said Dennis in an out-take from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

dennis-the-peasant.jpg
 
mucksterme

mucksterme

Oh Wise One
RandomNo. said:
I don't know from where exactly do the designers draw their influence, but some things I just find very silly. E.g., the description of the Dark Signpost, says "Black light. Absorbed directly from the dark side of the moon. Created by forbidden magic". First of all, what do they mean by "black light"? A real "black light" is a UV lamp, which I guess this thing "created by forbidden magic" surely is not. What could they mean then? A light that "shines black"? Darkness is the absence of light, so a light that "shines black" would not only be silly but also impossible. Next, "absorbed directly from the dark side of the moon"? The dark side of the moon is dark because it doesn't receive any sunlight NOR does it radiate anything in visible wavelengths. So, how does this thing absorb anything from the dark side of the moon? And if the dark side of the moon were illuminated somehow, it wouldn't be dark anymore.

Another one: the description of the Maze of Dark Matter reads, "Maybe this evil, spirit obsessed building should never have been built". Do the devs mean that this building has an evil presence (then it would be haunted, not obsessed), infused with an evil spirit (then it would be possessed, not obsessed), or that the building itself is sentient and is itself evilly "obsessed with spirits"? Sounds like a pretty silly building to me, since it can't even move anywhere and all it does it sit there being obsessed. Even in the realm of fantasy, I don't think it's standard that buildings gain sentience but for the act of some living being.
.
Click to expand...


I take it you've never read a fantasy book in your life.
 
Pheryll

Pheryll

Set Designer
SoggyShorts said:
Well I've read scores of them, and I have to agree with randomno, the dark signpost sounds like a little kid wrote it.
Even fantasy novels should try to make sense.:D
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RandomNo. said:
The dark side of the moon is dark because it doesn't receive any sunlight NOR does it radiate anything in visible wavelengths.
Click to expand...

This idea also sounds like a kid wrote it. A moon with a partial cloaking device? Wouldn't that give away the moon's location to any distant observer as a "hole" in the nearby planet? Or is the planet a manufacturing site for Death Stars?
 
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mucksterme

mucksterme

Oh Wise One
Pheryll said:
This idea also sounds like a kid wrote it. A moon with a partial cloaking device? Wouldn't that give away the moon's location to any distant observer as a "hole" in the nearby planet? Or is the planet a manufacturing site for Death Stars?
Click to expand...

What are you talking about?
You realize what you quoted is the actual scientific description of the dark side of the moon, right?
 
NightshadeCS

NightshadeCS

Well-Known Member
Moon explanations from a resident scientist:

The moon is tidally locked to the earth, meaning that the same side faces earth at all times. To describe it another way, it's rotation speed is equal to it's revolution speed, and a day on the moon is the same length as a lunar year. From earth, we never catch a glimpse of what the other side of the moon looks like, and did not know the terrain until 1968 when Apollo 8 cruised by. This is often what is called the "dark" side of the moon, but it more accurately called the FAR side of the moon.

The true dark side of the moon is the same as the dark side of the earth: whatever part is currently experiencing no sunlight. We see the dark side of the moon any time it is not a full moon, when we see only the entirety of the light side.

By the way, I have read LOTS of sci-fi and fantasy, so this knowledge in no way hinders my enjoyment of fantastical bending of the rules of physics. However, I do agree that descriptions should make some sort of sense, within the context of the natural laws of whatever world the author has created.

:D:D:D:D
 

DeletedUser17667

Guest
NightshadeCS said:
Moon explanations from a resident scientist:

The moon is tidally locked to the earth, meaning that the same side faces earth at all times. To describe it another way, it's rotation speed is equal to it's revolution speed, and a day on the moon is the same length as a lunar year. From earth, we never catch a glimpse of what the other side of the moon looks like, and did not know the terrain until 1968 when Apollo 8 cruised by. This is often what is called the "dark" side of the moon, but it more accurately called the FAR side of the moon.
Click to expand...

Perhaps, but Pink Floyd didn't record "Far Side of the Moon" though. :p
 
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