Reply to Re: Epic length
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And the debates in the past have usually been more about Epics that should be Quests, and not the otherway around like it seems to be recently.
Uh... That's the same thing right? It just depends on how the DMOD was first uploaded, the debate is the same. And actually the only debates I can think off right now are initiation and cloud castle 2, which where quests that were recategorized as epics. I actually can't think of an epic that was recategorized as a quest.
Just realize that walking around and exploring the environement is also necessary for finishing a DMOD. Talking to NPCs who may not actually advance the main story is part of that. You probably won't talk to all of the NPCs, but at least partly they do contribute to the overall length. The time it takes to finish a DMOD with the walkthrough (only going through the necessary stuff) is a worse indicator than a first time playthrough where you don't exactly know yet wether or not talking to a certain NPC is going to be important. The playing time using the walkthrough depends more on wether or not you give the player herbboots and less about the amount of content.
Optional stuff also contributes to length. Unless the DMOD makes it very clear that that stuff is optional the player simply doesn't know what he does or does not need to do. It is necessary to talk to optional NPCs because you do not know that those NPCs are optional. It's the same way with mapping, a maze takes longer to navigate through than a straight path that equals the length of the shortest route through the maze. Even though only the shortest route through the maze is what propels the story, all of the dead ends are optional.
And I don't think the size indicators should be awarded as an achievement. If in the future 30 hour stories become the standard I think they deserve their own category. But if they don't, I won't mind recategorizing my own DMODs. Those 30 hour adventures deserve that then.
Doesn't make the past achievements any less valid.
If the scourger would be categorized as a romp it wouldn't make the achievement any less valid as when it was categorized as an epic.
Uh... That's the same thing right? It just depends on how the DMOD was first uploaded, the debate is the same. And actually the only debates I can think off right now are initiation and cloud castle 2, which where quests that were recategorized as epics. I actually can't think of an epic that was recategorized as a quest.
Just realize that walking around and exploring the environement is also necessary for finishing a DMOD. Talking to NPCs who may not actually advance the main story is part of that. You probably won't talk to all of the NPCs, but at least partly they do contribute to the overall length. The time it takes to finish a DMOD with the walkthrough (only going through the necessary stuff) is a worse indicator than a first time playthrough where you don't exactly know yet wether or not talking to a certain NPC is going to be important. The playing time using the walkthrough depends more on wether or not you give the player herbboots and less about the amount of content.
Optional stuff also contributes to length. Unless the DMOD makes it very clear that that stuff is optional the player simply doesn't know what he does or does not need to do. It is necessary to talk to optional NPCs because you do not know that those NPCs are optional. It's the same way with mapping, a maze takes longer to navigate through than a straight path that equals the length of the shortest route through the maze. Even though only the shortest route through the maze is what propels the story, all of the dead ends are optional.
And I don't think the size indicators should be awarded as an achievement. If in the future 30 hour stories become the standard I think they deserve their own category. But if they don't, I won't mind recategorizing my own DMODs. Those 30 hour adventures deserve that then.
Doesn't make the past achievements any less valid.
If the scourger would be categorized as a romp it wouldn't make the achievement any less valid as when it was categorized as an epic.
