Date: 11/16/99
From: Sabre_Edge

Hey guys how's it going!

Last time I asked this I got alot of responses and examples of worlds to use but only a few of you expressed how they expected to experience an alternate history world. So this time I'll keep the question more focused.

I would like to know from you guys what you think exploring the PC worlds would consist of. How would you want to experience the worlds. The game is planned to be an RPG(role playing game)/Adventure.

What do you expect you should be able to do?
What would disappoint you if it were left out of the exploring experience?

Now a question directed strictly to the females here:
Exactly what would turn you off to such a game, and what has been missing from standard RPG's in your opinion.

We are striving for a game that does not fall into the stereotypical "male" centered games of the past that emphasize hack-and-slash, we want a well-rounded game that appeals to all but fulfills every Slider's fans dream.

Every Single response we get from these posts is used to determine the best course of action, so please be very open and honest in your responses. Feel free to contact me via E-mail or during chats also if you don't want everyone else on the board to read your post.

Thanks for your time,
OUT!

 

P.S. and off topic,
I can't BELIEVE the Bossman is the number one contender, what the #@%^!!!

P.S. Thanks for the world ideas...

Date: 11/16/99
From: Sabre_Edge

we really appreciate your efforts. It may not have sounded that way in the article above but we do.

Thanks again
SE

Well...

Date: 11/16/99
From: Brand_S

- Make it playable offline.
- I suggest the interface be something like the first 6 Final Fantasy games, if you're familiar with them. Or better yet, Chrono Trigger. They should move around this way and exchange dialogue this way.
- Give the Sliders the option of talking to each other, maybe on a sub-screen.
- Give the option of taking any given team lineup that's been on Sliders. Maybe also a "Create Your Own Slider" and a "Choose Your Own Team" option.
- I consider the following characters a must. Make them recurring characters on some of the worlds: Conrad Bennish Jr., Elston Diggs, Logan St. Clair, Ross J Kelley, Hurley, Quinn's Family.
- Try to give the fighting a backseat role and make this game a thinker.
- Make it a big game. If I beat it within a week of buying it your ass is mine!
- Give us the option of playing as one Slider at a time a la Secret of Mana.
- Make the timer an important issue. Have us decide the person who has it during the stay on that world. I recommend using a real-time counter in the game to simulate the timer.
- Make the vortex look cool.
- Credit me for these ideas. ;-)
- Randomize the order of worlds.
- Make a "Luck of the Draw" world and give the Sliders the option of stopping their quest there and cutting their losses. After all, if I didn't play the Lottery, and I was a Slider, I'd stay there and give up searching for home.
- Include (as an option) some of the sliding teams in some of the current Slider spinoffs just to get on the good side of fanfic writers. I'd like to play as Stuslide's team!
- You'll probably have to forgo storylines that extend beyond one world. That's fine with me.
- Make it very possible for the Sliders to die, miss the slide, or stay behind. Also, let the rest of the team go on without a certain Slider if they have to.
- Doubles!

I hope that helps.

S

A female's perspective

Date: 11/16/99
From: jersey_slider

Don't make all of the women look like Lara in Tomb Raider, You probably know exactly what I mean. The women can where normal sized clothes, they don't have to be half naked. Sorry guys, but I can't stand that.

Make all of the characters as creative as possible in their own way. Make it so they can survive on their own, but in a group setting, they are excellent to work with and can offer something the others can't. Have intelligence be the number one factor, not muscles. Don't let the women get out of a sticky situation by simply having a pretty smile. Have situations where smarts and not fights solve the problem.

Have an array of possibilities for one world. Have different results based on the decisions made by the group.
(i.e if they make a left turn, something happens. If they make a right turn instead, something completely different happens.)

With exploring different worlds, the group should look into the history to see how it differs. Should the group get involved with the world or should they lay low? What are the unintended consequences from their decisions? They may try to help, but in the long run, will they make the situation worse? Not everything in life always works out for the best.

That is all I can think of for know. If any ideas pop into my mind, I'll let you know. Good Luck with everything. I'm glad that people want to see what the fans think before they produce something. Thanks for considering our opinions.

Talk to you soon,
Jersey_Slider :)

Female outlook...

Date: 11/16/99
From: CaptMaggie

The one thing that would REALLY turn me off would be if you didn't have a choice of male or female characters. That's one thing that annoyed me about the X-Files Game, that you could only play a guy, so girls felt a little weird... (consitering he was supposed to fall for a female cop...) That would turn me off. Also, if you do have females, another thing would annoy me would be if you didn't get the same advantages as guys do. We can kick butt, also!! :-) I think that would be about it that would make me unhappy about the game.

CaptMaggie

More two cents.

Date: 11/16/99
From: Nobuyuki

Make sure that buildings, landmarks, etc., remain in the same location on each world, but don't necessarily exist in the same form. Ex: From the Pilot, Lincoln's statue was replaced by either Stalin or Lenin, I can't remember which. However, the statue was in the exact same place on the world. It just had a different form. This doesn't mean that a statue must exist in Golden Gate Park on each world (Heck, there might not even be a park on some worlds).

Make sure that the characters have a backup plan if they don't make the slide, such as a spare timer somewhere that NPCs (nonplayer characters) could tell you about. Imagine a world where an alternate Quinn gave away timers for a price. Perhaps a world where a non-portable sliding machine was built that would take you to a world where you would be able to find a new timer.

Other recurring NPCs for your consideration: Pavel the cab driver from season one and Hal the bartender.

Different characters should have different skills when dealing with the environment. Examples could be modeled after the show's characters. One example could be a Quinn type character who is intelligent with sliding technology and is combat able when need be. An Arturo type character could be sliding intelligent but is very poor at combat. A Wade type character could be good at communicating with NPCs of other Earths. A Maggie type character, on the other hand, would be good at combat, but her conversation skills and sliding intelligence would leave much to be desired.

Saving the game should be limited to certain points, like at the hotel or when something major is about to go down. It's not as challenging if you could save the game every step of the way.

I hope you like at least some of these ideas!

Extra Sliders.

Date: 11/16/99
From: Blinker

Leave a few spots open on the team, so you can bring along NPCs from various worlds.

- Blinker 7:-/
http://welcome.to/gate_haven

Another timer suggestion.

Date: 11/16/99
From: Nobuyuki

I just thought of this. A realtime countdown for the timer in the game might be hard to do, because you might not have enough time on some worlds and far too much time on others. Maybe you should either give a set time limit that is the same on each world or not hit real time until certain points, such as being chased through the streets while you're trying to reach a person or location. I know these don't sound too realistic, but a game does need playability.

AHEM,

Date: 11/16/99
From: HunterD_Raven

most of the best ideas have been said.
BUT i must disagree with Brand_S
I HATE games it takes forever to finish, i still have an old Dragon Warrior or something from Nintendo i got and never finished the game because it got boreing.
SO have a compromise, you have an overall mission (get home)
and mini-missions on each world, like get timer, help this world do this, find this slider, stuff like that.
So you can play partly and feel you have finished somewhat and still have a major mission

My Reply ...

Date: 11/16/99
From: SLIDER5

"What do you expect you should be able to do?"
Explore a library, read at least the headlines of that day's newspaper, just to get a feel for what's different about this world's alternate history. We should run into people who will either be antagonistic or will help us understand this earth's history.

As far as the timer goes and how long we have on each earth .... I think you should definately have a timer. But it may be difficult to determine how long you stay on each earth. Maybe make it random, but never longer than 1 hour or something like that (I realize that on the show it could be days, but that wouldn't work in a game!)

Give us decisions to make that have good or bad consequences. If bad, give us a chance to escape somehow!

Those are my main thoughts for now. I agree with those who said make it a THINKING game (not a shoot-em-up all the time).

Hmm...

Date: 11/17/99
From: VirtualDimension

... I DESPERATELY hope this is real -- that there really IS a Sliders game in the beginning stages. I'm not one to really give world ideas out, but here are some of my opinions (sorry if I'm repeating anything someone else wrote -- I didn't have time to go through and read them all) :

1) RPG? I love rpg's, like Final Fantasy, but I don't see Sliders as an RPG ... whether a "shoot-em-up" (Kromaggs) or a regular FF-styled rpg, Sliders should really be adventure only.

2) It would be nice to have parts in the game where some real interaction comes in. For instance, before getting in to the vortex in one world, the Sliders need to go through a car chase and slide in from there, so you would have to have a "race" simulation.

3) Please don't make it exclusively for On-Line playing ... many Sliders fans don't particularly care for that, but it would be great to have the on-line feature with the game.

4) Let us have a long wormhole simulation. Maybe another arcade sequence could be an anomoly in the wormhole that lets the players "experience" the sliding ...

5) DO NOT MAKE IT A HACK-AND-SLASH GAME! If that's what it will be, I know I wouldn't buy it -- there are far too many of those as it is, what point is there in making another!

6) Puzzles -- make it intelligent, and challenging.

7) It should be like the 1st season, if not set in that season.

8) Ensure that there will be alternate histories, but also fascinating science-fiction concepts.

9) Keep us updated of the status of the game, and provide screen shots frequently .. If you don't know where to post screen shots, you can always send them to me, and I can post them on my website :) -- virtual_dimension@hotmail.com .

Hope I helped.

---V I R T U A L - D I M E N S I O N---

virtual_dimension@hotmail.com
http://www.geocities.com/virtualdimension/

Important Timer Factor

Date: 11/17/99
From: TemporalFlux

This may have already been mentioned...but there is an element I haven't seen in the responses to this posting. In most RPG type games, your weapons are upgradeable...allow me to suggest a variation on that.

Just like in the show, the timer should be upgradeable as they progress. By this, I mean adding in tracking functions, coordinate placement functions, etc. This would be a good way to set up the game to go in different directions...for instance, if you don't get the tracking function when you should, then you are cut off from following someone later on and you miss out on that adventure and what it yields. Also, I would suggest shaking things up a bit...for instance, a Slider being switched out with his/her scheming double at one point. In this way, the game has two options. If you later find the insert coordinate function...you may be able to back track and find your original Slider. If not, you have to finish out the game with your new rogue member...who may not always work with you.

I also see a possibility of getting control of a Manta Ship at one point (ala the mandatory AirShip in every Final Fantasy Game). I wouldn't make that a large part of the game, though...maybe just a one world thing. More than that could take away from the game.

Aside from that...there are a few other options. Vortex as a shield/weapon. If you find an uncorrupted timer, you can set it on a one second time limit...open it up to catch bullets...then one second passes and it spits them back out at the person who shot at you thanks to the return function. Maybe that could be a special weapon...but one the player would have to think about the application of (i.e. It isn't readily apparent you could do that). Also, just as in most RPG's, you start out in a small area to later expand to a greater world...here we have our geographic spectrum stablizer getting switched or malfunctioning (ala "Double Cross").

And of course...the final level. The Sliders sliding onto the set of Sliders in LA where we get to see Quinn beat the hell out of Peckinpah just for the heck of it. ;-D

Tf
temporalflux@hotmail.com
http://www.dimensionofcontinuity.com

Female opinions (too long)<grin>

Date: 11/19/99
From: Yeontoo

Dear Sabre-Edge,

I did chat with you a couple of days ago at length about this, but you wanted it written down. So I'll try to remember all I said. If I forget something, it Doesn't mean I've changed my mind, just means I lost it! :)

First off. Let the ladies wear clothes. The type with more than a foot of cloth! Normal sized bodies too. Though the guys may like Daisy-Maes, (you get the picture)...

Second, Most of the time, let brains over Brawn win the day. No offense ladies, but we just aren't as strong physically as a man. BUT, also have some things where brawn is required too. (sorry, if that sounds like a double standard)

Third, Stereotyping women into simpering idiots won't work, but don't be too feminist either. (don't you love that distinction?)

Fourth, alot of ladies don't play many RPG games because of the obvious distasteful traits above, and therefore would appreciate simplified instructions to begin, (but don't forget the dude that plays all day).

Alot of suggestions above mine are great. A game I can play offline would be super, I can only tie up my phone line so long during the day.

I'd also like to play with someone else online when I do get to come online.

Look to the people who play lots of games for specific suggestions.

Blessings
Yeontoo

ps. See you at the beach!

Original URL http://www.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/545/14852
Nominated by Sabre_Edge