Some suggestions and critique.

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Pauan
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Some suggestions and critique.

Post by Pauan »

I finished reading through a lot of the Wiki... and I am quite giddy about this project! I very rarely get giddy about ANYTHING, so that just shows how exciting this really is! At the same time, I noticed some things that I either consider flaws, they don't make sense, or they might be only SLIGHTLY wrong. I will try to post some of them here for you guys to review, and possibly correct. Please do take these light-heartedly, as they are only suggestions...

The first and most glaring one is the spelling "errors" scattered throughout the Wiki. These can range anywhere from spelling typos (atack) to actually using a wrong word (organization rather than guild or clan or tribe). If given the permission, I would be more than happy to go around fixing the typos. My English may not be 100% perfect, but I do have 15 years of experience in speaking and writing using the American English language as my primary language.

The second thing that came to mind is the geographical map... personally I would choose Pickslide's map over the others. It just plain makes sense. In addition to the nice effects and sudo-realistic style, overall it appeals to my eyes. I would know: I'm an artist. With the topographical maps, it just feels like a bunch of seperate climates were just jumbled into one big land mass. Not good. I know this is rather far-fetched, but if possible I would love to design/draw a map of the place. Some general guidelines would be all I need. Of course it's ok to refuse the offer as well!

A suggestion I have for the races.... I can't claim full credit for this idea, as it's based off of Chrono Trigger, where full credit goes to Square. However, at the same time... why build off of different RACES? Why not have one race... but different time periods? Have prehistoric humans, really advanced humans, normal humans, medieval humans, various things like that. I am fully aware we cannot use any already existing races... but general ideas like that. For example... a human race that is from the future, and thus can use magic and great intellect, but is weak physically. What I'm saying is... it worked great for Chrono Trigger, so why not here?

Again, another tactic to that would be having a rather cliche "Mage or not-Mage" type people. But why not have both? Why not have a "Human" and "Non-Human" race? Both can use magic, though the Non-Humans more so than Humans. We can't call them humans or non-humans obviously. Chrono Trigger called them humans and mystics, but we can't use that either. The whole point is... it's perfectly ok to take an IDEA like that and then twist it, making it your own. There are all kinds of race things we could try! One race.... many tribes, many abilities. One race, many time frames... two races... two human races: one from space, another from the Mana world. One from the Mana world, another from Earth...? The possibilities are endless! Just as Crush suggested, we can't get stuck on the cliche "elf, drawf, troll" thing... we have to expand our thinking if we want this to be both original and captivating! One final thing before I close this discussion on race... We humans as a species have SO many jobs... classes... EVERYTHING. Look at us!! Look at the great variety of jobs and careers we have available! Do we even NEED other races?!! If the humanoids in the Mana world are as well-balanced and skillful as we are, then naturally there would be ALL kinds of humans. Anywhere from those practiced in magic to archers to blacksmiths to normal soldiers and everything in between!

Note: All my suggestions so far would work perfectly fine with humanoids, requiring at most a different head for the Non-Human race.

The biggest thing I'd urge you about right now is the race and map idea. Right now, the map seems rather cluttered to me. (Sorry if I offend anybody, but that's my brutally honest opinion.)

One final thing before I leave this post... the "organisations" seem a tad... how can I put it... touchy. I'm sure there are lots of people who would get offended by it, especially if they knew what the real druids actually DID. My suggestion on that isn't so much to make things politically correct (gosh I hate that term), instead, I'd suggest toning it down a smidge. I don't care what anybody really thinks... but at the same time, I don't want people not playing it because it has that stuff in it. Or their parents not letting them for the same reason.

I hope I'm not sounding too conceited, or like I'm trying to take over this project... which I'm not. I just felt that these suggestions might help the team overall. You guys have already done a tremendous job with this so far. Great work! I will keep my eye on this project quite closely....
Dr Wahl
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Post by Dr Wahl »

first off, welcome to the Mana World community. Seeing as how this is an open source game that is community driven... give us all you got! your ideas will be tossed around the community just as every one elses has. I would suggest starting a forum in "Graphic Developoment" for your map idea. Crush and others may have more info on the future of Mana World, but nothing is set in stone yet...
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Post by Pauan »

Dr Wahl wrote:first off, welcome to the Mana World community. Seeing as how this is an open source game that is community driven... give us all you got! your ideas will be tossed around the community just as every one elses has. I would suggest starting a forum in "Graphic Developoment" for your map idea. Crush and others may have more info on the future of Mana World, but nothing is set in stone yet...
I see. I shall definately do that!
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