How writing a DID has changed the way I play

Gosnell · Post by **Gosnell** » Sun, 18. Mar 12, 13:03

I recently started my own did story on here and I am amazed at how it has changed the way I play the game,I no longer feel isolated within my ship I now can envision my pilots and their storys,thus making me more cautious with their lives,How I prep my ships,how I fight it has all become effected,and most importantly for the better.The x series now no longer feels like a singular expierience.Hell its more exciting.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Sun, 18. Mar 12, 17:36

I find DiD to be a very good way to add a goal to what is essentially a game almost entirely free of goals.

Plus I enjoy writing and playing the game, so it gives me an excuse to do both.

Kirlack · Post by **Kirlack** » Sun, 18. Mar 12, 22:39

I've not written a full DiD of my own, however I am now a regular contributor in a couple. That said, I had absolutely no idea what the game was really like until I started reading Scion Drakhars 'A Pirates Story' about 18 months ago. Prior to that I was just spending money to make more money, and generally avoiding the whole DiD subculture.

Then SD comes along and brazenly posts a DiD in the main forum, which the Mods didn't move, for some unknown reason. Within moments of reading the first post I was hooked...and compelled to read more.

This lead to me reading Nuklear Slugs 'trilogy' which taught be not only how to play the game without being a corporate meat puppet, but how to be the bad guy and enjoy it.

Now I roleplay my characters, good guys and bad, and yeah, the DiD culture has changed how I play, no doubt about it. I don't want my 6 million credit fighter to crash and burn, not only because it's worth 6 million creds, but because it's not just a fighter full of weapons. It's a pilot. A person. A member of my crew. I don't want to lose that person.

Ultimately, the Creative universe is the best thing that ever happened to my X time

Nathancros · Post by **Nathancros** » Mon, 19. Mar 12, 04:06

same here, nuke slugs work got me trying to write my own DiD's which yes were really bad

but i tried again and again, just the other week i managed my first ever boarding capture!

im so happy i found the creative forum with all its amazing writers, kept me going thru the times when X3 started to bore me

bloody paperwork

But!!!!!

all the stories here, when i get x3 Xtended working again i shall write anew!!!

REJOICE ALL!
Your Doom will arrive soon!!!

Magnificence BN · Post by **Magnificence BN** » Sat, 24. Mar 12, 06:39

After playing a huge DiD campaign in TC, I Started AP and was like
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Scion Drakhar · Post by **Scion Drakhar** » Sat, 24. Mar 12, 10:31

I've noticed the same thing. Before my DiD I was reckless. It didn't matter if I died because I'd just reload and try again. But when you've only got one shot everything becomes life and death. Not having a decent scanner is terrifying and getting a hold of that first docking computer is a huge weight off your shoulders. Man did they drop the ball with the auto pilot.

Anyway, there is one thing I've noticed with 'From Nothing' that I feel like I should mention. There is a tendency to gravitate toward the 'I win' buttons. Missiles in particular can make the game very easy. The Vanilla game just isn't set up to counter thirty or forty hammer heavy torpedoes fired at a single target and with practice it's pretty easy to become both invincible and, with five star marines and a fully loaded M7M, capable of taking most ships away from their owners with minimal to no casualties. Which may sound great in theory but can be somewhat of a let down in practice. The point is there needs to be a balance. Exciting gameplay as well as exciting fiction requires taking risks.

BTW, Gosnell I love how you're character learned from a Teladi named Slots. I wonder if Wreckzors knows he's been immortalized?

Kirlack wrote:Then SD comes along and brazenly posts a DiD in the main forum, which the Mods didn't move, for some unknown reason. Within moments of reading the first post I was hooked...and compelled to read more.

You've always been too kind, Kirlack.

As much as I would love to take credit for such blatant irreverence there was actually a bit more to it than that. When I first started working on a pirates story I didn't have a clue where to post it and there used to be a sub-forum within the X-Universe forum called "Spoilers." I posted in there, thinking that was the best place for it, and when they merged "Spoilers" with the regular forum "Story" got moved with it and then just ... stayed.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Sat, 24. Mar 12, 13:01

I know just how you feel. Would you believe I started Ea't four times, even before From Nothing and died within five minutes all four times?

Gosnell · Post by **Gosnell** » Sat, 24. Mar 12, 16:26

BTW, Gosnell I love how you're character learned from a Teladi named Slots. I wonder if Wreckzors knows he's been immortalized?

Yeah I am hoping nobody has copyrighted there creations,or im up the creek.

Nathancros · Post by **Nathancros** » Sun, 25. Mar 12, 06:03

im pretty sure him like me and scion and others are happy our characters have done more than we planned, like triaxx's char being a clone of scions orignal

So much fun!

TTD · Post by **TTD** » Wed, 28. Mar 12, 01:03

I got to like my character,Norman.
Many others have too.

I was so annoyed with myself when I lost the game-save for several months.
By the time I found it,I had moved on .

Norman's story was so real to me.
But losing the momentum, the subsequent stories have got shorter.

I was hoping to really "go to town" with the AP story,until I found that Twisted Skies had been overun by the Split.
This changed the whole planned story.

I must agree that writing the stories has changed the way I play.
I tend to think of my player ship as being control by a being other than myself.I slip into his life for the duration of play.
Whereas before,it was me and my ship.

TTD · Post by **TTD** » Mon, 9. Apr 12, 10:30

Try reading nuclear_slug's adventure of Squiddy McDquid.

Mine are not up to his standard,and I will openly admit that my tutorial story is not as good as that.
My stories that followed were not as good as my first,either.

You need to create a character that you can get involved with,making him seem real and credible.

If I had not lost my game save for that story,although I have since found it, I would probably still be writing about Norman's adventures today,on into AP.
He was a "like-able rogue".

{The post to which you replied was a spammer. - Terre}

GalenEvil · Post by **GalenEvil** » Tue, 8. May 12, 09:27

I can say also that my gameplay has been affected (effected?) by reading and playing out DiD games. I hate dying in games, and in part due to the DiD structure of TC I have gotten used to starting anew whenever I died. It is a little annoying whenever it happens in a game like Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout 3, pretty much every other game that I play that has a save option

but I have found it enjoyable enough to continue playing

I need to start up a new TC game soon as I have new hardware to support a truly epic experience (graphics card + extra ram = true awesome powers) and I might either continue or restart the DiD game that I started on the forums here.

Probably restarting the game. I do audio recordings of my gameplay and I recently found my digital audio recorder that I used for coursework during my time at the University

It even has a setting for voice activation so it should take a little time off of parsing out my transcriptions of events as long as I remember when I say things (or as long as I remember to give a timestamp during transcription) >.>

I figured that this topic was safe from true necrotic messaging because prior to this the last message gap was a full month and this is not yet a full month. The great leaders of Egosoft giveth and so they can taketh away.

Libelnon · Post by **Libelnon** » Tue, 8. May 12, 10:58

I've always enjoyed writing around what I play - I had a short bout with that in Dwarf Fortress, until my computer packed up and I lost the save (sadface). As much as I've started one here, it doesn't seem to have generated much interest (and my girlfriend has critisised it for numerous reasons) so I'm thinking of starting anew...

I guess my problem is that I can't create something interesting enough that matches with my playstyle, the fact I prefer writing in 3rd person, and the fact I haven't done any serious creative writing since I got kicked from the English course in my school (which has contributed to my minor case of long-running writer's block). I have noticed that the main, popular DiDs tend to be Argon Pirates at the core. I guess that the combination of a lovable rogue and a familiar race makes an easier read?

Zaitsev · Post by **Zaitsev** » Tue, 8. May 12, 17:34

Whether I've become more careful or just less reckless is a matter of opinion, I guess, but both reading other people's stories (I'm looking at you, Scion

) and writing my own DiD has definitely affected the way I play.

Among other things I've become more careful about diving head first into a battle, I try to plan ahead a bit more and I've learned to love my missiles as they can help me weed out the faster ships and make things a lot easier.

I actually started Rahne's story some 34 times and managed to either screw up or die within the first three or four hours of gameplay every time, making every mistake in the book and then some, before I finally nailed it. It was tiresome, but I learned from my mistakes, refined my approach and it felt oh so dang good when I finally got it right.

Kirlack · Post by **Kirlack** » Tue, 8. May 12, 17:44

Now that I'm writing a DiD story I am being damned careful, more so even than when I play any other DiD. I think because I'm writing the story and I want to continue doing so, I'm making the extra effort to stay out of those combat situations that have a better than 50% chance of killing me. In a normal game I'd just crack on and reload if I died. In any other DiD game I'd risk it because i can always start over. This time around though....well, let's just say I don't want it to end just yet

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Thu, 17. May 12, 12:53

A couple other thoughts I've had on the issue of a DiD.

I've noticed that I play markedly different in a DiD than when I play on my own. For instance, on my own, I do mine nividium. It makes a huge profit even sold for minimum value at the shipyard. In my DiD, the main reason I did it, was because I needed some quick cash, and I sold it fair, with a freighter jumping to the few places that actually buy it.

When I play, I fly whatever is available to me, no matter who it's from, or how I acquired it.

Playing a DiD, I always have acquisition rules. Either how I can get them, or what races I can use them from. For instance, you never think about how many Paranid ships you end up using, until you're specifically avoiding them. Playing without ships of one race or another introduces an amazing paradigm shift. Why? Because the use of certain ships produces a set of tactics which cater to the strengths of those ships.

Nothing hammered that home quite like playing Ea't's prequel story. With the rules allowing me only to purchase Split Ships, and all others needing capture, it became a very offensive DiD. I had to hit as hard as I could manage, because I didn't have the shields to get into a Teladi-ship style slugging match. I had to learn to get in, do damage and get out without taking much as often as I could.

And all while trying hard not to die. Didn't work you'll notice, but mostly that was me being bad at the game, or MARS trying to kill me.

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How writing a DID has changed the way I play

How writing a DID has changed the way I play