There's already a wiki set up, but we didn't even have time to skin it from the default MediaWiki skin. We're spread thin here, but I'll try to find time for that :/
Ouch :p
Maybe it could be opened as-is, then ? Well, I guess you prefer "releasing" a polished wiki rather than an "early-access" one ?
Meh, I'm looking forward to it... but also (very) patient, so go at your pace.
--
Thinking about it, why it matters so much to me is essentially because "try&die" quickly becomes frustrating.
I love having to make decisions/sacrifices and fully assume my choices, but one can't take wise decisions without knowledge (
reminds me of my first runs in UC x_+. If only some message did warn me...)
Having to gratuitously suffer for every piece of knowledge is tiresome, but as long as the games gives the player enough infos (
i.e. transparency about damages/speed systems, items effects... and challenges to expect), dying quickly improves from painful to plain fun.
So, while a wiki is a good place to learn things and avoid having too much bad surprises, imo, facing the bad surprises is even sweeter... providing it gives more fun than frustrations.
Dying
is fun
when it's you fault (or just a
rare bad RNG), but not when it's just because you have to grind & restart until you know every pitfall.
For this reason, after some runs reaching IO, and an absurd death vs a group of exalted velociraptors (
had found no phase, btw), I quickly started to save scum a bit... and didn't stop until I reached & killed the summoner.
And because thats not the way I like to play, I'll risk giving you the truit to slap me, and will suggest to add some nerfed "scummable" save system to JH. (alias, saves not cleared when used).
Of course, this doesn't look much compatible with permadeath at first glance, but I think
it actually is, if done properly.
The purpose is NOT to let one get any "achievement", but to explore and understand the game.
Some examples of cool systems enabling such exploration:
-Angband's "Allow player to avoid death" option lets you play in real conditions, just without having to redo everything if your Lvl45 char dies to some unknown threat
-Tourist difficulty, in "Serious Sam", gives you hp (& maybe ammo) regen. A funny way to explore the game for one not wanting challenge.
(
This reminds me DoomRL GOT his Tourist module ! Which was a great way to learn the backside of the game & levels, and gave me the idea to rocket-call the AM in CC)
-N64 Goldeneye / Perfect dark featured "cheat options", unlockable by beating some challenges (in their case, completing some level under some time)
-Also, Soldier of fortune's save system was interesting, compared to Doom or Quake: in easy, you had several saves per mission (level), and in hard, maybe one. In what I'd call UV, you had none.
I know all this might look in opposition with our vision of permadeath, but I think permadath's goal is to have people assume their choices & mistakes (or life's bad luck).
I don't see any point in killing characters in a "try & die" way just because they were not aware of some trap, like in the current military base (where using a smoke before walking the ambush-step makes all the difference... providing you know what happens when you walk tile X)
In JH, loading without destroying the save could really be an option.
If it was me, I think I'd allow this at game start (
call it military simulator :p), just disabling any achievement/victory onbtained for such a run (and probably advertising "
What you could have got", instead).
In fact, this approach seems way better to me than
having to check the wiki/forums, mainly because it needs the player to find his own way with his own perceptions, rather than copying the way other people play.
For me, wiki/debug modules are mainly useful once you know most of the game aspects, so that you can discover things you didn't notice yet. (
I didn't open any binding of Isaac wiki before I beat the game a *lot* of times)
