Topic

Hopefully future things will be less confusing?

Someone who knows much more about programming than I do explained to me that documentation is not always written after features have been programmed. (In the context of this thread I am not talking about documentation per se but the general idea that instructions that are worded to describe particular programmed actions may be developed a bit separately from those actions.)

Typos, things that are awkwardly worded, and wordings that are fine when released but get confusing after new features are released (e.g. quests with the addition of home streets) are all things that have bothered me somewhat in the past.  But with this post, I am specifically wondering about upgrade cards.  

From a programming standpoint, maybe the cards were written when features were first thought of, and then the features got programmed based on the idea behind the cards and the end results didn't line up, or maybe the cards were written in the middle or something?

I guess I am wondering if that would still impact having someone who didn't write them look over them, *before* they were released, with an eye specifically toward understandability and accuracy.  Obviously that doesn't work with the ones that are here (although I am wondering if going back and looking and making sure wouldn't be worth it now) but for the future maybe it would be good?  It's just so important with upgrade cards as correct wording would potentially affect what people choose to buy.

Posted 91 days ago by diaveborn ♥ Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • Have you got some specific examples that are confusing?
    Posted 91 days ago by shhexy corin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm not sure I catch your drift. Which cards are confusingly worded?
    Posted 91 days ago by Grupletruge Subscriber! | Permalink
  • There was some stuff where it was unclear if percentages added on top of other percentages in earlier upgrade cards.  If I remember correctly, the card that gives imagination for hoeing didn't say at first that it also reduces hoe durability, leading many people to regret its purchase. More recently there's been confusion about this card.  If a player is trying to decide upon purchasing a card that says "always get double seeds when shucking herbs" he may sit there and think, hm, are there any exceptions to "always" and then maybe he'd wonder about shucking failures and if they'd count. But the far more likely interpretation he'll have is "get more seeds than normal and get that every single time I shuck an herb" and that's not the case.  
    Posted 91 days ago by diaveborn ♥ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Also, I should be clear: I've pretty sure I've personally seen or heard of far more typos, things that are generally confusing, or things-made-unclear-by-other-future-things than I have problems with upgrade cards.  But I'm wondering about upgrade cards in particular because of their unique nature (plus I've said things about the other issues in other places).
    Posted 91 days ago by diaveborn ♥ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The Hoe-Down card did always say the hoe would wear faster. People just didn't realize how much faster. Or they skipped over that line and just remembered that it said they would get more iMG.
    Posted 91 days ago by Zany Serendipity Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ah, thanks Zany.
    Posted 91 days ago by diaveborn ♥ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I know the Magic Sort card works differently from its description (doesn't go across your whole inventory, just the bag you have clicked on)
    Posted 91 days ago by shhexy corin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Magic sort will pull *from* your whole inventory to that bag, however. I just tested that.
    Posted 91 days ago by Spockian Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Automatically swaps items around across all your bags so that the distribution of items most closely matches your bags' specializations. (Only works if you have specialized some bags!)"

    That suggests all bags to me (emphasis mine)
    Posted 91 days ago by shhexy corin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Double seeds from shucking upgrade does exactly what it says it does.  I understand that many people probably don't know how shucking works to begin with, and double an unknown just gives another unknown which is not that helpful if you were hoping to know exact numbers.

    Purple, Yellow and Silvertongue usually give 0, 1 or 2 seeds, averaging about 1.4.  The other herbs give 2.  If you have the upgrade than the first three herbs give 0, 2, or 4, averaging about 2.8 and the others give 4.
    Posted 91 days ago by Humbabella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • While the shucking upgrade card math is sound, I wish the wording were communicated in a way that avoided the connotation of "always."  Sitting down and working out how many herbs you get and trying to figure things out that way is an approach that will take you from the wording on the card to the conclusion of "double zero is still zero" but I'm not sure most people would work from that perspective when they're buying upgrade cards.
    Posted 91 days ago by diaveborn ♥ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "Always get double the seeds when you successfully shuck a herb."
    This sounds like a good fix to me.  Any problems with this phrasing?
    Posted 91 days ago by Impspindle Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Diave: "Documentation" isn't what you're dealing with here, just so you know. Documentation refers to either 1) instructions or explanations used internally to the software development process or within the code itself or 2) instruction manuals for the end user.

    Glitch has an encyclopedia, but not a manual. What you're talking about it is the actual text of the game itself. I was really confused until your last paragraph!

    Impspindle: Depends. Is Glitch written in American or British English? If the former, it should be "an herb", and if the latter, then it stays the way you wrote it. ^^
    Posted 91 days ago by Faranae Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ahh, thanks Faranae. I think the person I was talking with meant documentation like something separate from the actual programmed actions, as card text would be separate from their actions.  He probably didn't mean that the upgrade card text was documentation but was just giving me an example of how I might understand a potential process by which we get the upgrade cards in the game. I've clarified my first paragraph a bit.
    Posted 91 days ago by diaveborn ♥ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm with diaveborn on this one.  I had little to no idea of what many of the cards would actually do if I bought them, so I didn't bother to buy a lot of them for a while.  Finally I was so annoyed by things like long mining times that I bought everything I saw, and suddenly I was back to where I was before the xp-to-img conversion.  Since then, when new cards have been released, I've still had little understanding of what they would do, because the wording on them is ambiguous or incorrect.  There's really no need to be so sloppy when it comes to basic information like this, and if the ambiguity is supposed to make things more mysterious, ugh! because it actually just makes things more annoying.
    Posted 90 days ago by glum pudding Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Glitch is supposed to be a goofy and, well, glitchy kind of place.

    I would hate to think that stoot makes the coders do flowcharts before writing any code.

    And a well documented game is one rife with spoilers, anyway.
    Posted 90 days ago by Feldspar Gravity Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I completely disagree. I sincerely hope that all the game designers and programmers DO use flowcharts (or some other similar tool). Anything else would be wildly inefficient and impossible to manage.

    Keeping track of and updating in-game text to match all the changes requires careful change documentation. This is software development 101 stuff.
    Posted 90 days ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I also agree, Diave brings up a decent point. Even as a player who started in 2011, I came back in 2012 and was immediately confused and overwhelmed by the new systems in place. The double herb shuck is a GREAT example, and one that confused me to no end. It seems like it would do well for them to have someone outside of the coding team to write from a different perspective (a players perspective instead of a developers).

    As a more simple idea, perhaps a small ( i ) bubble on each card that gives detailed information about what the card does when hovered over?
    Posted 90 days ago by Ramus Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Don't worry, they take documentation very seriously.
    Posted 90 days ago by Sheepy Subscriber! | Permalink