Time and Weather

[PsychoBlonde]

One of the nice things about the BG games was that there was a day/night cycle and semi-random weather. So what I'm wondering is, do you want these factors to have an *impact* of some kind? Do you want to have to go to shops during daytime hours? Do you want to have different wilderness encounters at night? Do you want to have quests that require you to be in certain places at certain times of day? Do you want to have things that will change if you fart around too long instead of following up on them, or, conversely, if you fiddle with them too early you get burned, but they may resolve better if you wait a bit?

 

And do you want random lightning bolts to hit your party during thunderstorms?

[Odarbi]

Yes, yes, and yes. Urgency needs to exist. Time sensitive quests need to exist. The game world is a living breathing thing, and should act as such. It should not wait around for players to get around to things. Just as things happen in real life with or without you around, the game world should progress with or without the player in the same way. Anyone who claims to be an RPer knows this is fundamentally true.

 

Time sensitive quests do not have to be "Do this within 7 days or get game over". Time sensitive quests can be, and do, so much more. They can bring depth and immersion into the game world, and far more so than studying the lore ever could. Not being around to stop an assassination attempt on one of the faction leaders could cause a power vaccum within the city, and the weakest faction may use this time to hire the adventurers to investigate and find out who planned the assassination. This knowledge could then be used to publicly shame the instigating faction and cause them a major loss of prestige... where as being around to stop the assassination attempt might simply preserve the status quo. Not dealing with a camp of bandits early on might simply cause them to become stronger and bolder. Not taking care of an necromancer while he is performing his experiments might lead to a city or town being destroyed or pillaged. All of those examples bring a lot of depth and immersion into the game, and are perfect examples of time sensitive quests that are not "Complete this in 7 days or it's game over". These type of quests will also add to replayability, because things will play out differently. Realistically speaking, you won't even know anything has changed unless you reload the game and do things differently, or are on your second playthrough.

 

By all means, take your time and explore the world, talk to everyone, and learn up on all the lore... but you cannot argue that you are being "punished" for your inaction when you are the one putting off the quests. Choices are supposed to matter in RPG's, and deciding you don't want to do a quest because you "don't feel like it" is as much a choice as "I want to go rescue the Elf King's daughter from those kidnappers". There is absolutely no reason the game should not reflect your inaction.

[Cantousent]

I think weather could be interesting, although perhaps a little tricky to implement properly. Time sensitive quests are tougher. On the one hand, a living breathing world that progresses on its own regardless of the PC sounds compelling. On the other hand, it is limiting. I think most quests should not be time sensitive. What I really don't want is a journal with a clock telling me how long I have to complete a bunch of quests. Talk about breaking immersion!

[descalabro]

One of the nice things about the BG games was that there was a day/night cycle and semi-random weather. So what I'm wondering is, do you want these factors to have an *impact* of some kind? Do you want to have to go to shops during daytime hours? Do you want to have different wilderness encounters at night? Do you want to have quests that require you to be in certain places at certain times of day? Do you want to have things that will change if you fart around too long instead of following up on them, or, conversely, if you fiddle with them too early you get burned, but they may resolve better if you wait a bit?

 

And do you want random lightning bolts to hit your party during thunderstorms?

 

Of course I do. But in what concerns the lightning bolts, it would make sense if they hit near trees or if they struck a character wearing metal gear. I never quite understood if lightning hits in BG were random. Now, It would be cool if there was some advantage on wearing the right gear for the right weather, but that's one of those aspects which can only be a part of a very refined game after all the important things have been defined.

[Starwars]

Voted yes for all of them.

 

Time sensitive quests will have to be done carefully though. I enjoyed the fabled time limit in Fallout a lot but it doesn't necessarily mean that I would like something like that for this game. But it would be pretty nice if passage of time would have some sort of effect on tasks that are supposed to be "urgent."

 

As for weather, well... Not lightning bolts but stuff like decreased chance to hit in the dark or heavy rain or whatever would be nice. Nothing too fancy.

[Darkpriest]

Two first ones were easy picks.. the last one... hmm I am not sure if a random strikes would be good, but weather having effects on certain spell types (like call lightning) would be ok.

[Tychoxi]

I went with "sure", but I must stress the "some" found in "some cases".

[DreamingVoid]

I like this idea, especially weather effects/impacts. If they decide to add a stealth system, which I think they will considering they want to have tactical combat, I think it would be appropriate if weather plays a role in how stealth works. For example, it should be easier to pick off sentries on a dark and rainy night rather than, say, broad daylight. Generally, just sneaking about should be easier at night than day.

 

And while we're on the subject, it would be neat if thunder had some funtion, like, you can shoot a sentry without the risk of their garbled last cries reaching out to their friends.

[PsychoBlonde]

I went with "sure", but I must stress the "some" found in "some cases".

 

This is my thought as well--I didn't mind that Khalid and Jaheera went on to Nashkell without you or Minsc got annoyed if it took too long to go after Dynaheir, because you could do that and then go finish non-time-sensitive stuff afterwards. I did NOT like the big overall timer in Fallout, because I didn't get a chance to explore or DO anything.

 

I have no problem with there being some limitations on how much you can doodle around and do things in whatever order you like. I have serious problems with the game restricting you from doing ANY doodling around, especially if (like me) you have the exploration skills of a concussed bunny and it takes you FOREVER to get ANYWHERE when you're new to a game.

[nikolokolus]

The world should breathe, by that I mean shops should have hours, people should sleep, there should be incentives to rent a room at an inn and the world should change even withot player action and also because of it. Tall order perhaps, but it would really help with immersion for me.

[Zed]

I don't want "timed quests" (and I don't think Tim Cain will allow them either :D), but I would love to see stuff like "meet shady guy at the graveyards during night" etc.

As for weather, sure. Doesn't have to be super advanced effects. Just some overlay kind of thing with sound effects would work for me.

[Infinitron]

I doubt that creating an Ultima 7-like living world is within Obsidian's design scope, but a man can dream.

[Intoxicated_Ant]

I'd love to see heavy rain have a negative impact on Line of Sight, Armour Rating, Speed and so forth.

 

Extreme heat and cold should also effect your party!

 

Weather/environmental effects add so much to the game and strategy implemented IMO

[rjshae]

One of the nice things about the BG games was that there was a day/night cycle and semi-random weather. So what I'm wondering is, do you want these factors to have an *impact* of some kind? Do you want to have to go to shops during daytime hours? Do you want to have different wilderness encounters at night? Do you want to have quests that require you to be in certain places at certain times of day? Do you want to have things that will change if you fart around too long instead of following up on them, or, conversely, if you fiddle with them too early you get burned, but they may resolve better if you wait a bit?

 

And do you want random lightning bolts to hit your party during thunderstorms?

 

Mostly I'd like to see visibility effects because it would make tactics matter. Thick fog or heavy rain (or smoke from a forest fire) should hinder ranged combat and provide cover for concealment. As for random lightning bolts... ah, not so much, unless it's specific to the circumstances.

Edited September 20, 2012 by rjshae

[DarthAdamRG]

I dont want to be racing the clock on quest, but time of day specific interests me.

[Tamerlane]

First one: Good in theory, but beware! This typically results in "Whelp, I should be getting on with things, but I think I'd rather spend twelve hours in the pub here so I can talk to that one questgiver again."

 

Second one: I'm not opposed, but you have to make sure it's clear to the player that time actually matters. Every other quest-giver says "You must hurry!", but if only one of them actually means it - lookin' at you, Paladin stronghold guy from BG2 - the player ain't gonna take it seriously.

 

Third one: Things like random lightning strikes? Heeeeeeell naw. Something like, say, fire damage being lessened during a rainstorm? Sure.

[Orogun01]

First one: Good in theory, but beware! This typically results in "Whelp, I should be getting on with things, but I think I'd rather spend twelve hours in the pub here so I can talk to that one questgiver again."

First one: That's just poor writing, on the average good game you would have at least 3 quests that you could do to pass that time. So if they are going to implement passage of time then they should take that into account when writing the quests. Plus we're just speculating on how they are going to implement it, they could only make enemies dependent on the time of day while leaving NPCs unaffected.

Second one: I'm not opposed, but you have to make sure it's clear to the player that time actually matters. Every other quest-giver says "You must hurry!", but if only one of them actually means it - lookin' at you, Paladin stronghold guy from BG2 - the player ain't gonna take it seriously.

Simple quest clock or a mention of "This quest must be completed in 2 days time" should suffice.

Third one: Things like random lightning strikes? Heeeeeeell naw. Something like, say, fire damage being lessened during a rainstorm? Sure.

I only want lighting if they shoot lava coming out of a tornado, otherwise i'm not interested.

[Lucas]

A couple days ago there was a topic involving more or less the same matter:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/60235-urgency-please-have-it/

 

Like I said in there, I would be against a "main quest countdown", but not against some timed side-quests.

 

It would be cool if there was a day/night cycle where you are told in advance that you'll have to accomplish something during the night (follow someone, break-in and stuff like that). It would also tie to the possibility of actually "failing" a quest, because you missed that particular timeframe (but remember, you were told in advance and it was well detailed in the quest journal) or failed at the quest itself (you didn't manage to break in, you lost track of the guy you had to follow, etc.)

[Pangur]

1: Sure, in some cases. Like people already said, nighttime should benefit some skills - like stealth and pickpocketing (but also make it harder to see enemies... or traps, for example). Some time-specific quests would also be nice,

 

2: Again, in some cases. No global urgency, but some quests where it really makes sense to hurry - for example, if you need to rescue a hostage or something ike that.

 

3: I chose 'cosmetic' in this one. It's fun, but I think I would be annoyed if lightning bolts randomly struck my companions or the rain quenched my wall-of-fire spell.

[ZaZu]

Actually, lack of time management mechanics is one of my main issues with modern RPGs. It just doesn't feel right when travelling to some desolated place at the end of the world is exactly the same as switching between two districts in a city (see: NWN2). And yeah, there must be time-sensitive quests! If some guy asks you to save his daughter from the bandits, or else they will kill her, you gotta be sure, that they will freaking do it if you decide to go travelling for a couple of months instead of helping her.

 

It would be even greater if these time restrictions could create some real problems for the player. For example: you're currently on an urgent misson, you go to some location, and then - there's this guy with a kidnapped daughter, who asks for your help. So you realize that helping the guy could put your mission under threat, and then you have to choose your course of action. Now that's a kind of dilemma a real adventurer would face. While in most of games you can literally help *everybody*, just because they don't care about *when* you're gonna do it.

 

With all that said, the "countdown" thing on the main quest is not a good decision, as it hurts exploring and limits your general experience of the game. Although i can't say i'd want it to be like in The Elder Scrolls, where you can forget about the storyline forever, right after the character creation.

Edited September 20, 2012 by ZaZu

[Brishingr]

Didnt read the most of this tread, but personaly I feel that this is needed ( yes to all).

[Jarmo]

Voted no to everything but the weather.

Even there, I wouldn't like to see like weather changing dynamically or anything like that, a waste of effort imo.

 

(Unless there's a point to doing that, like beginning the campaign in spring and ending by winter.)

 

But if there's an area like a snow covered hill or something,

I'd like to see it having some effect to those going about in their undies or chainmail bikinis.

[The Sharmat]

As one of the few people that was pleasantly surprised that knocking off the last mission of the main quest to breed chocobos for twenty hours after your crew had been kidnapped actually lead to their deaths in Mass Effect 2, I'm definitely in favor of their being penalties to taking to long in situations where time should realistically be an issue.

[maggotheart]

If there was one thing I just could not stand about the Witcher, it was how certain NPCs would move around, or had to be approached during the night or day only in order to get information / turn in a quest. So I would run up to the tavern to complete a quest, and the NPC i needed to talk to wouldnt be there because it was night time. So I had to run to a campfire somewhere to wait until daytime, then run back to the tavern to find the NPC. Then they would send me somewhere, but I had to be there during the day only, so I had to run back to a campfire and wait for day, and on and on (and on and on!)... Drove me up the wall and I didnt appreciate the 'realism' at all. If day/night cycles are going to be used, I'd prefer they were used sparingly and intelligently and not simply to create more realism.

 

In an open world RPG, I really dislike being forced to do things because of a time constraint. I like browsing my inventory, talking to people, getting sidetracked by optional quests, exploring interesting things while on my way somewhere, etc. I'd prefer no time constraints at all, just let me play how I want to play.

[PsychoBlonde]

If there was one thing I just could not stand about the Witcher, it was how certain NPCs would move around, or had to be approached during the night or day only in order to get information / turn in a quest. So I would run up to the tavern to complete a quest, and the NPC i needed to talk to wouldnt be there because it was night time.

 

Ugh, I wouldn't have liked this either. It could be pretty annoying in Oblivion, too, because some of the NPC's would hike halfway across the world map periodically.

 

I DID like the way Gothic implemented this, though, because although people moved around, they (mostly) stayed in the same area, and if it was 2 am and they were asleep, you could wake them up to turn in your quest doodads. There were a couple of exceptions--a group of Templars who walked almost the entire way across the map and back daily--but I never found it difficult to locate people when I wanted them, and seeing them eating with their buddies or repairing their house was pretty sweet. Also, it had features where if you asked somebody for directions, often they'd actually LEAD YOU THERE--whacking monsters out of the way for you if the route was dangerous, and waiting patiently for you to catch up if you dithered.

 

Granted, Gothic is a different style of game, but some of these features can be pretty cool if the devs have the time/energy to implement them.