firstly I'd be happy if there was no in-combat magic healing, if your team members get hurt, they stay hurt untill you get to a medical station. Also that once a NPC gets killed/Facehugged/dismembered they stay that way.

 

That in itself would create tension, add in a limited realistic carrying capacity coupled with ammo requirements for each weapon , forcing the player away from becoming a god like alien sqaushing machine. I'd also get rid of hitpoints, if an alien gets close enough to touch your dead.

 

Also unlike say the Neverwinter series, I'd make the game less combat-centric. More about exploring the enviorment and the unfolding story and just trying to make it through alive, with as many others as possible.

 

Combat itself needs to give the impression of urgency, it doesn't have to be quick paced it, i'd much perfer vivd dynamic encounters to eyegougers caves combat. Alot of what made Aliens a great film for me was, the slow build up to a fast brutal action sequence, the horror for me was the betrayal of Burke an the callous disregard for life shown by the coporations. That stands out more than the gunning down of monsters from outer space.

When the game is finally finished, I doubt Obsidian wants for anyone to mix the result of their long and hard work with someone else's fps. Especially since the products will likely be out in time to promote the upcoming movie(Fox hired Gearbox and Obs for that) and be out simultaneously.

 

I haven

firstly I'd be happy if there was no in-combat magic healing, if your team members get hurt, they stay hurt untill you get to a medical station. Also that once a NPC gets killed/Facehugged/dismembered they stay that way.

 

That in itself would create tension, add in a limited realistic carrying capacity coupled with ammo requirements for each weapon , forcing the player away from becoming a god like alien sqaushing machine. I'd also get rid of hitpoints, if an alien gets close enough to touch your dead.

 

Remember System Shock 2? It had weapon degradation to "increase tension". Arguably it worked, but a LOT of gamers kicked up a big stink about it (thought it was very easy to work with personally). When you start to force things on the player like that for the sake of tension, you're most likely going to create frustrating tension, not exciting tension. Not a good thing.

One thing that I think could work in terms of the setting, is to have the game set in a place where people don't know about the aliens. Something along the lines of people sporadically disappearing, or showing up completely maimed. It could be used to exacerbate any violent tensions that might already be there. You people begin by blaming it crime, or some start believing it's the local gangs going too far.

 

Also, with this in mind, the player could be working for Weyland Yutani, and be one of the few that knows about the aliens and is trying to deal with them, while keeping the situation from going public.

Edited December 3, 200718 yr by Pidesco

Also, with this in mind, the player could be working for Weyland Yutani, and be one of the few that knows about the aliens and is trying to deal with them, while keeping the situation from going public.

There was going to be a game built on these lines, called Blue Vault, in it you were a government agency entrusted with the control of mass panic and keeping aliens a secret(lol, weather balloon!). I think this premise for the game could be awesome. It could still raise the tension of the players gradually, even though everybody worth his marbles know that it's gonna be xenomorphs at the end and that excitement is done away with. The character is conscious of the aliens, so it's a great excuse for players to have metagame knowledge.

Also, with this in mind, the player could be working for Weyland Yutani, and be one of the few that knows about the aliens and is trying to deal with them, while keeping the situation from going public.

There was going to be a game built on these lines, called Blue Vault, in it you were a government agency entrusted with the control of mass panic and keeping aliens a secret(lol, weather balloon!). I think this premise for the game could be awesome. It could still raise the tension of the players gradually, even though everybody worth his marbles know that it's gonna be xenomorphs at the end and that excitement is done away with. The character is conscious of the aliens, so it's a great excuse for players to have metagame knowledge.

It would also fit in wonderfully with your other ideas. It ramps up to the point where Xenomorphs are everywhere, and then even later, in come the marines with smartguns.

How far along do you people think Obsidian is in Aliens' development right now?

Yeah, gradual heavy weapon armament in the face of the coming apocalypse, calling the boss(W-Y) for the big guns to come in, it could work in the context of rpg-loot(and tactical game, aka X-Com) slowly getting better until you chew faces. I mean, of course you'll only carry a pistol or smg at most when you are interrogating locals and dealing with gangs and cults, but you would find armouries and the like to gear yourself better when the xenomorphs start to manifest themselves until the plot is at the point where the marines come in. And the foes you face would gradually get strong enough, praetorians for instance, or numerous enough to excuse the use of all the colonial heavy gear.

 

Also, powerloaders.

 

Edit:Pide, I'd say they are far enough that not much what we write here will affect them, but not far enough that we might get the game next year.

Edited December 3, 200718 yr by Musopticon?

How far along do you people think Obsidian is in Aliens' development right now?

I would image very early. But, I'm not sure how fast these things go.

Might they already have some sort of early build, like a tech demo? Or perhaps it's still on the conceptual phase.

 

 

 

 

Also, how about Obsidian hires us to write the story?

I think they probably have some kind of build, even if just a tech one, to show for the publisher.

 

You watched the Bioshock video with Irrational telling about how they had to show their moneymen that things were progressing, right?

 

Also, considering how Josh is pretty much the auteur right now, writers lol

Edited December 3, 200718 yr by Musopticon?

I just figure that I spend way too much time here talking about games, that I might as well go for a job in the industry. Might a degree in English Lit help?

I never wrote anything of that sort. It doesn't really matter if the gameplay is entirely different, since the biggest demographics will probably buy both because you shoot aliens in them. I know people who mixed Half life 1 with HL 2 episode 1. It really isn't hard to accidentally fool the twats who are going to form the backbone of the amount of games bought.

 

I must have misinterpreted what you said.

 

Krezack wrote that 3rd person was an inferior medium compared to FPV which puts the player directly in the shoes of the main protagonist, which in its own way heightens the fear factor.

 

I agree with that.

 

You replied

 

Because Gearbox is making an fps. I doubt they want people to mix the two.

 

Now that might sound far-fetched, but this really could be an issue.

 

Reading it again, I am not actually sure what you meant. Earlier I thought that you where referring to both games being in FPV, therefore both games would be about shooting aliens. And the market / developers could have issues with selling a similar type of game.

 

Sorry if I got you wrong.

What I mean is that the vast majority of buyers, the ones that don't watch trailers or visit fora or only use the web for myspace, won't be able to differentiate between the two games, they'll just see a game like Crysis with the Alien movie monsters. This is why, to further alienate(lolol) the two from each other, the viewpoints shouldn't resemble each other.

 

As for which one is "better", I won't comment on that, since I've enjoyed bought. Though I agree that I've found first person games generally very immersive.

What I mean is that the vast majority of buyers, the ones that don't watch trailers or visit fora or only use the web for myspace, won't be able to differentiate between the two games, they'll just see a game like Crysis with the Alien movie monsters. This is why, to further alienate(lolol) the two from each other, the viewpoints shouldn't resemble each other.

 

As for which one is "better", I won't comment on that, since I've enjoyed bought. Though I agree that I've found first person games generally very immersive.

 

Right, I see what you are saying better now.

 

Though I think we have to give the general gamer a lot more credit and treat them with more intelligence. I mean the Alien series is a massive part of popular culture. Everyone, all ages, people that don

Hell, I hope I get you to understand me this time:

 

I'm not saying that it's a preferance of the viewpoint that makes them buy the game. My point was that in order for the majority to not mix the fps with the crpg, they should use a different viewpoint. I'm not saying it's the right decision or that they must do it, just that it's the most obvious way to differentiate the two.

Hell, I hope I get you to understand me this time:

 

I'm not saying that it's a preferance of the viewpoint that makes them buy the game. My point was that in order for the majority to not mix the fps with the crpg, they should use a different viewpoint. I'm not saying it's the right decision or that they must do it, just that it's the most obvious way to differentiate the two.

 

I never accused you.

 

All I was saying is that, I don

^ His point is relevant. I remember on the Interplay boards when the first video for Bloodlines was released, the overwhelming reaction was "oh, it's a fps", afterall, it's shown in first person and features guns.

 

Combat in RPGs (a genre made up of many different elements) is never as good as combat in games in which it is the sole focus (such as FPS), so if the FP combat in Aliens RPG isn't as good as in Aliens FPS, that's going to be a huge mark against it, from both gamers and critics.

 

Random Gamer Dude picks up two boxes, both of them Aliens games featuring shooting and both played in the first person perspective. From screenshots and text on the back of the box, one tells RGD that it's your standard FPS where you play a specific character through a linear series of events, whereas the other offers character customization and all sorts of optional objectives and stories and exploration, and it certainly sounds better than the first. But what if RGD really justs wants a great shooter, but ends up buying the wrong game because one sounds cooler than the other, but isn't really his type of game?

 

You say "one is a FPS and the other is a RPG" as though that's supposed to mean something. Considering no one has ever been able to define RPG in a way everyone can agree on, I'd say it means little. And does what genre a game fits into really matter to most gamers? On RPG focused boards like this, people may argue over whether a game is an RPG, or just an action RPG, or purely an action game, but do most people really care about that kind of stuff?

 

If these two games are set to come out at the same time, they really need to stand apart, and giving them both the same perspective is a really bad way of doing that.

Edited December 4, 200718 yr by Hell Kitty

Considering we haven't had any official confirmation either way, wouldn't we all laugh if it was an FPS?

 

I'd personally be happy.

 

And even though an FPS RPG may not sell as well as a pure FPS... it might still sell better than a pure RPG.

In response to Hell Kitty

 

I remember on the Interplay boards when the first video for Bloodlines was released, the overwhelming reaction was "oh, it's a fps", afterall, it's shown in first person and features guns.

 

Well that was a long time ago and if nobody said they where making an RPG before they released the video, well then those gamers jumped to an incorrect conclusion.

 

Also gamers understanding of the genres has changed quite a bit since then. The games industry is maturing fast. So like I said before, just because a game is in first person view point doesn

Edited December 4, 200718 yr by Sh0dan

Uh, I enjoyed the combat in Deus Ex, Bloodlines and System Shock 2.

 

Some of my favourite moments in an FPS game were sneaking up to thugs and one by one sucking them dry till I got caught at which point I'd blast them with a shotgun. Or putting turning into wereform then ripping apart the enemies with my claws as a Gangrel. Or turning on muscle strength and speed, pulling out a sword and running up to enemies and slicing them in the head for a one hit kill. Or crouching for better aim, pulling out a stealth pistol, then picking off a group of soldiers with a quick succession headshots. Or throwing around cryokinetic blasts until the combat got tough at which point I'd switch to a grenade launcher.

 

All the above games had better combat than any other FPS I've played (excluding Half-Life 1 but not 2) because you could vary your combat techniques at a moment's whim. And because they all had melee.

I think Hell Kitty was referring to gun mechanics, not combat in general. And that

Not really. As Josh pointed out, Bloodlines' ranged combat system was "poindexter" diceroll-based, which is always incomparable with twitch shooter mechanics. The best they could've done with more time was figure out a way to balance out the major disadvantage you have when using guns against supernatural creatures.

I still believe the Deus Ex retical enlargement system for increased inaccuracy is the best for FPS RPGs.

Why make another first person shooter, theres lots of good ones out, with I am sure a lot of good ones to be released. They would be sending a product to market without a clear identity.

 

where as a camera veiwpoint similar to Neverwinter, with a similar emphasis on charcter development and plot. Set within a grim and opressive sc-fi setting would have far less competiton.

 

There are so few traditional, heavier rpgs with a sc-fi backdrop, well ones not star wars based though i'd consider that fantasy with space ships more than

science fiction.