Jump to content

How alive will the world be?


Recommended Posts

I wonder how alive the world will be.

For example how about daily schedules for NPCs where they wake up in the morning, go to work and go to a pub and after that back to bed in the evening and you could watch them doing their daily stuff.

Or a highly interactive world like in the old Ultimas where you could fetch water from a well, mix it with flour and put the dough into an oven to get bread which you then could eat.

 

I think that Obsidian will concentrate on the "essential" parts of the game but a world that feels alive would a welcome addition, imho.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I don't like sandbox-y stuff. When someone has given me a quest I want him to freaking wait 'till I'm done and not go anywhere. It's me doing the work, show some common courtesy. Sheesh.

Edited by alphyna

you can watch my triumphant procession to Rome

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I don't like sandbox-y stuff. When someone has given me a quest I want him to freaking wait 'till I'm done and not go anywhere. It's me doing the work, show some common courtesy. Sheesh.

 

I don't mind if they have cycles, so for instance a shopkeeper is in his shop during the day, then when his shop closes he goes to an inn to socialise, then goes home to sleep. Next day repeat. Adds a little realism without being a huge hindrance.

 

Edit: Way to not read the first post and basically repeat it word for word. Anyway, yeah, cycles should be in.

Edited by Oerwinde
The area between the balls and the butt is a hotbed of terrorist activity.

Devastatorsig.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I don't like sandbox-y stuff. When someone has given me a quest I want him to freaking wait 'till I'm done and not go anywhere. It's me doing the work, show some common courtesy. Sheesh.

 

I hear you there. I hate having to track down a quest give because he felt like going to the store to grab some milk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What if you can get the same quest from a number of people? It doesn't make sense that you'd have to go to the quest giver or some guy standing in an alley all day. Even villages have bureaucracies, even villagers have reliable friends. Surely, the mayor will be contacted by her underlings about a resolved quest, even if he's out getting some milk.

"This is what most people do not understand about Colbert and Silverman. They only mock fictional celebrities, celebrities who destroy their selfhood to unify with the wants of the people, celebrities who are transfixed by the evil hungers of the public. Feed us a Gomorrah built up of luminous dreams, we beg. Here it is, they say, and it looks like your steaming brains."

 

" If you've read Hart's Hope, Neveryona, Infinity Concerto, Tales of the Flat Earth, you've pretty much played Dragon Age."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah it's been twenty years or so about time for a return, those simple routines of Ultima made the world the world seem a living breathing place, and thus far more important. I agree water closets should be in as well, though greyed out when doors are closed, and with caustic remarks for those who open them. This also necessitates that we should be able to sit and lie down when using beds, there was nothing so charming as sitting in the Blue Boar in Britannia, watching the life of the place just turn around you, before wandering home for a good nights sleep.

Quite an experience to live in misery isn't it? That's what it is to be married with children.

I've seen things you people can't even imagine. Pearly Kings glittering on the Elephant and Castle, Morris Men dancing 'til the last light of midsummer. I watched Druid fires burning in the ruins of Stonehenge, and Yorkshiremen gurning for prizes. All these things will be lost in time, like alopecia on a skinhead. Time for tiffin.

 

Tea for the teapot!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And I don't like sandbox-y stuff. When someone has given me a quest I want him to freaking wait 'till I'm done and not go anywhere. It's me doing the work, show some common courtesy. Sheesh.

 

The automap could show you where he is located and of course you should be able to wake him up if he is asleep. This works quite well in the Witcher-series or Skyrim for example.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think it's particularly necessary for a game of this kind to have elaborate schedules for the NPCs. I think it would be nice to have a difference between daytime and nighttime though. Certain NPCs goes to bed, certain NPCs may come out at night only.

  • Like 1

Listen to my home-made recordings (some original songs, some not): http://www.youtube.c...low=grid&view=0

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think it's particularly necessary for a game of this kind to have elaborate schedules for the NPCs. I think it would be nice to have a difference between daytime and nighttime though. Certain NPCs goes to bed, certain NPCs may come out at night only.

 

Difference between night and day is a must and I think it will included anyway (if not, I think the world will go crazy).

Including basic routines will definitely make the game look a lot more interesting. It might be a pain to find them in a place where they where not before, but it does give a better feeling for the game.

 

I think the real question is will there be toilets? 9/10 people agree that having toilets in a game make it feel more alive - it's a real statistic, honest!

 

Even though sounds rather strange, I kind of agree... You just have to go and check out that woman's bathroom ...

Jokes aside, Toilets might work nicely in sci-fi type of games as MassEffect, but not so well in fantasy type of setting where technology level of middle ages.

Nevertheless it does add a bit of realism to the game, having toilets.

toplogow.jpg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I completely and utterly fail to realize why would anyone want a game from Obsidian to be a sandbox. If I wanted to see NPCs going about their business I'd play Gothic or TES. I play games from Obsidian for the compelling story, interesting characters and worlds which are fun to explore. I don't think having NPCs have schedules will add to the game.

Updated my journal.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

To me it is a question of realism vs. gameplay. As has been mentioned by Alphyna, if the whole world were on a schedule, people woke up, did their business and went to bed, we might be trying to get some bounty, only to find out another party of adventurers has beaten you to it. If such situations happen often, and it will if the world were 'alive', not cool.

Edited by Krios
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Personally i'm not asking for a sandbox, I don't want a hiking simulator like Skyrim. I just want a game like Ultima 7 from twenty years past that had a living believeable world and a strong, reactive story. To me it's not a binary choice between the two extremes, games are supposed to be advancing not regressing. New Vegas shrugged off the aimless wandering of Fallout 3 to present a strong narrative led game in a realistic setting, i'm hopeful that Eternity will do the same.

Edited by Nonek

Quite an experience to live in misery isn't it? That's what it is to be married with children.

I've seen things you people can't even imagine. Pearly Kings glittering on the Elephant and Castle, Morris Men dancing 'til the last light of midsummer. I watched Druid fires burning in the ruins of Stonehenge, and Yorkshiremen gurning for prizes. All these things will be lost in time, like alopecia on a skinhead. Time for tiffin.

 

Tea for the teapot!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The bread! I remember making so much bread, and hoarding as much food as I could in Ultima 7, just because it all looked so good!

 

NPCs with schedules as they did in Ultima would be great. However I wouldn't be surprised if it ends up being more like the IE games where people will be in one place during the day, and another at night. I'd be perfectly happy with either of those options (and bread!).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not every NPC needs full schedules and background but I hope we at least have the illusion of a living world. Basically try to avoid stationary characters, smiths should walk around their smithy making armour, priests should be giving services, customers should be arguing over prices in shops.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think that most NPC's need a cycle, as I don't expect a city filled with named NPC's rather than a city habited mostly by "faceless" and nameless NPC's that simply habit the streets, strolling around and even that makes the world feel more alive. But, some named NPC's could have a cycle and preferably so that learning it might give some benefit(for example if the NPC is to assassinated) and advantage over a situation involving that NPC.

Dude, I can see my own soul.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Having an Ultima like world interaction would be great, but I rather Obsidian to focus on what they do best, instead of experimenting with sandboxes and NPC life cycles.

 

Maybe they can try that in a future expansion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...