changes in the realms

[cosmin haraga]

oh god dao2 is NOT what I mean.....

 

but a couple of guards standing outside a done dungeon could be cool / you could back to bg maps and find random encounters / sleep get attacked / for extra xp, nothing fancy

 

as for the rest of the proposed atmoshere changes see above.

 

 

please don't turn the topic to a me debate - it was so - it's so - ah so- I mean - man ....

[Naurgalen]

The problem of DA2 was not that you were always going to the same place, but that you were going to different places and they still reused the same maps! it was lke ME1, and that destroys the idea that you are exploring a real world.

[Osvir]

I think, they can re-use the same pathing/shadow maps several times for P:E, but it better have a new sort of texture.

[Lephys]

I agree, in general, with most of what you said. It can be handled and it can be managed and it would be nice to see if it is introduced. The concern I have with a fantasy RPG settings unlike in ME - You'r going to be checking out dungeons/woods/caves etc... The desire to return to places has to be slim, where as within ME your visitng city hubs, towns,areas so change is needed especially in number of people on the streets/what there talking about. (me fan boy here tbh).

 

Take DA2 they reused the same town, pathways, caves and tunnel systems and it DESTROYED the game for me and many many others. The second you realised you were reusing the same places was just sad. I lost all interest in replaying the game as I had seen everything at least 6 times. (I think I managed 2 play throughs spread out between other games where as DA:O was about 7 and I still think I missed stuff.

 

My concern would be IF they implement a time system then don't make us reuse the same places, towns and villages yes. But the same dungeon or set of woods or caves.. Not ideally.

 

That's a valid point, but I wouldn't worry too much about that. As Naurgalen said, DA2 wasn't even trying to imply that you were going to the same areas. They were just physically/aesthetically the same areas, even though they were supposed to be different. DA2 has got to be the most terrible implementation of maps/areas I've ever seen in my life, haha.

 

But, yeah, in the Mass Effect games, you went to a lot of different places that you never returned to. It's not that it didn't have anything in it to parallel medieval fantasy caves/forests/dungeons. It's just that they intelligently didn't make you return to the same derelict ship 72 times or anything like that. The likelihood of something else happening to a derelict ship after you've already dealt with it is pretty much 'nil. So, it's just a matter of intelligent design on the developers' part, really. Things like "There's actually a basement to this place, but the player either doesn't know that or obviously cannot access it yet" make the same cave/area a lot more feasible to re-use than just "Let's shove some more content into this same cave." If you can't make it a different experience in the same area, then don't re-use that area.

 

The reason towns and hubs make sense to re-use is because there are so many factors involved that are prone to change.

[Juneau]

It would be nice to see roads improve, as you spend time clearing out the local area of bandits early game, a few more patrols wandering pathways, roads being fenced/better paved. Messengers running up and down more often.

 

Towns growing in grander if your a mage/good person, or becoming grungier if your a baddy etc..

 

Little things like that - which unfortunately take a lot of time and effort to implement are what makes a good game great - imho.