CrustyBot wrote...
I think interacting with the environment to crazy levels is something that works better in first person games due to the level of control over the character. BioWare doesn't need to allow people to pick up everything in their way and chuck it at people.
Still, specific environmental interactions are a good thing. Especially if you can link them to the party (skills, talents, etc).
The desire for exploration in the case of future Dragon Age games comes firmly from the overwhelming sense of linearity, repetition and lack of player agency you get from the maps and levels in Dragon Age 2. Simply put, it's not interesting or fun to play through because it's not engaging the player on any level. It's why Allan Schumacher addresses the issue of dynamic environmental interaction even as a side issue; it's one way to break up the monotony and give a sense of variety and player agency.
In BioWare's case, I firmly believe that gameplay mechanics for interaction between player and NPCs ought to be broadened significantly, and that would lead to the game being more dynamic from playthrough to playthrough, which gives a little more leeway and variety in level design. The way Stealth is approached (along with the implications for AI), faction mechanics influencing random encounters, law and order in regards to mages and open magic mechanics, etc. Whatever works.
I'd imagine that the "exploration" in Origins was satisfactory for most people. An even smaller landscape would work too, but at the end of the day it has to be consist of maps that are interesting, support the setting or narrative themes and encourage player interaction with the game rather than just being empty/wasted space.
In story based games, exploration is less about the large open world and more about specific locations that enable players to better explore the story, setting or characters in interesting ways as much or as little as they wish.
The Glow from Fallout 1 is a stellar example of exploration in an RPG. IMO. The Witcher 1's Vizima is also a fantastic location. It's not "exploration" in the typical sense, but it stomps on Kirkwall and spits on it's children and is the kind of place (in size and vibrancy) that allows players to explore the setting and gameworld to the point where they don't mind that most of the game is set there.
One element noticed and I highlighted in what said I think should expand on, it is not just about characters and how they fit into the world that makes RPG's great. The world itself has to also be the focus like have said earlier. Bioware is great at exploring the personalities of the main characters in their stories but almost every time of late they really suffer badly at exploring the world, immersion and the setting of which all has taken a back seat to their companions and characters. All the focus on dialogue systems and equipment, skills and romances... It lacks the one element they seem to fall short on each time which is the world in which takes place, the enviroment and the history.
Small things make a big difference to this element, from wildlife present which makes the world itself feel more alive, the static NPCs they use so often in their games makes the world feel static and lifeless as though everyone and everything is waiting for you to show up and do something and when you leave they cease to exist. When your not there they do not exist and when you are there nothing changes outside the bounds of the few people who talk to. Improvements can be made using such elements as weather systems, reactivity when rains the inhabitants seek shelter from the rain, when it is hot they they seek shade, night and day having an effect and not merely an on and off switch... Knowing that the world is not filled with lifeless static placeholders.
The best games, best RPGs are the ones that have great stories, great characters and a believable world that is ever changing. It has a past, a present and a future, that even though your in the present you find out about the past and your choices affect the future. Any game that has equal amounts of quality in all three becomes a truly amazing game and while Bioware titles have the first two down very well from story and characters, their worlds lack life, lack substance and damage the first two elements.
You place a child in a room, the room is empty and the air is stale but there is a stack of blocks of which the child will be content with those blocks for a very short while. Stick that same child in a park with swings and roundabouts, grass, fresh air, trees and butterflies, maybe even a pond and that child will be entertained for much longer and vastly more so. The park is the world in which the child is present vs the room. Bioware creates rooms and they need to expand to parks. This is probably a poor analogy but the point is not just that they need to create a more open world even if not sandbox but instead filled with more life and more things to keep people invested too, less static and stale.
What would be the point in visiting a museum or art gallery if the only thing on the walls was dry white paint with not drawings, paintings ro sculptures present. No matter how I look at it, Bioware's worlds have always been stale to me, always been lifeless and outside the persona's created of the few main characters required for the main storyline always lacked impact in this one area. This is how just feels to me and it's the one area in need of improvement I feel more than the rest.
Skyrim had NPC's that felt more alive, they had their own agendas or jobs, Witcher 2 had very good weather system in which NPCs sought shelter when rained and both had the element of day and night which had an effect. The one element Bioware seriously need to work on is their worlds from the element of time (past, present and future) all portrayed and feeling like mattered. Their titles lack living worlds, their NPCs are static and lifeless, the world emotionless and non responsive. Variety in locations and such also lacking. Origins did just about good enough job to paint over the cracks in this element (minimum amount) but only just and was still very much lacking. If Bioware learn anything from other titles of late I hope it is that the the immersion in the world your character is part of also must be a priority.
I kind of ranted so not sure if anything made sense, I tend to type as fast as I think and rarely bother checking over what I said; but I think should just about get the gist of what I mean even without me doing such. Whats the point in having a world if you cannot explore it, NPCs and people if they are static and lifeless, equipment you cannot equip, a past you cannot find out about and future that you have no effect upon. Also as a side note, if you rely on story alone then I would rather read a book or go see a movie, the whole point of games is interacting within that world created and the more you can interact the better the 'game' element is.
Modifié par Dragoonlordz, 19 avril 2012 - 09:59 .
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