I think I am with Wulfram here. So far, BioWare has never created a really good urban environment. Baldur’s Gate I and II were long ago, and times have changed.
We’ve seen quite a few excellent cities since then, both in single-player RPG’s (and related games a la Assassin’s Creed, GTA and others) and MMORPG’s, even if the latter usually lack dynamic NPC’s. And they are only likely to get better while BioWare has been sort of standing still or even regressing somewhat.
If BioWare is going to move forward and make things more lively, throwing in lots of cities and other settlements might be a wee bit too ambitious for their first attempt at improving things. I would be happy enough if they did parts of Val Royeaux and a couple of villages at the same level of quality as The Witcher I and II’s cities and villages. If they get that right, or at the very least approximate this, I can easily forgive the absence of multiple cities.
If they are going for Val Royeaux and a big city feel, I think I would prefer it if they adopt something similar to Assassin’s Creed and Two Worlds II’s crowd systems. Keep extensive AI routines limited to a small number of named NPC’s (for instance, potential companion NPC’s). Get rid of all static NPC’s who just stand around and do nothing and say nothing, they are immersion-breaking as hell.
As for smaller settlements, I would like to see BioWare (but also other companies like Bethesda) not to scale them down too much. Whether it’s Lothering or Redcliffe or Amaranthine, these villages and towns are much smaller than many medieval villages. They don’t have to be gigantic, but a dozen to two dozen houses, plus some special buildings like an inn, chantry, mill and noble mansion should be possible. Particularly in DA games, were most buildings are merely facades. For simple farmhouses, a bit of repetition (with a modicum of customization) is alright; character comes from little things like memorable NPC’s, a couple of specific buildings, a particular type of house decoration that marks the houses as being part of a specific local tradition, etc.
Some examples:
Fort Ardashir, a fairly modest town with a major fortress and temple in Age of Conan’s
Savage Coast of Turan expansion.
www.youtube.com/watchThis is a typical MMO town, in the sense that it has relatively few NPC’s, and those that are there are fairly limited. But the monkeys and the playing children are a nice touch.
What it does have, however, is lots of atmosphere.
Now combine something like this town with a crowd system similar to Two Worlds II, which itself owes a lot to Assassin’s Creed (and GTA?). The crowds in that game react to the player character: If he runs into crowds, people are pushed aside and yell at him. If he draws weapons, guards warn him and rush towards him. If he uses violence, civilians flee. Shopkeeper and pedlars hawk their wares, priests, towncriers and political dissidents hold speeches, musicians plays, women dance. It’s not perfect but I see no fundamental reason why BioWare couldn’t implement something similar and improve upon it, especially considering that such a crowd system can be refined and reused for future RPG’s.
(It gets a lot busier, btw, there is a definite 'urban' ebb and flow. Very AC-ish) www.youtube.com/watch (from about 3:00 in the video. My apologies for the horrible, horrible commentator
).
As for more extensive (named?) NPC routines, see The Witcher II and Skyrim.
Modifié par Das Tentakel, 12 septembre 2012 - 01:05 .
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