25 réponses à ce sujet

[N7Jamaican]

Some RPGs hype an living world, where NPC's actually go about their daily business.  This usually equates to a few NPCs walking about on a set path, or in a particular animation.

 

So when you hear a living world mentioned in a game, what would YOU expect to see to reflect what they are saying?

 

For me, I'd like to see creatures.  I don't mean the occassional thresher maw or pyjak.  I want to see wildlife, and wildlife interacting with their environment (i.e. hunting, sleeping, eating, etc).  And for humanoids, would be nice to see more than just "walking on a set path" or stuck in an animation.

[BabyPuncher]

I imagine that's a fairly expensive system.

 

I seriously doubt we're going to be hunting this wildlife or even interacting with it at all.

 

BioWare has more important things to be spending their resoruces on.

[Cyonan]

I'd actually rather see a reactive world than one in which NPCs have a daily routine they follow. The best example of this is Arcanum, which is absolutely brilliant in how it responds to the player's actions.

 

However for BioWare, they'll probably focus more on the story and characters rather than creating either a living or highly reactive game world.

[N7Jamaican]

I imagine that's a fairly expensive system.

 

I seriously doubt we're going to be hunting this wildlife or even interacting with it at all.

 

BioWare has more important things to be spending their resoruces on.

 

Not what I meant.  Just want to see humanoids and creatures interact act, actually seeming to be alive and not just placed in the world.

[DaemionMoadrin]

Living worlds are usually found in open world games. I doubt ME:A will be one. That would require day/night changes, schedules for NPCs and so on... and that would imply time is a factor in the game. Wouldn't work for Mass Effect.

[In Exile]

That's not a living world. Humans aren't worker ants. When I see a living world mentioned as an advertisement, I expect a game where no one's ever observed people before to create some form of crowd simulator where people move around in masses on a predetermined schedule. The fact that we move about in predictable patterns isn't what sets us apart from, say, a herd of sheep. 

[Catastrophy]

Living worlds are usually found in open world games. I doubt ME:A will be one. That would require day/night changes, schedules for NPCs and so on... and that would imply time is a factor in the game. Wouldn't work for Mass Effect.

Day/Night cycles would be nice for the exploration part, too. And campfires.

[DaemionMoadrin]

I have a game concept around here somewhere... it's basically a living fantasy world.

 

There are no pre-defined quests, no stories, nothing. Instead the entire world is alive and breathing. NPCs go about their life, they have preferences, they have money and an income, they have jobs, they have hobbies.

 

You earn money and gear by helping people, there are always tasks to be done.

 

You are able to manipulate that environment. For example... you have a city guard who's into redheads. If you do not interfer he will eventually end up marrying a cobbler's daughter. Or, if you get his partner killed, he'll comfort the redheaded widow... and they end up together.

You could use a kid as messenger, paying him well to run errands for you. Or if you don't, then the kid might starve. Or go to school and learn a trade.

 

At first you're barely more than a vagrant, doing odd jobs for a little coin. Splitting wood, gathering herbs... and as people trust you more and you become more capable, they'll ask you to hunt the wolf which was killing sheep. Maybe some traveler got robbed by bandits and needs your help getting their stuff back. More people will rely on you as your reputation and skill increase, eventually you'll be killing dragons for a king.

 

The game doesn't even need a main quest or story, it basically writes itself. If the world is large enough, then a few seeds will grow into terrifying opponents over time. Maybe the disgruntled wizard apprentice stumbles over a tome of dark magic and by the time you are a hero, he'll be a dark wizard sitting in his tower, sending out monstrous minions to terrorize the lands. Perhaps the apprentice messes up a ritual and summons a demon lord he can't control, who kills his summoner and sets himself up as a king.

 

Of course, nothing in the game says you need to be a hero. You can just as well become an evil overlord yourself. Or work for one.

 

 

The actual concept is a bit more complex and it is unlikely current technology is up to the task... not to mention that it would be a lot of work to code it.

[BabyPuncher]

Not what I meant.  Just want to see humanoids and creatures interact act, actually seeming to be alive and not just placed in the world.

 

Yes. That's a system. That takes lots of works to build. That requires resources. How is that 'not what you meant'?

[Larry-3]

I believe Assassin's Creed: III would be a perfect example of living world.

[N7Jamaican]

I imagine that's a fairly expensive system.

 

I seriously doubt we're going to be hunting this wildlife or even interacting with it at all.

 

BioWare has more important things to be spending their resoruces on.

 

I wasn't talking about us hunting.  If I wanted to hunt in a video game, I'd buy Cabela's African Adventure.  What I MEANT was seeing wildlife do wild things. Ya know?

[HuldraDancer]

Closets I've seen to something like that and what part of me expects to see when I hear that is something along the lines of NPCs moving and going about on their own and doing different things like example one time you visit it may be that normal shop keeps day off so there's a temp worker there, some of the NPCs sleep in till noon some just leave all day sometimes and can't be found cause they're out working or something. Oddly I can't really find anything that jumps straight to mind when I try to think of it with animals since I haven't really experienced that in a game before besides areas you go into randomly generating different 'animals' which are usually enemies for you to fight or run from.

[BabyPuncher]

I wasn't talking about us hunting.  If I wanted to hunt in a video game, I'd buy Cabela's African Adventure.  What I MEANT was seeing wildlife do wild things. Ya know?

 

Yes, which I suggested might be something to look at if the game featured players interacting with the animals somehow, such as some type of hunting, but if they're only there to look at, there are probably bigger priorities.

[AlexiaRevan]

Gothic 2 had a good system . Peoples walk and work and go to sleep and even grumble when you wake them up . 

 

Skyrim had alive monster and animals..but it wasn't well made . Seeing goat fall to their death...I don't think thats normal . And even if NPC were moving , it was too repetitive....and NPC said the same crap again and again . I personally felt Oblivion better when it come to atmosphere and feeling like you were in a city . 

[Chealec]

There's a rudimentary system like this in the Witcher 3 - wandering near an elven encampment, for instance, you'll often find dead wolves that have been shot with a bow... you don't actually have to be there for it to happen, it just does; the elven lookouts will shoot wolves.

 

Similarly wolves and bears will attack deer in the wilderness and so on and some monsters will pretty much attack anything.

 

NPCs will also react differently depending on your standing within that community; initially you'll hear people mutter things like "Mutant" or "Freak" as you walk past but once you've completed enough quests for that town it'll be "Thank ye WItcher" or "If I ever have a son, I'll call him Geralt". It doesn't really have a massive effect on the gameplay but it is quite a nice touch.

 

They'll also go to work in the morning and bed at night - which often means you have to meditate for a few hours if you're carrying a load of junk in the wee small hours of the morning and you want to sell it to a blacksmith.

 

I don't think MEA needs to attempt to simulate the entire galaxy at once (like X3 - which simulates every single NPC trader in the galaxy as they fly around) but day/night cycles (local to the planet your on) and people/critters acting appropriately to Witcher type levels would be good.

[shodiswe]

I'd actually rather see a reactive world than one in which NPCs have a daily routine they follow. The best example of this is Arcanum, which is absolutely brilliant in how it responds to the player's actions.
 
However for BioWare, they'll probably focus more on the story and characters rather than creating either a living or highly reactive game world.

At the same time they can have different people working on these different aspects of the game. One would be the writers and artists who design the characters and especialy the more imporant ones. Animating the World could be done by a different team entierly. I do expect them to check on each others work though, for feedback and ideas every now and then.

I guess it depends on the size of the team and Resources allocated. We arn't talking about a Group of friends fidling with something in their basement here.

[Sully13]

[Zazzerka]

To save money, go the Oblivion route.

 

"I saw a pyjak the other day. Filthy creatures."

"Goodbye."

"Farewell!"

[Sully13]

"I used to be an N7 like you then i took a Drill round to the knee."

[shodiswe]

DA:I probably show us what they mean with living World.


It's possible they might have upgraded it somewhat.

[PhroXenGold]

For me, the most important thing for a world to feel alive is that it changes without your input. It needs to at least give the illusion that people other than the player have real agency. Time needs to be a factor, with the state of the world changing based on how long you are playing it (and not just changing when you do a particular quest). Of course, very few if any games have really achieved this - DA:I for example was awful at it, the world only ever changed when you wanted it to. If I spent months wandering around, doing not much, the world remained utterly static.

[CptFalconPunch]

The large majority of space isn't a living breathing world, its empty, lonely, dangerous and unhospitable, makes you reflect on things that are larger than your everyday life. It remains static, unlike populated worlds.

 

I hope they don't forget that and make every planet incredibly alive, fun to hang out and full of life forms.

[GreyLycanTrope]

We already saw wilflife in DA:I I don't imagine it be difficult to have that wildlife run through different snimations in ME:A.

[Sturm.B]

Just more randomness

[Oldren Shepard]

For what you want would be cool but to created the math for that and make it believable would require an enormous amount of time, effort, money. Wait for no man's sky that game probably will have some of what you're looking but won't have an amazing story like Mass Effect Andromeda.

 

I would like that the main charater could found new species for an exobiologist or protect them from hunters or a planet/area in risk of destruction

Other posibility for renegade (cough as%$!s cough)selling them for poaching, extotic pets or parts of their bodies.

 

For people something like they did with the previous game after the cerberus attack at the citadel like if the time goes by there isn't smoke (cerberus attack) or when you get to close to a group of people that are talking they say something to you (main character) about been to near to them, other could be like the little chat we had with the crew in other areas of the ship similar for the people in the console aboard the ship, in settlements, stores, bars, clubs and elsewhere.