8 réponses à ce sujet

[Joseph Warrick]

Yes, again, the most talked about thing in this game. The areas.

 

I want to talk about the Winter Palace, Caer Oswin, Therinfal Redoubt, generally mission-specific areas. Why weren't they integrated into the main areas? We have places like Caer Bronach in Crestwood, the Still Ruins and Griffon Wing Keep in the Western Approach. The areas are large enough to accommodate these locations. Some could even benefit from an expansion, like Val Royeaux.

 

So you've got large areas that are mostly sidequests, and then small temporary areas for main stuff. Crestwood is an exception, having story content integrated in the level, and it always seems to pop up in people's "favourite areas" lists. It's my favourite so far, too.

 

What would be the reasoning for this separation? Not hating, it's just something that makes me scratch my head.

[Krypplingz]

Maybe they contained too many scripts and objects/npc to function correctly in a large main area? So older computers and consoles simply couldn't handle it and left in burning flames. 

Or maybe they just want to separate the bigger quests to their own areas so you get the feeling that this is in fact a main quest and not a side quest area. 

Or they want to contain specific scripts and storylines to their own areas, so if something doesn't work and needs a large rewrite then it doesn't mess up an entire zone. 

Sounds reasonable no?

[AlanC9]

I imagine the reason is to keep people from getting to the areas out of the plot sequence. Let's say you get to Caer Oswin before you've even heard of the place. Is the door just mysteriously locked? Is it temporarily deserted? (Western Approach does this with the ritual site, but it works because that's a temporary thing anyway.)

Crestwood works because the area is unlocked as part of the plot, not at the Inquisitor's discretion. I don't think you would want to do this with the companion quest areas, since that would tie the entire area to the companion. You could do it with main quest locations, but at the cost of reducing the player's freedom to choose when to unlock areas.

[Joseph Warrick]

There is the problem of accessing areas before the plot requires it. But Inquisition has several mechanisms to restrict specific spots within an area. The simplest one is a soft restriction with higher level enemies. Also, there are blocked paths that require an Inquisition operation to clear; broken bridges that need repairing; closed gates and a specific person holding the key; smaller broken passages that require a mage to energize. The Winter Palace may simply forbid entrance without invitation.

 

I see the plot can get crazy if I go to Caer Oswin before Val Royeaux for example. But then isn't the level design a bit at odds with the story? Are there design alternatives that make the levels and the story agree with each other more naturally?

[nightscrawl]

Meh even Skyrim has loading screens into cities and dungeons.

 

Aside from plot reasons other posters have mentioned, there are also system resources to consider. Caer Bronach and the other keeps are not really a comparison to a full dungeon (Coracavus in WA), a gigantic palace, or Orlesian villas (those in the Emerald Graves). You need to be able to rely on the user's system, whether that is PC or console, to be able to load these areas when the full map is loaded. If they did this, not only would it be a drain on system resources, but the loading screens for each map would be a lot longer than they currently are.

[AlanC9]

I don't see the problem here in the first place, so I can't help with the question of "agreeing."

Note that soft gating and class gating are unworkable. You have to handle the cases where they fail anyway. War table operations work since you can lock them until the plot point is reached, but if that's the case you're having to use map travel to get back anyway, so it's not very different from just having a separate area.

[nightscrawl]

^ Despite my above post, I do agree in that it would be nice to see the existence of some of these places. I don't mind a loading screen to go into them, but the illusion that the world is larger than the areas that we can get to is important, I think.

 

For example, both of the villas in the Emerald Graves are separated by loading screens. On the actual map, it's basically just a facade, as on a Hollywood sound stage; nothing is actually there, but you can stand at the gate and gaze up at their enormity and wonder about Orlesian decadence. This is especially true in the case of the Chateau d'Onterre, which is enormous.

[Dai Grepher]

I think the main problem is the background scenery mapping. As one who actually explores out-of-bounds areas, I can confirm that the maps waste resources on rendering out-of-bounds areas that only function as long distance scenery. This can be fixed with skyboxes, which can actually look better. I think Trespasser made better use of this actually. I'm not completely sure, but the area with the temples may have used a skybox. Trespasser's graphics seemed better. Another easy fix is to limit the size of the maps to be more linier, which Trespasser also did.

[Reznore57]

The Winter Palace is near a city so if you create the Winter Palace in an open area , even if you put a loading screen at the Winter Palace gate , you still near to create what's around the place and put quests in there.

 

Same with Caer something I think it was for Cassandra quest?She talks about the local lord disappearing , usually around castle you have at least a village with peasents , so you'd again need to create that , and have peasents wondering about their lord etc...

 

Would it have been better to do this , creating populated areas with side quests related to the main plot , my answer is:YES!

Did the DA team had the ressource to pull that off?I very much doubt it , imho the Inquisition and companion /advisors took almost all the ressources , that's why Skyhold is the most populated where you can spends hours talking with people and then you go to Val Royeaux....and it's a somewhat empty marketplace.