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Kolanaki, do gaming w Games only need fast travel when they make travel "boring", says Dragon's Dogma 2 director
!deleted6508 avatar

Travel is gonna become boring if you have to travel the same road multiple times in the course of the game even if you have a bunch of cool stuff along that road. Eventually, I won’t give a shit about that stuff since I’ve seen it a million times. So I would hope there is still some kind of fast travel to go between places I have already been if the world is super big. Otherwise it’s just gonna feel like you’re padding the game for time to inflate a 10 hour story to take 40 hours to finish.

all-knight-party,
@all-knight-party@kbin.run avatar

I think the better way to help fix this issue is random encounters, spawns, and a world that changes as the game moves along.

Moving along the same road can be made interesting if different things are happening every so often as you come through. New friendly encounters, new fights with different enemies, maybe randomly spawning treasure or scripted puzzle sequences that can appear dynamically around the whole world. Add to that a world that becomes modified by story events, maybe that road gets blocked and a different passage opens up that takes you to the same end destination, but with a new path and things to explore.

It's not an unsolvable problem, but it is something that goes by the wayside often.

Ashelyn,

One thing to consider too is scheduled events. Imagine a couple towns get together and throw a fair along a route that connects them, and you get to see celebrations and games and vendors who might sell trinkets that are hard to track down otherwise. Perhaps the local monarch goes on a hunt with the massive party of servants and knights that might entail, with different practices for different cultures. A band of cultists clears an area for several days leading up to their yearly ritual. It’s migration season for a certain species of animal/monster. There are so many possibilities!

Even just vendors passing through can be made more interesting. Do they carry their wares via backpack or cart? Are they being attacked by bandits? Wild animals? Are they trying to smuggle goods or services somewhere?

It all has to be programmed of course, which is the main holdup on what makes it so hard to flesh out those parts of the world.

I do also see weight in the idea that, past a certain point, traveling is just boring, especially if the only thing of importance is the Main Story Quest. Travel is also often boring in real life too but we can tune it out, or find little ways to pass the time and entertain ourselves during the more mundane moments. We’re not frequently afforded that luxury in games. When you’re playing a game and dealing with the downtime going from point A to B, often there is literally nothing to do except hold down the movement keys and deal with the occasional path change/obstacle.

The point of games is to be engaging, and if there’s nothing to do while traveling but look at the scenery and surroundings it will eventually get boring. Even if the travel gets interrupted occasionally for an encounter, I think it’s arguable to say that the content is literally not travel anymore and in fact papering over a bad travel system (if the only thing interesting is the stuff you find that you have to stop and take care of). Adding more unique/transient stuff along routes is only half of the battle; work has to be put in to make traveling enjoyable in and of itself for players to want to do it instead of skip it.

But as always, the best solution to our problem is to simply add more trains.

Edit: slight restructuring/grammar

wolfshadowheart,
@wolfshadowheart@kbin.social avatar

To add to this, DD1 has quite a number of NPC's that travel between regions and you can come across them. As you progress through the game their patterns and locations change.

I actually am ambivalent on the latter mechanic as it really makes it a pain sometimes, but it still has lots of ways that it can work well.

snooggums,
@snooggums@kbin.social avatar

Depends on the reason for traveling. If you are headed down the road to a goal and keep getting sidetracked by random encounters in a way that is distracting you from the thing you want to do then they just make travel tedious.

It all comes down to why am I traveling and why are encounters on the road more engaging than the reason for being on the road in the first place.

Lith,
@Lith@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

From the article:

And for the record, Itsuno does say that he thinks fast travel is “convenient” and “good” when done right.

Based on Dragon’s Dogma 1’s use of Ferrystones, as well as this mechanic returning along with oxcarts in the sequel, I think this director understands that there needs to be a balance. It’s good when it’s both properly implemented and has a purpose. You’re right that nobody wants to run up and down the same roads countless times, but it’s up to the devs implementing limited fast travel to make sure you won’t have to. Then it’s up to the player to decide whether fast travel is worth it for any given situation. Knowing when to use your fast travel and how to maximize it is a skill that you develop and should be rewarded for mastering.

But it also needs to have a purpose. In more arcadey games, I don’t like worrying about resources like that. But in more grueling games like Dragon’s Dogma, where the journey is often a very intentional part of the gameplay loop if not the main challenge itself, it fits right at home.

Conyak, do gaming w Unity say layoffs “likely” as they recover from disastrous pricing plan rollout and look to AI for growth

So the CEO makes a shit decision, quits and leaves with his millions of dollars and now a bunch of employees get to lose their job. Capitalism is so disgusting.

cerement, do gaming w Unity say layoffs “likely” as they recover from disastrous pricing plan rollout and look to AI for growth
@cerement@slrpnk.net avatar

“who could’ve seen this coming?”
“everyone. everyone saw this coming.”

Pisodeuorrior,

The CEO should be hanged by the balls, just one disastrous decision after another, what an incompetent moron.

thingsiplay,
@thingsiplay@kbin.social avatar

The CEO of Unity is the former CEO of E.A., BTW.

Gordon_Freeman,
@Gordon_Freeman@kbin.social avatar

And when he was there he said people should pay $1 to reload their weapons on Battlefield

CJOtheReal,

Ah that explains a lot…

DoucheBagMcSwag, do gaming w Yep, Payday 3 seems a lot like Payday... but that's no bad thing

…with tacked on always online bullshit

Untitled_Pribor,
@Untitled_Pribor@kbin.social avatar

And Denuvo

forgotaboutlaye, do gaming w Starfield's animated trailers offer some player motivation for life among the stars

I watched two of the three, and really enjoyed them. Sure, I'd much rather see more gameplay, and they didn't do anything to sell me on the game itself, but they were enjoyable nonetheless

FenrirIII, do games w Lo-Fi Games know you've spent a billion hours with Kenshi, so they're working on making the sequel's discoveries even less predictable
@FenrirIII@lemmy.world avatar

Never heard of it, might have to give it a look

HappyFrog, do gaming w New charity game bundle raises funds to defend US immigrants against ICE

Very based, here’s the link: No ICE in Calefornia

Nelots, do games w Lo-Fi Games know you've spent a billion hours with Kenshi, so they're working on making the sequel's discoveries even less predictable

I really want to pick up Kenshi again. But the last time I touched the game I put 30 hours into it over a 3-day weekend. I fear for my free time.

match,
@match@pawb.social avatar

you’re just gonna let the slavers get away with it???

Nelots,

I hope you're happy.

image

match,
@match@pawb.social avatar

:3

Sanctus, do games w Lo-Fi Games know you've spent a billion hours with Kenshi, so they're working on making the sequel's discoveries even less predictable
@Sanctus@lemmy.world avatar

We need a c\KenshiVibes here. Game slaps.

Banrik, do games w Lo-Fi Games know you've spent a billion hours with Kenshi, so they're working on making the sequel's discoveries even less predictable

I'm excited for kenshi 2, even if I'm beyond wary of it being made in Unreal engine...

SupraMario,

I just want it to be coop.

Jax, do games w Lo-Fi Games know you've spent a billion hours with Kenshi, so they're working on making the sequel's discoveries even less predictable

I will never understand how to enjoy Kenshi, and I like Caves of Qud

skulblaka,
@skulblaka@sh.itjust.works avatar

From what I’ve been able to gather, it’s basically a sandbox. Imagine if F:NV had no main quest but allowed you to create your own faction. You’re just unleashed onto the wasteland to do whatever and let everyone else respond to it.

That is to say, much of the fun comes from building drug running bandit empires.

iamdefinitelyoverthirteen,

Or just killing all the big bads, which is basically all but tinfist.

tetrachromacy,

Same. I gave Kenshi a try and it didn’t click for me. Caves of Qud though, that game is pure unmitigated crack for me. Live and drink, friend.

dontbelievethis,

What state of mind do you have when enjoying coq?

Every time I start I get like 7 levels in and a dungeon deep and it all seems pretty shallow.

Which is a surprise for me because i thought it will be pretty much the opposite. Simple graphics, komplex mechanics.

It has to open up, right? But then why is it rogue-like?

Don’t know. Always quit it thinking “this is it?” and than starting again thinking “this can’t be it”.

Valencia,

Total opposite for me. Could get lost in Kenshi, I watched a review on qud in bought it and was like uhh wtf do I do lol

shani66, (edited )

There is just something about coq that feels bad. I play CDDA, i play elona, i dabble in DF, and i play the heck out of kenshi, but coq just doesn’t click. Maybe it’s the UI, maybe the game just doesn’t feel as deep or as rewarding to explore.

BuboScandiacus, (edited )
@BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz avatar

Opposite situation here, CoQ is boring, hard and you don’t know what to do or how not to die every 5 seconds

Also, I don’t like the art style

In Kenshi no situation is totally desperate

SoftestSapphic,
@SoftestSapphic@lemmy.world avatar

I love Kenshi and COQ, and Starsector.

Hate Mount&Blade tho lol

Couldn’t tell you why

NuXCOM_90Percent, do games w Lo-Fi Games know you've spent a billion hours with Kenshi, so they're working on making the sequel's discoveries even less predictable

That would actually be awesome.

I like Kenshi a lot. But it really feels like Gothic in that the start of any given character more or less feels identical. Same steps to get to the point where you can start doing the stuff that actually makes the game really fun. A lot of CRPGs in the 00s/early 10s had that problem and Kenshi ramps it up to 16.

Dr_Box, do games w Lo-Fi Games know you've spent a billion hours with Kenshi, so they're working on making the sequel's discoveries even less predictable

As long as I can punch the arms off of my enemies I am happy

iamdefinitelyoverthirteen,

As long as I have to be “mostly dead” a few dozen times before I can survive the easiest fight, I am happy.

ButtermilkBiscuit,

Remember the first time I played I went to fight a goat and got absolutely brutalized. I loved kenshi, but I can understand why some didn’t. Building a huge base a pumping out hash was my crowning achievement. Then the religious freaks showed up and my tower guys killed everyone. Later I found some band of 30 mis-programed bots that I would take with me and they killed anything around me. Ahh…such a great game.

ms_lane, do games w Microsoft layoffs are reportedly underway, with ZeniMax and King employees losing their jobs

Zenimax?

I thought TESO was actually rather profitable?

cyrano,

It is profitable

tourist, do games w Microsoft layoffs are reportedly underway, with ZeniMax and King employees losing their jobs
@tourist@lemmy.world avatar

people just don’t want to work anymore

NO

THEY CLEARLY FUCKING DO

BUT YOU FUCKING GREEDY CUNTS KEEP FIRING EVERYONE AND TAKE FAT FISCAL QUARTER BONUSES

AND THEN IT’S A 19 STEP INTERVIEW PROCESS WHEN THEY TRY TO LOOK FOR A NEW JOB

AND THAT’S IF THEY’RE “LUCKY” ENOUGH FOR THE DOGSHIT AI TO RANDOM.CHOICE() THEIR RESUME OUT OF THE 900+ OTHER DESPERATE APPLICANTS

THEN THEY FINALLY SOMEHOW GET AN OFFER: $1.89 per full uninterrupted hour at your desk and a single bag of skittles (opened)

Sorry for the caps, I’ve been in the job market recently and it’s fucking brutal. I have to constantly justify my value as a human being and then just face rejection after rejection.

NotMyOldRedditName,

You left off the part where after you finish the bag of skittles the lay you off again.

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