Interview Two Worlds II Interview

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Reality Pump Studios

Will Two Worlds II be <a href="http://ps3life.nl/artikelen/5554-two-worlds-ii-interview-english-version/">even better than Oblivion?</a>
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<p style="margin-left:50px;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-top-color:#ffffff;padding:5px;border-right-color:#bbbbbb;border-left-color:#ffffff;border-bottom-color:#bbbbbb;"><b>The Two Worlds II map spans an amazing 60 km², we're not fans of comparing but Oblivion had 41 km² and already required a lot of travelling with interesting areas sometimes few and far between. How do you keep the players from becoming tired of traveling large distances?</b>
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Mirek Dymek: We have two methods of avoiding this - as well as the standard walking/running, players can ride, sail and teleport. Riding and sailing are much faster than walking or swimming - players will be able to see the environment they're travelling in - and actually enjoy their journeys. Well thought-out teleportation is especially important in our huge world. Thanks to fixed-location portals and mobile teleport stones, the player has a very sophisticated "travel network" at his disposal to get from A to B. And we've also implemented literally hundreds of side quests into the game - and these will guarantee that boredom remains an unknown word in Antaloor - even if a quest takes a player all over the vast continent!
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Do the math yourself, 60 km² > 41 km², so the answer is yes.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com/#14888">RPGWatch</A>

 

[Suchy]

But where is teh bloom?

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Wow, an actual blue sky.

 

[Black_Willow]

Wow, an actual blue sky.

So last-gen.

 

[Micmu]

Where the fuck do they come up with kilometers?

 

[WhiskeyWolf]

Wow, an actual blue sky.

So last-gen.

Indeed.

 

[GarfunkeL]

I wonder if any game will ever allow the player to teleport with the speed of light, instead of it being instantaneous.

 

[tarkin]

Where the fuck do they come up with kilometres?

fixd

bloody illiterate kwan twats

 

[Azrael the cat]

Actually, there was one really quite positive thing to come out of that interview. It seems that instant teleport options will be limited. If so, then that is a huge step towards the awesome. I'm hating game developers who don't realise that a world of a gazillion square kilometers may as well be set in 4 backyards if you can just insta-teleport everywhere. Instant teleporting, without any means of tying it into the lore, completely destroys any sense of scale that the setting may have.

One reason WoW seems so big is that there is almost no true instant teleportation. Instead there is fast travel, that fast travel is either graphically awesome (the flights) or allows interaction between characters (the boats) and it shows the huge terrain that you are quickly travelling through. Plus whilst there are plenty of flight paths and ports, you have to reach them on foot (or horse), so it really emphasises the size of the world (no I can't believe I'm praising WoW EITHER ).

I'd suggest something in between. All instant travel goes from ports or flight paths that must be reached on foot. The first 3 times you use them you get the 'long version' of you character zooming across the landscape on his/her griffon (for a small fee). After that you get to select whether to skip the long cinematic and just instantly appear at the other end of the teleport, allowing the speed of instant teleport (eventually) without losing the world's scale.

 

[Jaime Lannister]

there's the bloom!

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Where the fuck do they come up with kilometers?

Miles are retarded anyway

 

[themadhatter]

Where the fuck do they come up with kilometers?

Miles are retarded anyway

Seconded. Distance ought to be measured in leagues.

 

[Konjad]

gothic had small territory, yet i would choose it over oblivion's anytime

 

[Chefe]

Can an Oblivion clone actually turn out better than Oblivion? Will this game be a better ESV than ESV?

One of the huge problems with Oblivion was the size. It was smaller than Morrowind, and instant travel made the world even tinier. TW2 apparently has 19 more km2 to explore

In one of the recent Antaloor Post newsletters (#17) it was mentioned that the only difference between the console versions and the PC version would be the reduced resolution.

FUUUUUU-

Those differences better extend to the inventory and menus, because I'm not sure a vibrant modding community will spring up around TW2 to correct it.

There will be 3 different playing modes in Multiplayer

First hint that this game has a good chance of suffering from extreme feature creep.

we decided not to have combat on the open sea…

No horse combat!

Anyways, I'd like to know more about the quest structure, the make up of the world, and the different factions.

 

[yaster]

I'd suggest something in between. All instant travel goes from ports or flight paths that must be reached on foot. The first 3 times you use them you get the 'long version' of you character zooming across the landscape on his/her griffon (for a small fee). After that you get to select whether to skip the long cinematic and just instantly appear at the other end of the teleport, allowing the speed of instant teleport (eventually) without losing the world's scale.

That's interesting way of making it. Though I think It would be better without the forced first 3 times, I don't like putting player into non-interactive, gameplay-less moments, especially for that long time (I suppose travelling bound to be long to give proper scale). Instead always give player a way to skip during the travel, for example on the ship going into player's cabin and clicking on the bed. It may be interesting to give him some means to determine where to stop and regain control over character for some sightseeing. For example providing player with route map on with he could pinpoint to what point he want to skip and look from different perspective at some landmarks. Morrowind would be neat with that stuff.

I came to conclusion I might misunderstood you, when you were speaking of some cutscenes (with would be quicker I suppose) I went extra mile and thought of semi-interactive, with some body-control travelling method. Well, sorry. Can't help but I like my method slightly more.


Generally I think there is a bit of a problem with node based style of fast-travelling. Fast-travel is a mean to lower the tedium of travelling through the same scenery over and over again, without any meaningful gameplay in-between. Node system works with only-points-of-interest (eg city) based world, like fallout or bioware games (ebon hawk/normandy). In that kind of world there is always close node with player can use, even allowing him to move between districts. On the other hand, more open worlds with wilderness (gothic/tes, that's what we're talking about) adding node all over the place would ruin the sense of the world. There bound to be large area that are far away from travelling nodes. Morrowind for example made great use of travelling nodes to establish special characteristic of different areas and cities/villages - different communication systems exist only in selected cities, some don't even have any single one - and there is very large area (1/3?) without any means of fast-travelling afair.

So part of the problem, rather significant, fast-travel was meant to ride off is still in. Well, you could limit the need to retrace in wilderness, but I think it's limits characteristic of the place. I like a harder bits here and there in gothic and similar stuff, that are meant to make you come back latter and I think that establishes some sense of the world, makes you remember it. I also think that retracing makes world more memorable since you see stuff more that once, but It would be better to limit it to landmarks/interesting-places etc. There is always problem with return path, less significant imo. Gothic handled it quite nice with introduction of teleporting stones at latter stages, though I generally think they did it a bit too late (G3 excluded). Player travelled on foot through most of the island and then latter had the means to fast-travel. Not bad.

 

[random_encounter]

We've seen some interesting tech demos from the new motion controller PlayStation Move from Sony involving sword fighting and even shooting with bow and arrow. What do you think of the new motion controller with regard to using it for playing big world RPGs, and is it something that might be supported in Two Worlds II?

In summary, the developer answered that they thought it was interesting but had no time to implement anything using it. Honestly, though, I'm more tired of everyone going apeshit over "motion controls" as if they were the next holy grail in gaming when they can't even get the "sword fighting" working on a level that makes it less clunky and actually workable. Besides, the mouse is enough for me.

Can you tell us a bit of what we can expect from the Multiplayer mode in Two Worlds II?
Mirek Dymek: There will be 3 different playing modes in Multiplayer - on the one hand, you have the classic arena modus, where players can face up to one another in various different combat games. Then you have the Quest Mode - that's a little more sophisticated. Here up to eight adventurers can go on a quest search together, in a special map. The tasks are designed in such a way that it's always a similar group with both warriors and Mages and Rangers that's involved. And last but not least we've created a "Settlement Simulator". In this mode, the player can create his own village with individual structures, businesses and inhabitants - and he can invite his friends to his village too! But I better not say any more about this feature... but I will tell you that it's very exciting!

Sounds like Quest Mode will create an instance for you and friends. A little disappointing that it might not open the entire world up for you, but hopefully we'll hear more about how that might turn out. The combat arena thing just sounds tacked on.

The village, though, sounds like it could take off as a glorified trading house that could be used to show off what you've discovered in your own game. For instance, crafted weapons, alchemical recipes, and specific spells could be bought and sold by visiting another player's village. I'm not sure whether that's actually the intention, though, but it would be more interesting than visiting someone else's version of a Medieval Sims environment.

 

[Mangoose]

gothic had small territory, yet i would choose it over oblivion's anytime

Yeah but Oblivion was still seemingly small, especially with fast travel.

 

[denizsi]

I've thought that these guys went out of business because they were too stupid realize that intentionally "leaking" a buggy build as the final release onto p2p networks would damage the game's reputation/sales, not motivate people to buy it, and the TW1 sold poorly. Am I mistaking them for another game/dev?

Anyway, they have my respect for implementing a MP portion into what's primarily a SP sandbox game.

 

[-=DarlSephiroth666=-]

One of the huge problems with Oblivion was the size. It was smaller than Morrowind, and instant travel made the world even tinier.

Technically, no.

Vvardenfell, the explorable part of Morrowind in the third game has 10 square miles (25.9 square kilometers). The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has approximately 16 square miles (41.4 square kilometers) to explore.

Also, I don't get all the fast travel hate. Do you seriously enjoy walking through the same places over and over? And it's hardly a "next-gen" feature, Arena had it, Daggerfall had it. Only Morrowind was missing it.

And all your favorite isometric games had fast travel as well, albeit with random encounters.

 

[Chefe]

One of the huge problems with Oblivion was the size. It was smaller than Morrowind, and instant travel made the world even tinier.

Technically, no.

Vvardenfell, the explorable part of Morrowind in the third game has 10 square miles (25.9 square kilometers). The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has approximately 16 square miles (41.4 square kilometers) to explore.

Does that include the planes of Oblivion and the areas beyond the invisible borders? Because Morrowind definitely was larger, and the environment was varied. I played through both games extensively. There is no way in hell that Oblivion is bigger, I don't care what Wikipedia says.

Also, I don't get all the fast travel hate. Do you seriously enjoy walking through the same places over and over? And it's hardly a "next-gen" feature, Arena had it, Daggerfall had it. Only Morrowind was missing it.

And all your favorite isometric games had fast travel as well, albeit with random encounters.

This is why I referred to it as "instant" travel.

And come on, Droggy, you're smarter than that.

Arena - You get an icon of a guy on a horse and the amount of days that have passed. Completely necessary because the world is too large to actually explore on foot (in fact, engine limitations means you actually cannot walk in-game from one side of the world to the other). Visual cues plus a pause for fast travel gives you the feeling that you're actually making a long trek and not teleporting.

Daggerfall - You have to choose whether to travel slow and safe, or fast and reckless, to stay at inns or sleep outside, and you are shown how much time has passed. While you can walk from one end of the world to the other, the insanely huge game world means that it's not really feasible. And again, you have those visual cues from Arena.

Morrowind - Morrowind DOES have fast travel! Silt Striders, Mages Guild, boats, Divine Intervention, and Mark/Recall. Arena/Daggerfall style fast travel would drastically shrink how the world was experienced, and so was changed in favor of a more natural system that worked a whole lot better with the smaller game world. My only gripe is that the traditional visual cues weren't there, and you did instantly teleport once you paid the fees. However, the fact that you had to pay fees and you could see the Silt Strider, or hear the magic effects, were adequate cues.

Now, you can see the difference between fast travel and instant travel. I think I'll blow your mind even further by saying that Morrowind's system was much better and more immersive than Arena and Daggerfall! Yes, there was a big improvement there! And I don't think that ditching that improvement is a good way to go. It would have made more sense in Daggerfall for you to have to hire an escort at lower levels, or hitch a ride with a caravan through dangerous areas. It was kind of unrealistic that, in Arena, you could travel by yourself from Hammerfell to Argonia with no chance for anything out of the ordinary (disease, bandits, injuries, or mental trauma from spending weeks and months out in the wilderness all by your lonesome) or any need to buy provisions beforehand. Daggerfall improved this by allowing you to choose to stay at inns during your trip, and featuring only two provinces, but there were hardly any penalties for just running full speed non-stop straight to your destination.

This isn't said often on the Codex, but just because something is old doesn't make it good. Oblivion, by featuring instant travel without any of the visual cues from Arena/Daggerfall or the methods necessary for a smaller world that we saw in Morrowind, gave us the cheapest and dirtiest way to implement the system, with all the anti-immersive drawbacks.

 

[-=DarlSephiroth666=-]

How about you actually answer my question, Chefe?

Do you seriously enjoy walking through the same places over and over?

This was especially painful in Morrowind, due to how slow your movement speed was and the fact that you were constantly running out of fatigue (until you are high level enough to make a CE Restore Fatigue item). With all my characters I tried to get a custom powerful Jump spell ASAP so that I didn't have to suffer the tedium of walking every fucking where.

 

[Chefe]

How about you actually answer my question, Chefe?

Do you seriously enjoy walking through the same places over and over?

This was especially painful in Morrowind, due to how slow your movement speed was and the fact that you were constantly running out of fatigue (until you are high level enough to make a CE Restore Fatigue item). With all my characters I tried to get a custom powerful Jump spell ASAP so that I didn't have to suffer the tedium of walking every fucking where.

Oh, you mean answer the completely irrelevant part of your question instead of the more meaningful part which I completely showed you up on? Sure.

I did enjoy walking through the same places, because my speed wasn't completely shit (take the Steed or pay for some training, run a bit, or, if you really can't stand not being a super awesome adventurer at level 1, just cheat [que "well I shouldn't have to cheat to be a super awesome adventurer at level 1!" in three... two...). And when I didn't enjoy walking through the same places, I took one of the many fast travel systems (including scrolls). I found it fun to map out my journey. The only part that I did not enjoy was the second half of the quest where you had to convince all the tribes you were the Nerevarine, because that particular part of the game world wasn't well developed.

 

[-=DarlSephiroth666=-]

A Dark Elf starts with a Speed of 50. And that's still horrible in Morrowind.

 

[Chefe]

I think it's about time you got out of the kitchen.

 

[-=DarlSephiroth666=-]

Yeah, because lots of pointless walking = deep game, amirite?

I played Morrowind and its expansions to death in 2002-2003, but I can't see myself getting back into it now because, frankly speaking, getting around in that game is simply horrible. Well, that and the combat sucks donkey balls too.

 

[Chefe]

Yeah, because lots of pointless walking = deep game, amirite?

Well, that is exactly what I said and exactly on topic for what we were discussing, and that is where the logical conclusion would be drawn.

I played Morrowind and its expansions to death in 2002-2003, but I can't see myself getting back into it now because, frankly speaking, getting around in that game is simply horrible. Well, that and the combat sucks donkey balls too.

Dear Drog's mom,

Your son shows remarkable promise in my remedial trolling class, but I'm afraid he just isn't putting in the required time necessary to excel. I offer tutoring sessions if necessary, but the environment to foster proper trolling techniques starts at home. With enough dedication, and doing the assigned homework, I'm sure your darling little boy will be annoying the best the Internet has to offer in no time.

Just because I gave his Butthurt Patch Project an A- doesn't mean that is the only grade, and that he can slack off. His grade is currently at a D, a fact I'm sure he hid since he hasn't returned any signed report cards back.

Sincerely,
Chefe