Preview The Fall glimpses at Gamers with Jobs

[Saint_Proverbius]

Tags: Fall: Last Days of Gaia

There's a <A href="http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=847&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0">huge ass preview</A> of <A href="Http://www.the-fall.com">The Fall</A> over at <A href="http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/">Gamers with Jobs</a> written by our good friend <b>Spunior</b>. He's verbose and has attention to detail that seems to be rare in the gaming site front these days. Anyway, here's a clip of the thing:
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<blockquote>The game itself will offer multiple paths like Gothic I&II or Knights of the Old Republic, but it won't be a free-roam RPG in the tradition Morrowind. You cannot visit locations you haven't heard of from NPCs or through story events. Sometimes you'll be told a precise location, sometimes you'll only hear about it or be given a rough direction and have to find it on your own. Don't get me wrong though, it doesn't have the linear feel to it a Final Fantasy title has. There's enough you can explore on your own, it's just that the designers didn't want to completely hand the control over the progress one makes over to the player.</blockquote>
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I never really cared much for the idea of having to be told about a town before you can find it. Towns are pretty big, and if they have generators, light up pretty well on the horizon.
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[Otaku_Hanzo]

Yeah, but didn't you know that in post apocalyptic settings, towns don't exist until someone mentions them and then they magically spring out of the ground? I mean, come on, I thought everyone knew that.

 

[Anonymous]

Why not just get a fucking map?

 

[EEVIAC]

Why not just get a fucking map?

Because people go nuts when they go to a town or dungeon that can only be completed at a high (er) level. So you get games that are linear, pathetically plotting the PC's path to greatness, lest sensitive egos get crushed. Its kind of sickening when you think about it.

 

[Snuffles]

What drives me nuts, is when I go to a supposed hive of scum and villainy, only to find that i'm too high a level and can waltz right through it.

And thinking about it some more, what also puts me off a little bit, is how does your character know when to leave a quest untill a later level? In an RPG I always try to play by the rule "if I learn something as a player but not as a character, i shouldn't use that knowledge." So, if I keep dying at a particular point, what to do, it seems obvious to my character that this is the next thing to do on his quest, but i know as a player it is suicide.

 

[Crimson]

Well i cant se the problem whit not knowing wher all the citys and places are.

Lets say that you are the 3+ genration living in this post nuclear wasteland.

The first few years have one whit carving a life for your self and your famillie.
Past geografiks have mabey not goten pased down you have genral ider about som of the bigger citys but not evry dam hiden spot.

Also you can get genral ider of wher things are, you woude not if you didnt know wher somthing was or hade a ider start to walk out into the middel of a wastland and look around.

You coude mabey find citys on your owen but thers a hole lot of land and you have no ider on what spreed the citys are.

 

[SlimWilly]

What drives me nuts, is when I go to a supposed hive of scum and villainy, only to find that i'm too high a level and can waltz right through it.

And thinking about it some more, what also puts me off a little bit, is how does your character know when to leave a quest untill a later level? In an RPG I always try to play by the rule "if I learn something as a player but not as a character, i shouldn't use that knowledge." So, if I keep dying at a particular point, what to do, it seems obvious to my character that this is the next thing to do on his quest, but i know as a player it is suicide.

I don't find that nearly so annoying, personally. Waltzing through an area and smiting the beasties down with a twich of the trigger finger sometimes, especially if I've been putting that quest off for one reason or another, is just par for the course.

If the designers have done their job right, though, there should be enough information in the world for the adventurers to realize that trying to tackle the Dungeon o' Flaming Doom when they're still level 1 isn't going to go over very well. If they're going to go for the free-wandering angle to gameplay, instead of playing sheepherder, then that's the sort of thing they ought to be thinking about. Books on monsters, legends, rumours, obvious warning signs, that sort of thing.

For me, though, the ultimate in "uncovering the world" games was Ultima 6.... largely because it was the first Ultima I'd ever played, and because I didn't really look through the box it came in other than to find the disks. I spent a whoooole mess of time with my compass, pencil crayons, and graph paper, mapping out each inch of Britannia; mountains, rivers, cities, stray houses in the wilderness, swamps... everything. Absolutely loved it, too, although I doubt I'd have the patience (or time) for that these days. But I like to have the option of exploring at least, even if they do include a map. Nothing more irritating than wanting to explore new and unknown lands only to discover that you already know everything there is to know about them.

 

[MrBrown]

If an overland traveling system like FOs is used, then finding unheard of towns should be based on the PCs perception and the size of the town... You will locate it from a certain range.

As for the problem with finding a 'town' right for your level, well maybe games should just concentrate less on levelling up? There are other ways to reward the player for success than more power in the game world.

 

[Whipporowill]

How about randomly placing events and places on an overland map, based on the level/abilities of the character and his party? Hm.

 

[Jung]

Morrowind a tradition? Jeez, I hope not.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

I prefered FO and Arcanum way of finding towns versus others.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

Arcanum was quite specific in that to find a town, you REALLY had to walk right over it. IE: You had to pretty much know where it is. That's one thing that disappointed me about that. The inability to do things like go through to Quintarra unless you knew the pass. The pass being a quest etc... Takes away the whole "free to roam" thing. I prefer the choice that, if I'm a low levelled monkey, I want to take on something a bit challenging while it's still challenging, not when I can blow it away with my uber-pistol.

 

[Otaku_Hanzo]

That's one of the things I appreciate about Sacred. Wanna rush across the bridge to Stony Creek and take on those Minotaurs while still level 1? Go fer it. :twisted:

The guy at the bridge will warn you that you should be stronger, but he will not stop you. That's nice. Hell, start the demo up, walk down to the cemetary just a little to the southwest of the starting area, click on the third grave on the right from the bottom, and have fun. :twisted: