Some thoughts after playing R10

I love how the night is actually dark and menacing, such that walking around with a torch at night is quite atmospheric. Adding in some more sounds will increase this effect, kind of like creating a great atmosphere for a scary movie. You know, breaking branches, unknown animal sounds, wind against leaves and so on. Something to spark our imagination, subtle hints of things unseen.

Another feature I very much like, is the slowdown collision when bumping into others. It's such a disappointment with games where you just move straight through players and NPC's as if they weren't real and make them seem like a figment of your imagination. They really do need this kind of physical presence. For further realism I think I would have tried tweaking it so that the initial collision stops you 100% for the blink of an eye, and then letting you continue to shove through at the slowed down speed.

On the subject of realism I feel that the cities are somewhat dull and dead, not really feeling like towns/cities. There are not enough NPC's and the ones who are present are too inactive and static. I understand this is a work in progress, but these are just my thoughts on the current state of things. For some examples I'd like to see the occasional NPC run, hastening to be somewhere on time. At night, some drunkards could be brawling and possibly be stopped by some guards or a daring player. There should be children playing as well. I want the world to be more dynamic and changing, emulating life more fully.

In Ardoris I noticed that the river animated in a very unnatural way for water flowing inside a city like that, as well as the small rowboats which did not move at all, in spite of the seemingly heavy currents. By the way, I feel like the outer palace walls and the actual houses inside are not complementing each other's styles. You have very fortified (for war?) european style walls surrounding seemingly luxurious (vacation home?) asian styled housing inside. To be proper gaudy palaces they also should be much bigger.

Just one more thing, I hope you will make some NPC's more unique-looking and memorable, so as to be more easily recognized as individuals. For example, like the way Iolo is memorable and recognized. I reckon that is easier with 2D graphics, but still, I wanted to bring it up.

Thank you for the spiffy new hat.

 

A note one water: I noted that there was no reaction to the player when people entered....Chris stated they are completely redoing water so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

I also felt the cities felt like ghost towns...I don't think we can rely on people filling them...imagine if you played this game offline you would see no one in the city...

 

my thoughts - what happen to the bag slots on the character sheet? Could not figure out how to equip the extra bags. Right and left clicked on them, nothing? Were the slots intentionally left out?

 

Yes... it was mentioned in the R10 instructions thread:

• Removed Bag Slots: The bag/items slots at the bottom of the Character sheet were causing all sorts of issues and while useful in some cases were just repetitive of nested containers that we already support so we removed them.

And I agree with the OP that the cities (and smaller towns too) do seem too quiet right now. I would especially love to see scruffy children running around playing in the streets, as so few games seem to bother with that sort of thing!

 

I feel that especially on Ardoris, maybe because of the "metropolis" feel of it. That doesn't happen on Owls Head where there are always players (at least near de rift), and NPCS are placed on key places. My brain doesnt expect a large number of NPS circulating between country homes, so i am ok if i dont see them there.

 

This is what worries me most about the single player experience. The world should be filled with NPCs. The towns will be completely dead without them. Not so much a problem in OPO, assuming there's a healthy server population, but it's especially so in the offline / SPO game.

 

I think the problem with much more NPCs will be that it would be harder to find specific NPCs.

 

And imagine all the collision slowdowns you would have with hundreds of NPC roaming the streets of Ardoris.

 

Frankly I love Ardoris so much that I'm going to get a nice row house there, come the actual opening of the game. There's this renaissance feel about the entire city (which is sized correctly in my opinion), but there was something amiss and you captured it right, some of the houses are a little odd because of the Asian loop / other characteristics on the roof. I believe the lanterns that hang across streets are also quite Asian in style.

I would REALLY love some nasty NPCs to appear at night in certain 'unsavoury' sections of the city. I could really do a skirmish in a dark back alley with a thief or two. But overall, yes it could do with more NPCs in the future, still early to say how the cities will hold up with throngs of players coming in for the first time.

 

Yes, those hanging lanterns in Ardoris are something I also look upon as Asian. I agree with some night-time thieves, especially in cities the size of Ardoris. I think street performers might be fun to see too, but only during the day and possibly moving from town to town or city to city. Regarding how the game world will feel with throngs of players, well remember that there is a single player mode as well, where there will not be any other players. Though, I think it will help a lot if the NPC's would actually do things, run around and behave more like players/people.

 

A possible remedy for that could be a skill/spell that would temporarily let you run faster through mobs of people. Having said that, I don't think there will be hundreds of NPC's roaming the streets of Ardoris. Some more are needed, however, and they should be more "alive".

 

There sort of is a spell like that - it's under the school of Air, Tier 2 - Dash (super long cool down though). It increases the general movement speed of your character for a short while. I'd love it if I could roughly push them out of the way sometimes

 

How Assassins's Creed handles bumping into NPCs is a better solution, imo.

 

Yes, I was just thinking that I would like the NPC's to automatically move a little out of the way, and that my character moves a little in the other direction. Basically having a better visual representation of two people running into each other and moving a little as a consequence of that. I would much prefer something like this instead of simply mowing through them with no change beyond slowing down and hearing an excuse.

The Assassin's Creed handling in this regard is great.

 

I would also like to see more "life" in the cities. Karrolanth and Lord Soliwilos brought up a good point about children running around. That would be a nice thing to see, even if they're programmed to run in a loop it would be nice to see more life in the cities. I also like Sunswords suggestion of having some thugs at the back of an alley or something. Would be fun that if you get close to them to have some dialog pop up where they just be mean and threatening towards you, or you just listen in on their conversation of the last person they robbed or something. Maybe even have them talk about an illegal rigged gambling circle they're a part of you have to investigate, I don't know.

I do like Ardoris, but it needs more activity to make it feel more city-like. I haven't had a chance to read BotA yet, but is Ardoris supposed to be a town for affluent people? If so it would be nice to see the city and NPCs reflect it.

 

Assasins creed's way, although nice, would be a huge resource hog with too many players there....I don't see that working here.