(11-07-2012, 05:12 PM)cav500 Wrote: I am new to playing Amnesia custom stories but so far I have downloaded and played through around 100 of them. This has taken me several months to do. One thing I have noticed is how similar many of them are. Lots of them have this same formula:

1. Starts off in the same typical bedroom with a door that is usually locked for some strange reason.
2. Then you move to the hallways of the same typical house on a search for keys and tinderboxes. Tinderboxes are always a sign that the story is going down to the cellar, as usual.
3. Then it moves down to a typical underground/cellar/basement/prison area where you spend most of your time with the monsters.

Why do so many of these custom stories follow the same pattern?

I also play a pc game called Thief where fans of the game have created some AMAZING fan missions using the engine that created the original Thief game. These missions are all so extremely different. But with Amnesia, it doesn't seem that way unless it's a full mod with it's own bat or exe. file.

Just wondering. I've never tried to create a custom story so I don't know how limited the software is for creating custom stories. Has anyone else here wondered why these custom stories are so similar?

(11-08-2012, 01:04 AM)Cranky Old Man Wrote:

(11-07-2012, 05:12 PM)cav500 Wrote: I am new to playing Amnesia custom stories but so far I have downloaded and played through around 100 of them. This has taken me several months to do. One thing I have noticed is how similar many of them are. Lots of them have this same formula:

1. Starts off in the same typical bedroom with a door that is usually locked for some strange reason.
2. Then you move to the hallways of the same typical house on a search for keys and tinderboxes. Tinderboxes are always a sign that the story is going down to the cellar, as usual.
3. Then it moves down to a typical underground/cellar/basement/prison area where you spend most of your time with the monsters.

Why do so many of these custom stories follow the same pattern?

I also play a pc game called Thief where fans of the game have created some AMAZING fan missions using the engine that created the original Thief game. These missions are all so extremely different. But with Amnesia, it doesn't seem that way unless it's a full mod with it's own bat or exe. file.

Just wondering. I've never tried to create a custom story so I don't know how limited the software is for creating custom stories. Has anyone else here wondered why these custom stories are so similar?

Because that's what the (default) models allow.
A creepy story starts out as fairly safe. This is where you use the mansion tilesets.
From there, you can either go with the castle or cellar tilesets, and then end up with the dungeon/caverns tileset.
It's a game engine that is about puzzles and exploring with a lantern, so you start at the safest possible room - the bedroom - and from there you explore your way down into dark dungeons. What varies on the way, is usually the journal entries, that tells a little horror novella on the way. Those entries are the actual stars of the show. For instance, you can simply tell any HP Lovecraft story while the player is walking around the mansion, and he will feel that it's relevant to the setting he's in.

(11-12-2012, 11:55 AM)Cranky Old Man Wrote: In all seriousness, though, I think that few people care about making *any* kind of story in this thread. We chat too much at these forums. We're so busy complaining about other people, that we're not getting anything done.