The Ultimate SOMA Discussion Thread

**Ghieri** · 10-12-2013, 03:20 AM

(10-12-2013, 02:23 AM)Alex Ros Wrote: I presume small tiny indie gamedev studio have become a lot bigger, wealthier, if they can live on 2 years and there's enough of financial background. That's just great. The situation when you have to rush is hopefully over now. For example the Dark Descent was made in a rush and I am sure without rush it could be even better and more complex, polished, unusual, etc. So that's just great (am I saying that again?) and I am sincerely happy that Frictional did survive years and years of the "always on the edge".

FRICTIONAL became FRICTIONAL. Hooray!

Does this mean we are socially obligated to refer to FRICTIONALin this text size? : P

But seriously, this is looking to surpass MFP in graphics and TDD in scares. Exciting, they even have multi-platform release.

**Cuyir** · 10-12-2013, 03:47 AM

(10-12-2013, 12:21 AM)droog Wrote: From Thomas:

Yeah a big problem is that we pretty much only had two AI models in
Amnesia: The Dark Descent. One for the grunt/brute and one for the water
lurker. The water lurker works great because we used it in just a few
places and always under new circumstances. But, especially at the end,
the grunt/brute AI was spammed a lot.

So one thing in SOMA is that there will be more enemy types. Also,
what we are trying to do is to mess with your mind a bit more so that
you are less sure of how the creatures work. Normally in games the goal
is to win over the enemies, so you learn all their patterns, etc.
Eventually you have a mind model that is pretty true to the underlying
AI. We want to get away from this as much as possible.

Instead you should only have hints of how they behave and then fill
out the gaps with your own imagination. And it is here where the fun
starts. Your imagined model of the creature will be muchscarier than
anything we could code, yet you will act on this when playing the game.
If done correctly, you will never be able to figure out the true
behavior of a monster, and live in constant uncertainty if your beliefs
are accurate. This can lead to really nightmarish experience.

That is our goal
src: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2013/10/1...on.Blog%29
comment 21

Here's hoping they nail that.

Cause he's spot on. The people experiencing the game/movie always imagine things scarier than the developers/filmmakers could have pull it off.

The Penumbra and Amnesia series were incredibly horrifying when I started out because of that very reason. I didn't know how they behaved so I imagined things.

"Maybe its hearing is super sensitive. Maybe It has a set path. Maybe it's random. Does that sound mean it saw me?" etc etc etc.

**Fearmeister** · 10-12-2013, 04:04 AM

Maybe you will run into a monster he's totally chill and stuff. Helps you with a level or something. Then you relax and go 'these guys are kinda nice'. Then you run into another one and "OMG! HE'S EATING MY FACE!!!!"

**Sakonosolo** · 10-12-2013, 04:59 AM

(10-12-2013, 03:20 AM)Ghieri Wrote: But seriously, this is looking to surpass MFP in graphics and TDD in scares. Exciting, they even have multi-platform release.

AMfP looked worse than TDD. It had this weird color banding for some reason.

**Diango12** · 10-12-2013, 05:00 AM

(10-12-2013, 04:04 AM)Fearmeister Wrote: Maybe you will run into a monster he's totally chill and stuff. Helps you with a level or something. Then you relax and go 'these guys are kinda nice'. Then you run into another one and "OMG! HE'S EATING MY FACE!!!!"

I think the sort unpredictability that FG is going for is not as simple as, good or bad?

I've wrote on Thomas's blog about enemy dynamics. If FG can introduce emergent mechanics in the monster's behaviors and on top that remove barriers to where those monsters can be and go, then it will eliminate that predictability that gamers use to put themselves into a comfort zone after reaching peak tension.

**Cuyir** · 10-12-2013, 05:20 AM

(10-12-2013, 05:00 AM)Diango12 Wrote:
(10-12-2013, 04:04 AM)Fearmeister Wrote: Maybe you will run into a monster he's totally chill and stuff. Helps you with a level or something. Then you relax and go 'these guys are kinda nice'. Then you run into another one and "OMG! HE'S EATING MY FACE!!!!"

I think the sort unpredictability that FG is going for is not as simple as, good or bad?

I've wrote on Thomas's blog about enemy dynamics. If FG can introduce emergent mechanics in the monster's behaviors and on top that remove barriers to where those monsters can be and go, then it will eliminate that predictability that gamers use to put themselves into a comfort zone after reaching peak tension.

They also would need to get rid of the effect that scripted moments had on encounters.

Example: if you passed the trigger for a scripted event (like an hallucination in TDD) whatever was chasing you stops and turns on a dime as if the player had disappeared. I accidentally discovered it and it pretty much destroyed every single scrap of immersion I was holding on to.

They'd also need some sort of learning/adaptive A.I. We ARE talking about machines and connected ''consciousnesses" so why not? Lets say an enemy spots you crouched and hiding in a corner or under a table. It will learn the player's behavior and relay it to the mainframe; so if you get away from it, other entities connected to that same database will know that you like crouching under tables.

**FlawlessHappiness** · 10-12-2013, 09:20 AM

(10-12-2013, 05:20 AM)Cuyir Wrote:
(10-12-2013, 05:00 AM)Diango12 Wrote:
(10-12-2013, 04:04 AM)Fearmeister Wrote: Maybe you will run into a monster he's totally chill and stuff. Helps you with a level or something. Then you relax and go 'these guys are kinda nice'. Then you run into another one and "OMG! HE'S EATING MY FACE!!!!"

I think the sort unpredictability that FG is going for is not as simple as, good or bad?

I've wrote on Thomas's blog about enemy dynamics. If FG can introduce emergent mechanics in the monster's behaviors and on top that remove barriers to where those monsters can be and go, then it will eliminate that predictability that gamers use to put themselves into a comfort zone after reaching peak tension.

They'd also need some sort of learning/adaptive A.I. We ARE talking about machines and connected ''consciousnesses" so why not? Lets say an enemy spots you crouched and hiding in a corner or under a table. It will learn the player's behavior and relay it to the mainframe; so if you get away from it, other entities connected to that same database will know that you like crouching under tables.

So late game the enemies knows all your cheap tricks, and you're as good as dead Tongue

**TwiK999** · 10-12-2013, 10:13 AM

Loving the new logo.

**Tesseract** · 10-12-2013, 10:25 AM

The game is looking brilliant - even though the trailer is not the actual game footage (which is great!) The environments look brilliant, I can't wait to see how this turns out!

**Newsman Waterpaper** · 10-12-2013, 11:09 AM

(10-12-2013, 10:25 AM)Delirium92 Wrote: The game is looking brilliant - even though the trailer is not the actual game footage (which is great!) The environments look brilliant, I can't wait to see how this turns out!

I can't(I can actually) wait for 2015 Big Grin

!