Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Discussion Topic Part 1

[Themaagen]

Well imo the despawning can actually work, if not overly used... I don't know about you, but i got the whole "Am i going insane? Am I seeing things?" The game did a lot of that (piano suddenly playing, girl screaming for help, footsteps etc.). And if a game can make me as a player become sceptically of what i see and hear in the game - that's awesome

This is something else I have been wanting to bring up. I keep seeing comments about how it was de-immersive, and perhaps it was in the last third of the game, but Amnesia really sucked me into its atmosphere and setting, I never even thought about it like this. True, I did wonder where the grunt in the Storage wondered off to, seeing as it was a dead end (or they somehow are able to use doors when calm and not during an intense chase, as there is a door there too). However, when I thought it had simply vanished, I became more afraid, because I simply knew too little about them at that point - Perhaps they were harmful ghosts that could disappear and reappear at will. I never felt safe, even if I later realized that monsters would despawn, because I would never know when they would spawn again, so it felt quite immersive and realistic to me, still.

And yeah, it did make me question my own sanity, too, and it really toyed with my mind, so details like "where did it actually go" never really got to me in a de-immersive way, and "music stopped playing" never gave me much sense of security for the majority of the game, because I still would assume it was lurking around somewhere and potentially coming back soon. ^^

Yeah exactly I remember the corpse in one of the hanging cages (don't know if anyone else notice it). When you first enter the place with the spiral staircase in the middle, there are lots of hanging cages. I kind of looked around for a bit before going in to another room. But when i returned there suddenly was a corpse in one of the cages. I was like "Has it always been here and i just didn't notice it the first time? What is the reason why it's suddenly here...? How many of the monsters i've been running from was actually real. If this is just a figment of my imagination, what else is?" And for like a half hour i was even more on edge, because i couldn't figure of what it meant! And it meant nothing, it was just a little extra flavor to add to the horror That's the kinda horror that gets me

[Romulator]

Well imo the despawning can actually work, if not overly used... I don't know about you, but i got the whole "Am i going insane? Am I seeing things?" The game did a lot of that (piano suddenly playing, girl screaming for help, footsteps etc.). And if a game can make me as a player become sceptically of what i see and hear in the game - that's awesome

This is something else I have been wanting to bring up. I keep seeing comments about how it was de-immersive, and perhaps it was in the last third of the game, but Amnesia really sucked me into its atmosphere and setting, I never even thought about it like this. True, I did wonder where the grunt in the Storage wondered off to, seeing as it was a dead end (or they somehow are able to use doors when calm and not during an intense chase, as there is a door there too). However, when I thought it had simply vanished, I became more afraid, because I simply knew too little about them at that point - Perhaps they were harmful ghosts that could disappear and reappear at will. I never felt safe, even if I later realized that monsters would despawn, because I would never know when they would spawn again, so it felt quite immersive and realistic to me, still.

And yeah, it did make me question my own sanity, too, and it really toyed with my mind, so details like "where did it actually go" never really got to me in a de-immersive way, and "music stopped playing" never gave me much sense of security for the majority of the game, because I still would assume it was lurking around somewhere and potentially coming back soon. ^^

Yeah exactly I remember the corpse in one of the hanging cages (don't know if anyone else notice it). When you first enter the place with the spiral staircase in the middle, there are lots of hanging cages. I kind of looked around for a bit before going in to another room. But when i returned there suddenly was a corpse in one of the cages. I was like "Has it always been here and i just didn't notice it the first time? What is the reason why it's suddenly here...? How many of the monsters i've been running from was actually real. If this is just a figment of my imagination, what else is?" And for like a half hour i was even more on edge, because i couldn't figure of what it meant! And it meant nothing, it was just a little extra flavor to add to the horror That's the kinda horror that gets me

The issue with those corpses is that they appear based on your players sanity, not yours ;O Imagine that, an optional accessory which is linked to your head and checks your brainwaves, and the more scared you are, the more sane your character becomes :o haha

[Spaceman]

I would definitely like for scripted monster encounters to be de-emphasized.

Hehe, I'm the complete opposite. Scripted monster encounters are swell, just make them less predictable.

Kotch: I believe you can already play Amnesia without the blurry effects - you can turn them off in the settings.

I also like the monster music because it's very ambient and sets the mood, but it does lead to the kind of playstyle that Dogfood described. I think the best solution would be to link monster music to perceived monster proximity: if the monster is close enough that the player can hear it or see it, start ambient music.

People always said 'just turn off the effects'. How does one actually do that? I've seen that comment loads and I went sifting through ATDD's settings and I never saw an option to do that :/

Go to Graphics>Advanced Options and from there uncheck "Insanity".

Oh cool! does this undo the teeth grating tunnel effect when you're in the dark too long? Or does it only undo the shifty warping when you're insane?

[fancreeper]

I am just posting this so we can get to page 666 quicker.

[Themaagen]

Well imo the despawning can actually work, if not overly used... I don't know about you, but i got the whole "Am i going insane? Am I seeing things?" The game did a lot of that (piano suddenly playing, girl screaming for help, footsteps etc.). And if a game can make me as a player become sceptically of what i see and hear in the game - that's awesome

This is something else I have been wanting to bring up. I keep seeing comments about how it was de-immersive, and perhaps it was in the last third of the game, but Amnesia really sucked me into its atmosphere and setting, I never even thought about it like this. True, I did wonder where the grunt in the Storage wondered off to, seeing as it was a dead end (or they somehow are able to use doors when calm and not during an intense chase, as there is a door there too). However, when I thought it had simply vanished, I became more afraid, because I simply knew too little about them at that point - Perhaps they were harmful ghosts that could disappear and reappear at will. I never felt safe, even if I later realized that monsters would despawn, because I would never know when they would spawn again, so it felt quite immersive and realistic to me, still.

And yeah, it did make me question my own sanity, too, and it really toyed with my mind, so details like "where did it actually go" never really got to me in a de-immersive way, and "music stopped playing" never gave me much sense of security for the majority of the game, because I still would assume it was lurking around somewhere and potentially coming back soon. ^^

Yeah exactly I remember the corpse in one of the hanging cages (don't know if anyone else notice it). When you first enter the place with the spiral staircase in the middle, there are lots of hanging cages. I kind of looked around for a bit before going in to another room. But when i returned there suddenly was a corpse in one of the cages. I was like "Has it always been here and i just didn't notice it the first time? What is the reason why it's suddenly here...? How many of the monsters i've been running from was actually real. If this is just a figment of my imagination, what else is?" And for like a half hour i was even more on edge, because i couldn't figure of what it meant! And it meant nothing, it was just a little extra flavor to add to the horror That's the kinda horror that gets me

The issue with those corpses is that they appear based on your players sanity, not yours ;O Imagine that, an optional accessory which is linked to your head and checks your brainwaves, and the more scared you are, the more sane your character becomes :o haha

Sounds dangerous haha :b

[PutraenusAlivius]

MFKALG

[PutraenusAlivius]

HELL I DUNNO

[Tiger]

PRAISE SATAN!!!

[PutraenusAlivius]

666. FUCKING. PAGES.
EDIT:
Hello Tiger.

[Nice]

PRAISE SATAN!!!

No.