Facebook Twitter YouTube Frictional Games | Forum | Privacy Policy | Dev Blog | Dev Wiki | Support | Gametee


Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
I Would Like to Hear Your Opinions on a Pending Gameplay Mechanic
TheIcyPickle Offline
Member

Posts: 80
Threads: 16
Joined: Feb 2011
Reputation: 0
#1
I Would Like to Hear Your Opinions on a Pending Gameplay Mechanic

So, I have this idea and would like to hear the forum's thoughts on it.




**Future Spoilers if you plan to play my CS***


My idea is, simply, as the Player gets more "insane" a monster will spawn at a random time.

This is something Frictional sort of thought to do when in reality, a lot of them were planned scares by the player entering a script box.

Mine would be set on a timer. Say, every 5 minutes one spends in the Dungeon-esc area, then a monster will spawn. This would ensure truly random encounters.

Does this sound effective or cheesy and something that would be frowned upon.

I want to hear your thoughts. Thanks for reading!
03-27-2013, 11:01 PM
Find
TheIcyPickle Offline
Member

Posts: 80
Threads: 16
Joined: Feb 2011
Reputation: 0
#2
RE: I Would Like to Hear Your Opinions on a Pending Gameplay Mechanic

Moronic, since it'd spawn every 5 minutes I assume every time, which if previous isn't removed (which could mean it could disappear infront of player) another would spawn making 2.. so on. Of course there are ways around that. Also, it'd be predictable. It wouldn't be random that way.


Random Intergers are seriously amazing, they can make a map seem random, allow for replayability etc, if you want "random" encounters play around with them, and see what you can do.
[/quote]


Ah, thank you. I forgot to mention I would be using the "AddLocalVarInt" and "GetLocalVarInt" methods to limit it to 2 or 3 monsters. So, don't think there would be eventually 50 monsters in the area. That would be downright stupid and nonsensical. My monsters of course would follow a path and be set to non-active after a while. (Picture the tension in TDD in the Prison area.)

However, the idea, although not "random" as it would happen every "X" amount of time, would most likely seem random to the player no? It could happen at any point in the map as oppose to at "Script Box 1."

Alas, I am intrigued by the random integer idea you brought up. Is that something in the engine script? I don't really see anything from a quick look about "Random Integers."

I know what you mean though. Using a loop to add random values of "X" to either the time or VarInt or something like that. (At least that's what I'm guessing)

Thank you for replying too! Feedback from the community is always the best.
03-28-2013, 01:30 AM
Find
NaxEla Offline
Senior Member

Posts: 415
Threads: 5
Joined: Dec 2012
Reputation: 28
#3
RE: I Would Like to Hear Your Opinions on a Pending Gameplay Mechanic

I think you should limit it to only 1 monster at a time... even 2 seems like too many monsters. I don't think there was ever two monsters in one area at a time in TDD maps.

In Ruins [WIP]
03-28-2013, 03:40 AM
Find
No Author Offline
Posting Freak

Posts: 962
Threads: 10
Joined: Jun 2012
Reputation: 13
#4
RE: I Would Like to Hear Your Opinions on a Pending Gameplay Mechanic

(03-28-2013, 03:40 AM)NaxEla Wrote: I think you should limit it to only 1 monster at a time... even 2 seems like too many monsters. I don't think there was ever two monsters in one area at a time in TDD maps.

There were 3 grunts on the cancel map. When you enter to put the orb.

[Image: the-cabin-in-the-woods-masked-people.jpg]
03-28-2013, 03:59 AM
Find
PutraenusAlivius Offline
Posting Freak

Posts: 4,713
Threads: 75
Joined: Dec 2012
Reputation: 119
#5
RE: I Would Like to Hear Your Opinions on a Pending Gameplay Mechanic

(03-28-2013, 03:59 AM)No Author Wrote:
(03-28-2013, 03:40 AM)NaxEla Wrote: I think you should limit it to only 1 monster at a time... even 2 seems like too many monsters. I don't think there was ever two monsters in one area at a time in TDD maps.

There were 3 grunts on the cancel map. When you enter to put the orb.

That was
Spoiler below!
special. They don't even hurt you. They just put you to the Cells.

"Veni, vidi, vici."
"I came, I saw, I conquered."
03-28-2013, 05:56 AM
Find
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Away
Posting Freak

Posts: 935
Threads: 0
Joined: Jun 2012
Reputation: 54
#6
RE: I Would Like to Hear Your Opinions on a Pending Gameplay Mechanic

I've never been very convinced by randomness in games in general, (unless it's an "arcadey" game, like a dungeon crawler or something like that of course!) When a player plays your story once, he can't know if the monster that just spawned spawned randomly or if it was "planned". So where's the difference to him?

The only thing it does is create more problems for you, the game designer, since you can't perfectly control what monster appears where and undesired stuff might happen (monsters appearing or dispappearing right in front of the player, monsters appearing in "unfair places" so that the player can't escape or hide and gets killed in a stupid way...stuff like that.)

On the other hand, the only merit randomness has is a certain replay value, but if you ask me, that replay value is a fake one. "Real" replay value comes for example from meaningful decisions that influence the development of the character, from an interesting world that you want to explore again even though you've played through the game already or maybe from different gameplay approaches you can choose.

Randomness often seems to me like a lazy way to create the illusion that the game has more to offer than it seems. (Again, this highly depends on the kind of game of course! I'm mainly talking about the kind of mostly-linear, story driven experience we're discussing here, not about games like Binding of Isaac or sandbox titles where randomness is pretty much the core feature...) That's more my personal opinion of course and many people will probably think different.

Now, if you could instead improve the monster AI, so that more emergent, organic behaviour could arise, making scripted events unneccessary - THAT would of course add a much more valuable kind of randomness to the game! But alas, it is not possible...

Edit: I've thought about it some more, and I think the reason most people are intrigued by ideas of random monster spawns is simply because the monsters in Amnesia spawned very predictably. (Often after picking up an important object Wink ) So what I think you should do instead, is play through Amnesia again and analyze it. Take note of when a monster spawns and find the pattern that makes it so predictable. Then, in your story, play with the players expectations and avoid those patterns to make it feel fresh and unpredictable!
(This post was last modified: 03-28-2013, 11:07 AM by xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.)
03-28-2013, 11:02 AM
Find
TheIcyPickle Offline
Member

Posts: 80
Threads: 16
Joined: Feb 2011
Reputation: 0
#7
RE: I Would Like to Hear Your Opinions on a Pending Gameplay Mechanic

Excellent! The feedback here is incredible. I was so one sided on this mechanic, I see the other side now.

It is kinda stupid isn't it? Esp. with something like a monster.

I'm considering using it with sound effects. From time to time. It wont be the dominant way of calling the sounds, just to expand ways to scare people.

And @Hirnwirbel I like what you said there about prediction. That's exactly where I'm coming from.

For now, I'll scrap it. Thanks forum. I'll be back with more of these later. Wink
(This post was last modified: 03-28-2013, 07:00 PM by TheIcyPickle.)
03-28-2013, 06:57 PM
Find




Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)