tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post8194543691402550630..comments2024-03-17T16:13:55.262-07:00Comments on Blobs in Games: Map homunculusAmithttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12159325271882018300noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-58603580980233513962014-05-19T21:51:04.533-07:002014-05-19T21:51:04.533-07:00Come to think of it, any fun game needs to either ...Come to think of it, any fun game needs to either compress the boring bits or make something happen to make filler not boring. Nintendo's Pokemon game series solved this with disproportionate scales (another reason why the screen was redrawn when entering a building or transitioning from filler to city) and battles in grassy fields (though that was often annoying). The special moves fly, surf, cut, dig, and surf, as well as the bicycle solved a lot of these problems too while still increasing total gameplay time.IceArdornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-85051849278913065002014-05-16T07:11:39.402-07:002014-05-16T07:11:39.402-07:00Hi WabiWasabi, I agree, Skyrim makes wilderness mo...Hi WabiWasabi, I agree, Skyrim makes wilderness more interesting. I'm unable to find a good scale to measure distances in the Skyrim maps, but thinking about towns, a village like Riverwood might be 500 meters long, and the distance between medieval towns should probably be at least 10,000 meters, or 20 Riverwoods long. I can't remember the distance between Riverwood and Whiterun but maybe it's enough. <br /><br />I'm also thinking there are too few farms in Skyrim to support even the small population that it has, especially given the cold climate that would make agriculture difficult. http://www222.pair.com/sjohn/blueroom/demog.htm is interesting reading<br />Amithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12159325271882018300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5052387.post-24151924492420588352014-05-16T00:35:15.274-07:002014-05-16T00:35:15.274-07:00The storytelling analogy is great (and so are the ...The storytelling analogy is great (and so are the supporting graphics!) One quasi-counterpoint, though: the best thing about the Elder Scrolls games is that the wilderness is NOT filler, nor is it tiny. Sure, maybe it's smaller than it would really be "to scale," but compared to most other CRPG's, there's a heckuva lot of wilderness in Skyrim relative to town.<br /><br />And because you have to trek across a fair part of this wilderness to get to the next town, all kinds of great stuff happens: dungeon entrances discovered, dragon attacks, showdowns with roadside bandits, etc. etc. <br /><br />I'm sure if you added up the units of dungeon in Skyrim they dwarf everything else, and that's directly to your point. But you gotta give the game some credit for solving the "wilderness is boring filler" problem NOT by just compressing miles of wilderness, but by figuring out how to seed relatively large tracts of "empty space" with serendipitous content.WabiWasabihttp://rattatbang.comnoreply@blogger.com