Procedural RPG OT: every action has consequences

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Started by Legend, Apr 20, 2019, 09:02 PM

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Legend

The world is 1024 km by 1024 km, just over 1 million square kilometers in area. That's over 40,000 times larger than The Elder Scrolls Skyrim!!!

From a gameplay perspective, that's not a good thing.


No player will enjoy spending hours/days of real world time traveling. I need such a massive map so that regions can develop independently and a player should spend the majority of their time in the same area, but even within that local area travel could be too slow.



I guess I'll break it down to multiple types of gameplay.

Local Travel:
The player only moves within a 3 by 3 sector area. They could be a king, a butcher, or anyone else that stays within a city or zone.

Regional Travel:
The player regularly moves within a 30 by 30 sector area. They could be a trader, adventurer, hunter, or anyone else that doesn't spend the majority of their time in the same place. Might slowly make their way across the map, but that is not the primary goal.

Migration:
Non regular movement over vast distances of the map. Similar to moving from England to France during the medieval era. Takes a long time and isn't designed as part of a gameplay loop.



The first mode of travel should be effectively instantaneous. Players can move within cities freely and move to nextdoor cities quickly. Traveling shouldn't take long enough to factor into player actions.

Second mode of travel could take a few minutes. Either the player is relaxing and enjoying the journey, or they are multitasking during the journey. Talk to companions, notice things along the way, browse your inventory, etc. Would be best to travel on horse.

Third mode of travel would take hours/days on foot. It is not designed to be inherently fun for players. Either the player makes many stops along the way, or the player multitasks with even more complicated things. Best to migrate by ship.