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Re: RPG towns - Remember Betrayal at Krondor!

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Posted by Eric Liebl on June 30, 1999 at 23:58:54:
In Reply to: Re: RPG towns posted by Chris Appel on June 30, 1999 at 11:57:52:
FYI..I have no complaints with the design philosophy for towns...I think it will be a great improvement by reducing the repetition of walking back and forth to buy and sell items. It worked very well in Betrayal at Krondor and offered a sort of intermission from the game's combat. Now there is no reason why a dungeon or two can't LOOK like a town while serving an entirely different purpose. Come to think of it, this game seems to resemble BAK (one of my favorites)almost as much as W7. I really think you'll have a BIG winner here.
: We considered a number of options for handling towns, from a 3D game world town to a more "Warcraft" type of display screen. The latter had great point and click functionality, but pulled you completely out of the game world, while the former kept the world consistant but made simple interaction with the town slow and difficult. I may be showing my age here, but a good example of this is the classic "Bard's Tale." Great game for its day, but you had to wander back and forth across a huge town while random encounters attacked you just to move from buying a sword to healing a character. It's an extreme example of what you still face today in a lot of contemporary RPGs.
: You're point is well taken, but at least side scrolling allows us to maintain much of the look of our 3D world while allowing the player a simple way to interface with the various support NPC's in town.
: Game design is often a matter of compromise. If you really find it disruptive after you've played, let us know.... maybe we'll come up with something better for D. W. Bradley's 3D RPG II. :)
:
: : Any particular reason why the towns are being done this way? I recently played the beta version of Demise (utilizing the sidescrolling image) and I found that it really takes you out of the game.

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: FYI..I have no complaints with the design philosophy for towns...I think it will be a great improvement by reducing the repetition of walking back and forth to buy and sell items. It worked very well in Betrayal at Krondor and offered a sort of intermission from the game's combat. Now there is no reason why a dungeon or two can't LOOK like a town while serving an entirely different purpose. Come to think of it, this game seems to resemble BAK (one of my favorites)almost as much as W7. I really think you'll have a BIG winner here. : : We considered a number of options for handling towns, from a 3D game world town to a more "Warcraft" type of display screen. The latter had great point and click functionality, but pulled you completely out of the game world, while the former kept the world consistant but made simple interaction with the town slow and difficult. I may be showing my age here, but a good example of this is the classic "Bard's Tale." Great game for its day, but you had to wander back and forth across a huge town while random encounters attacked you just to move from buying a sword to healing a character. It's an extreme example of what you still face today in a lot of contemporary RPGs. : : You're point is well taken, but at least side scrolling allows us to maintain much of the look of our 3D world while allowing the player a simple way to interface with the various support NPC's in town. : : Game design is often a matter of compromise. If you really find it disruptive after you've played, let us know.... maybe we'll come up with something better for D. W. Bradley's 3D RPG II. :) : : : : : Any particular reason why the towns are being done this way? I recently played the beta version of Demise (utilizing the sidescrolling image) and I found that it really takes you out of the game.
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