[Adonthell-general] Gameworld design

[Kai Sterker]

I've been playing some Ultima 9 lately, and although it is the second
time, I find it still very addicting. I also played Arcanum, but gave up
after a few days. Without going into details, I think the good thing
about U9 is that it has a great gameworld, where it is fun to walk
around and explore stuff beside the actual plot. Aside from the
locations needed by the plot there are tons of interesting places:
caves, bandit/goblin camps, ruins/empty buildings etc. Most of them
don't contain much of interest (usually some gold or potion or crappy
weapon), but you'll never know unless you go and see for yourself.
And every now and then you'll find a really cool item.

I think we should do the same. We had that discussion on last irc
meeting about size and distances. I would make the gameworld rather
small, as travelling from A to B is usually boring. (Leaving direct
'teleportation' away for the moment.)

Lets take the route Waste's Edge - Uzdun'kal for example. Normally, it
would be a weeks journey. We can't create that without some kind of
overworld map, but I personally think that realism isn't needed here.
It's more important to have good and addictive gameplay. So I suggest to
simply leave all uninteresting bits along the way away. Then we'd have a
condensed, possibly exaggerated version of that route. But that will
make the journey much more interesting than a 'realistic' version.

It's also important to have many things to explore along the way. If you
walk there the first time, and want to find all the good stuff, you'll
spend quite a while searching the odd cave or trail next to the main
road. I believe that will create the impression of distance without the
need of making ways too long. Once you know everything you can get fast
from one place to the other without looking left or right.


Here are a number of ideas for 'distractions' along the way:

* A small path leads up to a valley where a shepard asks you to hunt
  down some wolves that threaten his sheep.

* The way goes straight through an old mine, but there are a number of
  tunnels to explore and some stuff to find. Some might lead to other
  exits. For example a small beach down the river, next to a sandbank
  with a wrecked ship upon it. Or on top of a plateau with an old
  lookout.

* At a point the way could be blocked by an avalanche or something and
  you have to climb/jump up some walls and over gaps to get past.

* Here and there it could be possible to follow some small trails or
  climb up somewhere to find a shortcut or avert attackers on the road.
  One might also lead to a natural cave with some hidden stuff.

* A number of 'special' places with special gfx (e.g. a waterfall next
  to the road or a circle of stones on top of a hill) as eye-candy.

Guess you get the idea. We'll have to make the terrain as diverse as
possible, with a new sight or place to explore every couple of screens.
Not to forget the odd creature or NPC here and there. Then walking
around itself will already be fun and not just a necessity to get from
one plot location to the next.


Needless to say that it needs proper tools to create a great terrain,
and plenty of gfx as well. Although latter shouldn't be that difficult.
Once the base gfx is done, variations are fairly easy. And by using
several layers of ground (e.g. by adding debris/weeds to a rocky
surface, flowers/bushes to grass, ...) we can further create diversion.

Such things will probably further delay v0.4, but I think we should
rather do stuff properly instead of releasing something half-baked.

Kai