Making The World Come Alive

[LordReaver]

Topic: Anything relating to making the game seem less static.

Instead of having houses and stuff, just stick to large military complexes for the urban feeling. Then to answer the question of where everybody lives, just have some little areas on the map that look like they have cities on them, but are otherwise unvisitable.

To compliment that, I would like to see non-combat NPCs that populate bases. All they do is appear to be working, they are essentially scenery. For example, you could have a weapon cage vendor who smokes too much and makes lewd comments as you get gear. That's much better than a boring old terminal. You could also make busting into a control room fun, by having little technicians and other staff who cower and try to hide. The medical room could have a doctor and some nurses in it. That living area behind the spawn rooms? Suddenly it seems to have a purpose. I think this would really help give the world a feeling of being alive, even if you don't see housing.

[otomotopia]

Interesting ideas! I kind of agree with you, but it seems just a little off. I'm not saying no, but I'm not saying yes, and I'm not sure exactly how this idea could be improved.

[LordReaver]

I always felt the weather in PlanetSide looked great, but that's all it does. How about adding some physics to it also. Ice could be added to slip on. Lightning could randomly strike people/vehicles. Wind could fuck with aircraft. If there was a tornado, it could send units flying, much like a good biffer kick. Valcanoes (not weather I know) could actually erupt once in a while. It also wouldn't hurt to add some birds or maybe other wildlife either.

[otomotopia]

There was no weather. Are you talking about the skybox art?

Randomly dying to lightning is not fun, the wind would need to be constant to be a good feature, the ice is an excellent idea besides loosing bridge fights on that continent/during that season. Tornados... IMO, you're overthinkin ad it would just be frustrating.

[Lucage]

There used to be weather in PS. Rain and lighting, sand storms, etc. Not sure if it's still in there or not though.

I can even remember when we had a weather map.

[Canaris]

The storm systems used to move around the global map but because you could just turn off almost all the weather effects to increase preformace in the end all it did was create a slight haze in the distance.

Those that kept were at a disadvantage because it reduced visabilty, in the end it was just turned off by all.

I remember all the bitching on the PS forums over people thinking others were using auto-aim hax,
"How did that lame ass see and kill me in the middle of a sandstorm, He must be haxing!?!"
What sand storm?

[LordReaver]

Randomly dying to lightning is not fun, the wind would need to be constant to be a good feature, the ice is an excellent idea besides loosing bridge fights on that continent/during that season. Tornados... IMO, you're overthinkin ad it would just be frustrating.

I don't think it would be an issue, because they wouldn't be common. Nobody minds getting OSed once in a while, so how is it any worse? If there was a "Shocking!" merit, people would go so far as to try to get struck by lightning. You would see a tornado coming long before it got to you, although a tornado is probably a bit complex for this game anyway. And I never said the weather would be so extreme as to kill you, or make you crash your aircraft.

There used to be weather in PS. Rain and lighting, sand storms, etc. Not sure if it's still in there or not though.

I can even remember when we had a weather map.

It still is there, the map just got destroyed is all, so it's hard to find unless you are on Hossin where it rains all the time. Otomotopia probably just has it turned off in the options.

Those that kept were at a disadvantage because it reduced visabilty, in the end it was just turned off by all.

I disagree, I keep it on and it never bothers me. Then again, I have all settings maxed, except for flora, because it's fucking annoying not seeing mines.

[Canaris]

For the topic at hand I'm not so sure about having random NPC's running around in bases but outside concerning things like birds I'm a bit on the fence.

I remember back to the BF2 days doing battles, while sniping from a high vantage point with the graphics on full whack I remember sitting on the roof of a four story building just gazing back and forth to where the enemy were coming from, they'd chosen to hike it thru some dense tree and bush cover in order to flank the base, I think I was the only one watching for them on that side when I thought I saw movement. I kept the scope in the general area but just as I reckoned it was just me being jumpy a big group of birds suddenly took flight out of the trees and scattered, they were there. I began to rain shots down into the bushes and manged to get some of them.

This is one of my most profound moments of BF2 where even the terrain could be an advantage or disadvantage. Depending on who scopes who heh.

[wildcat140679]

Topic: Anything relating to making the game seem less static.
To compliment that, I would like to see non-combat NPCs that populate bases. All they do is appear to be working, they are essentially scenery. For example, you could have a weapon cage vendor who smokes too much and makes lewd comments as you get gear. That's much better than a boring old terminal. You could also make busting into a control room fun, by having little technicians and other staff who cower and try to hide. The medical room could have a doctor and some nurses in it. That living area behind the spawn rooms? Suddenly it seems to have a purpose. I think this would really help give the world a feeling of being alive, even if you don't see housing.


As much as I like the idea of having NPC’s doing stuff at a base to make it feel less static and dull looking.
The question for me is what happens to them during combat? Does the weapon cage vendor dude keep on smoking and keep on making comments to during a fire fight? Does he panic, scream for help or does he grab his jackhammer from underneath the counter and starts shooting at the enemy?
What happens if they get shot at? Do the run? Can they be killed? Or they all suddenly disappear?


Instead of humans, how about androids/robots. Load lifters, repair (welding) droids, medical, cleaning the list can go on and on. The good thing about androids/robots is that they don’t have emotions and don’t need to respond to a fire fight taking place. Even if they get hit in a crossfire or being shot at on purpose, it doesn’t naturally need to respond like a human would react to the situation. Less coding, yet still good enough for me to make a base look less static.

[LordReaver]

I think robots would work just fine also. It could help the PS art direction more than a human would, that's for sure.

[Senyu]

On animals, Birds and fish im fine with. Fish dont do much but look pretty but birds would be seen more often. Fun thing to shoot at and ppl will. And like the BF2 comment, it could be game effecting in sense the birds will fly away if you approach them. I can see someone in atv trying to chase down birds and scattering them lol.

As for base npcs.....robots or lifters I guess. They just need more moving parts to catch your attention. Add random but well placed cosmetic items that move (in on spot like up and down) should be enough to make it feel like a operational working base. And blinking lights. You can never have enough blinking lights.

And hopefully what I want most from weather is wind. Wind that beutifully sends grass and leaves waving from it. Add that and the world should be considerably less static. Remember, the only inhabibtants are humans. So minor things make it feel more alien and that its just you, your gun, and two factions to bump off.

[Sifer2]

Yeah some automated robots sound good just to make the base feel like it does something. Actual worker npc's probably would not hang around a base on the front lines. They would be fine in Sanctuaries but they already dropped hints those wont return.