Did anybody else notice that the NPC's don't follow a daily routine? They don't wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, go to bed...etc. I also noticed that shops are open 24/7...what's up with that? Everything just feels stagnant and plastic...
On a side-note, where are all the houses at? Why can't I go around picking locks and breaking in to houses? What gives?
Do you think you feel the NPC´s react likein Swtor, just lifeless ?
I think ESO has something in common with SWTOR npc actions, of course not that bad like in swtor but to a certain degree.
After I was watchin a press released video a while ago after there was no NDA anymore, I thought that in the video without all the players the game world did look a bit empty and you noticed that a lot of the NPC did not do much and were just standing around without much action.
First of all, it isn't my job to code this into the game. I am a game player. I always think it's funny when people on forums are like "oh it's an MMO so that's hard to do...that's why they didn't do it." If programmers just gave up on all the hard stuff we wouldn't have any progressive games. Secondly, do you think it's seriously that hard to do? They already have day and night in the game. They script movements for some of the NPC's in the game already, especially the quest NPC's.
Why is it that people are so willing to accept mediocrity?
It's not mediocrity.... It's hundreds/thousands of hours not wasted on useless pathing/life cycle for NPCs that were used for actual content...
First of all, it isn't my job to code this into the game. I am a game player. I always think it's funny when people on forums are like "oh it's an MMO so that's hard to do...that's why they didn't do it." If programmers just gave up on all the hard stuff we wouldn't have any progressive games. Secondly, do you think it's seriously that hard to do? They already have day and night in the game. They script movements for some of the NPC's in the game already, especially the quest NPC's.
Why is it that people are so willing to accept mediocrity?
It's not mediocrity.... It's hundreds/thousands of hours not wasted on useless pathing/life cycle for NPCs that were used for actual content...
yet they did it for a single player game.
F2P may be the way of the future, but ya know they dont make them like they used to Proper Grammer & spelling are extra, corrections will be LOL at.
First of all, it isn't my job to code this into the game. I am a game player. I always think it's funny when people on forums are like "oh it's an MMO so that's hard to do...that's why they didn't do it." If programmers just gave up on all the hard stuff we wouldn't have any progressive games. Secondly, do you think it's seriously that hard to do? They already have day and night in the game. They script movements for some of the NPC's in the game already, especially the quest NPC's.
Why is it that people are so willing to accept mediocrity?
It's not mediocrity.... It's hundreds/thousands of hours not wasted on useless pathing/life cycle for NPCs that were used for actual content...
yet they did it for a single player game.
Because in a single player game, you are alone in the game... If the NPCs don't move or do anything, it will definitely feel dead and wierd... In an MMO, the PLAYERS are what gives life to the game.
My approach towards this game was that it would be more of a world that you can just go out and explore. I know you can explore in this game, so I want to clarify a bit before I get jumped on in the forums. I thought you would be able to just travel to various cities at your own will. For example, if I wanted to go from Vulkhel to Firsthold, I would simply follow the road and get there.
I agree it would be great to have a game where the focus is more on exploring.
Here is roughly the "questing mechanism" as I have seen it implemented in ESO:
1) FInd random guard/civilian friendly NPC around area to save (town, mine) who asks you to talk to the general/mayor of the said area,
2) Free town/area of an invading force amounting to a grand total of 10 enemy NPCs (just need fighting about 3 of them and 1 boss),
3) Get notification on screen (Completed: XYZ), round of applause from NPC in town/area (Oh! That was it? Really?).
I must say this had me laughing a few times how cheap/non epic it feels. I will still be playing, but not holding my breath for the quests.
Second, I do have a point there - do you know how hard it is to actually make a character swing a sword? It's hard to do anything in a game, that was the point. What the OP asked for is completely doable in a MMO and I thought the responses to him was silly, so I responded in kind.
It's not doable in the MMO that they are trying to create. And if it's so doable, where are the countless of MMOs that have done this already? I don't see many. If they are going to make an MMO so dependent on story, as they are, then you can't very well have npcs running around on a fixed schedule, being able to be killed by players, or have their things stolen by breaking into their houses. The OP complains about the world not being immersive enough for him, yet offers up features that would actually take away from the immersive quality of the game if implemented.
It's an ESO game. Story is kind of a big deal. If you want that kind of "alive" feeling, you can either go play Skyrim or go play a sandbox game that isn't restricted by storyline. Playing with no other players around or playing an MMO that runs poorly but allows you some freedom will have to be the price you pay for realism, I guess.
ROFL- IYFF!!! Dude... are you being serious? They could do it, but choose not to - END OF STORY! Everything else in is just your opinion;
In your opinion - they shouldn't do this for ESO
In your opinion - it takes away from the "immersive quality"
In your opinion - they can't tell a story and do that
I disagree with you but that's just my opinion. Game industry is in a strange place right now but I have learned that almost anything could work, if done correctly. I didn't say they should or shouldn't do it - but I know it could be done and still fit within TES standards, add to the immersion, and still tell a story.
Your response has done nothing more than prove my 'silly' logic. You are a fan and defending the game with opinionated points that may or may not be sound.
The MMO that does have that stuff will be the MMO that lasts.
I see a lot of people saying it can't be done but it absolutely can.
I see a lot of people saying that no one would like a game like that because they want to level faster. I call bullcrap on that. They can make the night cycle 2-3 hours and it would be fine.
It is the little things like shops closing at night, inventory that is affected by the players, and a million other small things that will take a game to the next level of immersion that is sorely missing in the current crop of MMOs.
I personally can't wait until someone puts out an MMO that feels real. One that is not a race to get to max level. One that actually makes me forget that I am just playing a game.
I doubt that ESO is going to do that. The only game that even appears to be trying to change the mold is EQ:Next. We will see what ends up happening.
I'm no programmer but considering how MMORPGs already have NPCs walking about, initiating converstations with each other, playing instruments, cooking... I don't think coding is a problem. It's a matter of accessibility.. If NPCs went to sleep when night comes about people wouldn't be able to complete their quests. I wouldn't mind, it'd only add to the immersion. But in this day and age MMORPGs are all about fast progression, constant and easy accessibility and no challenges.
I understand what you're saying, and I could even buy that as an acceptable answer if it wasn't for the fact that they keep telling us that this isn't a "rush to the finish-line" game. Even the splash screen has tips like "be sure to read everything" to let us know that useful information can be found on bookshelves or bedside letters. It seems like closing shops would add more spice to the game. Maybe some places are open later than others so instead of mind-numbingly running to "the merchant" you would have to think about who was open at that time...kind of like...Elder Scrolls?
I think you are having difficulty finding the transition from a single player game to one that has been designed for hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people that are online at any given time. I don't see any developer designing city merchant content that people have to wait for 8-12 hours to access. There are games that have day and night cycle mob spawns, but for regular merchants city-wide? It's not a matter of doability, but feasibility. It's not practical.
But the thing is, his concerns are understandable in this case. Yes it's an MMO. But it ios also an Elder Scrolls game. With an appeal to that playerbase. So his reaction to how static the world is will be a common one coming from those expecting another Elder Scrolls game. And really even by MMO standards it is rather static.
When WoW hit years ago, it took players expectations of the lore and the Warcraft world and scored an 11 on the 1-10 scale. But that was a very different transition than TESO will be looking at. It's trying too hard to be an MMO and missing core elements of TES. But at the same time it is trying to be too much of a TES game and completely blowing pretty common and standardized expectations from the MMO community. (seriously any MMO players loving this UI? How about the open dungeons? It's 2002 all over again?)
Originally posted by Setzer The game felt very alive to me. You want to see "stagnant" and "plastic" then you should go play SWTOR for a while.
Huh? the game feels as dead and static as SWTOR.
The only MMO that has put some effort into putting some life in the world is GW2. Other developers don't even try.
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.' -Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid." -Luke McKinney
First of all, it isn't my job to code this into the game. I am a game player. I always think it's funny when people on forums are like "oh it's an MMO so that's hard to do...that's why they didn't do it." If programmers just gave up on all the hard stuff we wouldn't have any progressive games. Secondly, do you think it's seriously that hard to do? They already have day and night in the game. They script movements for some of the NPC's in the game already, especially the quest NPC's.
Why is it that people are so willing to accept mediocrity?
Do you accept that we haven't landed a person on Mars?
Sometimes it is technology and the backers to fund it.
Your gripe has nothing to do with mediocrity. Online computer graphics still have limits.
I'm no programmer but considering how MMORPGs already have NPCs walking about, initiating converstations with each other, playing instruments, cooking... I don't think coding is a problem. It's a matter of accessibility.. If NPCs went to sleep when night comes about people wouldn't be able to complete their quests. I wouldn't mind, it'd only add to the immersion. But in this day and age MMORPGs are all about fast progression, constant and easy accessibility and no challenges.
I understand what you're saying, and I could even buy that as an acceptable answer if it wasn't for the fact that they keep telling us that this isn't a "rush to the finish-line" game. Even the splash screen has tips like "be sure to read everything" to let us know that useful information can be found on bookshelves or bedside letters. It seems like closing shops would add more spice to the game. Maybe some places are open later than others so instead of mind-numbingly running to "the merchant" you would have to think about who was open at that time...kind of like...Elder Scrolls?
I think you are having difficulty finding the transition from a single player game to one that has been designed for hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people that are online at any given time. I don't see any developer designing city merchant content that people have to wait for 8-12 hours to access. There are games that have day and night cycle mob spawns, but for regular merchants city-wide? It's not a matter of doability, but feasibility. It's not practical.
You mean 'sheep'. It takes nothing to code in movements based on time of day. A couple of variables for each npc tied to a function or two to control it. Not more complicated then that. It would be done the same way as it is for skyim. That fact of the information being stored on a 'server' as opposed to your pc or console doesn't complicate it more.
The answer is 'it's an mmo, it's designed that way because people are extremely stupid and there will be lots of crying because people can't find vendors and quest givers as they should ALWAYS be static like mmo's always have been."
This is what the answer is. Not because it's 'a mmo and it's complicated and bla bla bla. As a programmer, you can easily see they skimped to create a traditional mmo. Amazes me what peoples acceptable standards have become.
First of all, it isn't my job to code this into the game. I am a game player. I always think it's funny when people on forums are like "oh it's an MMO so that's hard to do...that's why they didn't do it." If programmers just gave up on all the hard stuff we wouldn't have any progressive games. Secondly, do you think it's seriously that hard to do? They already have day and night in the game. They script movements for some of the NPC's in the game already, especially the quest NPC's.
Why is it that people are so willing to accept mediocrity?
Do you accept that we haven't landed a person on Mars?
Sometimes it is technology and the backers to fund it.
Your gripe has nothing to do with mediocrity. Online computer graphics still have limits.
Not to derail the conversation, but technology isn't the reason we are not on mars, bureaucracy is. Proposed projects to go to mars was feasible and cheap in the late 90's. But the way missions are 'voted' on in NASA prevented it because the project did not include every friggin scientists pet projects, which would have drastically increased the cost and make it not feasible.
There's lots of research done on this. We were ready for mars 20 years ago. It's already been planned out. and for a space mission, it was dirt cheap compared to others going on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Direct
Originally posted by Setzer The game felt very alive to me. You want to see "stagnant" and "plastic" then you should go play SWTOR for a while.
Huh? the game feels as dead and static as SWTOR.
The only MMO that has put some effort into putting some life in the world is GW2. Other developers don't even try.
You're not serious are you? Because to say ESO is dead and static like SWTOR is pretty damn funny and couldn't be further from the truth. When was the last time you played SWTOR? Do the planets have day/night cycles and weather effects like ESO? I have an active sub to SWTOR and have been playing the game since launch and all the planets are static...nothing about them feels alive. I did not feel that way about ESO after beta testing it.
the way o see it if we had the npcs act like they did on skyrim ppl would complain if we have them as they are ppl would complain.. there is no winning for the devs on this because people feel the need to complain about everything
free 7 day sub and unlocks for swtor new accounts and 90+ day inactive subs click here to get it!
I'm no programmer but considering how MMORPGs already have NPCs walking about, initiating converstations with each other, playing instruments, cooking... I don't think coding is a problem. It's a matter of accessibility.. If NPCs went to sleep when night comes about people wouldn't be able to complete their quests. I wouldn't mind, it'd only add to the immersion. But in this day and age MMORPGs are all about fast progression, constant and easy accessibility and no challenges.
I understand what you're saying, and I could even buy that as an acceptable answer if it wasn't for the fact that they keep telling us that this isn't a "rush to the finish-line" game. Even the splash screen has tips like "be sure to read everything" to let us know that useful information can be found on bookshelves or bedside letters. It seems like closing shops would add more spice to the game. Maybe some places are open later than others so instead of mind-numbingly running to "the merchant" you would have to think about who was open at that time...kind of like...Elder Scrolls?
What you're suggesting is for the developers to lock players out of content based on the time of day. That's not going to work in an online game, it's just not, you have to accept it. What happens if someone logs in, only has an hour or so to play, and it's night time during that period. They can't sell or buy anything?
I would love NPC day/night routines.. It certainly adds a sense of being in a dynamic, thriving world.
I'm no programmer but considering how MMORPGs already have NPCs walking about, initiating converstations with each other, playing instruments, cooking... I don't think coding is a problem. It's a matter of accessibility.. If NPCs went to sleep when night comes about people wouldn't be able to complete their quests. I wouldn't mind, it'd only add to the immersion. But in this day and age MMORPGs are all about fast progression, constant and easy accessibility and no challenges.
I understand what you're saying, and I could even buy that as an acceptable answer if it wasn't for the fact that they keep telling us that this isn't a "rush to the finish-line" game. Even the splash screen has tips like "be sure to read everything" to let us know that useful information can be found on bookshelves or bedside letters. It seems like closing shops would add more spice to the game. Maybe some places are open later than others so instead of mind-numbingly running to "the merchant" you would have to think about who was open at that time...kind of like...Elder Scrolls?
I think you are having difficulty finding the transition from a single player game to one that has been designed for hundreds of thousands, or millions, of people that are online at any given time. I don't see any developer designing city merchant content that people have to wait for 8-12 hours to access. There are games that have day and night cycle mob spawns, but for regular merchants city-wide? It's not a matter of doability, but feasibility. It's not practical.
Utter rubbish.
First of all, no MMO to date has "millions" of players online, in the same world, at a time. I believe EVE-Online still holds the record for largest number of concurrent logins on a single server (cluster), at something like 60,000. Most MMO's break you up into server shards, where the online population is about 4,000 to 8,000 concurrent. While ESO does claim to use a single login server system, it's not clear how their architecture is split up, so we don't yet know if zones are instanced (as they are in EQ2, for example), or if the population is spread out in other ways.
Secondly, scripted NPC behavior is not CPU intensive. It would be fairly simple to have NPC's wander about realistically, talk to one another, go home at night, open shop in the morning, etc.
Thirdly, the claim of it not being practical is only because you're clinging to the way stuff has worked since EQ1. There's no reason an MMO can't have a reasonably short day/night cycle (EQ1 was 72 minutes). If the day/night cycle is short enough, you can nicely script NPC activities to fall into patterns. Your reputable businesses and offices would be open during the day. Your taverns and shady dealers would be out at night. It doesn't have to be like real life, where the sidewalks get rolled up at 5pm and players have to twiddle their thumbs until morning.
I'm no programmer but considering how MMORPGs already have NPCs walking about, initiating converstations with each other, playing instruments, cooking... I don't think coding is a problem. It's a matter of accessibility.. If NPCs went to sleep when night comes about people wouldn't be able to complete their quests. I wouldn't mind, it'd only add to the immersion. But in this day and age MMORPGs are all about fast progression, constant and easy accessibility and no challenges.
I understand what you're saying, and I could even buy that as an acceptable answer if it wasn't for the fact that they keep telling us that this isn't a "rush to the finish-line" game. Even the splash screen has tips like "be sure to read everything" to let us know that useful information can be found on bookshelves or bedside letters. It seems like closing shops would add more spice to the game. Maybe some places are open later than others so instead of mind-numbingly running to "the merchant" you would have to think about who was open at that time...kind of like...Elder Scrolls?
Agree. Some folks only get an hour or less a day to play. Imagine having to wait to turn in an item to a quest provider but he is sleeping for 2 hours?
Sorry, there is no "T" for wait setting in an mmorpg.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
I can see why you would be disappointed coming from previous Elder Scrolls games. But as far as MMOs go, the NPCs are handled better than most in ESO. Mobs however need work. they seem to just stand there in one spot forever and wait for you to gank them, like in SWTOR.
Did anybody else notice that the NPC's don't follow a daily routine? They don't wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, go to bed...etc. I also noticed that shops are open 24/7...what's up with that? Everything just feels stagnant and plastic...
On a side-note, where are all the houses at? Why can't I go around picking locks and breaking in to houses? What gives?
Yeah, I'm sure people would just LOVE to wait for the NPC to stop sleeping, so they can finally buy/sell/get the quest or whatever. Did you do it in Skyrim? Or did you press T like the rest of us?
Lockpicking houses with thousents of people running around? How exactly would that work? 16 people at a time lockpicking the same door?
Really not sure if you're being serious or not, but just in case you are - If you want all that you should go play Skyrim, because you aren't getting any of that in any MMORPG. It would be a nuisance and meaningless.
This reminds me of SWTOR. I had buddies angrily explaining to me what a crappy Star Wars game it was, in purely single-player terms. They had never played an MMO in their lives, and either because of marketing, expectations or just their mental association with the IP, they got let down, expecting something similar to the single-player offerings.
Then again, SWTOR was a letdown for me too, and I play MMOs.
Did anybody else notice that the NPC's don't follow a daily routine? They don't wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, go to bed...etc. I also noticed that shops are open 24/7...what's up with that? Everything just feels stagnant and plastic...
On a side-note, where are all the houses at? Why can't I go around picking locks and breaking in to houses? What gives?
skyrim is --------> that way. Its an mmorpg good luck coding all that into a persistant world with a million players..
It was done in the late 90's with ultima online, but i guess programmers back then were gods compared with todays sorry bunch.
I'm no programmer but considering how MMORPGs already have NPCs walking about, initiating converstations with each other, playing instruments, cooking... I don't think coding is a problem. It's a matter of accessibility.. If NPCs went to sleep when night comes about people wouldn't be able to complete their quests. I wouldn't mind, it'd only add to the immersion. But in this day and age MMORPGs are all about fast progression, constant and easy accessibility and no challenges.
They had all this back on NPC in 1999 with Everquest 1, NPC walked round did they daily buisness, talked to eachother some even dropped items out of ther epocket by accident which often ended up as a quest trying to find who to give the letter that was dropped back too. When night came some merchants locked up and went to sleep while some other try ripping players off by offering less money to buy things and charged more due to less competition from the sleeping merchants, I am baffled how NPC behaviour hasnt evolved at all (generaly got alot worst) over the 15 years. With any luck EQN and story bricks might be able to evolve NPC behaviours
Originally posted by Torgrim If every NPC in ESO had their daily life as you suggest I would love to see those framerates we get while plenty of other players around doing their stuff.
This "plenty of other players" rubbs me a little.
I went pretty neutral thru this Beta weekend, but what i saw was instances/phases whatever you may call it.
Multible virtual world instances to handle actually millions of players ... millions of instances.
What is the playercap per instance ? 100 players ? 200 ?
I was also haevy under the impression, that there is just no people, no crowd, technically clean.
I guess thats the new trend ... make instances for instances to serve a perfect experience.
Technically it ran great, no lags, no queue's, no bigger problems, just superb.
Did anybody else notice that the NPC's don't follow a daily routine? They don't wake up, eat breakfast, go to work, come home, go to bed...etc. I also noticed that shops are open 24/7...what's up with that? Everything just feels stagnant and plastic...
On a side-note, where are all the houses at? Why can't I go around picking locks and breaking in to houses? What gives?
NPC need no sleep! silly....
and the houses are usualy next to the road, you click on the doors and enter them. inside you actually CAN check their cupboards and whatnot. but you cant "steal" since there is no robbery system
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Comments
Do you think you feel the NPC´s react likein Swtor, just lifeless ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3Rrk6lgi24&html5=1
I think ESO has something in common with SWTOR npc actions, of course not that bad like in swtor but to a certain degree.
After I was watchin a press released video a while ago after there was no NDA anymore, I thought that in the video without all the players the game world did look a bit empty and you noticed that a lot of the NPC did not do much and were just standing around without much action.
i cant evne rember the last MMO that felt truly alive to me, in fact i dont rember any aat all that felt that way to me,
rember this is a MMO not a SP
F2P may be the way of the future, but ya know they dont make them like they used to
Proper Grammer & spelling are extra, corrections will be LOL at.
It's not mediocrity.... It's hundreds/thousands of hours not wasted on useless pathing/life cycle for NPCs that were used for actual content...
yet they did it for a single player game.
F2P may be the way of the future, but ya know they dont make them like they used to
Proper Grammer & spelling are extra, corrections will be LOL at.
Because in a single player game, you are alone in the game... If the NPCs don't move or do anything, it will definitely feel dead and wierd... In an MMO, the PLAYERS are what gives life to the game.
I agree it would be great to have a game where the focus is more on exploring.
Here is roughly the "questing mechanism" as I have seen it implemented in ESO:
1) FInd random guard/civilian friendly NPC around area to save (town, mine) who asks you to talk to the general/mayor of the said area,
2) Free town/area of an invading force amounting to a grand total of 10 enemy NPCs (just need fighting about 3 of them and 1 boss),
3) Get notification on screen (Completed: XYZ), round of applause from NPC in town/area (Oh! That was it? Really?).
I must say this had me laughing a few times how cheap/non epic it feels. I will still be playing, but not holding my breath for the quests.
ROFL- IYFF!!! Dude... are you being serious? They could do it, but choose not to - END OF STORY! Everything else in is just your opinion;
The MMO that does have that stuff will be the MMO that lasts.
I see a lot of people saying it can't be done but it absolutely can.
I see a lot of people saying that no one would like a game like that because they want to level faster. I call bullcrap on that. They can make the night cycle 2-3 hours and it would be fine.
It is the little things like shops closing at night, inventory that is affected by the players, and a million other small things that will take a game to the next level of immersion that is sorely missing in the current crop of MMOs.
I personally can't wait until someone puts out an MMO that feels real. One that is not a race to get to max level. One that actually makes me forget that I am just playing a game.
I doubt that ESO is going to do that. The only game that even appears to be trying to change the mold is EQ:Next. We will see what ends up happening.
But the thing is, his concerns are understandable in this case. Yes it's an MMO. But it ios also an Elder Scrolls game. With an appeal to that playerbase. So his reaction to how static the world is will be a common one coming from those expecting another Elder Scrolls game. And really even by MMO standards it is rather static.
When WoW hit years ago, it took players expectations of the lore and the Warcraft world and scored an 11 on the 1-10 scale. But that was a very different transition than TESO will be looking at. It's trying too hard to be an MMO and missing core elements of TES. But at the same time it is trying to be too much of a TES game and completely blowing pretty common and standardized expectations from the MMO community. (seriously any MMO players loving this UI? How about the open dungeons? It's 2002 all over again?)
Huh? the game feels as dead and static as SWTOR.
The only MMO that has put some effort into putting some life in the world is GW2. Other developers don't even try.
"The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'
-Jesse Schell
"Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid."
-Luke McKinney
Do you accept that we haven't landed a person on Mars?
Sometimes it is technology and the backers to fund it.
Your gripe has nothing to do with mediocrity. Online computer graphics still have limits.
You mean 'sheep'. It takes nothing to code in movements based on time of day. A couple of variables for each npc tied to a function or two to control it. Not more complicated then that. It would be done the same way as it is for skyim. That fact of the information being stored on a 'server' as opposed to your pc or console doesn't complicate it more.
The answer is 'it's an mmo, it's designed that way because people are extremely stupid and there will be lots of crying because people can't find vendors and quest givers as they should ALWAYS be static like mmo's always have been."
This is what the answer is. Not because it's 'a mmo and it's complicated and bla bla bla. As a programmer, you can easily see they skimped to create a traditional mmo. Amazes me what peoples acceptable standards have become.
Not to derail the conversation, but technology isn't the reason we are not on mars, bureaucracy is. Proposed projects to go to mars was feasible and cheap in the late 90's. But the way missions are 'voted' on in NASA prevented it because the project did not include every friggin scientists pet projects, which would have drastically increased the cost and make it not feasible.
There's lots of research done on this. We were ready for mars 20 years ago. It's already been planned out. and for a space mission, it was dirt cheap compared to others going on. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Direct
Huh? the game feels as dead and static as SWTOR.
The only MMO that has put some effort into putting some life in the world is GW2. Other developers don't even try.
You're not serious are you? Because to say ESO is dead and static like SWTOR is pretty damn funny and couldn't be further from the truth. When was the last time you played SWTOR? Do the planets have day/night cycles and weather effects like ESO? I have an active sub to SWTOR and have been playing the game since launch and all the planets are static...nothing about them feels alive. I did not feel that way about ESO after beta testing it.
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What you're suggesting is for the developers to lock players out of content based on the time of day. That's not going to work in an online game, it's just not, you have to accept it. What happens if someone logs in, only has an hour or so to play, and it's night time during that period. They can't sell or buy anything?
I would love NPC day/night routines.. It certainly adds a sense of being in a dynamic, thriving world.
Utter rubbish.
First of all, no MMO to date has "millions" of players online, in the same world, at a time. I believe EVE-Online still holds the record for largest number of concurrent logins on a single server (cluster), at something like 60,000. Most MMO's break you up into server shards, where the online population is about 4,000 to 8,000 concurrent. While ESO does claim to use a single login server system, it's not clear how their architecture is split up, so we don't yet know if zones are instanced (as they are in EQ2, for example), or if the population is spread out in other ways.
Secondly, scripted NPC behavior is not CPU intensive. It would be fairly simple to have NPC's wander about realistically, talk to one another, go home at night, open shop in the morning, etc.
Thirdly, the claim of it not being practical is only because you're clinging to the way stuff has worked since EQ1. There's no reason an MMO can't have a reasonably short day/night cycle (EQ1 was 72 minutes). If the day/night cycle is short enough, you can nicely script NPC activities to fall into patterns. Your reputable businesses and offices would be open during the day. Your taverns and shady dealers would be out at night. It doesn't have to be like real life, where the sidewalks get rolled up at 5pm and players have to twiddle their thumbs until morning.
Agree. Some folks only get an hour or less a day to play. Imagine having to wait to turn in an item to a quest provider but he is sleeping for 2 hours?
Sorry, there is no "T" for wait setting in an mmorpg.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
I can see why you would be disappointed coming from previous Elder Scrolls games. But as far as MMOs go, the NPCs are handled better than most in ESO. Mobs however need work. they seem to just stand there in one spot forever and wait for you to gank them, like in SWTOR.
Yeah, I'm sure people would just LOVE to wait for the NPC to stop sleeping, so they can finally buy/sell/get the quest or whatever. Did you do it in Skyrim? Or did you press T like the rest of us?
Lockpicking houses with thousents of people running around? How exactly would that work? 16 people at a time lockpicking the same door?
Really not sure if you're being serious or not, but just in case you are - If you want all that you should go play Skyrim, because you aren't getting any of that in any MMORPG. It would be a nuisance and meaningless.
This reminds me of SWTOR. I had buddies angrily explaining to me what a crappy Star Wars game it was, in purely single-player terms. They had never played an MMO in their lives, and either because of marketing, expectations or just their mental association with the IP, they got let down, expecting something similar to the single-player offerings.
Then again, SWTOR was a letdown for me too, and I play MMOs.
It was done in the late 90's with ultima online, but i guess programmers back then were gods compared with todays sorry bunch.
They had all this back on NPC in 1999 with Everquest 1, NPC walked round did they daily buisness, talked to eachother some even dropped items out of ther epocket by accident which often ended up as a quest trying to find who to give the letter that was dropped back too. When night came some merchants locked up and went to sleep while some other try ripping players off by offering less money to buy things and charged more due to less competition from the sleeping merchants, I am baffled how NPC behaviour hasnt evolved at all (generaly got alot worst) over the 15 years. With any luck EQN and story bricks might be able to evolve NPC behaviours
This "plenty of other players" rubbs me a little.
I went pretty neutral thru this Beta weekend, but what i saw was instances/phases whatever you may call it.
Multible virtual world instances to handle actually millions of players ... millions of instances.
What is the playercap per instance ? 100 players ? 200 ?
I was also haevy under the impression, that there is just no people, no crowd, technically clean.
I guess thats the new trend ... make instances for instances to serve a perfect experience.
Technically it ran great, no lags, no queue's, no bigger problems, just superb.
NPC need no sleep! silly....
and the houses are usualy next to the road, you click on the doors and enter them. inside you actually CAN check their cupboards and whatnot. but you cant "steal" since there is no robbery system
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"