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Author Topic: Are there any world-in-motion CRPGs?  (Read 1095 times)

S'mon

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Are there any world-in-motion CRPGs?
« on: November 11, 2018, 12:33:38 PM »
I like sandbox CRPGs (Oblivion, Skyrim, Fallout) but it bugs me how nothing ever happens until I take action, barring the occasional offscreen NPC death. I was wondering if any CRPGs try to emulate world in motion play by having stuff happen independent of PC action?

I'm thinking especially procedurally generated events, rather than scripted events, but scripted events that occur at a certain in-game date regardless of what the PC has done so far would also count. "After PC kills X, the Y arrive!" would be the opposite of what I'm thinking of.

David Johansen

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Are there any world-in-motion CRPGs?
« Reply #1 on: November 11, 2018, 09:42:45 PM »
What I've always wanted is a multiplayer game where pc actions have cascading effects.  Where houses burned down stay burned down, peasants killed stay dead, fields burned stay burned and so forth.  But I think a world in motion would also be pretty cool.
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Arioch

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Are there any world-in-motion CRPGs?
« Reply #2 on: November 12, 2018, 03:24:51 AM »
Don't know if it's really what you're looking for, but some games give you a time limit to do certain things.
For example, in Daggerfall you can completely miss the main quest if you wait too much. Basically at the start of the game your contact in the region sends you a letter, telling you to meet her in a certain place within a certain number of days. If you don't go there in time, she leaves. You can still explore the world and complete side quests, but you'll be unable to proceed with the main quest.

Or, in the Atelier series, you usually get a set time to complete you quest, and there are certain events that happens if you meet certain NPCs at certain times in certain places (that's a lot of certain :D). All of these can influence the ending you get, but usually there's only one way to get the "true" ending.

Also, not really an RPG but, in Way of the Samurai 4, you get IIRC 5 in-game days to complete the game (but there are multiple endings), and there are many different events. Some of them are influenced by your actions (happens only if you do something), others aren't and will happen despite of what you do.

nDervish

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Are there any world-in-motion CRPGs?
« Reply #3 on: November 13, 2018, 07:20:16 AM »
How broadly are we defining "RPG" here?

If you mean something with a storyline running through it that you're expected to follow, then Daggerfall is probably the closest thing I can think of, as already mentioned.

If you're looking more for an open sandbox, I once observed that Mount & Blade: Warband was the best role-playing experience I'd had in a computer game, but it's all very combat-focused.  You've got six nations and, I don't know, probably 150 or so noble lords among them.  The lords all pursue their personal activities (mostly patrolling their lands during peacetime, or fighting during wars, with bandit-hunting, attending feasts, etc. mixed in) and the nations will go to war with each other.  All of this happens independently of your character, who starts out as a small-time mercenary captain, then can recruit troops, build up a company, fight in tournaments, take on tasks, court and marry, become a vassal, and eventually start your own seventh nation if you so desire.  Relations are tracked between the PC, all nations, and each individual lord, including lord-nation, lord-lord, etc., so there's interpersonal interaction with NPCs, albeit very shallow interaction.  And it's all simulated in real-time with no pre-planned fixed events or anything of that sort.

The Mount & Blade guys are currently working on a new game called Bannerlords, which should be out Real Soon Now(tm), which I have high hopes for, but I'll be watching here for any other suggestions you might get, too.

S'mon

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Are there any world-in-motion CRPGs?
« Reply #4 on: November 13, 2018, 07:57:07 AM »
Mount & Blade sounds rather like what I'm thinking of, yup.

JeremyR

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Are there any world-in-motion CRPGs?
« Reply #5 on: November 13, 2018, 07:54:43 PM »
Quote from: David Johansen;1064206
What I've always wanted is a multiplayer game where pc actions have cascading effects.  Where houses burned down stay burned down, peasants killed stay dead, fields burned stay burned and so forth.  But I think a world in motion would also be pretty cool.

I remember when Elite IV was being Kickstarted, someone asked if players could be able to destroy planets. And the answer was, that if they were, there wouldn't be any planets left.

The same would be true in your game.

nDervish

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Are there any world-in-motion CRPGs?
« Reply #6 on: November 14, 2018, 07:59:28 AM »
Quote from: JeremyR;1064446
I remember when Elite IV was being Kickstarted, someone asked if players could be able to destroy planets. And the answer was, that if they were, there wouldn't be any planets left.

The same would be true in your game.

Not necessarily.  If the game includes mechanics for new houses to be built, new peasants to be born, new fields to be cultivated and grow, and so forth, then they wouldn't necessarily be exhausted, depending on how the rates of old ones being destroyed and new ones being created compare.

And note that I'm specifically not talking about the destroyed stuff simply respawning, which would basically gut David Johanssen's wish, but rather about in-game characters (PC or NPC) building structures, having children, and raising crops, i.e., simulating a complete, living world rather than just a shooting gallery of things to blow up (and then they respawn, so you can blow them up again!).  Persistent construction as well as persistent destruction.