Elder Scrolls Director Todd Howard recently said he'd like to see more reactivity in open world games, rather than scale for scale's sake, going forward.
It's actually really REALLY great news that Todd is saying this. Skyrim had a massive world and was hugely successful. So to hear him say this is music to my ears. Bigger is not better anymore, in regards to open world games. I also can't imagine what more 'reactivity' would mean in the games, but I'm excited to find out.
Quality over quantity should be a mandate for all developers in open-world games going forward. Make less but give these activites more depth. Majorly cut down on collectibles. Find a way to push the open-world genre forward in exciting and innovative ways.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla, '388 Wealth, 233 Mysteries, 161 Artifacts' - Majority are mind-numbingly boring and easy. No depth to most of them and require no skill to get. Boring busy work. Just open-world filler.
Breath Of the Wild... 900 Korok Seeds? 120 shrines? NO.
Collectibles and things like that are ok, just don't have so damned many. Side quests are fine, just don't have so damned many and make them more meaningfull. Give them more depth. Quality over quantity.
He's been saying what people.want to hear for years...havent you heard of radiant ai? Don't listen to his shite
Bethesda are the ones falling behind on this, they're the biggest offenders! The have reduced their reactivity and variety for.years, while.other devs strive.to.keep.their games interesting. I mean Jesus, skyrim is one of the least reactive open.worlds going.
You're the dragonborn, you muder a king no.reaction.or consequences in the game. I mean.jese, fallout new Vegas destroys any Bethesda game in this regard
Guaranteed the next elder scrolls will.be another rehash, probably even less an rpg than skyrim. That's their trend. Big talk no delivery
Edit: lol, they are still using the same engine for next gen? Really? REALLY!?
Actually, BotW shrines are by far the best part of the game, imho. IMHO, you shouldn't just group BotW in with those generic open world games but not even mention Horizon, just saying. Even if you don't like BotW, it is hard to say that it isn't very different than generic crap spoon fed to us as AA games. It is very different, and imho, way way better, but I understand that not everyone agrees.
Also, I believe reactivity means the world reacts to your behaviors or actions. Imagine if when you choose to be a vampire the world changes to perpetual night and you can't go into towns and stuff like that. It adds weight to your decisions and makes your game unique vs all others. Not just one quest, but the whole world changes.
Well, if anything BoW had a very good approach to Korok seeds. You only really need like 1/4 of them to get the upgrades, making the act of hunting them down less of a chore in tracking a specific number of items in very specific locations (which usually requires you to get a guide) and instead being bombarded with so many options of how to find them that anywhere you look there is probably one.
If anything, my biggest issue with the seeds was that it was inventory that was tied to them and Hetsu moving around the map in a specific pattern went against an approach of tackling things in any order
Also, the shrines are mini dungeons and other than the combat related ones, they were all different and with several types of rewards, why would want less of them?
This reminded me of WatchDogs: Legion. A big map - but nothing to it imo. Just felt like the same reused stuff over and over again with little substance to the space.
He would probably also like to monetize different levels of npc. Subscribe to Elder Scrolls 1st to u lock teir one of the thieves guild, become a platinum member to have access to the mage college day one.
Suzie needs her bread delivered, would you like to upgrade to meat delivery for $2?
Cyberpunk looks to be so far ahead of the new Bethesda games it's going to be embarrassing for them. That's more a compliment to CDPR than anything else.
These comments coming from someone who thought Fallout 76 was going to be the “bees knees”. I’ll take everything Todd Howard says with a huge grain of salt.
Yes he did. Everyone heard him hype it up at the unveiling. https://youtu.be/b075EcrB4y... And we all know how it turned out after release. It was quite the opposite of awesome.
Most people don't hype something they don't truly believe in. Not all, but most. And Todd doesn't strike me as someone who would waste time, money and effort developing a game he doesn't believe in. So, I'm not sure why you even replied. Unless you just like disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing.
Agreed size isnt great when its too big, just another tree just another mountain with not much happening, great view imo more quality filling that world and changes rather than empty size
Totally goes against their design philosophy. Unless you want to count base building in Fallout 4, all they've done is make the worlds of ES and Fallout less and less reactive, with less player agency to be had. That's the Todd Howard way after 2000. Part of the reason I'm happy they got bought out. Now more developers, potentially, have access to, and can shake up, those series.
Totally agree with Todd on this. Open world games need to evolve into more interactive and complex systems. Improvements can come from better NPC ai(better NPC memory, natural conversation), hierarchical dynamic systems(ie - animal breeding, material behavior), smaller but denser worlds, increased granular destruction, dynamic hitboxes with corresponding NPC reactions. The Ubisoft template is getting a bit tired at this point.
I still like very large open worlds that contain things to explore and discover. I don't need something to do or people to see every two feet. It's the same principle as hiking, you hike to some destination but along the way you enjoy the beauty of the landscape. For me the smaller the open game world the less realistic it is.
Miles Morales is the perfect example of an "open world" game with excellent replay value and it's a damn near perfect game. The first Watch Dogs as well.
Just fix your damn engine
It's actually really REALLY great news that Todd is saying this. Skyrim had a massive world and was hugely successful. So to hear him say this is music to my ears. Bigger is not better anymore, in regards to open world games. I also can't imagine what more 'reactivity' would mean in the games, but I'm excited to find out.
Quality over quantity should be a mandate for all developers in open-world games going forward. Make less but give these activites more depth. Majorly cut down on collectibles. Find a way to push the open-world genre forward in exciting and innovative ways.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla, '388 Wealth, 233 Mysteries, 161 Artifacts'
- Majority are mind-numbingly boring and easy. No depth to most of them and require no skill to get. Boring busy work. Just open-world filler.
Breath Of the Wild... 900 Korok Seeds? 120 shrines? NO.
Collectibles and things like that are ok, just don't have so damned many.
Side quests are fine, just don't have so damned many and make them more meaningfull. Give them more depth. Quality over quantity.
Then do it...
Quality over quantity. I mean that should have been always the motto. How is this news?
This reminded me of WatchDogs: Legion. A big map - but nothing to it imo. Just felt like the same reused stuff over and over again with little substance to the space.