Why do developers (especially of open world games) consistently run into the problem of being unable to frame their world in any way other than ocean on one side and mountains on the other?
I've seen it in absolutely every open world game I've played. The only exception I've ever seen had a massive desert instead of ocean and/or mountain, but that's not much different.
It makes sense, don't get me wrong. Making the area outside of your game map uninteresting or otherwise inaccessible is an easy way out, but it just doesn't always geographically/cartographically make sense.
Why must all video game worlds exist in a vacuum? Why is the one kingdom or city the only one that gets to even so much as be looked at? Why is the player always made to believe that there is simply nothing beyond the given game world's walls?
It makes even less sense when you consider things like the world of Elder Scrolls, where Tamriel is but a single continent on an entire planet. Does there really exist no intercontinental trade whatsoever? Has seabound exploration just never happened?
I was hoping this would be a maps thread. I remember NWN came with a cloth map and it was one of those details that pulled you into the game more.
Isaiah Richardson
what would you propose they do OP? Bordering the map with impassible mountains, desert, water, ice. is what they've come up with to have it make more sense than just an invisible wall, and it fits, a lot of countries borders are on rivers / mountains / coast, because people are like "well fuck over there its too far" The only way I can think of would be to make an entire planet, which devs of this age havent, because they either cant, or dont want to. And then would you complain about not being able to explore other planets? No mans sky has a whole galaxy i hear, but its a trade off between size and detail.>204fcc
Isaac Hill
Players will be disappointed if you draw something interesting out of bounds that they can never visit.
Benjamin Stewart
Lucid point. I always wondered that. In retrospect I think that the continent is the only inhabited civilised area on that tiny moon sized planet, the rest is just water.
How can you expect developers to create a round world when even God, Himself, can only make worlds that are flat?
Kayden Ortiz
There are other continents in Nirn.
Jonathan Rivera
Because that's where they're created, in an endless blue/grey/empty hell
Also cos hard drives, cos CPUs, cos memory, cos eventually they run out of shit. They don't have infinite content to supply and if they claim they do it'll be procedurally generated nothingness.
Because there *is* nothing beyond there, you can no_clip and see for yourself. Using TES as an example you'd need to be running the equivalent of 8 or 9 games at once with that much content all of it 'well written' and relevant at the time it's set in and you'd *still* hit ocean all around once you got to the shore-line.
Wat? They have ships (granted I've never seen one move) and it's not just a single continent. They made the map for Arena quite a while ago so mabye blame them if your autismal brain is fuzzed on this,
What I want to know is: What do you expect? It to loop back onto the other side of the map like a fake globe? Games that try to make whole planets are always shit, they never have enough detail or life and feel tiny.
Christian Phillips
Katamari excluded of course.
Carson Watson
where did it all go wrong?
Michael Gray
Rings of Power on Genesis is spherical world, and walking in one direction long enough will make you go in a circle.
There's a tunnel out of Liberty City in the mountain that blocks off one side of GTA III. IIRC I think they mention that Carcer City from Manhunt is on the other side.
The last island in GTA IV technically isn't even in Liberty City proper.
Plus basically any open world series does reference the locations from the other games as being in the same world, even if you can't go to them in that particular game.
In Zelda II you begin north of the mountains that border the northern side of Zelda I, go back to the location of the original game, and then pass and the water that borders the eastern side of Zelda I, expanding the world of the original while still including it in the game.
David Campbell
You only have so much space and need to cram in lots of different types of terrain and culture groups. Oceans give you nice beaches and mercantile peoples, mountains give you rough terrain and crazy shit to explore.
Jeremiah Clark
In the intro to Skyrim's Dragonborn expansion, you ride on a moving ship for about a minute.
Daniel Sullivan
...
Brody Richardson
Nirn is not a planet. Other landmasses may or may not be reachable through conventional means. Still, the ideas related to that are valid - chalked up alongside the hundreds of other important things about the setting that Bethesda just so happen to never have to so much as mention.
Aiden Foster
How would Holla Forums feel about a game set in Strangereal that isn't an Ace Combat game?
Jaxson Ortiz
Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis was good in that you could customize the general features and shape of your island before starting
Kayden Sanchez
...
Ryder Davis
Be still my foolish heart.
They're definitely gonna have to sort out boats/ships for the next one, there's not enough frozen landlocked land left for a good enough excuse. That's if they ever fucking plan on making it of course, or perhaps the cycle of reselling Rimjob over and over will repeat it's self in perpetuity.
Elijah Edwards
UO did it better
Jace Nelson
It be a fun ArmA campaign thats for sure.
Jacob Gray
It'd be really fun seeing alternate Earths as settings for games like Arma, or strategy games, or especially grand strategy games. I used to think Civilization was really cool just for the spectacle of seeing these alternate nations arise on an alternate Earth.
Jack Davis
because their purpose as their financiers see it is to be a vacuum chamber in which to contain you
they exist to narrow down your experiences and thoughts, to develop a constricted state of mind with instincts, emotions, etc. ignored for stimulation. The goal is to subvert your energy and stop you from acting in the real world against the many blatant and obvious crimes that are being done against you and your family and your friends.
Logan Morales
that is not a contemplative expression
you are suffering from autism, go outside now
Gavin Jenkins
Of course user, and this has been going on forever, so you should stop playing video games and fuck beautiful 10/10s right this instant to produce children.
William Hall
user, I live in Nevada and am within walking distance of a mountain. You're fucking autistic.
