Lum wrote:One thing I'd like to see in an upcoming Bethesda game would be more realistic sizes for cities and population. It's not only Bethesda's fault, since all developers do the same, more or less. That feeling that you wander around a relatively big place with some settlements and towns and, all in all, a couple dozens of NPCs across the lands. There are settlements with 3 houses and 5 people and they're called "towns". The capitals are fancy versions of the settlements, with more buildings and little more people. I don't feel like being in a populated area. I hope they can achieve that feeling one day.

Victor Tombs wrote:They used procedural generation for landmass in Daggerfall, Flat. I can't say it was an overwhelming success as there was very little to explore in those areas.

Scytale wrote:Bethesda is great at constructing settings. But can it construct a science fiction idea and setting which makes the story the player tells by playing it dependent on that idea or setting? Really good science fiction does this: it makes the 'science-fiction'ness of the story inextricable from the story. While Star Trek DS9 was good, its setting (I would argue) was not essential to the kinds of stories it told. You could set DS9 in a border outpost under a Western setting and you could get, in principle, similar stories. Really quality science fiction is about people. Here is the best example of what I (or Bob Shaw, more accurately) thinks about this. A punchy short story that uses its idea - a glass that slows light so much that it would take years for the light to pass through a window - to tell an intensely human story.

Niven's Mote in God's Eye is such a human story because it's so much about the otherness of how an alien culture could develop. Dune is a complex examination of, among many other things, the afflictions that a hero brings to a people. These stories could not resemble themselves in any meaningful way if they were presented in a non-science fiction setting. Arrakis and the Spice are mere tools, they do not constitute the story.

Let's not fall into the trap of supposing that science-fiction -> good. Do we want Skyrim in space? Is it possible to frame an idea, or the setting, in such a way that we can have our characters tell their story in a way no other game could?

Victor Tombs wrote:

Lum wrote:One thing I'd like to see in an upcoming Bethesda game would be more realistic sizes for cities and population. It's not only Bethesda's fault, since all developers do the same, more or less. That feeling that you wander around a relatively big place with some settlements and towns and, all in all, a couple dozens of NPCs across the lands. There are settlements with 3 houses and 5 people and they're called "towns". The capitals are fancy versions of the settlements, with more buildings and little more people. I don't feel like being in a populated area. I hope they can achieve that feeling one day.

Agreed. Although those wonderful modders take care of that rather well for Skyrim. Sometimes a little too well, Lum.

Flatfingers wrote:You're absolutely right, Victor. Thank you for the correction.

Lum wrote:Yes Victor, but yet again those city expansions are little better. Whiterun's expansion is little more than a couple of farms, some kids running around and more NPCs fooling around. The first you thing is: where the hell come all that people from? Is every single small house in this little town crowded from basement to roof? But there is no other way, if you expand every major city the way it should be (getting Skyrim population up to some hundreds of peoplo), the country would be relatively small...

Scytale wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 03, 2015 10:17 pm

I'm totally gonna sound 15, but what if Bethesda made a Mass Effect game but open-world and better

Talvieno wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 06, 2018 12:21 pm

Wow, you sure did! Jury's still out on whether it's better though. As long as they can keep from repeating Fallout 76, they might be able to pull it off.

Scytale wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 03, 2015 10:17 pm

I'm totally gonna sound 15, but what if Bethesda made a Mass Effect game but open-world and better than Andromeda

Talvieno wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 06, 2018 4:38 pm

And now they can't possibly fail!

Talvieno wrote: ↑

Thu Dec 06, 2018 5:32 pm

Could still be FO76 quality. And for me, that wouldn't be worth a buy.