svs on 17/7/2013 at 09:28

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Fair point. Let's see if there aren't any other sources supporting that sentiment.



No it isn't - at least in theory. Without any insight into how they've actually implemented the hot-spots, it's nigh impossible to make any sort of definitive conclusion. The implication of Rope Arrow sucking is there, though, not denying that.

At the end of the day, it depends what is defined as a hot-spot. If a wooden table or stuff like that is defined as a hot-spot, then it works pretty much the way it has always worked. I can come up with only one exception: a large body of wood. How do rope arrows relate to them? If there's a wooden floor or the ceiling is made of wood, can I shoot rope arrows at will? If not, why (other reason than it not being defined as a hot-spot, obviously)? If yes, why it isn't implemented as a property belonging to a material "wood" instead of it being a hot-spot - but still, if I can shoot Rope Arrows to any point I feel I should be able to, then I'd say there's no significant difference.

EDIT

What about experience points, though? Why they aren't in the OP?

Chade on 17/7/2013 at 10:40

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Well, I guess that was an effective way of wasting my time.

Chade on 17/7/2013 at 11:15

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I ... I can't decide whether you're serious or not. :confused:

I'll PM you. I'm sure this is boring the hell out of everyone else.

Chade on 17/7/2013 at 22:15

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Hrmm. The specific questions I asked aren't really the important thing, the important thing is the huge range of possibilities underlying those questions. So very quickly then, because this isn't the important part:

1) The mantleable walls question is just asking whether it will be possible to make those sort of jumps. You responded by saying it will be possible if the designers make it possible, which ... well, ok ... are the designers going to make it possible then? That's the question! I don't know how to make this any clearer.

2) The multiple possible locations question I can make less ambiguous. Whether you find it clearer is another issue, I suppose. Let' say we have a level and we have the player's current position within that level. Multiple jumping destinations exist such that, for each destination, if no other destination existed, the game would prompt the player to jump there from his/her current position. What jumping options does the game give the player in this situation?

Ok, now that's out of the way ... I'll quickly sketch two alternative implementations of what we've heard so far. Hopefully you can then see why I'm asking these questions, because the player experience in each implementation is worlds apart.

Implementation 1 (codename: "f*** you ttlg!")
We only have a handful of discrete spots that you can jump from. At each spot, there only a single dedicated place he will land. Now let's say we have a ditch which the player might expect to jump over at any point, how are we going to communicate these spots to the player? I know! Let's put small recognizable extrusions from the walls at points where he can jump, a little visual indication similar to the rope arrow points. Let's put the same extrusion where he will land, and let's make these face each other, so he can tell in advance where he's going to jump from and to. Let's force level designers to space climbable objects at intervals where the player couldn't reasonably expect to jump between them unless these small extrusions were in place. Now, we don't want the player mucking this up, so let's also disable physics on all objects and stop him from moving anything around. Now our system is bullet-proof! Perfect!

Implementation 2 (codename: "not bad for kindergarten!")
We know we don't want our dear little players to fall down and break their dear little ankles, but apart from that, we have no objections to them moving in whatever way they want. Let's make the system simulate the player jumping forward from his current position, and see if he lands or grab or mantle onto anything. If he does, we display the jump button and let him do it. This way, the player can still make 99% of all possible jumps, we just don't let him attempt jumps that will fail, and we naturally support changing environments.

These two systems have completely different support for player freedom. In the first system, we not only lose all tension from jumping, we also lose the ability to choose our own path, at least when it comes to jumping. In the second system, we mostly just lose tension from jumping. We still have almost as much freedom to choose our own path as we did before.

Vivian on 18/7/2013 at 08:54

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Source? Are any of those statements actually true?