Game time

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Mon Jul 01, 2002 11:31 pm

How long do you think the game should last?

I think the default age should be 15 and you can't change it and you die at age 80 or something. During that time you have to do loads of quests, fight the big evil and lots of other little stuff.

So if you're 15 at first not many will talk to you and stuff, and when your old you less agile and stuff.

::dies::

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 1:28 am

Wow, 65 years of adventure :twisted:
I dunno about the game time, about a year or so as in Fallout 1 & 2, no custom age of 15.
Game length should be around 40-50 hours. And high replayability value would make it 150 hours

Megatron · Post by **Megatron** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 2:51 am

No I want 100 hours of game time. And thats if you do the main quest. I want loads of sub-quests, with a random quest generator (Fed-exing, assasination, exploration etc.) Also gangs to join and stuff, and I just want it to last forever.

Or at least 4 times as long as fallout 2.

But I think age should determine stuff, with different limitations for different ages and sdnajnfjdsa

TheReaper · Post by **TheReaper** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 3:53 am

I think that there shouldn't be any time limit whatso ever like in Fallout Tactics.

OnTheBounce · Post by **OnTheBounce** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 7:05 am

TheReaper wrote:I think that there shouldn't be any time limit whatso ever like in Fallout Tactics.

Or Connect Four, Chutes and Ladders and Candy Land. :mrgreen:

All ribbing aside, having the game time-insensitive by-and-large cuts out a huge aspect of RP'ing. The immersiveness of the world also suffers. What's the sense of rushing around if you know you have all the time in the world? In FO you had to make choices on how long your were going to tarry based on the time limit (which was still pretty generous). I knew about the 13 year hard-coded time limit in FO2 before I started to play and it ruined that urgent sense of trying racing the clock to save my starving village.

What I would prefer is to have the game react as much as possible to the passing of time. Everything from subquests to the main quest itself should react to the passing of time. The designers could also go over the top with this, and have the main quest no automatically fail when a certain time limit is reached, but rather have things change/get more difficult. The same could be done with subquests.

OTB

FireWolf · Post by **FireWolf** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 7:40 am

I never found a problem with the time limit in fo1. made it more challenging and more mindful of what it was i was doing instead of mindlessly wandering around until you bump into something. I believe the whole premise of fallout is to be as non-linier as possible while having an actual plot.

what i'd like to see is sub-quests which link into the main story in some way. that give you much greater understanding of the main plot if you complete it, but if you choose not to take the quest you can still complete the main plot.

time progressing and changing everything does add to the re-play value significantly. for example if the first time around you play you simply complete the main quest you do so in a short time. the second time around you do all the sub-quests and as a consequence the main quest becomes more difficult to advance in.

Shards · Post by **Shards** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 11:40 am

I think time limits are destructive, and although could be used for certain quests, shouldn't effect the game in a large way. I want to be able to explore, and not have to rush from place to place because I'm being restricted by time limits.

FireWolf · Post by **FireWolf** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 1:32 pm

Fallout 1's time limit made the game more challenging/exciting. and it didnt last the whole game meaning after you completed that quest you could explor as much as you liked. nicely thought out i think.

Rosh · Post by **Rosh** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 2:49 pm

Pyro wrote:No I want 100 hours of game time. And thats if you do the main quest. I want loads of sub-quests, with a random quest generator (Fed-exing, assasination, exploration etc.) Also gangs to join and stuff, and I just want it to last forever.

Just smack your face against the wall a few times, take some hallucinogens, and then go play Morrowind.

:twisted:

FireWolf · Post by **FireWolf** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 3:16 pm

lol an interesting approach there, Rosh.

VasikkA · Post by **VasikkA** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 5:27 pm

The challenge would be making all the 100 hours fun and interesting. I'd rather have a slightly shorter, more intensive gameplay instead of extra 30 hours of random fed ex quests and lots of fighting. And remember that Black Isle hasn't made a game of that length before. Fallout 2 took about half of that time to complete for the first time. I'm not saying a 100 hour fallout game would be a bad thing, but a difficult task making it exciting and fresh through the whole game. So many games tend to go boring towards the end...

FireWolf · Post by **FireWolf** » Tue Jul 02, 2002 9:08 pm

very true. there is a limit of how long peopel are willing to play. unless you take into account the MMORPG market. they play for many many hours more than your average game. this is probably due to the interactiveity of the multiplayer aspect. playing other people is more fun than single player experience.

This is demonstrated in fallout tactics. i played the single player campaign through. it was flawed and rather boring but i stuck at it. then i played multiplayer for about 8 times longer than the actual game. Beating other human players is always going to be far more fun than beating AI.

Then again I continue to play fallout 2 to this day occasionally. it's like a good book. the plot is all-important to a game. if the plot starts to drag you get bored. If the story has enough twists and involves you enough then you're going to keep going back for more, trying different ways of completeing things.

I think that Fallout 3 would benefit immensely from a Co-op mode. some way you can play through the primary campaign with a bunch of mates. this has been how diablo 2 has survived for such a long time and would make a major sellign point for a future fallout game. also the inclusion of easy to use and customise building tools being provided with the game (or like in neverwinter nights before the game's release) this would contribute to th game's longevity.

Constipated BladeRunner · Tue Jul 02, 2002 11:53 pm

VasikkA wrote:The challenge would be making all the 100 hours fun and interesting. I'd rather have a slightly shorter, more intensive gameplay instead of extra 30 hours of random fed ex quests and lots of fighting. And remember that Black Isle hasn't made a game of that length before. Fallout 2 took about half of that time to complete for the first time. I'm not saying a 100 hour fallout game would be a bad thing, but a difficult task making it exciting and fresh through the whole game. So many games tend to go boring towards the end...

Thats what NWN said. The game is short. You need a long game with an end that is not predicatble- like PT or DX- but dont make it drawn out like Morrorwind.