We all know that creating a living breathing world is the end goal for many game designers. For the players it is so important to enter a world they can immerse themselves into, especially in MMORPG type of games. We still don't know if Elite Dangerous is a MMO, MMORPG or just a COOP game as it actually is right now.
How can the game be designed to give the player this immersive feeling of being in a world and not just a spectator?
First you need to make the world around the player as autonomous as possible, the NPC's need to do they business independent of the player, however if the player enters the NPC's private sphere some kind of responses should be triggered. We see the type of responses in games like Skyrim, GTA, The Witcher and so on. Most of these games focus on a ground level of action, you ride a horse, drive a car or walk around. The detail level required is high, as the player got the time to stop and observe the surroundings, and take in the impression of what is going on.
When you are in a game where the player can see miles and miles at once, you need a different approach to create the game world.
Flight SIMS has been doing this for a long time, you can see traffic on the roads, there are other airplanes in the air and so on. Cities are modelled and the impression you get is that, yes this is a living breathing city below.
https://youtu.be/wyJbwAtH5OU?t=1m50s
The big question would be how to create that when you can fly around the world in 10 seconds? well I'm not a game designer, however I would imagine that you divide it into segments, orbital lights of cities, and then generate the city as you get within a given range of it, as you descend more details will load in and in the end you get the on ground details as you leave your space craft.
Easier said than done I know
In the picture above we see a lot going on, there are clouds, a huge city, traffic and so on, the human eye is easy deceived however we need to understand what it is that trick the eye.
A mixture of old and new always hit the top score if you ask people, a complete sterile environment are never as interresting as if you mix it with stuff from an old a forgotten world. That is why Star Wars use a mix of old architecture and high tech gadgets.
Why ride an animal when you can fly around? well it's not very exciting is it, so the story is that only the animal can get you around safely or whatever, i'm not an expert in the SW lore.
My point is that it brings some you can relate to into the world and thus make it more believable.
Cities and bases build in a canyon, this can bring more life to a world, then again it would take an artist time to make bases and cities this way.
Docking of large space ships to ground bases need a different type of docking, here is one way it could be done, again the NPC ships need to be more connected to the market to add the illusion of living and breathing as you see more traffic in a settlement that has a lot of commerce than if it's abandoned or don't have a large trade activity.
I will end my little wall of text with this video of what I believe is a good example of a living and breathing world.
https://youtu.be/ZV6YqymsfPg?t=6m23s
How can the game be designed to give the player this immersive feeling of being in a world and not just a spectator?
First you need to make the world around the player as autonomous as possible, the NPC's need to do they business independent of the player, however if the player enters the NPC's private sphere some kind of responses should be triggered. We see the type of responses in games like Skyrim, GTA, The Witcher and so on. Most of these games focus on a ground level of action, you ride a horse, drive a car or walk around. The detail level required is high, as the player got the time to stop and observe the surroundings, and take in the impression of what is going on.
When you are in a game where the player can see miles and miles at once, you need a different approach to create the game world.
Flight SIMS has been doing this for a long time, you can see traffic on the roads, there are other airplanes in the air and so on. Cities are modelled and the impression you get is that, yes this is a living breathing city below.
https://youtu.be/wyJbwAtH5OU?t=1m50s
The big question would be how to create that when you can fly around the world in 10 seconds? well I'm not a game designer, however I would imagine that you divide it into segments, orbital lights of cities, and then generate the city as you get within a given range of it, as you descend more details will load in and in the end you get the on ground details as you leave your space craft.
Easier said than done I know
In the picture above we see a lot going on, there are clouds, a huge city, traffic and so on, the human eye is easy deceived however we need to understand what it is that trick the eye.
A mixture of old and new always hit the top score if you ask people, a complete sterile environment are never as interresting as if you mix it with stuff from an old a forgotten world. That is why Star Wars use a mix of old architecture and high tech gadgets.
Why ride an animal when you can fly around? well it's not very exciting is it, so the story is that only the animal can get you around safely or whatever, i'm not an expert in the SW lore.
My point is that it brings some you can relate to into the world and thus make it more believable.
Cities and bases build in a canyon, this can bring more life to a world, then again it would take an artist time to make bases and cities this way.
Docking of large space ships to ground bases need a different type of docking, here is one way it could be done, again the NPC ships need to be more connected to the market to add the illusion of living and breathing as you see more traffic in a settlement that has a lot of commerce than if it's abandoned or don't have a large trade activity.
I will end my little wall of text with this video of what I believe is a good example of a living and breathing world.
https://youtu.be/ZV6YqymsfPg?t=6m23s
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