Re: Fare Thee Well, Piranha Bytes

On 10/07/2024 23:07, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

But "Gothic" had another ace up its sleeve. It's world didn't feel
artificially compressed. In so many CRPGs, the world is a lot smaller
than it should be; so-called major cities are comprised of a few
hundred people, towns are separated by only a few hundred steps of
wilderness travel, and the tallest mountain peak is less than a
thousand feet above sea level. These cheats are, of course, an
acceptable break from reality to keep the game fun by cutting out a
lot of unnecessary dross (and because it's resource-expensive to
actually generate a uniquely huge world) but it adds a layer of
artificiality to the experience.

I kinda accepted that there's a limit to how much effort should be put into even designing a town but the part I found really jarring was the lack of activity. Where are all the people just going about their daily business. I think it was The Witcher that was one of the first games that gave me a sense that a town was alive and not there just for me.
Then the really jarring one, small villages that make no sense. So there's about five houses yet you manage to support a fully equipped black smith and a market that when the party arrive out numbers the number of people using the market. You also get to why does the local tavern contain far more people than actually live here.