Settlements in RPGs

Pighardia · 20 Dec 2013 at 17:22

Hi all, just a bit of a thought I was having earlier-

I play a lot of RPGs, and lately I have been a little disappointed that no progress seems to be being made in an area that I have felt for a long time has needed it: The towns and cites. In fact, they seem to be getting smaller, with less content!...Take Skyrim for example, a massive world, but only a few settlements, which is fine by me, but they are fairly small with few people inhabiting them. It seems that in a lot of games, cities are basically becoming small hubs with a few NPCs in them, that are pretty irrelevant. I like to have somewhere in a game to take it easy between the proper gameplay, and maybe introduce a few different things to do, not just move from area to area all the time!...Skyrim does a good job of providing the towns, but they are a bit lacking in scale for me.

I would like to play a good RPG that actually has a town/city that you can get lost in, and properly explore. I would like to praise the Assassin's Creed games for the way they do settlements, and I would love to play a proper RPG that does them in the same way the AC games do!
Out of the RPGs I have played, I would say that the game that does them the best is probably Morrowind tbh, and maybe Baldur's Gate, but even then they are too small with too little content. A special mention to the Imperial City from Oblivion too.

So, what are your favourite settlements, and which games do them best in your opinion? what would you like to see in this area?...also, any potential improvements in future games?(I'm looking at The Witcher 3!)

Cheers

Pighardia · 20 Dec 2013 at 17:33

Actually, I have to say that the Final Fantasy games always include at least one pretty good city to explore. The one in FFIX in particular was pretty great iirc.

Pighardia · 20 Dec 2013 at 18:12

Zethor said:
If you do that in a rather small area, such as a city, it stands out and you notice it right away. Put a few miles, a small village, a cave and a dragon between them and it's not so obvious anymore.

This is true, like I said you need to have a bit of a different approach to the gameplay within settlements. Take The Witcher for example, when you enter Vizima the game becomes a bit more of an 'investigation' and a bit less combat for a bit, though you are free to mix it up as you like as there are still plenty of combat quests to take. It works really well imo.

Pighardia · 20 Dec 2013 at 18:47

Oh I would never claim that AC was some kind of RPG, far from it, but I do really like their approach to the cities they create...I mean the number of NPCs just wandering around(though not interactive at all, beyond killing them) really make them seem alive. Take the Elder Scrolls/Fallout games, where the main cities are separated from the main map as their own world-space, and feature cities like the AC games, and it would be immense!

The city featured in the trailer for The Witcher 3 looks pretty much as good as I have seen

0.46

Fenris said:
The issue will always be resource managements, you can either have huge sprawling cities OR a big, diverse open world.

Question- Would you sacrifice the large open world, for better settlements?...I am thinking like AC again, have say the Skyrim map broken up in to different areas a bit like like AC3 is, or Kingdoms of Amalur for example?...or is there a compromise between the two?
I am not particularly bothered by loading screens tbh, but I am not sure I would like the idea.