this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2023
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Gaming

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From video gaming to card games and stuff in between, if it's gaming you can probably discuss it here!

See also Gaming's sister community Tabletop Gaming.


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[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For all the complaints over the years (from myself included), there are very few options for games like Elder Scrolls main games.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

These kinds of games are extremly difficult to build. Skyrim still does things I haven't seen any game other than Fallout 4 do since.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What things would that be? Im trying to think of something that hasnt been replicated / improved in another game, but I am drawing a blank personally.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

One example: The way Bethesda games track an enormous number of physics enabled objects across their open worlds. I feel like most games in the last 10 years have made a point of simplifying their physics systems to a point of near-nonexistence.

Bethesda knows that when I dump 500 wheels of cheese on the floor of my house in Whiterun, I want it all to still be exactly where I left it when I come back 20 hours later.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Valheim does a really great job with this. I think the closest I've seen in a game. The other part of this is that's part of what makes their VR Ports so good.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

good point. I still have daggers that refuse to stay in their display boxes and move around the house mysteriously, though 🙃

I prefer to suspect the radiant engine before Lydia or Ysolda (well, Serana maybe lol).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

500 Cheese wheels?!

[Sheogorath would like to know your location]

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Fair point. I can't really think of any games that have done that, either. Interesting that there haven't been more physics sandbox style open worlds, come to think of it....

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The physics part isn't even really that important, I think. It helps pile things up, but it's not tantamount to what makes a Bethesda game.

It's from a culmination of decisions that lead to it. To letting you pick up all these miscellaneous items. To saving where these items are stored. To letting you go anywhere you want to. And on top of all that, having a fully functional game working along side all that.

Nobody else makes them because indies don't have the resources to make them like Bethesda and AAA devs don't have the luxury to invest in such a niche experimental and expensive genre.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I would like to have it explained to me by someone au fait with GameDev as to what's stopping a smaller studio going after something with the scope of Morrowind or Oblivion.

Bethesda are so blessed to have their own unique niche that's so stupidly popular.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just piles and piles and piles of work. Imagine all the trees, grass, rocks, terrain, buildings, props - and then character and creature models, animations, sounds, writing it goes on and on!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

And the simulation complexity, which leads to an endless sea of bugs. Imitators typically just leave a lot of this out. But Bethesda knows that when the player dumps 500 wheels of cheese in their house in Whiterun, they better still be there and fully physics-enabled when the player comes back 20 hours later.