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Gaming’s great, isn’t it? Being able to escape from reality and achieve things only seen in your wildest dreams. Like being able to jump on something’s head and make it blow up. Actually, forget that, no one’s that weird to dream up things like that. But someone has to create the content for games. Whatever it may be; things that dreams are made from, world class sporting, battles with ogres and other things that cannot be achieved in everyday life by people, except for maybe Richy Rich, who doesn’t even exist. But even though you can do many different things that you couldn’t do normally, there have always been limitations in the way to block off the way to perfection. We’ve all seen, it always happens.
But obviously, I understand that ‘The sky’s the limit’ motto won’t work for me in this case. Games need limitations, as do most other things. But what I’m getting sick of is how developers seem to cover up limitations. Well not so much cover up, more so end something. For example, RPG’s. In the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, most places are blocked off by walls or thick woods. In the lost woods, when you get anyway, there’s paper thin trees in the way that don’t let you past. Really, if you got a sword, you should be able to chop it down, because Zelda games are generally fantasy realism titles, but no, no, no! There seems to be an invisible wall in front of the tree, what a coincidence! In Hyrule field you can’t jump over certain walls with your strange little horse, but for some reason other walls can be jumped over. Also in the first Pokémon games, the whole island was surrounded by water, okay, perhaps this is right, but what isn’t right is how you can fly and swim and in other places you can’t, damn weird if that happened in our real world up here.
Right about now you’ll be sitting at the screen, infuriated that I’m saying there shouldn’t be limitations, maybe frothing at the mouth and clenching your fists and steam’s coming out of your ears and… anyway, back to the topic. But let me explain. I wouldn’t just go on about this and then say ‘They’ve got to do something about this! Sadly, I don’t know what, so, err, bye!’ No, I am much more civilised about my slating of developers decisions, if you want to call it that. I propose that they put a loop on the game. Some people who have never seen game code will be wondering what a ‘loop’ is. Well it’s just when something stops, it starts again. So basically, it does exactly what it says on the tin, if it comes in a tin, haven’t really checked before, but that’s beyond the point.
For example in Pokémon, when the map does end, it could just carry on for bit, then get back to the other side of the world it’s set in, like a globe. Most obviously, this isn’t the answer to all limitations, but one of the main culprits could be disposed of. This would be especially good in games like Zelda, but which don’t have warp songs, or any other kind of warps. Because it would be easy to get to the other side of the world the game takes place in. So if there was a trading challenge with a time limit, similar to the one in Ocarina of Time, this would mean you could do it quicker. Challenges like this can get annoying, running around for ages. It would be better to put the time limit down even more and then allow warps. But games without warps could use loops. Maybe this wouldn’t be a great idea to allow the warps and loops in challenges like this, but having globe-like worlds seems like a good idea to me.
Another thing this would be great for is secrets. Whilst in the ‘none’ part of the globe, which connects one of the sides to the other side, maybe with an ocean, there could be secrets hidden away. If it was misty then maybe you would have to follow faint flags, this method was used in Zelda. Also if there’s a glint in the water you would have to dive down and retrieve the unknown object. Just hope it’s not something that’ll tear your head off. Also – secret caves. The best kind of things you can find in RPG’s are secret caves. Especially if there’s a boss there. Everyone loves beating up secret bosses. It’s the feeling that you’ve achieved something not everyone has, and the fact that you get to kill something else, which is always fun.
Well, there are loads of possibilities when you use a globe map. If developers want to do it is a whole different story though. Maybe they wouldn’t be able to doing it without erasing the memory you did on one part of the game if you return via the loop. Who knows? Certainly not me. But new ideas are always good, if this is a new idea!
Thanks for reading
RiCkOsS
But obviously, I understand that ‘The sky’s the limit’ motto won’t work for me in this case. Games need limitations, as do most other things. But what I’m getting sick of is how developers seem to cover up limitations. Well not so much cover up, more so end something. For example, RPG’s. In the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, most places are blocked off by walls or thick woods. In the lost woods, when you get anyway, there’s paper thin trees in the way that don’t let you past. Really, if you got a sword, you should be able to chop it down, because Zelda games are generally fantasy realism titles, but no, no, no! There seems to be an invisible wall in front of the tree, what a coincidence! In Hyrule field you can’t jump over certain walls with your strange little horse, but for some reason other walls can be jumped over. Also in the first Pokémon games, the whole island was surrounded by water, okay, perhaps this is right, but what isn’t right is how you can fly and swim and in other places you can’t, damn weird if that happened in our real world up here.
Right about now you’ll be sitting at the screen, infuriated that I’m saying there shouldn’t be limitations, maybe frothing at the mouth and clenching your fists and steam’s coming out of your ears and… anyway, back to the topic. But let me explain. I wouldn’t just go on about this and then say ‘They’ve got to do something about this! Sadly, I don’t know what, so, err, bye!’ No, I am much more civilised about my slating of developers decisions, if you want to call it that. I propose that they put a loop on the game. Some people who have never seen game code will be wondering what a ‘loop’ is. Well it’s just when something stops, it starts again. So basically, it does exactly what it says on the tin, if it comes in a tin, haven’t really checked before, but that’s beyond the point.
For example in Pokémon, when the map does end, it could just carry on for bit, then get back to the other side of the world it’s set in, like a globe. Most obviously, this isn’t the answer to all limitations, but one of the main culprits could be disposed of. This would be especially good in games like Zelda, but which don’t have warp songs, or any other kind of warps. Because it would be easy to get to the other side of the world the game takes place in. So if there was a trading challenge with a time limit, similar to the one in Ocarina of Time, this would mean you could do it quicker. Challenges like this can get annoying, running around for ages. It would be better to put the time limit down even more and then allow warps. But games without warps could use loops. Maybe this wouldn’t be a great idea to allow the warps and loops in challenges like this, but having globe-like worlds seems like a good idea to me.
Another thing this would be great for is secrets. Whilst in the ‘none’ part of the globe, which connects one of the sides to the other side, maybe with an ocean, there could be secrets hidden away. If it was misty then maybe you would have to follow faint flags, this method was used in Zelda. Also if there’s a glint in the water you would have to dive down and retrieve the unknown object. Just hope it’s not something that’ll tear your head off. Also – secret caves. The best kind of things you can find in RPG’s are secret caves. Especially if there’s a boss there. Everyone loves beating up secret bosses. It’s the feeling that you’ve achieved something not everyone has, and the fact that you get to kill something else, which is always fun.
Well, there are loads of possibilities when you use a globe map. If developers want to do it is a whole different story though. Maybe they wouldn’t be able to doing it without erasing the memory you did on one part of the game if you return via the loop. Who knows? Certainly not me. But new ideas are always good, if this is a new idea!
Thanks for reading
RiCkOsS
Strafex wrote:
> Also, on "Triumph of the Empire", it was incredibly annoying
> when you were tailing an enemy, only for them to keep going and for
> you to turn around.
> It would've been better to have a "looped" arena so that you
> could roam without being disturbed and without leaving the play area
> either.
Yup, it took ages for me to complete that and I didn't even get bronze on it. But most annoying thing is this invisible wall doesn't effect the other models (characters, space ships, objects) so you don't have any idea of where you're going to turn around.
But even if they do have invisble walls, they could try covering it up a bit better. For instant, instead of turning around in roque leader there could be a huge line of turrets, with guns blazing at you if you get too close. Sure, this would mean you'd lose a life but at least you'd be able to determine where not to go when on your travels.
I think the worst game for invisble walls that I've played is Mario 64. Especially when you've got the red flying cap on. It's fun to fly around, bt when you're on levels that have huge drops it can get annoying, because if you go too far and hit the wall, you drop to your death. People have told Pilot Wings 64 was actually a worse culprit but I never got to play it.
I'm not sure how loops would actually take up much space if it acted like some kind of warp that brought you back to the start of the level. Copying the world over and over is not a practical loop to make when creating games, In a game like Zelda, where whenever you go to new un-mapped territory you get warped to a new Matrix (or map), so Zelda could have used this for maybe a secret water world or cave like a mentioned in my original post.
Lets just hope developers realise their fault.
> Also, on "Triumph of the Empire", it was incredibly annoying
> when you were tailing an enemy, only for them to keep going and for
> you to turn around.
> It would've been better to have a "looped" arena so that you
> could roam without being disturbed and without leaving the play area
> either.
Yup, it took ages for me to complete that and I didn't even get bronze on it. But most annoying thing is this invisible wall doesn't effect the other models (characters, space ships, objects) so you don't have any idea of where you're going to turn around.
But even if they do have invisble walls, they could try covering it up a bit better. For instant, instead of turning around in roque leader there could be a huge line of turrets, with guns blazing at you if you get too close. Sure, this would mean you'd lose a life but at least you'd be able to determine where not to go when on your travels.
I think the worst game for invisble walls that I've played is Mario 64. Especially when you've got the red flying cap on. It's fun to fly around, bt when you're on levels that have huge drops it can get annoying, because if you go too far and hit the wall, you drop to your death. People have told Pilot Wings 64 was actually a worse culprit but I never got to play it.
I'm not sure how loops would actually take up much space if it acted like some kind of warp that brought you back to the start of the level. Copying the world over and over is not a practical loop to make when creating games, In a game like Zelda, where whenever you go to new un-mapped territory you get warped to a new Matrix (or map), so Zelda could have used this for maybe a secret water world or cave like a mentioned in my original post.
Lets just hope developers realise their fault.
VERY good point.
"Loops" as you call them, have been around since asteroids.
They were in Lylat Wars' multiplayer, and although they covered by a thick annoying fog, they still worked well, and I think that machines are powerful enough to make them without fog.
Invisible walls have always been corny limitations.
When I first saw a Japanese DC in action (a while back before the DC was released here and it was being hyped as the best thing ever!), seeing Sonic get stopped by an invisible wall shattered the high expectations I had of the next generation of software!
I think that some Rogue Leader levels would have benefited from this "loop" idea.
On Rogue Leader, there was nothing more annoying than to go slightly ofcourse in the Asteroid Level, only to find the Millenium Falcon automatically turn itself, only to fly itself straight into an asteroid!
Also, on "Triumph of the Empire", it was incredibly annoying when you were tailing an enemy, only for them to keep going and for you to turn around.
It would've been better to have a "looped" arena so that you could roam without being disturbed and without leaving the play area either.
"Loops" as you call them, have been around since asteroids.
They were in Lylat Wars' multiplayer, and although they covered by a thick annoying fog, they still worked well, and I think that machines are powerful enough to make them without fog.
Invisible walls have always been corny limitations.
When I first saw a Japanese DC in action (a while back before the DC was released here and it was being hyped as the best thing ever!), seeing Sonic get stopped by an invisible wall shattered the high expectations I had of the next generation of software!
I think that some Rogue Leader levels would have benefited from this "loop" idea.
On Rogue Leader, there was nothing more annoying than to go slightly ofcourse in the Asteroid Level, only to find the Millenium Falcon automatically turn itself, only to fly itself straight into an asteroid!
Also, on "Triumph of the Empire", it was incredibly annoying when you were tailing an enemy, only for them to keep going and for you to turn around.
It would've been better to have a "looped" arena so that you could roam without being disturbed and without leaving the play area either.
If people weren't so bothered about having crystal clear graphics and super-high res images, then there would be many les limitations in games on todays consoles! The trouble is, consoles can only process so much in one go, and most of the processing and the disc space used up on each game is used up with animated objects, textures and sound effects. The actual coding takes up very little space on the discs, like a normal 'txt' file on a PC would.
So now imagine that Ocarina of Time was ported to one of this generations consoles, in this case it would more likely be the GameCube. Ocarina of Time can be stored on a GameCube disc many, many times over, providing it isn't modified at all. Sure, it would look as amazing as any normal GameCube game would, but the gameplay is all there, as most people know. Now imagine, instead of wasting the GameCube disc's storage with another forty or so copies of the same game on the one disc, and actually expand the game, make the trees choppable, include Ura-Zelda (the Double-D add-on), improve some of the physics of the game and maybe even include some speech. This would all be possible and The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time would be one hell of a lot better, keeping all the brilliant gameplay involved before!
This is just one example of how in each generation of videogames consoles, the abilities to produce games with fewer limitations has increased. So much so that with the Dreamcast came the idea of having a globe that you could go right around, so travelling in one direction for so long would get you back to where you started. This happened in a brilliant RPG, soon to be released on all consoles, Skies of Arcadia. Sure, the map itself doesn't look like a globe, but if you follow the game's storyline, it's set in a fantasy world where the people believe the world to be flat! So in this game you really do access all areas!
It is true though, no matter how big games get, we'll always want more, and there will always be limiting factors. For example, you increase the amount of sound, music and graphical files, and the processor will have to work very hard and the storage medium will have to increase unless you want lots of multi-disc games. Even so, processors and disc readers will have to increase in speed to meet our demands for quick action without the boring waiting. Everyone hates a game which takes ages to load!
So there we have it, we'll always have limiting factors, but things will improve with time.
So now imagine that Ocarina of Time was ported to one of this generations consoles, in this case it would more likely be the GameCube. Ocarina of Time can be stored on a GameCube disc many, many times over, providing it isn't modified at all. Sure, it would look as amazing as any normal GameCube game would, but the gameplay is all there, as most people know. Now imagine, instead of wasting the GameCube disc's storage with another forty or so copies of the same game on the one disc, and actually expand the game, make the trees choppable, include Ura-Zelda (the Double-D add-on), improve some of the physics of the game and maybe even include some speech. This would all be possible and The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time would be one hell of a lot better, keeping all the brilliant gameplay involved before!
This is just one example of how in each generation of videogames consoles, the abilities to produce games with fewer limitations has increased. So much so that with the Dreamcast came the idea of having a globe that you could go right around, so travelling in one direction for so long would get you back to where you started. This happened in a brilliant RPG, soon to be released on all consoles, Skies of Arcadia. Sure, the map itself doesn't look like a globe, but if you follow the game's storyline, it's set in a fantasy world where the people believe the world to be flat! So in this game you really do access all areas!
It is true though, no matter how big games get, we'll always want more, and there will always be limiting factors. For example, you increase the amount of sound, music and graphical files, and the processor will have to work very hard and the storage medium will have to increase unless you want lots of multi-disc games. Even so, processors and disc readers will have to increase in speed to meet our demands for quick action without the boring waiting. Everyone hates a game which takes ages to load!
So there we have it, we'll always have limiting factors, but things will improve with time.
Heh, strange how i've never really thought before about how odd it would be to suddenly walk into an invisible wall blocking the road to your way home from school or something.... that would be totally wierd!
I agree that something needs to be done, I used to get annoyed flying into invisible walls surrounding the boarders of Mario 64 with the Winged-Cap on.
Maybe it could work like in Lylat Wars in the All-Range Mode, where you sudddenly turn-around and head back towards the center - or something similar anyway.
I like the idea of more secrets too.
I agree that something needs to be done, I used to get annoyed flying into invisible walls surrounding the boarders of Mario 64 with the Winged-Cap on.
Maybe it could work like in Lylat Wars in the All-Range Mode, where you sudddenly turn-around and head back towards the center - or something similar anyway.
I like the idea of more secrets too.
Gaming’s great, isn’t it? Being able to escape from reality and achieve things only seen in your wildest dreams. Like being able to jump on something’s head and make it blow up. Actually, forget that, no one’s that weird to dream up things like that. But someone has to create the content for games. Whatever it may be; things that dreams are made from, world class sporting, battles with ogres and other things that cannot be achieved in everyday life by people, except for maybe Richy Rich, who doesn’t even exist. But even though you can do many different things that you couldn’t do normally, there have always been limitations in the way to block off the way to perfection. We’ve all seen, it always happens.
But obviously, I understand that ‘The sky’s the limit’ motto won’t work for me in this case. Games need limitations, as do most other things. But what I’m getting sick of is how developers seem to cover up limitations. Well not so much cover up, more so end something. For example, RPG’s. In the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, most places are blocked off by walls or thick woods. In the lost woods, when you get anyway, there’s paper thin trees in the way that don’t let you past. Really, if you got a sword, you should be able to chop it down, because Zelda games are generally fantasy realism titles, but no, no, no! There seems to be an invisible wall in front of the tree, what a coincidence! In Hyrule field you can’t jump over certain walls with your strange little horse, but for some reason other walls can be jumped over. Also in the first Pokémon games, the whole island was surrounded by water, okay, perhaps this is right, but what isn’t right is how you can fly and swim and in other places you can’t, damn weird if that happened in our real world up here.
Right about now you’ll be sitting at the screen, infuriated that I’m saying there shouldn’t be limitations, maybe frothing at the mouth and clenching your fists and steam’s coming out of your ears and… anyway, back to the topic. But let me explain. I wouldn’t just go on about this and then say ‘They’ve got to do something about this! Sadly, I don’t know what, so, err, bye!’ No, I am much more civilised about my slating of developers decisions, if you want to call it that. I propose that they put a loop on the game. Some people who have never seen game code will be wondering what a ‘loop’ is. Well it’s just when something stops, it starts again. So basically, it does exactly what it says on the tin, if it comes in a tin, haven’t really checked before, but that’s beyond the point.
For example in Pokémon, when the map does end, it could just carry on for bit, then get back to the other side of the world it’s set in, like a globe. Most obviously, this isn’t the answer to all limitations, but one of the main culprits could be disposed of. This would be especially good in games like Zelda, but which don’t have warp songs, or any other kind of warps. Because it would be easy to get to the other side of the world the game takes place in. So if there was a trading challenge with a time limit, similar to the one in Ocarina of Time, this would mean you could do it quicker. Challenges like this can get annoying, running around for ages. It would be better to put the time limit down even more and then allow warps. But games without warps could use loops. Maybe this wouldn’t be a great idea to allow the warps and loops in challenges like this, but having globe-like worlds seems like a good idea to me.
Another thing this would be great for is secrets. Whilst in the ‘none’ part of the globe, which connects one of the sides to the other side, maybe with an ocean, there could be secrets hidden away. If it was misty then maybe you would have to follow faint flags, this method was used in Zelda. Also if there’s a glint in the water you would have to dive down and retrieve the unknown object. Just hope it’s not something that’ll tear your head off. Also – secret caves. The best kind of things you can find in RPG’s are secret caves. Especially if there’s a boss there. Everyone loves beating up secret bosses. It’s the feeling that you’ve achieved something not everyone has, and the fact that you get to kill something else, which is always fun.
Well, there are loads of possibilities when you use a globe map. If developers want to do it is a whole different story though. Maybe they wouldn’t be able to doing it without erasing the memory you did on one part of the game if you return via the loop. Who knows? Certainly not me. But new ideas are always good, if this is a new idea!
Thanks for reading
RiCkOsS
But obviously, I understand that ‘The sky’s the limit’ motto won’t work for me in this case. Games need limitations, as do most other things. But what I’m getting sick of is how developers seem to cover up limitations. Well not so much cover up, more so end something. For example, RPG’s. In the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, most places are blocked off by walls or thick woods. In the lost woods, when you get anyway, there’s paper thin trees in the way that don’t let you past. Really, if you got a sword, you should be able to chop it down, because Zelda games are generally fantasy realism titles, but no, no, no! There seems to be an invisible wall in front of the tree, what a coincidence! In Hyrule field you can’t jump over certain walls with your strange little horse, but for some reason other walls can be jumped over. Also in the first Pokémon games, the whole island was surrounded by water, okay, perhaps this is right, but what isn’t right is how you can fly and swim and in other places you can’t, damn weird if that happened in our real world up here.
Right about now you’ll be sitting at the screen, infuriated that I’m saying there shouldn’t be limitations, maybe frothing at the mouth and clenching your fists and steam’s coming out of your ears and… anyway, back to the topic. But let me explain. I wouldn’t just go on about this and then say ‘They’ve got to do something about this! Sadly, I don’t know what, so, err, bye!’ No, I am much more civilised about my slating of developers decisions, if you want to call it that. I propose that they put a loop on the game. Some people who have never seen game code will be wondering what a ‘loop’ is. Well it’s just when something stops, it starts again. So basically, it does exactly what it says on the tin, if it comes in a tin, haven’t really checked before, but that’s beyond the point.
For example in Pokémon, when the map does end, it could just carry on for bit, then get back to the other side of the world it’s set in, like a globe. Most obviously, this isn’t the answer to all limitations, but one of the main culprits could be disposed of. This would be especially good in games like Zelda, but which don’t have warp songs, or any other kind of warps. Because it would be easy to get to the other side of the world the game takes place in. So if there was a trading challenge with a time limit, similar to the one in Ocarina of Time, this would mean you could do it quicker. Challenges like this can get annoying, running around for ages. It would be better to put the time limit down even more and then allow warps. But games without warps could use loops. Maybe this wouldn’t be a great idea to allow the warps and loops in challenges like this, but having globe-like worlds seems like a good idea to me.
Another thing this would be great for is secrets. Whilst in the ‘none’ part of the globe, which connects one of the sides to the other side, maybe with an ocean, there could be secrets hidden away. If it was misty then maybe you would have to follow faint flags, this method was used in Zelda. Also if there’s a glint in the water you would have to dive down and retrieve the unknown object. Just hope it’s not something that’ll tear your head off. Also – secret caves. The best kind of things you can find in RPG’s are secret caves. Especially if there’s a boss there. Everyone loves beating up secret bosses. It’s the feeling that you’ve achieved something not everyone has, and the fact that you get to kill something else, which is always fun.
Well, there are loads of possibilities when you use a globe map. If developers want to do it is a whole different story though. Maybe they wouldn’t be able to doing it without erasing the memory you did on one part of the game if you return via the loop. Who knows? Certainly not me. But new ideas are always good, if this is a new idea!
Thanks for reading
RiCkOsS