Jump to content
IGNORED

why no randomization?


xg4bx

Recommended Posts

I've been thinking and wondering why no randomization exists in games, even if its only something minor like weather changes.

 

Id love it if the map in something like fallout were to be different every time I played,it would make each play feel like a brand new game.

 

Or why can't action games or fps' use your prexisting internet connection to match the in game time of day/weather to your local time and weather conditions?

 

Silly? Yea probably but I just think it would be a neat little way to use the internet connection that most people are already using.

 

Personally I think it would add another dimension to gameplay and replay value. Games are so static and unchanging but they really don't have to be.

Edited by xg4bx
Link to comment
Share on other sites

randomization would complicate testing because there would be far more variations than any user is likely to encounter. also the artwork and programming would be more complicated than otherwise necessary. there have been games that do things like you mention ( did black and white set game time from the net connection? ) but none so far have become mainstream because the perceived cost/benefit is too high.

 

famous games with randomization include nethack and dwarf fortress, both quite far from mainstream gaming.

Edited by bmcnett
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Tiger Woods games tie into the Weather Channel to match the weather on the course to the weather on the actual real life course. VERY VERY cool.

 

Didn't a couple other sports games on the Wii do that, Stan? I seem to recall reading that Madden and a racing game did that but I could be wrong.

 

 

And I agree with the OP that maybe more randomization in games could be fun. I know that Pokemon changes from day to night depending on the internal clock, along with certain critters coming out only at particular times of the day/night or even day of the week. Animal Crossing on the Wii did also.

 

And I seem to remember (but again, maybe my senile brain is playing tricks on me) that the DC version of Sonic Adventures celebrated holidays with the "town hub" being decorated.

 

 

Mendon

Edited by Mendon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Weather randomization is already here. Look at gta iv, it has changing weather. And my guess is that there are more titles.

Yeah - quite a few racing games have had weather and day/night transitions for some time now. It does add a nice touch, especially on the longer races watching the sun go down or come back up.

 

Thinking about it, I believe Great American Cross Country Road Race on the Atari 8-bit did day/night and it was out around 85.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe most outdoor sports games feature a random weather and time of day setting.

 

Credit where it's due, GT5 features time/weather progression and a random track generator (that can now be used online).

Only a few of their built-in tracks feature the time/weather progression though, since they've cheated a lot of lighting effects into textures. I believe that it was planned to have an option to tie real-world time and weather to real-life tracks in the game, but that seems to have been dropped.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't know about robot tank, but Enduro has progressive weather, rather than randome weather. The effect still kicked ass back in the day (and still does IMO) but that may just be me.

 

Oblivion and Morrowind have random weather, and the caves are randomly stocked with stuff. Having a random town wouldn't make sense though, but having movable objects (like the piles of crates/barrels) would make sense to me, certain places should be more random than others, obviously, like the docks or markets.

 

Making a whole game random would be a bit hard, imagine if you took, even a relatively simple game with plug in parts, like say, halo, and tried to make it make a random level. The play testing night mare to make sure it made everything still accessable would be a major pain...though if it could be pulled off, it would be cool.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'd say the shift to 3D has made effective randomization impractical for most games. There are too many opportunities for a random stage to be made unplayable due to factors the computer can't calculate.

 

I think the concept of user-designed stages (a la Little Big Planet) is this generation's answer to randomization.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

after reading all this i think I was wrong to say that no randomization entered the mainstream.

 

Especially if you include the Left4Dead games.

The locations are the same, but the items and the creatures in the area are completely random.

(One of the reasons you can play through over and over)

Then there's Civilization Revolution, again a whole lot of random.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...