Castle Paradox

[Newbie_Power]

Concepts seen in Deus Ex and System Shock can likely be applied to newer games (and possibly even OHRRPGCE), but the discussion was about why older games could get away with what is seemingly flawed gameplay design for newer games.

The very first game mentioned in the thread was not Deus Ex, but Zelda 1.

When it comes to how "large and explorative" RPG games should be. On an NES level, I think Dragon Warrior IV is a good start since I always found its world really good. Everytime I have made an argument in this thread, I am thinking of that game, so I might as well state it so people will know what I'm talking about.

EDIT: FF1's world.

I scattered a lot of pink boxes of where I think the player will or might travel on foot or canoe, or explore at sea.

How large are the pink boxes? They encompass a 256x240 area, which is the resolution the NES runs on. 256x240 divided by 16x16 is 16x15, which is how many tiles it takes to fill the screen.

This is easier to visualize zoomed in and in chunks, rather than looking at the world map as a whole. As the player moves, the screen moves with him, allowing the player to see more of the map without him having to hug the edges of each continent as much. Also, notice how each large piece of land is broken up into smaller pieces by way of mountains and other impassable routes, dividing up the player's tasks even more.

The thing I want to get at, though, is that there's rarely, if not ever an area with the exception of the sea that has no boundaries for more than two screens. Even the huge desert with the tower in the middle, which is a place of nothingness has the tower itself after a screen and a half.

So when I mention "large maps", I mean maps where the player is exploring areas that takes 3 or 4 screens in a direction to navigate before getting to place B.

These screens will be a bit smaller tile-wise. 320x200 divided by 20x20 is 16x10 (as opposed to NES' 16x15), but at the same time the tiles themselves are larger, so you won't need to make areas as big as FF1's to achieve an effect of "largeness".

[J.A.R.S.]

[msw188]

Sorry to revive such an old thread, but I recently read a review of the original Legend of Zelda that brought this thread and some of our musings to mind. The reviewer was a self-proclaimed Zelda fanatic, but nevertheless offered some good insight into Iblis' original question. What makes the exploring fun in this game is that (nearly) every screen in Zelda looks unique. The player is able to remember landmarks, such as that screen with three trees arranged in a funny triangle meaning there is a fairie directly north. Notice that this is accomplished despite some VERY rudimentary graphics. Could be a very important point for an OHR RPG author intent on making exploration a major point in his game - make sure every area is recognizable and memorable. This can be done graphically, but also in other ways, such as making the placement of things 'make sense' (its easier to remember where that famous wizard is if he lives in or near a famous school of magic, perhaps).
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My first completed OHR game, Tales of the New World:
http://castleparadox.com/gamelist-display.php?game=161

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