kotaku: The Story Behind ME: A troubles

[iroboto]

Really good read.
http://kotaku.com/the-story-behind-mass-effect-andromedas-troubled-five-1795886428
pull out this exerpt as it relates to this forum and its denizens:

While describing Frostbite, one top developer on Mass Effect: Andromedaused the analogy of an automobile. Epic’s Unreal Engine, that developer said, is like an SUV, capable of doing lots of things but unable to go at crazy high speeds. The Unity Engine would be a compact car: small, weak, and easy to fit anyplace you’d like. “Frostbite,” the developer said, “is a sports car. Not even a sports car, a Formula 1. When it does something well, it does it extremely well. When it doesn’t do something, it reallydoesn’t do something.”

The original vision for ME:A sounded like @DSoup ' dream or something. It does ring into why certain games by certain companies will _never_ leave their engine despite how graphically dated it has become.

But spaceflight and procedurally generated planets were causing some problems. “They were creating planets and they were able to drive around it, and the mechanics of it were there,” said a person who worked on the game. “I think what they were struggling with was that it was never fun. They were never able to do it in a way that’s compelling, where like, ‘OK, now imagine doing this a hundred more times or a thousand more times.’”

This is a harsh reality.

 

[AlNom]

Don't give a shit about driving for hours.

 

[iroboto]

Don't give a shit about driving for hours.

yup, I don't mind exploring, but the thought of mundanely exploring everything seems off, unless it was a persistent world where other players could see what I was doing on my planet.

 

[AzBat]

yup, I don't mind exploring, but the thought of mundanely exploring everything seems off, unless it was a persistent world where other players could see what I was doing on my planet.

Play Astroneer instead. Rancid & play on each others persistent worlds. Maybe that would be a good party game to play waiting for the MS E3 conference?

Tommy McClain

 

[Deleted member 11852]

But spaceflight and procedurally generated planets were causing some problems. “They were creating planets and they were able to drive around it, and the mechanics of it were there,” said a person who worked on the game. “I think what they were struggling with was that it was never fun. They were never able to do it in a way that’s compelling, where like, ‘OK, now imagine doing this a hundred more times or a thousand more times.’”

Personally I find the map system more of a problem than the terrain. The ice planet is particularly frustrating to drive around entirely because of the crap map. I think they nailed the sense of exploration but I appreciate AlNets point about not wanting to just driving around for hours. There is rarely any real reward for exploration other than another Kett ship coming down every 90 seconds.

Play Astroneer instead. Rancid & play on each others persistent worlds. Maybe that would be a good party game to play waiting for the MS E3 conference?

Astroneer is very cool.