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Author Topic: "Dynamic World" games  (Read 13940 times)

GreatJustice

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"Dynamic World" games
« on: April 07, 2012, 10:56:21 am »

I'm currently looking for games with dynamic worlds, where the game world evolves without much in the way of player intervention.

The best example of this I can think of offhand would be Space Rangers 2, where you can chill out and wait a hundred years and the technology, political locations, etc will be completely different. Mount and Blade Warband is similar, though the AI there can be really slow (individual lords lack the patience and initiative to go-a-conquerin' in the short term).

It should also be noted that I'm not counting games where it evolves without you but is driven by you, rather than you being a small part of a bigger world. So the Total War series doesn't really qualify, nor do most RTSes.

Any suggestions?
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Anvilfolk

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #1 on: April 07, 2012, 11:11:58 am »

Posting to follow... I absolutely love these kinds of games, but can't quite remember any. IL-2 Sturmovik online campaigns have a bit of this, where there's a bit war going on, whose strategic actions are decided by commanders on both sides. Then you go in specific battles and participate at the tactical level, and affecting the global war.

How different is Warband singleplayer vs vanilla Mount and Blade? It seemed pretty much the same when I played them. There's some evolution, but somehow I feel it never realised its full potential.

Also, I guess I might have to try Space Rangers 2 again... somehow I felt I had stagnated not too far into the game. Perhaps I was playing it wrong.

lordcooper

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #2 on: April 07, 2012, 11:37:04 am »

Kenshi, when it's done.  It's part of the Indiefort bundle at present.
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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #3 on: April 07, 2012, 11:45:53 am »

Interested; posting to watch.
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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #4 on: April 07, 2012, 12:59:14 pm »

Star Control 2 or the free open source port The Ur-Quan Masters. Events progress regardless of whether you take part. I can't say too much without ruining the plot. It's one of the few games who's writing I really enjoyed.
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Sonlirain

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #5 on: April 07, 2012, 02:16:52 pm »

The X games are somewhat open (traers trade races fight) but i don't think sectors can be conquered.
I remember the Military hunting pirates and poping pirate bases.

Total Air War, Apache vs Havoc and several other games offer dynamic campaigns that (usually) aren't the sameevery time you start.

Supreme ruler 2010 and 2020 are somewhat sandboxy titles (country management) and if you want the AI can fight wars for you.
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Jacob/Lee

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #6 on: April 07, 2012, 02:45:59 pm »

Rogue Survivor won't wait up for you. If you manage to stockpile tons and tons of food on day 2 and chill in your safehouse for a couple weeks, you'll walk out to see a world where all the furniture is destroyed, remnants of National Guardsmen, Bikers, Gangstas, all sorts of people running like hell, whole zombie hordes of high-level zombies being lead around slaughtering everything that moves, all initial resources stripped clean... It's quite the chaotic world.

It's the most appreciated game type around here, too: Roguelike.

Poltifar

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #7 on: April 07, 2012, 04:41:50 pm »

Rogue Survivor won't wait up for you. If you manage to stockpile tons and tons of food on day 2 and chill in your safehouse for a couple weeks, you'll walk out to see a world where all the furniture is destroyed, remnants of National Guardsmen, Bikers, Gangstas, all sorts of people running like hell, whole zombie hordes of high-level zombies being lead around slaughtering everything that moves, all initial resources stripped clean... It's quite the chaotic world.

It's the most appreciated game type around here, too: Roguelike.

I'm not 100% sure this is the type of game the OP is asking for, but if it is, he might want to look into Project Zomboid, which should end up very much like Rogue Survivor, except with an isometric view. Though the world right now is not yet quite that dynamic, the dev's goals include having NPCs team up together and build their own safehouses, zomby hoardes migrating depending on availability of fresh meat and spreading of noises, army intervention happening after some time, power being cut off once the local power plant succumbs, etc. All with no intervention by the player.
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GreatJustice

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #8 on: April 07, 2012, 05:22:47 pm »

Rogue Survivor won't wait up for you. If you manage to stockpile tons and tons of food on day 2 and chill in your safehouse for a couple weeks, you'll walk out to see a world where all the furniture is destroyed, remnants of National Guardsmen, Bikers, Gangstas, all sorts of people running like hell, whole zombie hordes of high-level zombies being lead around slaughtering everything that moves, all initial resources stripped clean... It's quite the chaotic world.

It's the most appreciated game type around here, too: Roguelike.

I'm not 100% sure this is the type of game the OP is asking for, but if it is, he might want to look into Project Zomboid, which should end up very much like Rogue Survivor, except with an isometric view. Though the world right now is not yet quite that dynamic, the dev's goals include having NPCs team up together and build their own safehouses, zomby hoardes migrating depending on availability of fresh meat and spreading of noises, army intervention happening after some time, power being cut off once the local power plant succumbs, etc. All with no intervention by the player.

Now that's exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for! However, an important bit is that it ought to vary from time to time (getting to that).

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Rogue Survivor won't wait up for you. If you manage to stockpile tons and tons of food on day 2 and chill in your safehouse for a couple weeks, you'll walk out to see a world where all the furniture is destroyed, remnants of National Guardsmen, Bikers, Gangstas, all sorts of people running like hell, whole zombie hordes of high-level zombies being lead around slaughtering everything that moves, all initial resources stripped clean... It's quite the chaotic world.

It's the most appreciated game type around here, too: Roguelike.

Now that is a good game, but the numpad movement keys annoy me somewhat. I haven't played it in depth, but I will in a while.
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The X games are somewhat open (traers trade races fight) but i don't think sectors can be conquered.
I remember the Military hunting pirates and poping pirate bases.

The X series is great fun, but it isn't (especially) dynamic. The markets fluctuate (I think), you can make an enormous fleet scouring the galaxy for pirates, and certain mods improve things a bit, but if you chill out doing nothing not much will change.
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Star Control 2 or the free open source port The Ur-Quan Masters. Events progress regardless of whether you take part. I can't say too much without ruining the plot. It's one of the few games who's writing I really enjoyed.

I love SC2, but an important thing about dynamic worlds (in my opinion) is that the game world should evolve through interactions between NPCs rather than set events occurring. In SC2, the exact same set of events occur regardless of your interventions (barring a handful of exceptions where you call in other races, which only delay things a bit).
Quote


How different is Warband singleplayer vs vanilla Mount and Blade? It seemed pretty much the same when I played them. There's some evolution, but somehow I feel it never realised its full potential.

Very different fighting style (Warband is more fluid if you know what I mean), and the AI in Warband is a bit smarter when it comes to conquest. Still, Warband would be better if each individual lord went out and had the initiative to attack castles/cities and the patience to not run away after a couple days' siege. Usually only a handful of castles switch sides over time because the only time anything gets done is when the king leads a big mob at a lone castle, and even then they don't prioritize border territories.

Quote
Also, I guess I might have to try Space Rangers 2 again... somehow I felt I had stagnated not too far into the game. Perhaps I was playing it wrong.

Space Rangers 2 is a great game, but it was translated quite poorly.
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Neonivek

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #9 on: April 07, 2012, 05:26:47 pm »

Black and White 2

It REALLY makes me wish they had the funding and time to actually finish it proper. I do forgive them for this, they tried their hardest but it was like Final Destination.
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Lightning4

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #10 on: April 07, 2012, 07:11:45 pm »

The Paradox strategy games, most notably Europa Universalis 3, CK2, etc.

You can even intentionally play like that. Such games are called "hands off" and you pick some isolated nation in the middle of nowhere and let the world unfold over hundreds of years.

Though, you can take part in evolving the world or causing events yourself, but events will still happen in the world whether you're at the center of them or not.

It's more pronounced when you pick some tiny nation and try to evolve it yourself, rather than start as some superpower that can influence the world with ease.
« Last Edit: April 07, 2012, 07:13:59 pm by Lightning4 »
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inteuniso

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #11 on: April 07, 2012, 07:24:16 pm »

To show you how insane the dynamic worlds get in Europa Universalis III, please look at my Victoria 2 AAR (shameless plug)

I played EU3 from 1399 to 1821, and victoria 2 jumps to 1836. You can see how dynamic it is with some pretty crazy changes. Generally, Paradox games never have the same ending, as something always changes. Some of my favorite games, though they are somewhat difficult and not enjoyed by everyone.
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Poltifar

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #12 on: April 07, 2012, 10:11:06 pm »

Well if you feel like trying Project Zomboid, be warned that it's still in development and that the really dynamic features are still only promises, so you might want to file it away for now and look back into it, say, this end of summer or something. Hopefully the devs will also listen to the community and implement fully random map generation, which is one thing that would really add to the dynamicness.
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klingon13524

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #13 on: April 08, 2012, 04:01:18 am »

PTF
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GreatJustice

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Re: "Dynamic World" games
« Reply #14 on: April 08, 2012, 06:15:24 pm »

To show you how insane the dynamic worlds get in Europa Universalis III, please look at my Victoria 2 AAR (shameless plug)

I played EU3 from 1399 to 1821, and victoria 2 jumps to 1836. You can see how dynamic it is with some pretty crazy changes. Generally, Paradox games never have the same ending, as something always changes. Some of my favorite games, though they are somewhat difficult and not enjoyed by everyone.

Paradox games are indeed great for this sort of thing. I recall playing as Bhutan and dragging the Allies into a series of stupid early wars with Germany and the USSR (that were actually surprisingly effective in liberating the world)
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