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Author Topic: Exploration games!  (Read 9208 times)

Cthulhu

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Re: Exploration games!
« Reply #60 on: January 22, 2009, 04:11:07 pm »

I have always agreed with Fenrir on the subject of Noctis.  It can be fun for a few minutes, but it doesn't take long before you've been most of the different kinds of planets, and the only planets that have any variation are felysian.  Everything else is just an endless, pointless landscape devoid of anything but rocks.

Felysian planets have stuff, but they're so ugly.  Beyond hideous.  Horribly clashing colors abound.  The only place I actually enjoyed seeing was the polar cap of a felysian planet, because it was nice and clear, and had an almost depressing feeling.  Also, the sense of seeing something no one else had ever seen before(exactly, of course plenty of people have seen felysian ice caps, and they all look the same, but they haven't seen that planet's ice caps, or this specific bush) was nice, but eventually it got boring, and it was back to finding something neat. 

Stupid game.  Needs gameplay.
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lumin

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Re: Exploration games!
« Reply #61 on: January 22, 2009, 04:40:07 pm »

I actually like the art style of Noctis.  It doesn't feel like the author designed it to look washed out and dream-like on accident to me. 

I actually think the graphics in Infinity look much worse than Noctis.  Too bland.  If you have a high resolution, but don't fill up the space with "stuff", it actually looks worse IMO.

Go over to the Halo 3 forums and tell them that Dwarf Fortress has good graphics and see what kind of response you get. You'd probably get something like "WTF, stpid n00b, zat graphix sux".  It's all relative.
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Sowelu

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Re: Exploration games!
« Reply #62 on: January 22, 2009, 04:49:35 pm »

I have always agreed with Fenrir on the subject of Noctis.  It can be fun for a few minutes, but it doesn't take long before you've been most of the different kinds of planets, and the only planets that have any variation are felysian.  Everything else is just an endless, pointless landscape devoid of anything but rocks.

See, I'm a really huge fan aesthetically of deserts.  Sand deserts, rock deserts, red deserts, white deserts...  A lot of them are ugly, a lot of them are bland, and it's true, when you've seen a few, you really have seen all of them.  But I still like them.  Some hills just plain look nice.  Some arrangements of sage bushes are pleasing.  Some of the most boring places with just hills of black and white sand are really very interesting.  And just like I can't resist pulling the car over and running around in the desert sometimes, I can't resist just running around in Noctis, saying "Hmm I wonder what that hill will look like from that other hill".

I don't think there's gameplay in Noctis.  It's something else.  Sure I could probably get the same thing from Terragen (and have, before,) but I kind of like having less control over the process--and for me, terrain has its own 'uncanny valley'...where if it gets too realistic without being perfect, it just starts to look wrong, instead.  Only thing I've seen that comes close to looking good is Far Cry.  Noctis is over on the other, safe end of that uncanny valley.

And if I was in a long-distance relationship instead of a close one, I'd actually do crazy things like have us both go to the same planet and same star and same sector, even if there's no multiplayer, just to see the same sun in the sky from a weird new world.  <3

yeah, Noctis actually has romantic connotations to me.
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Fenrir

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Re: Exploration games!
« Reply #63 on: January 22, 2009, 05:17:31 pm »

Go over to the Halo 3 forums and tell them that Dwarf Fortress has good graphics and see what kind of response you get. You'd probably get something like "WTF, stpid n00b, zat graphix sux".  It's all relative.
I'm not talking about realism, I'm talking about ugly. Noctis has more realistic graphics than DF. Noctis' graphics are also hideous.
And if I was in a long-distance relationship instead of a close one, I'd actually do crazy things like have us both go to the same planet and same star and same sector, even if there's no multiplayer, just to see the same sun in the sky from a weird new world.  <3

yeah, Noctis actually has romantic connotations to me.

...
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lumin

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Re: Exploration games!
« Reply #64 on: January 22, 2009, 05:54:05 pm »


See, I'm a really huge fan aesthetically of deserts.  Sand deserts, rock deserts, red deserts, white deserts...  A lot of them are ugly, a lot of them are bland, and it's true, when you've seen a few, you really have seen all of them.  But I still like them.  Some hills just plain look nice.  Some arrangements of sage bushes are pleasing.  Some of the most boring places with just hills of black and white sand are really very interesting.  And just like I can't resist pulling the car over and running around in the desert sometimes, I can't resist just running around in Noctis, saying "Hmm I wonder what that hill will look like from that other hill".

I don't think there's gameplay in Noctis.  It's something else.  Sure I could probably get the same thing from Terragen (and have, before,) but I kind of like having less control over the process--and for me, terrain has its own 'uncanny valley'...where if it gets too realistic without being perfect, it just starts to look wrong, instead.  Only thing I've seen that comes close to looking good is Far Cry.  Noctis is over on the other, safe end of that uncanny valley.

And if I was in a long-distance relationship instead of a close one, I'd actually do crazy things like have us both go to the same planet and same star and same sector, even if there's no multiplayer, just to see the same sun in the sky from a weird new world.  <3

yeah, Noctis actually has romantic connotations to me.

You said it better than I did, and that's exactly how I see Noctis.  I think you hit the nail on the head with the Uncanny Valley reference.

I like deserts too, in fact I live only about an hour from the Grand Canyon and hundreds of other interesting sites.  I could spend forever exploring brown and red rocks, or "bucketfuls of ugly".

When I first played Noctis, I only liked to find the Felysian planets or any planet that had alien life on it.  After a while though, I preferred to see the rocky planets much more.  I spent many, many hours playing the game.  I had thought that I had seen it all, but then I would find a rock formation completely different than before.

Then again, I can understand why Fenrir gets bored of that kind of thing.  When I was only 18, I wasn't mature enough to appreciate the beauty of just "exploring" things either.
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Fenrir

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Re: Exploration games!
« Reply #65 on: January 22, 2009, 06:14:06 pm »

Then again, I can understand why Fenrir gets bored of that kind of thing.  When I was only 18, I wasn't mature enough to appreciate the beauty of just "exploring" things either.
I see that you must now resort to personal insults. I'll leave now, before this turns ugly...

...like Noctis.
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Sowelu

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Re: Exploration games!
« Reply #66 on: January 22, 2009, 06:16:25 pm »

Ah, the young.  The future of our society.  So hard to keep from throttling them sometimes.
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Sean Mirrsen

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Re: Exploration games!
« Reply #67 on: January 22, 2009, 06:17:28 pm »

I somehow doubt that was meant as an insult... but whatever. Noctis isn't great, but rather nice (interestingly, its improved version, Noctis IV CE is usually referred to as NICE) and fun for what it does.
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Servant Corps

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Re: Exploration games!
« Reply #68 on: January 22, 2009, 07:49:43 pm »

Quote
Also, the sense of seeing something no one else had ever seen before(exactly, of course plenty of people have seen felysian ice caps, and they all look the same, but they haven't seen that planet's ice caps, or this specific bush) was nice, but eventually it got boring, and it was back to finding something neat. 

Can you get me one of the pictures of felysian ice caps?
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