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  1. #1
    SixKeys's Avatar Senior Member
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    Mentors Guild Community Discussion - NPC Relationships

    Hello all,

    This week's discussion is about all manner of NPC relationships and what you would like to see from them. Give us your thoughts!


    MAKING SURE THE FANS ARE HEARD

    As part of a set of new Community Initiatives, we'd like to give opportunities to the community to give more direct feedback, and will now host weekly discussion on specific topics that relate the Assassin's Creed Franchise. These community discussions will take place on the AC subreddit, the Official Ubisoft Forums, and on the Mentors Guild Twitter. These discussions will be open for 1 week. The threads and responses will be shared directly with the Assassin's Creed Community Development team, who will then pass that info on to concerned parties within Ubisoft itself.

    While the Mentors get opportunities to speak directly with the creators of Assassin’s Creed and frequently communicate with the Community Development Team, this is not the case for every fan. We want to change that. We want fans to have their voices heard directly, in the same ways the Mentors do. These activities are a step towards meeting this goal. If you want Ubisoft to see what you have to say, this is the place to do it.


    THIS WEEK'S TOPIC

    Topic:
    NPC Relationships

    Info: Part of being a skilled Assassin is navigating the social world around you. This can happen on multiple levels. Games like AC3 and Origins gave NPCs daily schedules and routines that you could manipulate to your advantage. Odyssey introduced romanceable characters and dialogue choices. Performing illegal actions can raise your notoriety, potentially sending bounty hunters after you or making blend groups around you disperse. How would you improve existing social interactions in the games or what new ones would you like to see in future?


    QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how romance is handled in future games?

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how notoriety is handled?

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how NPCs' daily routines are handled?

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how Modern Day relationships are handled (Layla and the people she interacts with)?

    -Should AC have a "party" system where several AI companions travel with you?

    -Should AC have an approval/disapproval system where your moral choices affect your relationships?


    As always, please feel free to add any thoughts you might have that are not covered by these example questions!


    REMEMBER:

    While these discussions are meant to allow for honest and raw feedback directly from the community, the best way to ensure your voice is heard is to be constructive - be critical of the process, not the people. Be specific with your criticisms and suggest tangible solutions and improvements.
    We hope to see active participation and that this will be a successful way of getting the fans' voices truly heard.
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  2. #2
    Olympus2018's Avatar Senior Member
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    1 -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how romance is handled in future games?

    Ι would rather see no romance at all. Unless it is meaningful and it goes all the way to nudity. Otherwise it is shallow and superficial.





    2 -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how notoriety is handled?

    I would like to see a more advanced Bounty Hunting system. How about a bunch of bounty hunters working together against me?





    3 -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how NPCs' daily routines are handled?

    NPCs should have more diverse daily life like going to places, doing work, eat etc. Also during night, they should be asleep... all of them except a few guards. Cities should be more quite during night time.





    4 -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how Modern Day relationships are handled (Layla and the people she interacts with)?

    Modern Day is not important to me. One scene in the entire game is enough.





    5 -Should AC have a "party" system where several AI companions travel with you?

    Yes. Like a group of assassins or allies should come together with me in my journeys. 5-10 companions would be nice....





    6 -Should AC have an approval/disapproval system where your moral choices affect your relationships?

    Yes, but just like LGBT people don't like to be in a heterosexual relationship, straight people prefer a heterosexual relationship. So, you should have the freedom to choose the gender of your partner in any relationship.
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  3. #3
    JKAC2013's Avatar Senior Member
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    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how romance is handled in future games?
    I would remove the romance system and would go back to written romances that are part of the story. The problem of the romances in Odyssey is that the are not meaningful and damage the character development. Ezio and Christina, Arno and Elise, Bayek and Aya their romances work because the where written and important, imagine if Bayek could romance every woman in Egypt. That would hurt his entire character development and relationship with Aya.

    Even entire DLC controversy started because of them I think the forced romance would be accepted much better from players if the game wouldn't have romances.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how notoriety is handled?

    I would change the Crime System. The Problem is that the game forces me to do crimes as example I must steal from treasures or burn down farms to complete a location. The Completion of a Location should be a reward and not punishment that give me bounty.

    The Bounty System is ok but you should expand and give us more options to remove our bounty. At the current time we could pay our bounty or kill the person who made it. But after a time you have enough money to pay the bounty every time from the world map in it became to easy. I would like to see the return of an system like ACII where we could remove wanted papers or ACIII where you could printing companies.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how NPCs' daily routines are handled?

    You should not make every NPC hostile when you attack it because it doesn't work very well. Because you get attacked groundless very often and it hurt the atmosphere. As example in one mission in Odyssey I must help a village because the guards treat them, after I killed the guards the villagers begann to attack me? That made no sense and its hard to deal with attacking npc because jo can just flee or kill them. I would make just a few NPCs hostile like Drunken, Rowdys etc.

    The routines of the NPCs are fine but more interaction with them would be nice. The only thing we could do at the moment with them is attack or not.

    A return of the random help quests that put op In Unity and Syndicate would be nice because it made the world and npcs more alive.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how Modern Day relationships are handled (Layla and the people she interacts with)?

    I want to meet my team mates personally and talk with them instead of hearing them just in a phone call or reading e-mails from them. Worst example was Deanna her death means nothing to me because we never see her and never really interacted with her.

    The different Dialogues and Interactions with the Location like it was in Brotherhood should return. Odyssey and Origins have some kind of it put they where to small we need more of them.

    I would like to see the talking between MD Persons in the Animus too like in older games when Rebecca, Shaun or Lucy talking with Desmond during his sessions because it give you the feeling that you are in a simulation and that the MD exists.

    -Should AC have a "party" system where several AI companions travel with you?

    I dont know if this would work out very well because the companions would need a good KI and Assassins Creed gameplay focus a lot on a single play experience.

    I think some kind like the Brotherhood System or the Factions you could hire would be a good idea and a nice return but players shouldn't be forced to have companions.

    -Should AC have an approval/disapproval system where your moral choices affect your relationships?

    No because some kind of that would hurt the Character Development and the Story. Assassins Creed always have strong protagonists that were well written and have a linear story I wouldn't change that because choices and relationships hurt the personality a protagonist have and doesn't fit in Assassins Creed. The expenditure to write a story would be very high and could end in many Endings that satisfy no one. Focus more on the writing of a character and how we experience his story. Even the entire Animus and relive memories concept doesn't fit in with this. Imaging how much this would hurt the Lore of the Series.

    At the end I think you should remember that Assassins Creed should be about History not relationships and how I live out my sexuality.
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  4. #4
    What changes, if any, would you like to see in how romance is handled in future games?
    I want them to be meaningful. Romance options were fun in Odyssey, but they were mostly flings. I actually really liked the relationship between Kass and Natakas, but I still wish we could see their development more. If you keep the romance options in the upcoming games, I hope there will be less options, but more meaningful connections like with Natakas/Neema, Thaletas, Kyra, Roxana, etc. Also, even if I liked the romance options, I also really liked the way the romances were handle before, like Bayek/Aya, Arno/Élise, Ezio/Cristina, Evie/Henry, etc.
    I don't know if it suits here, but I also think that if some female romanceable characters could become lieutenants on the ships, there should be male romanceable characters, too,.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how notoriety is handled?
    I don't like when I have to burn a farm or something similar to accomplish an objective. Farmers are no criminals or mercenaries and I can't do this without getting caught and killing those innocent people.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how NPCs' daily routines are handled?
    I don't like when they attack me for no reason, for example if I'm fighting a mercenary, they automatically side with them and attack me. I do my best to not kill them, but that's quite complicated.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how Modern Day relationships are handled (Layla and the people she interacts with)?
    I would like to care for the Modern Day again and have a crew with real and interesting personalities, like we had when Desmond was the protagonist.

    -Should AC have a "party" system where several AI companions travel with you?
    All the AC protagonists are lonely and it's part of the reasons why they became who they became, so I'm not sure about this. It could be fun, but Assassin's Creed is about a single protagonist, so I see it more as teaming up with other characters but only for short periods during the main quest.

    -Should AC have an approval/disapproval system where your moral choices affect your relationships?
    No. Assassin's Creed protagonists always have a strong and well-developed personality. If there are choices, it shouldn't affect that strong personality, and it could get complicated.
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  5. #5
    cawatrooper9's Avatar AC Forum Moderator
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    Originally Posted by SixKeys Go to original post

    -Should AC have a "party" system where several AI companions travel with you?

    Just gonna throw this out there- weird as it sounds, I think the idea of a "party" was handled really well in the Assassin's Creed Rebellion mobile game last year. I wouldn't mind seeing how that could translate to the traditional AC gameplay.
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  6. #6
    ninja4hire10's Avatar Member
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    What changes, if any, would you like to see in how romance is handled in future games?

    I would make the "romances" actually mean something and not have too many. With Odyssey as the example, I get ancient Greeks were a little more..."loose"...when it came to getting it on, but since we're no longer in ancient Greece, make the option fit the period. I mean, Ezio sowed some wild oats but he legit had some lasting relationships. Along those lines I'd say if it fits the character the story; Arno's love for Elise wouldn't have meant much if he'd went around bonkin' anything with a pulse, you know?

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how notoriety is handled?

    I like the morality scale approach. If you do good, people will help you out (help cover your escape, fight on your behalf, lie to your pursuers when you're chased, etc.) I like the bounty hunter idea, though, and also the fact townspeople will pick up a weapon and have a go at you if you're going too crazy.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how NPCs' daily routines are handled?

    Despite NPCs in the last two games going about their daily duties, Unity still has the best NPCs of the franchise. It's one thing to see someone fishing or laying down to sleep but the genuine terror in some NPC dude's eyes when he's being dragged away to god knows where for some horrible fate was much more "real."

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how Modern Day relationships are handled (Layla and the people she interacts with)?

    I'm not a *huge* fan of MD, although I recognize its significance to the overall lore, so I'd have to say I'm fine with her how she handles. Side note: I do think her writing could be a little tighter, IMHO.

    -Should AC have a "party" system where several AI companions travel with you?

    Like The Rooks? I guess, at least at times. If we're full-on assassin though, then no. Wouldn't need the extra baggage.

    -Should AC have an approval/disapproval system where your moral choices affect your relationships?

    Short answer: Yep. If every action has a consequence, or a reaction, then absolutely; whether it's the Council' approval or the village or townsfolk or what have you, your in-game actions should help shape the world around you.
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  7. #7
    Swailing's Avatar Banned
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    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how romance is handled in future games?

    What we had in Odyssey was not romance. I barely ever felt any believable pull between Kassandra and the NPCs, and in the rare cases where it nearly worked it was meaningless anyway: there was no ongoing change established as a result of these flings.

    If there is to be romance then I think you need a much smaller number of potential romances with fully-fleshed out roles in the game, or maybe even just one character who is well designed and can appear in a number of different guises (i.e. if the player rejects 'Valentina' then there would be a 'Valentino' to encounter elsewhere in the world). If the player pursues romance with none of them, there should be a third consequence: the npc becomes a good friend instead, or perhaps a brokenhearted admirer.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how notoriety is handled?

    I know a lot of people didn't like the escalation of violence that "wasn't our fault", such as when a bounty hunter attacks us in a Spartan-policed zone, or when civilians would jump into the fight that wasn't theirs. To me, it made sense: these aren't times when you can call 911, and there's never been a time in history when city police would say, "Well, that mercenary clearly started it, so let's back off in case the assassin wins".

    In general, the mercenary system was interesting but it was a bit crude. You surely know something was wrong with it or you wouldn't have put a Pay Off Bounties one-button opt-out into the game. That's a weird-feeling solution to an uncomfortable problem. It seemed strange to me that killing my pursuers had no effect on my "heat".

    Aside from that, there's the monotony of getting followed in the same way all the time. I don't think you should replace one thing with another, but it would be nice to broaden the ways in which the bounty hunters/police assault you. If you imagine being an assassin with trained operatives out to catch you, how would it go?

    You'd be walking through the crowded town centre to acquire equipment or some information, when you'd notice a few odd faces among the crowd with their eyes on you. You turn down a side street, and those men break from the positions and walk towards your alleyway too. If you run, they run, and once they start running, it's on.

    You're in a pub to meet a contact over a beer. While there, you notice eyes again. Your contact raises the issue verbally, telling you they're not going to make a move in here, but the moment we leave... You have time to think about what you're going to do as you step out of the threshold. Run? Fight in the street, but risk more attention?

    Or maybe you'd be browsing a trader's wares, comparing this sword with that axe, when suddenly the menu collapses and the trader attacks you, hissing about your crimes and the powerful people you have made enemies of. Two or three of his fellow undercover agents have approached behind your back, and you are encircled: forced to fight or flee.

    A troupe of performers is delighting a crowd with their singing and music, and their star attraction is a trained dancing bear. Suddenly, their music stops. The performers all turn to face you, and the leader unchains the bear and gives the command to attack you. Chaos ensues.

    You are walking near a lake. There is a curious bubbling sound, and you notice a hollow, vertical stick moving in the center of some ripples. An attacker rises suddenly from under the water, whipping water in all directions as they attack without warning.

    You are walking through a forested area. Sunlight dapples the carpet of grasses and bluebells, and deer graze in the peaceful silence. A slight rustle above is your only warning as an attacker falls on you from the branches above, and his previously unseen accomplices emerge from behind the tree trunks.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how NPCs' daily routines are handled?

    I want "super npcs". Beyond the story cutscene npcs and the minor npcs, I want a stratum of npcs who are just people: people you can meet, people you can re-visit, people who might eventually have mission roles but maybe never do.

    When I've moved to new towns, what happens organically is that I get to know the people I see the most. They might never become part of my 'story', but I chat with them. The shops I go in the most, the shopkeepers come to know my name and ask how I am. The people who live a few doors away sometimes say hi and talk about local news with me. People stop to talk because they see me with my cat enjoying the sun.

    I want that in AC. If I start visiting the local priest, it would be nice if that opened up a social connection. Maybe we could chat about religion and philosophy on these meetings. Maybe the priest has an inkling that I'm up to no good, but tips me off that royal guards are hunting me anyway. A bartender, an astronomer, an actor, a lawyer, a banker, a baker, a politician, a tailor.

    If a game must be bulked out, I would much prefer filler that bolsters the sense of a living world than the transparently grindy time-wasters of the last two ACs. It would be nice to have people to talk to where there was no goal orientation; you would be talking to them only to uncover interesting conversation, not just to unlock a mission objective.

    My dream is to have an indirect goal to being social, just as an Assassin could use social angles if this game was real. I would like the city to be invisibly strung with a web of social connections, the lines of which I could tug to exert influence over the powerful. A social connection with a librarian could be used to kill a bibliophile target. A discovery that a target has a weakness for gambling could be exploited via a croupier. In more complex ways, I could lean on a minor character to undermine a middle-level character who in turn could expose a high-level mark. Once I have importers, lords and builders at a disadvantage to me, I should be able to cause all kinds of trouble for the aristocracy.

    And even making an enemy of a particular npc could be a tactical move. Also, you might mess with A to curry favour with B, but then cut off a future connection with C because A and C are friends. Every one of these 'super npcs' would be as well-described as secondary characters in novels. Each character would have at least five friends, at least a couple of relatives in the world, at least one interest of their own, at least one leisure activity or hobby. You might accidentally kill someone who is related to someone you like without you realising it. You might find them in mourning one day, about to attend a funeral for their loved one, unaware that you were responsible (which would be quite an emotional blow and burden for the player if they have come to like this character, and why else would they be choosing to visit the npc?). These super npcs would be the mortar that glues the game world together.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how Modern Day relationships are handled (Layla and the people she interacts with)?

    I liked Layla until the treatment of her in Odyssey, and most of all the Atlantis DLC, wrecked all that good work.

    I don't know why the AC teams are so keen to make the games feel like a show on The CW. The Desmond/Lucy/Rebecca/Shaun team was like that, but that was a decade ago and a very different era in games. It could not be more obvious that whoever created Victoria was a huge fan of Chloë in Smallville, because she IS Chloë from Smallville. And have we learned nothing of what happens when you let Allison Mack into your head?

    The dialogue and psychology of Layla and Victoria was trash because you've already set a very low bar with your dramatic influences. Aletheia, even as an advanced superbeing, couldn't escape the massive IQ-point nerf that made all three of them behave like they'd suffered serious head injuries. Oh, I forgot Berg. Jesus wept, this was terrible.

    Making drama that's as basic as possible and aiming it at children does not make it enjoyable for all, or even necessarily enjoyable for children.

    -Should AC have a "party" system where several AI companions travel with you?

    Probably not. The fun in the game comes from the moments when I take on seemingly impossible odds by myself and somehow win. With a party, I would either be annoyed with their uselessness or their competence. Good or bad, they would spoil my game.

    And do not Dragon-Age this thing, I beg you. I like that kind of thing in its place, but I don't want it in AC.

    -Should AC have an approval/disapproval system where your moral choices affect your relationships?

    'Relationships' as in friendships? Sure. But too many games present that as a choice when it's the opposite. It becomes a game of being a Good Boy/Girl, with rules that are so obvious and restrictive that you feel like you're being herded into one behaviour only.

    Another problem of this coding of behaviour is that players become immediately itchy and unsatisfied, and they obsess about getting the "best" ending. That's a massive problem in a game that's 40-100+ hours long. I've seen players talk as if they're going to quit the whole game because they think they got a decision 'wrong'.

    For this reason, I think you have to take great care as a team not to make it feel like an all-or-nothing undertaking. Use the NPCs' dialogue to reinforce the message in the game world. Have them point out that the fun in life comes from the imperfections, that you never know where a mistake will lead you, and so on. AC in general could do with more of this to indirectly explain aspects of the game. For instance, when everyone was "wtf"-ing about whole armies killing them after they got attacked by a merc in or near a Spartan military district: this was made worse because the game was silent about why things were happening. The soldiers could have shouted, "We don't care who started it! You're all breaking the law!" When civilians picked up weapons to attack us, they could have had barks that made their actions more clear: "I will not wait for guards! I will deal with you myself. Who is with me?"

    And maybe there shouldn't be different endings for this reason. Take away that 'reward' for a certain type of behaviour, and players will concentrate on the journey instead of the destination.

    This only becomes interesting if you create situations in which it's extremely hard not to lie, and then give those lies repercussions later on, or where you play with the subjectivity of morals: what one character views as immoral may be very commendable in the eyes of someone else. Good deeds may have unforeseen consequences.
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  8. #8
    Mushashi7's Avatar Senior Member
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    QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER:

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how romance is handled in future games?

    Make them like in Mass Effect and The Witcher: Wild Hunt and you're good to go.
    And please make a scene which reaches a crescendo like the one between Geralt and Yennefer on the ship (where they catch the jinn). The most intensive romantic experience I have EVER had in any game at all. And the most brilliant as well. The creator behind this is a genius.
    The jinn lifts the curse that binds the two together, and you now have the (actual and real) option weather you want to pursue this relationship or not. This scene is the best created scene in any game. A real interactive choice with an exitement you never forget. You actually had a long moment where you felt the uncertainty: Shall I, or shall I not?

    Do not create those short sexual flings like in Odyssey. This is not romance but sex. They have no importance or meaning.
    Romances should never show sexual behavior. This is NOT what romances are about. Romances are about feelings, yearning, dreams, mutual respect and friendship.
    A clip with a hug would be nice though. And remind me to point out the best romance in Odyssey: Roxana. This was the best build up romance sequence. Although everything goes a bit too fast this was still the best of them all.
    The main idea is NOT to repeat the 'Amulet of Mara' system from Skyrim where you put on an amulet and ask if the subject would like to get married and move in to your or her house.
    Romance is about feelings - not sex - and it shouldn't go too fast. Let us struggle and long for a bit, ok?

    I am a sucker for romances in video games. I actually often deselect/avoid a video game if there's no romance present. It was also one of the reasons I decided to buy Odyssey. But the romances in Odyssey were not romances. They were sexual flings.

    As ninja4hire10 expressed above:
    "I would make the "romances" actually mean something and not have too many."


    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how notoriety is handled?

    I was a bit frustrated in Odyssey regarding Kassandra becoming leader of 'The Daughters of Artemis'. No sister was hostile after the fixes, but none of them recognized her as their leader. Several quests involving one of the sisters went dead because none of the implicated sisters knew whom she actually was. No greetings or show of natural respect. I can't imagine any society having a leader that nobody knows or has heard of?

    And you should let the hostility depend on more believable reasons. If you help people you will be accepted and get some slack if you eventually do stupid or illegal actions.
    Let an approval/disapproval system count here! Anything else breaks the immersion. Why not try to copy real life behavior? Simple as that.


    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how NPCs' daily routines are handled?

    Skip the hostile civilians thingy. You can keep them in certain situations, but as they are now the are not realistic. I feel they have only been made hostile to complicate matters for me in the game without reason.

    As I have suggested many times I think the time has come for game developers to progress further in the development of NPCs. If you want to get a step ahead of every other game developer you should create some kind of 'chat bot' system into them. I know you somehow already do this but it should be expanded. You can recycle some dialogues if needed. But the point is that NPCs no longer should be characterless stereotypes. Create a system that actually makes the player feel they might be talking to living and thinking people after all?


    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how Modern Day relationships are handled (Layla and the people she interacts with)?

    A bit more background story on each character close to the protagonist? Making it more believable I think? The 'small' cut scenes in Odyssey were nice, but I missed some background on the team. Where did they meet and how? What were they doing before they joined forces?


    -Should AC have a "party" system where several AI companions travel with you?

    This is important for the feeling of being with others and create life in games. A simple essential. But it should be optional - and also customizable to a certain degree.
    I would suggest a maximum of three followers. I tried the 'Amazing Follower Tweaks' for both Skyrim and Fallout 4, and it's getting hard to keep the overview with more than three followers. I normally prefer one or two followers.


    -Should AC have an approval/disapproval system where your moral choices affect your relationships?

    Definitely. Basically like Fallout 4. Certain actions or behaviors counts as negative or positive values. (This approval/disapproval system should count everywhere. Also among NPCs.)



    As always, please feel free to add any thoughts you might have that are not covered by these example questions!

    The very best romances in any video games was:

    1. Liara T'soni in Mass Effect. A nicely build up romance over several games. Believable and intense.
    2. Yennefer in The Witcher: Wild Hunt. The most complicated but also most exiting, intense, beautiful and touching one.

    I would also mention the story of Cait in Fallout 4 which I found well made. The romance it self was not especially romantic though.

    If you have these in memory when creating romances in new games you can't go all wrong...
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  9. #9
    ProdiGurl's Avatar Senior Member
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    I don't have much time, so this will be very brief & lacking detail, I hope to add more when I can.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how romance is handled in future games?

    I think the Quebec team loves light hearted humor and so do I - but my choices in a physical relationship wouldn't be with people who repulse me,, so making our love choices a little more physically appealing is helpful
    I would prefer one relationship with a special interest and do a story around that - maybe add some jealousy or a betrayal or something... something with a twist to it where you have to find out what's going on behind the scenes. Maybe something mysterious.

    *edit in* Since our character is a Mercenary, it fit this game that we're not tied down to 1 person and it was fine but if we get a homebase in the next game, it would make more sense to choose just one.

    I always want romance in AC. I think it belongs there like ambient music.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how notoriety is handled?
    What I disliked in past games is where the entire game was me having to sneak through towns without being seen by guards most of the time and it got very tedious, time consuming and annoying when it was constant everywhere.
    I want to be able to travel and breathe - enjoy myself in the settings... not hiding and running 24/7 or else they attack me.

    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how NPCs' daily routines are handled?
    I think AC needs to add alot of audio - as the game progresses to whatever levels, start automatically adding another wave of NPC chatter & dialog so it feels brand new & spontaneous.
    By the end of the game you all but ignore everyone becuz they say the same mindless things you heard from Level 1.
    Progressing dialog, comments... maybe some interaction with them would nice.

    Random events are one thing I loved in a few of our games. Let us witness an NPC stealing from a woman on the street & we can chase them down & give them their items back. etc.

    -Should AC have a "party" system where several AI companions travel with you?
    I'd like that through some of the game, not all of it.
    The main problem I have in AC w/ any NPC's on a mission with me is they mess it up every time by alerting guards and I go running in to either save them or hide & wait till they get killed off so I can use stealth.
    If they don't become a hindrance, I would like it periodically and they'd need to be given alot of dialog for better immersion
    Saying a few of the same repetitious things isn't a good party system - you still feel alone & isolated if there's no communication going on
    *edit in* (this was prevalent in Revelations with the recruits in each Den).

    -Should AC have an approval/disapproval system where your moral choices affect your relationships?
    Yes definitely. How we act & speak has results in real life, it should in a game too - more immersive.
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  10. #10
    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how romance is handled in future games?

    Romance should be handled the way everything ought to be handled in NPC relationships: Choice shouldn't be part of it. Sometimes romance works well in a story, sometimes it doesn't, but if romance is going to be party of the story, I want it to be a carefully written, well thought-through plot, not a choose-your-own-adventure novel. No reason to re-hash out though why choice is such a poor fit for the AC story, as other threads have tackled that broader topic more directly.



    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how notoriety is handled?

    I thought the bounty system ended up feeling dumb, but part of that is how it interacts with the goals that the game is giving players as a general function of exploration. We come to a new region, and the list of tasks is clear: Go to these outposts. Go to these forts. Kill the captain / commander. Loot some boxes, destroy some supplies. Notoriety goes up. Bounty hunter comes after you. Rinse and repeat 200 times. And the bounty hunters keep coming as you kill the prior one, often just making your clearing out of these places slower and more annoying, with the killing of the bounty hunters not being very rewarding.

    I don't think there should be a bounty "system" at all. Not that the idea of a bounty hunter isn't good - it actually is a great idea to have someone trying to hunt you down and kill you for your past actions. But it should be tied into the plot, a chain with set points and criteria for the spawning of a bounty hunter, and intermittent breaks with a final end state - in other words, instead of an infinitely spawning set of bounty hunters designed to slow down exploration and making clearing camps / outposts / forts feel more annoying, there should be a real story behind the bounty side of the game, a limited list of bounty hunters, and a conclusion to that part of the plot that treats it as possible for you to kill them all and be done with it.




    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how NPCs' daily routines are handled?

    This is just ambiance quality. While it's always nice for more high quality ambiance to be in any game, it's also an area that often goes unappreciated and which never makes people's natural wish-lists. It's very low priority.




    -What changes, if any, would you like to see in how Modern Day relationships are handled (Layla and the people she interacts with)?

    The modern day plot has lost its way and needs vast improvement, but this question is about relationships handling in particular, implying a flirtation with wanting to add character choice to dialogue options to entice the player to "develop" a deeper relationship with the people around them (perhaps even leading to alternative outcomes in character plot, i.e. changing who Layla might enter into a romantic relationship with, or creating different outcomes in who you might trust / save / turn against in some future plot). That would be a mistake. That's not to say the game couldn't use more conversations, or that a deeper modern day cast with more relationships between the modern day characters wouldn't be a minor improvement.

    But the CORE of what's wrong with the modern day plot has nothing to do with the handling of relationships. It's the lack of direction in big-picture mythology and goals. The climax to the Juno plotline was handled off-screen. Hard to think of a stronger example of incredibly bad game-story planning than that simple fact.

    The modern day just needs a better reason to exist. The Assassins look and feel pathetic these days. Compare how you felt about Assassins and Templars in AC 2 when Desmond was escaping from Abstergo vs. how they feel now. Back then it actually seemed like there was this secret war going on between these world-wide hidden organizations. The Templars looking for artifacts to control the world and remove free will vs. the Assassins trying to fight them off, while looking for a way to save the world from a cataclysm only they knew was coming.

    Now the Templars just feel like a flailing multi-national corporation doing R&D to shallowly increase some vague sense of power, while the Assassins feel like a group of people that mostly would tweet out things like "resist the establishment! #resist #corporate_greed_kills" The whole thing feels very hard to take seriously. Aletheia even feels like a joke, more wrapped up in her past conflicts fighting for some abstract sense of social justice between Isu and humans than involved in anything that matters in the here-and-now. The Isu have been greatly degraded by their treatment in AC Odyssey, which is a shame.




    -Should AC have a "party" system where several AI companions travel with you?

    No. For a game with the gameplay of AC, that type of thing often adds false depth. Like you can build this entire, giant, grindy system of improving and leveling and choosing talents for your party members, but the actual effect of the system undermines the gameplay characteristic of Assassin's Creed, which functions off of stealth, infiltration, and a focus on mastery of an individual character in combat. If AC introduced party members, I would assume its primary purpose was to create more grinds linked to the party system, not that it actually improved the gameplay one ounce. Such systems often also lead to immense difficulty in balancing challenges - very often, it just makes things incredibly easy, as you grind up the levels of party members who then do most of your fighting for you.




    -Should AC have an approval/disapproval system where your moral choices affect your relationships?

    Given that many like me don't think choice should even be a part of an AC game's plot, my original recommendation would just be to take away choice. And when a story is written without choice, no approval / disapproval system is necessary, because relationships are written based off of a natural, solitary plot. That said, anytime a game has a "choice" system, it's a no-brainer that an approval / disapproval system should be part of that. It's kind of like making a fire person shooter and then forgetting to have an ammunition mechanic. Sure, it can be done, but it's a very weird and unnatural thing to leave out, and results in a noticeable lack of depth.
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