Timescale vs. world size

Gameplay
#1

Continuing the discussion from Backpack and shield on back:

All rightt, this warrants a new thread methinks.

Well, 2km are about 20-30 minutes of walk in average, so if Warhorse keeps the proper scale as they said they’ll do, you’ll be in a situation where walking home makes realistic sense and building a tent doesn’t, but is bloody annoying to go there in-game. There’s a reason why TES games are scaled so ridiculously.

I’m actually wondering how are they going to adjust in-game time to the scale of their world. The time going so fast kind of made sence in the TES series as a walk from one city to another could take about 15 minutes, but it took a whole day in-game time, which sort of balanced the distances to make a bit more sense (you technically didn’t take 15 minutes walking there, you took the whole day. Of course, there’s the inherent issue that the latest swordfight took 12 hours.) But Kingdom Come is going to have realistic distances, yet if they implement accelerated time, it’ll take you several hours to walk a single kilometer which doesn’t really make all that much sense either. So the question is: What do you think would be the ideal solution?

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#2

Was it realistic distances or “realistic” distances.

I recall someone mentioning that the map had to be kind of squished to make some things closer together.

#3

Yes, in the map update video, they showed how they’ve cut out specific uninteresting parts of the map. But they haven’t done anything with the scale.

I really like this subject, and I think it is important. In another Topic we discussed the idea of a 24 hour day/night cycle, and I think we pretty much agreed that it would be ridiculous. I think scaling the world, so the real-time travelling times correspond with our understanding is more important. Game-time is more important, to what we feel we have done in-game. Quests, tasks, combat and so forth. But there are limits of course. I wouldn’t want to spend several in-game days to walk to the neighboring village.

#4

Yes you have right, it can be good, but on the other side, it should not be overdone.

#5

is possible (in later of course) do map larger and larger with expansions (dlc)? or do you planning do next game different place and different size? you mentioned that act 1 is big, act 2 is bigger and act 3 is biggest… or may i be wrong? and where soldier, baron badge names are? my profile? i havent seem any yet…

#6

yes stupid me!!! :slight_smile: i already saw that i am baron… sorry…

#7

Thats a damn good question! I would like to see a statement of a Team member…

#8

I heard something about Act 2 taking place in Vienna, so I think it will be a new map, and then you can travel between maps.

@Ulfberht Awesome name. Saw the documentary on Youtube.

#9
One will take place in a big city, another in an open-world countryside, with various castles and villages, and another in a smaller locale Vavra didn't detail.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-01-21-i-do-care-for-a-next-gen-medieval-rpg-with-no-fantasy

So the other 2 acts won’t be bigger.

#10

This is an important topic in my eyes as well. There is no way we will be playing in real time, unless the story was laid out in some medieval version of the TV series 24 it would be impossible to do that within 30 hours of gameplay. This being the case there will have to be some sort of scaling. Especially with the need to sleep and eat I would think there will have to be a daily cycle that doesn’t take a full day to play, and it will be interesting to see how the time/distance scaling works out for this.

#11

Perhaps they should just base a realistic day on traveling time?

#12

This is the internet. Don’t use logic. Ever.

And yes, that would be simple and effective (two wonderful qualities in life and programming). I’m sure they are way ahead of us here (and in most of these topics - but they’re still fun to talk about). Since Dan has always been critical of the fantasy RPG genres many quirks I imagine he already has ideas on how to do them better, or we wouldn’t be here.

#13

I would like to believe that, but I’m not sure if it is true. In the early blog posts he talks about problems of map design and inventory system. But (sadly) there are no innovative solutions for this problems. I think that (for example) the inventory sysem will be very old fashioned. The same here. Maybe there is no better solution…

Edit: So many problems are connected with an realistic historical accurate RPG. Its completly clear why nobody did it until now…

#14

From all the videos the main player seems to run most of the time. So while walking 1 mile at about a 4 mile per hour pace you’d get there in 15 minutes. But running (jogging) you would make it in half the time. People are worried about having to walk “forever” somewhere. But that’s what travel is about, besides it makes horses more important and journeys more adventurous. I don’t really know what the best answer is, but I agree it would be wonky to think that going 1km in game would take hours. Maybe do half time? Days are 12 real life hours? Though 6 hours might be more realistic. if 15 real minutes meant you could walk a mile (sorry Imperial system here USA) and they made 15 minutes an “hour” seems more balanced.

#15

is there any kind possible to play music instrument, while walking in game… it would be nice…? or not…?

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#16

That’s pretty far off topic for this discussion. You should probably try searching for a similar question or start your own.

#17

I’d like the option to set the in game time to 1-for-1, for just chilling out and enjoying the scenery, but I think it makes sense to have it pass more quickly in game, although I think it would be wise to make the days last longer than you see in some modern games, say, 3-4 hours respectively for day and night-you’d see a fairly substantial transition in a play session without it feeling too rushed.

A wait option seems logical enough, they may want to add in a slight negative modifier if you use it for too long to represent your character being bored on top of racking up hunger and thirst.

#18

I remember how back while playing Skyrim, when I was tinkering with the game through various gameplay and environmental mods, I also tried to play a bit with the speed of daytime in the game and eventually settled on the timescale of about 45 minutes for a day, plus another 45 for the night, making a day cycle an hour and a half long in real-time.

It seemed a pretty reasonable and comfortable timespan, taking neither too long nor too short to play through a regular in-game day and night with enough time for whatever you wanted to do during the respective part of the day (a bit of travelling, trading and stuff during the day and then just about one slow stealthy hostile takeover of a bandit-filled fort during the night… :slight_smile: ).

This might also be a good solution for KCD. If you suppose that crossing the entire map on a horseback would take about 15-20 minutes in real time and the map’s range is supposed to simulate a considerable distance in space, it sounds reasonable (well, to me anyway…) that travelling such a distance there and back again (and also solving a part of some quest in the process) should take approximately one daytime.

This may be pretty individual though, seems like some people would prefer the in-game day to take a half of their afternoon during which they might be able to run across the entire map several times in a row.

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