I went into pribyslavitz and cleared it (this was while the “scouting” mission was active). Found ONE Sleep and save bed.
I was traveling around north of Neuhof, came upon a “camp.” There was a Sleep and Save bed there.
South of Neuhof there are two shacks. One on either side of the river. In one is an “accident” including a dead-body. Both of them have a “sleep and save” hay pile in them.
This just scratches the surface of seemingly random beds which are not in any clear sense “owned” by Henry where one can sleep and save. They seem to be littered in a random fashion all over the map.
Now maybe there was a mutiny among the level designers who decided to put all these in the game and the directors didn’t find out until it was too late, but in any event: I don’t consider this to be “good design.” It is not consistent. It is not clear. It is not realistic. It is not “historically accurate.” I’m even a bit dubious that it somehow contributes to “good game play,” though I will admit, I have been somewhat won over to the idea of limiting player capacity to save the game.
Like I’ve said before: it makes no sense that the player cannot sleep effectively anywhere. What, after all, is the difference between “this hay pile here” and that one out there in the barn or the one under that tree log down the road? People have been sleeping on the ground in “undesignated spots” for millennia and the game acknowledges this with the absolutely spartan nature of the “beds” we pay to own or otherwise have given to us; they are, for the most part, piles of hay!
The limited saving functionality could be retained in many different forms while allowing the player to sleep anywhere and even to sleep and save “anywhere,” just not “any time.”
I don’t have the answer to these design questions, though they are something that intrigues me. I think the real trick is to step back and ask: HOW does reducing a player’s capacity to create save files enhance game play?
6 months ago, I definitely would have scoffed at the idea that such a mechanic enhances game play at all, and even now I remain undecided, dubious you could say. But I’m open to being convinced that it does actually contribute positively to game play in a way which players would appreciate if it were explained to them.
