Caribbean! - Interview @ RPS

Dhruin

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Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an interview on Caribbean!, the pirate-y game being made with the Mount & Blade engine:
RPS: Is the game a sandbox or is there a plot to follow?
Souslov: Sandbox all the way! Frankly, making a plot-driven campaign wasn’t really our cup of tea. Considering how much time and efforts it eventually consumed, we wonder why didn’t we dump the idea straight away and implemented siege artillery instead. So, adventures in the Caribbean are fully open-ended. We do plan to implement a few short story arcs involving several quests each though, to flesh out the world.
RPS: How complex is the integration of naval combat into the Mount and Blade engine?
Souslov: Too complex. Actually, we spent a year and a half doing just that. Might have to do with our limited brain capability, but even the unlimited capability of the modding scene couldn’t solve the issue adequately yet. In the end, we’ve got some priceless assistance from the Turkish team, and the desperation of our own has pushed us forward. There was a time we were almost about to cancel the project, but eventually the solution was found and the bloody frigate started sailing and ceased neighing.
More information.
 
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After Pirates!, Sea Dogs (and later clones), etc till recent Risen2 I don't want to buy another pirate game that doesn't combine everything from previously available titles.

Sandbox with short story arcs… Puh-lease.

Carribean! will probably be just another Mount&Blade with different looks and thousands of randomly generated fetch quests. And I didn't like Mount&Blade in the first place. So I'll give my money elsewhere.
 
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Yeah, I need story too.

Frontier was a cool sequel to Elite - but since then, it's been very clear to me that such games can't really be perpetually interesting without a stronger drive than auto-generated content, however elaborate.
 
Carribean! will probably be just another Mount&Blade with different looks and thousands of randomly generated fetch quests. And I didn't like Mount&Blade in the first place. So I'll give my money elsewhere.

I thought that in Mount and Blade you create your own story, that is how I played it and enjoyed every second of it. M&B (at least Warband) did not only consist of fetch quests, there is so much strategy, combat, sieges, trading, social interactions, building, companionships, rescue missions, liberations, .. etc. It is truely open ended with a live world for you to carve your own story.
 
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…there is so much …social interactions… companionships.. etc.
And probably no sex.
Look I bought M&B, played it for about 10 hours, cursed myself for buying it in the first place. I couldn't understand what's expected from me there. Oh and… Unique groundbreaking horseback combat system? Um… I seriously don't care for combat systems. Gimme an unique groundbreaking story instead!

Never bought other M&B titles (dunno if those are sequels, prequels or just DLC). And honestly I don't plan to. And by it's description Carribean! "feels" like it's Mount&Blade with ships. For M&B fans it might be awsome, but I remember not liking Oblivion and then not liking Oblivion with lasers - FO3. Luckily I got FNV later, so I'll just be patient till someone makes Carribean! with the fullfeatured story that branches all over the place.
 
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I enjoyed M&B Warband for about 15hrs then the game became boring as hell. I expect it will be the same of this game. I need story in my games not just a giant sandbox.

I hated Oblivion for the same reason also. At least Bethesda has put more focus on writing and story. I enjoyed there latest offerings more.

I see this brought up with every game. Bottom line I need story. No compromise as I will get bored and never finish. Different gaming tastes I prefer story with my exploration and others don't.
 
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I do not require story in my games. I prefer to make my own as I go. This was one of the aspects I very much enjoyed about M&B.

Let's face it: There are very few examples of decent writing in games. (Stand tall and proud, Fallout: New Vegas.) People praise BioWare for this, even the BioWare of old, but I don't get it. Dragon Age: Origins was supposed to be some return to the old school and widely praised around here for its story, among other things, but I thought the writing was hackneyed drivel. People needing story slammed Oblivion for its main quest in particular, but I wouldn't even know. I got my free horse from the abbey or whatever early on and rode off into the sunset, leaving the main questbehind forever. I played the hell out of Oblivion and enjoyed the hell out of it and never returned to the main quest; didn't strike me as very interesting.

Bring on M&B with ships. I'll take a wide open sandbox any day.
 
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Did any of the later M&B games expand upon the exploration part? I remember playing the first one but it wasnt the type of exploration i prefer in open world games.

Story in games isnt a big deal for me, creating the story as you go is this mediums strength, it's can't be done in books or movies..
 
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...creating the story as you go is this mediums strength, it's can't be done in books or movies..

That's exactly right. That's why I prefer playing actual games as opposed to, say, the interactive DVD menus of B movies (and I'm being generous there) that BioWare makes.
 
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That's exactly right. That's why I prefer playing actual games as opposed to, say, the interactive DVD menus of B movies (and I'm being generous there) that BioWare makes.

Having story does not equal interactive DVD menus of B movies. That's just Bioware's way of doing things. There called cinematic rpg's for a reason.

Millions enjoy them are they wouldn't sell more than M&B sandbox games. Also damn me for praising Bioware.O_O
 
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Having story does not equal interactive DVD menus of B movies.

True. I was just picking an example, which happened to be an extreme one. And there's no arguing the BioWare formula isn't popular. I was just stating my opinion. I'm often in the minority opinion.
 
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And probably no sex.
Look I bought M&B, played it for about 10 hours, cursed myself for buying it in the first place. I couldn't understand what's expected from me there. Oh and… Unique groundbreaking horseback combat system? Um… I seriously don't care for combat systems. Gimme an unique groundbreaking story instead!

You did not want to build a big and strong army? You did not want to have a village and build a mill or school and have a constant income stream to maintain and enlarge your army? You did not want to align with a prince/queen to provide support during wars? You did not want to concur and have a fort? you did not want to defend this fort and expand your influence? You did not want to go to an arena or training grounds to test your skills and improve your armies'? ... etc.

Horse combat and hand to hand/ranged combat is one of the best in a PC game.

Moreover M&B Warband is one of the very few (if there are any) in which the game does not revolve around the player and the player need to work hard to be part of this world. This latter feature need motivation to do all of the above. It is not for all people, particularly those who expect to be lead by hand through a story.
 
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I loved M&B. Despite the generic NPCs, the graphics, it world felt more alive than any game world Ive ever played, modded TES games included. All the player actions really did affect the world in an unscripted way. Remember when Skyrim promised such things as affecting economy a little? M&B actually delivers on that, and the effect is not just "a little". Bankrupting a territory to make them easier pickings is a valid strategy.

As for story? M&B gave me the opportunity to play 2 (the only 2 I tried) totally different ones. 1 was the story of a blacksmith's apprentice's rise to become Emperor (my made up title). The other was the story of a street urchin becoming a very rich and influential merchant. Talk about branching paths and C&C! :D

I drool for a M&B game with AAA resources.
 
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Millions of people hasnt opened a good novel in their whole life and therefore are ok with rubbish B-entertainment, afterall, it's all they know.

Very unlikely. Millions of people have opened a good novel in their whole life and still wish to get the same on computer through video games.
 
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Story in games isnt a big deal for me, creating the story as you go is this mediums strength, it's can't be done in books or movies..

It is not a book, movies vs computer games question.

Computer games offer several story telling options, including player narrated story and author narrated story.

Computer games as a medium excells at player narrated stories and comes with structural problems for author narrated stories, problems no one, in spite of years of research, has managed to solve.

It is all about wanting to use the medium for what it is best for, regardless of what books or movies can deliver.

But again, players seem to prefer computer games being used for what it is the weaker for.
 
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Very unlikely. Millions of people have opened a good novel in their whole life and still wish to get the same on computer through video games.

Which is naive, it's like reading book and thinking the movie adaptation will be just like it or better, it just won't happen because the medium is too different and isnt good at it. It can give another type of entertainment though and hopefully the developers were smart enough to focus on the medium's strength and not on its weakness (for example trying to make a movie out of a computer game).

Those games with "choose your story path"-gameplay are imo still very inferior to books, its usually just there to trick you into believing you made something change while in fact the story and even dialogue progresses just the same as for a different choice. I tried reloading saves a lot in FO: New Vegas and in Vampire: Bloodlines and far too often i was disapointed to get the exact same dialogue or outcome.
 
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M&B to me is a great game. I canät think of any other game that I spent so much time with, first Vanilla, then with mods, and then again with Warband and mods. I never play it for weeks on end, but the last couple of years it's one of the few games I've replayed several times.

If properly done I think this could be great. I've always wanted a deeper and a bit more serious Pirates! (also a great game). And no one really cared for the story in that one right?
 
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this sounds interesting, ive always been intrigued by the pirate theme, but have never fully indulged it. The only pirate-themed game that I've played was Sid Meir's "Pirates" (the newer one) and really enjoyed it, tho I always wished there was more to it at the end of the day. A sandbox pirate game sounds like a dream come true. And the screenshots look awesome....

Was "Sea Dogs" any good? I always wanted to check that one out.
 
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