Introversion

Well, this WOULD be awesome, but it would break Introversion's "absolute realism", where your viewpoint is always "behind the screen".
Unless, of course, your agents have some super awesome HD cameras on their face which you, the mastermind behind it all, can see in real-time. (and of course some robotic muscles which you can control remotely)

soo many good suggestions im in overload need to sleep on it.. need to have crazy dreams of sprouting wings and mud wrestling..
still dont want to see subversion become too much like gta(eww, over played and killing people for political sway against a company or government, hmm). and would love to see it more like uplink(with social engineering).. an amazing story that you dont have to pick up is you dont want to..

and clive, leverage is better than hustle.. but just my opinion though.. watch it, you be the judge..
that and your ragnar quote is just laughable. but thats for another topic (start a new topic) that i would relish debating..

I would be interested in a sandbox mode where you can test out ideas, invent new things, practice your skills. Also the ability to write and test scripts in game would be awesome. Say you have a fool proof algorithm for cracking a phone system, you could practice it in sandbox mode, write up a script for it and have your agents perform it in game. I also was reading Chris' blog and the ideas he was putting forward about everything, even complex systems being made from basic components and then putting these together to make something that is equal or greater than the sum of their parts. Opening up the content creation to the user, I don't know about everyone else, but I could mess around with a city generator all day just by itself seeing which variables changed different outputs and so on. I think this is pretty standard on most games today is a progression from beginning player, to getting your bearings, to becoming an expert with the system, and the rewards from achievement. But yeah, it must have good AI cause that is important too.

like uplink 2 story lines. one good, one evil.

Subversion certainly has the same feel to it as Uplink.

Check it out, even the Unreal engine is starting to use procedural asset creation (specifically, buildings):

http://unrealtechnology.com/Downloads/S ... dings.pptx

Pretty neat!

iestyn

(p.s if the file downloads as a .ZIP, rename it to .PPTX and MS PowerPoint should open it)

NeatNit wrote:Unless, of course, your agents have some super awesome HD cameras on their face which you, the mastermind behind it all, can see in real-time. (and of course some robotic muscles which you can control remotely)

Exactly.
Yeah, it is sort of an inconvinient place to post this.

I made a procedural generation thread to post stuff like that on http://forums.introversion.co.uk/introversion/viewtopic.php?t=2458

Wow. I feel a lot better now.
Although I believe I am still a lot worse.

Ok, are you a bot or not?

I REALLY can't decide anymore.

We really, really need some form of co-op. Maybe even some multiplayer where one person controls the security guards and so forth.

Hi Suppose i should open with that and introduce myself, being as i've been a long time lurker.

anyways, just seen your latest vid from the blog and love the way its coming along.

I love the outlined silhouettes but have you thought about making them more Human looking (keeping them out lined silhouettes of course). Sort of like the ubiquitous thing you find on health and safety posters and emergency plane crash things (or naff eighties jewelry ads).

I think this might make more of an emotional connection with the player, that it'll remind you that its supposed to be real people your manipulating or endangering etc. It might be interesting to see how this effects peoples light and dark side.

and help differentiate different occupations eg, guards waring caps, workmen hard hats. you can even add a procedurally generated element giving them a different sex, height and width.

Anyway thats my thought for the day, the game looks great so far, can't wait to play it.

Headless Monkey Boy wrote:I think this might make more of an emotional connection with the player, that it'll remind you that its supposed to be real people your manipulating or endangering etc.

Given the emotional responses that people had to the Darwinians, I don't think realism is what you need in order to generate such a response. In fact, I think that you can run into problems with the uncanny valley, and actually put people off of your characters. Moreover, you are also assuming that the player is meant to care. ;)

xander

Maybe replace "care" with immersing game-play and he has a valid point, not saying realism is the way to go, but if it's gonna be single player I think your story and immersion into the game has to be really strong.

Dear
Xander (writing this in the sincere hope beta testing hasn't started )

If you read my post carefully i'm far from suggesting realism (certainly not to the point of encroaching the uncanny valley), in fact i think realistic npc's would ruin the carefully crafted atheistic, which was why i suggested a sort of "illustrated" outline that every one could recognise from stuff you see anyway. Just a more semantic progression of what we can see so far.

Also my assumption that your meant to care was more of a suggestion (this is the correct forum for such things), principally i would argue that caring is up to the player. However I'd imagine that you are, given introversion past releases. For example Defcon gave a cold statistic about the millions who died which could either give sombre mood or make you grin manically, the unemotional bluntness increasing the effect. Darwinians as you know hold a great emotional connection with many players. For me i think its the way they scream, i'm not even sure they do or if its part of the music (or maybe i need professional help). In Uplink (the spiritual precursor to subversion remember) in addition to news reports on hacker activity Showing you make an impact on the world your in, they also included real photos in data bases.

My point is i believe (stressing the opinion thing here) that the more emotional investment a player has the more complex the players relationship to the game, and the more variety in gameplay styles can be found, even if it means you loose.

On the face of it, Darwinians are just cannon fodder or pawns, but wanting to protect them when they need to be sacrificed can make or break a success.
In Defcon it can almost be a challenge to your character, a voice in the back of you head "3,653,464 people died (YOU DID THIS!)"
In upink you can completely drain someones account out of spite or take what you need (there are plenty of accounts) doing this makes little difference to the game itself but extends the fantasy.

Many people i'm sure just play a game to win and get to the end but having an emotional investment can extend the immersion and allows the player to choose how to play. Its nice to have a choice, its even better when you don't even realise you've made it and its especially nice when it makes you reflect on it.

I hope this elaborates the motivation for my post.

HMB