Our previous (and working) "dynamic world" model was turning out to be a rather useless gimmick. In theory, it had over a thousand NPCs walking around minding their own business. In practice, it created the following problems:
* Bland encounters. Fallout's encounters were set-piece maps, while ours would have to be very generic, because we cannot place NPCs where we want them, because you really DO encounter them at random, and they don't know what map they're on. In fact they'd end up under buildings.
* Running out of shit to kill. Fallout spawned NPCs on each of the set-piece maps, instead of having you kill real ones. In Shelter, we'd have to magically revive them when you're not looking.
* Unreliable passability control (related to above) - there are some areas through which you should have great difficulty passing unprepared. This was far easier to do by summoning Fallout's encounters as often as needed, rather than waiting for player to "run into a real patrol" in Shelter.
* Inability to prevent unintentional homicide - let's say we have a number of interesting NPCs traversing the map. The longer you wait, the higher their chances are of being killed by a pack of rats, or whatever. It sounds exciting but it contributes to our inability to control the experience.
* Higher CPU requirements (I am still hoping to have Shelter playable on a NETBOOK).
So, right now I am busy changing our system into Fallout's fake encounters. We will have our set-piece maps, and they will be delicious!
Nothing in that game was by accident, I tell you. All too often I end up arriving to the same design decisions they did, by reinventing the bicycle, instead of just imitating them from the start and saving time.
