VectorM wrote:Downtown feels abandoned in comparison.
JeniSkunk wrote:It's not the size of the Downtown map that makes it feel abandoned, it's the lack of stores and shopping and offices in the map.
Even if they are closed for the evening, there SHOULD be an ABI fashion shop. There SHOULD be a grocery store. There SHOULD be a bank, both in Downtown AND in the Corporate District. There SHOULD be window images of office interiors. Look at the Blade Runner maps for UT, UT2003, and UT2004. Even though those maps are specifically designed to be deathmatch maps, they FEEL less desolate than Downtown because of such details.
Places don't have to be enter-able, to make the map feel less abandoned. It's the illogical lack of such businesses and details that MAKES the Downtown map feel abandoned.
VectorM wrote:I don't really think about that stuff here. Goats map also lacks a lot of these things, but it's more dense with various other details that just make me feel like there is something there. Simply having a few windows in the building with lights up makes me feel like there is something there. It would look much more empty to me, if that stuff wasn't there. Or that satellite right above the main entrance. It seems to just be there to fill some of the bland space, and it works, in my experience.
Also, i generally disagree with your mentality. I don't like it when developers try to put too much stuff in a level, simply because it "has to be there". Talking about things that aren't just small details or simply textures. Stores, banks, etc. I would rather have them put things that are interactable, or just useful in some way, than just having a store front or restaurant building, because "we need that stuff, to make the level not feel empty". I guess i am just a bit minimalist in that regard. Having that small structure with Jonas's face, the ATMs and the Bulletin board, right as you enter the corporate district, are enough to fill that boring space to me. Also having those 2 employees taking a break on the bench and Gelo in front of the building. Simply having some NPCs that fill the space with some extra conversations works out fine. Mankind Divided has way more NPCs, for example, but they all have like 2 lines.Having less people, in an appropriate setting, that you could get something out of, if not just for curiosity's sake, is more valuable to me, than filling the entire street with them, just because it would look more like a real busy street.
I've never been assimilated by the STEAM Collective, so I've never played any of the DXHR series of games.
It's LATE at night. The stores SHOULD be closed and locked up. But the stores SHOULD be there.
Those few late night forumites out and about fit well.
I agree about preferring to have stuff that is interactable, but in the main parts of the city WOULD a bank be able to have its front door picked, or worse be unlocked, late at night?
Why would fashion shops be open at night?
The QuickStop in the Corporate District being open 24/7 fits properly. But if a convenience store like a QuickStop is open 24/7, why is the OON Mart in the Goats area closed? There's no actual supermarket, much less a grocery store anywhere in the game.
In Downtown, the majority of 'buildings' there, are simply apartment block sized, undetailed slabs with building textures, and no entrances, not even a door texture.
It's that whole picture which makes a lot of the city feel dead and lifeless, in comparison to the Goats map.