NPC assistance for the unobservant.

[Shadowy]

Some games now don't have obvious characters who talk to you face but feel the need to hide in obscure places and talk to you without you even knowing where they are, which means you can miss certain things (particularly if they are a temporary scripted action or you are just unobservant) like in HL2 where characters talk from somewhere while you look all around trying to find who is talking and where they are, or the sightings of Gman who disappears after a few seconds.

Also in FEAR when the game goes into bullet time and you know something creepy is supposed to be happening but you can't find it and then it's gone before you even found what was supposed to be scaring you.

So in DNF I think it would be beneficial for characters (at certain points) when talking to duke would say something like "Hey buddy..." if the player then turns around and can't find them "They dynamically tell the player to look left, right, up or down dynamically to which direction the player is looking and which way they need to look, like "To your left..." and then if the player turns right either say "Keep turning..." or "No, other left..."

I think this could really help, especially in an NPC is trying to point something out to the player.

[hell-angel]

It is a nice feature indeed and could be usefull and more interesting for a gamer. :)

[Sang]

Narh, when it's just for a conversation it'd be a bit silly to say "turn left...", it'd sortof break the immersion. Should probably be something like "LOOK AT ME WHEN I'M TALKING TO YOU"..

As for scripted events, just find something to attract the player towards the place it's happening (an explosion, an enemy, whatever)

[Shadowy]

But i take it you see what i'm getting at tho.

People i know who usually say that an FPS is crap after playing it for about 30mins is either because it is too hard, or it is not obvious what to do next thus the idea i posted at first to make the game a little more obvious.

I should have called the topic 'A little more obvious' and waited for suggestions on how DNF could be a little more obvious for unobservant players.

[Sang]

Well not really because I never had such a problem ;)

[Shadowy]

I never had that problem but i know people who have. :(

[the true duke]

never have that problem either, but i know what you mean about the fear thing. i missed several "scare" moments. i got up to the last mission and never complete the game, i forgot about it a long time go. im gonna restart it wanna these days.

but no problem with hl2 or hl, i say since there's going to be death there shouldnt be that to many npc.

[Xerxes]

Why not just have captions on the bottom of the screen or have the NPCs run up to the player before they talk(preferably both)?

[Shadowy]

The only annoying thing with captions is when game designers seem to think that speech that is barely audible from someone well out of earshot should be fully captioned along with characters at close range.

So in short long distance captioning and trying to caption multiple conversations at once.

Most people can't listen to two conversations at once or read two messages at once so why they think you can do it when playing games is a mystery.

[the true duke]

well i said before, this is dnf and most people are dead. you dont have to worry about two convesations at once cause 86.54% of the pop is dead. and you only meat about 12.23% of the remaining pop in the game.

[The Red Slaughter]

I think that talking with people should be very useful, for giving hints, finding things and even maybe getting help from some guy armed with something that shots lead.

[hell-angel]

well i said before, this is dnf and most people are dead. you dont have to worry about two convesations at once cause 86.54% of the pop is dead. and you only meat about 12.23% of the remaining pop in the game.
Note that the percentages are approximate and based on the improbability that there are NPC's that have survived the alien onslaught.
:p

I have thought about it a bit more, and although I like the idea the directions should be more general like "behind you" or "above you". The left and right people can hear due to the stereo. :)

[StainedCheeks]

i think it all depends on what the npc is trying to say to the player. if he is trying to warn him and the player dosent catch on and gets crushed by falling debrie then the player will catch on and have another go at it. But on the other hand if the npc is a stripper and is panting and saying stuff like " hey big guy come over here and f**k me hard you big hero", well then yes there should be arrows pointing to the stripper because we all want to see duke get laid by a stripper in this game.

[hell-angel]

well then yes there should be arrows pointing to the stripper because we all want to see duke get laid by a stripper in this game.
No we don't. ;) :mryuck:

[Little Conqueror]

Note that the percentages are approximate and based on the improbability that there are NPC's that have survived the alien onslaught.
:p

I have thought about it a bit more, and although I like the idea the directions should be more general like "behind you" or "above you". The left and right people can hear due to the stereo. :)

I agree with the premise, but there are some people who have trouble differentiating sounds from different directions, and others (like me) who have a piss poor speaker system, so even left and right directions could be useful if not overdone.

[infowars]

I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN!:D

Im an experieced FPS-er, but my girl isnt...

she loves playing 'call to duty 2'..but when playing F.E.A.R., she CONSTANTLY missed the scenes when 'stuff' happened..

such as...when the creepy girl would be walking in the doorway...(trying to spook or SCARE the player)..she would be looking at the dead rat in the corner of the room... or staring at the wall...BHA!:doh:

she'd be like..."what was that...! What just happened...":(

also...

In prey...When walking away from a NPC who was talking to YOU, they would stop and yell for you.."hey tommy! Get over here ! I need to talk to you!" if i remember right (opening..bar scene)

[Shadowy]

I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU MEAN!:D

Im an experieced FPS-er, but my girl isnt...

she loves playing 'call to duty 2'..but when playing F.E.A.R., she CONSTANTLY missed the scenes when 'stuff' happened..

such as...when the creepy girl would be walking in the doorway...(trying to spook or SCARE the player)..she would be looking at the dead rat in the corner of the room... or staring at the wall...BHA!:doh:

she'd be like..."what was that...! What just happened...":(

also...

In prey...When walking away from a NPC who was talking to YOU, they would stop and yell for you.."hey tommy! Get over here ! I need to talk to you!" if i remember right (opening..bar scene)

Exactly what i meant when starting this thread, why couldn't i have explained it that well :doh:

[hell-angel]

I agree with the premise, but there are some people who have trouble differentiating sounds from different directions, and others (like me) who have a piss poor speaker system, so even left and right directions could be useful if not overdone.
Well, use some headphones. They can be piss poor but you still here the difference between left and right. ;)

[Shadowy]

Well, use some headphones. They can be piss poor but you still here the difference between left and right. ;)

True, very true. I use earphones 99% of the time when plaing games, because speaker systems can make it diffictult to differentiate left and right. At least with headphones/earphones the left and right channels are being fed into their respective ears (unless you have the headphones/earphones on the wrong way around) :doh:. Helps with the immersion into the game (also blocks out unwanted noises - nagging from other people to stop playing games and do something useful). :cool: