DF-21 Forums

[Fish]

I have one rather theoretical question regarding the Dark Forces levels. What do you think is the perfect ratio of areas that the player must pass to complete the level, to the areas that are purely decorative, that is, don't need at all to be seen/visited to finish the mission?
On one hand, too many decorative places can be confusing and tiresome, and it's easy to be lost, but they are realistic and nice. On the other hand, no decorative zones makes level boring, unrealistic, and lowers its replay value.
Obviously, we have extremes, like Prelude to Harkov's Defection, where possibly over half of the level needs not at all to be seen to finish the mission. Other extreme might be original Gromas Mines, where one needs to pass 95% of the area to finish the level. There are also levels like Mt.Kurek, which has tremendously many different areas, but the clever plot and design forces the player to visit a huge most of them.

So, what do you think is the optimal balance? I'd say about 1:2 (decorative:required).

[Burning Gundam]

I have that problem a lot of the time, and it's clearly shown in SBoT. There is a ratio of areas that need to be gone through about 1:3 ratio (Important/Flashy Stuff). In Jedi Crystal, I'm trying to combine them so they're glamourous and important at the same time, so for a while, I've devised some new scenery BMs and FMEs to suit each environment to make it look as flashy as possible without straying the player away from the original objective.

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Nottheking]

It all depends on the setting. After giving the question some thought, I realize that people's reviews on levels hold the key, so I have tried to sift through that:

• For cities, one should probably use around an equal ratio, if not more display areas than important areas; mabye a important/non-important ratio of 1:3.
  
• In more outdoor, rural settings, lots of uneccesary areas become extremely confusing, so I'd recomend a ratio of important to flashy of arround 5:2.
  
• In Imperial bases, it is obvious that spare areas are annoying: most of the complaints about levels such as NTK SB and NB are about the large unimportant areas. I'd reccomend a ratio of 5:1 or even more.
  
• Onboard starships, on can go either way, but it seems that lots of flashy areas are preffered, especially if the vessel is an Imperial capital ship, or other glamorous sort of vessel. I'd suggest a ratio ofarround 1:4 there, the most for anything. Remember Assassinate Darth Vader; hardly any of the rooms are required, yet the level wouldn't be anywhere near as good without them.

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