Video Game Border Control in Em-8er

[Result]

Im sure that from the title you are probably thinking that this is going to be another political post. No, thats not the case.

Instead I want to talk about something that some of us gamers hate the most in open world video games, and that's poorly made boundaries.

Some developers tend to create invisible walls at some point on the edges of the map to prevent players from leaving the play area, which in my opinion has the be the most lazy form of Video game border control.

Now in Firefall we got the Melding. It prevented us from simply "leaving the map" and it wasnt exactly an invisible wall, it was a very well thought out idea that fitted with the lore perfectly.

I made a YouTube channel a while back only to make archives of the games that I think had the best border control systems that developers poured some time and effort to create in order to make the game feel more immersive !

For the best one I choose the Original Crysis (Link to video)
There are other games that have a good system like Crysis' (example: Far Cry),but for most modern games it looks like the Developers just don't care about it and think that players won't try to escape the map to see what happens.

What kind of Border control do you guys think will fit the Em-8er open world map the best ?
I want to see your ideas on the matter, because we might get to help the devs by sharing our thoughts.

 

[Estender]

We'll have the melding back, just with the different name.

 

[Drakin5]

Correct me if I’m wrong but there is already a border control in Em8er. It’s likely to be environmental like the Melding in Firefall. You can’t go over the boundary without terraforming the area near it or you need some special hazmat or HEV gear. Since if you recall via vision book, Em8er has a fire and ice landscape. You have rampant volcanic activity here and there and the area is covered with sulfur dioxide snow and ice.

Gas masks aren’t going to cut it when traversing there.

 

[Mahdi]

I truly loathe invisible walls and agree mightily that it is very lazy in development. This was avoided with perfection in firefall and accurate points have been made about Em-8er on this note already. Definitely wanted to chime in here on something that does drive gamers nuts.

On a side note though, waaaaaay back in the day with one of my best gaming friends (Xeus) in Lineage II, he found holes in their invisible walls and we tracked our way on top of their sky box watching people below. He was pro at it and did the same thing in many places with WoW.

 

[Result]

Let's take the MAD MAX game from 2015, an underrated gem that was overshadowed by MGSV during its release.

The game had a very interesing Border Control mechanic where there would be a storm of hear, sand and salt that would prevent the player from leaving the play area. (Link to a video about the big nothing).

I think Em8er's border control would look something like this.
There would be storms of Fire (or ice) where players haven't terraformed the planed and it would not be possible to go there without sustaining massive damage and dying.

 

[Jade Isentry]

It's hard to believe that the Gatestriders don't have--or can't build--the personal gear needed to go romping off into these nasty evironments. Perhaps it would require special crafting or something, and I'm sure that going into such areas would be rather pointless (nothing to gain there and death lurking at every corner to make it difficult to get far), but I think that further explaination and/or game mechanic is still needed.

One idea that could be used, at least in some places, would be to actually have the map link around to itself. For example, suppose you have a few zones like so:

----------------------------------
|..........|..........|..........|
|..ZONE A..|..ZONE B..|..ZONE C..| <-E-+-W->
|..........|..........|..........|
----------------------------------

Standing on the edge of Zone C, looking west, Zone A would be rendered in front of you. Traveling west out of Zone C would walk you onto the east edge of Zone A, because the graphics and physics engines would connect their edges just like A to B and B to C. Thereby the illusion of a round or continuous world is created.

This might not be viable for all boundaries in the game, but I'm sure it would be a useful trick in several places.

 

[zdoofop]

but Mario's blue cap can let you go through invisible walls

(if you don't get that then you can't consider yourself a serious gamer.)

 

[zdoofop]

in all seriousness though, the thing about planets? THEY'RE ROUND. getting to the "en" of one side of the map should mean getting"ported" to the beggining of the other side, and vice versa.

 

[Maven]

I honestly don't see a point to connecting the edges of areas together and then having them circle around. For one, we are talking about a planet, Having the west edge of the first area connect to the east edge of the last (assuming true west and true east) would mean that you have just run around the planet.

This means:

a. The planet is very small.

or

b. The areas have to be vast enough to add a sense of scale.

Having a small planet wouldn't add to the sense of scale and overall variety. In addition if the areas are separated from each other by boundaries such as the melding in Firefall it makes the addition of new areas quite easy and there is lesser requirement for logical explanations for transitions or such.

Having very large maps means having vast filler spaces. Packing these areas with content becomes a hassle and simply leads to the creation of dead zones. Further, creating a vast area would require some semblance of uniqueness. If not, the map would look like the same terrain detail copy pasted over and over. Even procedural generation can only go so far in creating a truly interesting and engaging map.

It was mentioned sometime earlier that each zone in Em8er is planned to be New Eden sized. That's a reasonably large play area. And New Eden had a reasonably good variety to make it interesting.

On topic though, as mentioned earlier, the environment/atmosphere itself is Em8er's very own "Melding".

 

[Jade Isentry]

I totally agree here @Maven , on all points except the environment serving as a good substitute melding. This is why I said that the wrap-around trick would not work everywhere, or be a complete solution by itself. It would just be a neat trick that would probably be quite useful in some places.

On a side note, I remember a great old game called Moonbase Commander that made superb use of wrap around maps. Here's a youtube vid about it to get you started if you want to see:

 

[EvilKitten]

To point out, I believe Grummz has stated that the natural pre-terraformed enviornment for Em-8er is not only far far too cold for anything man made to survive in, but also highly corrosive as well. So in a sense yes there will be a melding type wall past which we will rapidly loose armor integrity. Since the wall is probably going to be a force field it will likely look more tech and not pulsate like the melding wall in FF did.

 

[Terib.Shadow]

What kitten said is true and quite accurate, but i think it'd simply look more like a snow storm or something similar, I'm fairly certain it'll act like the melding as well, you'll lose health fairly quickly if you enter, but still have chance to go back out if you don't linger in there.

 

[EvilKitten]

What kitten said is true and quite accurate, but i think it'd simply look more like a snow storm or something similar, I'm fairly certain it'll act like the melding as well, you'll lose health fairly quickly if you enter, but still have chance to go back out if you don't linger in there.

Actually I thought Grummz was going to merely put up a bunch of signs around the perimeter that read "Winter is coming, turn back".

 

[Wyntyr]

Actually I thought Grummz was going to merely put up a bunch of signs around the perimeter that read "Winter is coming, turn back".

Too late...I've arrived.