• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Pushing the envelope: Achieving next-level clouds in Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores

They went with their vision, not a "less hype vision". They wanted robotic creatures, and that's what they aimed for. Lamenting that you didn't get organic creatures to fight doesn't make any sense since that was never the plan

Also, lol at the idea that the robots in Horizon aren't ambitious
No, they essentially made that decision on the basis that animating actual dinosaurs to be believable, (facially, skin, habits etc) would be a more overwhelming task.

Technology suddenly emulating the appearance and behaviors of specific dinosaurs doesnt even make sense, and you can tell the devs kinda sorta wanted a dinosaur game but felt either that this was "cooler", or knew this was a more feasible way to go.

I think its a combination of both, but 80% the latter. Being that the robots appearing and behaving like that is...you just have to do alot of writing to make that make sense lol

So thats why I personally think their ambitious scope was real dinosaurs, and they made concessions. Which in my opinion makes for a lesser potential experience. Robots generally arent more fun to fight than real organic things, for feedback reasons primarily.
 

hyperbertha

Member
They went with their vision, not a "less hype vision". They wanted robotic creatures, and that's what they aimed for. Lamenting that you didn't get organic creatures to fight doesn't make any sense since that was never the plan

Also, lol at the idea that the robots in Horizon aren't ambitious
Lets not resort to dick suckery. Its obvious the dinosaurs in horizon are just a stand in for actual dinosaurs. The reasons for robot dinosaurs existing are so ridiculously contrived its obvious they'd have gone with the real thing in a more believable story if they could.
So they went with a less hype vision for sake of ease...why make it if you aren't going to be ambitious IMO.
Robot dinos are still better than nothing at all i guess. I'm not an expert on current dev tools but i'm assuming its just not reasonable to obtain believable dinosaurs in AAA quality with current budgets and dev cycles. Its a tech limitation.
 

vivftp

Member
No, they essentially made that decision on the basis that animating actual dinosaurs to be believable, (facially, skin, habits etc) would be a more overwhelming task.

Technology suddenly emulating the appearance and behaviors of specific dinosaurs doesnt even make sense, and you can tell the devs kinda sorta wanted a dinosaur game but felt either that this was "cooler", or knew this was a more feasible way to go.

I think its a combination of both, but 80% the latter. Being that the robots appearing and behaving like that is...you just have to do alot of writing to make that make sense lol

So thats why I personally think their ambitious scope was real dinosaurs, and they made concessions. Which in my opinion makes for a lesser potential experience. Robots generally arent more fun to fight than real organic things, for feedback reasons primarily.

Go ahead and provide some proof that they wanted to do organic creatures but chose not to due to these difficulties you're coming up with. An interview, a tweet, something from the developers supporting your claim. All of the early concept art I've ever seen for the game showed robots, I've never seen any indication that they wanted to do organic creatures and said, "awe shucks, we suck so let's go with robots instead".

If you can't provide any such proof then you're just overlaying your own made up wishes on top of the developers vision and pulling what-if's out of thin air.

Lets not resort to dick suckery. Its obvious the dinosaurs in horizon are just a stand in for actual dinosaurs. The reasons for robot dinosaurs existing are so ridiculously contrived its obvious they'd have gone with the real thing in a more believable story if they could.

Robot dinos are still better than nothing at all i guess. I'm not an expert on current dev tools but i'm assuming its just not reasonable to obtain believable dinosaurs in AAA quality with current budgets and dev cycles. Its a tech limitation.

Ditto for you.
 

hyperbertha

Member
Go ahead and provide some proof that they wanted to do organic creatures but chose not to due to these difficulties you're coming up with. An interview, a tweet, something from the developers supporting your claim. All of the early concept art I've ever seen for the game showed robots, I've never seen any indication that they wanted to do organic creatures and said, "awe shucks, we suck so let's go with robots instead".

If you can't provide any such proof then you're just overlaying your own made up wishes on top of the developers vision and pulling what-if's out of thin air.



Ditto for you.
What is viable is decided during pre-production. You do realise this right? nice way to weasel out back into dick suckery. You really think if they wanted to make real dinosaurs they could?
 

Tripolygon

Banned
No, they essentially made that decision on the basis that animating actual dinosaurs to be believable, (facially, skin, habits etc) would be a more overwhelming task.

What is viable is decided during pre-production. You do realise this right? nice way to weasel out back into dick suckery. You really think if they wanted to make real dinosaurs they could?



 
Last edited:

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
No, they essentially made that decision on the basis that animating actual dinosaurs to be believable, (facially, skin, habits etc) would be a more overwhelming task.

Technology suddenly emulating the appearance and behaviors of specific dinosaurs doesnt even make sense, and you can tell the devs kinda sorta wanted a dinosaur game but felt either that this was "cooler", or knew this was a more feasible way to go.

I think its a combination of both, but 80% the latter. Being that the robots appearing and behaving like that is...you just have to do alot of writing to make that make sense lol

So thats why I personally think their ambitious scope was real dinosaurs, and they made concessions. Which in my opinion makes for a lesser potential experience. Robots generally arent more fun to fight than real organic things, for feedback reasons primarily.
Man, stop.
 

jroc74

Phone reception is more important to me than human rights
It makes sense really, you only get the flying mount far into the base game anyway, if you had it at the beginning it would break the games progress
Never thought of this.

It absolutely does make more sense now. Because I tried to get that mount earlier than I was supposed to...and couldn't, lol. I almost got stuck in that cauldron.
 

mitchman

Gold Member
Never thought of this.

It absolutely does make more sense now. Because I tried to get that mount earlier than I was supposed to...and couldn't, lol. I almost got stuck in that cauldron.
With in new game plus, you get the flying mount really early and it doesn't really break the game, so...
 

CGNoire

Member
No, they essentially made that decision on the basis that animating actual dinosaurs to be believable, (facially, skin, habits etc) would be a more overwhelming task.

Technology suddenly emulating the appearance and behaviors of specific dinosaurs doesnt even make sense, and you can tell the devs kinda sorta wanted a dinosaur game but felt either that this was "cooler", or knew this was a more feasible way to go.

I think its a combination of both, but 80% the latter. Being that the robots appearing and behaving like that is...you just have to do alot of writing to make that make sense lol

So thats why I personally think their ambitious scope was real dinosaurs, and they made concessions. Which in my opinion makes for a lesser potential experience. Robots generally arent more fun to fight than real organic things, for feedback reasons primarily.
While i dont think thats the reason I agree that robots are far more boring too fight and just like you said its for feedback reasons mainly.
 

GymWolf

Member
While i dont think thats the reason I agree that robots are far more boring too fight and just like you said its for feedback reasons mainly.
Real animals are more fun to fight than dinobots that have an armour system, a weak point system and a lot of ranged attack that would be impossible with real dinosaurs? How?

Normal animals usually have very limited moveset, you need to do fantastic creatures like monster hunter to achieve that but the combat/tone/plot of the story would be completely different since the game is about robots fixing the planet not about mutated animals, the whole plot is based around robots and ia that can build them inside cauldrons.

A shellsnapper or a slytherfang (big turtle and snake) have like 15 different attack moves each, good luck replicating that with a normal giant snake and turtle.

What does it even mean "for feedback reasons"??
 
Last edited:

LakeOf9

Member
i really wish I liked these games. I’ve tried so hard so many times but I just don’t like anything in them except the cool enemy designs and how beautiful the games look.

Anyway expansion looks amazing as well. Plus going ps5 only should make it even better. I hope fans enjoy it!
 

GymWolf

Member
With in new game plus, you get the flying mount really early and it doesn't really break the game, so...
It does, you can avoid any climbing puzzle to reach high points by just flying over there, it doesn't count much in new game plus because you are supposedly already op and don't need to collect all the shit in map again, but for a new normal game? It would make progression and escaping from enemies during hot situations far too easy other than breaking all the dialogues between npc when you climb during sidequests.
 
Last edited:

CGNoire

Member
Real animals are more fun to fight than dinobots that have an armour system, a weak point system and a lot of ranged attack that would be impossible with real dinosaurs? How?

Normal animals usually have very limited moveset, you need to do fantastic creatures like monster hunter to achieve that but the combat/tone/plot of the story would be completely different since the game is about robots fixing the planet not about mutated animals, the whole plot is based around robots and ia that can build them inside cauldrons.

A shellsnapper or a slytherfang (big turtle and snake) have like 15 different attack moves each, good luck replicating that with a normal giant snake and turtle.

What does it even mean "for feedback reasons"??
Its my personal preference. I just dont care about those additonal systems that much and much prefer the aesthetic of real dinoaurs and the physical damage flesh torn, blood etc that would come along with it.

I was never a fan of the story or the characters.

The feedback reasons are referring to my distaste of metal vs metal combat. Using metal weapons against metal foes....this includes bullets feels just wrong to me. For me robots have always seemed bulletproof so the thought of someone swinging a metal spear or throwing it or using an arrow to penetrate it just seems so hard to feel immersed for me when witnessing and hearing than clank on clank sound. Or maybe thats not the best term for me to use idk? I just cant stand fighting robots with any form of ballistic or blunt force damage. It just feels unrewarding to me. An example of that in film for me was Terminator Salvation and there use of bullets instead of lasers....shit annoyed me. Just my preference.

Just to clairify I dont have anything against this series and in fact absolutly loved the concept art and trailers for it.....but afted starting HZD twice I just cant get into the combat. Everything else.....the graphics, the enviroment design, the robot designs, the vaiety of enemies, and the shear amount of biomes is fantastic. You can get lost for hrs just marveling at it all. Still would of pleased me alot more if we had a B.C. game with anchient tribes hunting dinosaurs for food and materials. I hope the popularity of this series eventually leads to that.
 
Last edited:

GymWolf

Member
Its my personal preference. I just dont care about those additonal systems that much and much prefer the aesthetic of real dinoaurs and the physical damage flesh torn, blood etc that would come along with it.

I was never a fan of the story or the characters.

The feedback reasons are referring to my distaste of metal vs metal combat. Using metal weapons against metal foes....this includes bullets feels just wrong to me. For me robots have always seemed bulletproof so the thought of someone swinging a metal spear or throwing it or using an arrow to penetrate it just seems so hard to feel immersed for me when witnessing and hearing than clank on clank sound. Or maybe thats not the best term for me to use idk? I just cant stand fighting robots with any form of ballistic or blunt force damage. It just feels unrewarding to me. An example of that in film for me was Terminator Salvation and there use of bullets instead of lasers....shit annoyed me. Just my preference.

Just to clairify I dont have anything against this series and in fact absolutly loved the concept art and trailers for it.....but afted starting HZD twice I just cant get into the combat. Everything else.....the graphics, the enviroment design, the robot designs, the vaiety of enemies, and the shear amount of biomes is fantastic. You can get lost for hrs just marveling at it all. Still would of pleased me alot more if we had a B.C. game with anchient tribes hunting dinosaurs for food and materials. I hope the popularity of this series eventually leads to that.
This is why you aim for parts without armour and weak points or try to cause elemental explosions by hitting their elemental canisters, if you hit armour you do like 2 damage points.

Most of the robots weren't created for battle so they didn't needed much armour or being super resistent because no one was supposed to hunt them at all.

The spear is a bit unrealistic, but in the second game you build some sort of plasma energy on the enemy to cause an explosions so it's not really like you are beating them with melee moves (you can still do it because it's a videogame and some suspension of disbilief must be there but the big damage comes from an energy explosion)

But sure, i'm not gonna discuss about personal taste, i just think that robots open way more gameplay possibilities than normal dinos do (and i fucking love real dinos, when i was little i was a walking encyclopedia about dinos and i also like real time wounds etc. i would love for the next monster hunter to have some of that instead of just white scars marks)

I was arguing that guerrilla did exactly what they wanted to do, all those theories about them wanting to make a game about real dinos are just non-sense fluff, the game was designed with robot in minds, the plot was designed with robot in minds and sure as hell, you see less dinobots that real dinos in games so it's also more original if you ask me.
 
Last edited:

CGNoire

Member
This is why you aim for parts without armour and weak points or try to cause elemental explosions by hitting their elemental canisters, if you hit armour you do like 2 damage points.

Most of the robots weren't created for battle so they didn't needed much armour or being super resistent because no one was supposed to hunt them at all.

The spear is a bit unrealistic, but in the second game you build some sort of plasma energy on the enemy to cause an explosions so it's not really like you are beating them with melee moves (you can still do it because it's a videogame and some suspension of disbilief must be there but the big damage comes from an energy explosion)

But sure, i'm not gonna discuss about personal taste, i just think that robots open way more gameplay possibilities than normal dinos do (and i fucking love real dinos, when i was little i was a walking encyclopedia about dinos and i also like real time wounds etc. i would love for the next monster hunter to have some of that instead of just white scars marks)

I was arguing that guerrilla did exactly what they wanted to do, all those theories about them wanting to make a game about real dinos are just non-sense fluff, the game was designed with robot in minds, the plot was designed with robot in minds and sure as hell, you see less dinobots that real dinos in games so it's also more original if you ask me.
I agree everything points too it being there original plan.

Cool to hear about the plasma cause I do plan on trying out HFW and its DLC. Im also a sucker for fully Volumetric clouds. Got AC: Skies Unknown just for it. Ordering a new PC now and definitely checking Flight simulator as well for same reason. I hoping alot of the dlc takes place in the clouds and it not just a small part of it where your even encouraged to go up there. Give me those GOWII 2006 fighting on the way to the Island of Time fights.
 
Last edited:
Real animals are more fun to fight than dinobots that have an armour system, a weak point system and a lot of ranged attack that would be impossible with real dinosaurs? How?

Normal animals usually have very limited moveset, you need to do fantastic creatures like monster hunter to achieve that but the combat/tone/plot of the story would be completely different since the game is about robots fixing the planet not about mutated animals, the whole plot is based around robots and ia that can build them inside cauldrons.

A shellsnapper or a slytherfang (big turtle and snake) have like 15 different attack moves each, good luck replicating that with a normal giant snake and turtle.

What does it even mean "for feedback reasons"??
You need to be more creative, no offense.

A weak point system would be even cooler on an organic creature, imagine instead you see a feeding T-rex, and for whatever reason you end up engaging it, but before you do...you see a rotting decaying infected chunk gauged in it's thigh. That's your weak point.

Or...you shoot or gauge an eye and it behaves irratically and differently when it loses its sight and starts relying on sound and smell. Or retreats.

Also your incentive for killing is higher with true survival elements like hunger and food gathering.

The dynamics you would see in organic creatures like babies and the calling sounds they would make, that would strike terror because you would know the parent is coming.

With your line of thinking robots would be the superior option everytime and we'd never get a proper dinosaur game. When I think thats just a limitation in creative IQ.
 

GymWolf

Member
You need to be more creative, no offense.

A weak point system would be even cooler on an organic creature, imagine instead you see a feeding T-rex, and for whatever reason you end up engaging it, but before you do...you see a rotting decaying infected chunk gauged in it's thigh. That's your weak point.

Or...you shoot or gauge an eye and it behaves irratically and differently when it loses its sight and starts relying on sound and smell. Or retreats.

Also your incentive for killing is higher with true survival elements like hunger and food gathering.

The dynamics you would see in organic creatures like babies and the calling sounds they would make, that would strike terror because you would know the parent is coming.

With your line of thinking robots would be the superior option everytime and we'd never get a proper dinosaur game. When I think thats just a limitation in creative IQ.
That would be just different not better.

The incentive for killing here is to get parts to improve your loot, pretty fucking important on the highest difficulty, an hunger meter would just transform the game in yet another survival game and not everyone care about hunger and food gathering, have you thought about that?

We get it, you like real dinosaurs, i like them too, monster hunter is one of my favourite franchises, it doesn't mean that guerrilla made a mistake by having dinobots instead of real dinos, you just personally want a different game.
 
Last edited:

Rykan

Member
Lets not resort to dick suckery. Its obvious the dinosaurs in horizon are just a stand in for actual dinosaurs. The reasons for robot dinosaurs existing are so ridiculously contrived its obvious they'd have gone with the real thing in a more believable story if they could.

Robot dinos are still better than nothing at all i guess. I'm not an expert on current dev tools but i'm assuming its just not reasonable to obtain believable dinosaurs in AAA quality with current budgets and dev cycles. Its a tech limitation.
You have absolutely zero credible evidence that the mech dinosaurs in Horizon are just stand in for actual dinosaurs. Even the earliest concept art had mech dinosaurs in it. Pointing out that this claim is completely unfounded is not "Dick suckery". This is ridiculous.
 
Last edited:

CGNoire

Member
The whole point of horizon is targeting the weak points on the robots how would that work with an organic dinosaur?

You like knock guns off them and shit
Yah thats the gameplay of "robot" Horizon. If they made the game achient tribes vs real dinos the gameplay would be different of course.
 

CGNoire

Member
A weak point system would be even cooler on an organic creature, imagine instead you see a feeding T-rex, and for whatever reason you end up engaging it, but before you do...you see a rotting decaying infected chunk gauged in it's thigh. That's your weak point.

Or...you shoot or gauge an eye and it behaves irratically and differently when it loses its sight and starts relying on sound and smell. Or retreats.

Also your incentive for killing is higher with true survival elements like hunger and food gathering.

The dynamics you would see in organic creatures like babies and the calling sounds they would make, that would strike terror because you would know the parent is coming.
I would prefer this as well. Hopefully another dev makes our dreams come true.
 
You need to be more creative, no offense.

A weak point system would be even cooler on an organic creature, imagine instead you see a feeding T-rex, and for whatever reason you end up engaging it, but before you do...you see a rotting decaying infected chunk gauged in it's thigh. That's your weak point.

Or...you shoot or gauge an eye and it behaves irratically and differently when it loses its sight and starts relying on sound and smell. Or retreats.

Also your incentive for killing is higher with true survival elements like hunger and food gathering.

The dynamics you would see in organic creatures like babies and the calling sounds they would make, that would strike terror because you would know the parent is coming.

With your line of thinking robots would be the superior option everytime and we'd never get a proper dinosaur game. When I think thats just a limitation in creative IQ.
This would just be an entirely different thing though. And way more complex. You’re wanting like a survival game with dinosaurs
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
What is viable is decided during pre-production. You do realise this right? nice way to weasel out back into dick suckery. You really think if they wanted to make real dinosaurs they could?
A new Dino Crysis in the RE engine would be fire but I doubt it was technical limits that made Guerrilla Games go with dino machines instead of real dinosaurs

Hell a Thunderjaw in Zero Dawn is like 500,000 polygons
 
Last edited:

GymWolf

Member
A new Dino Crysis in the RE engine would be fire but I doubt it was technical limits that made Guerrilla Games go with dino machines instead of real dinosaurs

Hell a Thunderjaw in Zero Dawn is like 500,000 polygons
Yeah, you just need a glance at how fucking complicated are the models for the dinobots and how many moving parts they have to dissolve any doubt about being a choice dictated by technical limits or some shit since it's probably the opposite.
 
Last edited:
I really have to finish the main game, I struggle so much with open world games...hopefully after i finish Re4 and Dead space I'll get back into it and eventually get this .
 
You need to be more creative, no offense.

A weak point system would be even cooler on an organic creature, imagine instead you see a feeding T-rex, and for whatever reason you end up engaging it, but before you do...you see a rotting decaying infected chunk gauged in it's thigh. That's your weak point.

Or...you shoot or gauge an eye and it behaves irratically and differently when it loses its sight and starts relying on sound and smell. Or retreats.

Also your incentive for killing is higher with true survival elements like hunger and food gathering.

The dynamics you would see in organic creatures like babies and the calling sounds they would make, that would strike terror because you would know the parent is coming.

With your line of thinking robots would be the superior option everytime and we'd never get a proper dinosaur game. When I think thats just a limitation in creative IQ.
That's like one weak spot.... Even some of the most basic machines have 3.

Some of the big dinos have a dozen
 

Skifi28

Member
You need to be more creative, no offense.

A weak point system would be even cooler on an organic creature, imagine instead you see a feeding T-rex, and for whatever reason you end up engaging it, but before you do...you see a rotting decaying infected chunk gauged in it's thigh. That's your weak point.

Or...you shoot or gauge an eye and it behaves irratically and differently when it loses its sight and starts relying on sound and smell. Or retreats.
Dont forget you can shoot the penis for maximum damage.
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
The robots in Horizon are undoubtedly more complicated to make and place in the game than actual dinosaurs. They also have elemental attacks, weak spots, parts that can be scavenged with various properties (some break when you defeat the robot, some don't) armor systems, with varying different properties, etc.

I swear, I think a lot of people approach this game just by shooting the basic bow at the robots over and over doing 20 HP damage her hit and claim it's boring. If you're actually taking advantage of the different elemental weapons, traps, etc., the fights are absolutely dazzling and dynamic in a way like no other game. It's just wrong to claim that putting all that work in is a compromise because they wanted to do real dinosaurs.
 

hyperbertha

Member
You have absolutely zero credible evidence that the mech dinosaurs in Horizon are just stand in for actual dinosaurs. Even the earliest concept art had mech dinosaurs in it. Pointing out that this claim is completely unfounded is not "Dick suckery". This is ridiculous.
It is dick suckery because I'm pretty sure most couldn't handle the thought of their favorite exclusive developer being tech limited by anything. Your motivations aren't hard to understand. Because of how ridiculously contrived the robo dinosaurs in horizon are, I fully believe that they wanted dinosaurs in there somehow, and chose robo dinosaurs as the most viable option. You can believe whatever you want.
And I disagree with the above post at robots being more difficult to make than actual dinosaurs. With robots you don't have to worry about detailed textures, muscle modelling, muscle movement, micro animations to make it look lifelike, convincing wounds, complex facial expressions, etc
 
It is dick suckery because I'm pretty sure most couldn't handle the thought of their favorite exclusive developer being tech limited by anything. Your motivations aren't hard to understand. Because of how ridiculously contrived the robo dinosaurs in horizon are, I fully believe that they wanted dinosaurs in there somehow, and chose robo dinosaurs as the most viable option. You can believe whatever you want.
And I disagree with the above post at robots being more difficult to make than actual dinosaurs. With robots you don't have to worry about detailed textures, muscle modelling, muscle movement, micro animations to make it look lifelike, convincing wounds, complex facial expressions, etc
Just stop it dude. It sounded silly the first time and now it’s just getting pathetic.

It’s a game set a thousand years in the future.

The narrative, lore, characters and almost everything go consistently in great lengths to explain why things are the way they are and that includes mechanical/robotic organisms and life.
 

hyperbertha

Member
Just stop it dude. It sounded silly the first time and now it’s just getting pathetic.

It’s a game set a thousand years in the future.

The narrative, lore, characters and almost everything go consistently in great lengths to explain why things are the way they are and that includes mechanical/robotic organisms and life.
Why TF should I stop my opinions for you bub? Get lost. The first horizon narrative was shamelessly ripped off of mass effect, and it's robots are contrived as hell. And what lore? :messenger_tears_of_joy: Let's not turn this into elden ring. The writing in these games is amateur hour at best.
 

Kvally

Banned
It is dick suckery
giphy.gif
 

diffusionx

Gold Member
You need to be more creative, no offense.

A weak point system would be even cooler on an organic creature, imagine instead you see a feeding T-rex, and for whatever reason you end up engaging it, but before you do...you see a rotting decaying infected chunk gauged in it's thigh. That's your weak point.

Or...you shoot or gauge an eye and it behaves irratically and differently when it loses its sight and starts relying on sound and smell. Or retreats.

Also your incentive for killing is higher with true survival elements like hunger and food gathering.

The dynamics you would see in organic creatures like babies and the calling sounds they would make, that would strike terror because you would know the parent is coming.

With your line of thinking robots would be the superior option everytime and we'd never get a proper dinosaur game. When I think thats just a limitation in creative IQ.

Horizon has weak point systems like this, where for example some robots can scan and you can knock off the scanner so they behave differently, or you can shoot off one of their weapons and they start attacking in a different way. They also start limping around with sparks flying as they get low on HP. Certain robots also call out when they spot you (which you can disable by removing their sound system). So literally Horizon is doing all of what you say is so awesome with real dinos except with robots.

And also the scavenging system is core to the gameplay and the story. Not to say that robots are always better than real dinosaurs, but I read posts like this and wonder if you ever even played Horizon. It's obvious they put a ton of time and work into this system and to say "durrr i wanna fight a real dino" like come on.
 
Last edited:

Rykan

Member
It is dick suckery because I'm pretty sure most couldn't handle the thought of their favorite exclusive developer being tech limited by anything. Your motivations aren't hard to understand. Because of how ridiculously contrived the robo dinosaurs in horizon are, I fully believe that they wanted dinosaurs in there somehow, and chose robo dinosaurs as the most viable option. You can believe whatever you want.
And I disagree with the above post at robots being more difficult to make than actual dinosaurs. With robots you don't have to worry about detailed textures, muscle modelling, muscle movement, micro animations to make it look lifelike, convincing wounds, complex facial expressions, etc
You have no evidence whatsoever to support any of this. Drawing these insane conclusions just because you don't like the plots' explanation for robot dinosaurs is absurd.
 
Last edited:

Skifi28

Member
It is dick suckery because I'm pretty sure most couldn't handle the thought of their favorite exclusive developer being tech limited by anything. Your motivations aren't hard to understand. Because of how ridiculously contrived the robo dinosaurs in horizon are, I fully believe that they wanted dinosaurs in there somehow, and chose robo dinosaurs as the most viable option. You can believe whatever you want.
And I disagree with the above post at robots being more difficult to make than actual dinosaurs. With robots you don't have to worry about detailed textures, muscle modelling, muscle movement, micro animations to make it look lifelike, convincing wounds, complex facial expressions, etc
Horizon was originally supposed to be a cat cafe simulator, but accurately modeling feline hair as well as their intricate behaviour as AI proved too challenging technically for both the team and the PS4 so they were forced to switch them out for robots. The ravager was the first one they modeled and animated and then used it as base to create the rest. Unfortunately and only after months of testing, the team realised the cafe idea didn't really work well with robots so they had to scrap it and change the story last minute to add fighting them instead in a post-apocalyptic earth. Aloy was originally meant to be a waitress at the cafe and voiced by Nolan North before making the switch to Ashly Burch (for unknown reasons) just a few months before release.
 
Horizon has weak point systems like this, where for example some robots can scan and you can knock off the scanner so they behave differently, or you can shoot off one of their weapons and they start attacking in a different way. They also start limping around with sparks flying as they get low on HP. Certain robots also call out when they spot you (which you can disable by removing their sound system). So literally Horizon is doing all of what you say is so awesome with real dinos except with robots.

And also the scavenging system is core to the gameplay and the story. Not to say that robots are always better than real dinosaurs, but I read posts like this and wonder if you ever even played Horizon. It's obvious they put a ton of time and work into this system and to say "durrr i wanna fight a real dino" like come on.
Of course I played horizon...and yeah...feedback and behavioral traits from real dinosaurs would be ironically alot less generic feeling in the gaming space. Emotions, ecosystems, offspring, blood, flesh, ambience, sounds, primal nature, hunting etc would lend well to organic creatures.
 
This would just be an entirely different thing though. And way more complex. You’re wanting like a survival game with dinosaurs
It would be a better thing
and yeah horizon is too basic for my liking tbh. Could be way more with that budget and talent.

Unfortunately theres not much for me out there lol people are satisfied with...this.
 
That's like one weak spot.... Even some of the most basic machines have 3.

Some of the big dinos have a dozen
I gave an example of two...

And that was just off the top of my head, you could even implement a system that understands even general weak points among certain animals. Like you shoot the wing of a flying creature and now it struggles and flutters around with one wing.

Or damage the ankle of a tricerytops and it reacts accordingly, as far as wounds are concerned different animals would have different wounds, which is realistic considering the environment.

Were advanced enough to do this, devs just feel its too much trouble (these days)...which is my entire point.
 

Hunnybun

Member
This is why you aim for parts without armour and weak points or try to cause elemental explosions by hitting their elemental canisters, if you hit armour you do like 2 damage points.

Most of the robots weren't created for battle so they didn't needed much armour or being super resistent because no one was supposed to hunt them at all.

The spear is a bit unrealistic, but in the second game you build some sort of plasma energy on the enemy to cause an explosions so it's not really like you are beating them with melee moves (you can still do it because it's a videogame and some suspension of disbilief must be there but the big damage comes from an energy explosion)

But sure, i'm not gonna discuss about personal taste, i just think that robots open way more gameplay possibilities than normal dinos do (and i fucking love real dinos, when i was little i was a walking encyclopedia about dinos and i also like real time wounds etc. i would love for the next monster hunter to have some of that instead of just white scars marks)

I was arguing that guerrilla did exactly what they wanted to do, all those theories about them wanting to make a game about real dinos are just non-sense fluff, the game was designed with robot in minds, the plot was designed with robot in minds and sure as hell, you see less dinobots that real dinos in games so it's also more original if you ask me.

I'm convinced that robot dinosaurs was the original vision because it seems like the only interesting thing about the series. Obviously someone at Guerrilla piped up with 'what about ROBOT dinosaurs?!' and everyone was like oh god yes, then they just built the most generic possible scifi story around that seed.

It's probably the only really creative thought to come out of Guerrilla in its existence.

I'm not hating on the game either lol. I quite like it. But it's very by the numbers.
 
Top Bottom