boneso
Member
Ok, this may only be a small thing but it is something that has bugged me in other games, particularly 3rd person open-world games, for a while.
It is a very small and simple thing you would think most devs could get right... walking. Specifically, walking speed and direction when following an NPC. So many games completely screw this up.
You activate a quest by talking to an NPC, the NPC then says "come this way" or "follow me" and the quest prompt says "walk with XXXXX". So you start walking and very quickly you have out paced the NPC and have walked straight past them, meaning you have to stop and wait for them to catch up. Or, the game knows you are following the NPC but keeps trying to push you into a certain pathing direction which means you end up bumping into the back of the NPC. This all breaks the immersion. Why would you intentionally make an NPC walk a bit slower than the walk speed of your character? As a dev, you must know what speed your character moves at and at what speed your NPCs move at. They must have this brought up in testing all the time, surely?
Sucker Punch have made it so the NPCs in GoT pace themselves to your speed whether you are walking, jogging or sprinting, and if you are limited in speed by the specific quest the NPCs also walk at the same speed. Also, when you are following, you only have to hold the direction forward on the analogue stick and it will path you next to the NPC, not bumping into it's butt. It even works on horse-back and at speed. While the game isn't perfect by any means, I really appreciate this attention to detail in gameplay.
It may seem like a simple quality of life thing but it does make a big difference to my enjoyment, especially in a game that involves so much walking or travelling with NPCs. I can't be the only one this has annoyed before?
It is a very small and simple thing you would think most devs could get right... walking. Specifically, walking speed and direction when following an NPC. So many games completely screw this up.
You activate a quest by talking to an NPC, the NPC then says "come this way" or "follow me" and the quest prompt says "walk with XXXXX". So you start walking and very quickly you have out paced the NPC and have walked straight past them, meaning you have to stop and wait for them to catch up. Or, the game knows you are following the NPC but keeps trying to push you into a certain pathing direction which means you end up bumping into the back of the NPC. This all breaks the immersion. Why would you intentionally make an NPC walk a bit slower than the walk speed of your character? As a dev, you must know what speed your character moves at and at what speed your NPCs move at. They must have this brought up in testing all the time, surely?
Sucker Punch have made it so the NPCs in GoT pace themselves to your speed whether you are walking, jogging or sprinting, and if you are limited in speed by the specific quest the NPCs also walk at the same speed. Also, when you are following, you only have to hold the direction forward on the analogue stick and it will path you next to the NPC, not bumping into it's butt. It even works on horse-back and at speed. While the game isn't perfect by any means, I really appreciate this attention to detail in gameplay.
It may seem like a simple quality of life thing but it does make a big difference to my enjoyment, especially in a game that involves so much walking or travelling with NPCs. I can't be the only one this has annoyed before?
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