A More Dynamic World

[HoboDealer]

Hey everyone, I'm new, I've been a massive GTA fan for years and thought I'd join and share an idea I had for the next GTA. Sorry if this post already exists but I had a quick look and couldn't find one.

 

Anywho, I thought it would be a great idea if the world around the player was more dynamic, this would make the player feel like the world goes on without them and adds more realism. For example...

 

 

 

More Workers:

 

You actually see more people doing jobs around the area. I know IV had some like this but maybe add some more,

 

Eg: You see cops on the street chasing criminals etc, but what about fire emergencies or car accidents? Where perhaps the road would be blocked off, then the breakdown service would come and get rid of the wreckage. Or a building is on fire and has fire services tackling the fire.

 

At the airport, you see more workers and planes actually taking off (unlike IV). Also bringing back the ability to catch a plane like on San Andreas.

 

Like on the GTA mission where you collect the trash bags, you see the garbage men going round doing just that.

 

Street Performers. Random scenes where performers in the street atract crowds, being R* they could make a humourous

twist.

 

Builders. I know they were on IV but they didn't really do anything. I think it would be great if some of the building sites in game actually made progress throughout the game. Am I the only one who would have loved to see the Broker highway on IV?

 

I'd like to hear some of your suggestions on the jobs.

 

 

 

More Events:

 

On Red Dead Redemption, there were random events whilst free-roaming. That could be incorporated into GTA where someone gets mugged or has their car stolen etc.

 

The missions you take part in aren't the only shennanegins going on in the area, there could be other people in bank robberies, shootouts, even terrorism.

 

 

 

Seasons:

 

I've always thought it would be good to have changable seasons, there's already weather, so why not? It could affect lots of things like how missions are carried out, what pedestrians wear, the weather etc.

 

 

 

More Air and Sea Variety:

 

There's always been boats driving around on GTA, but what if cargo ships and cruise liners, came and docked in the ports and there was more variety to the sea traffic.

 

Just like the air traffic. I'm pretty sure it's been mentioned on a nother topic but it would be cool to see other aircraft (not just passenger planes) taking off, flying around and landing.

 

 

 

More Cars!

 

One thing that bugs me on all of the GTAs is the lack of cars on the streets. Even some in towns, you see the roads jammed with cars let alone cities! It feels somewhat empty walking down the road on IV with no cars passing.

 

 

 

What other things could R* add to make the world feel more dynamic?

 

 

 

 

 

[jumbo0]

Totally agree on this one!

[Jabalous]

Rockstar has been known for creating living breathing worlds filled by pedestrians who act as much realistic as possible to what be can be achieved by the available hardware technology. GTA IV had more complex diversity in terms of the behaviors and the activities that the pedestrians of Liberty City can do, and this attributes to the power that's provided by PS3 and Xbox 360 compared to PS2 and Xbox. However, with time passing and you spend more time playing the game, you will start seeing these activities become repetitive, so as the hardware advances, you will get more diversity, but you will end up having limitation and repetitiveness after a while.

 

Red Dead Redemption had a more realistic world, but it's not a valid comparison because it sets in a wild area with a few towns scattered around the map. In this world, It would be easy to create unique pedestrians in terms of the model, activities and dialogues for each town, but it wouldn't be the same for a GTA setting which is filled with tens of pedestrians at one screen in a city, Liberty City for example. For each pedestrian to be generated, a console needs to spend a few of its resources to generate a pedestrian with its unique model, dialogue and activity.

 

It's natural to say that GTA V will have more diverse and complex pedestrians activity system, but there will always be some limitation which will force repetitiveness after a while. If the game will feature a wild area with villages and towns scattered around, we may see what has been implemented in RDR or maybe a more complex system.

 

In an interview by IGN with Dan Houser before the release of RDR, they sat down and talked about a number of subjects regarding the game, one of them is what it means or indicates for other futuristic projects from Rockstar. He made a couple of interesting statements regarding this subject, I will quote them:

 

 

"I think AI is probably the single area where games are not as far ahead as they could be, for me," he tells us. "In terms of where you will suddenly see cities come to life the next level will be because there is much better AI on all of the characters."

 

"

We feel we're getting to grips with the true complexities of making games for these machines now and it's certainly been a lot of work," he says. "I don't think anyone could have accurately estimated when people were announcing this round of hardware what the opportunities to do good stuff would be, but also what are the realities of doing that. The technical challenge of making games on 360 and PS3 is something we feel now we're getting properly to grips with but it definitely is still challenging - it's the sheer amount of manpower you need to put in these things."

 

 

And in Houser's mind neither the Xbox 360 nor PlayStation 3 have truly reached their peak: "I think it's as much as we can do now," he says. "I think we've always tried to push the machines as hard as they can be pushed. With GTA III we were pushing the PS2 as hard as it could be pushed at that time but three years later we could have a pushed it a lot harder.

 

 

Click here to read the whole interview which I recommend to read since it's, to a certian extent, related to this subject.

Edited February 18, 2011 by FiS!!HeR

[Zee]

What you say about hardware limitations is true, but, R* also majorly skimped on street life. Living, Breathing City My Ass. One of the few things I liked about Saints Row 2 was the sheer amount of things happening at once on the street.

[HoboDealer]

And in Houser's mind neither the Xbox 360 nor PlayStation 3 have truly reached their peak: "I think it's as much as we can do now," he says. "I think we've always tried to push the machines as hard as they can be pushed. With GTA III we were pushing the PS2 as hard as it could be pushed at that time but three years later we could have a pushed it a lot harder.

 

 

Click here to read the whole interview which I recommend to read since it's, to a certian extent, related to this subject.

Yeah I see what you mean, just look at the transformations from GTA 3, to Vice City and the to San Andreas! They added so many features throughout the trilogy. Thanks for the link!

 

Anyway this is perhaps another hint towards the development of GTA 5, just like an interview with Dan and the New York times about a year back. He was asked if he would consider making a GTA outside of the USA and he talked about loads of things that I can't directly remember, but he certainly didn't shun the question, he was very enthusiastic.

 

But I think it won't be too long until we start to hear more on GTA 5...

[HoboDealer]

What you say about hardware limitations is true, but, R* also majorly skimped on street life. Living, Breathing City My Ass. One of the few things I liked about Saints Row 2 was the sheer amount of things happening at once on the street.

I never really got the chance to check out Saints Row much but I'll certainly look into Saints Row 3!