Aug 12, 2022
Chernobylite Complete Edition - Pablo
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Hello Stalkers!
While doing research for the report on another of Igor's companions (Olga), we came across something interesting. On one of the forums there was a discussion about the relationship with the characters and how it affected the mood in the base and the game itself. From reading the previous reports, you know that it generally pays to live in harmony with your companions and to cultivate good relations with them. But there was also something in this discussion that caught our attention. One of the users asked a question: have we thought about adding the possibility of establishing closer relationships (i.e. romance) with companions, which would have an impact on relations with other people in the base?
Well, basically we didn't want to add a romance option, as it would interfere with Igor's original goal of getting Tatyana back. Plus it wouldn’t translate well into horror. But at some point we went the other way, i.e. from love to anger. We designed mechanics of conflicts that would arise, depending on various players' decisions, for example: who gets more food or who benefits more from choices made during missions. In extreme situations, one character could even kill another as a result of a conflict!
The mechanics looked great on paper. Even the prototype gave hope that some inaccuracies could be easily repaired (e.g. lack of legibility of who has a conflict with whom, why and how to counteract them) and provide a unique solution for the game. Unfortunately, as is usually the case with such ambitious ideas, we hit the wall and eventually the concept went to the bin. The reasons for this were insufficient processing capacity (in other words: there were simply not enough of us, and we had to prioritize tasks) and balance problems. Ultimately, there are fewer companions in the game than we originally assumed, and the eventual conflict was supposed to reduce the team by two characters - one who died and the other from which it was banished from the group. It seemed to be far too harsh and frustrating punishment for the player, regardless of the stage of the game.
But it's not just that. The would-be mechanics of a conflict between comrades is a great example of how a brilliant design that works well on paper, falls apart during the implementation phase and stumbles on problems like "conflict is a fight, fight requires space where these conflicts are to be exposed in the base and since the player can build anything anywhere, there may not be room for the conflict", or permutations: each character is unique, so it is assumed that for example Mikhail cannot kill Olivier the same way he would kill Tarakan. So each character has to kill in four different ways, and with five companions, this gives 20 possibilities. Each of them is a separate, complex, dynamic cutscene that must look spectacular.
Plus, there were a million other issues along the way. For example, it would be good if a fight between two companions didn’t end in death right away. Maybe such a conflict should have several phases, in which the characters push each other once or twice so that we can react in some way, and only in the final phase one dies? This alone adds 20-40 potential cutscenes again. Suddenly, it turns out that this super mechanic has more animations than the entire game. In the end, the idea ended up in the trash. Real shame. But that's the job: sometimes you have to make concessions, otherwise we would need a few extra years to make the game.
On the other hand, the question is: would players be able to see all these 20 permutations and 60 potential cutscenes on the first try? Very doubtful. So, rather than polishing one feature that a small percentage of players would see, we preferred to focus on delivering just a very good game as a whole. And I think it was a smart choice.
That's it for today!
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