Seems to me like there are timers everywhere, and I REALLY dislike them. I feel like I'm constantly being rushed to send the villagers here and there and rushed to build this and that. I wish there was a way to turn them off. I just wanna chill and build stuff and relaxingly move my people about. The timers need to stay in challenge mode.
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From Dust |OT| Eric Chahi is the new Molyneux
- Thread starter Salsa
- Start date
Miggytronz
Gold Member
Emerson said:
exactly this.
There are natural events that occur at certain times, there is no time limit on when you have to complete a level though.
I can't say that I have a real problem with the timers, it's not like you lose the game when they are up (unless of course it's your first village about to be wiped out) it simply let's you know a volcano is about to erupt or tsunami about to hit.
However, I do believe they are not needed. There are enough visual / audio clues to tell such events are about to take place, e.g a bloody great volcano blowing its top / massive wave rolling towards you and the little dudes blowing their repulsive pipes.
You certainly don't get timers for fire trees spewing so it begs the question, why the need for the others?
However, I do believe they are not needed. There are enough visual / audio clues to tell such events are about to take place, e.g a bloody great volcano blowing its top / massive wave rolling towards you and the little dudes blowing their repulsive pipes.
You certainly don't get timers for fire trees spewing so it begs the question, why the need for the others?
Neuromancer
Member
I'm only a few levels in but the timers haven't bothered me. Ordinarily I get very irritated with time limits in games but it makes sense here.
Neuromancer
Member
You can go into levels after you've beaten them and screw around just for fun.DownWithTheShip said:
piratepwnsninja
Member
bathala said:
Awesome. I'm good with that for a downloadable title.
Probably going to finish Bastion before I start From Dust or ITSP though. Will end up double dipping on all three.
As for the timers, it begs repeating since a lot of people think the levels have a time limit. They don't. Events happen when the timers hit zero, but they reset after the event.
This is an honest question...would you feel better if the timers were there but not visible, and you ended up sending a villager somewhere before a tsunami hit, only to have him wiped out because you didn't know it was going to happen? I'd honestly get more frustrated if that happened a few times with no way for me to know. I could see some better replacements for a physical timer in the world (waves start getting bigger, etc) but they'd still be timers, just not as artificial.
Visualante
Member
But it doesn't always lead to fail states. In some cases it will, but I understand if one village is wiped out you can still salvage the mission with another village's people.thetrin said:
I've put a couple hours into this game and you people saying there are no timers are crazy. There is always a timer and the one timer I failed sent me back to an unskippable cutscene. It's ridiculous. The timers create a sense of tension that I just didn't want in this type of game. There's no way to just relax and build bridges and explore. You are constantly on a timed mission.
Stitch
Gold Member
So I'm playing the 360 demo because the asshats from Ubisoft delayed the PC version and uhhh yeah, the controls suck ass. Also why are there only 2 camera options? Option 1 is too close and option 2 is too far away... great.
And maybe that's just the art style but it looks really blurry to me. Or maybe it's sub-HD? There are also lot's of jaggies. Really not the prettiest game.
Meh, still interested in this and i hope the PC version will be better. And i hope it won't have shitty Ubisoft DRM. If it has then I hope someone burns down their Office.
And maybe that's just the art style but it looks really blurry to me. Or maybe it's sub-HD? There are also lot's of jaggies. Really not the prettiest game.
Meh, still interested in this and i hope the PC version will be better. And i hope it won't have shitty Ubisoft DRM. If it has then I hope someone burns down their Office.
Brewster's Wallet
Member
I definitely made a mistake buying it. I loved the mechanics of the world and just assumed I'd get used to the camera controls. But sadly no.cackhyena said:
And i realise that whether the timers are proper timers or not is irrelevant for me; they really stopped me having fun in the world, and i really was enjoying it. I actually this I have more fun with the sandbox nature of the terra-forming than actually playing a game. Just seeing "what happens if I do this".
Its an excellent game, and will more than likely double dip now and being able to zoom with a mouse wheel and be more accurate would make this game even better
Gareth Bale
Member
Wildfires is destroying me. The water trees do pretty much fuck all to stop the fire, and they die as soon as they release the water....?
Visualante
Member
Ugh, maybe it's possible to mod it out. But I guess it will break the game.TimeLike said:
Visualante said:
Is the issue the fact that there is a timer on the screen, or that an event always happens at an interval?
If the problem is the latter, then yes. The entire basis of the game is to shore up defenses against natural disasters that happen, like tidal waves/volcano eruptions/floods/etc.
Would you rather have these events happen randomly? It would be far more frustrating if they were randomly occurring if you ask me.
I just made fire lines.Bungieware said:
I got to play Tides. The person that was having trouble with it and tried to tell me what to do. Ignoring that advice I slowly got all 4 totems. Then I noted where the cities could be moved to make everything easier without needing to spam the last power. I was cruising to a casualty free victory when... A village is on fire. Next time I play I am grabbing the first totem and power. Then I am going to clear every single fire tree off the damn map.
RE: Timers
I have only had to worry about them when I am trying to accomplish a sub-goal. The game is mostly in a state of balance until I change something. Then I have to return it to that balance as quickly as possible. I normally take my sweet time and set everything up beforehand.
The tough timers are the ones you do not see and may fail to pay attention to. Is that vegetation growing towards that fire tree? Will that fertile ground sprout new fire trees? Are you monitoring that lava flow?
Yeah, just going to reiterate what others are saying. If you would mod the effects of the timers out then you don't have a game anymore, and if you make them not display then you'll randomly see the tide change or a tsunami come and take your people away. In all the levels I've played so far there hasn't been x time until you lose, it's always something occurring and you can take as long as you want to do everything.
Gareth Bale
Member
What's a fire line? Could you expand a bit because I'm really struggling thereMindlog said:
Neuromancer
Member
Yeah I agree with this. Unfortunetly we live in the age of the idiot gamer who might be looking the wrong way and miss something big.cackhyena said:
You can not take as long as you want to do things. There is always a timer on the screen. Whether it's three minutes to build a village or two minutes to get people from A to B it's always there, and if you fail, game over. Yes they are countdowns to events, but they're timers nonetheless. Three minutes until a game ending tsunami is still a stupid timer. That's just how the game is and it's not what I was hoping for.Papercuts said:
Emerson
May contain jokes =>
TimeLike said:
Reviewers already have complained that there aren't enough objectives or challenges. I can think of no other way to incorporate them in a game like this than the natural disasters. If you keep them, you need the time countdowns. It would be stupid without them.
Really what you're saying is you want a sandbox mode, which is another issue.
Neuromancer
Member
I'm in a hotel room away from my Xbox, with only an iPad to amuse me. I wish there was something like From Dust on the iPad, it would be such a great fit.
NullPointer
Member
I haven't played this yet, but if the natural disasters came about as a result of your own godly actions that would satisfy the timer issue for me.Emerson said:
Arbitrary timers meant to add tension just end up annoying me. Now, if I can choose to take an action that will cause a natural disaster as a side effect, than its something I can prepare for and have some ownership over. Gods do tend to upset equilibrium when they get involved in things and it would seem to fit into the mold of the gameplay I've seen.
Emerson
May contain jokes =>
NullPointer said:
I think that would be cool, but there isn't really a mechanism for it to happen in this game.
They have to strike a balance. Do it this way and you upset the people on GAF who are okay with buying a 15 dollar sandbox, do it the other way and others are mad that there's no objective to the gameplay.
I just really don't think anyone should be writing this game off because it has "timers" in it, as if they have some sort of allergic reaction to seeing numbers on the screen. Those who suggested taking the timer out but leaving the gameplay the same either haven't played it or are nuts because that would be horrible. You'd have no idea when a disaster was coming. But if you play it and don't like it, fair enough.
Neuromancer
Member
I agree with Emerson on this one. The timers and the events they're tied to are what give the game challenge.
NullPointer
Member
Anybody know whether the trial version is a decent representation of the game? Just so I can find out if this is timer-annoying or timer-challenging?
Eh. I'll give it the trial a shot regardless. I am a sucker for playing God.
Eh. I'll give it the trial a shot regardless. I am a sucker for playing God.
The timer is only really bad in the first real level where you have to race to get the relic to avoid the tsunami. After you get the hang of mitigating the disasters you can ignore the timer. The disaster still happens every 3 minutes or whatever, but you've already protected your villages so you can do other stuff.NullPointer said:
I was playing the trial and decided to see what would happen if I dropped water on top of the village. The villagers surprisingly didn't die, but instead got knocked around by the water. They all stayed on land so they didn't meet the same fate as one of their friends.
I was sending a villager to get the tsunami idol when he got swept away. He got the idol but instead of going back the way he came he went a different route and paid with his life. He got swept into the ocean and I tried to save him by building land but the ocean was just too deep. Didn't have enough time to save his village so they all died. End of trial. Fun times.
I was sending a villager to get the tsunami idol when he got swept away. He got the idol but instead of going back the way he came he went a different route and paid with his life. He got swept into the ocean and I tried to save him by building land but the ocean was just too deep. Didn't have enough time to save his village so they all died. End of trial. Fun times.
Baller. PhD
Banned
This will be a great pickup during the Steam Christmas Sale!
The backlog, it just won't let me buy it.
Visualante
Member
Rock Paper Shotgun made me probably not want this game. I didn't want a puzzler. I was so hyped about this.
op_ivy said:
I was actually shocked when they started walking towards the first "Bridge" I built because it wasn't what I thought was even half done but they managed to walk across it somehow, I am anyway hoping that the pathfinding would be more about protecting them from doing harm to themselves. At least it's not like Swarm where the mission apparently is to just minimize your losses instead of being able to protect everyone
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