Free roam?

[random_monkey]

With the way games have progressed over the years, do you believe the new Carmageddon should still be limited to levels?

Don't get me wrong, a lot of them were classics, and you'd still have to work in the various themes and such, but there's been a lot of success found in "free roam" modes.

Example! Can you imagine a scenario where Beaver City is a much larger city than seen in C2, and you can free roam around it taking out random opponent spawns (and peds), and then if you want to you can stop off at the challenges/races we're used to where you get bigger bonuses.

I'm not sure how well this would translate to other areas; A desert is just a desert after all. Though as one of the first games to introduce true free-roaming, it seems like Carmageddon should look at how it can push boundaries this way again.

What do you think?

[MickiMatsu]

You mean like a Hub system ..?

I like that idea, games such as Burnout Paradise does that, which is neat, and leaves you to mess around when you have no racing you wanna take care of, and would be neat if that was further encouraged by rewarding some exploration, but i dunno, it sounds complicated for a game like Carmageddon, i can't see it happening, although i would like to...

[Cat_Bow]

possibly, but wouldn't free roam become something like a fancy carma2 menu... you choose your race and after completing all you move to the next city (in carma2 was little bit different).

Also beware that free roam games tend to become boring after a while, although very rich levels make up for it.

[Errol]

I love the idea of a hub. Unlimited messing around and races when you want them. You could even have the AI free-roaming too.

Edit:

Possibly something like Borderlands too, freeways that link the different areas so you can move between different environments?

[matt]

That's an interesting point, and reminds me of the recent image of relative world sizes


*thanks for the bigger img sci.

I recall there being some culling issues with previous engine, though that was a long time ago, and I suppose, totally academic if it gets a new contemporary engine.

Pushing the limits to me would be somewhat tongue-in-cheek real time race akin to Penn & Tellers infamous Desert Bus gaming mission. Real time, from the tip to the top of some country, be it John O'Groates to Lands End or Latvia to the Bering Sea.

[Cat_Bow]

oh!! you mean boundryless, that would be nice. About the transitions, since the maps individually are so different probably lots of tunnels involved and probably catching a boat off somewhere and so on.

But being so vast wouldn't you have to go for miles to find an AI driver or be bumping with them non-stop when you want to go for a drive to chill?

[matt]

...imagine that on MP. Oh my. The poor server. :D

Was game was the stitch-fest maps for btw?

[Errol]

GrandCarma? I'd guess Oblivion. Or spider solitaire.

[Mastro 666]

...imagine that on MP. Oh my. The poor server. :D

LAGMYLOVEPUMP

[C2 Scientist]

For those interested, here's a link to the above image in original (4x) resolution:

images/imgur-bckp/uBWCz.jpg

It's an interesting illustration for sure. :)

As for the topic at hand, I think it could be a good idea. I've often tried to imagine how the worlds in the previous Carmageddon games would have looked and played like when stitched together. And then Harm went ahead and did exactly that (for a different game though, but the huge world size would have caused problems in the Carmageddon game engine anyway).

[n3wton]

Am liking this setup - you could still have your missions and such - but at the end (completing the game) to add replay value the entire map opens up sandbox style similar to harm's work here:-


each section then could be a MP map, and DLC to add more to the map

[random_monkey]

Christ, it's like the Crystal Maze

To the Aztec zone!

[MaxAndreMilian]

Free Roam is an interesting idea but...

The major problem I see is when you want to finish all your opponents to end the race it may take forever to find them all in this huge map...

And you may get bored with that.

I would like to see themed areas/levels like we saw in carma 1 and 2 and fill them with action and unique stuff.

[Toshiba-3]

This is indeed an idea they should consider, if not totaly as a free roam world, at least somehow to set all the environments in the same universe/have connections between them.

Free roaming would involve a bunch of problems considering the usual mechanics behind the Carmageddon gameplay but we are just thinking out loud right now and they might come up with something great along these lines.