Philosophical question re: mod design

[csbx]

I've been considering the idea of implementing a randomization aspect for a mod that I've just started developing, but I'm not fully sold on the idea. I was curious about what you guys thought about this.

 

The upside to including randomization (e.g. a new dungeon that is instantiated for each playthrough from a set of 10 possibilities) is that the gameplay is obviously more novel. Part of the fun of playing Skyrim is about discovery--something one can only do so many times before things cease to offer something new to the player. So, yeah, that's a pretty big and obvious upside.

 

But I'd argue that there is a downside to this kind of design that crops up in the context of expansive open world RPGs.

 

So part of what still blows my mind about Skyrim is its ability to sit in my mind as a fleshed out world. It has a geography that I can trace in my mind, landmarks that remind me of previous battles, of fallen followers. I remember a particular tree that is but a dot on a map. It all adds up to a picture of a single world. Though we may take different paths in that world, choose different sides, there is one world there for us.

 

It seems to me that certain kinds of randomization detract from this coherent picture of a world. To go back to the rando-dungeon example, if door x leads to dungeon a or b or c or d, the world becomes an arcade and loses a bit of its fixed-ness, its comforting kind of familiarity. Perhaps that's not a problem for most people, but I think it's something that I value about Skyrim.

 

What do you think ?

 

Just to make this more clear by example, I'm working on a mod that improves claw door puzzles. I'm debating making the ciphers random for each relevant dungeon as well as the forms of the clues that the player must solve to gain entry. Sounds like more of a challenge with better replayability, right ? But no no no--part of me says--Bleak Falls Barrow must remain BEAR MOTH OWL ! It must remain thus because that cipher is a fact about that geographical point.

 

Anyway, I hope at least 2 people appreciate the quandary here.

[nachtdaemmerung77]

While I understand both of your ways of thinking in that matter, I clearly prefer the addition of some randomness into the game. As a player, it is simple to explain why, it adds more fun to it. I usually prefer games which are a bit dynamic in their content, when you have branching quests, NPCs reacting differently regarding your decision and some well designed randomness.

 

And when one thinks about it, to some degree the vanilla game already makes dynamic changes to stuff. For example, Cumaril (the creator of the White Phial) can be either a normal high level Draugr or a Dragon Priest. So it isn't fixed lore in a manner of speaking.

 

Of course one can say, the world of Skyrim is set and you simply explore it, but since I started using Skyrim Unbound (where you can set up the starting conditions or randomize them) it's all more fun to play. The world is the same, but I experience it different each time. Each playthrough is a kind of a "What if" scenario.

 

That said, I think small changes to the randomness of Skyrim is a good thing...it may sound a bit immersion-breaking, but the reason why the puzzles are the way they are, is not because the ancient Nords thought this was the best way to lock up Dragon Priests, but because Bethesda made the puzzles rather simple (and a bit boring).

 

And lastly, the reason why modders make mods is to change the world of Skyrim. But of course you must like and stand behind your own ideas, if you have too much of a doubt then better not do it.

 

Hope this helps you a bit :)