[foobar]

Please note that this is basically third hand information. Piranha Bytes and Deep Silver told the PC Games and I am now translating it for you. I advise not get hung up on details too much, as there is a chance of information corruption due to chinese whispers effect.



The setting is basically a pirate story. We have pirates, ships and firearms. Though Piranha Bytes emphasizes that they're trying to avoid cliché pirates (with parrots on their shoulder and stuff like that). They think more of "bandits sailing the seas", not "Pirates of the Caribbean". The game starts on the island of Caldera. Here, the last remnants of the Inquisition have gathered in the crystal fortress and are still trying to fight the Titans. Unfortunately, a bunch of sea monsters causes trouble and the ships which were supposed to bring important supplies get lost on the sea.

We play the hero from Risen 1. However, he is now a broken and disillusioned person who turned to alcohol. A comparison is made to John McLane in "Die Hard 3". He wears an eye patch that hides the Inquisitor's ocular from Risen 1. The game starts with Carlos (known from Risen 1) who orders the hero to help deal with another wrecked ship on the shores of the island. Among the castaways, there's another old friend: Patty. She is still searching for her father and rumour has it that he found some way to sail the seas unharmed. They team up to find him.

The world will be bigger than Risen 1 and split into several islands. This allows to easily realise different climates and landscapes (no need to smoothly blend from one landscape to the other). These islands are each a new loading zone (doberlec told me that they still use streaming in each zone, so it's kind of "worst of both worlds" ). How many islands there will be, how much they will differ from each other and how big they will be, remains a secret. You use ships to travel between the islands but it is unknown if this will just be a scripted point-to-point transport or if you can control and navigate your own vessel.

Combat and magics system have been completely redone but no further details are given. Except that ranged combat is now done with rifles. The combat with them is governed by a skill just like archery in previous titles. You can also fire cannons at pre-defined points of the story.

The characters are more detailed and will show basic facial expressions during conversations. The armour consists of individual sets of boots, gloves, hats, upper and lower clothing etc. The textures will be sharper and more individual. Animations are going to be more smoothly and detailed.

The game concept will be basically an inversion of the one from Risen 1. In R1, you started with an relatively open world where you were left alone to explore, gain knowledge and get to know the world. After a while, the story gained more speed and you concentrated more and more on the main quest - until the very linear end. R2 starts relatively linear and leads the player. After a while, the world opens up and you can play more freely and gain more influence over events. The end game of R1 disappointed many players and by this method, PB tries to keep the game more interesting even in the later chapters.

There will also be development cost reducers helpers like minimap, quest markers and other visual immersion breakers aids. The PC Games assumes that these can be disabled but apparently does not know for sure. Hence, it is also unclear whether a Risen 2 with removed training wheels will still be playable or whether the quest design will depend on the usage of these elements.
Update: This appears to be a misunderstanding as Milad wrote in the German forum that there will be no minimap. Only a system similar to R1 where you can optionally activate quest markers on the normal map.

Apropos quest design: It is said that it will be more logical and believable. They try to avoid quests which will send to across the entire world for some stupid delivery task and stuff like that. An example quest is from the third chapter in the city of Antigua. The player needs a cannon (for what purpose is not revealed). For that, he requires the help of an expert named Wilson. Wilson does not want to help the player because there's an embargo and he's afraid to break it and get into trouble. Now you have several options to resolve this. You can just bribe him with enough money to make the trouble seem worthwhile or you can talk to him. With the information revealed during this conversation you can either help him score with a woman (because he has not done so in a while) or you can help him retrieve a family heirloom. Both options then offer different solutions as well. For example, the current owner of the heirloom can be beaten up, bribed, offered a dual or you can steal the item.

Another element is that eavesdropping will be rewarded. An example given is that you can hear two NPCs talking about a third one guarding a treasure. While the referred person seems to be very careful in general, you can also learn when exactly he'll leave his post. That makes it easy for you to get the stuff. Those who do not open eyes and ears when walking across the world will miss some quests and possible solutions.


The final rating of the article's author reads: "Very good". But it's an exclusive preview, so that was to be expected.

[Godcrusher]

The armour consists of individual sets of boots, gloves, hats, upper and lower clothing.

This is the the only big minus for me. The thing with guns resolved itself it seems.

[ICFabian]

The armour consists of individual sets of boots, gloves, hats, upper and lower clothing.

No robes?

[Maladiq]

I wonder if there will be joinable guilds....:S

[André Feroi]

Thanks for your efforts (and hindsight), foobar !

EDIT: and also thank you from our French readers ...

[UrukGox]

[Bild: leadbeck.jpg]
... two of these pistols pinned on my belt and a good sword ... as I walk the dark streets and a harbor full of smugglers, suspicious characters, whores, pirates, butchers and rapists ... I like it! Can not wait!

[ICFabian]

That's all fine and dandy, but I still want my robes and garish magic.

[Avatarion]

Ah, the "quest markers" sounds bad. I feel it breaks the element of discovery in quests if the game interface is telling me where to go. I actually enjoy the feeling of initial confusion when given a quest in a new area. It means I'll have to familiarize myself with my surroundings and seek the solutions on my own. If the "minimap" points exactly where I need to head for each quest, then it just becomes a matter of racing from one waypoint to another to complete it. I think that's a terrible idea because it enables people to run through the game and miss half the details. It also means people won't listen to the dialogue and just skip it, because ultimately all that matters is where the "quest markers" arrow points at.

If they want to make it more helpful, then the quest givers should just give more detailed word of mouth instructions.

[UrukGox]

That's all fine and dandy, but I still want my robes and garish magic.

Honestly, I was bored with OP mages ... With muskets I expect a real new challenge ...

[foobar]

Update: Milad just confirmed that this "quest marker" thing appears to be a misunderstanding. He wrote that there will be no minimap and that will be (optional) markers on the normal map. Similar to Risen 1.

[Skidbladner]

Update: Milad just confirmed that this "quest marker" thing appears to be a misunderstanding. He wrote that there will be no minimap and that will be (optional) markers on the normal map. Similar to Risen 1.

Nice to hear.

[mkreku]

These islands are each a new loading zone (doberlec told me that they still use streaming in each zone, so it's kind of "worst of both worlds" ).

I don't like that they split the world in zones, as I much prefer the Gothic 3 world to any other world Piranha Bytes has ever built (one gigantic map without zones or loading screens). The streaming technology they used in Risen was amazing and I would love to see it used again to its maximum.

So what do you mean by "worst of both worlds"? I don't understand that comment.

[foobar]

So what do you mean by "worst of both worlds"? I don't understand that comment.

Well, the problem is: What do we do if the game world with all its data (meshes, textures, etc.) is larger than the available RAM?

There are commonly two solutions: We either split the world into smaller parts where each one fits into the memory (loading zones). Or we continuously load into memory whatever is about to come in sight shortly and discard it as soon as we do not need it anymore (streaming).

Each method has its unique set of disadvantages. With streaming, the I/O transfer and seek rates becomes the limiting factors. And these are very low. It's one of the slowest data storage systems there is. The only reason why it is used is because it is non-volatile and relatively cheap. Streaming can always lead to stuttering or at the very least, drastic changes in the framerate (when Risen starts streaming, my framerate drops by 20) which is noticeable and problematic. There is a reason why we have a long FAQ about streaming related problems in the help forum.
On the plus side, you only see a loading bar when loading a savegame, starting a new game or teleporting.

Loading zones however require that when you change between them, the game is paused for a moment while the new zone is transferred into memory. Usually, you see a loading screen during that time. On the other hand, you don't have any problems with lags because your hard disk is only 5400 rpm and/or the game data happens to be on the inner parts of the disks or you have one of the many things which could negatively affect your I/O transfer rate (see FAQ in help forum). Everything is loaded beforehand and is then ready when you need it. No problems when preparing the next piece of the world in the last moment takes a few milliseconds too long.

Opinions are different about which system is better. Personally, I prefer loading zones. Of course, I do not want something like Oblivion where you see a loading bar whenever you enter or exit a house or city. I'm more thinking in terms of G1 and G2. You have a small couple of rather large areas (i.e. Khorinis, mine valley and Jharkendar) that are each a single loading zone. Within those relatively large zones however, you have fluid gaming without any stuttering or lags (I/O related). Some people argue that it breaks immersion to see a loading screen. While I concur with that, I think it also breaks immersion if your game lags, your framerate behaves like a sinus curve and/or your hard disks always clickers when playing.

I think it's better to see a loading bar once every three hours and then feel absolutely no lag or performance impact whatsoever. To have a smooth and coherent framerate while playing and to know that if you don't, the only thing responsible is your graphics card (and not one of the many things that could affect I/O, see FAQ in help forum). It worked fine in G1 and G2, why not have it again?


Maybe you disagree with me on that. But whatever you might prefer, either one uses streaming or one uses loading zones. Using both gives you the problems of both and the advantages of neither. You see the loading bars and you are prone to streaming related lags and other problems.

[Dart23]

I am actually a bit worried. From the looks of it there is a real chance that this game will not have the wonderful guild system. I mean it does not seem to fit the setting. I really really hope (and pray) that my fears are misguided.

Honestly I and many others love the PB guild system from G1, G2 and R1 and no game, not even the the great Dragon Age: Origins, with its individual origin stories for each class, has ever managed to copy that wonderful sense of belonging that PB guild system brings. There is something very wrong with being a powerful mage and a respected reverend of the creator deity, and having the town militia screaming "You cant come through here. Only respected members of the town may enter." and being only able to meakly say "okay."

Also I really like the idea of playing a mage in the world of firearms.

[UrukGox]

I think it's better to see a loading bar once every three hours and then feel absolutely no lag or performance impact whatsoever. To have a smooth and coherent framerate while playing and to know that if you don't, the only thing responsible is your graphics card (and not one of the many things that could affect I/O, see FAQ in help forum). It worked fine in G1 and G2, why not have it again?

+1...

[RobinHood 13.]

Maybe you disagree with me on that. But whatever you might prefer, either one uses streaming or one uses loading zones. Using both gives you the problems of both and the advantages of neither. You see the loading bars and you are prone to streaming related lags and other problems.

Depending on how large the islands are, the loading zones problem may be quite trivial (I think it was so in G2).
If you don't use streaming, then you have to limit content on the islands to make sure hardware can run it. When developing for xbox 360, you're limited to 512MB for both video and normal ram. Without streaming this would either make loading zones very small, or very empty. Also, you don't use a 5400rpm disk for gaming. SSD is the future though, and I/O lag should be a much smaller problem here.
Still streaming shouldn't be a problem if done correctly (things are loaded into memory before it's needed). If it lags because of this, it's because you've set settings to high and you don't have enough ram. I haven't encountered lag on my new PC, Risen is set on max (depth of field is off), and it's installed on an SSD

[foobar]

When developing for xbox 360[...]

I was talking about the PC version. If greed compels developer and publisher to develop without making proper use of the resources that each platform provides and just making do with the demands of the console (which is 6 years old middle class hardware), then I feel compelled not to buy such games.

Because I see no reason to pay with my money for the limitations of others platforms. If the Xbox needs extra care because of its small RAM, let it be an Xbox problem. And let the Xbox gamers pay for it because they wanted it that way.

Still streaming shouldn't be a problem if done correctly (things are loaded into memory before it's needed).

Streaming is always a potential problem. I know no game whatsoever that does not have problems because of it.

If it lags because of this, it's because you've set settings to high and you don't have enough ram.

No. If it lags, it's because the hard disk is a natural bottle neck.

I haven't encountered lag on my new PC [...] and it's installed on an SSD

Sure, SSDs help with that. Because they have almost no seek times and are usually fast in reading. But why exactly should I spend a lot of money for such a device when it's the developer/publisher who reaps the benefit by making cheap PC ports?

If they were doing their job right and just used the RAM that was there, all problems would be solved.

[RobinHood 13.]

I was talking about the PC version. If greed compels developer and publisher to develop without making proper use of the resources that each platform provides and just making do with the demands of the console (which is 6 years old middle class hardware), then I feel compelled not to buy such games.

Because I see no reason to pay with my money for the limitations of others platforms. If the Xbox needs extra care because of its small RAM, let it be an Xbox problem. And let the Xbox gamers pay for it because they wanted it that way.

It's well known that games made for the console runs fairly easily when ported to PC, even though it isn't as optimized. Those games could add alot more. I do hate that (especially) low ram on consoles have a negative impact on stuff like variety in enviroments etc, but not using streaming would impact this even further. Else they would have to create two completely different worlds which is not gonna happen. I do hope they'll add more npc's, items and stuff in general to the pc version though.

No. If it lags, it's because the hard disk is a natural bottle neck.

What I meant is, if they do it right, every information you may need in the nearest future is stored in ram, making sure you never get a hard fault. If you have to litle ram this is not possible and you may get lag, but if you have enough ram, the streamer should make sure it makes use of that.

Sure, SSDs help with that. Because they have almost no seek times and are usually fast in reading. But why exactly should I spend a lot of money for such a device when it's the developer/publisher who reaps the benefit by making cheap PC ports?

I've had more problems with some buggy PC exclusive games concerning this. Consider this: SSD's reduces I/O problems by poorly optimized games, or if you have to little ram. SSD's drastically reduces OS boot time, and in games (if installed on the SSD) drastically reduces startup time and load times which are the most boring aspects of playing a game.

If they were doing their job right and just used the RAM that was there, all problems would be solved.

Ofcourse if you stream like you only had ram on a console, while in reality you had 10 times the ram (typical ram difference) and this is causing lag caused by I/O then that's really bad. What games do this?

[Yoomazir]

This boosted my faith in this game by "it's over 9000!!!!"
All my doubts have been vanished now.

Okay PB, you 've got a guaranteed buy with me (on Xbox 360 at least).

[Argenguy]

Sounds interesting enough.