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About the new borderless map design

GeronGeron Member Posts: 16
edited April 2016 in Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition
Sry, i just wrote this in another thread, but decided to make it a topic, because i'm interested what others think about this.

I can live with the other changes, i like and understand most of them even. But this particular one does something to the game that's not working for me. And i don't really get the decision behind it. Before a map/scenery/level was a closed matter, and the world inside of it made sense that way. It had the right kind of scale and scope and it felt alive and authentic in a sense. Now, with the black areas surrounding everything, levels feel more like designed virtual set pieces, because we can see the larger stage they were built on. And it's not helping to bring the world to life, or the overall player experience. So i kind of fail to see the bigger picture of this design decision, the benefit of it. If someone could try to explain some potential upsides of it to me, i'd be happy and willing to consider them. Because i think i/we have to live with this one for a bit now.

Cheers.
Post edited by Geron on

Comments

  • lunarlunar Member Posts: 3,460
    I agree with you. Immersion breaking.
  • Clumsy_DwarfClumsy_Dwarf Member Posts: 112
    edited April 2016
    Before, people had to shrink the dialog box and close the loot window to click on the bottom of a zone to travel. This is one of those "gameplay vs something" decisions that sometimes have to be made. Another example of this is in World of Warcraft, you can make a campfire in the underwater zone. Do you forbid people from using the cooking skill there because of the loss of immersion? Do players avoid the zone because of this limitation? Many games have to make this choice at one time or another and gameplay usually comes out on top.

  • GeronGeron Member Posts: 16
    Clumsy_Dwarf said:

    Before, people had to shrink the dialog box and close the loot window to click on the bottom of a zone to travel. This is one of those "gameplay vs something" decisions that sometimes have to be made. Another example of this is in World of Warcraft, you can make a campfire in the underwater zone. Do you forbid people from using the cooking skill there because of the loss of immersion? Do players avoid the zone because of this limitation? Many games have to make this choice at one time or another and gameplay usually comes out on top.

    But it's worked for almost 20 years and i never thought of it being an issue. I'm all for change, updates and streamlining, but this feels like taking 2 steps backward to take 1 forward.
  • EnvygamesEnvygames Member Posts: 57
    I still hope its a bug that will be fixed soon...i know it isnt but let me my hope!
  • UlbUlb Member Posts: 295
    Geron said:

    Now, with the black areas surrounding everything, levels feel more like designed virtual set pieces, because we can see the larger stage they were built on. And it's not helping to bring the world to life, or the overall player experience.

    Perfectly said. It completely breaks immersion and should definitely be an optional feature at best.
  • Clumsy_DwarfClumsy_Dwarf Member Posts: 112
    Geron said:

    But it's worked for almost 20 years and i never thought of it being an issue. I'm all for change, updates and streamlining, but this feels like taking 2 steps backward to take 1 forward.

    Well, the loot window exasperated the issue. Before, it was not too bad having the dialog window just minimized.

  • jackjackjackjack Member Posts: 3,251
    It strikes me as an arbitrary change, the worst thing you can do with a ~20 year-old game. No reason for it is worth shattering the immersion for so many of us. My least favorite part of a patch I otherwise love universally (or will, once they fix that new Character Record Spread Sheet, ugh).
  • DurenasDurenas Member Posts: 508
    I can't really say if they'll change it. I can see where you all are coming from, but it's not a huge deal for me. Perhaps instead of a black background, there could be an enlarged version of the same map underneath with a ... how do I say it... kind of like the background in SNES games, where it scrolls more slowly than the foreground.
  • PhilhelmPhilhelm Member Posts: 473
    Wow, I never realized that people had trouble leaving a zone.
  • erroniuserronius Member Posts: 28
    Yeah, I hate the new design. It does break immersion, and I never had trouble with the old way.
  • redlineredline Member Posts: 296
    I'm usually anti-immersion breaking in a lot of ways, but in this case it actually works for me. The whole setpiece effect makes it feel like a miniatures-based D&D game somehow, which is a neat effect. I get that that might not be for everyone, though.
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