Chapter System vs. Open Worlds

Chapter System vs. Open Worlds

By Brian Lancaster (September 2023)

Website: www.laughingcoyote.net

Here is a list of reasons I decided to go with a chapter system for Warlordocracy instead of having a true open world.

1) Replayability

I can't count the number of NSF agents I've neutralized on Liberty Island in an attempt to play through the original Deus Ex for the 4th or 5th time before losing interest. The first mission of the game is bland, and I wished there was a way to select from a list of chapters so I could just start in Hong Kong and whack Maggie Chow.

The Many Deaths of Maggie Chow

Deus Ex is a very complex experience, of course, with player choices affecting later sections of the game. While level selection is suitable for games like Golden Eye, it might seem neigh impossible for an RPG or immersive sim.

Neverwinter Nights managed to pull it off: presenting players with a list of chapters (most locked) from the very beginning, each one a sort of mini-open world that you could explore in any order you wanted. It let you begin a new game at any chapter and either make a new character or import an old one.

This system also allows players to import their own characters into user-made mods, the level restrictions imposed by the modder. If modders don't have time to make an epic adventure in which you eventually amass an army and kill God (or players don't have time to play one), they can write a simple short story that lets players import their beloved character and play a solid story arc with them for a couple hours. Maybe all that happens is some jerk steals your bling and you have to go get it back like 50 Cent in Blood on the Sand (the greatest game ever made in human history) -- just a little side hustle before you get back to bigger adventures.

This is the main reason I'm adapting a NWN1-style chapter system. It had some limitations, but they can easily be fixed for Warlordocracy.

2) Episodic Storytelling

A truly epic storyline should be divided into multiple chapters, books, etc. It gives readers/players a place to stop and feel like they've accomplished something. Having each chapter be a separate mini-world makes the sub-plots (side quests) more manageable in relation to the overarching main plot. When a major plot point occurs at the end of a chapter like a city getting razed, you can just scrap all those side-quests about rescuing the old lady's cat who lived in the noble district. A new chapter is dawning. It makes it more manageable for both the player and the writer.

Sometimes people just want to watch a single episode of a series, like that Sopranos episode with the naked runaway KGB dude. Sometimes a player may want to try a new strategy at a specific part of a game to see how it fares, so he can start a new character at the beginning of that chapter.

Of course, starting the game from Chapter 1 in Warlordocracy will give you more time to fine-tune your party, develop relationships, earn reputations, etc. NWN1 had a half-ass way of keeping track of character relationships between chapters. If you became friends with a character, they would give you a token like a flower that you just kept in your inventory. After importing your character into the next chapter, that character would see that you still have the little friendship token and act like an old homie. If you don't have that useless flower they gave you at one point, you can go fuck yourself. You used to be cool, man, but you've changed. This will be done much better in Warlordocracy by having a list of reputations that gets imported with your character and party (examples: "Murderer", "Hero of Jadenbury", "Dabi's Friend", "Dabi's Lover").

Smaller hub world chapters also make it easier to schedule timed events. Perhaps as soon as the chapter starts, the player is warned of a war party three days away from the city walls, and he has three days to prepare (or escape). And if the player regrets his decision or is just curious about the path not travelled, he can simply restart the chapter.

Finally, a sense of starting over once in a while can be a breath of fresh air, and a way to keep the player from losing interest. If the world is too large, the to-do list can sometimes seem a bit daunting and gameplay can feel like a chore. Having a reset and introducing an entire new world to explore even just once in a game (like Far Cry 2) feels like moving to a new town where you don't owe anyone money.

3) Difficulty Balance

(Why auto-scaling baddies sucks)

The main problem with Bethesda games is that enemies level up to match the player's level. This makes improving your character feel absolutely pointless, and it's a terrible design decision that runs contrary to how RPGs are supposed to work. Gothic had the perfect difficulty balance for an RPG. At the beginning of the game, trolls could step on you, and townsfolk could extort you for money, beat the shit out of you, and take all your gold while other townsfolk would stand around laughing. By the end of the game, you could shrink trolls down to the size of a poodle with a spell, and your former town bullies are now there for you to extort if you want to be a dick.

 

Black Troll in Gothic 2

Additionally, games should keep the various entities consistent so the player knows how to interact with them, and changing the abilities of the same type of baddie runs contrary to this. In the same way you don't want an explosive barrel to look the same as a non-explosive barrel, you don't want one skeleton to have 20 max health and another one with the exact same name and appearance have 200, even if they are at different points in the game story. Mud crabs should always just be mud crabs.

You're a mud crab.

There are great open-world RPGs with no auto-scaling baddies, like Gothic and (less so) Morrowind. You enter a place you have no business exploring with your meager skills and equipment, get your ass handed to you, then you come back later and take out your post-pubescent rage on all the graceful woodland jackalopes that once massacred you. In Gothic 2, after a certain plot point, more deadly assassins begin hunting the player, but at least there is a logical reason, and they are different baddie types with a unique appearance. Games like Gothic and Morrowind are few and far between.

A chapter-based system with smaller open worlds can focus on balancing the difficulty of each chapter. You can still explore that chapter in any order you want provided you have the right strategy and stats. You can still impress yourself by taking on a badass boss earlier than you should have in that particular chapter by coming up with an insane plan. You can still find hundreds of secrets. In fact, the games that made be truly enjoy exploration were ones with a series of smaller hub worlds, like Deus Ex and NWN1. In truly open world games, exploration felt like more of a chore to me, maybe just because the checklist was so long it looked daunting.

4) More Focused Maps

One criticism of not having a true open world is that you can't revisit old familiar maps. While it is fun to go back to the very first map as an overpowered roid-monster and reminisce on your humble beginnings, it can be done by copy-pasting old maps into the later chapters. Maybe it's a different season and now everything is covered in snow, maybe the new guard tower has finally been constructed because you gave them the funds two chapters ago and earned the "Watchtower Funding" reputation. If there is a significant reason to backtrack to old maps plot-wise, they can always be recycled and revamped and put into the new chapters.

I remember wasting time running around a few areas in Rockstar games wondering what the hell it was, then realizing it was for some mission later and served no purpose at the moment. Not a huge complaint, but this would never happen in Warlordocracy.

5) Smaller Save Files

It keeps the save files small. Right now Chapter 1 is 2.5 mb and Chapter 2 is 5.4 mb. Brigand: Oaxaca save files are over 10mb, which caused problems with anti-virus software, hence the warning message. If a save file ever does get corrupted, again, you can just start the chapter over again with your saved party. The party saves when you beat a chapter (or you can cheat and use the world editor to save your party). So not only does the chapter system make managing the story easier for both the developer and the player, it also makes managing the actual files easier.

6) I Don't Have to Rush

I have the ending in mind for Warlordocracy, but I want to enjoy how I get there and take my time writing it. Maybe when I get there, the ending will be completely rewritten, who knows? There will be no loose ends left untied by the time the game leaves early access.

Releasing each chapter individually will let players begin the story before it's done and save their entire party, inventory, and reputations for future chapters. Then, hopefully, like George R.R. Martin, I'll get someone else to do my job for me while I eat, drink, and whore my way to an early grave.