pour one out for Lightning Bigshoe 🫡🫡🫡

Rain world is actually a really good example of this. The entire world and ecosystem acts independently of you, and so you often just feel like some random prey trying to survive in the world. Often times the lizards don't even notice you, because they are preoccupied with their own thing, like hunting some other food or being hunted by a pack of scavengers.

I could not agree more. My biggest gripe with games like Skyrim is how every NPC always seems to recognize you as the special one or the main character. Also, it gets annoying when every mission seems to revolve exclusively around you. I wish games were smarter about how they implemented their npcs

Thank you, Garbaj.

Lighting Bigshoe was a hard working honest man, just trying to make a living delivering packages in the zone RIP.

I think I like your videos due to the way you script your dialogue and I find your voice soothing. So I don’t think it matters what you talk about. There’s also a short and sweetness too it. I never feel like I need to set time aside to watch one of your videos.

this is why I love the older Animal Crossing games. things change, villagers leave the town, mail piles up, friends worry about you etc. It truly feels like the game lives on when you leave. something the new games don't achieve nearly as well

Once you experience Stalker there’s nothing like that out there. I played and replayed all the games, read the book, anything to immerse in that atmosphere again.

It's really impressive when they do it right

This is why AI is one of my favourite subjects in game development. They can do so much for a game.

I just bought the stalker bundle and see that there's quite a lack of stalker content on yt (Gamma or other). So i love that you're talking about it and often use it as background gameplay

Just wanted to say I like the content you like to make .

Dynamic Game worlds is an absolute ace concept that Bethesda completely wanted to exclude from starfield 😂

Living that NPC lifestyle

Everything you've talked about reminds me of an indie game called Rain World, where every animal/creature lives their own life and the player is treated by the game not as player, but just as another creature in this huge world. The game simulates this big ecosystem where the player is only a really small part of it

rain world is a good example of this

allegedly a-life was severely cut back because multithreading is hard and also because the fps was in single digits with it working at full power

Another game with similar mechanichs is Mount and Blade: Warband. Each Lord has his own life and you know what they're up to in the little feed on the bottom left. Something like "Count Despin is now prisoner of Sultan Hakim" or "village Blah got raided by Emir Muhr". They are not scripted notification, if you use cheats and find them, you can see the events happening on the map.

Damn, nvr knew how alive these games were. Sounds right up my alley, I definitely give em a shot now

Kenshi is a great example of this concept, one of my favorite games of all time.

You reminded me of Fallout 3. It was the first game I had ever played where the world felt alive. Like you can fetch a key for an npc and mission complete, but all of a sudden you see them leave their post, and wonder off. You can follow them and you can pickpocket them to find a note of coordinates where you can get a power armor early on in the game (earlier than you're supposed to). I understand that this example is more like a hidden mission than completely autonomous AI, but it still blew my mind.

I think the sweet spot is when you can maintain the illusion while also having a narrator tipping the scales and drawing in relevant characters to create memorable events instead of just random noise.

Ah, a topic for me! I love not being the chosen one/the one/the main character/etc. It makes the world feel much more real if not everything falls in your lap by order of plot convenience. The usual chosen one stories go like this: You are the chosen one, therefore you accomplish X. But in Morrowind it is the exact opposite: You accomplish X, therefore you have the qualification to be called the chosen one. This inversion is also the reason why Morrowind is the best elder scrolls game. Sure, the game starts with a goddess literally telling you that you're the chosen one, but on the island of Vvardenfell no. one. cares. Also you find out later that you are just one of many, many fools the goddess sent to the island to try and become the Nerevarine. Gods also routinely lie to your face if it furthers their goals. And the key words here are "try to become the Nerevarine". Even until the end no one can say with certainty that your are Nerevar reborn, but you worked your ass of and convinced everyone that matters to believe in you weather you are real or not. It does not matter. They play along because it is in their best interest to proclaim you the Nerevarine. The prophecy is just the justification on the surface. The real reason they support you are tangible benefits for them. It mirrors how religion and ideologies are used in real life. Sure, there are some die hard believers, but the vast majority doesn't. I abhor stories where the main character gets some kind of special ability/constitution/something that makes them literally the only person capable of doing some task. Imagine an actual world with these kind of rules. The main character got drunk, fell and broke his neck? Guess the world is going to end, sucks to be you.

Love seeing more Gamma on the channel - the A-Life system can enable really unique experiences! And just to expand on the "you're not the main character" side of things, I gotta say that I love having my own adventures and creating stories that make me feel more special in the game world. Was I the chosen one, the sole individual who could defeat the big bad guy thanks to some prescribed abilities? No - I was a regular guy, going through trials that tested my fortitude... Experiencing trips where I confidently sauntered back to base with a full backpack of goods, or barely limping home with desperation and pain filling my eyes. Let me earn my own story, and I'll love every minute of it.

Nothing better than taking shelter from a blowout and seeing an old friend who wandered into the same building.

This isn't a case where the NPCs feel like Player but rather a cool feature that can be added to the "base" that you will raid multiple times. In Metal Gear Solid V if you infiltrated camps at night all the time, the Soviets would come equipped with night vision goggles like they reacted to your invasions. Or if you used headshots all the time, the soldiers would wear helmets. It'd be cool to add that mechanic to the AI that you described in the video. The whole camps will react to your attacks and try to counter you.

RIP Lightning Bigshoe. I'm so glad you got into STALKER Anomaly. It's one of those games that does so many things right, but yet not many people know about it.

You might love dwarf fortress.

I've had a similar experience to this in the begining of one of my play throughs, there was a clear sky member named "Dimka bigshot". i took him with me for a while to help with some of my missons. once I was done, i dropped him back off at the clear sky base, where I found him. the last time that ive ever seen him was as he walked out of the base, never to be seen again. I still think about dimka, and every time that walk pass a group of clear sky stalkers, I make sure to check everyone of them in hopes dimka would be one of them. I know that his most likely end was death. killed by another stalker, or eated by some mutant. but as a small side quest for myself, i still try to search for him.

Thats why battlefield was so fun. You're just a single body in the middle of a HUGE battle happening in the skies above, in the river next to you, and in the tunnels below you.

There's a wonderful exploration of time in a simulation that is allowed to just run uninterrupted.

This is EXACTLY what keep bringing me back to Anomaly, I don't think I've ever played a game this immersive before. I love how it gives and takes too. Sometimes one of your tasks will be completed by some other character while you're not even nearby and you still get the rewards, other times you will have a simple mission to deliver a package to someone in Rostok and then watch their marker slowly heading for the Red Forest before you can get to them. 😂

how is this so chill man, I love your videos

man you know what this video feels like.. it feels like im siting down with you drinking beer and you just randomly bring up this subject i feel like convesations with you would just be so chill and interesting i like that you know what you like and you go so deep to try to explane to us what you feel thanks , keep on makeing :D

"Stalker is known for having smart AI" LOL

stalker is just something gold that stands out from the others

Thank you for keep going with the great content, Garbaj! You're one of my favourite creator on this platform! I've sent countless of your videos to friends of mine because I think you explain extremely well everything you want to explain! You're one of the greatests! I love creators that explain things about games like Game Maker's Toolkit, Daryl Talks Games, creators that explain mechanics in a game like Shounic and creators that explain things about graphics like Acerola, but you end up doing all three things and I love it! You're great, dude! Keep doing what you do! I'm so happy that you decided not to quit! Me and 461k people are here to support you in everything you want to do!

Second video that the algorithm shows me from yourself so I subbed. I'm happy you didn't give up.

Honestly for how incredibly old the A-Life system is, it holds up shockingly well. Granted yes after playing so many hours of G.A.M.M.A. you kinda start to notice the seams, so to speak. But even then, it's still a very engaging, if albeit marginally simple system. I really feel like if any big studio were to mimic this system and put more _just a little more_ work into it, it could easily be an incredibly robust and immersive system while remaining reasonably simple. I think the next closest thing would be Oblivion's NPC management system (Dunno if they had a catchy name for it or not). Being able to do something like steal all the food from an NPC's house and leave a poisoned apple so they'll be forced to eat that and die from the poison, _that_ is emergent gameplay. I wish more games invested time into creating systems that enable things like that to work, especially for RPG games.

Dwarf Fortress is the ultimate version of this

You make my day each time you upload a video!

man, why your voice is so calming? lmao it felt like sometype of meditation, nice video too, keep up!

There's always more depth in being an unspecified civilian placed into a world who doesn't care about you rather than a named hero whose world revolves around you.

You really summed it up, felt the same way when experiencing kenshi and rimworld, really recommend it if you're into that kind of game

Thanks for the recommendation Garbaj!

I think one of the other things that cements the feeling of not being the MC is that everyone is always at least slightly hostile. it doesnt matter how high your reputation, almost every character will be somewhat paranoid and hesitant as they usually are. In games like skyrim or zelda, youre the chosen one! everyone knows you and loves you! you can do no wrong! In stalker youre just another person in a zone filled with hostiles, criminals, scientists and mercenaries. every character talks like they have a life to get back to and most couldnt be bother to care you exist. They will NOT go out of their way to help you, because when you go out of your way to help someone in the zone, unless youre the tutorial character, you DIE. (EDIT: something else to mention is when you die, you can sit and watch as long as you like. your body will rot as everyone and thing goes on with their day. in plenty of games, enemies will either freeze or continue attacking your body.)

Another good one. Thanks for keep posting

Great to have you back

Idk why but after hearing you i am so low-key getting Soul series vide but doesn't matter how much I play and die over and over it never gets bored. Keep it up bro.

When red dead redemption 2 did that, people got so excited, gave it the title of having the most alive NPCs'. Never realized that this old game had that almost a decade ago.

Love your content❤

Couldnt have agreed more, i hate being the "chosen one" the destined one to order to chaos or something. Just being your every day man is kinda nice, also in that world you arent usually forced to do anything since you dont have a special gift the world needs you to use to save it or something.

I don't recall the specifics but it's fun in botw when there are characters who are kind of clueless as to who you are

absolutely perfect video. we need this. more of this please developers

Love that you’re doing UKposts still!

Back in the days when battlefield was good, it felt like I was just another soldier in a war and that was an awesome feeling.

RIP Lightning Bigshoe 😭 he was a real G

iam very happy to hear this voice after so long

Stalker gamma goes hard, such a good overhaul

awesome, love the new content style, hope u enjoyed making it

I am glad you're back

Cyberpunk has heaps of these little interactions. One example is on the Streetkid path you interact with a 6th street gangster during the intro and Padre says, "don't worry. He will be gone in a week". Then, after act 1 of the game is over you can find the body of that same 6th street gangster dead in a random alleyway, killed by Padre's men, not you.

When I first started Anomaly, it took me around an hour to go from Cordon to Garbage. Much later in the game, I returned back to Cordon for a delivery mission, and just out of curiosity, I wanted to test how big Cordon actually is, so I went to the Rookie village and floored it from there to the Garbage entrance without fighting anybody. I reached there in just under 3 minutes. The map is fucking tiny, but the way the game is designed, it feels much bigger than it actually is.

I don't play a lot of games complex enough for this to come up, but what I think is really cool in fiction is when the main character isn't the only main character. They're special. Most people don't go on one crazy adventure after another. But they're not unique. They run into other people who are themselves on crazy adventures, and where all that crazy stuff is as normal to them as it is to the main character.

I love seeing the success of GAMMA on social media dude

Yeaaaah another great video mann

Love your vids! Go Queen!

Poor Lightning Bigfoot, but such is life in the Zone. We'll raise some Nemiroff in his honor around the campfire tonight.

The world of STALKER feels bigger than it is because there's no fast travel lol

STALKER might be smaller worlds, but they have a lot more going on in them. Part of the reason everyone loved New Vegas was it properly paced out interesting areas and setpieces with space to just walk in through to get a better feel for the atmosphere without it taking so long you get bored. The longest walk without anything happening is a couple minutes max when you stick to any of the roads. Starfield is a dud because there is nothing going on at all, and there's no stakes, and nothing matters, and nothing happens until you show up, and people will wait forever. But it is very, very big.

Excellent!

F in the chat for Lightning Bigshoe

this is the reason i like online multiplayer games, especially MMOs. you're just a small piece to the puzzle.

This is why i love extraction games and am hoping they will be the new trend when BRs die out. Especially when bungees new extraction shooter 'Marathon' comes out. Its so interesting to have a map that is live 24/7, it goes through day and night cycles, has weather and NPCs and mobs move around, players drop in and extract 24/7 regardless of wether you are online or not. its truly a meta experience

Nice video, Garbaj

Around 2 years ago, the G.A.M.M.A. Mod was all I played for 8-12 weeks, almost everyday. One of the best FPS experiences you can have.

Or lightning big shoe just happened to be a default name that was used twice.

I play a lot of stalker anomaly, and unfortunately, the package you found on Mr. Bigshoe was more likely the same one you had delivered to him; meaning that he had not taken on his own delivery job, but rather he still hadnt even opened the one you delivered to him days prior. That beint said I agree 100% with your take on this

This reminds me so much of shadow of war, I loved shadow of war because of how the NPCs felt like they were their own people who existed in my world and could be my enemy or nemesis and I could conquer them in many different ways that I could choose. They would have unique names and traits and things that made them difficult to defeat and they would level up in their own ways by completing tasks on their own as I passed time or by killing me or my allies and they could even cross continents to chase me down if they were so inclined to do so.

I always enjoy moments like that too, where something so cinematic happens without it even being scripted, it was just a lucky coincidence. I understand why devs don't do this often because not only is it hard to develop a system capable of that but also the risk of it never happening to some players, but it means a lot in terms of immersion. I feel like if you make an immersive enough experience then players will be so focused that they won't be thinking about quitting or how fun the game actually is, so hopefully more devs take more risks and chances like this.

I too am obsessed with games that do this

it's a good day when garbaj posts a video.

"if there's one thing I like about videogames, especially single player games, is when the game makes you feel like you're not the main character" - bruh this is real life is for

I LOVE YOU GARBAJ!!

Also one of the best things in Stalker Anomaly is that the game is alive even when u are not running the game npcs fight stuff happens even doe game is not running on your pc

one of the best examples of this is kingdom come deliverance you are just random blacksmith's son who doesn't even know how to read it make you connect with Henry more learning how everything works along with him

kingdom come: deliverance does a really good job at this aswell!

Love you bargaje ❤️

id rather have a pool thats a mile wide and a mile deep then a game thats a 100 miles wide but an inch deep- Deus ex developer

It would be interesting to play as the "actual" hero's hypercompetent sidekick. Your job is to support the hero but you are recognized as, well, the sidekick. It would create an entirely unique dynamic between and you and the NPCs. Bonus if your choices would influence the hero's decisions in some way.

I didn’t expect you to play stalker gamma, nice

I already have the full set of games, still waiting for me in the library. I played a bit of anomaly a while back and abaolutley loved it.

I remember playing the original two STALKERs when I was a kid and them being super jank but such love-fillled games. Years later I came back to it with STALKER Gamma and hooooooooooooly shit it will forever be one of my favourite gaming experiences until the day I die. The feeling of just exploring the wilds and coming by a pseudogiant slapping around some bandits, but the next day there being nothing there but grass... super cool. ZA MONOLIT

This has givven me the idea to bodyguard an npc, just follow em

There are rumours that in the early stage of STALKER ShoC (when it was still Oblivion Lost) developement they made AI to perform tasks from main storyline. But it was too good so they had to remove it. Not being the main character solves major issue with RPGs where you get "impending doom" stuff that - despite noticeable pressure - is not pressing matter at all and you can do this whenever. And then there's Fallou1 with time limits (more than one!) and people didn't like it. What a surprise. Reminds me also of Fallout 2 and how they made "chosen one" trope - being random tribal from some backwater village you introduce yourself as a Chosen One and people act like "oh, cool whatever" get snarky&sarcastic or treat you like a common wasteland madman.

This video got me to try the stalker series after I heard so many people talking about it and wow I wish I played it sooner, I'm just couple of hours in and got a couple of the starting quest done like getting that artifact in the radioactive waste dump, saved fox from the blind dog things, and also died several times trying to get the artefact in the building in front of the broken bridge and it was only when I found out that you can shoot them to move them around that I was able to push it towards the back hole and picked it up

Cheeky Breeky! My friend!

The stalker trilogy, and stalker anomaly/gamma are probably the most crazy interesting and fun games I’ve personally played. Other than borderlands and it’s own weapon randomness, I’ve probably never felt as lost and captivated by a games world

Glad your back garbajjjjjjjjjjjjj

Yes I love games that have an actual living world without having to interact with it like bannerlord, star sector, stalker anomaly