I know the topic’s been discussed on various occasions, but as I was running around in Klinte recently, it really bugged me. There are several Konditori, pizza restaurant and Kundsam buildings in very close proximity, more than a small town would ever need. I don’t really know if outright replacing them with nondescript ‘standard’ buildings would work, but I think a generic office building or some smaller industrial workshops might work wonders for ‘diversity’ in this case.
That would indeed be nice.
I do not know anything about game development, but I heard a developer in one of their Q&A game streams say that if they were to add something new in the game they would need to take away something else. So as I understand it there is a limit to what they can add. That is probably why they have only two makes of cars, for instance. The Björk 300 hatchback and the Ville 445 station car.
That applies only to the consoles since GZ is already borderline game for consoles and barely runs on such old hardware. Also, that was said in terms of new features that add additional significant load on the hardware.
PCs are fine when it comes to the features added and changing around static POIs doesn’t put any significant load on the hardware. Sure, new POI (building) does add to the overall hardware load but if it being non-enterable, hardware has to load only different shape and different textures, both are insignificant loads on hardware.
OK, I understand. But that leaves the question; why didn’t the devs put more diversity in the game? Would keeping the pc game identical to the consoles be the limiting factor?
Yes.
Since there is great hardware performance difference between consoles (released in 2013) and PCs (bulk of which could be from 2016-2019), there is always a hindrance where PC players are held back by console players.
On the other hand, keeping the same game version on all platforms gives equality in terms of what is available in the game to all players.
This situation is a double-edged sword.
Maybe to release it earlier and upgrade region by region, like they’re doing right now?
I think the main reason quite simply is budget.
Generation Zero is Avalanche’s first self-published and self-financed game. On top of that, they made a gamble by setting the game in 80’s Sweden. Many studios have wanted to make games set in Sweden, but chosen not to because common wisdom is that most people want settings that either are familiar or spectacular, and 80’s Sweden is for most people neither of those things.
Had they invested a whole lot more into the game and it then would have flopped, that might’ve killed the whole company.