Trav adventures from PC games!

[Supplement Four]

I've been playing Far Cry lately on the PC, and it seems to me that this would be an excellent resource for some crafty GM to convert to a Traveller adventure. Heck, most of the work is already done!

The adventure would take place on a water world (for a real "spacey" feel) or just the tropical region of an std atmo world with water. The "trigens" in the game could be easily ported to an animal encounter, an alien (either something familiar or something new, depending on if the GM wanted to get creative), or even humans (maybe indigs...or how about something like pre-modern man on a world, that would be cool).

Take the maps and NPC placement straight out of the PC game (you get islands and interior maps). Change the story just a tad to fit Traveller. And, go off and have a grand old time playing!

If none of the other players have played the PC game, it'd make for a very cool planet-based Trav adventure (or, heck, use other rules, like GURPS or MS&P, or TSSI, or d20 Modern, or whatever and convert the game to whatever genre suits your fancy).

I'm sure not all games would be as easy to convert to an rpg as Far Cry is, but I'm just as sure that Far Cry isn't the only game that would be easy to use as a basis for a Traveller adventure.

So much of the work is done of the GM: The locations, equipment used, adventure plot, etc. I especially like the idea that the GM, in actually playing the PC game will have a lot of grey matter ammo to use when describing to his players what the place looks like.

Just a thought.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Far Cry's a pretty nifty game. Storywise it's fairly stock oriented; a modern take on the Island of Doctor Moreau kind of thing (minus Michael York). Huge maps (mostly), and some good models and physics. A little tough at times though; that, and the story is fairly linear (although you have a lot of leeway of how to get to the next map).

 

[Supplement Four]

A little tough at times though;

Try playing it in "Realistic" mode the way I am! Talk about tough!

But, I like the challenge. Each NPC can take as much damage as you can. Of course, you're out-numbered. And, they have rockets. So, yeah, it's a real challenge.

I'm also running a realism mod that makes being hit, especially in the head, rather deadly. But, it works both ways.

What I've noticed (and read on the net) is that the difficulty levels actually make the AI NPCs smarter or dumber, depending on where you set the difficulty.

I'm running realistic because I love watching the NPCs and their tactics. They're quite good! They'll call in re-inforcements in the form of extra troops, a helo, or HMMV, or P-90, or even by boat. They'll throw more grenades (and use them effectively) than they do on the lower difficulty levels. And, they even use smoke for cover (and colored smoke or flares to mark the spot where reinforcements are needed).

On realistic mode, I've seen three NPCs split up, one flanking right, one flanking left, and the other not moving but laying down a base of fire to keep me pinned while the other two maneuver at me from the flanks. That's some damn good AI! And, I sure has heck didn't see that type of thing when I was playing the game on Moderate mode.

The game can be what you let it. If you want a dumb, run-n-gun first person shooter, you can have that. Just set the difficulty lower. If you want more of a simulation that will really test you (think Operation Flashpoint or Ghost Recon with much better enemy AI), then Realistic mode (with the realism mod) is the way to go.

 

[Blue Ghost]

I'm thinking of doing a Traveller mod for one of the big FPS games, and Far Cry was tied with CSS and Q4 for modability. When I first bought and played Far Cry (when it first came out) I was really impressed with the gameplay. In fact, other than Jedi Knight Dark Forces II, Far Cry was one of the few games that really held my attention.

Ghost Recon was a challenge, but the AI became somewhat predictable. Not so much with Far Cry (not always anyway).

The scope and size of the maps that you can create, along with the selection of weapons, is pretty impressive. But there seemed to be so much more support for CSS in terms of stuff that had already been created, that I sort of gave up on modding Far Cry for a Traveller modification... although I may rethink it.

I've not played the realistic patch, but if I ever dump more RAM into my machine, I may give it a whirl.

The one map I don't like in Far Cry happens to be the final "boss crater" map. That took me forever to get through. Very tough. Lots of saves.