Ghost People

[AngelLight]

I was watching the city movies and noticed that everywhere the movie maker went she ran into ghost people walking around, but when she got close enough to them they would disappear. Is this just something associated with the beta or is that staying in the game?

[Saner]

I think they are just a beta thing to test how much people and activity the servers can handle over time.

in an interview I heard the PC beta had about 10,000 players but recently they have been testing in-house around 80,000 simulated players.

so ya I think those spooks won't appear in the final version, more than likely. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

[Emrald]

awww I liked the ghost people...they were like cool....

[Saner]

they were too spooky. I mean what fun is it being in a haunted solar system. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime2.gif

besides newcoemrs would think the ghosts are a glitch and that would not sit well with the game's reputation if ppl started thinking that. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

[XredX]

they Scare me =' give me nightmares PSu: In My Room ghost walks thro the door makes you wounder how you Sleep at night ='

[Parn]

Those "ghosts" are in the offline portion as well. They're in there for the purpose of background activity to make the areas seem "alive", kind of like all the simplistic rectangular boxes that are supposed to represent aircars on Parum. I think it's neat, considering the alternative being a fairly empty area.

[Ryna]

The 'ghost people' help provide the illusion of activity in public venues such as cities or resupply depots. They should be in the final version of the game.

[KylePhoenix]

Please tell me they will be gone in the real version though.

[AngelLight]

honestly, I hope they aren't...they disappear when you get near them and that just seems silly. If you want the illusion of activity, make them real npcs that you just dont interact with (and make them walkthru if you're worried about accessibility to places)

[Bleu]

Not quite sure why you would need them in the full version anyway. I mean, lots and lots of people are going to be playing PSU, do we really need ghost people walking around when we will have a healthy player community? If the ghosts do stick around, perhaps there is the chance that one might confuse them for a normal player? (At least untill we all start busting the doors down of the clothing shops http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif)

[mattdude]

Usualley they have Gosht ppl because, so if ppl are so crowded, and you cant move its in some MMOs, they maybe don't need it but it would be helpful

[Junker]

This ghost thing sounds extremely dumb.

[mattdude]

Kinda confused what they mean Ghost ppl, do they mean NPCs? or Real ppl, if its a real ppl that you can go through ppl then that seems reasonable, but if you play and its a nc and you go through them then that seems stupid.

[AngelLight]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ufmh-2jJ09I&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QcVRtTQTFA&mode=related&search=

Watch and learn the stupid nature of having ghosts populating the city to give the "illusion" of a living breathing berg.

[mattdude]

Thanks

[mattdude]

Wow is it when they just dissapear???? that looks really stupid hope they dont have that

[AngelLight]

exactly my feelings

[Garroway]

They kind of remind me of the beginning of "Spirited Away".

Stay or go, makes no difference to me. It certainly does change the flavor of the game having them around though.

[Junker]

Wow, now I'm thinkin that literally having ghosts wander around town would be awesome.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Junker on 2006-08-22 11:01 ]</font>

[AngelLight]

The only viable game story reason I could possibly think of that would warrent having them around is that some sort of civilization destroying event occurs in the offline mode where all major cities on all the planets in the game have almost every single living being killed on the spot and they are now all haunted towns. I've not played offline mode to the end, so I suppose there's some sort of small possibility that this is the case. However, I really doubt that SEGA will take the route of "They're all dead, but you and some shopkeepers".

As some critics said during a review of the very first original Battlestar Galatica:
"Never Destroy Your Home Planet In The First Episode"



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: AngelLight on 2006-08-22 11:07 ]</font>

[Junker]

Sounds kinda like they made that up on the spot.

[PandaMasterX4]

I actually want to see a ghost city in the game now.

[Kyuu]

I would have to agree with the ghosts being ick. There's no reason to have little "ghost" people who disappear when you get near them. That looks really ugly, in my opinion. If you want to add the illusion of random people going about their daily business to make the cities seem more alive, then add non-interactive NPCs who you can pass through (so they don't get in your way). Those ghosts are just not good additions in my opinion.

[Parn]

The "ghosts" have a really low poly count and very little texture work to them, which is undoubtedly the reason why they pursued that method to begin with, instead of opting to have nothing. This goes back to the limitations of the PlayStation 2 hardware, since after all, they're not restricting the areas to only 10 players like in PSO's lobbies.

[Kyuu]

It would still be less ugly to have them not suddenly disappear, I think. Not to mention, from the videos I've seen, they don't really add much to the cities in terms of liveliness. Just add some ugliness that doesn't really need to be there. Could just be me, though.

[Parn]

Admittedly, if they animated a little faster and faded out instead of abruptly disappearing, they might not be so distracting.

[StratixEVO]

All hail the PS2!!! Remember, this game is made for the PS2, and crappy ghost people is what we get for it. After playing the Premiere Disk I was disgusted with the PS2 graphics. Luckily, graphics don't make the game and it was still a blast to play. I am absolutely picking up the 360 version, even if it just has better anti-aliasing... Lordy, that looked awful....

...Dreamcast is still better than PS2! Sad. Just makes me wanna cry, lol.

[kassy]

On 2006-08-22 11:27, Parn wrote:
The "ghosts" have a really low poly count and very little texture work to them, which is undoubtedly the reason why they pursued that method to begin with, instead of opting to have nothing. This goes back to the limitations of the PlayStation 2 hardware, since after all, they're not restricting the areas to only 10 players like in PSO's lobbies.



Exactly.

[StratixEVO]

Yep, I meant to elaborate on Parn's comment... prolly should have quoted it in mine, thanks

[Saner]

"ghost people" is nonsense they can not be regarded as anything else besides ghosts. even shop npcs are not transparent. if that's to reduce lag, it's kind of pushing it.

if they want npcs walking around to make it feel more populated, WHY MAKE THEM TRANSPARENT?

If that's the final version, fine. but the transparency ghosty thing is still silly. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[Saner]

On 2006-08-22 11:27, Parn wrote:
The "ghosts" have a really low poly count and very little texture work to them, which is undoubtedly the reason why they pursued that method to begin with, instead of opting to have nothing. This goes back to the limitations of the PlayStation 2 hardware, since after all, they're not restricting the areas to only 10 players like in PSO's lobbies.



there is no good reason at all to include them. if they expect 10,000+ people online, then there's no reason to include low poly npcs to give further illusion that it's populate, when even as low polys, they are stressing the lag further without good reason.

players are not going to play online for the sake of these ghosts. even if these wasnt these ghosts, people won't care, they would still have fun.

This feature is simply something that is not needed. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

they should save something like this for when the game is already 3 years old or something.

[Cross]

On 2006-08-22 11:57, Saner wrote:
there is no good reason at all to include them. if they expect 10,000+ people online, then there's no reason to include low poly npcs to give further illusion that it's populate, when even as low polys, they are stressing the lag further without good reason.

10,000 people online does not mean 10,000 people onscreen, or even 10,000 people in the same instance of a lobby. On a PS2 or low-spec PC, you'll only be able to handle a couple dozen actual player models onscreen at once, tops. The other players are represented by a 'ghost' when your client hasn't loaded the proper model, or is at the maximum number of displayed models.
You could turn down the number of 'real' people you wanted to display in the beta, and turning it down low got you this (http://burningjustice.net/PSU/beta/psu20060425_222607_001.jpg). All of those are real players.

I didn't get curious enough to check if every 'ghost' online was a player in disguise or if some are just there for scenery, but there's a very good reason for using them, especially online.

[Parn]

Edit: Post is a response to Saner's latest mish-mash.

Uh, the "ghost NPCs" are client-side produced. They have absolutely nothing to do with your network connection. They're shown in offline mode, as I said before.

And yes, it is the same thing. They're in there for the purpose of making the areas look busier. Whether they're solid or not is completely irrelevant. The traffic in the far distance could be removed as well.

Edit 2: Now that Cross reminded me of the ghost effect used on players as they're loaded in, or in his mentioned screenshot case as a replacement for other characters for lower-end PCs that need to run the game at that spec, the role then goes beyond just scenery in the background.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Parn on 2006-08-22 12:14 ]</font>

[Saner]

ya.....busy graveyards that is. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

and leave the vehicle traffic out of this, at least that gets the job done without looking like ghosts. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif

[Parn]

On 2006-08-22 12:11, Saner wrote:
ya.....busy graveyards that is. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

and leave the vehicle traffic out of this, at least that gets the job done without looking like ghosts. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_rolleyes.gif
Yeah, instead of ghosts, you have cars that look like pencil lead and boxes:

http://synbios.net/games/PSU/screenshots/beta/0028.jpg

I fail to see the difference, honestly. In both cases, the visuals are made to give the illusion of a bustling city through extreme amounts of simplicity, this limitation imposed because of the PlayStation 2 hardware which you're so quick to defend. Individually, it looks really silly, but as a whole, the intent is accomplished... Parum really does look a lot more busy than Pioneer 2 ever did.

[Ryna]

Consider the following:

#1. You are going to have several Universe servers with four planets.
#2. Most people are probably going to be spending their time in games.
#3. There will be dead-times when hardly anyone is online.

Given that, there will periods when the lobbies are fairly empty. The ghost people help to provide atmosphere.

As new planets and servers were added to the closed beta, the crowds in the lobbies started to thin quite a bit. I noticed this on a few occasions. At those times, it was nice to have a few ghosts around so you didn't feel totally alone.

[Saner]

okay from an artistic perspective, those crowds do get the job done. but why are they all one color? they are like statues or something. oh well.

I'll try not to think about them....but from what's seen they seem so distracting!!!

and pointing fingers at PS2 doesn't mean they should have went ahead with this ghost NPCs idea.

without players, Bastok didn't look so populated either but its better than ghosts everywhere. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

ahhh I'll get used to it. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_lol.gif

[Kyunji]

Think of it this way: If the ghosts were normally-colored, in addition to causing lag, frameskip, and other issues, they might be mistaken for players, which could wreak all kinds of havoc.

This is probably one of those things that everyone will whine about until they actually play the game for a while and get used to it. After that point, no one will care.

[Shadow_Wing]

If they faded out it prolly would have been more effective, and better. This whole suddenly disapearing seems so.... unatural.

This kinda of "ghost" people work isn't something new I've seen it in other games, it's effective if done right other than that it can just look stupid

[AvianKaitos]

At least they are not crude 2-D sprites like in a lot of wrestling and racing games. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif

[Authenticate]

One of those ghosts touched my bum. I felt violated. They should be banned from that game, because I said so.

And becuase they look dumb. I'd like a setting to turn unneccesary NPCs off. I don't want to see a billion grey "people" in cities all the time. If they don't include an option to turn them off I will sue the leader of the ghosts for his apple juice.

ALL of his apple juice.

[ShadowDragon28]

They are the ghosts of Palmans killed 3000 years ago when Gaira crashed into the orginal planet Palma. Now they are joined by the lost souls of people that got killed by SEED....

Those Palman ghosts now haunt all of Gurahl (Gu-Ra-Ru/aR-Gu-Ru= Algul,a.k.a Algol;maybe http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_smile.gif)

[ColonD]

Ah, I hate 2-D background props in 3-D games
In any case, these look better then them, but still, when they dissapear near me, I feel like they're going to posess me or that they want to avoid me.
I just wanna be frieeeeeeeends! *Trys to chase after ghosts*
><
In anycase, I think they're standable. This actually kinda reminds me of the whole sitting animation thing. >>
Nit-pickers. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[ShadowDragon28]

It would be cool to have a PM that evovles into a Palman Ghost. I like translucent ghosts, they wouldn't bother me in PSU. I'd want to talk to them, I hope that some of them can talk with your character. It'd be cool, kind of like "The Ghost Whisperer."

Woman Ghost: " A was killed by a huge dragon. Please find the pendant I lost and avenge my
death. Then give the pendant to my daughter, the accessory shop girl. "

Player Character: " Yes, I'll help you... "

[mattdude]

that would be cool....lol I bet you all this is, is a bugg that they just have to fix.

[ColonD]

I bet someone is going to try and hack themselves a translucent ghosty. ><
But yeah, I'd like to talk to them. Or at least approach them without dissapearing.

[mattdude]

that would be fun

[Junker]

I want there to be special events like on Halloween where they try to scare people or something.

[mattdude]

yeah that would be cool

[ShadowDragon28]

Spooky Newman kid: " I see dead people..."

Ethan: " I do too, I think I drank to much Trimate. I also saw this strange sword with strange memories of some odd people I don't know too...it was called El Si Day On or something...."

[AngelLight]

So its to give the illusion of a population...I'm sorry but all I see is a bunch of low res sprites disappearing as I move around town...how exactly is this making the game feel all "I'm not alone"?

I do actually think it was something just associated with the beta....a test for slow downs, lag spikes, and whatnot on various different rigs (low end Pcs, mid range Pcs, High grade Pcs, and PS2) just to see what they could slow down and where (a stress test of sorts to see the most probable areas of high lag in each city) cause honestly, ghosties do nothing for me and from at least alot of other posts on this thread they're doing nothing for other people too except looking poorly executed, not to mention I'm sure there are others outside of PSO that feel the same way.

Is it going to stop me playing? no, but it still looks dumb....

[Saner]

On 2006-08-23 06:19, AngelLight wrote:
So its to give the illusion of a population...I'm sorry but all I see is a bunch of low res sprites disappearing as I move around town...how exactly is this making the game feel all "I'm not alone"?

I do actually think it was something just associated with the beta....a test for slow downs, lag spikes, and whatnot on various different rigs (low end Pcs, mid range Pcs, High grade Pcs, and PS2) just to see what they could slow down and where (a stress test of sorts to see the most probable areas of high lag in each city) cause honestly, ghosties do nothing for me and from at least alot of other posts on this thread they're doing nothing for other people too except looking poorly executed, not to mention I'm sure there are others outside of PSO that feel the same way.

Is it going to stop me playing? no, but it still looks dumb....



wise words. despite their low res models, they still are taking up precious processing space. and during times of lag, I think it would lag less without these ghosties around.

but they are seen in the offline story cities too. so it looks like they are gonna stay.
I guess we'll have to get used to it. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif


the only time they would fit is during Halloween but ya ppl will just get used to it.

it's a shame though. this game could not have these ghosts and no one would hate Sega for not adding them. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[SephYuyX]

As long as it's fixed on how they disappear; ie. fade instead of just blipping out, I dont see any problem with them.

[parabolee]

The "ghosts" are produced from the console and have NOTHING to do with the server, so they CAN'T cause lag!

This has already been gone over! If you are talking about a framerate drop that is something completely different so please stop calling it "lag".

The "ghosts" would be fine if they were not semi-transparent and dissapeared when you got close to them. They look really bad!

I doubt they are anything to do with a beta test for lag times as they appear in the offline demo (premier disc). I doubt they were designed to appear the same to all people on the server at all (which would make it server side and associated with "lag").

[AngelLight]

ok whatever, they look like something out of a Rappy's lower torso region either way, that's just my opinion. If they're in, then they're in, but hopefully they wont (but it seems like there's info somewhere to suggest they will http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_frown.gif )

[Saner]

this reminds me of the year-long Compass debate for Elder Scrolls IV, it's just something we'll have to get used to and try to ignore.

maybe if we focus on our own character and friends and other players and stuff and pretend and be like "laaa dee laa la laaa I'm not seeing anyone else except me and my friends and other players. what a glorious day! la la la la laaaaa"

then ya we'll be fine. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

[AngelLight]

so basically I can be:

http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_argh.gif

-or-

http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

About them huh?

I think I'll choose: http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_sleep.gif

Guess this topic is dead and buried then. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/coffin.gif

[Saner]

oh this topic will arise again when other people especially newcomers bring up the subject, even after the game's release. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif

it won't sit well with some people, so they will talk about it again. http://www.pso-world.com/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/icon_razz.gif

[Junker]

Eh, the ghost's are fine. I'd rather have some transparent guys you can make vanish then nothin at all.

[Saner]

why do they even disappear in the first place?

they should just have no parameters that cause them to be roadblocks, that way you can just pass through them.