How the Nemesis system creates stories (translation)

I decided to make a translation on the topic of the system from my favorite game. The only thing I can provide a text version is a manual curve translation in a spoiler and a positive. If you want translations of other videos, write about this in the comments.

There is one game innovation, which, in my opinion, deserves attention, is the Nemesis system that first appeared in the 2014 game Middle -earth: Mordor’s Shadows:.

In short, this is a generator of enemies that can populate Mordor with a handful of procedurally generated villains.

Everyone has their own name, appearance, gamepel features and personality, which are revealed in one -line mockery before the battle.

Horza: “I wonder which of us will kill you first …”

But in the best case, and especially in the Sikvel, Shadow of War – this is a full -fledged generator of stories that can create unique and very personal stories from your relationship with these orcs.

This is an incredible collaboration of design and engineering.

We saw stories generators in games such as Rimworld and Crusader Kings, but in a step -by -step action with cinema graphics?

I also repeatedly talked about this on my channel, but I never particularly went into details of how it works.

To be honest, I was always scared by the obvious confusion of this system.

And so it was until then.

It’s time to finally try.

The author of Video Mark Brown from the Game Maker’s Toolkit channel, and this is how the Nemesis system creates stories.

A small remark before I start-to save time and simplify the task, I am going to talk about these two games as a single one, which I will call “Mordor”.

It is worth noting that Shadow of War makes huge changes and improvements to the system, but general features are applicable to both games.

If I had to choose an analogy of how Mordor tells stories, I would choose the “improvisation theater”, where stories are spontaneously developing during the performance.

And especially the rule “yes, and …”, which is to always agree with the hint of a partner, and rely on it.

That is how it works in the Mordor.

The player does something, the game recognizes and is rebuilt.

So you can escape from the battle with the captain of the orcs to save your skin – and you will be called a coward at a future meeting.

Zomug: “Hey! This time I will not let you run away! I will end this!”

Or you can send a spy only so that the next orc meeting said

Rush: “We know that you sent a spy. I don’t know who he is, but we will just torment the slugs until we find it ”.

This works like this: the game always secretly records your interactions with her, and the orcs can then refer to these records to choose the most interesting line of dialogue at the beginning of your next meeting.

And this is really smart, because it means: how you communicate with the game is how you make your improvisational proposals is the simplest game actions.

Actions such as murder, flight, injury, treatment or collection of information.

Everything that you do in the game is used by the Nemesis system as a starting point for history.

But it also happens differently, when the orcs give tips – and preferably, the player will bite the bait and write a story himself.

For example, this Ologa named Ar-Karo, who beat me to half he was, leaned over, raised my sword and broke it.

Ar-Karo: “You think this thing is hurting me? No!”

I think I will track him.

Okay, this is the basis.

But this put the developer Monolith Productions to the problem – as in the game that is completely about death and violence, to make these stories last longer than the first meeting?

In the end, you cannot improvise if your partner is dead.

The solution was to find ways to complete the meeting not related to death.

So, for example, a player can always escape from the battle – and they often remind him of this, because it is difficult to restore health in the midst of the battle.

Some orcs also retreat when their life is in danger.

In addition, right at the time of death, the meeting can go in a completely different direction.

PREK: “I can’t die like that. I won’t die like this!”

The downed orc may not follow the lead of death and escape.

Or, if the player is about to die, the orc can decide to simply humiliate him and leave.

Take Maku for example: a small thin archer who continues to overcome me with poisonous arrows, but always stops, without waiting for the end.

Maku: “Get up, bastard. I want victory, not murder from mercy “.

Maku: “It would be too easy to kill you like this”.

Maku: “Come on! Show me the pride of the gondor or what else you, people, are always chatting “.

But even if the talion really dies, this is not the end.

In almost every game, the player’s death is a non -canonical mistake that is erased when you rewind to the previous point of conservation.

You can rarely find games in which the death of the player is really woven into the narrative in an interesting way.

But in Mordor, the main character Talion is a native of the grave: a person who stuck between life and death, which gives him the opportunity to endlessly return to life: as a revival in a multi -user match.

And this allows you to create a key narrative path: revenge.

Ar-Karo: “I know why you want to kill me! Revenge! Revenge for the sword! Ha ha ha!”

Olkh. OK. He is not a problem now.

Monolith say that they were inspired by Burnout games, gransinocasino.uk/ where rivals could destroy you, and then you are returned to the track so that you can find a car of an attacker and make a pleasant justice.

Only because the accident in Burnout is not considered a defeat, such a story can happen.

The studio was also inspired by the murder camera in Call of Duty Games, where you can see a person who just killed you, and then you can revive on the map and track it down.

(In fact, most of the design of Mordor was an attempt to repeat the multiplayer relationship with characters under the control of PC).

And not only Talion can be revived.

Every enemy you killed has a little chance to deceive death and appear again in the game.

Perhaps with visible injuries, scars and prostheses, which is another chance for the game to reflect the player’s actions on them.

How, for example … maybe I hurried a little when he said that the Ar-Karu destroyer of swords is now not a problem.

Because after half an hour look at who appeared in the middle of the fight.

Ar-Karo: “I have to thank you. No matter what magic you use when you took my head, I will not give me the way to die! Being killed by you was the best that ever happened to me “.

Fold all this together, as well as some other possible results, which I will talk about later and we will see that there are many outcomes after meetings between the talion and orc to develop their history – from humiliation and flight to deception of death.

So, no matter how the meeting ends, every time you meet this orc again, the process is repeated, but now with memories of your previous meetings to refer to them and build history further.

What happens when the enemy kills you: they increase the level, they receive new forces and get rid of old weaknesses, they encourage and often give up the orc position of their positions higher than them.

You see, it would be bored if you met again and again with the same orcs without changes or growth in your relationship.

Thus, the Nemesis system needs some kind of structure for the development of these stories: in the Monolith Monolith, a familiar and easily understandable to anyone who was at work or, uh, visited a prison gang: hierarchy.

In Shadow of War, each orc exists in a descending organization: Lord, groups of leaders, captains and soldiers-typical disposable enemies-NPC.

Although, if they kill you, they have every chance of becoming a captain. The murder of Talion can raise the enemy up the career ladder. But if you disgrace the leader, he will be reduced again to the captain.

And all this is not about Talion: the orcs are given randomly generated missions that automatically end after a certain time and can lead to promotion, lowering and death, as a result of which the balance of forces organically changes while you play.

So, if the immortal nature of the Talion lends itself to revenge, the hierarchical structure leads to various plot paths, such as the fall from mercy and from the mud to the buncture.

For example, in my game, Maku, who humiliates the captain of the orcs, finally decided to finish the case and use his newfound status to overthrow the lord and take the highest position that a big jump forward. As if I get a million subscribers, and then send my resume to the post of general director of YouTube.

But this also means that Maku is now absolutely inviolable, until I lead the full attack on his well -guarded fortress.

Orcs may have other relations, for example, the captain is a bodyguard of the leader. Or one orc is a blood brother to another.

Bolg: “I will not see the killing of my blood brother with such a useless little creature!”

And later in the game you will have a chance to create your own relationship by typing the orcs to your side in this war.

So, after Maku became led by, I had an idea. Regardless of how many times I killed the Ar-Kar seam, he returned. This time with a massive iron helmet holding his head.

Ar-Karo “I see surprise on your face? You really thought you killed me? Do not mix me, otherwise I will tear the seams!”

And it was at that moment that I realized that with a seam we have more in common than I thought: we are two immortal souls that fell into the endless battle of death and revival.

So, if I am going to build an army to defeat Maku’s Maku, perhaps we should actually work together.

Ar-Karo: “I swear to you fidelity!”

Now I admit that the relationship between the talion and his supporters is not as good as Talion and his enemies – this, in the end, is called the Nemesis system.

Thus, the hired captain will leave the card and can have very little interaction with the talion from this moment.

It can be the same end point as the death of the orc. But there are some interesting options.

The newborn can decide to betray you and return to the side of the enemy. You can put the spy in the enemy’s ranks so that it is discovered and executed. And the beloved newbin man may appear at the time of the fight to save you from the faithful death.

Ar-Karo: “Death cannot take you today! Just as she cannot pick me up “.

In any case, these different relationships help to refresh stories, because they force the narrative go beyond the framework of simple stories one on one between the talion and one orc.

Instead, he creates a matrix of various relationships and dependencies that can lead to more exciting stories.

So, I hope now you understand why I am taking a connection between Mordor and Improvisation. In most video games, the narrative is completely predetermined.

Even those games with branches of the ways and many endings of thought out in advance, as if the choice of their own adventure book.

The player paves the way for this story written according to the scenario.

But in Mordor, history develops unpredictably, because it is completely based on your interactions with these orcs.

It is created over time, a meeting after a meeting, using your interactions as narrative bricks.

Systems such as deceiving death and humiliation allow stories to be longer. Hierarchy allows a number of characters to grow and change. And relations between different orcs create a network of interconnected characters.

But even despite the fact that now we have a rather strong system that allows stories to happen – how the “monolith” guarantees that these stories are really good?

Firstly, it is important that you can really remember and distinguish between these different orcs. During the game you will meet about 100 captains, so it is vital for the player to monitor his relationship with key players.

Orc can remember you, but you do not always remember them. For this to work, the orcs must have distinctive characteristics of the character. They should be visually interesting and have unique qualities as a singer.

Ghura: “I sing this song with all my breasts. CAREFULLY! For this interludie ends with your death “.

Zuka: “Your fate has become much worse.

You met an orc saying in the verse “.

Zuka: “I don’t think I have ever seen such a beautiful corpse. This is a corpse that can be loved! And love. And love.”

These orcs constantly refer to their unique line so that it is remembered. So you may not remember his name, but you will remember the “guy who continues to talk about the stigma”.

And so that everything is one, the game first determines the personality of the orc, and then does everything suitable for it – for example, the weapons that he uses, the clothes he wears, the choice that he makes in battle and even his manners – like this damn orc, which constantly speaks ..

GHûRA: “Let’s doeeeeeee”.

While Mordor is very systematic and widely uses procedural generation, there are still many carefully created content, which helps some orcs to become very memorable characters.

In the end, a seam is just a manually created character that may appear when an live deceives death. But the seam could be a captain, leader, spy, ally or in any other role.

For each orc there are just hundreds of sound recordings to take into account all the circumstances. Secondly, the game should create a strong emotional connection with these orcs. They are not just characters – they are rivals and enemies.

This connection is usually established when you die: the animation of the murder is aggressive and painful. Orc offends you with ridicule after your death. And we see how the orc celebrates your death and receives a promotion.

They can even change their name to note the way they killed you. If this is not enough, you are offered to take revenge for game purposes, because if you kill the Orc that killed you, you can get a better prey.

Now these stories can be filled with really cool moments. For example, orc deceives death, repeatedly humiliates you, betrays your trust or turns into a crazy, muttering eccentric.

It can be really powerful fragments of the narrative … but only when they are rare. If this happens again and again, it becomes memorized, predictable and just another game mechanics. So these events are conceived so as to be unusual.

According to Monolith, in the typical passage of Shadow of War, the vast majority of orcs will never deceive death, which means that these relations in the Nemesis style seem to be a rarity and are remembered.

So that it would be like that – well, almost everything in the Mordor has a random chance to happen. If you are defeated, an invisible cube is thrown to find out if the orc rifle will save you.

And, more simply: all the most unexpected interactions have an incredibly low chance to ever happen.

And after, some events, such as certain transformations, can only occur once and then blocked from a repetition in this passage – to guarantee that these points will really surprise.

Ideally, we want these rare events to take place with the orcs that we really know and remember.

So, you need to know about the secret statistics that each orc carries with you is an account of interaction with a player, which increases every time you meet with the same orc.

The higher the counter, the more likely it is that the orc will deceive death, survive in battles with other orcs and so on.

So, in the game this means that the orcs that you know best are those who killed you several times or appeared again and again – those that will most likely remain nearby, and their roles in history will develop.

Of course, it would be bad if the orc deceived death, but appeared in some incomprehensible part of the map, and you never saw it again.

Thus, to make sure that these actors remain relevant, Monolith is flying with where the orcs appear and allow the key rival or the enemy to teleport at the most inopportune moment.

Orcs can even travel between different regions in rare cases, so the characters with which you had a strong relationship in one part of the game will return to subsequent.

Behind the scenes there is even more secret statistics that will help to light a drama and balance stories.

For example, if you just kill or hire each oncoming orc, it is likely that your story will get a small note.

Design director Bob Roberts says: “We can turn the switch. If everything is fine with you, maybe someone should make you angry, betray you and give you the goal of revenge that you need to go. “.

Although – I’m not sure how aggressive this balancing is.

There were times when I had to manually increase the level of complexity, because the game was too easy, and my stories stagnated.

And finally, Monolith knows when to retreat.

Ultimately, most of the story in Mordor occurs in the player’s head, since he establishes connections, draws conclusions about the relationship and creates stories that may actually not be.

For example, this orc appears and says that he wants to avenge the fact that I killed his blood brother ..

Sukoga: “You need to be careful in the Mordor, isn’t it? You never know who has an older brother, eager for revenge. “.

… but it cannot particularly say who this brother is actually. This allows me to indicate who would be the most interesting candidate for the story of revenge.

In the end, the orcs have only short dialogs, not massive plot videos. But these main anchors are enough for the player to fill in the gaps.

Human nature is to find patterns and build narratives based on disparate events, so why not just shift the hard work to the player’s brain?

So, fold all this together, and you will get some rather amazing stories.

For example, a random live that broke my sword and received the title of captain. Just so that I track it and cut it into pieces.

Then he returned to life like a seam: the uncontrollable predator Frankinstein, who simply could not remain dead.

But when humiliating Maku locked up safely in his fortress, this prompted me to recruit the seam to my army and make it its bodyguard.

We wanted adventure together.

I healed him when he almost died, and he saved my life when I was close to death.

And when I built my army, installed my spies, stormed the fortress and finally killed Maku, you can be sure who I appointed the new leader.

AR-KARO: SHOV. Calling the death of the death of the swords. Lord for life.

There is one question that people often ask about the Nemesis system: “Why haven’t we seen this in other games”?

Well, firstly, the developers from Monolith are literally and irritating, have a patent for this system, which means that other studios can be afraid to use a similar system and get a lawsuit.

They do not want to finish, as, say, The Simpsons: Road Rage, which legally copied the protected game process Crazy Taxi. It ended in a judicial battle between Sega and Fox Interactive.

Publishers of Mordor Warner Bros., Through the non -term, has the right to freely use this system, and there were rumors that it would appear in future games about Batman and Harry Potter, but we have not seen anything specific yet.

At the same time, we saw some mechanics similar to Nemesis, in other games such as the Merceenary system in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and the mechanics of the game for someone in Watch Dogs: Legion.

But since these systems have only a superficial approach – without mapping structural rethinking or concentration of attention on creating more significant stories, these systems simply cannot approach the Mordora when it comes to creating stories.

But one of the main reasons for the loss of the popularity of the Nemesis system may be that while Shadow of War is an incredible step of the new generation as a procedurally generated stories … The only thing that everyone was talking about after exit was about slippery microtransactions, lobboxes, a fanned end of the game and other attributes of nauseating games with online services.

The good name of the franchise was dropped, and the hard work of the developer was largely ignored.

But I really hope that this does not mean the end of the Nemesis system. In the current form, I think that the system is quite good.

Shadow of War – a standard game with the open world and the ARKHAM KNIight combat system glued to it – but thanks to this system it has become an amazingly special.

A system that can create significant, memorable and – most importantly – deeply personal stories for each individual player.

This system has so many opportunities for growth – and therefore I hope that we will see its development in future games.

Whether it is another adventure in the Middle-earth with even more complex relations with the orcs-or something completely different.

But at the moment – I think you should give the game another chance.

All microtransactions were removed, and if you play the complexity of Nemesis (and pretend that the game ends to a huge epilogue), I think you will have a good time.

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