Autosave/Limited Save

[Saint_Proverbius]

I've always thought a cool idea would be have a robot in the lead role of the player. Robot gets blown up? You rebuild it. Robot gets smashed? Rebuild it. Robot gets arm shot off? Slap a new one on.

Best of all, robot starts with a blank slate. You switch robot on for the first time, and he's never had any past experience with anything. He may have skills programmed in to him, but otherwise he's a void which explains the 0 EXPERIENCE level thing nicely as well.

 

[protobob]

I like the robot idea. Yeah, a developer could develop a really cool robot character system...and then send him back in time to the medieval era! Oh yeah! Groan.

 

[Deathy]

That reminds me of an indie CRPG project I saw recently.
Although it looked to be an NWN clone.

Here we go.
My, was that hard to find again.

Here's the site: http://www.quanta-entertainment.com/defection/

 

[Walks with the Snails]

Yeah, robot characters could be neat in a CRPG. I've mostly seen them in consoles. Also, in a high-tech setting, you could have cloning to deal with resurrection. It would actually be a plausible reason for save points. You just have a computer that copies your brain and DNA if necessary, then if you die you wake up again on a table at the local branch of Lazarus Corp. as a clone of who you were at the last save point, perhaps with a fee automatically deducted from your credit balance.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

That is exactly what happens in AO, though I disagreed with how you had to pay more as you gained levels- what if I was playing an impoverished monk?

 

[Section8]

I've always thought a cool idea would be have a robot in the lead role of the player. Robot gets blown up? You rebuild it. Robot gets smashed? Rebuild it. Robot gets arm shot off? Slap a new one on.

Slap a better one on. One that has a chainsaw instead of a hand. etc.

Best of all, robot starts with a blank slate. You switch robot on for the first time, and he's never had any past experience with anything. He may have skills programmed in to him, but otherwise he's a void which explains the 0 EXPERIENCE level thing nicely as well.

What's even better, is that for robots, you don't have to record voice-over, you can just pump out some Hawking-esque synthvox, and you don't have anyone whining that they have to read everything. You can also completely sidestep referring to the avatar in vague terms (vault dweller, chosen one, hey you) and use whatever name the player gives themselves.

Another groovy thing would be playing around with Philip K Dick's favourite theme, of robots with human thoughts and emotions and the setting builds itself. Robots are built to serve humans, and are treated as machines. As the player character, you need to rise above human oppression, and either dominate humanity or find a way to happily co-exist. There's infinite potential for great societal themes and satire and it's very easy to rationalise advancement and skills within the framework of upgrading robotic systems, software, ressurection and repair are plausible, and there's a lot of flexibility within the setting. Robots could be anything from retro styled (Forbidden Planet, Lost in Space, The Day the Earth Stood Still) to replicants (Blade Runner, Westworld, Terminator) or something entirely different.

It's also fairly easy to rationalise various resource based facets of general RPG systems as energy. A power reserve to represent stamina, capacitors for action points, or even an induction coil or a secondary energy reserve for "mana" and various electrical impulses for "magic" depending on the setting.

Basically I can't see a lot wrong with a robot based RPG.

 

[Constipated Craprunner]

Why not also add a sort of Asimov approach?
Infact, why not have completly diffirent classes based upon the rationality of the basic build- X might be based soley upon reason, the old perfection of AI, while another may be based upon learning.
Great idea though. Fantastic idea, actually.

 

[Azael]

A robot RPG sounds like a great idea, especially since some things that are hard to get away with in other RPGs, such as stat increases, can be easily explained with a robot. Want more strength? Install new servos in the arms. Better perception, or even the ability to see in more than one spectrum? New sensors, etc. Not to mention the more extreme modifications that could be thought of, if you're into that sort of thing.

So, what are you waiting for? Go forth and make this game!

 

[Ebonsword]

Also, in a high-tech setting, you could have cloning to deal with resurrection. It would actually be a plausible reason for save points. You just have a computer that copies your brain and DNA if necessary, then if you die you wake up again on a table at the local branch of Lazarus Corp. as a clone of who you were at the last save point, perhaps with a fee automatically deducted from your credit balance.

Actually, Autoduel used pretty much this very thing, from what I remember.

Also, regarding save systems, what about those games which autosave when bad events happen (such as when a party member dies)?

Do you think that this is good or bad? I'm a bit torn on them myself. I kind of like how it favors cautious play (like PnP), at the same time, it is irritating when your favorite character gets fried by some sort of instant death attack that prevents resurrection.

 

[JarlFrank]

THREAD NECROMANCY FTW

 

[WalterKinde]

Having to use a save point/gem on consoles in the old days was understandable because there just wasn't enough hardware to have you saving where ever you liked.
But in this day of "next gen" its just ridiculous foor consoles (why advertise the system has a hard drive and then not put it to full use?) not to mention that is been imported over to the PC where such things are NOT necessary.
Only lazy or bad game design should have you saving your progress at specific save points.

 

[WalterKinde]

Having to use a save point/gem on consoles in the old days was understandable because there just wasn't enough hardware to have you saving where ever you liked.
But in this day of "next gen" its just ridiculous foor consoles (why advertise the system has a hard drive and then not put it to full use?) not to mention that is been imported over to the PC where such things are NOT necessary.
Only lazy or bad game design should have you saving your progress at specific save points.

 

[WalterKinde]

Having to use a save point/gem on consoles in the old days was understandable because there just wasn't enough hardware to have you saving where ever you liked.
But in this day of "next gen" its just ridiculous foor consoles (why advertise the system has a hard drive and then not put it to full use?) not to mention that is been imported over to the PC where such things are NOT necessary.
Only lazy or bad game design should have you saving your progress at specific save points.

 

[Fez]

Followed by a triple post, no less. Well worth the five year wait. Can't wait to see what you come up with for 2013.

 

[Imbecile]

Having to use a save point/gem on consoles in the old days was understandable because there just wasn't enough hardware to have you saving where ever you liked.
But in this day of "next gen" its just ridiculous foor consoles (why advertise the system has a hard drive and then not put it to full use?) not to mention that is been imported over to the PC where such things are NOT necessary.
Only lazy or bad game design should have you saving your progress at specific save points.

feh. I'm going to bite. I would argue that an autosave encourages lazy or bad game design. You don't have to worry about getting the difficulty/ammo/health level right if you can simply quicksave your way to victory.

A quicksave system wins in terms of convenience, but if you are after a gameplay experience a checkpoint system works much much better. No breaking of "teh immersion", no constant saving, no loss of tension.

Quicksave is only worthwhile if you are low on time, skill or patience or are an ADD teenager with Torrets

 

[Jasede]

Ah, but nobody is forced to abuse it!

[By this logic, though, you might as well place The Sword of Killing Everything into every RPG at the beginning and make picking it up optional. It's a slippery slope.]

 

[Lumpy]

Limited save-games worked very well in Mafia. They were often enough not to cause frustration, without being too often so that there still was challenge. It wouldn't work in a CRPG, though, since these things aren't based on missions and all that.

 

[elander_]

I liked that feature in Arcanum called lucky points or something like that (the button on the top that gives you little cheats like 100% to pick a lock or ensure a critical hit). It would be interesting to combine this with permanent death. If you are killed you must use a lucky point to be able to reload a previously saved game, to resurrect a character on the spot or something else. Like in Arcanum completing important quests and doing notable feats would give you extra lucky points.

feh. I'm going to bite. I would argue that an autosave encourages lazy or bad game design. You don't have to worry about getting the difficulty/ammo/health level right if you can simply quicksave your way to victory.

A quicksave system wins in terms of convenience, but if you are after a gameplay experience a checkpoint system works much much better. No breaking of "teh immersion", no constant saving, no loss of tension.

I agree with this. Imposing limits to loading back previous games makes the game much more immersive, not to mention it promotes good game design, because if the game design is bad people will complain much more than if they have unlimited reloads.

 

[elander_]

repeated post

 

[Aothan]

3.) Immersion...

There's nothing that shatters immersion in a CRPG faster than having a visible game mechanic sitting right there in the game. Imagine getting really in to a CRPG, then openning a chest and pulling out a save game gem. You've gone from being really involved in the setting and story to remembering, "Hey, this is a game."

The same thing goes for save points and so on. Hey, thank goodness these kobolds built this save point right here in their five level dungeon of death for me! See? It just breaks the illusion right there.

I find my character falling in battle (typically in the blink of an eye) to be the main detraction from being engrossed in any given explore-hack-develop type experience.

So there is a paradox of sorts. Where a game revolving around a particular character will become increasingly compelling the longer said character endures and as such develops. And yet the same degree of derived enjoyment will also be the countermeasure of how disinclined I am to be quickly revived and continue forth. The first time my character falls, even in hacky slash, a game feels different thereafter.

Not everyone likes to play hardcore, I will only do it for certain games such as Morrowind and yes, Oblivion (ooh the stigma !) or for games that I really enjoy playing over and again. Other games are just way too hack-n-slash making quick demises very likely unless specific builds are opted for. Still, as with Titan Quest I just might go down that route.

It would be interesting to at least have options in certain games that only allowed a number of renewed character lives, which could be extended by finding 'lives' or the new element of recipes that create powerful items to use, such as 'lives'. Anything to provide a happy medium, for those inclined, between the game and a sense of challenge and required involvement.

 

[Damned Registrations]

A jrpg called Dragon Quarter had a very good save system. Essentially, you had limited 'hard' saves, but you could at any point stop playing and make temporary save that is deleted when you load it. In addition to this, when you died, you had the option of simply reloading from that last save point, or doing an 'overlay', where you retained whatever xp/gold/items you had acquired since that save, but the story and your position reverted to the last save.

It's a pity the game was such a flop. To be expected though- it had a lot of things that joe brainless would be destroyed by, including a time limit of sorts that more than one complete retard ran into so hard he had to start over from the very beginning because the game was unfinishable based on the time wasted on his most recent save. Some good boss fights too.

 

[sportforredneck]

THREAD NECROMANCY FTW

 

[sportforredneck]

THREAD NECROMANCY FTW

 

[sportforredneck]

THREAD NECROMANCY FTW

 

[Damned Registrations]

Oh gee, what am I doing posting itt? Games don't have saves anymore! This is completely pointless!