Humanophage
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2005
- Messages
- 5,032
It is impossible to speed up animation in many of the recent turn-based games. These include both strategies and RPGs. For instance, Hard West, Darkest Dungeon, Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus, Divinity: Original Sin, Blackguards, nu-X-Com, and a bunch of others. This was a problem in some older games too, but they were less self-indulgent about animation.
In many of the slightly older titles like Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Civilization 4, or nu-King's Bounty this was not an issue. These games did not force you to watch every repetitive animation for the duration of the entire game. If you wanted to look at them, you had animation speed 1, if you wanted them to be faster you had animation speed 2, or you could perhaps cut them down to a minimum. Some even had enemy units taking their turn all at once (in extremely quick succession). These options are now largely missing - at best you can maybe have x2 speed.
Now, we know that this can be fixed with CheatEngine. Still, this means that all animation will be sped up, so the units will be fidgeting like spastics and it doesn't work well with mixed systems. Why do developers force us to use an external program for this? Why was the speed-up option removed? The only reason I can think of is a cynical attempt to increase in-game time on Steam. The graphics whores have their default option anyway, so it can't be that.
Oddly, complaining to fans about this often leads to patronising replies like "Nu-XCom is a strategy game that requires a lot of thought - if you can't tolerate the animation, maybe you should play GTA". I imagine these people's idea of playing chess is that moving a piece must involve it spinning in the air for five seconds whilst blazing prosperous lightning as the cam zooms in.
Personally, I just started dumping a lot of such games like Hard West or Blackguards. Life is too short to suffer these cutscenes and there are many good games.
So what are your theories on why this is almost omnipresent? Do you maybe think there is some justification for it?
In many of the slightly older titles like Heroes of Might and Magic 3, Civilization 4, or nu-King's Bounty this was not an issue. These games did not force you to watch every repetitive animation for the duration of the entire game. If you wanted to look at them, you had animation speed 1, if you wanted them to be faster you had animation speed 2, or you could perhaps cut them down to a minimum. Some even had enemy units taking their turn all at once (in extremely quick succession). These options are now largely missing - at best you can maybe have x2 speed.
Now, we know that this can be fixed with CheatEngine. Still, this means that all animation will be sped up, so the units will be fidgeting like spastics and it doesn't work well with mixed systems. Why do developers force us to use an external program for this? Why was the speed-up option removed? The only reason I can think of is a cynical attempt to increase in-game time on Steam. The graphics whores have their default option anyway, so it can't be that.
Oddly, complaining to fans about this often leads to patronising replies like "Nu-XCom is a strategy game that requires a lot of thought - if you can't tolerate the animation, maybe you should play GTA". I imagine these people's idea of playing chess is that moving a piece must involve it spinning in the air for five seconds whilst blazing prosperous lightning as the cam zooms in.
Personally, I just started dumping a lot of such games like Hard West or Blackguards. Life is too short to suffer these cutscenes and there are many good games.
So what are your theories on why this is almost omnipresent? Do you maybe think there is some justification for it?
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