Cain on Games - Tim Cain's new YouTube channel

[Infinitron]

Anyway:

I answer a lot of questions in one video, including my most inspirational setting, company food catering, the difference between AA and AAA games, making better boss encounters, thoughts on save scumming, and thoughts on asset reuse.

 

[Butter]

Or what if there was a limit on item durability, such that over time it would degrade beyond your ability to repair it? I can't recall it now, but I'm pretty sure I played a game where each time you repaired an item, its max durability dropped.

Brigand: Oaxaca does this.

TLoZ: Majora's Mask has a sword upgrade called the Razor Sword. It deals extra damage, but after 100 uses it reverts to the ordinary Kokiri Sword. If you complete a quest chain, you can upgrade the Razor Sword to the Gilded Sword, which deals even more damage and will never lose its sharpness. This is a limited kind of weapon durability that I think people could generally get behind. Your weapon never falls apart or becomes useless, but it can lose a bonus if not maintained.

 

[Roguey]

"I'm completely unconcerned with save scumming" - Tim Cain

Sawyer seething.

 

[Wesp5]

Or what if there was a limit on item durability, such that over time it would degrade beyond your ability to repair it?

I think durability is kind of ridiculous. Most games play out over a few days, why should weapons like swords or firearms degrade enough in that time so they would break? A self-made wooden stick maybe, but a professional weapon, no!

 

[ds]

Or what if there was a limit on item durability, such that over time it would degrade beyond your ability to repair it? I can't recall it now, but I'm pretty sure I played a game where each time you repaired an item, its max durability dropped.

Brigand: Oaxaca does this.

Arx Fatalis does as well if your object knowledge skill below 100. The NPC smith also won't degrade the max durability.

Not an RPG, but Dying Light also restricts the number of times you can repair weapons. Doesn't really make it more interesting.

 

[Alienman]

Or what if there was a limit on item durability, such that over time it would degrade beyond your ability to repair it?

I think durability is kind of ridiculous. Most games play out over a few days, why should weapons like swords or firearms degrade enough in that time so they would break? A self-made wooden stick maybe, but a professional weapon, no!

Maybe not durability, as a percentage, but having a weapon shatter would be cool. I mean, think of the amount of fighting you do in every average RPG.

 

[Spukrian]

I can't recall it now, but I'm pretty sure I played a game where each time you repaired an item, its max durability dropped.

I remember that game, it's called Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.

 

[SpaceWizardz]

Or what if there was a limit on item durability, such that over time it would degrade beyond your ability to repair it? I can't recall it now, but I'm pretty sure I played a game where each time you repaired an item, its max durability dropped.

Dying Light.
Unrelated but I quite liked how KCD handled durability with it feeding into the Charisma stat where if you simultaneously had expensive gear and kept it well-maintained you could use it to pass speech checks as well as just having a ton of ambient dialogue reactivity where NPCs would treat you as nobility rather than a stinky peasant boy. Item maintenance was still a money sink but it felt rewarding rather than tedious.

 

[deuxhero]

The only good weapon durability systems are ones where it is completely unrelated to money sink. Stuff like Swordcraft Story trilogy, where it's a second HP bar that's either automatic or trivial to refill between battles, and Way of the Samurai 1-3, where it's a stress gauge that goes down automatically when not attacking/blocking and bad things only happen when it's full.

It's even worse with guns. The only parts that fail with use on any decently made firearm are barrel (where only the rifling fails), bolt and springs. Due to the design nature and materials, there's no fixing these parts as a practical mater and they just need a replacement. Even then, unless the player is dumpping mags in full auto for the sake of it, the lifespan will far exceed the number of rounds the player will actually fire in an entire campaign.

edit: I can't even think of a single game where repairs are money sinks except those where "repair" is actually restoring charges to a magic item. Maybe New Vegas with ultra high end stuff you find damaged early (which is pretty much the stuff off the dead Brotherhood of Steel scouts), but even that is entirely avoidable. Even games with repair I can think of having far better non-repair money sinks, like Morrowind's training and enchanting (MW's many economy issues not withstanding).

edit: Fire Emblem's implementation is kinda a cash sink, but it's more of resources being finite. You always know exactly how many uses you have left, and in most cases repairing items is an artifact level effect that happens 3 or less times per playthrough and is only used to renew the most important ones, rather than a chore of constantly rushing back to repair shit.

 

[NwNgger]

If a good number of people say the UI sucks, then it sucks.

No..? A good number of simpeltons had a flawed opinion. You're just searching for confirmation bias. And besides that, none of us would be here if we cared about the mass audience opinion on RPGs. I'm sorry but if you can't figure out Arcanums UI then maybe you really do belong in the special camp.

I think with something like a UI, you have to go with public opinion, because usability by the end-user is what a UI is supposed to be all about. It's not a matter of taste like some other aspects of the game might be.

While I get where you're coming from, I have to disagree. The general public opinion might be that it is obtuse, but to me it would seem to be that it's people not familiar with RPGs who are complaining about it (in which case just about any "real" RPG will be a challenge for them UI wise). It is understandable that it'd be difficult for them, it makes sense, but they aren't the target audience. Bit of a hyperbolic statement but do airplane cockpits have shit UIs because the general public can't use them, or is it functional for those who it is intended for? Of course airplanes aren't necessarily commercial products but again commercial products are also allowed to be targeted toward specific audiences and don't have to try and have mass appeal. I mean that much should be obvious to Codexers at least.

I agree with what you're saying. Bare in mind the publications that said Arcanum's UI is clunky are the same publications that are racing to praise the Western Erotic Game known as Baldur's Gate 3.

Their opinions are not derived from any kind of critical thinking. They reviewed Arcanum badly because they didn't care to read the manual or engage with the game in any meaningful way. Whereas Baldur's Gate 3 was very popular with their disgusting kind so they praised it whilst still not engaging critically to find the flaws.

 

[Daedalos]

So what are the chances that Outer Worlds 2 actually turns out great this time around? Have they listening to feedback and criticism on the first game? And they have a much bigger budget now im assuming into the AAA territory.
Supposedly, he is still very much shadow game director and Leonard Boyarsky is the main game director.

I remember being quite disappointed with outer worlds giving the fact that two of the most well-renowned people were spear-heading it, perhaps it was scope, design or budget-retraints, who knows. Have Tim or Leonard ever commented on the criticism anywhere?

I REALLY want outer worlds 2 to be the REAL fallout + firefly or fallout in space game that they couldnt seemingly make with the first game for various reasons.

We all want the REAL New Vegas in space game.

PLEASE TIM, make it good.

 

[Roguey]

Supposedly, he is still very much shadow game director and Leonard Boyarsky is the main game director.

Boyarsky is the creative lead, but Brandon Adler is the director. I do not believe Cain is telling him what to do.

 

[Hobo Elf]

So what are the chances that Outer Worlds 2 actually turns out great this time around?

Zero.

 

[Infinitron]

I talk about my ideas to translate the book Lord Of Light by Roger Zelazny into a computer role playing game.

 

[0sacred]

is science fantasy a terrible genre or is Lord of Light especially silly?

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

Durability and other attrition features are pointless busywork unless if gameplay is purposefully built around it, survival genre style.

 

[BlackheartXIII]

 

[Alienman]

Check your bigotry more like.

 

[Roguey]

Public apologies after a private one are submissive behavior and Tim is a natural sub.

 

[0sacred]

so deadnaming is when you bring up someone's professional past who used to be relevant

 

[Egosphere]

is science fantasy a terrible genre or is Lord of Light especially silly?

Think something like 2nd Apocalypse would work well in video game format

 

[Egosphere]

Durability and other attrition features are pointless busywork unless if gameplay is purposefully built around it, survival genre style.

Hate durability. However, I think a damage bonus added to a weapon in pristine condition which degrades to some baseline over continued usage until you 'repair' it would work quite well.

 

[Egosphere]

So what are the chances that Outer Worlds 2 actually turns out great this time around? Have they listening to feedback and criticism on the first game? And they have a much bigger budget now im assuming into the AAA territory.
Supposedly, he is still very much shadow game director and Leonard Boyarsky is the main game director.

I remember being quite disappointed with outer worlds giving the fact that two of the most well-renowned people were spear-heading it, perhaps it was scope, design or budget-retraints, who knows. Have Tim or Leonard ever commented on the criticism anywhere?

I REALLY want outer worlds 2 to be the REAL fallout + firefly or fallout in space game that they couldnt seemingly make with the first game for various reasons.

We all want the REAL New Vegas in space game.

PLEASE TIM, make it good.

I'd say 10%. 90% that it's simply bland, uninspired, and forgettable.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

I talk about my ideas to translate the book Lord Of Light by Roger Zelazny into a computer role playing game.

Hadn't realized that Tim Cain was prestigious enough to be a fan of Roger Zelazny. Second look at geometric shapes?

 

[Sukhāvatī]

is science fantasy a terrible genre or is Lord of Light especially silly?

Vance's Planet of Adventure series was my fave of the genre.

Edit - Cool, never knew about this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GURPS_Planet_of_Adventure#Fictional_Settings_2