Favorite game mechanic you wish more RPGs would use?

[Beautiful Clown Painting]

Skills who do matter and make a difference such as in Wasteland where mechanics or electronics can be as useful as light guns or doctor.

 

[soggie]

Undead should be undead. You can't fucking kill it just with a sword. It must be a big fucking deal to encounter a pack of zombies.
Thinking of how this shit is usually executed makes me go all

Well what's a 1st level party gonna do? Get blocked off a quest just because they can't handle a bunch of immortal undeads? Or were you talking about reviving the zombies after 5 minutes of killing them so that the party is always pressured to avoid combat and move on?

 

[visions]

Maybe he meant that undead should be handled in a different manner, not as something for low level adventurers to grind on, but as something that are rare in the game world and actually dangerous, not as "lol zombies" that bunch of low level adventurers can take on.

I personally dislike how "horror" movies have largely fucked up the idea of undead being actually frightening abominations and popularized the notion of chainsaw wielding "lol zombies". I'd prefer to see the undead in a rpg as not some generic enemy but something more sinister, threatening and abnormal.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Make it so they must be bashed completely, so killing them takes time and resources (burning oil, blunt weapons, traps). And even then they come back until the necromancer is killed or the curse lifted or something

 

[sproket]

Paladin's Quest for SNES had no MP. Instead, magic spells drained your HP. A really damaging spell practically killed you, making magicians feel reckless and suicidal. :D

Neat idea!

 

[sproket]

Maybe he meant that undead should be handled in a different manner, not as something for low level adventurers to grind on, but as something that are rare in the game world and actually dangerous, not as "lol zombies" that bunch of low level adventurers can take on.

I personally dislike how "horror" movies have largely fucked up the idea of undead being actually frightening abominations and popularized the notion of chainsaw wielding "lol zombies". I'd prefer to see the undead in a rpg as not some generic enemy but something more sinister, threatening and abnormal.

Me too. Most RPGs do things like Skeleton = level 1, Zombie = level 2 etc type things. I want to push these further up the levels so when you encounter a bunch of zombies you're gonna be nervous even if you're a high level character.

Also in D&D why do trolls regenerate but not zombies? At least in the forgotten realms games.

--
http://goldchest.sourceforge.net/

 

[BearBomber]

Also in D&D why do trolls regenerate but not zombies? At least in the forgotten realms games. Wink

They are walking corpses the last thing they should be able to do is regeneration.

 

[soggie]

Also in D&D why do trolls regenerate but not zombies? At least in the forgotten realms games. Wink

They are walking corpses the last thing they should be able to do is regeneration.

Have normal characters suffer increasing penalties when their HP gets lower and lower, but make undeads an exception to that rule.

 

[Pegultagol]

Friendly fire
Penalties for rest

 

[soggie]

Friendly fire
Penalties for rest

Make the player select one or two of his party to stand watch. In a 4 person party, if 1 person stands watch, he won't regen HP at all, and if 2 person stands watch, both will only regen 50% of HP. If 3 person stands watch, each will regen 75% of HP, etc.

 

[laclongquan]

Survival.

I always hated the inevitable starvation/dehydration death in labyrinthine dungeon crawls. But take the player out of the dungeon and the concept suddenly becomes appealing.

Exploration doesn't just mean finding a treasure chest hidden in the weeds, in means securing sources of food and water. Killing animals doesn't just mean EXP (how *does* stabbing rats better prepare you to fight off the king's guard, anyway?), it means getting something to eat, using the hides to craft new armor.

As an added bonus, you could have boss monsters move into the player's favorite hunting grounds.

You don't need some old man with a yellow exclamation mark hat telling you to slay the dragon; you slay the dragon because he's camping on the only clean water source in the whole damn forest, and the sooner you do something about it, the better.

And eating your hide-and-meat preys. And it's damn inconvenient to sneak around YOUR hunting ground. It's your turf, right?

And make predator stronger. Fucking bear should take on humans at 3 on 1: they are stronger, more armored, faster, berserk. Make that every hunt is an adventure.

Requirement for rest and foods, ala Might and Magic 8. Go sleepless for long and you go crazy or death.

A living economy if you can. About the only one done good is not a RPG, it's Patrician 3.

 

[soggie]

Rhinos. Why didn't any game feature them at all?

 

[laclongquan]

Because the usual rhino attack by running straight at you. half-a-tone of aggression with one horn forward run a 20mph from a distance of 100 yards guarantee your death in most fearsomeway. Instant gameover, how do you like that apple, huh?

 

[Unradscorpion]

Moonstone would love it

 

[soggie]

Because the usual rhino attack by running straight at you. half-a-tone of aggression with one horn forward run a 20mph from a distance of 100 yards guarantee your death in most fearsomeway. Instant gameover, how do you like that apple, huh?

Don't RPGs have a stat called "Dodge" or "Evade" or Reflex Saving Throws?

 

[devilkingx2]

decent sex(IE not ME2 or DAO),

contrary to popular belief its more realistic to have lots of it than none(rockstars and celebrities in real life have hundreds of girls throwing themselves at them hell you'll get that just for being rich or famous and to a lesser extent for being good looking, what do you think that the savior of the world or some kind of destined hero or the avatar(like the last airbender or like in ultima) or a religious diety or something would get?), not to mention its not easy to find volentarily(IE they choose not to rather than an inability to get laid) chaste teenagers/young adults yet those are exactly what 99% of game characters are

mass effect 1 had it best(except no groupies and no prostitutes although the latter isnt that important) because there was decent nudity(some ass and some side boob) yet it was non-explicit so it didnt get AO rated

ME2 and DAO sucked(who has clothes on WHILE they do it? and oh god i hope that the youtube clips of ME2 sex scenes had all the good stuff cut for youtube censoring policies or else.... oh dear god i saw better sex scenes on daytime television for christs sake)

EDIT: the miranda sex scene in ME2 wasnt as bad as i remembered, still not as good as ME1 though the tali scene was horendous though

 

[Eyeball]

Gesture based casting as in Arx Fatalis and Anvil of Dawn. It adds a layer of depth and urgency to frantic battles if playing a spellcasting character.

I also find the shrill cries of those without the garden slug level of manual dexterity required to master it to be most amusing.

 

[Quetzacoatl]

The ability to mark your town map is quite neat and useful for finding quest givers.

 

[deuxhero]

Lesbians.

I mean actual lesbians, not "Player-Sexual" (Bioware and now Bethesda) or "tehe, vague implications we like eachother" (Japan).


Gameplay mechanics?

Good turn based combat.
quest XP only
Gothic/Risen/Nehrim style trainers
Choices and consequences.

 

[shihonage]

I think of combat in CRPGs as being one of the tools in the game. Not necessarily the main tool. The idea of combat-centric CRPG must die. Your attributes should matter more.

You should have satisfying experience in the game based on your whole character, and not largely dictated by his ability to bash skulls, where the only thing that matters is the METHOD of bashing the said skulls.

With the amount of work I am putting into more interesting object/skill interaction, description and adaptive quests, I don't plan on making a complex cover system, height variances and such shit. Combat cannot be this overgrown phallus that bumps into things as you walk through the world, looking for something to hump - the way it is in every fucking RP game I ever saw.

It should serve its function. You should be able to mostly sidestep it (in major encounters, where your otherwise-allocated skill points will strain), and yet, you should be able to genocide your way through the game with a combat-centric character who sometimes talks and picks a few locks, and/or have a satisfying experience with something in-between.

Also, I love most of this thread.

 

[Excidium]

Different degrees of success and failure on checks.

With the amount of work I am putting into more interesting object/skill interaction, description and adaptive quests, I don't plan on making a complex cover system, height variances and such shit. Combat cannot be this overgrown phallus that bumps into things as you walk through the world, looking for something to hump - the way it is in every fucking RP game I ever saw.

I agree with your post, but good cover/position systems are very important for modern RPG combat.

 

[shihonage]

Did FO:NV have a cover system?

 

[Excidium]

Uh...no. Why you ask?

 

[shihonage]

Fallout 1/2 didn't, either.

If they, plus an RPG from 2010 that got generally positive reviews on the Codex (FO:NV), can do without such a system, then so can mine.

 

[Excidium]

:/

It's a shame you think like that.