Vapourware Features from old games you wish are done more often.

[rumSaint]

Server browsers instead of matchmaking cancer.

Yeah, but that's not gonna happen. Too little control for studio. How would they monetize it?

No microtransactions, no "egnagement" matchmaking.

 

[octavius]

Having a diversity squad in party based games, since the races/species would have different strengths and weaknesses. Now that has become "problematic", and in the name of diversity all characters must have the same strengths and weaknesses.

The ability to "sweep" several weak enemies in melee. The Gold Box games did it. Think how much more fun the TES games would be if you level 20 warrior instead of facing level scaled goblins could sweep lvl 1 goblins?

 

[catfood]

Having the saved games in the same folder as the game itself so I don't have to deal with this c:\windows\user\appdata\low\locallow\roaming\gamename circles of hell level of bullshit.

 

[what am i doing]

Server browsers instead of matchmaking cancer.

Yeah, but that's not gonna happen. Too little control for studio. How would they monetize it?

No microtransactions, no "egnagement" matchmaking.

I think the main reason they prefer matchmaking is actually that it makes it easier to obscure the total player base. As long as you aren't running into the same people every match, in a matchmaking system it can be hard to tell if you're in a community of 1000 people or 1000000 people. So if the game has a small player base, this will be less evident - whereas if it had a server browser, people would be able to tell quite easily if it has a dying / dead community. Of course, in many cases you can tell this anyways by, say, checking the steam charts or whatever, but having it be right there in game makes it more obvious. The perception of a dead or dying community often hastens its decline, so that's something devs want to avoid at all costs. You want it to be perceived as having a decent-sized community with a long-lasting future, because that way people feel like investing their time in it is more worthwhile. So going with matchmaking rather than a server browser can help you avoid falling into the cycle of "seen as dying game" -> "people don't play it" -> "seen as dying game" etc.

This is even more pronounced for shitty devs who want to be "e-sports" since nobody wants to waste time being "e-sports" on a game with a tiny community.

 

[Risewild]

These days no cRPG uses something similar to classic Fallout games' mouse cursor's versatility. Right-click to change functionality (move, attack, menu) + click and hold to access the menu of options used to interact with characters, objects and scenery.

In "modern" cRPGs you can usually just use the mouse cursor to talk/interact by default. Most games (if not all) don't even offer an option to manually use skills and/or use items from the inventory (on scenery/objects/characters, etc.), let alone through a convenient and easy mouse menu.

 

[rumSaint]

Server browsers instead of matchmaking cancer.

Yeah, but that's not gonna happen. Too little control for studio. How would they monetize it?

No microtransactions, no "egnagement" matchmaking.

I think the main reason they prefer matchmaking is actually that it makes it easier to obscure the total player base. As long as you aren't running into the same people every match, in a matchmaking system it can be hard to tell if you're in a community of 1000 people or 1000000 people. So if the game has a small player base, this will be less evident - whereas if it had a server browser, people would be able to tell quite easily if it has a dying / dead community. Of course, in many cases you can tell this anyways by, say, checking the steam charts or whatever, but having it be right there in game makes it more obvious. The perception of a dead or dying community often hastens its decline, so that's something devs want to avoid at all costs. You want it to be perceived as having a decent-sized community with a long-lasting future, because that way people feel like investing their time in it is more worthwhile. So going with matchmaking rather than a server browser can help you avoid falling into the cycle of "seen as dying game" -> "people don't play it" -> "seen as dying game" etc.

This is even more pronounced for shitty devs who want to be "e-sports" since nobody wants to waste time being "e-sports" on a game with a tiny community.

I think the goal of this matchmaking is to frustrate players enough to stay engaged and play another match, because "this time I will win" mentality, sorta like gambling. This goes very well with team based games and Battle Royale, because people always will explain "it's not my fault, RNG fucked me over".

Also there was some interesting matchmaking patents (I know it's Leddit, but I couldn't find anything faster):
https://www.reddit.com/r/Overwatch/comments/z8gmfx/wonder_why_matchmaking_is_broken_presenting/

I personally detest what they have done with matchmaking in Apex, where you can play in Bronze, and after winning 1-2 matches, or having some good games you're suddenly matched with ex Predators. Fuck that shit.

 

[NecroLord]

These days no cRPG uses something similar to classic Fallout games' mouse cursor's versatility. Right-click to change functionality (move, attack, menu) + click and hold to access the menu of options used to interact with characters, objects and scenery.

In "modern" cRPGs you can usually just use the mouse cursor to talk/interact by default. Most games (if not all) don't even offer an option to manually use skills and/or use items from the inventory (on scenery/objects/characters, etc.), let alone through a convenient and easy mouse menu.

Because it was a proper PC game it had this functionality, not some console slop.

 

[v1c70r14]

Spellcasting by drawing runes like in Arx Fatalis or Anvil of Dawn. I just find this cool and would like to see more of this.

 

[Nano]

The reason developers don't care about complex features like this anymore is because id Software and Doom showed everybody that all you have to do to make bank in the video game business is give the player character a gun to shoot things with. For years after that publishers still funded ambitious games sometimes, but most of them would flop while games that catered to the lowest-common denominator kept seeing sustained success. Why bother to put in effort at all?

If there isn't a financial motive for innovation, it's not going to happen. That's just how things are under capitalism.

 

[Mise]

The reason developers don't care about complex features like this anymore is because id Software and Doom showed everybody that all you have to do to make bank in the video game business is give the player character a gun to shoot things with. For years after that publishers still funded ambitious games sometimes, but most of them would flop while games that catered to the lowest-common denominator kept seeing sustained success. Why bother to put in effort at all?

If there isn't a financial motive for innovation, it's not going to happen. That's just how things are under capitalism.

Massively false. Doom released in '93, Wolfenstein before that, Doom 2 '94. Most games mentioned here are years after that, arcanum 8 years after that. You will find numerous hits that weren't simple and managed to sell significant copies(The whole rts genre, RPG's had a boom after that though not that huge financially, Diablo etc.)

 

[Gargaune]

- PC GUIs
- Personal journal notes
- Custom character biographies
- Leaning

 

[Falksi]

Ammo-less guns/attacks.

I can't tell you how fucking bored I am of having to spend half my gaming time searching for something to actually let me game.

If the gameplay requires the player be restricted, use a cooldown system similar to Mass Effect 1. If the game requires the player to search as part of the experience, offer them upgrades, secret areas or other incentives instead.

But FFS, stop making me kill a bunch of shit, then go wasting time preparing to kill a bunch of shit again.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Being able to rebind any key you want was never a problem in older game I played; but then decline started to show itself, with some games not letting you bind say the Delete key, or more recently not rebind any keys at all.

Rebinding keys has been a thing since the 8-bit microcomputers took their first steps, ~40 years ago.

It's laughable when I come across an interesting game on PC, only to find that the control options is a picture of a console controller showing what each button does.

 

[Gargaune]

Being able to rebind any key you want was never a problem in older game I played; but then decline started to show itself, with some games not letting you bind say the Delete key, or more recently not rebind any keys at all.

Rebinding keys has been a thing since the 8-bit microcomputers took their first steps, ~40 years ago.

It's laughable when I come across an interesting game on PC, only to find that the control options is a picture of a console controller showing what each button does.

Not as laughable as when behemoth "AAA" studios fail to let you rebind F or various prompts, and some still haven't figured out point & click.

 

[NecroLord]

A proper inventory system which doesn't require you to scroll down or up for ages trying to find that one item you need for some specific purpose.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Writing that was a result of your actual stats in RPGs- like in Fallout or Arcanum where low intelligence meant barely functioning speech and comprehension or different reactions depending on your race. Can't do that with crap V/O, too expensive.

The Codex's favourite "hurrr it didn't even dat gud" game, Neverwinter Nights was a great example of this. If your INT was really low, you'd show up to vendors saying shit like "me need to buy stuff" or simple 1 and 2 word answers.

 

[NecroLord]

Writing that was a result of your actual stats in RPGs- like in Fallout or Arcanum where low intelligence meant barely functioning speech and comprehension or different reactions depending on your race. Can't do that with crap V/O, too expensive.

The Codex's favourite "hurrr it didn't even dat gud" game, Neverwinter Nights was a great example of this. If your INT was really low, you'd show up to vendors saying shit like "me need to buy stuff" or simple 1 and 2 word answers.

TOEE also has low INT dumb dialogue.

 

[Maxie]

Having the saved games in the same folder as the game itself so I don't have to deal with this c:\windows\user\appdata\low\locallow\roaming\gamename circles of hell level of bullshit.

wish they all just ended up here, and some games still do
then windows came up with the saved games folder which next to nobody gave a fuck about

 

[Baron Dupek]

Hand-made levels made by people with various level of skill&knowledge.
Autogeneraged garbage is bad, but just as bad is the hand-made stuff that feels like it was made by the people who took lessons from the same tutor.
Oh look- another map with lot of objects in small space that feels like you're playing Fallout3 and nobody bothered to re-arrange all that crap around.

 

[NecroLord]

Let me show you our handcrafted dungeons...

 

[ds]

wish they all just ended up here, and some games still do
then windows came up with the saved games folder which next to nobody gave a fuck about

You can change the location of the FOLDERID_SavedGames directory to be the same as My Documents, no?

 

[HeatEXTEND]

FO style look-at descriptions for just about anything. This was just so great.
In-style UI instead of that zoomer/apple shit. Not too much of a problem since most games that have the zoomy apple look are trash anyway.
Note system. Muh immershun and usefull
A ban on 5 minutes walking > 3 minute movie > 5 minute gameplay > 2 minutes movie Etc. Again not much of a problem since games that do this will get refunded right quick but even something like DD2 has this problem at the very start. If I hadn't enjoyed DD1 so much that would have been a quick and easy refund within the first hour, which would have been a shame. Give me an intro, maybe read some splashscreen and then let the game unfold a bit before taking away control for the nth time in the first hour. Games used to understand this mostly.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Having the saved games in the same folder as the game itself so I don't have to deal with this c:\windows\user\appdata\low\locallow\roaming\gamename circles of hell level of bullshit.

Fucking this. It absolutely shits me to no end that games can't keep their shit in their own directory, and instead it's spread all over the documents folder or in apps_data. It's like developers don't understand the concept of external drives at all. The system drive pretty much has to be internal, but not much else needs to be - particularly games. Steam's "Steam Library" feature makes moving drives between computers easy peasy so you can just put all your games on that and just swap it to another PC any time you want, but the fact developers can't just keep their shit in that one spot screws that up.

 

[luj1]

These days no cRPG uses something similar to classic Fallout games' mouse cursor's versatility. Right-click to change functionality (move, attack, menu) + click and hold to access the menu of options used to interact with characters, objects and scenery.

In "modern" cRPGs you can usually just use the mouse cursor to talk/interact by default. Most games (if not all) don't even offer an option to manually use skills and/or use items from the inventory (on scenery/objects/characters, etc.), let alone through a convenient and easy mouse menu.

bunch of games use radial menu such as PST and NwN not just Fallout

 

[Maxie]

These days no cRPG uses something similar to classic Fallout games' mouse cursor's versatility. Right-click to change functionality (move, attack, menu) + click and hold to access the menu of options used to interact with characters, objects and scenery.

In "modern" cRPGs you can usually just use the mouse cursor to talk/interact by default. Most games (if not all) don't even offer an option to manually use skills and/or use items from the inventory (on scenery/objects/characters, etc.), let alone through a convenient and easy mouse menu.

bunch of games use radial menu such as PST and NwN not just Fallout

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