Retarded mechanics/features that never works out

[Hagashager]

There wouldn't be a need to bother with stash chests or housing if RPGs didn't throw a junkyard worth of loot into your pockets.

You could also make the case that players shouldn't be picking up ever piece of junk.

The BG series is pretty good about that. The overwhelming amount of loot dropped by enemies is actual garbage not even worth selling. With how limited space and weight are, players are incentivized to pick up only what will sell well.

BG encourages you to carry around a bunch of spare weapons because they break.

That's only in the first 1/4 of Baldur's Gate 1. After the Nashkel Mines weapons don't break anymore.


To be honest, even during the break period I very rarely had stuff break on me. I think I had one break with Khalid the whole first 1/r

 

[thesecret1]

The BG series is pretty good about that. The overwhelming amount of loot dropped by enemies is actual garbage not even worth selling. With how limited space and weight are, players are incentivized to pick up only what will sell well.

Yet even then there's a boatload of stuff that's worth selling on practically every map in BG you visit. Having a place to store various unique artifacts I find that seem cool wouldn't be too bad.

 

[JarlFrank]

It's even worse in Fallout 4 where it's like a one word summary. Is it really that hard to have an honest to god set of text boxes that state exactly what your character is going to say?

Funny thing is FO4 has a very, very popular mod that replaces the dialog words with a proper New Vegas style text box that gives you the entire sentence you're gonna say.

And it becomes super apparent how they're all saying the same thing, just in a different tone.

 

[thesecret1]

And it becomes super apparent how they're all saying the same thing, just in a different tone.

Well, when you need to have 4 dialogue options even for a yes/no question...

 

[kangaxx]

Crafting.

Worked great in Arcanum and Underrail

Even in SWKotOR I-II

It's worthwhile in Atom too, at least near the beginning.

 

[Cadmus]

Fucking with the player's inventory, mainly undressing the character for a story mission and not putting their stuff back. Especially horrible in a part RPG.

 

[NecroLord]

Fucking with the player's inventory, mainly undressing the character for a story mission and not putting their stuff back. Especially horrible in a part RPG.

So, RPG's where you get captured and lose all your items?

 

[Torus]

Weapon specialization in games with lots of weapon types. Some choices are always traps, and it makes loot much less exciting when you can't use 99% of it. Pathfinder is especially bad about this. Maybe you're just supposed to respec every time you find a new weapon. Or mod out the whole mechanic, which feels great!

This is also one of the reasons to have crafting, but it's such an artificial problem in the first place.

 

[Hagashager]

Weapon specialization in games with lots of weapon types. Some choices are always traps, and it makes loot much less exciting when you can't use 99% of it. Pathfinder is especially bad about this. Maybe you're just supposed to respec every time you find a new weapon. Or mod out the whole mechanic, which feels great!

This is also one of the reasons to have crafting, but it's such an artificial problem in the first place.

Weapon proficiency in general always bothered me in RPGs because part of martial arts is diverse weapons competence.

Yes, true masters specialize in a single weapon, but these guys are like Kung Fu masters, by that point it's less practical combat skill and more artistic expression.

A career man-at-arms of the Medieval Age was not only proficient in pikes and arming swords, nor did their preference for pikes and arming swords make them utterly incompetent with other types of blades and polearms. That's not how HEMA or any Martial Arts works.

 

[JustLooking]

1. Level scalling:
I think I encountered it first in Oblivion but I bet it was there way before that.

Daggerfall is the earliest I'm aware of, but is probably pre-dated by something a whitehair can chime in about. It is indeed shit, but some games do a passable job hiding it. It takes cognitive burden off the devs to design encounters and populate areas with appropriate combat challenges.

Fallout: New Vegas has level scaling.

2. Difficulty modes:

If it's good enough for Doom, it's good enough for you. Don't be a bitch.

Fallout: New Vegas has difficulty levels.

3. Balance <insert Josh Sawyer here>

You just gained 2% respect in the eyes of the fora, congratulations.

Fallout: New Vegas' guns are balanced by JES.

4. Replaying same areas

In small doses and used in a narrative-appropriate way, it's fine. Otherwise, stop playing shitty games that do this.

Fallout: New Vegas has you revisiting the same areas over and over and over again.

5. Grind Required

Again, stop playing shit games. Yes, it's annoying. Only exception is when you're still in school and have time to grind with a group in an MMO. Take the time to get to know the players you're playing with and it's like (you will later find out) sharing a few pints at the pub with strangers. It's enjoyable. But you gotta group with people that don't suck, be young, and have time. Single player games that emphasize this shit are beyond retarded.

Fallout: New Vegas emphasizes grinding.

6. Random encounters

Can be done well, or can be useless filler. Stop playing bad games.

Fallout: New Vegas has random encounters.


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1. Pity it does.
2. Fallout NV has difficulty levels, Doom has it too and? Nothing of value would be lost if they just set single difficulty mode that it's challenging but not retarded at the same time. Is Fallout NV some unquestionable masterpiece for you?
3. Fair enough, would choose modded out Fallout over vanilla any time of the day but can't deny the weapons there were diverse and all of them had their place.
4. I don't know about it, pretty much my every Fallout NV looks like this that I circle around mojave go to New vegas then maybe go back to some major areas for a fraction of second to return some quests or smth. I had something like Nioh in mind.
5. Yeah sure blame it all on me playing bad games. The thing is those shitty ideas didn't died out so peps still must think they are a good idea and you can encounter them in, other than that, good games which makes me wonder why they keep adding this stuff to games.
6. Yeah sure random encounters, more like scripted encounters that are nothing close to random. They will always happen at the same time at the same place when you meet some requirements, they are just another place to get quest. Nevertheless there are so few that the game wouldn't lose anything if player could just get those "adventures" in form of Quests.

 

[Cat Dude]

Horrible Piranha Byte's combat animations