Decline What is the single worst, most annoying design choice in a game?

[RNGsus]

Could you get past that for BG2?

I much prefer turn-based combat by far, but have to confess that in BG the RTwP doesn't bother me at all.

No, RTwP is the worst combat system I've ever seen in a video game. After playing Icewind Dale I'm not touching anything that is restricted to RTwP, especially Bioware games and their alikes.

He's an edgy faggot. Why are you even acting like he gave a serious answer?

Oh please, I'm not taking this from somebody who regularly posts something like this:

I can't sleep at night knowing multiplayer cucks get their way. It won't be enjoyable to me.

WTF, Steam breaks faggot modder's builds they worked months on? I fucking love Steam now! Modders need to fucking die already.

Dude, not playing BG2 because of the combat is like not letting Liz Hurley nosh you off just coz she's 56.

I get the logic, but.......

.........sometimes you gotta take the plunge.

GOOD LORD I LOVE WHISKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Harthwain]

Objectively? Bad controls that you can't even customize.

I could mention more annoying design choices, but this right there is the worst, because it is going to be straight up unplayable. You are going to be reminded of this every time you try to do something, even as simple as looking through the UI.

Subjectively? No control over sound.

Being able to turn off music (or otherwise manipulate the sound as you see fit) is not convenience but a right and it should be a criminal offense to deny the player that right.

 

[c u in da ballpit ashren]

A complete lack of blood and gore, in any meaningful way.

Take Fallout 1 & 2. Even on zoomed out poorly scaled resolutions, you can see how every gun has a chance for a unique death animation to take place. The SMG will shred the upper right half of the body, and some guns give a chance of blowing out your lower torso, and give a cry of fear and regret before slumping down. A rocket launcher is more boring but subtle cool in how it just has an explosion, then disappears the whole body, and if I recall sometimes you can only see the feet there. There was that one super mutant in the Mariposa military base, who just had the most surreal, unique death animation out of all the enemies in the game. I don't remember it quite well, but I recall squinting my eyes in this fascinated wonder that only can be described as like when you witness a car accident and can't stop staring. Had this Berenstein effect the other day where I swore I saw that enemy in particular rip in half and crawl towards the player chara, but when I looked at it on youtube it was something else.

On that same note, appropriate death sounds for the right deaths.

It can add a lot of character to combat based games, while also adding to story based games. Too often I see developers implementing this wild ways to take down enemies, "Look how the player can sneak up behind an enemy, slip their machete out from their holster, and proceed to slash said enemy's leg off before beating the absolute living shit out of him." But the "Beating the absolute living shit out of him" part is more like a single or two swings before the enemy defaults to a family guy pose onto the ground that may or may not have blood.

It actually bothers me when there isn't enough meaningful blood and gore in a game. I'm not talking gigantic oceans of red here, I'm talking "Did I fuck him up? How do I know?" and Underrail is guilty for having this stiff nature to getting shot that just floats up a number and that's it. That being said, the animation that plays when someone's lit on fire - it's like night and day, and I love that one.

 

[Not.AI]

Regardless of genre: bad controls/UI that require you do extra clicks/presses for no good reason.

How many is too many?

Spoiler

I still liked Deux Ex (2) IW despite its UI. What is the straw the breaks the camel's back?

 

[Not.AI]

animation that is slow and has to happen often when playing a game, e.g. slow movement/combat animations.

I remember in an interview the devs of Nier Automata specifically talking about speeding up animations to avoid that.

Also a rule that animations must happen ASAP: the longer the windup and delay between hitting enemy and button press, the more people get pissed at the game, even if windup is lit. (And especially when it's not.)

So what they said they did, they cut down animation length & made the animation follow the enemy box so that it won't miss due to windup delay & and just grant the hit before the animation even plays full through, pointswise.

 

[mondblut]

What just turns you off completely from a game?

Like a deal breaker full stop - almost irrelevant what *else* is in. You find it *impossible* to enjoy the game if this one thing is in.

anime.

 

[Faarbaute]

anime.

makes my blood boil just thinking about it

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

anime.

makes my blood boil just thinking about it

Good or bad way?

 

[Max Damage]

Regardless of genre: bad controls/UI that require you do extra clicks/presses for no good reason.

How many is too many?

Spoiler

I still liked Deux Ex (2) IW despite its UI. What is the straw the breaks the camel's back?

It's not any particular threshold, just general annoyance of unnecessary actions multiplied by amount of times you have to use menus. Having to double-confirm every transaction, no fast/bulk buying/selling, no fast equip/unequip, and needlessly segmented overdesigned lists really start to get on my nerves and make me think if anyone even tested it all for long-term usability. Add extra timeouts between all actions for maximum awfulness.

 

[Captain Sicko]

Romance in cRPG. Every single time it makes me sick and I want to quit the game. I hate this shit, I don‘t play to feel even more like an awkward freak.

 

[Grotesque]

reaching level cap half game

 

[deuxhero]

Using SJW shit like "body type" instead of male/female. Won't touch a game with that shit.

For gameplay design, HP sponges and the accompanying attrition fights. Even the best combat system becomes dull with that shit.

 

[Not.AI]

reaching level cap half game

Or earlier ...

Yeah, drop the game too if that happens. It usually means that game is about out of content and time to move on to other pastures ...

HP sponges and the accompanying attrition fights. Even the best combat system becomes dull with that shit.

Pretty much every MMO.

Also usually replacement for content. => Signal of insufficient content.

 

[NerevarineKing]

Shitty unskippable dialogue or cutscenes. Terrible itemization on top of random loot.

 

[thelegend]

Final Fantasy 7 Intergrade cutscenes

 

[Kev Inkline]

Fake player agency. Like giving a player something to do during an event, that has absolutely no consequence.

 

[anvi]

All the above. Also pet peeve for me is how everything has to be made for kids. Developers assume it broadens the appeal and maybe it does, but anything too dude-bro ish or cutesy is bad for me. Same happened with movies, is the world only 16? Everything is a chick flick or superhero shit.

 

[JarlFrank]

Procedural generation.

All games that use it feel the same.

 

[Kev Inkline]

Procedural stories e.g. in rimworld and dwarf fortress are quite often better than the words current gen writers can muster.

 

[JarlFrank]

DF and Rimworld are strategy/management games, not RPGs. They work because there are several in-game entities interacting with each other (different characters, factions, etc). RPGs with procedural generation (pretty much all roguelikes for example) merely dump you into a samey procedurally generated dungeon filled with random monsters and that's it. And those games all feel the same.

The Crusader Kings games are a good example of how you don't even need a procedural map for this to work: those are strategy games with RPG elements and they're perfect "story creators" because of the many different entities that all dynamically interact with each other. Every CK game is different, despite all of them being set on the same historical Europe map.

 

[Alphard]

Shitty and clunky combat

 

[Arulan]

The Crusader Kings games are a good example of how you don't even need a procedural map for this to work: those are strategy games with RPG elements and they're perfect "story creators" because of the many different entities that all dynamically interact with each other. Every CK game is different, despite all of them being set on the same historical Europe map.

Kenshi is another great one.

 

[catfood]

Bad interface and controls.

 

[Maxwell's Demon]

For RPGs, sequences that completely remove player agency for the sake of "plot".

The worst one IMO being the "forced captivity via obvious trap that bypasses game mechanics but it's the only way to progress the plot". At least some of the other crappy plot railroads still serve a purpose (i.e. main character cutscene incompetence to keep the villain alive). The forced capture + subsequent jail break almost never lead to anything fun mechanically or interesting narratively.

If a designer really wants to do a prison escape plot, they should either:

1. It's perfectly acceptable to go the Bethesda route and start a game inside a prison. It makes a lot more sense for you to be captured unawares before you become a powerhouse, and captivity makes for a convenient launching off point and impetus for character development that will follow. The restrictions on gameplay mechanics also tie in nicely with a tutorial section.
2. Have some reason to deliberately let yourself get captured, such as: You have to get to someone who is already incarcerated, either to break him out, grab info, et cetera. You have to get something (like a map) that is hidden in the prison. You need to kill/enhanced interrogate a prison guard or administrator. It also generally doesn't make sense for someone to spare their political rivals an execution, so a false identity is also a must for this kind of plot.

 

[Hafnar the Jester]

When the writing, npcs and the setting feel like an inside of the head of an average californian transgender furry.

Vide DoS2, BG3 and Outer Worlds