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Author Topic: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design  (Read 67746 times)

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Brentai

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #160 on: February 16, 2008, 12:02:29 AM »

I don't care to check if it's been mentioned in this thread before or not, but invisible boundaries can just jump right up my ass.

In games and in programming, I don't care.
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Classic

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #161 on: February 16, 2008, 01:19:57 AM »

It's worth noting that variable ratio reward schemes piss me off, though apparently no one else fucking agrees.
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Roger

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #162 on: February 16, 2008, 09:12:38 AM »

Example?
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Classic

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #163 on: February 16, 2008, 09:56:20 AM »

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Koah

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #164 on: February 16, 2008, 12:11:23 PM »

Classic hates random drops, is what I think he's saying.
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Classic

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #165 on: February 16, 2008, 12:34:01 PM »

This is also an example.
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Brentai

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #166 on: February 16, 2008, 12:53:12 PM »

It's one of those things you gotta do just right.  Diablo was great because you consistently thought you were getting stuff that was way more powerful than you deserved when you really weren't.  On the other hand the game gets pretty ruined if you really do get stuff that's way too powerful for you (sup Titan Quest).
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Brentai

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #167 on: February 16, 2008, 08:46:30 PM »

Also also, getting tired of Ivalice Alliance's music recycling.  Although I was pretty jazzed to hear the FFXII Boss Theme again, it doesn't excuse the fact that Tactics A2's soundtrack is like 80% rehashes from A1 and XII, and as far as I can tell Revenant Wings' soundtrack IS the XII soundtrack in DS format.  There's a lot to be said for aural fanservice, but that's just getting lazy.

Also, if they're going to do that, they should at least show some love for the franchise's grandaddy.  I love me some Trisection.
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Beat Bandit

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #168 on: February 17, 2008, 03:41:52 PM »

If there is a single stage / dungeon / whatever the fuck that focuses on being in or under water, it will be the shittiest part of the game.

So why do they keep doing it?
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Classic

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #169 on: February 17, 2008, 04:13:51 PM »

If there is a single stage / dungeon / whatever the fuck that focuses on being in or under water, it will be the shittiest part of the game.

So why do they keep doing it?

This would be better in Deja Vu, and I don't really think it's true. I just think that the water puzzles tend to require actual thinking and careful mapping of an area. It's not the limited scope of the water puzzles, it's the fact that the skills needed to navigate a "good" water puzzle are not only so alien that they require unusual amounts of time to either understand or solve by chance, but they will also prove useless for the rest of the game. If an entire game were made based around adventuring in dungeons with intricate water puzzles, I can only imagine it would make water puzzles cool.
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Roger

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #170 on: February 17, 2008, 04:44:55 PM »

It's too bad most water stage / dungeons / whatever usually tend to be "It's a regular stage...but YOU move half as fast and maybe jump higher!"
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Dooly

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #171 on: February 17, 2008, 09:52:02 PM »

If there is a single stage / dungeon / whatever the fuck that focuses on being in or under water, it will be the shittiest part of the game.

So why do they keep doing it?

The first thing that made me think of is the underwater Gate in Megaman Legends, which is just like a regular dungeon, but for most of it, you move at about one fifth the speed.  I love the game, but fuck that shit.
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Classic

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #172 on: February 17, 2008, 11:19:30 PM »

Did you mind underwater segments in the Metroid games?
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sei

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #173 on: February 18, 2008, 02:27:38 AM »

Obligatory: FFT's allowing recruitment of Orlandu/TG Cid?
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Roger

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #174 on: February 18, 2008, 05:10:21 AM »

Did you mind underwater segments in the Metroid games?
Most (all?) Metroid underwater bits at least play as normal when you get the right suit.  Usually if you're in the water before it, it's never long or it's usually "You chose the wrong way, COME TRY AGAIN WITH A FRIEND".
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McFrugal

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #175 on: February 18, 2008, 05:58:10 AM »

Obligatory: FFT's allowing recruitment of Orlandu/TG Cid?

To be honest, Orlandu isn't as game-breakingly powerful if you take away his Excalibur.  Typically, I gave all the best Knight Swords to everyone else before him, since he can be plenty effective with just a Defender.

A more difficult problem is Calculator skills.  They break the game pretty badly if you use them as Secondary, instead of being the slow, low-MA Calculator.  Eventually I just stopped using them altogether, as the search for a good calculate result just took too damn long.  They might've been more balanced if you couldn't see what stuff a calculate would target before executing the skill.  That way you would have to either manually look at all the numbers yourself, or just wing it.  That, or less Math Skill options.  Taking out CT and/or 5 would do wonders, as then you couldn't just cast something with CT-5 to hit most of the units on the field.
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Thad

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #176 on: February 18, 2008, 01:49:23 PM »

Final Fantasy VI's river loop + temporary character with infinite healing skill

You also get a permanent character with infinite healling skill, in case you want to go back and do it again at any (pre-WoR) point.
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Disposable Ninja

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #177 on: February 18, 2008, 02:00:49 PM »

Final Fantasy X-2's skill advancement system based on usage + disabling the enemy

FFX-2's skill system isn't based on usage.
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Classic

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #178 on: February 18, 2008, 02:06:00 PM »

Any mechanic by which the player may advance or gain a game breaking advantage through any combination of rubber bands, heavy weights, and/or leaving the power on while they do something else for a few hours.

All of the examples that you listed are strictly single player or cooperative examples. It's hard for me to call that an unforgivable sin. There is some amount of hollow pleasure in testing godlike abilities against petty challenges. The game is not fundamentally worse for having something that could be exploited in it.

Those comments of course, are thrown right out when you're talking about multi-player games with any measure of competition involved.
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Koah

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Re: Unforgivable Sins of Game Design
« Reply #179 on: February 18, 2008, 02:32:57 PM »

Final Fantasy X-2's skill advancement system based on usage + disabling the enemy

FFX-2's skill system isn't based on usage.

Actually, it is.  You get AP whenever you use abilities or items in battle, enabling one to, say, stick a white mage's Pray ability on auto-fire in combat and let it run for a while to get 99 AP per fight.
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