I love hearing about unique takes on game mechanics. Someone recently convinced me that limited inventories are kind of abused currently and that unlimited inventory systems would give more player choices.
You must log in or register to comment.
FUCK. THE. ALWAYS. ONLINE. PARADIGM.
Not truly a game mechanic but I love the passion against GAAS.
Does this include cloud streamed games? I for one am still waiting for a streaming exclusive game in the vein of Elden Ring or BotW. Bonus if it’s an MMO. Imagine how much more mysterious a world could be if no one is able to datamine the binary. The only way to discover things would be players actually discovering them.
Not really a game mechanic by definition, but I hate forced PvP in open world/MMO style games. Even survival games, where one could argue it fits.
I won’t buy a game if they do this, so I guess in that sense the PvP is a choice.
Escort quests! Especially when the person you’re escorting moves incredibly slow (except when running toward obvious danger).
I agree that is clearly broken and overused in many games but if we were able to actually control the walking speed on PC with a keyboard similar to what is possible with a controller, it would probably be more bearable tbh.
I hate not being able to pause a game, particularly a single player game. I think Elite Dangerous solidified my hatred of this, by not telling you the game is still running when you’re on the “pause” menu.
“B-B-BU-BUT it’s a simulation and you can’t pause real life so it makes it more real”
It’s a game, even if it’s a simulation game. It’s a toy for grown-ups. A very nice and fun and relaxing toy, but a toy nonetheless. It’s not more important than a phone call, call at the door, crying child, hungry cat, partner who needs a hand with something etc.
This probably extends to being able to save anywhere and rejoin later, but I think that one is covered pretty well by everyone else :)
Any sort of not respecting the player’s time: grind, making the player do the computer’s job (e.g., not having an auto-sort button for the inventory), time sinks, unskippable cutscenes, slow walking etc.
While I don’t play the actual game, I am a massive fan of the Escape from Tarkov inventory system. Its extremely detailed; a totally unreasonably detailed system for how every item fits into or on every other item. I’ve watched a few dozen hours of the game just looking for how people manage bags within bags within bags, within bags. I love how simulator-y the inventory is. Normally I hate that, I like sortable menus and proper categories for lists of my items, but wow is EfT’s inventory something that has really captured my brain.
FINALLY someone mentioned this stupid game’s inventory!
I’ve been playing EFT on and off for a couple of years now I think, and it’s the inventory that feels the best for me. I keep reading and hearing people praising the gun building, but that’s more of a pain in the… everywhere, really, for many reasons, and firefights are even more frustrating knowing that the game poses as a “realistic” shooter (the recoil and inertia make 0 sense in that context), but nobody ever talks about the inventory!
Even some of the mods for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Anomaly and the like that aim to liken the experience to that of Escape From Tarkov never work on bringing the modular, limited grid-based inventory system that makes you account for the items size rather than just their weight.
I don’t even care about guns or quests in this game - I just like looting and messing with my inventory, be it in-raid or out-of-raid.
“your choices matter”
Love the concept, but most of the time, they do not matter.
I strongly dislike ingame teleporting and pause menu quick travel. I’d much rather the game have more ways for me to get to where I’m going than simply materializing wherever I want to be.
Let the travel itself be part of the game instead of just a way to link the “real” parts of the game together. Make it fun and fast to move around, add unlockable shortcuts, add more in-universe traveling options. Let me get to where I’m going myself instead of doing it for me, and make it fun to do so.
Especially in open world games, not only is this the most true, but they’re the worst offenders. Literally what is the point of making an open world and then letting people skip it? You see everything once and that’s it. If you make an open world full of opportunities to wander and explore, and then players want to avoid it as much as possible via teleportation, you have failed as a designer.
Time is limited. I don’t want to spend 30 minutes traveling from one side of a map to the next if I’ve already done that 15 times. Just let me get there immediately so I can talk to this single person and get this item I will never use.
I’m honestly fine with traveling if it’s interesting. That’s what I disliked most about red dead 2 was even with the beautiful landscape and soundtrack and the random encounters, pretty much every one of your 50 trips to [insert nearby settlement] within a given chapter are going to be exactly the same, and you can’t go very fast because you’re on a horse.
limited inventories are kind of abused currently and that unlimited inventory systems would give more player choices.
In some sense that’s correct. You’d have more options, but you wouldn’t take them. Having a limited inventory forces you to make choices. Yes, you can use that scroll/potion/whatever, because you’re gonna run out of room, so feel free. On the other hand, I think that many devs don’t consider inventory management enough! I think that it’s often an afterthought and could use more dev attention.
What game mechanics do you love and hate?
Hate: instakills. Diablo 4 and Risk of Rain 2 are my current games that have this. ROR2 is not as bad, you can prevent this by getting enough defensive items. D4 is worse about this. You can be chewing thru trash mobs just fine but get to a boss and immediately die. There’s no ramp up to this.
If you play RoR2 on PC, you owe it to yourself to install some Quality of Life mods, like one that fixes or improves the game’s built in one shot protection. Also, auto sprint.
I do. Thanks! I didn’t even realize there were mods.
