What do you wish not to see in PE

[Jasede]

While I see no harm in adding an opt-out option for what I shall code-name "busy people" I would welcome it if the game was designed and balanced around mechanics Shevek describes.

 

In truth I'd rather there be no concessions made in regards of accessibility and difficulty and convenience for the masses but I realize that that'd be impractical. Unfortunate.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Jasede

[Sargallath Abraxium]

...anythin' the least bit reminiscent o' Throne o' Bhaalshyte...

 

 

...WHO LUVS YA, BABY!!...

[Oerwinde]

Level requirements for equipment. Silly that I can wield a longsword, but to use that enchanted longsword, I'm somehow not good enough.

[Aedelric]

Level requirement equipment, I am with you on that Oerwinde.

 

Equipment requiring specific stats and another thing I do not want to see. The dagger requires 80 Strength? What is it made out of Lutetium? 90 Dexterity to put on these trousers? What happens if I try when I only have 80? Do I choke to death because I clumsily trip and they wrap around my head?

[Shardbearer]

I would like the decisions not to have clear cut obvious immediate consequences, and not to have definitive "good option/bad option" choices.

Edited September 28, 2012 by Shardbearer

[kenup]

- handfisted drama.

- striperific armours, unless they are worn by some kind of cave men/prostitutes/succubus/you get the point.

- forcing the player character to do something against his personality(Skyrim I'm looking at you), at least not without repercussions. Definitely not something out of character.

- blidingly small text.

- too much handholding, if at all.

- voice acting beyond something like introductions, cryers or Big Bad speeches of Doom.

- messages without statements

- A lot of things that have already been said.

 

 

Note how most of them come [mostly] from more recent games.

Edited September 28, 2012 by kenup

[nikolokolus]

....

No crappy pan sexual romance crap

You should really read the first post if you want to write something in a thread.....

 

Doing what other people want me to do has never been a strong suit

[RosesandAshes]

• My biggest gripe has already been addressed: no "HARDCORE MODE, YEAH!" for everyone, which will hopefully be addressed with the modes stretch goal, provided that goal is reached
  
• no small text, probably not that big of an issue in this day and age
  
• stripperific outfits
  
• ....and other stuff that's already been said
  

[Monkcrab]

- Blatant soapboxing of social issues, e.g. sexual politics, environmentalism, racism. Yes, discuss them. No, don't make them simple black and white. (DA, for example, turned into 'mages good templars bad, OPPRESSION IGNORANCE zomg' even though the setting should've made it more subtle.) I have stances for this IRL like everyone else and will argue them there endlessly if needed, but I'm tired of having soapboxes in my games.

- Obligatory minigames. Optional ones are fine, but no required ones, please.

- Minority opinion, but no obvious power builds. Everything should have pros and cons.

- Fully voiced stuff. I read much faster, and it always feel like 'look at me, I'm trying to be movies!'

- Minsc-styled characters. I'm sorry, but i can't laugh at disabled/mentally disadvantaged people being turned into jokes.

 

More as I get off work and think of more.

[Shardbearer]

- Blatant soapboxing of social issues, e.g. sexual politics, environmentalism, racism. Yes, discuss them. No, don't make them simple black and white. (DA, for example, turned into 'mages good templars bad, OPPRESSION IGNORANCE zomg' even though the setting should've made it more subtle.) I have stances for this IRL like everyone else and will argue them there endlessly if needed, but I'm tired of having soapboxes in my games.

 

I actually thought it was quite the other way around in DA, I kept trying to help the mages out, wanting to believe they're good, giving them the benefit of the doubt, but then every. freaking. time. they turn out to be a blood mage. By the end, I was understanding the templars a bit.

[IcyDeadPeople]

I don't want to see "junk" items that have no use in any kind of crafting recipes and serve no purpose in the game world.

[Caerdon]

I do not want:

• revealing armor on female character models
  

 

YES! This time we want bare midriffs on male characters only! Preferably dwarven males!

 

 

I don't want to see "junk" items that have no use in any kind of crafting recipes and serve no purpose in the game world.

 

But I loved those in PS:T. A magic item! A goody! A clue!

[Gorth]

- Cutscenes of doom, where all your guys leave stealth/cancel wereforms/whatever to cluster right in front of the big bad guy

 

- Blatantly cheating enemies

 

- Static, invulnerable "scenery" type NPCs in towns and taverns

First and second one in particular

 

In no particular order, subjects of my hatred:

 

Enemies that spawn out of thin air (looking at you, %$#@! warehouses and orc caves in NWN2)

 

Enemies that respawn in all the wrong places and time. Like just after exterminating everything in the hermetically sealed strong room, just to see it crawling with enemies a few seconds later.

 

Minigames, lockpicking or otherwise. Ye Gods, I hate them.

 

Cutscenes. Why?... Really, why??? Give me an intro and outro by all means, but not in the middle of something.

 

Quick Time Events. Even worse than cutscenes. I hope there is a special Chinese hell where it's inventor is trapped for eternity, having to repeat a number of flashing icons.

 

Level scaling. What's the point? We're all gonna die...

 

Epic Peasants (related to level scaling and high level play). It sucks. Throne of Bhaal wasn't funny. It took the fun out of Mask of the Betrayer. It's epic boredom.

 

Forced party members. If they are required for plot purposes, make the plot optional. I seriously hated that peasant girl I was stuck with in NWN2.

 

Combat music that plays at twice the volume of the ambient music without it's own volume control.

 

So much hate...

[Goilveig]

Things that annoy me about RPGs:

• Lots of loot, limited inventory. I want to play a roleplaying game, not an inventory management game.
  
• Terrible companion AI. Yes, I know they will never be human-like in intellect, but c'mon, a brain damaged chimpanzee won't run straight into a gigantic rain of fire pummeling the baddies. My party members shouldn't, either.
  
• "The one" syndrome - where every bit of prophecy, lore, or other flavor text that exists anywhere in the game universe all directly applies to you and only you. The entire world exists just for the benefit of this one moment.
  
• Related to the last one, games that just play every RPG trope straight (ESPECIALLY the 'prophecied one' or 'amnesiac' tropes). I love Arcanum for many reasons, not the least of which is that it subverts the hell out of tropes.
  
• Too much linearity / not enough choices
  
• Choices and character development that is either forced or encouraged by game mechanics towards solidly black or white morally. I'd like a choice somewhere between "saint" and "genocidal madman", please.
  
• Every single problem in the universe is solvable, and conveniently my character is able to solve every one. Poverty, war, racism, hunger, deceit, treachery, and country music were easily eliminated by one party within a few years in the game world. Guess everybody else who has every tried to make a positive difference in all the world's history just needed to be as cool as I am.
  
• The 'token' party - we look like a walking diversity special because we have exactly one of every race.
  
• The 'two dimensional' party - every member of that diversity special of races will act out every stereotype of that race or (rarely) act out the exact opposite of their race's stereotypes.
  

[Shardbearer]

• Every single problem in the universe is solvable, and conveniently my character is able to solve every one. Poverty, war, racism, hunger, deceit, treachery, and country music were easily eliminated by one party within a few years in the game world. Guess everybody else who has every tried to make a positive difference in all the world's history just needed to be as cool as I am.
  

 

Can you, uh, send your party over to my town for a bit? On another note, I'd love to complete a quest in a game, solving, or appearing to solve, the immediate problem via choice, only to have unintended consequences creating an even larger problem. Intentions do not always need to equal the results.

[Gorth]

Yeah, Poverty, war, racism, hunger, deceit, treachery, and country music, the scourges of humanity

[Goilveig]

Can you, uh, send your party over to my town for a bit? On another note, I'd love to complete a quest in a game, solving, or appearing to solve, the immediate problem via choice, only to have unintended consequences creating an even larger problem. Intentions do not always need to equal the results.

 

I don't know if you've ever read the Thomas Covenant novels, but it's pretty common that each consecutive series reveals that his decisions in the previous series, while preventing the immediate problem, served in the long term to enable an even worse problem than the one he was trying to prevent the last time.

[Shardbearer]

That sounds pretty awesome, I'll have to check those out. Thanks!

[metiman]

1. Pandering to anyone. No pandering allowed in a crowdfunded game. Make the game that you would want to play. Period.

2. Cool Downs (Ugh). They have the power, on their own, to utterly ruin a game.

3. Level scaling that you cannot turn off or any level scaling more than BG2 did (which was already too much).

4. Trash mobs or too little variety in opponents. (Dragon Age, I'm looking at you).

5. Play fair. No cheating on the part of the enemy combatants. Anything they can do the player should be able to do and vice-versa. The only exception to this might be gods/deities who may be able to spam lightning bolts indefinitely or whatever. Making them insanely difficult so that they are basically undefeatable is a better option though. I dont' see the need to break the game rules even for gods.

6. Difficulty levels that are half-baked. No "all enemies do 50% more damage" as a difficulty option. If only because this violates (5).

7. Lazy AI scripting. I'm not particularly impressed that some British dude was able to significantly improve on the AI scripting in BG2 with Sword Coast Strategems. Not that I have any major complaints about vanilla BG2 AI, but it shouldn't be that easy to improve upon. Put some real effort into the AI even if the scripts get very long. Fighting an enemy that makes many of the same choices a min-maxing player would is hugely enjoyable. And enemies should actually make use of all their abilities. This is especially true for high level mages and clerics. Mages should make use of immobilizing spells like web (or whatever). Thieves should try to backstab. Rangers should summon pets. Ideally these sorts of things could be controlled in the difficulty menu or .ini file, but it's better to err on the side of the enemies being too smart, rather than too stupid.

8. Being able to auto-pause at the end of each round as with IE games is not optional. Auto-pausing at other selectable points is also nice. Without this strategic combat is overly difficult or impossible.

9. Anything that Bethesda or EAware would do in their modern games. Or any sort of MMOG mechanic. If Dragon Effect or Oblivion/Skyrim or WoW has it then it is almost certainly a bad idea. See point about pandering.

10. Cartoonish graphics. Ewww. A lot of us are over 30.

[WillWorker]

As someone who read about Planescape:Torment and thought "Sounds Terrible", and then ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT, I'm prepared to have my preconceptions on things challenged.

 

I think it's dangerous to just blindly list GAME WILL BE BAD IF IT HAS MORE THAN OR LESS THAN 3 BADGERS.

 

Which is basically what everyone is doing. If your not prepared to get out of your box - your not gonna find any new to like.

 

Also - anyone who didn't like Minsc and Boo has no soul.

 

I have to say I agree with this.

 

In the spirit of the thread, I don't want to see design by committee or democracy. I'm backing to have Obsidian design the game. Based on my thorough enjoyment of their previous titles, I will defer to their expertise in the creation of the game. I don't want them to fall into the trap of trying to please everyone, because as the adage goes, they'll end up pleasing no one.

[Oerwinde]

Level requirement equipment, I am with you on that Oerwinde.

 

Equipment requiring specific stats and another thing I do not want to see. The dagger requires 80 Strength? What is it made out of Lutetium? 90 Dexterity to put on these trousers? What happens if I try when I only have 80? Do I choke to death because I clumsily trip and they wrap around my head?

 

Some stat requirements are ok. INT or WIS requirements for certain magical items, STR requirements for certain weapons (Like mauls or two handed swords), but nothing silly, and it should be base requirements for all weapons of the type.

 

- Blatant soapboxing of social issues, e.g. sexual politics, environmentalism, racism. Yes, discuss them. No, don't make them simple black and white. (DA, for example, turned into 'mages good templars bad, OPPRESSION IGNORANCE zomg' even though the setting should've made it more subtle.) I have stances for this IRL like everyone else and will argue them there endlessly if needed, but I'm tired of having soapboxes in my games.

 

I actually thought it was quite the other way around in DA, I kept trying to help the mages out, wanting to believe they're good, giving them the benefit of the doubt, but then every. freaking. time. they turn out to be a blood mage. By the end, I was understanding the templars a bit.

 

DA:O was Mages Good, Templars Bad, DA2 was Templars Good, Mages need to be killed with fire. My mage sided with the Templars, especially after my first playthrough where I sided with the mages and Orsino, seemingly the only sensible mage in the game suddenly was like "OMG those templars you butchered like rats in a tutorial will murder us all unless I turn myself into a demon and attack everyone in sight!"

[Hiro Protagonist II]

No weighted gold.

[metiman]

What's the problem with having a strength requirement for certain melee weapons? Seems logical to me. Armor as well. Real two handed swords are heavy enough that you need some significant strength to handle them properly. And that's even more true with war hammers, maces, flails, and morning stars which would weigh a ton. A mage carrying a giant weapon seems ridiculous to me. Real longbows also require strength to use properly. If you have a weak character you should be restricted to small weapons like daggers or short swords and crossbows (or firearms) for ranged.

Edited September 28, 2012 by metiman

[Azrayel]

-Jedi masters

 

That one's on Obby, least we forget it.

 

But OT: I'm here because I trust Bugsidian to make the game I want to play without needing to be told how; not disparaging the thread, just saying I can't really think of anything because I don't think they'd put in something I'd really be disinclined towards.

[mibbles]

Armour should look reasonably the same no matter which gender it is worn on. If boobplate there be, let it stay the same shape no matter who it is on. See the following picture for reference. Would make for an amusing easter egg item at the very least, I think.