Developer Punishment

[Osvir]

*leaves to make sandwich*

 

A: Funny banters! Companions saying something funny, either something they say in "Area".

B: Companions complain.

C: Complain a little bit more.

D: Hunger

E: Lightning Bolt/Environmental/Alien Abduction/Enemies/Random Encounter (You leave the game just to return to see people gathering around wondering what's going on... kind of like leaving the game in some area and when you return there are brahmin saying "Moo I say!" herding up around the character. Birds landing on the player etc. etc.)

G: Death/Developer Punishment

 

*back*

 

A-G: What would happen if you left the game too long (say... 10-15 minutes?).

 

Where is it okay for the developer to punish the player and where is it not?

[Sandro G Meier]

Normally, I'd press "Pause" before I leave, so I don't really care about it, but, if there must be one, an enviromental(I like the birds' idea) + Companions complain + Developer punishment would make bit fun, I think...

[AGX-17]

What? Why wouldn't you just pause the game? Why would they "punish" you for doing something other than playing the game in the first place? That's ridiculous. That's why pause buttons exist. Most (i.e. all,) devs would prefer you don't kill yourself like some WoW and Starcraft players have by going 24-48 hours+ without leaving their seats or ever stopping.

Edited December 30, 2012 by AGX-17

[Osvir]

I hear your sentiment AGX-17 and I agree, thanks. I agree, but I've also encountered the below.

 

Baldur's Gate has this, you can get struck by a lightning bolt if you stand around for a bit. Or fatigue of course. Jaheira complaining. I am basically talking about taking that a step further. Warcraft 3 has it too I think?

 

Also faced encounters when I left the game, bathroom, phonecall or whatnot. Return and I've lost one or two characters, other times not so much. Then I found the auto-pause function. In a sense it is "Player Karma" as well... if a moderator sees this could the title be changed to "Player Karma & Developer Punishment"?

 

If there is any sort of rules in the game that you sort of have to follow (but can break by design) there could be some "slaps on the fingers" kind of.

 

Another scenario, Obsidian makes an ability they think is cool and awesome! But realize quickly that it is very powerful combined with an item that they made earlier, how do they balance that? Both the item and spell is cool as is! Could there be, instead, some meddling "God" that messes with the player a bit, maybe both of the items could instead be cursed (or simply just incompatible). Kind of "This is great, but it is broken together with this. We know this, you know this [Do it at own risk]"

[Karkarov]

Companions complaining or a bird flying by and pooping on you sure, those things can be funny and light hearted. More than that? No. The player shouldn't come back to a dead NPC or being robbed just because he went afk for an hour to eat lunch or had to go help someone with something and it took longer than they thought. P:E isn't a PvP game or Ultima Online.

 

If you want an OP item that has a goofy side effect drop something like a sword that makes fun of it's user and randomly hits you instead, or a magic ring that is stupid good but turns you into a kobold, or maybe a shield that makes you immune to magic but arbitrarily decides to "release" it's pent up magic energy to a fart like sound effect resulting in the player and party getting hit by a fireball. If you want to get really sadistic you could have a magic cloak that makes you super lucky (like D&D equivalent of +5 to everything) but also turns any money you acquire into lead so you are eternally bankrupt and can't even pay to sleep in an inn.

[wanderon]

Inspiration seems to be waning in the new year...

 

Nominates this as the silliest idea yet proposed on the forums...

[rjshae]

If you leave the game for too long, a sadistic fraternity brother is summoned from the demonic plane of hazing and begins swatting your character on the backside.

[jivex5k]

I'm all for some light hearted stuff that doesn't truly affect the player.

Kind of like orcs getting annoyed at you for clicking on them repeatedly.

Doesn't hurt anyone, just a funny little extra bit goes a long way.

[Osvir]

Inspiration seems to be waning in the new year...

 

Nominates this as the silliest idea yet proposed on the forums...

 

Heh, I think the topic title "Player Karma" would've been better tbh but oh well..

 

Karma basically needs to be designed, it's not some spiritual fluff that happens by itself (entirely).

 

"If I do A I get punished by B but if I do B I get punished by A"

 

Basically yes it is a silly idea, but it is not my idea ->, it is something that is being used in many games... I think even Lands of Lore has some "I'm bored!" banters. I am simply asking if "Hey, is there some way to tweak it up some levels or not?".

 

In Baldur's Gate you can get hit by a lightning bolt as well (Why does Khalid always get struck though? In like 3-4 games I've played, always Khalid).

[Karkarov]

In Baldur's Gate you can get hit by a lightning bolt as well (Why does Khalid always get struck though? In like 3-4 games I've played, always Khalid).

One time it actually got me. But I was standing near Khalid when it happened.

[morrow1nd]

I'm all for some light hearted stuff that doesn't truly affect the player.

Kind of like orcs getting annoyed at you for clicking on them repeatedly.

Doesn't hurt anyone, just a funny little extra bit goes a long way.

 

this could be fun

[AGX-17]

Inspiration seems to be waning in the new year...

 

Nominates this as the silliest idea yet proposed on the forums...

 

You don't read enough of Osvir's threads.

[wanderon]

Inspiration seems to be waning in the new year...

 

Nominates this as the silliest idea yet proposed on the forums...

 

You don't read enough of Osvir's threads.

 

His other threads have absolutely nothing to do with what I think of this one - why would they?

[AGX-17]

Inspiration seems to be waning in the new year...

 

Nominates this as the silliest idea yet proposed on the forums...

 

You don't read enough of Osvir's threads.

 

His other threads have absolutely nothing to do with what I think of this one - why would they?

 

Why wouldn't they? You already established that you're comparing this to every other idea ever posted on the forum. As you quoted yourself saying.

Edited January 4, 2013 by AGX-17

[wanderon]

Inspiration seems to be waning in the new year...

 

Nominates this as the silliest idea yet proposed on the forums...

 

You don't read enough of Osvir's threads.

 

His other threads have absolutely nothing to do with what I think of this one - why would they?

 

Why wouldn't they? You already established that you're comparing this to every other idea ever posted on the forum. As you quoted yourself saying.

 

So you are saying there were other threads by Osvirs that you find sillier? That was not the case for me the concept of spending developer resources to "punish" a gamer for walking away and not bothering to pause his game pretty much takes the silly cake for me from no matter which angle I look at it.

[Osvir]

Thanks but no thanks. If you want to discuss beautiful me maybe you could take it to private message?

 

 

So you are saying there were other threads by Osvirs that you find sillier? That was not the case for me the concept of spending developer resources to "punish" a gamer for walking away and not bothering to pause his game pretty much takes the silly cake for me from no matter which angle I look at it.

 

It'll teach you to press "Pause" and not sit around waiting for Health/Stamina or whatever to regain itself?

[wanderon]

Thanks but no thanks. If you want to discuss beautiful me maybe you could take it to private message?

 

 

So you are saying there were other threads by Osvirs that you find sillier? That was not the case for me the concept of spending developer resources to "punish" a gamer for walking away and not bothering to pause his game pretty much takes the silly cake for me from no matter which angle I look at it.

 

It'll teach you to press "Pause" and not sit around waiting for Health/Stamina or whatever to regain itself?

 

Frankly I can't ever recall a time I didn't pause the game before walking away - it's not like a single keyboard stroke is going to keep me from whatever it is I'm off to do - as for a player choosing to wait until he's fit for battle before moving on why should that be an issue for anyone if the game gives him that option.

 

I really don't see the whole devs punishing the gamer scenario to begin with - this game is not going to be the result of a situation comedy or god forbid a so called reality program filmed at a game developers studio - these guys have a lot of hard work in front of them for which a lot of people have donated a considerable sum and I certainly hope they aren't going to spend any of it implementing ideas as silly as this one.

 

On the other hand if it was just introduced as a bit of humor - well I guess I wasn't amused...

[Osvir]

True bro.

 

I made this thread inspired by some of the comments and rebuttals on the "Resting" mechanic, if that wasn't obvious enough (what with the sandwich). That was really only the reason~ but I do enjoy the lightning strike in Baldur's Gate (even though it can be a bit frustrating, it's a fun environmental thing in my opinion) as well as the funny "chuckle" bored banters. Harmless.

 

In my opinion, sure, the title is silly and the sandwich is silly childish (by me), but the idea that Baldur's Gate and other IE games utilize isn't silly. I'm discussing ideas that are already in the spiritual prequels to P:E. Are there going to be new ones in P:E?

 

Environmental Effects+Party Banters~ Can a party member give a clue to you if you're just walking around in circles and can't find an entrance that you're looking for? Can a swarm of bees attack you as you walk through a forest? Lightning strikes when it rains and storms? Earthquakes? Flood/Tsunami? Or is that too much? Can you take it down a notch? Can you change it? Magical environmental effects? DM powers?

 

Can the DM punish the player in a D&D session and do they do it often?

 

"DM Punishment" could also have been a better title~

[TMTVL]

Can they? Of course, they're the DM. Get 'em angry, and suddenly a horde of dragons comes galloping over the horizon. Do they do it often? That depends on your DM. I'd wager your average DM isn't going to punish players often, but if, say... The bard keeps trying to pickpocket a lady's underwear when the DM is trying to be serious, well... Accidents happen.

 

Infighting between players is probably a more common cause of unwaranted deaths, if you ask me. Though, of course, that depends on your players.

[Luridis]

I'll have to vote no... People have lives, and personal emergencies and responsibilities. "OMG Johnny is playing with the power strip." In my case, I have ADHD and a lot of times get distracted and actually forget I was in the middle of a game. Coming back to lost progress because my phone rang, I forgot to hit the space bar, and I spent a half hour talking to my boss about next week's project is not in any way shape or form an enjoyable experience for me. Something like this needs to be entirely optional or I will simply override it in the operating system:

 

IF Monitor.Sleeps And Process.Exists(eternity.exe) Then

SuspendProcess(eternity.exe)

 

The psuedocode there for ya, build it into a process in Visual Studio and have it run with the start up of the game itself. For the record, trying to dictate my behavior in software I bought, on hardware I own is not only a bad idea, it's a futile one. Because, I will find a way around it and then I'll post it up on the net for the whole world to use.

[JOG]

Anyone else remembering Little Computer People? When you did nothing for too long, the guy started to knock on the screen from the inside to wake you up. Or KOTOR: at least in the Chargen screen, the character gets bored easily, starts to look around and wave his hand to get your attention.

 

Such gimmickry is always nice, but it loses its appeal when it is a feature we requested.

Edited January 5, 2013 by JOG

[Osvir]

Fun idea! Which is what I liked about your post.

 

On the "loosing its appeal" I can see and understand what you're saying, obviously I don't stand on the same ground. I'm not requesting anything, I am simply stirring up the hay to see if there's anything worth savaging. Looking at the posts (from this thread) there might be something fun to find

 

We'll see.

 

Again, not requesting, more like: "Hey! This feature is in Baldur's Gate, can you turn it up a notch? Did you experience any of it? Did you think it was fun?". Oh and the lightning strike. Sure, a random event when raining, but it really felt like a virtual "DM" that struck down his wrath on poor Khalid time and time again. He got hit twice within 5-6 minutes (survived the first) as well on one of the playthroughs xD oh Khalid~ I wonder if that was modded/designed in (Khalid probability to get hit) or if it was just random coincidence.

 

Or when you pickpocket everyone you get a cursed item you can't remove from your inventory. Or something like you throw it away but when you enter the next area you've got it in your inventory or something, I don't remember exactly.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Osvir

[Kai]

I probably would enjoy if more weird stuff happened, depending on your location. If you're in the forest standing still for too long, a squirrel jump up on your shoulders and shoves two nuts in your ears, causing a deafness effect that you have to remove in some creative manner. Or maybe an orc goes by and decides to beat you unconsious. If you're in the city, a dog comes over to you and relieves itself on you. And in all places, there's a possibility of a miniature giant space hamster appearing, starting to punch your feet for 1 point of stamina damage every 10 second.

Edited January 6, 2013 by Kai