NotAGolfer
Arcane
So I read a couple of rants on Codex lately about what is wrong with modern CRPG design.
Nothing new about that, only this time it actually made me think longer about what I would want a modern game designer to do so his CRPG gets "fun" enough for my taste. It's far from being complete or even coherent, just a few random thoughts.
Everyone feel free to comment or post his own list.
Well, enough chit chat, here's my list:
1. Let the systems create the stories ingame (so create a good stealth mechanic if you want to implement stealth, the AoD approach for example is just lazy imo) instead of being just fluff, time wasters in between story events or only influencing the game's combat.
If your game gets less "epic" due to this then fucking ignore everyone who tells you that's bad. Games are not movies.
2. Make more systems than just RT or TB combat + clicking NPCs on town maps + some dull base building that serves no purpose other than wasting money to make the broken economy look less bad + dungeons filled with nothing but combat and a few simplistic traps + a barebones worldmap with no game mechanic on it whatsoever. I don't really know what kind of interactions I want btw, maybe add some twitchy combat boxing minigame or a race or something like Gwent in Twitcher 3 or whatever. Just make it "fun" and make the char skills matter. RPGs don't always have to be about fighting mobs til they drop dead. Break up the monotony, break the CRPG level grinding loop.
3. Make "quests" less prominent and let the player figure out the stories, possible approaches and their consequences on his own, of course always relative to what this character should be able to pull off. The quest staple has to go away. Seriously, quest objectives in journals plus quest markers are both cancer. I don't necessarily want to return to taking notes on paper so some elegant method to create my own journal and filter the information I collect would be appreciated.
4. Add challenges that are more difficult for some builds to overcome than for others or maybe even impossible for some so it doesn't feel like the char building choices are just window dressing and the difficulty curve is the same for every build.
5. And if someone fails at something add interesting fail states, nearly no game does this.
6. If your game is party-based at least mechanically solve the problem that you have a party covering all the bases but still want the player to think about how to solve problems. If you just let the game check for the char with the highest value in each skill required for a certain situation you can just get rid of Fallout type environment interaction vs char skill C&C alltogether since what's the point, it gets braindead. Same applies to skill point pools, they just don't work.
Dedicated roles in the party augmented by matching equipment choices, the need for the player to choose the character for the action in question, party splitting puzzles where chars are working together each doing what he does best, a dedicated party leader etc, there are lots of examples how it's done right in old CRPGs, let your players think and don't do the thinking for them.
7. Cherry on top for me would be getting rid of the talk your way out of every situation staple for "diplomats" since that doesn't work IRL and shouldn't in games.
8. Oh and add simple adventure style puzzles since why the fuck not, QfG games and Heroine's Quest are awesome. Again (point 2), add some other mechanics besides the obvious stuff, they are all just ways to keep the player occupied anyway and reward him with build-dependent content unlocking and progressing the story.
9. I prefer TB combat but that doesn't mean it's a must for me.
10. Don't do fantasy again, at least if it would just be another Tolkien inspired affair, I beg you. If you don't know how to write a good narrative, then do something low-key and draw inspirations from RL or history. Low-key is always better. Zero to hero is still okay though, there's something satisfying about that sort of story even though it's an old hat.
11. Design it with single player as a priority. I don't play games with my friends or gf, they all think it's gay. And I won't make offspring just to have someone to indoctrinate, no sir.
12. Don't make your game too long, don't go full open world from the start of the game and don't listen to Codex retards... well except for this one here.
Nothing new about that, only this time it actually made me think longer about what I would want a modern game designer to do so his CRPG gets "fun" enough for my taste. It's far from being complete or even coherent, just a few random thoughts.
Everyone feel free to comment or post his own list.
Well, enough chit chat, here's my list:
1. Let the systems create the stories ingame (so create a good stealth mechanic if you want to implement stealth, the AoD approach for example is just lazy imo) instead of being just fluff, time wasters in between story events or only influencing the game's combat.
If your game gets less "epic" due to this then fucking ignore everyone who tells you that's bad. Games are not movies.
2. Make more systems than just RT or TB combat + clicking NPCs on town maps + some dull base building that serves no purpose other than wasting money to make the broken economy look less bad + dungeons filled with nothing but combat and a few simplistic traps + a barebones worldmap with no game mechanic on it whatsoever. I don't really know what kind of interactions I want btw, maybe add some twitchy combat boxing minigame or a race or something like Gwent in Twitcher 3 or whatever. Just make it "fun" and make the char skills matter. RPGs don't always have to be about fighting mobs til they drop dead. Break up the monotony, break the CRPG level grinding loop.
3. Make "quests" less prominent and let the player figure out the stories, possible approaches and their consequences on his own, of course always relative to what this character should be able to pull off. The quest staple has to go away. Seriously, quest objectives in journals plus quest markers are both cancer. I don't necessarily want to return to taking notes on paper so some elegant method to create my own journal and filter the information I collect would be appreciated.
4. Add challenges that are more difficult for some builds to overcome than for others or maybe even impossible for some so it doesn't feel like the char building choices are just window dressing and the difficulty curve is the same for every build.
5. And if someone fails at something add interesting fail states, nearly no game does this.
6. If your game is party-based at least mechanically solve the problem that you have a party covering all the bases but still want the player to think about how to solve problems. If you just let the game check for the char with the highest value in each skill required for a certain situation you can just get rid of Fallout type environment interaction vs char skill C&C alltogether since what's the point, it gets braindead. Same applies to skill point pools, they just don't work.
Dedicated roles in the party augmented by matching equipment choices, the need for the player to choose the character for the action in question, party splitting puzzles where chars are working together each doing what he does best, a dedicated party leader etc, there are lots of examples how it's done right in old CRPGs, let your players think and don't do the thinking for them.
7. Cherry on top for me would be getting rid of the talk your way out of every situation staple for "diplomats" since that doesn't work IRL and shouldn't in games.
8. Oh and add simple adventure style puzzles since why the fuck not, QfG games and Heroine's Quest are awesome. Again (point 2), add some other mechanics besides the obvious stuff, they are all just ways to keep the player occupied anyway and reward him with build-dependent content unlocking and progressing the story.
9. I prefer TB combat but that doesn't mean it's a must for me.
10. Don't do fantasy again, at least if it would just be another Tolkien inspired affair, I beg you. If you don't know how to write a good narrative, then do something low-key and draw inspirations from RL or history. Low-key is always better. Zero to hero is still okay though, there's something satisfying about that sort of story even though it's an old hat.
11. Design it with single player as a priority. I don't play games with my friends or gf, they all think it's gay. And I won't make offspring just to have someone to indoctrinate, no sir.
12. Don't make your game too long, don't go full open world from the start of the game and don't listen to Codex retards... well except for this one here.
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