Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Little things in games that more should do

deuxhero

Arcane
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
11,328
Location
Flowery Land
I recently acquired the non-shit NTSC-J version of Xenoblade X. I really liked that instead of just being able to wait everywhere to pass time a lot of little details that would otherwise be non-interactive, such as shops for mundane stuff or people sitting around playing cards, could be used to "pass time" and set the clock to whenever an event is (you can also use beds like a lot of games let you do). I felt it made the world more real by giving some form of interaction with mundane stuff without vastly increasing the scope of the game. It could be added to pretty much any game with a clock and towns (any GTA clone would benefit from it).

Any other little things you're surprised more games don't copy?
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,184
Location
Bjørgvin
Doing useful things while on a ship voyage or similar. Only game I've played that this was Magic Candle.

Monsters wetting their pants and running away when facing a party of demigods instead of lvl 1 adventurers. Might&Magic 2 is one of the few games that did this.
 
Self-Ejected

Excidium II

Self-Ejected
Joined
Jun 21, 2015
Messages
1,866,227
Location
Third World
People getting mad and threatening violence if you don't gtfo when you enter their house uninvinted.

Being able to just beat the shit out of someone and rob them, instead of every fight ending with murder.
 

markec

Twitterbot
Patron
Joined
Jan 15, 2010
Messages
45,677
Location
Croatia
Codex 2012 Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Dead State Project: Eternity Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath
In strategy games, making secret deals that will be known only to factions that have good spy networks.
 

DramaticPopcorn

Guest
Conjoined millitary actions with the AI in grand strategy games and in Medieval overmap.

As in, when forces actually support each other, ambush, etc. Instead of each acting as individual army and running away from a superior force that would be possible to fend off if those two armies attacked together instead. Argh
 

Gentle Player

Arcane
Joined
Jul 1, 2011
Messages
2,334
Location
Britain
People getting mad and threatening violence if you don't gtfo when you enter their house uninvinted.

Being able to just beat the shit out of someone and rob them, instead of every fight ending with murder.

Yes, I thought of Gothic straight away too. I should also add: NPCs beating up and robbing the player when he agitates them, as opposed to casually murdering him for a minor transgression.
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
Patron
Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
27,089
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
Talk to the monsters, form alliances...

Bloodwych. The Expansion Pack even allowed you to recruit monsters into your party.

Having multiple parties to handle.

Bloodwych again. (It allowed you to split up your party of 4 into smaller 'parties')

Puzzles which require switching between said multiple parties.

Bloodwy...oh...wait...it didn't do this. :decline:

My suggestions? Realism via small details. A good example recently brought up is Ultima Underworld has inertia in the player's movements. Jump into a wall and you rebound from it. Try jumping into a wall in pretty much ANY other game that used a 3D engine and watch physics being lazy.
 

vonAchdorf

Arcane
Joined
Sep 20, 2014
Messages
13,465
People getting mad and threatening violence if you don't gtfo when you enter their house uninvinted.
OLIan73l.jpg
 

typical user

Arbiter
Joined
Nov 30, 2015
Messages
957
In Horde: The Northern Wind players have ability to form alliances (which AI later on finds useless and turns on you unless you have bigger settlement and/or army) or just beat them into submission so they will pay you for protection (from your army as well as barbarians). Age of Empires also has diplomacy but it boils down to being allied and not caring for your performance or enemy and remaining hostile no matter what. In Horde you meet new nation and you are at peace but if you send large force into their village? They will declare a war or if they have no defenses they will offer their resources if you leave them be. If you ignore them they will build army and refuse to pay you or declare a war and they will try to do the same to you. They will also declare a war if you don't help them fend off enemies or if you are very powerful so everyone will make huge pact against you but if you do help them they will fight your enemy often causing serious damage or providing great distraction. It was still easy to predict their next political move but that was due to lack of personalities such as always peaceful or whatnot so if they had no hostiles left they would sooner or later attack you for no reason. Only Barbarians were bloodthirsty and they would offer peace at the best but only as to say "fuck off, let me rebuild so I can invade you again!". But it made them more unique - on every map I would just send large warband to scorch the ground of their annoying tents because they wouldn't leave me alone even if it meant assaulting my fortresses with 100 towers or more decimating their troops full of clubmen or archers happily walking into hail of arrows.

In RPGs I like when characters refer to you with your name. You aren't dickwad champion, chosen, dragonborn or some other nonsense but Joe or Titsdestroyer or whatever you named your protagonist and the people you speak to feel more alive, acknowleding your existence. A simple trick but a great detail in my opinion.

In sandbox games such as GTA I value responsive controls - in GTA IV and V your character takes forever to make 180 turn but in Dark Souls your avatar will always move where you want immediately thanks to snappy animations. Realism is one thing but when I struggle with my own actions thanks to sluggish controls then I find the game very frustrating.

Fallout 2 - you have a party full of followers but you can't control them directly only specify their tactics. If I wanted control I would pick Jagged Alliance 2. That thing made me love the game even more because I didn't have to plan my approach but adapt to situation - the combat was more dynamic even if you had to wait for everyone's turn to be over.
 

Carrion

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jun 30, 2011
Messages
3,648
Location
Lost in Necropolis
Alcohol actually making you drunk. The Witcher probably does it the best with its drinking contests and authentic drunk walking animation among other things, and some other games like Betrayal at Krondor also have clever uses for beer (like "improving" your Barding skill), but usually you only get a slight blur effect or STR/CHA bonus, if even that. After all, taverns are such an integral part of RPGs and many other games that being able to get properly shitfaced should be the standard.
 

Doktor Best

Arcane
Joined
Feb 2, 2015
Messages
2,849
- various failstates for quests if you dont pay attention to the narrative

-companions who backstab you if their goals start to clash with yours (or simply being spies for the antagonist from the start)

-companions actually demanding a share of the wealth you make for their own needs (booze family) depending on their family. weaker companions

-ability to cross and doublecross with factions like in geneforge

-you actually becoming a hero instead of being one from the start with all the shift of attention mighty characters pay to you and the treatment people give you (gothic is the prime example here)

-gold being always a scarce ressource making evil and selfish decisions always lure you with the promise of riches
 

Wayward Son

Fails to keep valuable team members alive
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
1,866,294
Location
Anytown, USA
Side quests that tie into main quest. Even if in some small way, it makes it seem more logical to go off and do some random nonsense if you are offered some sort of intel/plot device for it. Like how in Fallout 1, a large portion of side tasks up to Necropolis would net you some info (or at least the promise of it).
 

Delterius

Arcane
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
15,956
Location
Entre a serra e o mar.
Create pacifist resolutions as part of combat instead of the dialogue systems and whatever other entirely different game mechanic that you want to add to the game. Undertale did that, imagine what a non-indie RPG could do instead.
 

Wayward Son

Fails to keep valuable team members alive
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
1,866,294
Location
Anytown, USA
^Fallout 4 did that with the intimidation perk. You point your gun at someone and they may surrender.
 

DosBuster

Arcane
Patron
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
1,861
Location
God's Dumpster
Codex USB, 2014
- various failstates for quests if you dont pay attention to the narrative

-companions who backstab you if their goals start to clash with yours (or simply being spies for the antagonist from the start)

-companions actually demanding a share of the wealth you make for their own needs (booze family) depending on their family. weaker companions

-ability to cross and doublecross with factions like in geneforge

-you actually becoming a hero instead of being one from the start with all the shift of attention mighty characters pay to you and the treatment people give you (gothic is the prime example here)

-gold being always a scarce ressource making evil and selfish decisions always lure you with the promise of riches


I wouldn't consider any of those to be little things
 

Doktor Best

Arcane
Joined
Feb 2, 2015
Messages
2,849
- various failstates for quests if you dont pay attention to the narrative

-companions who backstab you if their goals start to clash with yours (or simply being spies for the antagonist from the start)

-companions actually demanding a share of the wealth you make for their own needs (booze family) depending on their family. weaker companions

-ability to cross and doublecross with factions like in geneforge

-you actually becoming a hero instead of being one from the start with all the shift of attention mighty characters pay to you and the treatment people give you (gothic is the prime example here)

-gold being always a scarce ressource making evil and selfish decisions always lure you with the promise of riches


I wouldn't consider any of those to be little things

Depends on your perspective as a designer or gamer. For AAA industry those must be minor details since they pay so little attention to those things. Lets face it, for the main portion of the industry the big boxes to tick are graphics, linear gameplay, kewl dude finishing moves and "daring and progressive plotlines and characterization" by implementing some cardbox figure sexual minorities.
 

DosBuster

Arcane
Patron
The Real Fanboy
Joined
Aug 28, 2013
Messages
1,861
Location
God's Dumpster
Codex USB, 2014
- various failstates for quests if you dont pay attention to the narrative

-companions who backstab you if their goals start to clash with yours (or simply being spies for the antagonist from the start)

-companions actually demanding a share of the wealth you make for their own needs (booze family) depending on their family. weaker companions

-ability to cross and doublecross with factions like in geneforge

-you actually becoming a hero instead of being one from the start with all the shift of attention mighty characters pay to you and the treatment people give you (gothic is the prime example here)

-gold being always a scarce ressource making evil and selfish decisions always lure you with the promise of riches


I wouldn't consider any of those to be little things

Depends on your perspective as a designer or gamer. For AAA industry those must be minor details since they pay so little attention to those things. Lets face it, for the main portion of the industry the big boxes to tick are graphics, linear gameplay, kewl dude finishing moves and "daring and progressive plotlines and characterization" by implementing some cardbox figure sexual minorities.

There are trends, yes, it's an industry. I wouldn't call daring and progressive plotlines to be one since most publishers stick to what is considered fairly safe, otherwise, the front cover person on the Battlefield 1 cover wouldn't be American.

Graphics are always a box to tick as seen how everyone on this site seems to relentlessly bitch about it over and over so it makes sense as to why for many developers it would be a high priority. The reason they pay so little attention to those things you highlighted is that they come with a heavy risk of everything falling apart and the game sucking dick, the larger the scope of a game the more prone it is to being either unpolished or buggy. Plus, having a small focus allows you to really make sure every corner and edge is perfectly smooth which is considered a better investment than going crazy with having multiple storylines which the developers only have the time to polish one or two.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom