Game Mechanics You Hate
Moderator: Moderators
Game Mechanics You Hate
The same as the old thread, except totally different.
Examples-
Grinding. I don't like MMOs mainly because of their emphasis on repeating no or low risk encounters, over and over again.
Rewarding excessive specialization.
Too many triggers/modifiers. Arkham Horror, I'm looking at you.
Examples-
Grinding. I don't like MMOs mainly because of their emphasis on repeating no or low risk encounters, over and over again.
Rewarding excessive specialization.
Too many triggers/modifiers. Arkham Horror, I'm looking at you.
To the scientist there is the joy in pursuing truth which nearly counteracts the depressing revelations of truth. ~HP Lovecraft
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- Duke
- Posts: 1545
- Joined: Fri Jul 17, 2009 2:07 am
Weapon durability. It is boring and tedious for no real value.
FFVIII's drawn magic and junction system with the end result that you never used magic.
The IV system in Pokemon adds nothing to the game besides making it a chore to raise monsters and disincentivizing keeping your original monsters around - which contradicts the themes of friendship. For that matter natures and EVs too.
Excessive specialization - stack bonuses to fire damage.
FFVIII's drawn magic and junction system with the end result that you never used magic.
The IV system in Pokemon adds nothing to the game besides making it a chore to raise monsters and disincentivizing keeping your original monsters around - which contradicts the themes of friendship. For that matter natures and EVs too.
Excessive specialization - stack bonuses to fire damage.
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- Journeyman
- Posts: 120
- Joined: Tue May 13, 2014 7:53 pm
Death spirals. Any system that makes you continuously weaker as you lose health sucks incredibly hard. Combats become an endless whiff fest as everyone flails about like weaklings.
Skipping turns. Skip your turn mechanics should probably be removed from almost every game. They are not good. Any time a game tells you to stop playing the game it has gone awry. I have had Arkham Horror games where people simply stop playing after 3 skip your turn events happened in a row causing them to not be able to play the game they signed up for for about 20 minutes of their real actual life.
Skipping turns. Skip your turn mechanics should probably be removed from almost every game. They are not good. Any time a game tells you to stop playing the game it has gone awry. I have had Arkham Horror games where people simply stop playing after 3 skip your turn events happened in a row causing them to not be able to play the game they signed up for for about 20 minutes of their real actual life.
DSMatticus wrote:Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you, fuck you. I am filled with an unfathomable hatred.
Rules that get in the way of letting me play the character that I want.
Redundant Skill lists (Wasteland 2-ish, Shadowrun are famous examples), though attributes count as well.
Respeccing costs, which is something of a thread I've wanted to talk about actually.
Having an MP Meter AND Cooldowns for abilities, it seems ok to have one or the other, but pointless to have both.
Redundant Skill lists (Wasteland 2-ish, Shadowrun are famous examples), though attributes count as well.
Respeccing costs, which is something of a thread I've wanted to talk about actually.
Having an MP Meter AND Cooldowns for abilities, it seems ok to have one or the other, but pointless to have both.
What I find wrong w/ 4th edition: "I want to stab dragons the size of a small keep with skin like supple adamantine and command over time and space to death with my longsword in head to head combat, but I want to be totally within realistic capabilities of a real human being!" --Caedrus mocking 4rries
"the thing about being Mister Cavern [DM], you don't blame players for how they play. That's like blaming the weather. Weather just is. You adapt to it. -Ancient History
"the thing about being Mister Cavern [DM], you don't blame players for how they play. That's like blaming the weather. Weather just is. You adapt to it. -Ancient History
Turn skipping, specialization that makes it impossible to meaningfully act in a substantial portion of the game's different mini-games, permanent character death, and anything else that basically wastes my time at the table....
Trap options. The desire to make a basket-weaving samurai is not a chance to punish people, but it is instead an opportunity to design a game where basket-weaving samurai exist.
Complexity with little or no payoff. Chargens with 1000 points to spend or spell lists with only 40 good spells out of 600 spells are bullshit.
Trap options. The desire to make a basket-weaving samurai is not a chance to punish people, but it is instead an opportunity to design a game where basket-weaving samurai exist.
Complexity with little or no payoff. Chargens with 1000 points to spend or spell lists with only 40 good spells out of 600 spells are bullshit.
Too many interrupts and reaction effects. When your turn has no flow because everything gets interrupted, the game turns to shit.
Most mechanical incentive to roleplay better.
Puzzles in videogames that reset themselves.
Most hidden stats in videogames.
Most mechanical incentive to roleplay better.
Puzzles in videogames that reset themselves.
Most hidden stats in videogames.
virgil wrote:Lovecraft didn't later add a love triangle between Dagon, Chtulhu, & the Colour-Out-of-Space; only to have it broken up through cyber-bullying by the King in Yellow.
FrankTrollman wrote:If your enemy is fucking Gravity, are you helping or hindering it by putting things on high shelves? I don't fucking know! That's not even a thing. Your enemy can't be Gravity, because that's stupid.
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- Knight
- Posts: 395
- Joined: Tue Nov 26, 2013 5:02 am
I can't stand games with a 'chat wheel'. Like say Dragon Age or Mass Effect etc.
I also hate mechanics designed to waste your time. Like the amount of walking back and forth you have to do in certain games.
Whenever the RNG feels like it invalidates your choices. For example in the new XCOM game, when playing at the higher difficulty, I had a bad RNG streak at the beginning of the game. Ít didn't matter if my characters were behind cover or not, they'd get crit anyway.
I also hate mechanics designed to waste your time. Like the amount of walking back and forth you have to do in certain games.
Whenever the RNG feels like it invalidates your choices. For example in the new XCOM game, when playing at the higher difficulty, I had a bad RNG streak at the beginning of the game. Ít didn't matter if my characters were behind cover or not, they'd get crit anyway.
Last edited by ishy on Sat Oct 04, 2014 10:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
Gary Gygax wrote:The player’s path to role-playing mastery begins with a thorough understanding of the rules of the game
Bigode wrote:I wouldn't normally make that blanket of a suggestion, but you seem to deserve it: scroll through the entire forum, read anything that looks interesting in term of design experience, then come back.
- Josh_Kablack
- King
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- Location: Online. duh
Victory Point races where the point totals are hidden information.
"But transportation issues are social-justice issues. The toll of bad transit policies and worse infrastructure—trains and buses that don’t run well and badly serve low-income neighborhoods, vehicular traffic that pollutes the environment and endangers the lives of cyclists and pedestrians—is borne disproportionately by black and brown communities."
I hate mechanics that are gated by roleplaying. For example, I dislike DnD's special locations, and prestige classes with "member of [game-specific organization]".
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
- Shrapnel
- Prince
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- Contact:
CapnTthePirateG wrote:The IV system in Pokemon adds nothing to the game besides making it a chore to raise monsters and disincentivizing keeping your original monsters around - which contradicts the themes of friendship. For that matter natures and EVs too.
This, like a thousand times.
Rewarding higher XP to higher level characters, and lower level characters getting less XP. (I've got my eyes on you, Dragon Quest IX).
Enemies who can stun lock players.
Any game where you don't get the full ending if you either a) didn't collect all the MacGuffins (like Chaos Emeralds in StH, for example), or b) beat the game on a lower, easier difficulty (this was a HUGE problem in mid-90's SEGA games, such as Streets of Rage 3. Or at least it was in the American version.)
Invisible walls, especially in Bethesda games (Oblivion, FO3, etc.). I'm not opposed to the idea behind them, but I don't like the implementation. I mean, they really could have come up with a more imaginative way to prevent you from leaving the game world (such as guards around the borders saying you can't leave, as an example off the top of my mind cage) other than an immersion breaking invisible force field with the accompanying text "You cannot go any further, please turn back". What a load of shit.
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
Trap options specifically in games with a lot of customization that only have a scant few viable builds.
Grinding. I hate it. Grinding is the worst part of RPGs for me (both MMO and not). Better the game disguises grinding at least as shit I want to do instead of a task I have to perform to get to what I want to do.
I hate puzzles that require a lot of backtracking. Making me waste more time running back and forth does not make the game more interesting.
I hate just about everything in FF13. You can just randomly pick any mechanic from that game and I can go on to tell you why I hate it.
Hidden stats at all (Pokemon).
Alignment/Moral choice systems. They do nothing to make the game more interesting and in fact just hamper people's ability to tell better stories especially ones that explore moral grey areas.
Any mechanic that enforces waiting. When I can't skip a cutscene, I can't skip dialogue, etc.
Edit:
Grinding. I hate it. Grinding is the worst part of RPGs for me (both MMO and not). Better the game disguises grinding at least as shit I want to do instead of a task I have to perform to get to what I want to do.
I hate puzzles that require a lot of backtracking. Making me waste more time running back and forth does not make the game more interesting.
I hate just about everything in FF13. You can just randomly pick any mechanic from that game and I can go on to tell you why I hate it.
Hidden stats at all (Pokemon).
Alignment/Moral choice systems. They do nothing to make the game more interesting and in fact just hamper people's ability to tell better stories especially ones that explore moral grey areas.
Any mechanic that enforces waiting. When I can't skip a cutscene, I can't skip dialogue, etc.
Edit:
This too.Shrapnel wrote:Any game where you don't get the full ending if you either a) didn't collect all the MacGuffins (like Chaos Emeralds in StH, for example), or b) beat the game on a lower, easier difficulty (this was a HUGE problem in mid-90's SEGA games, such as Streets of Rage 3. Or at least it was in the American version.)
Last edited by MGuy on Sat Oct 04, 2014 1:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I'm going to have to call bullshit. Maybe in Fallout 3, I don't remember the walls in that game, but are you fucking kidding me? Oblivion has super high mountains to block your path outside the game. And people still got over those mountains. Same for Skyrim, but without the getting over. Morrowind was literally an island with Ocean in every direction, and I don't care about invisible walls out in the middle of the Ocean.Shrapnel wrote:Invisible walls, especially in Bethesda games (Oblivion, FO3, etc.). I'm not opposed to the idea behind them, but I don't like the implementation. I mean, they really could have come up with a more imaginative way to prevent you from leaving the game world (such as guards around the borders saying you can't leave, as an example off the top of my mind cage) other than an immersion breaking invisible force field with the accompanying text "You cannot go any further, please turn back". What a load of shit.
Elder Scrolls has the best fucking invisible border walls of any fucking open world game because they actually make sense or are in the middle of no where and so it doesn't bother people.
And fucking guards? Are you a complete idiot? If the entire fucking border was covered in arbitrary guards in Fallout that would be way the fuck worse. It's fucking fallout, I should be able to shoot the guards and keep walking. Not to mention the completely absurd idea that all these guards surround and area and never let anyone in or out for no reason at all because they are literally guarding an empty frontier.
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
Kaelik gon' Kaelik.
Vebyast wrote:Here's a fun target for Major Creation: hydrazine. One casting every six seconds at CL9 gives you a bit more than 40 liters per second, which is comparable to the flow rates of some small, but serious, rocket engines. Six items running at full blast through a well-engineered engine will put you, and something like 50 tons of cargo, into space. Alternatively, if you thrust sideways, you will briefly be a fireball screaming across the sky at mach 14 before you melt from atmospheric friction.
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- Knight
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- Joined: Tue Nov 26, 2013 5:02 am
Speaking of of open world games, stuff where you're trying to 100% mission completion and getting all the hidden doodads, vs something where you're using the open world as a means to the end
Star Control 2 is a classic example of open world done right, where the point of exploring the galaxy is to get the resources and technology you need to defeat a superior alien threat. It just wouldn't have been the same with a Grand Theft Auto or Skyrim mission structure, where every quest is a self-contained test that never has an opponent you can't handle.
It sounds as though the new LOTR game may be bucking the trend what with the simulated orc politics that you can interfere with. It may yet get my money.
Star Control 2 is a classic example of open world done right, where the point of exploring the galaxy is to get the resources and technology you need to defeat a superior alien threat. It just wouldn't have been the same with a Grand Theft Auto or Skyrim mission structure, where every quest is a self-contained test that never has an opponent you can't handle.
It sounds as though the new LOTR game may be bucking the trend what with the simulated orc politics that you can interfere with. It may yet get my money.
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- King
- Posts: 5271
- Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:32 am
Shadows of Mordor is basically half the game it should be. The main quest is actually pretty short and disappointing in a number of ways. It has a lot of sidequests, but all of them are pointless and generic collectable quests. The orc politics thing is an amazingly nice touch, but by the time you get to play with it fully you are individually too awesome for any of it to matter (if you've been playing completionist). The combat and stealth is satisfying, but the game's challenge doesn't improve with you and eventually you are just an unstoppable god of destruction.
Here is an example of a maxed out character, spoilered in case you don't want to know what is and isn't awesome and figure it out yourself:
Here is an example of a maxed out character, spoilered in case you don't want to know what is and isn't awesome and figure it out yourself:
After every combo of 5 hits, I get two special moves. Each special move can be a combat drain that gives me +4 energy (elf shot) and +1 combo, during which you are invulnerable. I have a rune that gives me an additional +4 energy for each drain. That is +16 total energy. Shadow strike, an execution move during which you are also invulnerable, costs 2 energy and gives +1 combo. With an upgrade, you can chain shadow strikes as long as you have energy to avoid their cool down. Bonus: I have another rune that gives me health back on a drain, meaning even if I do somehow take damage drain gives it back.
So I open combat with 7 shadow strikes (max mana is 14), drain two people for +16 (max mana is still 14), and then repeat ad infinitum. The only thing in the game that stops that is a captain/warchief who is invulnerable to ranged attacks. At which point there are three possibilities:
1) He is invulnerable to combat attacks and needs to be stealthed. I have to break contact and come back to stealth kill him.
2) He isn't invulnerable to combat attacks. I kill everyone else around him and then use one of the game's stun moves on him (some of which are not specials and can be used at anytime!) While stunned, murder him to death. Repeat if he comes unstunned before he is dead.
3) He isn't invulnerable to combat attacks, and we are in a stronghold with an endless wave of reinforcements. I can't just kill everyone else then focus on him. So I use a stun on him, hit him, and if I take any damage whatsoever I begin shadow striking to build my combo, drain to get my health and energy back, and then stun him again and resume murdering.
Compare this to the start of the game:
1) Every 8 hits gives you 1 special move. Reducing the threshold to 5 and getting 2 special moves per threshold are upgrades.
2) Drain only gives +4 energy. The additional +4 comes from a rune I found.
3) Shadowstrike can't be chained, and has a small cooldown. That is another upgrade.
4) Drain doesn't give health. That is another rune I found.
The game keeps handing you awesome things but never finds a way to make enemies challenging once you have those awesome things. I did all the sidequests, dicked around with the orc politics system, and by the time it came to wrap up the game I was an untouchable god and it was fucking boring.
So I open combat with 7 shadow strikes (max mana is 14), drain two people for +16 (max mana is still 14), and then repeat ad infinitum. The only thing in the game that stops that is a captain/warchief who is invulnerable to ranged attacks. At which point there are three possibilities:
1) He is invulnerable to combat attacks and needs to be stealthed. I have to break contact and come back to stealth kill him.
2) He isn't invulnerable to combat attacks. I kill everyone else around him and then use one of the game's stun moves on him (some of which are not specials and can be used at anytime!) While stunned, murder him to death. Repeat if he comes unstunned before he is dead.
3) He isn't invulnerable to combat attacks, and we are in a stronghold with an endless wave of reinforcements. I can't just kill everyone else then focus on him. So I use a stun on him, hit him, and if I take any damage whatsoever I begin shadow striking to build my combo, drain to get my health and energy back, and then stun him again and resume murdering.
Compare this to the start of the game:
1) Every 8 hits gives you 1 special move. Reducing the threshold to 5 and getting 2 special moves per threshold are upgrades.
2) Drain only gives +4 energy. The additional +4 comes from a rune I found.
3) Shadowstrike can't be chained, and has a small cooldown. That is another upgrade.
4) Drain doesn't give health. That is another rune I found.
The game keeps handing you awesome things but never finds a way to make enemies challenging once you have those awesome things. I did all the sidequests, dicked around with the orc politics system, and by the time it came to wrap up the game I was an untouchable god and it was fucking boring.
Dark Knight over Gotham is definitely closer to Grand Theft Auto than Star Control in terms of its Open World questyness.Sakuya Izayoi wrote:Speaking of of open world games, stuff where you're trying to 100% mission completion and getting all the hidden doodads, vs something where you're using the open world as a means to the end
Star Control 2 is a classic example of open world done right, where the point of exploring the galaxy is to get the resources and technology you need to defeat a superior alien threat. It just wouldn't have been the same with a Grand Theft Auto or Skyrim mission structure, where every quest is a self-contained test that never has an opponent you can't handle.
It sounds as though the new LOTR game may be bucking the trend what with the simulated orc politics that you can interfere with. It may yet get my money.
The U.S. isn't a democracy and if you think it is, you are a rube.DSMatticus wrote:Kaelik gonna kaelik. Whatcha gonna do?
That's libertarians for you - anarchists who want police protection from their slaves.
As has been said, trap options, not having flexibility in class builds, and hidden stats. A new thing would be quantum bear mechanics and mechanics that remove complexity for the sake of balance.
FrankTrollman wrote: Halfling women, as I'm sure you are aware, combine all the "fun" parts of pedophilia without any of the disturbing, illegal, or immoral parts.
K wrote:That being said, the usefulness of airships for society is still transporting cargo because it's an option that doesn't require a powerful wizard to show up for work on time instead of blowing the day in his harem of extraplanar sex demons/angels.
Chamomile wrote: See, it's because K's belief in leaving generation of individual monsters to GMs makes him Chaotic, whereas Frank's belief in the easier usability of monsters pre-generated by game designers makes him Lawful, and clearly these philosophies are so irreconcilable as to be best represented as fundamentally opposed metaphysical forces.
Whipstitch wrote:You're on a mad quest, dude. I'd sooner bet on Zeus getting bored and letting Sisyphus put down the fucking rock.