Submitted 1 day ago by justdaveisfine@piefed.social to games@lemmy.world
I was recently discussing Farcry 2 with some friends and how cool the fire spread system was - And how it essentially was never used again after that title.
Is there a cool feature or mechanic you’ve seen in a game and hope to see more of?
Mods and self hosted servers
This seems fairly common among the survival games genre.
Fun unlockables by doing some cheat.
Imagine telling a FIFA player that you used to be able to have a dog as referee by doing the Konami code. And it was not behind a fucking paywall.
International Super Star Soccer for SNES had this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYaHPm-yDl8&t=63
Dude I miss unlocking fighting game characters. Now they’re all purchaseable… Like you literally can’t just earn them from beating the arcade mode - that is if the game has an arcade mode to begin with these days
I think the last game I played that did it was Smash Bros Ultimate, and that’s barely a fighting game imo
The vehicle damage modelling from GTA 4. The fact that it hasn’t been surpassed is tremendously disappointing to me.
Nemesis system. But Wanker Warner Bros tossed a patent on it and no one else could use it.
I’m currently enjoying a Skyrim playthrough that uses the Nemesis mod. It doesn’t have ALL of the features that the shadow series does of course, but I’m really enjoying it!
The nemesis system patents and Namco’s loading screen mini game patent are two examples of why game mechanics and features should never be granted an exclusive patent.
Of course Namco’s patents expired in 2015 at a time when seamless load screens had become the industry standard.
Who knows what the gaming landscape will look like when people are finally able to get their hands on the nemesis system again?
What’s that?
There’s plenty of better deep dives on YouTube, but basically it’s a system in Shadows of Mordor (and moreso in Shadows of War) that would take a random NPC you were fighting and were joined by (or almost killed,) and elevate them thematically. If one knocked you down there’s a chance they would pick up your sword and break it, smack talk you, and walk away. That guy, of his name was Doug, became Doug the Sword Breaker. Never time you saw him, he’d get a short introduction and a quip or two to remove you of who he was.
If you died, since you were a spirit they’d just mock that they already best you before. But if you were killing them, they might get a scene where they manage to get away to amplify the story. Or maybe you’ll just kill them. It was random and happened with random NPCs, elevating them in the enemy army.
I believe in the second one you could even mind control someone, and take out the people above them, and have a spy in the upper ranks.
Imagine an action game with some Crusader Kings plot drama happening.
Honestly I think there’s probably enough prior art to get away with using whatever you wanted from it. But a) I’m no lawyer and b) I’m not risking millions of dollars making a game.
Basically a pseudo random system that’d generate orcs for you to meet-fight-recruit they’d have very fleshed out intros
It didn’t really take off to begin with but dual screen support like Supreme Commander had with the real-time map overview on the 2nd monitor. It could be a skirmish map or live track map for a racing game, live scoreboard, player status or inventory system.
I think you're describing the Nintendo DS.
Yeah I guess I am. Just give it to us in a bigger form.
I would love if Civilization or Crusader Kings implemented this.
Tanking with shields (force/kinetic shields in sci-fi games, not physical shiekds)
I liked when games let you face-tank damage with your shield (like in Mass Effect, before Andromeda where they made shields weak af anf even removed shield gating) and not having to care for healing (unless you lose all your shields)
I don’t know if it’s due to the souls-like trend, but it feels like game developers need to make punitive games nowadays
Battlezone II had force shields. They used your vehicle’s weapon energy. The shields used energy, and also taking hits would drain your energy. You needed a ship with fast energy regen to make the most use out of them. One ship from the X-Mod mod, the Jade Falcon, could actually regenerate faster than the shields drained. So you could keep them on all the time, and still shoot some. It wasn’t invincible by any means, but that regen speed plus the fact that the radar ping twice as frequently made it my absolute favorite ship.
Split screen coop/multiplayer
Way too many games only let you do multiplayer with one player and have online only coop campaigns
Used to be pretty standard that a guest could play with you online
I want to see puzzles that are implemented using the physics engine. And I don’t mean “toss the axe in the proper arc to trigger the gate” physics. I mean “stack the bricks on one end of the seesaw to balance it long enough to make the jump to the next platform”. Or “use the blue barrels’ buoyancy to raise the platform out of the water”.
I think those were mind blowing when I first played hl2, just because real time physics and destruction was novel, but now I think they grind the pacing to a halt. I think they just don’t work in an action shooter IMO.
My opinion is the exact opposite. Narrative games, even action shooters, need to have high action and low action parts in balance. If high action segments are excessive, it can lead to combat fatigue. If low action parts are excessive, the player gets bored and the pacing dies.
Half-Life 2 E1, the “Low Lives” chapter, has probably the most stressful combat in the game because the player has to balance so many things. Shooting the zombies attacking Gordon versus helping Alyx fight. Helping Alyx versus keeping the flashlight charged. All of that in oppressive darkness. Combat fatigue sets in. The short puzzle segments, even as simple as crawling through a vent to flip a switch, are opportunities to take a breath, absorb the environment, and prepare for the next segment – especially at the end of that particular chapter, when the player escapes the zombies and has a chance to wind down.
At the same time, puzzles, by their slower nature, are excellent for delivering narrative and player training, and to let the player absorb the atmosphere. Alyx’s first encounter with the stalkers in “Undue Alarm” wouldn’t have had the same emotional impact if the player could just pop them in the head and move on.
In contrast, most of “Highway 17” is just a prolonged vehicle-based puzzle. By the time the player reaches the large railway bridge, they might be sick of driving. I know I was. It’s a relief to finally engage in some platforming and long-range combat while traversing the bridge.
So what are the narrative values of my two examples? The cinderblock seesaw in “Route Kanal” is just player training. A show, don’t tell method to let the player know that physics puzzles will be a factor. It’s also a short break after the on-foot chase, before the encounter with the hunter chopper. In “Water Hazard”, the contraptions serve a larger narrative purpose: they’re the tools of the rebels’ refugee evacuation effort. The player utilizes them like one of the refugees would have.
Yesss and more destruction physics. I miss watching cars crumple and get torn apart like in the burnout games. There was a really old ww2 dogfighting game where the plane wings could get sawn off and you’d see this smoking plane spiralling into the ground while the wing flew off in the opposite direction before the plane exploded on the ground.
Red Faction was great for that. You could go around, sure. Or just bust through the damn wall.
I really wished there are more games that implement something like the gambit system from FF12. My dream game is some monster / pet collecting and battling game plus the gambit system from FF12. now if only n*ntendo wouldn’t be such an @ss…
Check out Unicorn Overlord (I know, awful name).
Definitely a different kind of game than FF12, but the way the combat works reminds me quite a bit of gambits. Really fun game too, with beautiful art style.
Oh, it’s one of Vanillaware games with their distinct art style! Doesn’t seems to be released on steam though. Too bad because it seems like a perfect game to play on the steam deck.
A grapple hook
The grappling hook was a common mod in the original QuakeWorld scene and was included in the official Quake II CTF game mod. I’m surprised it didn’t become a mainstay in games afterwards, it was so fun to use. Shogo: Mobile Armor Division had it built in and was one of the most fun FPS games I had ever played until cheaters took over.
I played on a Half Life (the first one) deathmatch server that had a grappling hook mod. It was awesome.
Sekiro
Just cause 2 with infinite distance grapple hook and chuck Norris character model. Too fun
there’s a grappling hook in ARC Raiders (called the snap hook) and I have one but have never bothered using it. I should change that some day.
Palworld has craftable grapple guns that make for easier exploring...
Unless you prefer your fire-breathing flying mount.
Just cause 2 with infinite distance grapple hook and chuck Norris character model. Too fun
Arcade racers that aren’t just… Bad.
Burnout Revenge was a beloved game of my childhood. You had bonuses from wrecking your foes, got bonuses for creating wrecks, and for near death experiences. And there was an awesome mode where you would launch your car into a scene to cause as much damage as possible.
Midnight Club 2 where you could customize your cars and race them on fun tracks, but could also just beep around the open world.
Maybe it’s nostalgia, but I would love a fun racing game that doesn’t have a GTA attached to it.
Check out Trail Out.
Mechanics from the Mercenaries series. Destructible buildings, getting weapons and vehicles dropped to you anywhere at any time. Being able to ally with different factions. Oh, and the ability to call in airstrikes. Bunker busters, cluster bombs, artillery barrages, etc. Just Cause and Metal Gear Solid V are the closest things to that. But they just aren’t the same.
Oh, and the ability to just fly like Superman. I’d like that in more games.
whyd you write my comment for me
I want to see more modular building for vehicles and bases and fun traversal options. So many open world walking sims, it gets old. Or fun mounts that are more than just faster walking. (Rdr horses but fantasy beasts that ride differently)
I was recently discussing Farcry 2 with some friends and how cool the fire spread system was - And how it essentially was never used again after that title.
In case you didn’t know, Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have a very similar fire spread system.
Oh that’s true, I did forget about that one.
Future far cry titles did also have the same fire spreading system, just toned down since they’re not set in very dry places.
What is said fire spread system?
When a fire breaks out on grass, it spreads like it would in real life. In FC2 you could watch a small flame spread and become an inferno. It was awesome. Games don’t have anything like that these days.
I wanna see games going wide again. Get me something like Sonic Adventure 2 Battle again where we got racing, going fast, a creature battler/care system, multiplayer. I miss when games were full of a wide variety of shit.
Star Garden appears to be “Kirby Air Ride with a chao garden” and a deeply Dreamcast art style. Might be worth having on your radar
Thank you for that. Wish listed asap
Most MMOs are that btw., if you haven’t played any. Lots and lots of minigames.
Oh I have, have probably like 4 years playtime in game for WoW. But it used to be common. Idk it feel like it used to be about fun and now everything takes itself too seriously.
Kirby Air Riders definitely feels like it keeps that spirit alive. The game could've just been City Trial and I would've paid $70 just to play City Trial, but they packed everything else in there too because they could.
The control scheme in Total Annihilation of being able to que up lots of commands for units has largely ignored by RTS game makers except in Supreme Commander and Spring/Recoil engine games such as Beyond All Reason and Zero-K. I think it is a perfect example of why the RTS genre died after hyperfocusing on making Starcraft-likes resulting in the stagnation of innovation in the genre that progressively catered more and more only to a very narrow range of brains/players who enjoy simplistic explicit unit relationships and endless fiddly micro.
Can you explain what you mean? I never played TA, but being able to queue commands is pretty common in RTS games. Did TA have some kind of system to further facilitate that, or was it just taken to an extreme?
In TA you could select a unit factory then issue move orders and set up patrol routes and then any units constructed by that factory would follow those orders. Also, if there was a unit executing a repeating move pattern, you could select it, hold shift and give it a new order. It would execute that order, then when done it would return to its original pattern.
To add to what the other guy said, Supreme commander allowed your units to synchronize shots, for example for the big guns on battleships, useful for punching through shields.
They also allowed you to queue orders, display them and then edit them. So you could set up one big patrol path for 100s of helis and fighters and defend your territory that way, and when you want to expand you can drag the patrol points and all of those 100s of units would automatically adjust.
Also there were heli transports with lift and drop points and you could use that to ferry units quicker than they would walk. So you could set the drop point closely behind the frontlines and advance the drop point with the front line, allowing for quicker resupply of troops.
Quite a bit more advanced than you would see in starcraft or AoE2 overall.
I’m working on a game like that, but it’s far from completion.
A mechanic to permanently gain new attacks and/or abilities by mastering equipment. I haven’t seen that many games have this mechanic and it’s mostly been adult games for some reason. I think Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep is the only non-adult game I’ve seen to have this mechanic.
Have you played Tokyo Mirage Sessions?
Weird game in general, but some of my favorite turn based combat ever. I think you permanently learn abilities from weapons if I recall.
No, assuming I found the game you’re referring to, I’ve never owned a Wii U and while my mom owns a switch, I don’t use it. I also don’t think I’d be able to emulate it either. It seems interesting but I wont be able to play it right now.
Clair Obscure Expedition 33 kind of has the gaining abilities from mastering equipment thing you mentioned, it’s not really equipment in that you can’t see the items being put on, but you equip items that give abilities and after a few battles with it you master the ability and can change to another item but equip the ability through a separate resource pool.
That is actually part of what I meant by having permanent access to the ability. One of the games I didn’t mention in my comment does it like that, where you get the abilities by mastering equipment but then you have to use AP to actually activate it like how abilities were in Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. I’ve actually been interested in playing Clair Obscure because I’ve heard that it’s one of the best RPGs to exist. The only problem is that, because it’s a modern game, I don’t know it it’ll run on my computer and I don’t have another way to play it.
Final Fantasy 9 had you learn skills from equipment.
The Fiend's Cauldron from Kid Icarus Uprising. At the start of a stage, you have to wager currency on how high of a difficulty you want to attempt, on a sliding scale from 0.0 to 9.0. Higher difficulties cost more to play, and if you fail, you lose your bet and the difficulty drops if you choose Continue. It's an interesting system for how it forces you to check your ego and self-evaluate just how much you think you can handle.
Fun
A Spider-man game with the swinging mechanics of the PS2 Spider-man 2 game. Or just a remake of that game. The new ones are fine and fun but the older game absolutely nailed the web swinging.
Dodge offset from Bayonetta, boost from Vanquish, and make your own moveset from God Hand.
EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 2 hours ago
Horizontal progression. Relatively flat power curve, but you gain more options.
Guild Wars 1 is a really good example of this.