Worst mechanics in gaming?

[R.Graves]

No? Graphics just make the world more realistic looking, thus more immersive. It's not the sole determination of immersion though.


The plotline of Morrowind is
>Get off a boat
>Deliver a package to a druggie
>Do 5 menial tasks to get told you might be part of a prophecy
>Walk to the ass end of nowhere
>Do 5 more tasks to get told you might be the chosen one, but aren't the chosen one yet
>Do 10 more tasks to get named the chosen one
>Talk to vivec about Dagoth Ur
>Go to the Red Mountain, go through a few easy dungeons, collect some tools, then go to Dagoth Ur's base, and hit a heart a few times
>Game over.

Well yeah but the plot of skyrim is
>you are dragonborm
>kill the dragon

Morrowinds story feels lackluster mostly because of its poor excuse for a dialogue system. Like I said its more akin to reading a Wikipedia article than it is to having a conversation. Because of that the story plays more like a bulleted list than and an actual story. I agree with you... Sort of.

 

[Deleted member 93956]

- Direct lack of Design, mostly in Bethesda although most Sandbox games with random components get this
- Half assed Melee/CQC in FPS. If you add it, do it right. Otherwise you have retarded bayonets in Borderlands or troglodite fighting style in Falluto 4.
- Stats n'gear randomly looted, thus spamming > Player skill in Action RPGs.
- Trying to be Minecraft
- Streamlining that makes "hidden stats" and obscure game mechanics in sake of making it "cool and understandable"
- Shoehorned Survival, primary needs and such unsupported by the normal game
- RNG Over reliance. That's why i despise TBOI and like Risk Of Rain, and FTL in the middle ground
- "Make your own fun" Fuck you
- Forcing to "break" the game, making Terraria and Minecraft mob farms is horrible and breaks all the pace

 

[CaptJ]

I usually hate level scaling because ruins the sense of progress. However I liked the mechanic when it was used on the Legion Assassins in FO:NV.

If there is one mechanic that I absolutely think is the worst, it is "Doing an action X amount of times to get better at it.".

 

[0wing]

Well yeah but the plot of skyrim is
>you are dragonborm
>kill the dragon

Skyrim's quest is not as long and lore-stuffed as Morrowind's, but the latter was lengthen by menial tasks entierly. In Skyrim you still learn new things on your power fantasy journey, even though at painfully faster pace, but putting Morrowind's MQ above Skyrim's for what IT'S NOT - is infra dignitatem. Besides, of all NetImmerse/Gaembryo/Creation Engine RPGs, toppest main quest trophy still goes to Fallout: New Vegas.

 

[Crni Vuk]

Care to explain? I would honestly like to know why you think that. Especially given that what I sad has been the stated reason for quest markers by most devs.

Well pretty much nothing of what you said made any sense. For example, they used quetmarkers now because the engine/visuals have been worse in previous games? Like Morrowind had directions because the in-game map didn't have the detail needed to mark every single location on it. Really?

The only explanation for quest markers, is beacuse developers, like Todd Howard think their userbase has the attention span of a goldfish so they shouldn't be bothered with 'directions'. We are talking about a developer here, where their chief of marketing or what ever ... thinks that reading is 'fucking boring'. And where consqeuences of your decisions should not 'lock you out' of content - in other words, immortal NPCs, quests you can't fail, no role playing with skills and so on.

The hand holding of todays games is so large ... that many people would get crazy if they had to even touch one of the previous games. And this has nothing to do with a flawed design. This is beacuse developers, didn't expect their players to be troglodytes that couldn't read even if their life depended on it.

Quest markers, are to games, but RPGs in particular like cancer. It's even worse then 'auto-heal' functions in shooters. It already ruined a whole generation of gamers, up to the point where if you just tried to make a game that works without quest markers, people will get crazy and calling it a shit game without even trying it.


*If you want to understand where I am coming from, I suggest ... no I URGE you to watch this video. Infact, watch all MrBotongues videos. He's that awesome.

 

[Immortalkickass]

Worst mechanic? Had to be FO4's legendary enemies 'mutate' ability. There's so much bullshit in this feature. Totally breaks any sort of logic, immersion, gameplay.

 

[Greed]

*If you want to understand where I am coming from, I suggest ... no I URGE you to watch this video. Infact, watch all MrBotongues videos. He's that awesome.

Isn't this the same guy who made that hilariously awful video asking what did they eat in Fallout 3, that was almost immediately torn apart systemically by near basically everyone?

 

[CerberusGate]

Worst mechanic? Had to be FO4's legendary enemies 'mutate' ability. There's so much bullshit in this feature. Totally breaks any sort of logic, immersion, gameplay.

Plus no matter how injured they are, they regenerate back to full health for no real reason except radiation. Even the robots do it.

Isn't this the same guy who made that hilariously awful video asking what did they eat in Fallout 3, that was almost immediately torn apart systemically by near basically everyone?

Torn apart by everyone? You must be high (or need to take comprehension lessons again) if that's the impression you got out of that video. In fact, most comments there actually praised the video's points and hoped that Bethesda picked up on it.

The fact that 4 actually has farms implemented (in droves in fact) does indicate that Bethesda got the point that the video was bringing up or coincidentally got the point he was bringing up to improve their settlements (just not entirely).

 

[Mr_Beardman]

Fallout 4 radiant quests
Dialogue wheels that you cant see all that you are going to say
Lack of choices in games that claim to be RPGs

 

[CerberusGate]

I may as well list out some bad mechanics as well:
Level scaling
Superficial C&C (choice & consequence)
Escort quests (with horrid mechanics)
Mandatory quest markers
Radiant quests
Fake difficulty (like decreasing weapon effectiveness and turning enemies into health sponges to simulate difficulty)
Gimmicky additions that only make a game easier rather than enhance it

EDIT: I almost forgot, QTEs! Those I hate with a passion.

 

[Greed]

Torn apart by everyone? You must be high (or need to take comprehension lessons again) if that's the impression you got out of that video. In fact, most comments there actually praised the video's points and hoped that Bethesda picked up on it.

The fact that 4 actually has farms implemented (in droves in fact) does indicate that Bethesda got the point that the video was bringing up or coincidentally got the point he was bringing up to improve their settlements (just not entirely).

Nice side remarks.

But no, I recall most major sites tearing the video apart after it came out for how wrong it is
-There are brahmin in most major settlements(I actually recall someone on 4chan counting that between Fo3 and NV, Fo3 actually had more brahmin being raised for food then in NV), and there are even several packs of wild brahmin.
-There is a massive mirelurk farm under the Achorage memorial.
-Rivet City had a hydroponics lab that was proving fresh food to the settlements of the wasteland.
-There was an established system of animal hunters collecting meat from almost every animal in the wastes.
-They had trade with places like Point Lookout, which provided Punga to every major food seller in the region, and the C.W. trade all the way to The Commonwealth to the North, and the Broken Banks to the south.
-Not to mention things like iguanas and squirrels, the oh so mentioned but never seen classic animals of the Fallout series.

The fact Fallout 4 had farms is because
-Morrowind had farms
-Oblivion had farms
-Skyrim had farms
-Fallout 3 didn't have farms because it was a major plot point that the water was too irradiated, and couldn't be purified in the quantities due to local pervasive radiation. Thus making farming impossible in The Capital Wasteland.
-Fallout 4, which takes place in The Commonwealth, doesn't have the same problem of pervasive radiation as The Capital Wasteland did, and thus, has no reason to not have farms.

Even if that video was never made, and no one complained about the lack of farms in Fallout 3, Fallout 4 would have still had farms, because the lack of farms was always a regional plot device exclusive to Fallout 3.

(also, the people who follow the guy and watch his videos posted positively about his videos? its almost like they are fans!)

Where do you get these bizarre as hell ideas from?

 

[CerberusGate]

Hurr durr... I only know how to make stuff up to propagate my agenda.... Duh...

Talk about pathetic attempts of defense. This is the weakest attempt of your nitpicking so far.

Source and links to those articles? Because this is the first I've heard of that video getting mainstream attention. In fact, the amount of views the video got suggests otherwise since it's only up to 280,845 views with a strong like to dislike ration (10,000+ vs 200+ dislikes). Other videos like HBomberguy's video on Fallout 3 are more indicative of mainstream attention with 700,000 views and a more balanced like to dislike ratio.

Plus nowadays, most people actually agree with those sentiments and even accept that there are problems with 3's setting. In fact, outside 4's fanbase, there are people who now point out the flaws of Bethesda's Fallout settings and like his points on it. Retrospect's a bitch, ain't it?
https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/3t1z54/remember_this_tun_the_shandification_of_fallout/

Heck, a few on Sugarbombed are alright with his points:
http://www.sugarbombed.com/forums/threads/tun-the-shandification-of-fallout.19307/

Also;

1. Bighorners are what they raise for food in Vegas. Not Brahmin. Dunno why you resorted to using Brahmin when the setting uses a combination of meats.
2. The Mirelurk farm in DC was abandoned (and why would you want farm giant dangerous crabs anyways?). Everyone there is dead or in game, no one goes back there. Besides, what makes you think the farm was successful aside from the recipe? It looks like people died there rather than having a long-term operation.
3. The hydroponics farm was still not producing enough food for settlers. Even with all the experiments by scientists, they do mention needing water in the setting.
4. Hunting is insufficient in sustaining a stationary population of substantial size. There will be starving civilians in Rivet City & Megaton in that case since such hunters would have to travel far to hunt for enough food for entire settlements.
5. Trading is insufficient to keep the food stable. Punga might be beneficial to providing a balanced diet but the time it takes to travel between Point Lookout and the CW is pretty long.
6. Then why make the game 200 years after radiation would have settled or been less apparent? If Fallout 3 took place a short time after the bombs fell, I'd have no issue with radiation in the water but 200 years is a long time.

Just because you disagree with him does not mean you should lie about the lack of positive reception or make up false claims to suit your agenda. Not all commenters on his video are fans or subscribers, mind you. They are viewers who actually have a differing opinion and thought process than you that express them via comments and what not. Summing them up as being fanboys of his content is presumptuous and frankly pathetic of you.

That's supposed beneath you (though since it's been your MO here to misrepresent and lie about things for your agenda, I guess not).

Also, as for my thoughts on your rather baseless wall of text up there:

Spoiler

Pretty much sums up how I view all your points. Back to disregarding your opinions again!

 

[naossano]

- quest markers that don't make sense in context. If the npc tell me "Go see the bartender and ask my money back" and the dialog mention where is the bar, it makes sense to have a marker. If he tells me " you have to find a geck to save our village" you shouldn't have a marker for something the guy who ordered you to find doesn't even know where it is. And even if he knew, he should have told you. The macguffin doesn't have a GPS on it.

- teleportation instead of actual means of travelling.

 

[CerberusGate]

If the npc tell me "Go see the bartender and ask my money back" and the dialog mention where is the bar, it makes sense to have a marker

That kind of marker makes sense. If the player does know the general area and the people in it, the player could recognise who (or what) they are looking for (which a marker could simulate though it should be an optional feature).

 

[CaptJ]

I already said what I think was the worst mechanic but I hate skill trees.

The only game that I enjoyed that is Etrian Odyssey not that I played a lot of games using that.

 

[Ilosar]

I remember playing Morrowind some time ago, but without any of the expansions installed. And the quest journal was completely worthless, not only were its directions vague but it wasn't sorted or organized at all, so you sometimes needed to go though ten pages to maybe have a hint on that quest you happened to pick up by clicking one of the game's myriad Wikipedia options five hours before. I hated that so much. I'd rather have quest marker than this.

That said, sometimes it's overkill. I've been playing the Remastered Bioshock 1 and 2, and the quest arrow there is not only useless to me, I feel that it harms the gameplay by not encouraging you to explore the levels. Needless to say it turned it off, and did the same with the Vita-Chambers because what the hell, the game is easy enough without also making death irrelevant.

The above also made me realise that while Bioshock 1's art design and story themes were good, its gameplay was trash. The second game is already much better in this regard, and apart from the retcons it also has a decent story.

 

[Dr Fallout]

While I hated the Journal itself (mods allowed you to write your own shit, so yay for mods), I actually liked the lack of a quest marker and need for proper directions. Because the dialogue is so wikipedia like, I got a notebook and wrote down the directions, basically making a second journal that was more understandable to me. Also wrote down things like the transit system and it's destinations, riddles and quotes.

Ah good times... can't really get that in a game no more.

 

[CerberusGate]

I got a notebook and wrote down the directions, basically making a second journal that was more understandable to me. Also wrote down things like the transit system and it's destinations, riddles and quotes

Say you know something else I miss from games sometimes? Having to draw your own map (though I prefer being able to find in-game maps to use) or actually using a basic map that does not mark every nook and cranny until the player character discovers said nook and crannies themselves (like in Silent Hill). Morrowind had something similar to that effect with a basic map that only marked major cities (though the local area map does show dungeon entrances if the PC stands in the right place).

 

[R.Graves]

^fog of war?

 

[CerberusGate]

^fog of war?

Well, exploration ought to lift fog of war though not quite. It's more like having a reactive map that marks features and entrances (though fog of war can obscure such features and entrances).

I prefer Silent Hill's system of handling maps: a general map of the area that is changed in-game by the PC when said PC encounters obstacles or locked entrances (scratched off doors indicating locked etc). Then when the PC goes to an Otherworld location which does not make sense geometrically (think Silent Hill 2), the map switches to a PC-drawn map that they fill up by exploring said location.