[ / / / / / / / / / / / / / ] [ dir / agatha / asmr / cafechan / hkjpic / hkon9 / hkpol / vg / vichan ]

/v/ - Happy Birthday Sonic

Vidya Gaems
Email
Comment *
File
Password (Randomized for file and post deletion; you may also set your own.)
* = required field[▶ Show post options & limits]
Confused? See the FAQ.
Flag
Embed
(replaces files and can be used instead)
Oekaki
Show oekaki applet
(replaces files and can be used instead)
Options

Allowed file types:jpg, jpeg, gif, png, webm, mp4, swf, pdf
Max filesize is 16 MB.
Max image dimensions are 15000 x 15000.
You may upload 5 per post.


<BOARD RULES>
[ /agdg/ | Vidya Porn | Hentai Games | Retro Vidya | Contact ]

YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.

a260a8 No.15045430

With mechanics where RNG is often used as a chance for something to happen, but can be strongly influenced by the player to the point where the chance is always 100% in certain situations but around 5% or so in others, why not make it fully deterministic at that point?

For example, take pain chances in Doom/Quake. Different enemies have different pain chances whenever they are hit, making some enemies more prone to being stunned, which also makes rapid-fire weapons or the super shotgun useful for inflicting hitstun (because it fires 20 pellets and pain chance is rolled per hit). Quake further builds upon this by increasing the pain chance on enemies if you hit them mid-attack or from behind (and Nightmare mode gives enemies a 5 second cooldown between being vulnerable to hitstun again). Obviously it would be silly if even the heavy enemies were completely susceptible to hitstun, hence why they have much lower pain chances.

This works for the most part, but it is an inelegant solution. For example, Archviles have the lowest pain chance of any enemy (3.13%), so you're unlikely to interrupt their fire pillar attack. But, the chance is not zero, so with a super shotgun, you might sometimes end up stunning the Archvile and get yourself some breathing room. But, it is entirely random. Not the good kind of RNG which makes things unpredictable to test your reflexes and on-the-fly decision-making skills, but where sometimes you get lucky and the enemy gets stunned but sometimes you don't. Why not make it entirely 0% for the Archvile instead? Pain chance works for the most part because the weaker enemies can get reliably stunned and you're usually not trying to stun stronger enemies to begin with, but you might as well replace the system with deterministic stun gauges or the likes.

In Marathon every weapon would inflict guaranteed hitstun on hit, allowing rapid-fire weapons to stunlock enemies, but to offset that, weapons had to be reloaded so you couldnt shoot/stunlock indefinitely. In DESYNC, medium-class enemies are susceptible to stagger and launching from any weapon whereas heavy enemies can't be launched and need to be dealt more damage (preferably using heavy weapons) before they would be staggered.

Another example is how in Overload enemies would have a chance to drop health orbs on death, but it was high enough to feel consistent. Being low on health would increase the drop chances to help you out, and Challenge Mode had a combo bar where killing enemies in quick succession would increase the drop rate. However, I'd figure it would be a more elegant solution if an orb was dropped for every X enemies killed with other factors influencing that variable. This way the player can at least anticipate what gets dropped, and possibly play on that (like how in Battle Garegga you could predict when medals get dropped and position yourself accordingly).

d8e88c No.15045560

You're answering your own question. Doom does not have a deterministic design paradigm. You're just as likely to stun that Archvile as you are to have it run in circles for 5 seconds or have every hitscan enemy shoot the instant they come into view. Many small chaotic elements add up to a consistent picture. You might as well ask why shotguns have a random pellet pattern instead of damage falloff, or any number of other inane autistic questions.

In fact I think the complete opposite to what you're suggesting is true. 95% chance to work can be fun, 5% chance to work can be fun (as long as it's not the basis of gameplay obviously), 50% chance to work is shit. It's in the middle, pseudo-predictable cases that you want determinism instead.


fdb013 No.15045592

Why can't we have a TF Devastation sequel already…




[Return][Go to top][Catalog][Nerve Center][Cancer][Post a Reply]
Delete Post [ ]
[]
[ / / / / / / / / / / / / / ] [ dir / agatha / asmr / cafechan / hkjpic / hkon9 / hkpol / vg / vichan ]