Re: Game mechanics do you like?

Spalls Hurgenson <spallshurgenson@gmail.com> wrote at 15:15 this Thursday (GMT):

On Wed, 15 Jan 2025 11:54:30 -0600, Zaghadka <zaghadka@hotmail.com>
wrote:
>

On Mon, 13 Jan 2025 16:14:39 -0500, in comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,
Spalls Hurgenson wrote:
>

Escort quests can be fun.

>
No. NO! Bad Spalls, BAD! (*reaches for rolled up newspaper*)

>
I know, I know. We've all had bad experiences. But that's just because
those escort quests are badly done.
>
But if they're done well, they're fun!
>
I mean, "The Last of Us" and "Enslaved: Odyssey to the West" are
basically both extended escort quests. The 2008 "Prince of Persia"
(which is a lot better than most people remember) is another.
>
The key is to not make the escortee so fucking useless and vulnerable
as to squeeze all the fun out of the experience. If they are
vulnerable, don't have them rush into combat. Give them good
pathfinding so you aren't backtracking to get them unstuck. Make it so
the player, not the escortee, is determining the pace and direction of
the adventure. Give the escortee something to do other than simply
whine at the player.
>
All this takes effort and creativity. But if done well, it works
great. The NPC feels like a real companion, and not just a load that
must be moved from point A to point B.

Hm.. the only game where I kinda? liked escort missions was PMD, since
you had the safety net of a billion get-out-of-jail-free revive seeds.

In general, they're pretty terrible though. /ESPECIALLY/ if the
checkpoints are sparse.
--
user <candycane> is generated from /dev/urandom