A Diskussion about "regenerative health" in horror games.

[the dark side]

Warning: Long Post. (i Dont do short posts, sorry)

tell me, Did it occur to any of you that googolplex is a german, english is not his first lanquage, hence, massive spelling errors, syntax issues, Etc?

I would image that, if you attempted to type on a french lanquage forum, in there native lanquage, when its far from your first lanquage, it would probably look like you had typed "good moaning" instead of good morning.

I dont have the excuse of being from mainland europe, im UK, yet, as you can see, my spelling and grammar are, self admittedly, Apocalyptically bad. well, blame that on mild dyslexia and pretty dodgy hand eye co-ordination, theoretically i Should use dragontype, but, how am i supposed to improve, typing wise, by not actually typing?

i quess you are wondering "who in the sam hell are you!?!" im that guy from the Uk he was talking about, normally, i wouldn't join a forum like this, but, i am so horrified outraged and apalled at the number of people who considered me a troll from that original post, i thaught id better come here in person to try and dispell that beleive.

its probably not going to work, but, no harm in trying.

It seems to me that to many users a "troll" is anyone who has a different opinion to them, you do realise that on that theory, i could consider most of you as "trolls" because your opinions are different from mine?

I must ask, however, to forget about the rules of normality when talking to me, i have Aspergers Syndrome, a varient on autism, so net result, i am about as far from normal as a biker mouse from mars parking on your front lawn.

sorry about the use of caps lock in my old rant, i quess they did end up making me look like just another 13 year old modem blaster, but, im not too sure on how else to emphasise a point, any ideas.

now, im not going to go to far into this whole Regenerating health, Call of duty cloning, etc, business yet, and how it can be solved to the satisfaction of both parties by actually borrowing something else from some Older FPS titles (regen health is an FPS innovation, COD-2 i think.. correct me, Politely! if im wrong!)

i really want to use this post to explain Why people like me are so downright angry with the mainstream.
imagine you Dont like Simulation racers, and one Really, i mean, Really Took off, over 20 million sales, so all the companies decided "Right! from now on, every racing game will copy "X" ". how would youy feel, you would feel like you are being "thrown out" of your hobby, well we dont like COD elements, because, i personally find they make games incredibly boring, i dont know about you, but, i dont play games to be bored out of my skull! and it seems every game is cpying them, did you know i am now having trouble telling the difference between COD and virtually every other game out there? ok, there are mild story differences, and graphical differences, but in terms of gameplay, the most important asset to any videogame in my personal opinion, they are all identical!

anyway, as you felt "thrown out" you would want to complain ,human nature, and all that happens is companies fob you offf by saying "we wanted to appeal to the mainstream!" (oh really, then how come serious sam 3 did so well, totally hardcore, and a massive hit) and all of forum ville consider you either a hipster, a troll, or Both. you know how that feels, like you are being Squashed.

We feel Supressed! No one likes that, so we react with anger, Anger is not exactly the best bedfellow for logic
put down the Mainstream "cod is roxorz, anyone who disagrees is a hipster troll" propoganda for a second, and try and see things they way we see them, please!

anyway, sorry for spilling my guts on the first post, ill try to be more on topic next time
BTW. thanks for the support Damascus Rose, its good to see at least 1 person read into my old post and found some signs of life...

[Kman]

I actually appreciate that you took the time to come here and explain yourself. But anyways, I think you'll find that the majority of people here aren't exactly CoD fans (many of them are very against it like you in fact). I, for one, didn't think you were a troll. I just thought you had some very... Interesting ideas about game design and felt like responding to them. As for the people that did see you as one, I can understand that. Like I said, many of your ideas about game design and games in general are very out there (regenerative health and clumsiness making a game scarier, just for example), and considering that they were stated in a Googolplex thread it'd be easy for people to assume you were just trolling. I can understand why you're so against CoD, but with that said many games out there (ones that came out even before CoD started getting big) share gameplay elements with it, and saying that all of those games automatically suck is very narrow minded.

[Juby]

There is not one truth cast into stone, only lies cast into flame. But when judgement strikes, we're all guilty.

[the dark side]

hey kman, and thanks, i am sorry if i got the wrong end of the "stick" with the COD thing, i hadnt found the anti COD thread at the time, i should mention i frequenlty get the wrong end of the stick, so i must ask all users, if i take something wrong, please, bear with it and tell me very simply what was meant!

granted my ideas are very far out there, the danger of a lack of understanding,an overheated imagination, and an autism skewered viewpoint on life, is crazy ideas! still, when did crazy game ideas harm anyone, most people thaught kazunuri yamiuchi was "far out" and "crazy" with gran Turismo... 60 million sales later, its even got its own team in the les mans 24 hours...

being clumsy and unable to run away from dangers is horrific, beleive me, i know!, it may be why i dont find amnesia all that scary, because, i experienced a school life of pure, inescapable (due to clumsiness making running nigh on impossible!) pshycological Horror that caused more than one nervous breakdown... id consider a game that used psycological horror, clumsiness and human enemies to be very very scary as it would tie in to my own personal past experiences of Real Life Horror.

i know Googolplex reads like a troll, but he isnt one, its just english is not his first lanquage, so there is probably a lanquage barrier issue at work there, as i said, if i tried typing this in swedish, id probably look the biggest troll this side of a fantasy novel.

yes, i will openly admit i can be very narrow minded a full bore "herbert". i, due to aspergers, have a very basic logic, that is "if it is not X it must be Y and Y sucks"

i have a real reason for hating cod, not only because i find it boring and overdone, but because publishers are attracted to the easy profits of cloning it, they are not only accelerating another games crash (although i feel it is necessary to get rid of COD-Cloning and casual gaming, before long we will have games that are 100% QTE again...i feel sad about all the developers who will loose there jobs, many dont choose to make COD clones, many would rather make an old school shooter like SSIII, they are forced by the publishers marketing board on pain of studio closure to make Cod Clones) but its also meant i cannot get any publisher interest in my own IP, despite some mild developer interest, because they only want to make fast buck COD clones, and the copywrite lease on my IP (i will only lease the copywrite, so i keep full 100% controll of it, they cant stab me in the back and make it a cod clone game with a cia main star instead of the old school FPS with an MI6 main star i have envisioned) expressly forbids pretty much every single COD mechanic as a "forced element". its stopping me from sharing my creativity from the world, as sadly, a kickstarter budget just wont be enough to sustain the game, it needs an AAA budget or it will run out of money! beleive me, i got an accountant to do the sums, and they sadly didnt add up.

i know many older games had COD elements, some of my favourites even have the one i hate most, Dynamic Scaling "Expanding Crosshairs", and QTE started on PS1 if i remember rightly. but, many of those elements could be turned "off". take Solider of Fortune 2 as example (seems many of this forums users love that game as well as me). you could have it with COD Style expanding 'hairs, ot you could go to options, Crosshairs, Recoil simulation, "Off". and have old school fixed ones, i liked that,. the choice, player agency, you wernt forced to use them, unlike most modern games.

its like how some old shooters had a mild regen on the bottom 25% health to make it easier for new players, but, it could be turned off in the options.

one of my fave games of all time is "Borderlands" from gearbox as it had total player agency, you could have total regen health, semi regen and medkits, or just medkits, you could have fixed or dynamic hairs, zoom aim or ADS, 2 gun limit, 4 gun quick select and a handy claptrap, or a no limit wheel, All via options, no "mod" needed!.

i think that is why it did so well in sales, as it appelead to all gamers, the mainstream could set it up for a cod like experience, and the hardcore could set it up for straight up DOOM.

i wish more games would do that, as it would mean more sales, and No one would be denied the kind of game they want.

i mean, why "Force" players, in the case of amnesia to use regen, i mean, the game has laudanum...

Frictional, ive just had an idea, if you want to use it, i would be honoured!

Laudnanum offers an instant boost to full health, like an old school medikit, i wonder, would it be possible, in a later project, to offer an option in menu, kind of like the old "dynamic scaling" option. the option to turn the Regenerating health Off. leaving you restricted to laudanum.

you could easily double the sales, the fact the regen defaults to on means it wont be too hard for the mainstream player, but the fact it can be turned off means the hardcore wont feel "squashed for the sake of kids" and will be more willing to purchase the game from steam.

just an idea to get more sales. that is what the games industry is about after all.

[Hunter of Shadows]

i know Googolplex reads like a troll, but he isnt one, its just english is not his first lanquage, so there is probably a lanquage barrier issue at work there, as i said, if i tried typing this in swedish, id probably look the biggest troll this side of a fantasy novel.

Yes we're aware of this fact, he's just hopelessly delusional

[Hardarm]

Laudnanum offers an instant boost to full health, like an old school medikit, i wonder, would it be possible, in a later project, to offer an option in menu, kind of like the old "dynamic scaling" option. the option to turn the Regenerating health Off. leaving you restricted to laudanum.

you could easily double the sales, the fact the regen defaults to on means it wont be too hard for the mainstream player, but the fact it can be turned off means the hardcore wont feel "squashed for the sake of kids" and will be more willing to purchase the game from steam.

just an idea to get more sales. that is what the games industry is about after all.

They could make an option when health regenerates SLOOOOOOOWLY, like 1 hour until it's at the 60% (then it stops there), And the laudanum could activate a kind of progressive acceleration/regenerating health that is long like RandInt(2,5) minutes (a random value between 2 and 5), like Fallout: New Vegas' hardcore mode's health when you use stimpacks... if you know what I mean.

[the dark side]

that is a Superb idea Hardarm, very, hardcore, and very realstic actually, taking into acount healing times and delayed adrenal affects, it would certainly make the player feel more like they are Daniel, seeing as daniels body repair would work very similar to that of a real human. the fact the idea is similar to fallout will also ensure appeal to both mainstream and hardcore players, as fallout appealed to both equally.

perhaps have 3 health options, allowing for total player agency, Modern (standard regen), Traditional (medkit based using laudanum, no regen) and Realistic (your system)?
.

[Googolplex]

Hello.
My friend was reading here because we are interested in horror games that are not made for the casual mainstream. So he asked me to post this. In relation to the general topic.


"ok, so you wanted to appeal to the mainstream, ok, i understand that, you are a small company, you need as much money as you can get, so as to become bigger (although, you can still actually more than do that by appealling purely to hardcore, Just look at how well serious sam 3 did, ok, its not a horor game in any way shape or form, its a straight up "dumb" FPS from the DOOM school, but its still one of "Steam's" biggest sellers, and its totally hardcore, so again, whats your excuse for treating the hardcore like second class citizens?) but, did you really have to Spit in the face of the hardcore players and treat us like second class citizens just like virtually every other company? its why we get so mentally angry with the mainstream, we are getting supressed! no one likes that!

Imagine being told that "all racing games from now on will copy gran turismo", but you dont really like simulators, and if you tried to complain about it, because you feel like you are being "thrown out" of your own hobby, everyone just caleld you "an outdated hippy" how would you feel, Pretty darn opressed i imagine, well, thats what its like for those of uus who hate the "call of duty" isation of every game out there, we feel we are beign supressed, especially when our complaints are just dismissed with a "fucking hipster" comment. we fell ike we arwe getting supressed and thrown out, its why we get Angry, try seeing thigns trough our eyes for once instead of just calling us "hipsters" like we were just trailer park trash.

on the regen health issue, and how to cure it without winding one or the other side of the great gaming devide up.

look you have laudanum in the game yes? wich gives an instant boost back to fuill health. like an old school medpack. well, I remember when "dynamic scaling" was first introduced into FPS (its pertinant, as regen health is also an FPS mechanic that has made it over to horror).. "expanding crosshairs" as they are also known, some people liked them, because it offered a more realistic weapomns handling experience, a lot of people didn't like them however, as the blurriness of those early Expansion animations made a lot of people nauseous, so games develoeprs programmed the option to turn the dynamic scaling off.

well, how hard would it have been for you to programme into the game, or, as ill let you have this one idea gratis, as you have talent at frictional and i want you to succeed, future games, an option to turn the auto regen off?

that way, the mainstram, who prefer regen health, still have it, as it defaults to on, but, those hardcore gamers who hate the mechanic can just go to "options-health-Auto Regen-Off", disable the auto regen, and will be limited top healing via laudanum. that way. you would appeal to both the mainstream and the hardcore, treating neither as a second class citizen by sayiong "yopu Have to use regen health", or "you have to use medkits", the player can choose what health system the want. i doubt it would take more than 10 minuites to programme that option, and as you wont be supressing either casual/m,ainstream or hardcore players, you could possibly even double the sames from having that option.

(i do understand the games industry, i dont like the way its gone again (this is the second casual era), no, but, from what i can see, there is a massive "1983 part 2" games crash on the way in that is going to get rid of the COD loving casual mainstream soon anyway, so i can bide my time, i do have a hardcore Ip i want to get off the ground, no sense in trying to launch it in an era were its not going to be accepted by the mainstream gamer so ill wait for hardcore gaming to become "in voque" again and it will, this is casual era 2, when we have games crash 2, seeing as 1983 was the end of the first casual era, well have hardcore again, its just history repeating itself, gives me time to come up with a few more sequals)

would it be so hard as to programme that, a simple choice of if you want regen, or just the laudanum? i think it would help sales, the mainstream wont feel like they are being over-challenged, the hardcore wont feel like there are being "supressed for the sake of kids" and the player, due to the increased "payer agency" something the games industry is very interested in again, will feel more like they are a part of the game, and will enjoy it far more than they would without that choice."

[the dark side]

your late googol, i am a member now. thanks for reposting anyway though.

[spukrian]

Not really. We called him out on his stupidity. Stupidity shouldn't be rewarded.

Well, I think you guys acted like a bunch of bullies... and no one likes a bully.

Stupidity should be met with intelligent arguments, not personal attacks.