What game mechanics do you want to see in a Choicescript game?

Hello! I’m new to these parts, and I know this question has been asked before, but I just wanted to know: what kinds of game mechanic would you like to see in a Choicescript game?

It depends on the game. Like what kind/genre it is.

I guess I’d want to see if there’s any room for more dynamic progression when it comes to story progression or character abilities.

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I second Knight.

What do you mean by “mechanics”?

Oh, and there is a typo in the title :wink:

On second thought, there is a game mechanic that I want to see regardless of genre.

Harems/Multiple lovers.

Hahahaha…

Kidding! Kidding!

By the way, little Ludi reply to my email!

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Hmm, I would like to see some simulation type mechanics, or primitive AI. With enough variables you might be able to fool the player into thinking the AI responds to everything you do.

Combat is always tricky, I think mostly people use narrative combat, whereas I and a few others try for turn based combat. I’d be interested to see if you have any theories or thoughts on the mechanics. And of course, we could code share :wink:

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I guess I’d like to see more red herrings and sandboxish exploration. A character map and/or character descriptions would be good for games with a lot of characters and complex relationships. I also like more detailed character relationships with refrences to past events like in tell take games (He will remember that).

COG (usually) doesn’t have visual aspects like visual novels, RPGs, or other games, so certain thinks like monster right grinding or skill gaining can get tedious if not done correctly. Events and unique skill gaining scenarios like a detailed scene describing how you used magic to defeats a monster instead of having to click “study magic” every so often with no changes in the scenes. Events like in the Our Personal Space mobile/computer games helped break up the skill selections and made it less tedious.

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Yes, red herrings are good!

Also complex relationships.

I don’t want the goody-goody heroes and the one-dimensional villains.
I want some depth.

I also don’t want the classic good vs evil, because that’s been to death.
And the world is not like that.

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I was after writing a sandbox game but the code is just to massive for one writer.

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@Snowpanther I’m thinking of general ways players interact with the story. Like how some games have time loops where you can fix your past mistakes. Or sandboxing. Or having just two choices at every point (that gives me an idea btw)…

@CitizenShawn Oooh, AI! Not sure I could do that, but would definitely be very cool to see :smiley:

@RagEgnite What do you mean?

Ma boi @Maxmansung is doing a game that’s sort of like raising a tribe of primitives as their deity

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I’d like there to be an element of unpredictability in spme walkthroughs, as it’s a bit too easy to calculate how you’ll go about playing through it.

I think the first Choice of Vampire game had a brief one during character creation, where a randomly chosen stat is increased.

I don’t know enough about ChoiceScript in order to talk about game mechanics but I can discuss gameplay that I would like to see.

More complex relationships not only between the player and other characters but also between the characters themselves.

Survival aspects where hunger, thirst, sleep, and etcetera are tracked and must be dealt with in order to prevent illness or death.

Time sensitive stories where you have x amount of days or whatever in order to complete a objective or something else. Perhaps every choice eats away at an invisible clock.

And other things I can’t think of at the moment.

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I think Zombie Exodus has a lot of that type of mechanics, I haven’t played too many CoG games but I haven’t seen many that are so complex. But yes I’ll keep that in mind, I’ll try to make my game have more complex relationships vs just a relationship number stat.

Failure states other than death. Too many playthroughs of games are cut short by a variation on “you dead now, mate.” Granted I can see some games trying to sell themselves on a retro level of “you will die a lot” difficulty, but personally I’m a bit more invested in story than I am in challenge.

Have there be challenges , and have it so there are consequences for failure absolutely, but don’t have it be a consequence that cuts a player’s playthrough short. It’s not an entirely easy ask I know, given that the author would then have to ask themselves “how does the story continue if they can’t do this?” But I think it could result in some great twists.

That said, when you hit the ending ending, I’m totally fine with there being eleven endings where you’re dead and only one happily ever after, I just don’t want players being prevented from getting a full story.

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I would like to have a pet. They can be helpful especially in apocalypse settings or lost in the middle of no where settings where you need good. Cats and dogs are always hunting down wild game and sharing their bounty with humans and that skill can be utililized one day or maybe they can just be cute or add an element of drama when you want to pursue someone who is allergic or doesn’t like your pet.

RPG style side quests would also be nice.

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I love the idea of failure states that aren’t deaths.

Also having a pet.

I actually like games with minimal stats. Or interesting opposed stats that take inspiration from https://www.choiceofgames.com/2011/07/7-rules-for-designing-great-stats/

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Generally, if you’re thinking about it in terms of mechanics, I’d be willing to guess that there’s a good chance you’re coming at it from the wrong direction. CS is designed for interactive fiction, and generally more involved mechanics detract from that far more than they add. A good story with interesting choices should be the foundation, not a secondary concern. Consider what anything adds to the story first, and then the game second, and I think you’ll have a better foundation to work with.

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As much as I respect you my friend I have to disagree with you slightly on the stats. A lot those define how the player feels in the game and that often traps you into making choices you may not agree with. I think stats are important and can define the MC without trapping them into feeling a certain way through out the whole game really makes a different. Just my two cents :smile:

I like having a back button for some choices. I sometimes mistype my name or get confused on whether I’m suppose to enter a first, last, or full name; a back button for inputted text is nice.

When an author creates their own world with unique classes or races, sometimes eveything isn’t explained well and I’m left picking a choice at random and not really knowing anything about the class until after I’ve already made my choice. Letting the player choose an option and then having a paragraph or so explaining that option and a back button so the player can rechoose if they don’t like their class would be a great feature. Or, there could be a codex in that stat screen or long text walls of description (this may be tricky to write without causing the reader to loose interest after clicking next a bunch of times without choices) explaining the options.

I agree with @Lordirish about stats. Stats should enhance the game and not randomly block off choices that the author feels the player wouldn’t make when the player knows how they want to role play.

I think opposed pair stats are difficult to do well such as when the stats are not complete opposites or lump together a bunch of random characteristics. There isn’t really a reason why gaining knowledge should make a person uglier or being smart means you can’t also be nice. I understand not wanting the player to be overpowered and perfect at eveything, I just don’t like the assumptions about the player character or how two seemingly unrelated things are mashed together.

If there was an easy way to implement a renpy like system of autoforwarding, skipping seen text, save slots, and all the text control options, I would love that. But, since that is unlikely to happen, I like decent sized pages (about three paragraphs at least, I don’t like having to click next a lot and every page only has a sentence on it) with fast loading times.

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