Best Game 'Minor' Innovations!

Imran Siddiqui · May 8, 2003, 07:41

No, no, I don't mean like Doom III's graphics, or Half Life's story. I mean like little things (be they features or options) that make you go, "That's so cool".

I'm saying the 'Test Performance' in No One Lives Forever 2. I've always thought it was tedious that when you changed one display option (resolution, whathaveyou) you'd have to go and play the game to see if it was ok, and if it wasn't, you'd have to make sure you didn't mess anything up before you could change the options back. NOLF2 has a little gameplay video that will test the performance of your display settings and give you a recommendation.

I had 1024*678*32 (or whatever) and Medium detail. I pressed the 'Test Performance' button. You say this little gameplay video, and then afterwards it told me, I could go higher with my settings. I thought that was a great idea! Don't have to futz around in my game to see if the settings worked ok, have something to do that for me outside of MY game itself.

DrSpike · May 8, 2003, 08:27

Deus Ex had tonnes of minor features that you could easily miss. For instance if you go into the ladies' room later on the game you overhear a women telling a friend "yeah *that's* him".

Lemmy · May 8, 2003, 08:31

Public works in CtP - The best ever.

Ctrl-N in GalCiv - creates a new random map without having to go through the "new game" setup.

Fallout character system, i think i spent over an hour the first time i created a character, i loved it!

Alex · May 8, 2003, 10:08

The pack mule in Dungeon Siege. It is surprising that no developer has ever thought about it before.

Rasbelin · May 8, 2003, 10:46

Great idea for a thread, Imran.

MoH:AA - working configuration file system.

MoH:AA SH - Call Vote, Vote Yes/no and maplist options in the in-game menu, unlike in MoH:AA. Also the gamma calibration is neat.

Freeciv - Can be played in a resizable window which is perfect for multitasking.

Civ III - Armies make it easier to move larger number of units at once. Especially good for larger field campaigns.

AoE - the lack of too many visible options may look confusing, but actually it's very working.

Traianvs · May 8, 2003, 11:11

I think the best minor idea ever in RTS games would be keyboard shortcuts... I wouldn't be able to imagine a game of AoK without a keyboard, yuk,... you can do everything thrice as fast with a keyboard

overpowering the shotgun in SoF gold was a very important minor difference that made the game kick ass a whole lot more

pg · May 8, 2003, 11:28

quake1 - mouselook... i'm not sure if you'd call it a minor innovation though.

at the time hardly anyone used it or knew about it while today every uses mouse look.

DrSpike · May 8, 2003, 11:36

Quote:

Originally posted by pg
quake1 - mouselook... i'm not sure if you'd call it a minor innovation though.

at the time hardly anyone used it or knew about it while today every uses mouse look.

True, I remember playing the really early games with keys..........then someone who I was playing quake1 with soon after I started playing it incredulously said "you mean you don't use mouselook?"

FPS was changed forever. Good call PG.

Grumbold · May 8, 2003, 12:40

Call to Power: powerful scripting and proper armies employing combined arms principles.

Braveheart: The first? game to combine RTS battles with a TBS country sim.

Rasbelin · May 8, 2003, 13:36

Good point indeed, PG.

Without mouselook, modern FPS games would be nearly impossible to play well.

Imran Siddiqui · May 8, 2003, 15:38

Another one:

Morrowind - REAL looking water! I mean, in most games before it you had water just be this clear, blueish stuff. In Morrowind (and in some games after... like NOLF2) you have a reflective, silverish top to the water, just like in real life. It looks absolutely AMAZING!

Alex · May 8, 2003, 15:54

Cheats available as a menu option in Civ2.

CapitanGarlic · May 9, 2003, 02:29

Color-changing HUDs. Or HUDs with schemes, like Deus Ex (Soylent Green=

)

Maquiladora · May 11, 2003, 10:58

I use Soylent Green too mmmmm

For minor innovations id say the in-game tutorial or the training mission, for those of us who cant be arsed to read the manual from cover to cover!

Sandman · May 11, 2003, 12:51

Games coming in DVD boxes, as opposed to those cardboard boxes.

DrSpike · May 11, 2003, 13:12

Quote:

Originally posted by Sandman
Games coming in DVD boxes, as opposed to those cardboard boxes.

Lol.............I still have a space the size of a small warehouse back home dedicated to storing all my old boxes from Amiga and PC games.

mrmitchell · May 11, 2003, 13:37

Minor innovations?

Most of them are already said, but:

-Mouselook...I can't imagine life without it

-Keyboard Shortcuts...Ditto
-Changing weapons with the mouse wheel...

-asdw instead of arrow keys...my keyboard is in the position where using the arrows would be uncomfortable to say the least, but asdw works great

(then again maybe I am just an idiot)
-noCD cracks....

DrSpike · May 11, 2003, 13:46

Quote:

Originally posted by mrmitchell

-Changing weapons with the mouse wheel...

Eek, that's awful. Use a different key bind for each weapon, and find something else for the mousewheel.

Rasbelin · May 11, 2003, 14:18

No, it's not.

I use it all the time for MoH:AA and SH.

Adagio · May 11, 2003, 14:40

- Using mousewheel for zooming in RTS games...

What I like most of all, is:
- Having several different teams, with special abilities (Special units, etc)

DrSpike · May 11, 2003, 15:42

Quote:

Originally posted by Rasbelin
No, it's not.

I use it all the time for MoH:AA and SH.

Well I don't play MoH, but if there are several weapons I bet you the top players don't use the mousewheel to change weapons.

I am a Quake3 player............no one who is anything in the game uses the mousewheel for weapon switching. When you need a certain weapon you need it immediately, not after you have cycled through the weapons.

mrmitchell · May 11, 2003, 18:09

I play Red Faction....(go ahead, laugh)you rarely need to change weapons, and most of the time you'll find a brand new bug when you try to use a key bind.

General Ludd · May 11, 2003, 21:11

Total Anhilation: Intelligent units. If they where ordered to move somewhere and encounter an enemy on the way, they will engage it (and do a "drive by" if possible), ect... very few RTS games do this for some reason, and that is why I hate most of them.

St Leo · May 11, 2003, 21:58

quake1 - mouselook... i'm not sure if you'd call it a minor innovation though. at the time hardly anyone used it or knew about it while today every uses mouse look.

Duke3D had that.

very few RTS games do this for some reason, and that is why I hate most of them.

It's because very few RTS games let units move and attack at the same time. Among other things, that limits the utility of horse archers in AoE because it eliminates the main reason for their historical success.

Total Annihilation: Everything queue-able.
Imperialism II: WEGO movement.
Age of Wonders: Simultaneous turns.
Warlords Battlecry: Persistent heroes. Persistent heroes. Perstistent heroes.

Urban Ranger · May 12, 2003, 01:14

Automapping in RPG's. The ability to annotate automaps in RPG's. The ability to record conversations and events in RPG's.

Adagio · May 12, 2003, 05:55

Quote:

Originally posted by St Leo
quake1 - mouselook... i'm not sure if you'd call it a minor innovation though. at the time hardly anyone used it or knew about it while today every uses mouse look.

Duke3D had that.

Yeah... to bad I didn't learn it, before Duke3D was almost getting too old...

Jamski · May 12, 2003, 07:39

I can't beleive noone has said
AUTOSAVE!
Can you imagine life without it? And yet its nothing special really, is it?

-Jam

Adagio · May 12, 2003, 11:17

Quote:

Originally posted by War of Art
I can't beleive noone has said
AUTOSAVE!
Can you imagine life without it? And yet its nothing special really, is it?

-Jam

Hmmm... I should have mentioned this:

- An option to disable autosave...

autosave is sooo annoying...

Jamski · May 12, 2003, 11:34

Pah - Autosave has saved my life soooo many times. Y'know, when the computer crashes, and you hadn't saved for 3 hours...

I

autosave.

-Jam

Urban Ranger · May 12, 2003, 11:34

Quote:

Originally posted by War of Art
I can't beleive noone has said
AUTOSAVE!
Can you imagine life without it? And yet its nothing special really, is it?

-Jam

Who uses it, anyway?