Post by SsnakeBite, the No1 Frenchman on Jan 1, 2016 8:54:05 GMT -5
Mechanics to either threaten or mug enemies. What I mean by that is that when I don't feel like playing an outright good guy, I like to play a "thief with principles" type of character. So like, I would steal from people, and if they tried to kill me as a result I would defend myself, but I would avoid resorting to violence as much as possible and I certainly wouldn't kill someone if they aren't a threat to my life.
Now with such a character, it'd be nice to have an option to commit some highway robbery, basically stopping a merchant caravan or something and yell out "your money or your life!" and so there is at least an option to steal from someone without hurting them... but it in pretty much every video game I've played, it's simply not there. You either pickpocket people without them noticing or you get ready for a bloodbath, which is made even worse by the fact in most games, the entire town will try to murder you if you have the temerity to steal crumpled paper from a garbage can and at this point, I don't think I'm the bad guy for committing a massacre.
I really don't understand why it isn't more common in video game RPGs to be able to non-violently rob people or to get them to do what you want by threatening them, unless in very specific scenarios through dialogue trees (so it's not an actual gameplay mechanic that you can use as you see fit). It's bizarrely difficult to play a thief who isn't a murderer.
At first I thought it might be because it's too difficult to code, but then again, it doesn't seem to be an issue for games like GTA or Saints Row where you can mug people without killing them. Hell, in Fallout New Vegas, NPCs do react if you aim at them while in iron sights so it doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to create a "threaten/mug" option out of that. And in turn-based RPGs, it seems like it should be fairly easy to add an "your money or your life option" to dialogue trees (or even make it a separate type of dialogue) when interacting with random NPCs.
So do you guys know if there's a particular reason why it's almost never an option in video game RPGs? And do you know of exceptions?
Now with such a character, it'd be nice to have an option to commit some highway robbery, basically stopping a merchant caravan or something and yell out "your money or your life!" and so there is at least an option to steal from someone without hurting them... but it in pretty much every video game I've played, it's simply not there. You either pickpocket people without them noticing or you get ready for a bloodbath, which is made even worse by the fact in most games, the entire town will try to murder you if you have the temerity to steal crumpled paper from a garbage can and at this point, I don't think I'm the bad guy for committing a massacre.
I really don't understand why it isn't more common in video game RPGs to be able to non-violently rob people or to get them to do what you want by threatening them, unless in very specific scenarios through dialogue trees (so it's not an actual gameplay mechanic that you can use as you see fit). It's bizarrely difficult to play a thief who isn't a murderer.
At first I thought it might be because it's too difficult to code, but then again, it doesn't seem to be an issue for games like GTA or Saints Row where you can mug people without killing them. Hell, in Fallout New Vegas, NPCs do react if you aim at them while in iron sights so it doesn't seem like it would be that difficult to create a "threaten/mug" option out of that. And in turn-based RPGs, it seems like it should be fairly easy to add an "your money or your life option" to dialogue trees (or even make it a separate type of dialogue) when interacting with random NPCs.
So do you guys know if there's a particular reason why it's almost never an option in video game RPGs? And do you know of exceptions?