"Patience" as a game skill

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whale_cancer

Guest
Hello!

Part of the narrative structure of my game involves a long interplanetary flight. I don't like the idea of just skipping over this and instead want to include some gameplay that simulates this (this is a design choice I have made elsewhere; to include gameplay outside what you might expect for the purposes of certain sections of narrative in order to best simulate the feel of the event in question).

Right now, I am planning on having a sidescrolling shooter section along the lines of Gradius. However, the only obstacles will be small interstellar rocks coming from the right and occasional bursts of cosmic rays coming from the left. There won't be many, but just enough to require occasional adjustment of the player's flight path.

During this section I intend to have exposition by NPCs shown as dialogue near the bottom of the screen.

My intention is to allow the player to fly off the right of the screen in order to skip the section. That the player is allowed to do this would be conveyed early on in the NPC dialogue I mentioned earlier.

I am thinking of rewarding players who stick through it and don't fly off the screen, but I am not sure how. Do you see any value in that? Do you see any value in this kind of gameplay? Do you know any examples, or have you come up with any ways, in which patience is a game skill?

Any input welcome.
 
M

Me Myself and I

Guest
I can't wait to see it! (get it?)

But seriously, I'm one of those cutscene/dead-time skippers....not gonna lie. Still, you absolutely can reward players for playing it out with power-ups/buffs. Maybe even throw in a mini-game to help pass the time. Personally, I don't think you should tell the players about it outright -- you can allude to it/drop clues in the NPC dialogue but it should be a "secret" or hidden bonus.

imho of course
 

HayManMarc

Member
As long as there's something for the player to do besides just sitting and waiting, otherwise it could get too boring for the average player.

If a player spends an incredible amount of time waiting just to be killed at a blink of an eye later, it could be extremely frustrating and cause rage quit.
 

Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
How about having stuff regenerate/recharge over time? This means players who wait between events gets free recovery of stuff they'd otherwise spend resources on. I personally hate equipping slow-recovery-over-time items in DS2 since it feels like they encourage not playing because it's the optimal strategy (healing without using resources), but if you want to use it it's the strongest incentive I've seen for waiting so far.
 
I am thinking of rewarding players who stick through it and don't fly off the screen, but I am not sure how. Do you see any value in that? Do you see any value in this kind of gameplay? Do you know any examples, or have you come up with any ways, in which patience is a game skill?

Any input welcome.
The best way you can reward players for sticking there is to grant them varied and intersting dialogues and character developement as the flight goes on.
Maybe cute little slice-of-life scenes from inside the ship.
 
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Galladhan

Guest
This idea brought back to my mind the walk in the forest with Shenhua, in Shenmue 2. It was mostly a long cutscene, with some Quick Time Event every now and then, but it helped to create the feeling of a journey. It wasn't skippable, though, so it's not exactly what you're trying to achieve, @whale_cancer .

 
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DariusWolfe

Guest
Do you play any Bethesda game?

What is the reward for eschewing fast-travel? You get to see the world. You get to happen upon sites that you may never get to see if you simply fast-travel from objective to objective.

Adrien Dittrick's ideas above are the sort of thing I'm talking about, mostly. Maybe some small mechanical bonuses, but nothing too big, or else people will start to wait simply to get the bonuses, which is a sort of grinding. If you want to give mechanical bonuses, consider going for horizontal rather than vertical; basically things that add interesting options, rather than straight-up power boosts.
 
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whale_cancer

Guest
I'm one of those cutscene/dead-time skippers....not gonna lie
Adrien Dittrick's ideas above are the sort of thing I'm talking about, mostly. Maybe some small mechanical bonuses, but nothing too big, or else people will start to wait simply to get the bonuses, which is a sort of grinding. If you want to give mechanical bonuses, consider going for horizontal rather than vertical; basically things that add interesting options, rather than straight-up power boosts.[/QUOTE]

Same, thus I find making this bit interesting extra challenging. I figure that if the player knows they can skip it, they might want to not skip it solely to see what happens if they don't.
Personally, I don't think you should tell the players about it outright
My worry is that this happens fairly early on in the game (after a short tutorial section for the main gameplay loop); thus, it might end up that the player gets bored and turns it off before they get to the meat of the game. I will try it out both ways, though; get some guinea pigs and try to get some magic happening.
As long as there's something for the player to do besides just sitting and waiting, otherwise it could get too boring for the average player.

If a player spends an incredible amount of time waiting just to be killed at a blink of an eye later, it could be extremely frustrating and cause rage quit.
My intent is to make it no more challenging than an early level in a shooter, probably a bit less challenging in terms of risk of death, but more challenging in terms of collecting bonuses.
never ever ever EVER make cutscenes unskippable
It's not exactly a cutscene and I mention it is even skippable if the player just flies off to the right.
How about having stuff regenerate/recharge over time? This means players who wait between events gets free recovery of stuff they'd otherwise spend resources on.
Hmmm... the thing is that this is very early in the game prior to getting to the main gameplay loop. I think I will add some extra mechanics to this section (fuel, harvesting ores from destroyed asteroids) and requiring the player to repair the ship inbetween these sections. Then, this flying segment is tied into the other parts of the game (also how many resources you have when you arrive at your destination). Doing this, however, seems like I would have to make this section unskippable and thus inherently less about patience and more about standard shooter gameplay (albeit with a cumbersome ship and limited resources).
The best way you can reward players for sticking there is to grant them varied and intersting dialogues and character developement as the flight goes on.
Maybe cute little slice-of-life scenes from inside the ship.
Yeah, this was the intent. The slice-of-life stuff is intended to include plot development as well as some puzzle-type gameplay meant to represent routine maintenance and repairs (puzzles in the way they sometimes make it into JRPGs, as that is what the main game feels like [but does not play like]).
This idea brought back to my mind the walk in the forest with Shenhua, in Shenmue 2. It was mostly a long cutscene, with some Quick Time Event every now and then, but it helped to create the feeling of a journey. It wasn't skippable, though, so it's not exactly what you're trying to achieve, @whale_cancer .
I will try to find it on YouTube, as I am not familiar with it. If this section can be interesting enough to not frustrate an average game, I can always make it unskippable.
Do you play any Bethesda game?

What is the reward for eschewing fast-travel? You get to see the world. You get to happen upon sites that you may never get to see if you simply fast-travel from objective to objective.

Adrien Dittrick's ideas above are the sort of thing I'm talking about, mostly. Maybe some small mechanical bonuses, but nothing too big, or else people will start to wait simply to get the bonuses, which is a sort of grinding. If you want to give mechanical bonuses, consider going for horizontal rather than vertical; basically things that add interesting options, rather than straight-up power boosts.
I like the philosophy of horizontal upgrades or bonuses, I just don't know how I can integrate them into this section. You are flying the ship in this section, but when you get to the planet you disembark and for the rest of the game you primarily control groups of the colonists. I can think of ideas for sidegrades gained during the on-ship moments that break up the flight a bit, but not while actually controlling the ship. I will ruminate on this though; there must be some way to do this that isn't too jarring, as the game itself is not attempting any kind of hard realism.

Thanks for the replies folks! Additional thoughts welcome.
 
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DariusWolfe

Guest
If the primary gameplay is ground-based, perhaps you pick up things during your travels that can be used on the ground, or relationships are established between colonists that will affect the ground gameplay?
 
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