Combat: FPS vs non-FPS (attn: Devs and Marketing please)
I'm going to break the rules and take it upon myself to speak for the silent majority.
While there are many good things to be said for First Person Shooter (FPS) games, I don't believe FPS is well suited to computer Role Playing Games (RPGs).
RPGs are by their very nature about the character you create. As such the characters skills (or lack thereof) should determine your ability hit something in combat not the players ability (or lack thereof) to react to and aim at opponents.
An excellent example of this in Cyberpunk is “Wired Reflexes”. A character with this modification is suppose to be able to react faster then human norms. With FPS type combat this mod is pointless as the players ability to react is not effected by the characters mod.
The FPS crowd will cite (loudly) many reasons why computer games MUST be FPS:
1) It makes the game more real/exciting/intense. It also makes it unplayable by older or handicapped players.
2) I won't buy your game if it's not FPS (the loss of one sale will, of course, bankrupt the games maker).
3) I'll tell all my friends not to buy your game (personally I rather doubt this sort of person has many friends).
4) I'll sue you if you don't make your game FPS (yeah … right …).
5) I'll cry to my mommie if the game isn't FPS (presumably she, unlike most people, cares what you think).
((FPS-or-Nothing folks: If I neglected to include your reason(s) why the game MUST be FPS please post them. I'm sure they'll receive all the consideration they're due.))
If it's impossible/impractical to make the game appeal to both FPS and non-FPS gamers consider the following:
1) The FPS player will quite probably buy/play an non-FPS game that's otherwise well made.
2) FPS combat would make certain character mods (i.e. “Wired Reflexes”) difficult/impossible to implement.
3) Non-FPS combat allows more re-playability as you can create a character with different mods and have a different game-play experience combat wise.
The VATS system used in the Fallout games seems to me to be a truly excellent solution to the FPS vs character skill issue.
As implemented in Fallout VATS provides bonuses to combat, this is unnecessary.
Because the FPS gamer can simply ignore VATS and play the Fallout as an FPS, while the rest of us can use it to allow the characters skills to determine our combat success.
Thus both the FPS and the non-FPS gamer are happy, what more can one ask?
I'm going to break the rules and take it upon myself to speak for the silent majority.
While there are many good things to be said for First Person Shooter (FPS) games, I don't believe FPS is well suited to computer Role Playing Games (RPGs).
RPGs are by their very nature about the character you create. As such the characters skills (or lack thereof) should determine your ability hit something in combat not the players ability (or lack thereof) to react to and aim at opponents.
An excellent example of this in Cyberpunk is “Wired Reflexes”. A character with this modification is suppose to be able to react faster then human norms. With FPS type combat this mod is pointless as the players ability to react is not effected by the characters mod.
The FPS crowd will cite (loudly) many reasons why computer games MUST be FPS:
1) It makes the game more real/exciting/intense. It also makes it unplayable by older or handicapped players.
2) I won't buy your game if it's not FPS (the loss of one sale will, of course, bankrupt the games maker).
3) I'll tell all my friends not to buy your game (personally I rather doubt this sort of person has many friends).
4) I'll sue you if you don't make your game FPS (yeah … right …).
5) I'll cry to my mommie if the game isn't FPS (presumably she, unlike most people, cares what you think).
((FPS-or-Nothing folks: If I neglected to include your reason(s) why the game MUST be FPS please post them. I'm sure they'll receive all the consideration they're due.))
If it's impossible/impractical to make the game appeal to both FPS and non-FPS gamers consider the following:
1) The FPS player will quite probably buy/play an non-FPS game that's otherwise well made.
2) FPS combat would make certain character mods (i.e. “Wired Reflexes”) difficult/impossible to implement.
3) Non-FPS combat allows more re-playability as you can create a character with different mods and have a different game-play experience combat wise.
The VATS system used in the Fallout games seems to me to be a truly excellent solution to the FPS vs character skill issue.
As implemented in Fallout VATS provides bonuses to combat, this is unnecessary.
Because the FPS gamer can simply ignore VATS and play the Fallout as an FPS, while the rest of us can use it to allow the characters skills to determine our combat success.
Thus both the FPS and the non-FPS gamer are happy, what more can one ask?