Essential QoL features in RPGs

[AdolfSatan]

Let's have a venting/ranting thread in the hopes that some devs will read this and stop taking retarded decisions when it comes to UX.
I keep finding issues in modern RPGs that should have been solved ages ago.

Keychains. Nobody enjoys keeping track of what key goes where, playing guess, nor inventory tetris with keys. Specially when single-use items don't disappear after being used.

Animation speed sliders. Why isn't this universal? No matter how cool it may look, once repetition starts to pile up it becomes insufferable. I'd actually take the option to turn them off altogether.

Quick slots.

Contextual menus, drag and drop, and ease of access in general. There are still games with annoying interfaces that require shit like opening the inventory, placing an item on a hand, then using it in regular view. I should be able to drag an explosive from a quickslot to a door and getting the obvious result without any unnecessary extra steps, for example.

 

[octavius]

Keychains. Nobody enjoys keeping track of what key goes where, playing guess, nor inventory tetris with keys. Specially when single-use items don't disappear after being used.

I dunno...Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back wouldn't be the same with keychains. OTOH lack of it would drive me insane in Arcanum.

 

[Wunderbar]

Speaking of keyrings.

Instead of bloating your inventory with a ton of different pieces of paper, RPGs should add all found notes into a "notes/clues" journal subcategory. New Vegas fixed that thing, then Bethesda immediately forgot about it and added a ton of shitty inventory notes in FO4.

 

[Wunderbar]

"You have already read that book".

In RPGs where reading certain books gives you benefits (+1 to a skill, + crafting recipes, + optional sidequests, + glossary/lore articles, etc), inventory description should say whether you've read that readable before, or not.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Lol... GJ Bethesda. Make sure you have support to move via keyboard, mouse, and gamepad as options. I do enjoy a very customizable game sometimes the UI is so shitty you want to rage quit esp if it is a far later game. Earlier games from 70-90s can get a pass but I'll still try to find ways to customize play.

stacking items if same sort. There were mods that made D2 a pleasure by stacking items. Sometimes I wish other games would do this. Older games I hated certain buying/selling of 1 itemat a damn time with confirmations. Damn annoying. Ultimas annoyed me to no end at times.

I want 99 daggers. Do the math game. Actually... I want 9999 daggers. My wizards and cleric are dagger tossing machines.

 

[Sykar]

Quest compass, indubitably!

Spoiler

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

"!"

Its funny you see this all the time now.

 

[gurugeorge]

Keychains. Nobody enjoys keeping track of what key goes where, playing guess, nor inventory tetris with keys. Specially when single-use items don't disappear after being used.

Animation speed sliders. Why isn't this universal? No matter how cool it may look, once repetition starts to pile up it becomes insufferable. I'd actually take the option to turn them off altogether.

Quick slots.

Contextual menus, drag and drop, and ease of access in general. There are still games with annoying interfaces that require shit like opening the inventory, placing an item on a hand, then using it in regular view. I should be able to drag an explosive from a quickslot to a door and getting the obvious result without any unnecessary extra steps, for example.

Instead of bloating your inventory with a ton of different pieces of paper, RPGs should add all found notes into a "notes/clues" journal subcategory. New Vegas fixed that thing, then Bethesda immediately forgot about it and added a ton of shitty inventory notes in FO4.

In RPGs where reading certain books gives you benefits (+1 to a skill, + crafting recipes, + optional sidequests, + glossary/lore articles, etc), inventory description should say whether you've read that readable before, or not.

stacking items if same sort.

All of these.

 

[Generic-Giant-Spider]

"I am a game developer. My name is John. I am working on an RPG. I hope it will be fun! Smileyface. I'm married to my high school sweetheart, over ten years strong! I promise her after this work wraps up we'll try for our first kid!

One day I went home, saw my wife getting fucked by the neighbor. This made me upset, but because I am a game developer my arms resemble a swimming noodle. I could only watch in shock as it all happened. She apologized for her infidelity but brought it around to me not being able to provide her biological imperative. Instead of doing the reasonable thing and stabbing her to death, I took my impotent rage to work the next morning.

Upon arrival I decided, "if I, John, can't be happy, why should you be?" And it was there I unleashed my magnum opus... the durability system or 'weapon/armor repair' as you may call it. Haha, think you'll have fun? Enjoy having this dumb shit linger at the back of your mind every time you are neck deep in a dungeon. No matter how much fun you're having, I will take it from you. Enjoy the trip, cocksucker."

 

[Popiel]

Romances.

 

[Dodo1610]

-compare item stats

-custom map markers

-skip dialogue/cutscene


-

 

[octavius]

Menu towns.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Being able to sort your inventory, especially by most recent items obtained.

 

[Van-d-all]

The only good thing that came out of nuObsidian. Hypertext in dialogue.

 

[Kruno]

Level scaling! How else can you make a battle last 30+ minutes while doing the exact same thing over and over; see Dragon Age 2 and play some Benny Hill in the background while in combat on hardest difficulty.

 

[Darth Canoli]

drag and drop

For equipment, a simple right click or double click is far more efficient, particularly when drag and drop is buggy/laggy like in modern garbage games.

Some more QoL features:

• Focused character sheets where all the important information is displayed on one single page.
• Tooltips or easy to use in-game help to get some info on skills, perks, items effects like in ToEE & KotC 1/2.
• Some fast travel options to ease the backtracking, even if it's just an exit spell/scroll like in Arcanum.
• Teleportation, Town Portal, Lloyd's Beacon spells if relevant.
• House & Micro-locations not requiring extra loading to get in and out (houses, small lairs and the likes)
• Auto-notes for quests and important info + manual notes and not just map annotations but some journal manual notes as well.
• Make loredumps (in game books) relevant for some side quests or even the main quest and mention it somewhere or make the relevant ones stand out so you know which ones you can discard or just ignore.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

ToEE's ingame documentation is still the hands down the best there is, yet it's largely forgotten by devs.
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...anual-gui-should-be-standard-for-crpgs.128245

 

[Hag]

An inventory and stat interface all fitting in a single screen. If I have to browse several menus to get anything done, it is not not depth but simply lazy design.

 

[Peachcurl]

Auto Loot

 

[EldarEldrad]

Story mode
Romances
Auto fight
Awesome button

 

[KateMicucci]

Unlimited carry weight and inventory space.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Mouse support.

 

[Sacibengala]

Goodsized and clear fonts with backgrounds that emphasizes it.

 

[mondblut]

Keychains. Nobody enjoys keeping track of what key goes where, playing guess, nor inventory tetris with keys. Specially when single-use items don't disappear after being used.

I dunno...Dungeon Master and Chaos Strikes Back wouldn't be the same with keychains.

Is trying 10 different keys until you find the right one essential part of the gameplay?

 

[mondblut]

ToEE's ingame documentation is still the hands down the best there is, yet it's largely forgotten by devs.
https://rpgcodex.net/forums/threads...anual-gui-should-be-standard-for-crpgs.128245

A D&D game doesn't need a manual explaining its game mechanics at all. If you don't know the THAC0 bonus from strength 18/69 by heart, leave the hall