Another "10 second flashlight battery" game?

[Zombra]

I just read references in other threads to flashlight batteries being a thing in the game. I mean okay if that's central to RIPOUT, but personally I am done forever with flashlights not working in games and if that is a pillar here then this is not a game for me. In my opinion this is a horribly overdone trope and has never made a game more fun, or even more scary, just tiresome and it makes me focus on the wrong thing. Just let me see your cool game.

Thanks for reading, no offense intended and good luck, other than that the game looks cool.

[Shrinkshooter]

i think it's fine if the lifetime and recharge rates are at reasonable amounts, but they're not. At least, not from the videos I've watched, and they're fairly recent. The flashlight has a lifetime of maybe a minute? And it looks like it takes 4-5 times that long to fully recharge or something, its recharge rate is terrible. Which is extra annoying because 50% of the levels look like they're dark hallways with no illumination others than ambient fog volume.

This is going to be in early access, it's not a full release, so these are really subject to change and hopefully they do. The two things I see most commonly mentioned are the flashlight and the bouncing health damage numbers.

[Zombra]

Originally posted by Shrinkshooter:

i think it's fine if the lifetime and recharge rates are at reasonable amounts, but they're not.

Yeah. I've thought about this a lot and there's really no way to make a mechanic like this feel right. When fresh batteries in a flashlight only last a few minutes, it feels wrong, like "this is a magical cursed flashlight that was deliberately designed to stop working". And if a battery pack lasts a long time like it should, then it's no longer a part of core gameplay and when it finally does fail it feels intrusive.

Devs, would it REALLY kill the gameplay to just remove the mechanic altogether? Let flashlights work?

[Pinhead Larry]

The answer is to introduce traps/enemies/events that can drain the battery. The battery charge should not fall of it's own accord, have mechanics drain it instead.

[Resyled]

absolutely BIZARRE that you're flying in space, got all this technology and crazy ♥♥♥♥.. but you're using a rechargable flashlight from 2003? I genuinely don't understand lmao

[Shrinkshooter]

Just as a quick update, this has been changed.

Not removed, but the battery now drains much slower, and the recharge is much faster. As opposed to my original comment, the flashlight now recharges at a faster rate than it depletes. Maybe by 1.5-2x if I had to guess.

[Soulsie]

Originally posted by Syzygy:

The answer is to introduce traps/enemies/events that can drain the battery. The battery charge should not fall of it's own accord, have mechanics drain it instead.

That's actually kind of a neat idea. I'd be okay with that.

[Pet Project Games]

interesting proposal!

[FilthAutomaton]

Originally posted by Syzygy:

The answer is to introduce traps/enemies/events that can drain the battery. The battery charge should not fall of it's own accord, have mechanics drain it instead.

this is the way

[Zombra]

Tormented Souls had one of the few good light management systems I've ever seen. You lit your way with a lighter but couldn't lift a heavy gun and the lighter at the same time. So you had to decide whether you wanted to explore or be able to fight in dark areas. Later you got a gun-mounted flashlight and could do both. Lighter fluid and flashlight batteries were not a thing at all. But this system doesn't seem appropriate here when you need to be able to shoot stuff all the time.

In a procedural game having certain enemies just ♥♥♥♥ over your ability to see seems really bad. I feel like this could only not be awful in a more scripted game with careful encounter design.

If I wanted an unreliable flashlight in a procedural game I would make it very simple. Every 2 seconds, there is a 1% chance that the flashlight will flicker out for the next 2 seconds. This is enough to keep players on edge, allows for some really unfortunate horror moments, but doesn't put them into a dull "search for batteries" behavior loop. Keep players focused on navigating the map and being scared of monsters, not looking for collectibles.