"The" Minigame - WARNING : Contains suggestion.

[Johan 2.0]

Since I picked up the game I have enjoyed it quite a bit and played a fair amount of hours with my friend. To me, initially, the sliding bar minigame was more of a thing of luck than anything else until I got slightly good at it.

Getting a skill increase already required you to have ungodly precision and gaining skill levels isn't really fulfilling and only makes is a small degree less annoying. But for my friend who has slower reaction times than me would rarely ever manage to complete any and would outright avoid the minigame or complain.

I imagine the purpose of it is to avoid rolling a random percentage chance so that the player actually has a chance at the game but the system is simply not fun or fulfilling in a meaningful way.


I don't enjoy the minigame very much but I haven't got any good suggestions at the moment to put forward as a potential replacement for every case so I'll stick with its usage under conversing with NPCs.

It doesn't make sense that a conversation with someone requires a reflexive response from the player, rather than an intelligence based one. A limited timeframe is fine, however as in a real life conversation if you took 20 seconds to respond, you probably look weird or lost some interest from the perspective of the other person(s).


I propose, instead of the current "minigame" when deciding whether you deserve the reward, use a different system that tests your attention span and decision making.

Replace praying to the slider god with:

Mood - When an NPC is generated, they get assigned a mood at random.

• Depending on the players skill you can gauge their mood by the NPCs facial expression,
• and maybe their posture or something contextual in their speech.
  
• Could alternately go with a readout: [Rachel appears to be angry] [Lenny seems disinterested]
  
• The player interactions with the NPC can effect their mood.
  
• Getting the NPC into a compatible mood would allow you to gain a reward.
  
• You don't always have to make them happy and maybe you could threaten or guilt trip them a little. ;)

Facial Expressions and or Posture

• As a component of NPC speech. example: "[Smiling] : Hey are you alright?"
  
• In conjunction with your dialogue choice.
  
• You pick what mood, etc you think is appropriate on one side of the screen and what you say on the other - The latter of which confirms your choice.

I'm losing my train of thought a bit so I'll end it here but I'm open to working in extras into this suggestion.

TL;DR:
Dialogue should be about talking and acting rather than swatting a fly with chopsticks.
Both require your attention span but one requires rediculous reflexes.

Let me know what you think.

[Matshishkapeu]

i think youre absolutely right. I posted the following a year go:

Originally posted by Matshishkapeu:

I think begging would work better this way:
Begging should be like a stance you can activate. Once begging is activated, most npc will try to avoid you. If you talk to the ones avoiding you, they will be more or less unfriendly, costing a few morale (2-3 points). The unfriendlyness can be just outright ignoring the player or getting really furious and even end into a fistfight depending on the npc or everything in between.

The player would have to recognize which npc he can talk to while begging, which is, i think, more fun than running to every npc i see.

Once the player has engaged an npc who is not avoiding him, he would have to build up sympathy through smalltalk, which enhances the chances of success or, depending on skill, just outright ask the npc for money or food or whatever.

The begging skill would define how many npcs are willing to talk while begging, while speech would help building sympathie and spend it.

The streets at night are very, very empty...some drunks, junkies, prostitutes (some with missions/quests?) and a few "normal" npcs. Not too much but just so the map is not dead at night. (how about lights, from buildings, maybe a club entreance with a queue of people (but dont piss the bouncer off)

How about thiefs who will even try to steal from a hobo?

dumpster diving could be a bit like minesweeper. it already is but there is no clue wa lies behind the next box.

pickpocketing could be done a bit like in kingdom come, i like their solution.

[feeron]

In principle, I agree with you. This mini-game allowed us to manage the release of the game at that time. But we still plan to replace it with something more acceptable over time.

The "mood for streetwalkers" that you have proposed actually already is in the gamedesign concept, but it has been difficult for us to make it. However, we are still thinking about implementing it. It requires a hardcore conversation refactor, which is not a trifle.

I am very happy with these suggestions, we resonate with them. We only need more time to implement what the game requires.

Thanks guys! You can always put here another sugestions. We really read them all.

[Johan 2.0]

Thanks for the info and I appreciate that you took the time to read and respond to this and other comments. It makes a world of difference for an indev game.

I understand that it takes time for these things and its much easier said than done.
Its definitely worth the time to delay a better solution until you have the details worked out or you might be implementing something less than ideal that you'd want to replace again.

[feeron]

It is even better actually. Right now, we are experimenting with a new model of psychology-based conversations. No promises yet, it's not the official announcement of the new system in any case, but we're truly dealing with this topic. And it looks pretty good so far, on the paper at least.

[Danielkjm]

Yeah i rage quit several time because i have a slower reaction and my game dips to 10-15 Fps when the Terror Bar Shows up

[Azshannar]

Have to agree on the dumpster diving, the shrapnel system is currently clunky. Good to know the amount but with no visible pre-indicators to show there is incoming shrapnel you have to rely on leveling up the skill to get more stopping indicators.

Having a "wet mess" or "smelly mess" on the sides immediately touching the shrapnel square would be helpful.

I don't think the slider would be as much of an issue if the speed was reduced a bit or the areas of each spot was widened slightly. Until you replace the system perhaps widen and slightly reduce the amount the spots based on difficulty level.


Also is busking an idea that you might add in the future? Cause performing would be a fun activity. Playing an instrument would be fun and worthwhile place to shift the mini-game to. Before performing hitting a green spot would give a normal amount while hitting a blue spot can give 2-4 times the money per donation.

[Old Slime]

yeah i find the slider moves a little too fast for the small area we have to hit.

I hope alot of the minigames get replaced with more appropriate minigames for the action being performed.

[Old Slime]

what about stealing items taking a small amount of time instead of the timing minigame, it makes a little more sense to me.