Coffee Talk #367: Hidden Coins and Smashing Barrels

I’ve been having lots of fun playing Dungeon Siege III for the last week, but some of its old-school RPG conventions are…comical. For example, I smashed hundreds of barrels and pots looking for…

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I’ve been having lots of fun playing Dungeon Siege III for the last week, but some of its old-school RPG conventions are…comical. For example, I smashed hundreds of barrels and pots looking for treasure. Why do people leave weapons and coins in barrels? Why do heroes think it’s okay to smash every barrel they see? Are you given a license to smash every barrel you choose when you’re issued a sword and shield? Hell, at several points in the game I was thinking, “You know, if I lived in the kingdom of Ehb, I’d make barrels and pots. With all these a-hole heroes smashing them, there would always be a demand. I’d be frickin’ loaded!!!”

Then there’s the matter of monsters dropping coins. Whether it’s poisonous slug creatures or a giant spiders, all the monsters in Dungeon Siege III drop coins (and sometimes weapons). This was understandable in 1996. In 2011, it seems silly. Why are monsters carrying around loose change? Where do they put the coins? Do they hide them in their rectum or silk glands? Do monsters think they can walk up to local merchants and buy things with their gold?

In 2004, InXile made fun of several RPG conventions with the awesomely tongue-in-cheek The Bard’s Tale. Seven years later, developers are still using these design techniques. I wonder what year it will be when RPGs are free or barrel smashing and hidden coins in monsters? Will I live to see the day?

Are there any old game design techniques that irk you because they should have stopped being used a long time ago? Or are you content to smash barrels and pots in games for the rest of your life?

Author: RPadTV

https://rpad.tv

31 thoughts on “Coffee Talk #367: Hidden Coins and Smashing Barrels”

  1. Again, the inability to jump in a game drives me crazy. I'm talking faux jumping like Gears or Bulletstorm and just good ol' fashioned non jumping. I also hate games that lack vibrating in cut scenes. I feel that if your going to put the effort into making a scene chaotic with camera shakes and all, can it be that hard to program some vibrating. That really grinds my gears.

    1. I realize that some games don't require jumping but no respectable FPS should lack jumping.

  2. Bosses that regenerate all of their health when you depleted their health bar and come back even stronger with more powers.

  3. Speaking of bosses, I hate mulitstaged bosses (Ninja Gaiden comes to mind). Just make the boss bad ass and hard instead of 5 mutated versions.

  4. Also, boss battles with the powerful boss and a bunch of his low level minions that you beat earlier in your way while you try to get hits in on the boss.

    1. Your comment made me think about Final Fantasy IV (II on the SNES). You had to beat the four fiends of the Earth individually, and then all together right before you reached the "final" boss.

      -M

  5. I see the loot drops simply as the random generator being used. It's just me though. I see all software from the code side now. I could read the Matrix.

  6. Dude, forget the wooden barrels and ceramic pots, if I had a choice, I'd manufacture red exploding canisters and barrels in video games. That's where the real money is.

    I don't know why so many people simply leave explosive material lying around everywhere in big, bright red containers. I mean, why couldn't they be blue or yellow canisters? Why are they always red? Also, why are they found in places they shouldn't be, like the side of the road, in urban neighborhoods, inside an office building, inside hospitals, on the roofs of various buildings, and places that are generally abandoned. If the place is abandoned, why the hell would you leave behind several metric tons of a volatile chemical or fuel? Wouldn't that stuff be the most valuable thing you could take with you before you decide to abandon the place?

    -M

    1. Also, why is it permissible to walk into almost anybody's (NPCs) house in most RPGs? Haven't these people ever heard of a door lock?

      What if the roles were reversed and you were just sitting at home minding your own business when some random person dressed in armor that looks like it weighs more than a truck and a flaming sword on his back just strolls into your place and starts wandering around breaking pots and barrels looking for coins?

      If it was me, I'd hurl a red barrel at him that I keep next to my couch and hope it hits his flaming sword. It's O.K., though, you can actually take out a policy from State Farm that covers the damage for about $9 per month.

      -M

      1. Or in GTA where it's obviously a crime ridden city… yet everyone leaves the keys in the ignition and a full tank of gas.

  7. This conversation just makes me think of this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/50834097@N08/5864418

    I always felt it was an old system when I played Zelda: Link's Awakening on game boy. I could never think of a good way to change the system and still make it a random search for loot though. It's easy to bash the way things are, but personally I have no clue how to make some of the aspects better in this instance.

    The boss coming back to life with even more life and stronger is always annoying though.

  8. As far as the enemy drops go… I always saw it as cutting out the middle man. I'm sure you could sell the skin or meat of any animal you killed and the drop is just what you profit.

    In Fallout 3 or New Vegas, they don't cut out the middle man. If you kill a creature, it won't have money but you can carry and sell the goods at your leisure.

    My biggest issue was always with turn based RPG's. If I was ever in a battle with some gargantuan creature, I would keep throwing blows at it until it was dead. I sure as HELL wouldn't hit it once and give it it's "turn" to whack me.

    Let's say I come across a rattlesnake here in the desert. I happen to be carrying a large walking stick, so I club it in the head from a safe distance… and it doesn't die. If I stopped and said "okay… now let it have a go at me before I hit it again"… those would be my last words.

    Imagine if boxing matches were like that! (or just watch the Rocky movies)

    1. The irony in my detest for turn-based RPG's… is that I'm a hardcore chess player. I was on the chess team in high school and placed in a few regional tournaments.

      Easily the greatest game ever.

      The weird thing… I hate playing chess on a computer. It's just not the same as seeing the 3D physical board with your opponent on the other side of the table while I smoke cigarettes and drink coffee.

  9. Another problem with RPGs is only being able to only have a certain amount of your party at a given time. Whether it's Final or Dungeon Siege III, things would have been a lot easier if EVERYONE was allowed to fight the bad guys at the same time.

    1. Maybe they have other things to do?

      We don't know EVERYTHING about their business.

      Which brings up another point…. there seems to be a large amount of 3D action games where at some point you come across a toilet… but your character never hears the call of nature in the whole game. Kinda like how Jack Bauer never needs to piss.

      I can think of 3 games off the top of my head where you use the facilities:

      Dead Rising

      Dead Rising 2 (+ expansions)

      and Leisure Suit Larry…. that is all.

      1. Example: Sephiroth was trying to destroy the world. You're telling me that Cloud's party had other things to do to the point that only four of them could fight at a time? They would have waxed him if everyone cleared their schedules.

      2. Hey… just because Cloud wants to act like a homeless vigilante that doesn't sleep doesn't mean EVERYONE has to!

      3. Hey! I, for one, would have loved for Tifa to forget about her dry cleaning and keep fightIng in Cloud's party wearing nothing but suspenders and sneakers. Not for the eye candy, but for the good of saving the world!

        -M

    1. I'm also pretty sure that he made eating mushrooms from a questionable box acceptable as well.

      -M

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