Thoughts on game mechanics in Morrowind
Posted: 22 Jan 2018, 21:52
This is a brain dump I've been wanting to write up for a long time. Sorry if this is super rambley.
This is inspired by a lifetime of playing games, but more specifically by my recent experiences playing three particular games: Baldur's Gate, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and the Uncharted series. And then putting all of that in context with OpenMW.
So here's the thing. When you are playing games, there's usually a set of different activities you do, but there's generally only one or two activities that make up the actual gameplay. For Uncharted that would be gunfights and platforming, the game has two very specific gameplay mechanics. Puzzles is a third, it's definitely another thing you do in that game, but I'm not going to really address that here. In Horizon, the activities are fighting robots, and a second activity that could be noted is exploring. In Baldur's Gate the activities are combat and dialog. Seems weird to mention dialog as a "gameplay activity" but if you've played that series, you know it's true.
So here's the thing. In Horizon and Baldur's Gate, there's also a ton of side activities that the player has to deal with. In Horizon they are crafting, foraging/scavenging, dialog, trading, etc. In Baldur's Gate they are inventory management, trading, and clicking through seemingly limitless UI elements.
Uncharted is a bit different. Sure, there's picking up ammo, and swapping guns sometimes, and hunting down treasures if you are trying to get that trophy, but almost all of player time is spent on the core gameplay. There's no real inventory to deal with, there's no dialog choices, the levels are linear so there's not really much in the way of exploring...
Not obviously Uncharted is an odd man out in this set of games because it's not an RPG. But I think there's a key lesson to be learned here. Of all of these games, Morrowind is most like Horizon: Zero Dawn. But what's the critical difference, as far as gameplay is concerned? Hunting robots in HZD is fun, engaging, and immersive. And aside from running around and picking stuff up, it's the overwhelming majority of the gameplay.
So what are the core gameplay mechanics of Morrowind? It's really *not* the combat. Combat is almost an afterthought in Morrowind, it's a barely realized gameplay mechanic. I would say the core gameplay mechanics in Morrowind are exploring, which is fun, and inventory management, which really isn't fun. I can't imagine that I am the only one that feels like they spend way too much time in Morrowind with the inventory open, shuffling crap around trying to figure out what's worth keeping and what needs to be left to garbage collection. I don't enjoy this activity at all. Is it fun to find powerful and interesting items in dungeons? Or stealing valuable items from fancy NPCs? Absolutely. But is realizing that you need to dump a few racer plumes because your jump height is starting to suffer fun? No, that's an absolute chore.
And back to the combat. I've been thinking about what makes Horizon's combat so fun. Here's what I have come up with. First, because you're a little tribal girl with primitive weapons fighting big, burly machines, the combat has an inherent intensity because you always feel outmatched. Second, the enemies exhibit varied and interesting combat behaviors: they will charge in, they will run away, they will circle around for a better strike. Enemies in Morrowind either charge, or kite if they are a caster or archer. There's absolutely no variation to their behavior. And as a player, there's very little variation to your abilities when retaliating. Sure, you can swap around spells or switch weapons, and the weapons have different attacks, but at the end of the day all you're doing is flailing the same attack over and over, or lobbing the same spell over and over. The enemies have no particular strengths or weaknesses to exploit, the terrain doesn't afford any advantages or disadvantages, and there's no real strategy or tactics that can be employed on an instant by instant basis. The only real strategy is preparation before-hand.
So what's your point raevol? Why are you spending all this time bashing a game that you obviously love, since you've been supporting OpenMW for so long? My point is I think with some mechanics changes, Morrowind could be updated to be a really interesting modern game. Do I think these changes should be incorporated into OpenMW? Helllll no, OpenMW is supposed to be faithfully recreating Morrowind. But maybe someday, in a far future, long after the dehardcoding, I'd like to make a "raevol's mechanics overhaul" that implements some things. And here's what I'd like to see:
1. Min-maxing needs to be removed from the leveling system. Nothing frustrates me more than pouring hours into a character only to realize that I am 100hp shy of where I could be because I focused on the wrong skill as I leveled up. I know this is kind of a personal problem, but I can't even get up the motivation to play Morrowind anymore, because the only way I can play and be satisfied is to spend the first 10 hours or so of gameplay using alchemy to get my attributes all to 100, with endurance being maxed first.
2. Enemies need to have varied AI, varied attacks, and strengths and weaknesses. For example, nix hounds shouldn't just run up to the player and flail their paws: they should stalk, charge, pounce, and retreat strategically. Enemies should pose a real threat to the player, and the player should have to dodge, block, and strike carefully and skillfully in order to make it through any combat.
3. The alchemy system needs an overhaul. There's a mod I think called Visual Alchemy? that's a great start, but there's some more things I think that need to be done: you should be required to be at some sort of bench or worktable in order to use alchemy (and repair for that matter). Players shouldn't be incentivized to carry around a full alchemy kit to make potions on the fly, because that clutters their inventory and slows down exploring: they should craft potions at designated stations (maybe even being able to build these workshops later in the game) and be able to store ingredients there. Also buffs should be reworked to prevent abuse, and the types of potions should be expanded: perhaps thrown potions or poisons for blades or arrows could be added.
4. The repair and enchanting mechanics need to be overhauled, in the same vein as alchemy.
5. The inventory system needs some real work. I understand that being able to pick up every rock and leaf was a novelty in 2001, but it's only proven to be a pain in the ass in 2018. I get that being able to move anything around and redecorate can be enjoyable, but the amount of busy work and chores that come along with it are so frustrating to me. I guess my biggest complaint has to do with the weight system: Every single unit of weight the player carries changes their movement speed and jump height. This is ridiculous! Again, min-maxing needs to be done away with. Movement speed is a quality of life issue for players, and if you are completely locked out of wearing armor or at least heavier armor because you don't want to have to slog around completely overburdened, that's a problem. But raevol, just boost your speed! No, that's not a solution, that's a band-aid. Think about the player's quality of life. I understand if heavy armor prevents the player from dodging or rolling or sneaking as effectively, but if it increases travel time? That's just a no.
6. The hot buttons need to be expanded. I'd really like to see Half-Life-esque weapon/spell switching. How do potions fit into that? I guess instead of being magically consumed from your backpack straight into your stomach, you'd have to pull them out and actually drink them. I think that'd make them a lot more interesting. I'm also a huge opponent of consumables, but that's not a hill I want to die on...
7. The "customizable" UI is a chore instead of a blessing. I'd like to see a well-designed and efficient UI, rather than a customizable one that requires endless fiddling and never seems quite right.
Anyway, I doubt anyone is going to read all this, so I'll stop here for now. Just some of my thoughts.
This is inspired by a lifetime of playing games, but more specifically by my recent experiences playing three particular games: Baldur's Gate, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and the Uncharted series. And then putting all of that in context with OpenMW.
So here's the thing. When you are playing games, there's usually a set of different activities you do, but there's generally only one or two activities that make up the actual gameplay. For Uncharted that would be gunfights and platforming, the game has two very specific gameplay mechanics. Puzzles is a third, it's definitely another thing you do in that game, but I'm not going to really address that here. In Horizon, the activities are fighting robots, and a second activity that could be noted is exploring. In Baldur's Gate the activities are combat and dialog. Seems weird to mention dialog as a "gameplay activity" but if you've played that series, you know it's true.
So here's the thing. In Horizon and Baldur's Gate, there's also a ton of side activities that the player has to deal with. In Horizon they are crafting, foraging/scavenging, dialog, trading, etc. In Baldur's Gate they are inventory management, trading, and clicking through seemingly limitless UI elements.
Uncharted is a bit different. Sure, there's picking up ammo, and swapping guns sometimes, and hunting down treasures if you are trying to get that trophy, but almost all of player time is spent on the core gameplay. There's no real inventory to deal with, there's no dialog choices, the levels are linear so there's not really much in the way of exploring...
Not obviously Uncharted is an odd man out in this set of games because it's not an RPG. But I think there's a key lesson to be learned here. Of all of these games, Morrowind is most like Horizon: Zero Dawn. But what's the critical difference, as far as gameplay is concerned? Hunting robots in HZD is fun, engaging, and immersive. And aside from running around and picking stuff up, it's the overwhelming majority of the gameplay.
So what are the core gameplay mechanics of Morrowind? It's really *not* the combat. Combat is almost an afterthought in Morrowind, it's a barely realized gameplay mechanic. I would say the core gameplay mechanics in Morrowind are exploring, which is fun, and inventory management, which really isn't fun. I can't imagine that I am the only one that feels like they spend way too much time in Morrowind with the inventory open, shuffling crap around trying to figure out what's worth keeping and what needs to be left to garbage collection. I don't enjoy this activity at all. Is it fun to find powerful and interesting items in dungeons? Or stealing valuable items from fancy NPCs? Absolutely. But is realizing that you need to dump a few racer plumes because your jump height is starting to suffer fun? No, that's an absolute chore.
And back to the combat. I've been thinking about what makes Horizon's combat so fun. Here's what I have come up with. First, because you're a little tribal girl with primitive weapons fighting big, burly machines, the combat has an inherent intensity because you always feel outmatched. Second, the enemies exhibit varied and interesting combat behaviors: they will charge in, they will run away, they will circle around for a better strike. Enemies in Morrowind either charge, or kite if they are a caster or archer. There's absolutely no variation to their behavior. And as a player, there's very little variation to your abilities when retaliating. Sure, you can swap around spells or switch weapons, and the weapons have different attacks, but at the end of the day all you're doing is flailing the same attack over and over, or lobbing the same spell over and over. The enemies have no particular strengths or weaknesses to exploit, the terrain doesn't afford any advantages or disadvantages, and there's no real strategy or tactics that can be employed on an instant by instant basis. The only real strategy is preparation before-hand.
So what's your point raevol? Why are you spending all this time bashing a game that you obviously love, since you've been supporting OpenMW for so long? My point is I think with some mechanics changes, Morrowind could be updated to be a really interesting modern game. Do I think these changes should be incorporated into OpenMW? Helllll no, OpenMW is supposed to be faithfully recreating Morrowind. But maybe someday, in a far future, long after the dehardcoding, I'd like to make a "raevol's mechanics overhaul" that implements some things. And here's what I'd like to see:
1. Min-maxing needs to be removed from the leveling system. Nothing frustrates me more than pouring hours into a character only to realize that I am 100hp shy of where I could be because I focused on the wrong skill as I leveled up. I know this is kind of a personal problem, but I can't even get up the motivation to play Morrowind anymore, because the only way I can play and be satisfied is to spend the first 10 hours or so of gameplay using alchemy to get my attributes all to 100, with endurance being maxed first.
2. Enemies need to have varied AI, varied attacks, and strengths and weaknesses. For example, nix hounds shouldn't just run up to the player and flail their paws: they should stalk, charge, pounce, and retreat strategically. Enemies should pose a real threat to the player, and the player should have to dodge, block, and strike carefully and skillfully in order to make it through any combat.
3. The alchemy system needs an overhaul. There's a mod I think called Visual Alchemy? that's a great start, but there's some more things I think that need to be done: you should be required to be at some sort of bench or worktable in order to use alchemy (and repair for that matter). Players shouldn't be incentivized to carry around a full alchemy kit to make potions on the fly, because that clutters their inventory and slows down exploring: they should craft potions at designated stations (maybe even being able to build these workshops later in the game) and be able to store ingredients there. Also buffs should be reworked to prevent abuse, and the types of potions should be expanded: perhaps thrown potions or poisons for blades or arrows could be added.
4. The repair and enchanting mechanics need to be overhauled, in the same vein as alchemy.
5. The inventory system needs some real work. I understand that being able to pick up every rock and leaf was a novelty in 2001, but it's only proven to be a pain in the ass in 2018. I get that being able to move anything around and redecorate can be enjoyable, but the amount of busy work and chores that come along with it are so frustrating to me. I guess my biggest complaint has to do with the weight system: Every single unit of weight the player carries changes their movement speed and jump height. This is ridiculous! Again, min-maxing needs to be done away with. Movement speed is a quality of life issue for players, and if you are completely locked out of wearing armor or at least heavier armor because you don't want to have to slog around completely overburdened, that's a problem. But raevol, just boost your speed! No, that's not a solution, that's a band-aid. Think about the player's quality of life. I understand if heavy armor prevents the player from dodging or rolling or sneaking as effectively, but if it increases travel time? That's just a no.
6. The hot buttons need to be expanded. I'd really like to see Half-Life-esque weapon/spell switching. How do potions fit into that? I guess instead of being magically consumed from your backpack straight into your stomach, you'd have to pull them out and actually drink them. I think that'd make them a lot more interesting. I'm also a huge opponent of consumables, but that's not a hill I want to die on...
7. The "customizable" UI is a chore instead of a blessing. I'd like to see a well-designed and efficient UI, rather than a customizable one that requires endless fiddling and never seems quite right.
Anyway, I doubt anyone is going to read all this, so I'll stop here for now. Just some of my thoughts.