What's the most cancerous mix of gameplay mechanics you can name?
>>2369345DLC + Microtransactions + LootboxesAlternatively, stormgayte.
>>2369350Well put.
>>2369345Europa Universalis V.
>>2369350dlc and microtransactions are not gameplay mechanics
>>2369842It is when content and features are locked behind them. Particularly when features are removed from the sequel and re-added as dlc or come as on-disk dlc. Paraslop and mobileslop being the biggest offenders for this.
>>2369345random encounters + level draining enemies
>>2369938that reminds me of the random encounters in wotr early in the game with 3 nabasu and 2 derakniyour whole group with get confused, held person'd and suffer constant level drain before even getting to act
In Star Ruler 2, which is a 4X/RTS-like game, diplomacy is a card game.ame.
>>2370046Sounds novel, honestly. But I can see it being a pain if its just all RNG.
>>2370046Highfleet did card based recruitment of ally NPCs and it sucks because the cards are only>topic is great>topic sucksAnd which topics someone likes or dislikes is random lmao so it's just trial and error and rngIf you fuck it up you don't get another chance btw
>>2369842>dlc and microtransactions are not gameplay mechanicsNot per se, but if a game is made as a DLC platform to the extent that Stellaris is (particularly when the designers have no clue where they are going with the game, which was also the case for Stellaris), then you're eventually going to end up with a big ball of mud. Think about how lean Stellaris 1.0 was compared to the cookie-clicking slog it has become 10 years later. By comparison, each Civ game is designed to have only two expansion packs, and then the next iteration of the game comes out; this way, the game never becomes as broad as the sea but as deep as a puddle like Stellaris.The "cancerous gameplay mechanics" that OP is asking about is simply too many 10% boosts and poorly integrated features. And they are actually cancerous because they keep growing like a tumor. In Stellaris, espionage is the best example of one such feature. Espionage could be an actual way to "play tall" in the way Israel does in real life, by spying on and blackmailing the leaders of larger empires; exploitation is the third "X" in "4X," after all. But instead, espionage in Stellaris can mostly be ignored, and it has to be that way, because if it were such an important feature, how could you balance the game with or without it (and then likewise for any other combination of DLC-introduced features)? Compare this to the religion mechanic in Civ 5, which is (more) important than espionage is in Stellaris, and can only be that way because Civ only really expects you to buy two DLCs per franchise installment. Another example found in Stellaris are the astral threads, which has to be the most low effort feature they've ever included. I don't even know what an astral thread is, but in the game, it's just another superfluous thing to click on. The game would be paradoxically both better off and less complete without astral threads.If your game's lifespan is greater than 6 years, it's probably going to be sucky
>>2370349>The game would be paradoxically both better offI think that actually might be the paradox of Paradox games: they add more shit which slowly makes the game worse, but makes the game feel incomplete if you don't get it.
>>2369345the cardboard brain-rot, like deckbuilding in hex wargames. the clearest sign that the developer prototyped the entire thing on their kitchen table with index cards and forgot they were programming a video game
>>2370046I actually think diplomacy being some kind of mechanical interaction rather than attempting to get the AI to engage diplomatically like a person is probably a good choice for strategy games.Same thing with espionage/intelligence mechanics I'd rather them be some kind of abstract system of buffs and debuffs rather than actually trying to get the AI to do things in secret.
>>2370597Really now? Right in front of my open /bgg/ tab?
