This thread has been most interesting and, I think, very informative. ^_^
Quote:Originally posted by Kest
Death, as in losing all of your health, can inflict negative consequences without leading to a game over
What would you suggest for a game such as F.E.A.R, or, perhaps better, a World War 2 game? I would imagine that loss of health should probably result in some form of death mechanic, but I don't think that all games are well-served by resurrection or a brief knockback, either physically or in terms of gameplay ability; at least, I don't seem to be seeing any satisfying alternatives to a game over screen or reloading. :/
(My apologies if I missed such a suggestion somewhere within the thread. ^^; )
Personally, and with such games as RPGs, F/TPS games and survival horror games most in mind, I find myself most convinced by the concept of frequent autosaves, with no manual saving feature. I also very much agree that a "quit-and-save" feature can be a very good idea (in the case of RPGs that forbid saving during battle, I would suggest that quit-and-saves be allowed during battle nevertheless, I think).
Specifically, the system that I have in mind uses two layers of autosaves:
The first saves frequently (or perhaps based on passage through the level or world), at most measured in minutes, I think. Each autosave would be assigned to one of a limited number of slots, overwriting the oldest save first when all slots are full. This provides a short-term recall facility.
The second layer saves infrequently, but keeps all such saves. These would probably be placed to fire just prior to major events, particularly difficult challenges, or reasonably significant decisions.
Depending on the game, the major save points may or may not be transparent to the player.
I do think that the player should perhaps be given some indication of how often these save points are made in order to reduce anxiety that may be felt over how far back the last autosave was (as I think that I might experience). Of course, simply playing the game for a little while, seeing the saved game list, and experiencing its use, might help with this.
As a gamer, I don't recall any games that I've played in which I've been happy about having a classic sparse save-point mechanism - in fact, I usually find it rather annoying (I think that I've used the word "detest" at times). I also don't think that I've been bothered at all by having and making frequent use of quick -saves and -loads - in fact, I believe that I'm more often glad of it.
I think that I simply have a fairly low tolerance for repetition of experiences due to failure, and more so the more often they are repeated, the more content is re-trodden and the less re-plays vary, I believe. I tend to want to move on with the game, and see what's next, I think.
I also like to explore options at times. In adventure and RPG games, for example, I might make use of saves to explore untaken branches of conversations. I've done this when I've been uncertain of the eventual outcome of a conversation, for example.
