Why should only sports games have sliders?

[youvalss]

Imagine if games like GTA or Watch Dogs had sliders?

For example: developers use some tools to tweak car physics/handling. Imagine if they gave us access to even just a small portion of these sliders? How about car damage? Bullet effect? Day/night cycle speed and so on... I know PC gamers have access to some of these, but I'm talking about it being part of the game itself. Not modding.

Imagine if we had about 10-15 slider in total,(several sliders in each category), so we can tweak the game to our liking (I imagine playing online would force you to play with the 'default sliders').

How about that? I sure hope it'll come true one day.

[Mr. Hanky]

Re: Why should only sports games have sliders?

Good question. Back in the day Goldeneye on N64 let you unlock sliders and it was awesome, because if you had that game down to a science on single player you could really ratchet up the difficulty. I remember i put the enemy damage slider all the way and sat there shooting this bot like 30 times in the leg over and over while he hopped around on one leg doing his "shot in the leg" animation. I always wondered why that didn't become a staple in video games.

[canes21]

Re: Why should only sports games have sliders?

That's what is great about PC gaming.

[youvalss]

Re: Why should only sports games have sliders?

That's what is great about PC gaming.

Yeah, I realize that, but my point is that developers should allow us to customize the game to our likings, without using/downloading anything. This should be a feature in the game, regardless of the platform.

Mafia 3 lets you pick the driving style, but it's still very limited. I remember reading about how developers create the handling and physics for vehicles in games, using some tools that allow them to change values that control different aspects.

I see no reason for this not to be included in the retail version. Maybe not all the 300 categories (like vehicle designers had in SR3, for example), but several values that allow us to tweak vehicle realism to our liking.

But not only that. There can be other sliders that are related to different aspects of the game. If developers allowed us this freedom, I think gamers would be more appreciative and it would allow them to feel more confident that they can at least change some things they may not like. Could definitely increase sales.

*** All this, of course, can only happen if it doesn't create glitches. Assuming it's possible, it should become a new standard. And once it is, it will be hard to imagine how we used to play these games before (just like sports games).

[daniel77733]

Re: Why should only sports games have sliders?

To be perfectly honest, I have never been a fan of sliders in sports game simply because it's almost as if the developers want the consumer to set up the game for them in regards to CPU AI. If CPU AI was overall smarter and better, the need for sliders wouldn't be needed at all.

I feel the same about difficulty levels simply because the higher the difficulty, the cheaper the game becomes. Higher difficulty levels just means that you can't take as many hits as on lower difficulty levels before you die. And the damage you inflict is lessened. To me, that's cheap CPU AI.

A simple solution for realistic and good AI that doesn't need sliders or difficulty levels would be if the game was developed with adjusting on the fly. Win two football games in a row in Madden, you would then see the coverage tighter, more blitzing, more offensive plays that are rarely called or in NBA, you would get double teamed more and the opposing team would be more aggressive.

Adjusting sliders makes me feel like im doing the developers work for them in regards to AI. And sliders wil never be a solution for one simple reason...if you play the game long enough, you'll eventually master it which in turn, puts you exactly where you were before adjusting all those sliders.

As for other genres, sorry but no. I know you said it but just look at how many games get released with bugs and glitches. Adding in sliders would completely break so many games in so many genres. Not to mention the fact in a huge open world, the game has way too much to process as it is compared to a sports game that's confined to a stadium or an arena.

Smarter more adaptive and realistic AI would be a far better solution but unlikely that either will happen because you can't market any of this stuff to a regular consumer. Visuals will always be the main focal point. If anything, AI is probably near the bottom of the lists when games are being developed. And sometimes, it's almost as if the developers even forget to include enemy AI.

Take Battlefield 1 for example, you can easily lure almost every enemy by throwing a shell, letting them investigate and taking them out with stealth from behind one by one. Also, enemies have routes that they perform but you never see a second enemy who crosses paths with the first enemy earlier realize that he's no longer performing his route as he should and that never sets off an alarm or anything. The guards just go back to their routes as if everything is fine even though it's not.

What should be done is having a putting a far greater emphasis and focus on AI, especially enemy AI. Sadly though, who knows if this will ever actually happen.

[youvalss]

Re: Why should only sports games have sliders?

I don't think there will ever be a sports games that doesn't need to be fixed - with or without sliders. If there was, these boards would be a very boring place, with far less traffic. Sports games are about enjoying the first week, and then complaining the next 51 weeks. And it won't change - even if developers released what seems to be the perfect game.

Regarding other games, yeah, I said that sliders can't exist if it would create bugs and problems with the game. I understand that, it's something that needs to be taken into consideration.

I, personally, don't think sliders are an excuse for developers to get lazy, because I don't believe there will ever be a sport game which people don't complain about. Even the games that are considered the best ever, were complained about every single day after release.

When I talk about sliders in non-sports games, I don't mean it as a way to fix the game. I mean it as a way to customize it to your liking. Arcade-style driving physics/handling doesn't mean that the game is broken. It means that it's the route that the developers took, by choice. It doesn't make the game unplayable, for me, it just makes it less appealing.

I didn't even bring up AI sliders, since I don't think it's as simple as that. Which is why I'm staying away from it. If it was just about cranking up 2 sliders, developers would have done it a long time ago. And I do agree with some of your points regarding AI.

It's good to have a conversation, I thought this thread was about to go unnoticed.

[daniel77733]

Re: Why should only sports games have sliders?

I think that maybe you're looking for "arcade" and "simulation" settings/options as opposed to sliders. For driving anyway, this is what im getting based on what you're saying. Correct me if im wrong.

[youvalss]

Re: Why should only sports games have sliders?

Driving style is part of what I want. But as I mentioned in one of my posts, developers use some tools to determine car physics, and I was just asking for some limited access to such a tool (just to be able to change some values).

But sliders can apply to other things as well. Like, for example, the day-night cycle speed (game clock speed), traffic density (I believe some games have already included this option in the past), bullet-damage effect and more...

I do like the idea of arcade/sim driving settings (like Mafia), but I want more control. I want to be able to change values which affect these modes. Not just choose a mode, but customize it to my liking.

But it can be lots of other things. I gave the example of driving style, since that's something that's important to me, but it definitely doesn't need to end there.

[daniel77733]

Re: Why should only sports games have sliders?

Okay, I gotcha. You want to be able to adjust/fine tune everything like the developers can do in the games. Good idea. Only problem would be implementing it all without breaking the game.