I have a handful of rare qualities in The Annwn Simulation 1985 which are missable. Most of these are based on getting a Rare Success. I use them a few times in Road-With-Many-Faces-esque situatiions, so in many cases players may not even know about their existence until they see themselves being denied the ability to use them.
Does this lead to replayability, or is it the height of cruelty?
Every part of your game should serve the story. Including and especially its mechanics. If your missable qualities enhance the story, they’re probably fine – in small doses. But if they’re a mechanical trick designed to entice players into a second playthrough, leave them out. They’re extra work for you (not good) and frustrating for completionist players (very bad).
Put in a broader context: when you design branching content, you’re always trying to balance player joy (“I got to choose meaningfully!”) with player frustration (“I can’t believe I missed X!”)
Missable qualities for the sake of replay value probably don’t come from meaningful story choices. They’re behavioral-psych doohickeys. Skip them and focus on telling a compelling story to everyone.
I think that, in general, if you have easily missable qualities they should be of little consequence. An example would be the quality in FL for collecting the most dangerous beasts (Only obtainable by trapping a spider council, with the ability to trap creatures going away when you unlock the labyrinth of tigers). This quality is one of a few needed to choose the dangerous option at one point of Person of Some Importance, but there are other routes you can take that are just as good. Similarly, there are things like copies of your plays, which do absolutely nothing.
Basically, you should never punish the player for failing to get a quality they can no longer get. ESPECIALLY if that quality is one a player would easily miss.
One thing I’m doing in Orchestra is having Achievements; each achievement point is hard to get, but you’ll be able to get anything in the game through them, including getting second shots either at rare storyline equipment or actually being able to play through the alternate storyline from the point of divergence. This means that nothing is out of reach, it just may require a little reinvestment to find the other ending.
I’d say it depends.
In Orchestra for instance if there was an option that was clearly set out for only a certain path but that it was also clear that my path had shiny options, then that would indicate to me that while I am missing things, I’m missing them the way I miss out on things in life, by making one choice I made other choices not possible, but with it being a game I can go back and do it again. In your game for instance a player may choose to avoid juicers as being shady but be aware that there may be interesting opportunities down that line and thus replay to find out.
Additionally if there are multiple ways or opportunities to get the rare result. Like if it is a repeated sometimes card. This is the benefit of the doubt assumption I make when a quality is required that I do not have. I assume that if I just keep playing I’ll eventually get it. If this is not true then the player may have no idea that they missed an opportunity and would have to replay for a chance. Even if they did know the rare possibility that they would get that chance on a one-time shot is probably not strong enough to encourage a replay. So, over time, it will start to irritate the player. For those instances I would probably choose to just hide the branch or card.
Oh, another exception would be in a store-like environment where there are a ton of different things. As a player I would assume that this was a storehouse of all the various possibilities for the whole game and would not assume that I would gain access to all the items on my unique play-through.
Thanks for the input, all! The way I have it set now, there are maybe three unique qualities which are missable, none of which are necessary to complete anything. I’m using them a Road With Many Faces fashion, where if you have them you may be able to get past an obstacle in a different way. For example, if you have the Pied Piper quality, your personal army of rats can be called upon is a few cases.
Another useful thing for missing qualities is to join side-factions.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but one planned feature is to allow players to contribute to a universal pool of a quality that can be used to unlock certain storyline elements, right? What I’m thinking of is a “race to the finish” between two opposed faction and whoever gets to X amount first wins. So for instance, I could see that 450 people contributed a point to Swordsman Foundation and 300 contributed their point to the Blackthorn Group, right?
I’m nearing the end of Annwn and ended up here precisely because of this. It’s an enjoyable game, and I’ll write a review in the right thread when I’ve got more of a chance. Specifically, I caught up to a choice where I could use either of two missable qualities, or I could give up some stats. Now, I assume that these two are rare occurrences from grinding music and wits (possibly brain), which is fine. What is annoying is not knowing if I’m incorrect (because I’ll be practicing those skills where there isn’t a reward), or if this far into the game they are still available. Of course I’ve missed some story, that’s the nature of making choices. I’m just a little frustrated that I don’t know if what seems to still be something I can achieve is now not achievable.
I’m not sure if cartogramancy is the third missable or not, but the interesting thing with that one is that I had opportunities to use it early in the game, but did not receive cards that would let me finish the quest for cartogramancy until mid-game when I had already passed some opportunities by. I saw it as kind of a way to get out of choosing a faction, since one event let me choose between the cops, the criminals, and cartogramancy. But the game kept telling me to pick a side, so I did that instead. Was that path intended to be a third choice, or do you have to choose a side to finish the game? Was I just unlucky with the cards?
Some qualities I’m not sure if I missed the opportunity to use, or if they’re just achievements. Friend of a Bard, for example, I didn’t see a use for, though that could just be the way things fell. Anyway, I’ll probably finish up later today. It’s a beautiful world you’ve crafted.
[quote=Niveous]I’m nearing the end of Annwn and ended up here precisely because of this. It’s an enjoyable game, and I’ll write a review in the right thread when I’ve got more of a chance. Specifically, I caught up to a choice where I could use either of two missable qualities, or I could give up some stats. Now, I assume that these two are rare occurrences from grinding music and wits (possibly brain), which is fine. What is annoying is not knowing if I’m incorrect (because I’ll be practicing those skills where there isn’t a reward), or if this far into the game they are still available. Of course I’ve missed some story, that’s the nature of making choices. I’m just a little frustrated that I don’t know if what seems to still be something I can achieve is now not achievable.
I’m not sure if cartogramancy is the third missable or not, but the interesting thing with that one is that I had opportunities to use it early in the game, but did not receive cards that would let me finish the quest for cartogramancy until mid-game when I had already passed some opportunities by. I saw it as kind of a way to get out of choosing a faction, since one event let me choose between the cops, the criminals, and cartogramancy. But the game kept telling me to pick a side, so I did that instead. Was that path intended to be a third choice, or do you have to choose a side to finish the game? Was I just unlucky with the cards?
Some qualities I’m not sure if I missed the opportunity to use, or if they’re just achievements. Friend of a Bard, for example, I didn’t see a use for, though that could just be the way things fell. Anyway, I’ll probably finish up later today. It’s a beautiful world you’ve crafted.[/quote]
>>SPOILERS BELOW kinda.<<
@Niveous. Thanks for the detailed feedback! On missable qualities – If you happened to come across one of those missable qualities (which cost you something to attain), you would have a chance to use it to get out of the qualities toll. But the not knowing how/if to get them is clearly an issue. thanks!
I had meant for the game to be fully playable without picking a side, but easier if you choose one. I added the servant guy telling you to pick a side because of some feedback I received where people weren’t sure what to do next – but I may change that, since he’s kinda annoying. :) Were you able to complete the Cartogromancy quest?
Friend of a Bard is a rare quality which has yet to be used… but soon!
Thanks for the reply! Yes, I was able to finish the Cartogromancy quest.
The only frustration for me as a player is if I have no idea what I’m supposed to do to get these qualities. If I know it’s a grind or requires some luck in a certain place, then that’s fine. I’ll make my own decision to pursue this or not. But when I just see closed doors and have no idea where or when or how I was supposed to get these things then it’s really frustrating. Leave a trail of hints, clues and maybe even the odd outright spoiler and I think it’s then the player’s choice aligned with their peresverance rather than just dumb luck.
Thanks much for the input – that’s exactly how I feel without having been able to articulate it. I made some changes last night which I hope will address it.