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[Reelya]

Ok, this is something that recently I've found that it peeves me somewhat. A bunch of games have this research tree or list, you assign specialists and build machines so they can unlock stuff for you. Inevitably, you research everything, and all you can do is really just take down all that furniture and reassign people to shoe shining or whatever.

I think this could be averted if there was some use for researching after learning all the tech, like temporary productivity boosts or something so that suddenly a third of your population doesn't end up unemployed with fancy paperweights that used to be state of the art super microscopes.

The problem could be solved in a similar way to another Civ mechanic. In Civ, you had to allocate specialists as either scientists, taxmen or entertainers. So at every stage of the game your excess specialists always have a use, even if the "university" building ceases to be useful in itself.

But what if each building had more than one reason to exist? Universities don't just generate research, they train the next generation of specialists. While libraries aren't just a boost to the researcher's ability to generate knowledge, they also boost literacy. So you could have other sliders to state how much your universities are doing research vs training, or how your libraries are geared towards research vs public education. It would add another dimension to play with. Which is good in a 4X type of game.

[Mech#4]

I think it was Masters of Orion 2, or a similar game, that had a research called "miniaturization" which made ship parts smaller with each completion ad infinitum.

[Sergius]

Kinda curious about what game you mean.  I haven't been playing much new stuff, but I have been playing UFO:Afterlight.  The UFO series sooorta has that, except that like XCOM (new and old), when you finish the tech tree you're pretty much done.

I don't mind games that just have a research UI that doesn't require any special infrastructure or skill, because in the end the research screen just goes away (or in many of those strategy Sid Meier's games you just keep either doing "miniaturization" or even in the old Civ games just added to your score with no in-game effect). It's more noticeable in indie games, but XCOM also has that to some extent (I don't remember if you have any use for scientists afterwards, but anyway that game has an ending and if you've exhausted your research you're probably close to winning anyway). If there wasn't any benefit in Civ-clones, you could sell all your libraries, I guess? Unless they give happiness boosts or something.

A few examples I can think, indie-wise: Oxygen not Included, Rimworld, Starship Theory. You have to actually build and train people in Research, which becomes completely useless afterwards. And might as well deconstruct the research tables because they don't do anything, but they made your base look cool maybe, and now they just sit there... so the choice is leave them as decoration or just repurpose them or whatever... for "roleplaying" purposes it's a bit weird a bunch of scientists going "well... we learned everything possible, let's just stop."

[Sergius]

A lot of the Ace Attorney games fall into this trap, too. Except for perhaps the speeches the judge gives at the end of Trials and Tribulations and Apollo Justice, the takeaway of the game tends to be relatively pointless because of either how wildly unrealistic the games' court system is or how vague the theme is.

I remember doing a bunch of research of that ridiculous court system, and turned out it was actually the way a lot of the justice in Japan worked for a while... like, because a huge backlog of court cases they went more for a "guilty until I can be arsed to listen to the defense for 5 minutes" method of dealing punishment. And I'm talking like last decade or two.

Not sure to what extent it was exaggerated. Here's a quote from some article from the escapist or something.

If you are charged with a crime in Japan and brought to trial, statistics show that there is a 99 percent chance that you will be convicted. This alarming statistic reveals the highly dysfunctional legal system from which the Ace Attorney series clearly takes its inspiration; a system where even a victim of false allegations finds it impossible to escape conviction. Phoenix Wright, the eponymous lawyer of the popular Capcom games, constantly battles seemingly impossible odds as he fights to defend his falsely accused clients. While the fantastical anime nature of the games gives rise to outlandish courtroom antics and bizarre scenarios, the core concept of a lopsided legal system weighted against the accused is an exaggerated parody of Japanese society and their courts.

[EnigmaticHat]

So what you're saying is, to a Japanese audience Phoenix Wright is deeply topical?

[Culise]

So what you're saying is, to a Japanese audience Phoenix Wright is deeply topical?

Yep.  The jury trial in AA4 actually corresponded to the introduction of something very similar to jury trials in Japan, a "lay judge" system where citizens served as judges alongside professional judges in an inquisitorial system, and a flat majority including at least one professional judge was adequate to render verdict.  Its quiet disappearance in AA5 corresponded to the fact that the idea hasn't really developed too much traction in public opinion to my knowledge. 

[Reelya]

Yeah, you can read other accounts of how the Japanese justice system works e.g.:

http://www.economist.com/node/8680941

Now a new film about wrongful arrest by one of Japan's most respected directors, Masayuki Suo, has just opened to critical acclaim. The movie, entitled “I Just Didn't Do It”, is based on a true story about a young man who was accused of molesting a schoolgirl on a crowded train—and refused adamantly to sign a confession.
...
The film, which was premièred in America and Britain before opening in Japan, depicts how suspects, whether guilty or innocent, are brutalised by the Japanese police, and how the judges side with the prosecutors. Mr Suo argues that suspects are presumed guilty until proven innocent, and that the odds are stacked massively against them being so proven.

The statistics would seem to bear him out. Japan is unique among democratic countries in that confessions are obtained from 95% of all people arrested, and that its courts convict 99.9% of all the suspects brought before them. Prosecutors are ashamed of being involved in an acquittal and fear that losing a case will destroy their careers.

So ... "wrongly accused innocent man beaten down by The System" is in fact the norm in Japan. Ace Attorney is topical. And those prosecutors who boast of never losing a case? That part is 100% realism in Japan, since only 1 in 1000 court trials end with an aquittal.

[Ultimuh]

Whenever I install mods for a game, I always have this sneaky feeling that I have not covered everything I wanted with said mods.
And I always end up restarting whenever I encounter a situation that I feel needs to be modded in some way or another.
I restart even if I am several hours into said game.

* Ultimuh stares annoyedly at the Bethesda games he has.

[milo christiansen]

Nowadays it can take 3-4 hours to install Oblivion, from the moment I crack the box to when it starts without crashing for the first time. Most of that time is spent carefully installing mods. So many mods.

I'm glad I keep copies of everything I download in "The Archive", as it would take even longer if I had to download everything first.

I wish there was a way to handle mods better (Steam workshop is not better!), particularly in Bethesda RPGs.

[Ultimuh]

I wish there was a way to handle mods better (Steam workshop is not better!), particularly in Bethesda RPGs.

Well, there's the Creation Club. (I'm being sarcastic, obviously.)
Seriously though, have you tried the Nexus Mod Manager? Or Mod Organizer? (MO the superior of the two, in my opinion.)

[milo christiansen]

I use MO for skyrim, but I'm not sure if it plays nice with OBMM .omod files, and even if it does it still doesn't help much with the initial installation. Some of the mods I use have really annoying installation procedures.

Skyrim is much better, but it still isn't as nice as it could be.

Honestly, it isn't that hard to build proper resource loaders for games. There is no reason any game needs a third party mod manager except developer lazyness.

Edit: My biggest mod pet peeve though, is mod authors that do not conform to the packaging standards used for the game in question. In particular, modders that ship exe installers should be shot.

[scriver]

"Excellence isn't an art, it's pure habit. We are what we repeatedly do."

Welp, I just realised I am your mother.

[Egan_BW]

Dubious - Discuss

[overseer05-15]

What's wrong with steam workshop?

[Darkmere]

What's wrong with steam workshop?

For Skyrim at least (and bethsoft games in general I've played), the order in which mods are loaded matters a great deal. You can resolve conflicts by loading mods in the proper order, and a tidy modlist will run with fewer crashes that just tossing everything in wherever.