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[nenjin]

And now Night Trap is considered quaint by the standards of what we see today.

[Sime]

I'm starting to think that ALL video games should first be designed  as board games,  so as to force designer's attention onto  elementary world logic and game-play mechanics at the very beginning.

For example,  'This War is Mine'  the board-game spin-off is better than it's digital counterpart.  Had they  designed the board-game first, the digital game would have been significantly better. 

[AzyWng]

Why do you think the board game is better than the digital counterpart exactly?

[Sime]

The board game exposes the fact that the  real-time  engine of the video game  is largely superfluous to the narrative-driven gameplay that is in essence  event-driven and  involves  resource allocation and worker placement, things which  do not require real-time and are better suited to  discrete time.

It's been a while since i played either version,   but as i vaguely recall, the survival mechanics  of the board game are deeper than the video game.    Most memorably, the scavenging is  more 'roguelike'  and less predictable due to the deck-driven exploration system, that is a side bonus is much simpler to implement digitally and easier to mod, compared to the digital version's handcrafted settings.    And unlike in the video game,   the items and characters drawn in a location in the board-game aren't  frozen in time  between the player leaving and his return.    For example, you can't  store an item at a location and be guaranteed it will still be there to safely retrieve on your return, or that you will meet the same people as the last time.   Also, the combat system is more realistic less predictable and riskier.    No more infallible  stealth-killing by  pacifistic housemates who suffer from anxiety disorders and have no previous combat experience.

The economic system of the board game is better balanced and less forgiving, and the player decisions in the board-game are more impactful and  have greater strategic value, due to the fact the board-game involves  tighter decision trade-offs.  Overall the board-game is harder  and less predictable than the video game.      Overall, i remember the emergent stories  of the board-game as being richer, more varied and more thematic,  in part thanks to the  accompanying  large storybook of events and consequences  that provides the narrative of situations  via the card-event cross-referencing system.

The world of TWIM is  static and largely empty, similar to how I imagine it must feel living as a student  under an unscrupulous landlord during a  covid  lockdown, rather than how it must feel to live during a civil war.   In all honesty, I think i lived under worse conditions as a  PhD student living in the North of England, than the characters in the video game version.

[FakerFangirl]

Teammates not being perfect.

[crazyabe]

Teammates not being perfect.

Even worse: AI Teammates having terrible, or just generally worse AI then the opponent.

[Aoi]

Teammates not being perfect.

Even worse: AI Teammates having terrible, or just generally worse AI then the opponent.

And even worse: Being worse than those terrible AI teammates.

[IonMatrix]

The fact that most Japanese devs seem to have an intense hatred for PC gamers.

I mean, I simply can't understand why this is the case.

[Egan_BW]

Probably has something to do with the fact that for a long time all of the videogame console manufacturers were based in Japan, so the Japanese game developers were more likely to develop a close relationship with the console makers. And also that PC gaming never really took off in Japan. And it wasn't too long ago that even western game devs were mostly developing for consoles, with at most a barely functional PC port.
And, even so more and more Japanese games are getting PC versions now!

So, you know, I don't think it qualifies as an "intense hatred". If anything it just hasn't been economical in the past.

[Niveras]

Part of it might be the language/culture divide as well. In FFXIV's case, for example, they only hire people who can speak fluent Japanese, so that internal communication can be smooth. That heavily restricts the perspective and input you'd get philosophy that you'd find get from western developers - which may apply to overarching game design, or something as simple as UI flow. And it stands to reason that different cultures will approach design and systems differently, just as the culture in general is different.

Wait, I am a dumbass and completely misread the original complaint.

[Aoi]

I love how some PC releases show their console origins so blatantly that they lack even fairly fundamental elements... like a way to exit the program.

One particularly egregious title (also from Japan), patched about a week after launch, actually overrode the Windows key and Ctrl-Alt-Del, which I didn't think was possible without jumping through a few hoops on an elevated user.

A notable exception to console vs PC in Japan, to my knowledge, would be the VN market (even the narrative-based, so to speak...) which always been larger on PC, though consoles often were often more featured.

[Rolan7]

People on this modded Minecraft server (mostly 4, myself included) keep leaving cruft on the Applied Energistics crafting terminals.

This is an old version of Minecraft where we don't get to just click a recipe and have it autloaded into the grid.  1.7.10 I guess.

And that is as it is.  But I ask you - why would one leave crafting elements on the grid and rush off?
Do they not realize that the grid is for everyone?  Surely they saw each others detritus!

I am discomforted because I often observe them craft some items, then rush off- but what if they want to craft more of that recipe?  Perhaps they are collecting more resources?

This is seldom the case.

Edit: Clear the dang table, it's just courtesy for a shared crafting area.  Keeps me from messing with your incomplete recipes.

[MrRoboto75]

I thought if you tried leaving something on a crafting table, you just dropped it on the floor when you left the inventory screen.  Is it part of the mod?

[Rolan7]

That's how it works in normal Minecraft, yes.  This is Applied Energistics.  We're under a version of Minecraft where crafting is more manual.  We had a previous run with a later version of Minecraft where you could just click a button to fill a recipe, but that isn't possible here.

Edit: I don't honestly know how much of it is the mod and how much is Minecraft.  But I'm pretty sure that later versions of Minecraft had much more convenient crafting as a base mechanic. 

[MrRoboto75]

I think you are right.  I recently revisited minecraft on a whim because MC stuff is in Smash bros now, and the only version I have on hand is the PS4 one.  It gives you a recipe book of sorts on the side, and you can auto craft stuff just by clicking in the book.  It fills and empties the crafting grid automatically.  Part of me assumed its just to make the console interface easier but it wouldn't surprise me in the PC (not-java?) version.  Unfortunately my old minecraft/mojang account was too ancient to be recoverable.

Now the new nether is kicking my ass.  I've heard the bone/skeleton biome there is said to be hostile to all known life by others.  On PS4 it seems like skeletons are allowed to spawn there like five feet away if you look the wrong direction, and I'm assuming light doesn't matter like in the overworld, since the nether isn't really 'dark'?  Either way I'm building a large minecart tunnel elsewhere far away and moving the portal for better luck.

Also diamonds are really boring to find.