Traps

[SergeDavid]

One of the things I've yet to see or hear about involves traps. For those unlucky treasure seekers who delve into the unknown to never return to the crafty prankster or intellegent adventurers who can turn the tide of an engagement with some cleaver forethought. The ability to set and use different kinds of traps would definately add some more elements to the already amazing gameplay that I have seen.

I'm sure the developers will include many interesting physics based traps like falling bolders with trip wire and swinging axes or launched arrows and the like we've seen in many a movie or game however I think it would be neat to discuss the idea of them and what kind of traps the players could set up.

Imagine you want to go hunting, with some knowledge you set up a basic snare or bare trap and lay them around the woods, probably near water and go off with your beard and war sheep to punch a bear to death. After a futile day of hunting where you only managed to arrow down a rabbit you check your traps and luckilly you've managed to ensnare another rabbit and a wild boar. Now you'll go home to the ale house with your nights dinner and something to trade for a nice pint.

Another possibility involves a few nice sized spikes, a trip wire, and some very dark stairs. What do the rest of you think about traps both set by the player and by the npcs against the player in Sui Generis?

 

[666jet]

One of the things I've yet to see or hear about involves traps. For those unlucky treasure seekers who delve into the unknown to never return to the crafty prankster or intellegent adventurers who can turn the tide of an engagement with some cleaver forethought. The ability to set and use different kinds of traps would definately add some more elements to the already amazing gameplay that I have seen.

I'm sure the developers will include many interesting physics based traps like falling bolders with trip wire and swinging axes or launched arrows and the like we've seen in many a movie or game however I think it would be neat to discuss the idea of them and what kind of traps the players could set up.

Imagine you want to go hunting, with some knowledge you set up a basic snare or bare trap and lay them around the woods, probably near water and go off with your beard and war sheep to punch a bear to death. After a futile day of hunting where you only managed to arrow down a rabbit you check your traps and luckilly you've managed to ensnare another rabbit and a wild boar. Now you'll go home to the ale house with your nights dinner and something to trade for a nice pint.

Another possibility involves a few nice sized spikes, a trip wire, and some very dark stairs. What do the rest of you think about traps both set by the player and by the npcs against the player in Sui Generis?

The classical hole with a sheet and leaves over it with spikes at the bottom classic or maybe not even spikes because you wouldn’t want to damage the animal skin better pelt better money or the rope with a net that pulls them high up into the tress .... about 5ft off the ground really promising

 

[Tottel]

On a related topic:

How will traps placed by enemies work?

Think Oblivion for a second: There are traps covering treasures or enemy hide-outs. Either they are weak and do nearly no damage, or they suddenly kill you. If they do kill, you just reload the last save and disable them the next time you get there.

How would you go around this problem (of just loading a save to dodge the trap) in Sui Generis?

EDIT: Thanks Algea (post below), I had completely forgotten about that.

 

[Algea]

On a related topic:

How would you go around this problem (of just loading a save to dodge the trap) in Sui Generis?

As far as I understand you can't use save-load mechanics in Sui Generis, because there are no saves.

...Rather than providing you with this astounding power to record moments in time and return to them whenever you please (read save/load) so that you may win every battle, eventually, even by pure chance...

(Kickstarter update #4)

 

[Mimel]

Traps could bring another level to our exploration in the dungeons as well. I think if the realism extends to the floors and walls never looking the same, but rather having a randomness to them, then we could try our hand at locating traps just by testing the surfaces, spotting tripwires, and more.

Setting our own traps would take some amount of skill or study from a hunter or ranger of some sort, I would think. Hunting and fishing could be a part of this.

 

[BigT2themax]

I pretty much never use traps when just exploring in RPGs, because usually I can just run up to enemies and stab them, which works a lot better than waiting and hoping they run into the trap.

I may use traps if they're quick to set up and I need to defend an area from a large number of enemies, though, just to get rid of a few of them and make things a bit easier. So maybe if situations like this happen in Sui, then a few trap items might be good.

As for traps in dungeons and that, yes. It'd be great noticing the place doesn't seem to look quite right, only to step on a stone plate and swinging axes come from the ceiling and such, or some other trap activates. Maybe have some traps be lethal (as in, they cut you in half, like said swinging axes), but fairly easy to spot? Some other traps, like having the room fill with poisonous gas and you have to escape before you die, might be good for creating some serious suspense or terror (maybe a strong word, but I can't think of the right one) in a player. If traps are going to be lethal, though, they need to be visible from the isometric perspective, otherwise it'd be very unfair.

Still, though. traps. Awesome.

 

[Mimel]

I pretty much never use traps when just exploring in RPGs, because usually I can just run up to enemies and stab them, which works a lot better than waiting and hoping they run into the trap.

I may use traps if they're quick to set up and I need to defend an area from a large number of enemies, though, just to get rid of a few of them and make things a bit easier. So maybe if situations like this happen in Sui, then a few trap items might be good.

As for traps in dungeons and that, yes. It'd be great noticing the place doesn't seem to look quite right, only to step on a stone plate and swinging axes come from the ceiling and such, or some other trap activates. Maybe have some traps be lethal (as in, they cut you in half, like said swinging axes), but fairly easy to spot? Some other traps, like having the room fill with poisonous gas and you have to escape before you die, might be good for creating some serious suspense or terror (maybe a strong word, but I can't think of the right one) in a player. If traps are going to be lethal, though, they need to be visible from the isometric perspective, otherwise it'd be very unfair.

Still, though. traps. Awesome.

Yes, yes, I agree. I don't take the time to setup traps in a game unless it had a purpose to protect a room in my house/inn room/barn where I'm sleeping. Otherwise, I'm all for traps that I must avoid or that give suspense to the game such as you mentioned.

 

[the0thMonkey]

Sorry to reference Skyrim, but how many people used runes (in destruction magic)? I'm betting I could count them on one hand!

 

[Cooper Holt]

I like the idea of traps. From primitive wooden shanks that swing from above and in to your chest, to more complex things like... bait and a guillotine drop disk, or a net that pulls you in to the air and snaps, causing you to fall into a deep hole.
I like it, but traps shouldn't be overused.

 

[BigT2themax]

Sorry to reference Skyrim, but how many people used runes (in destruction magic)? I'm betting I could count them on one hand!

I never played enough to actually learn one of those, but from what I know about them I actually think I would probably use those not as traps, but as just area of effect attacks that I could instantly place right on top of enemies as they run towards me.

Those kinds of things are handy like that, but traps where the game makes you stop and wait a few seconds as you set it up are the annoying ones I described above.

As for overused traps, yeah, they'd be annoying if they're everywhere, so I'm guessing there'd be rules for how often they appear. Maybe like, only one every minimum distance away, or something?

Also, to speak further about what I said before, I'm thinking the "insta-mega-pain" traps should really not be too hard to see for the adventurer who's just walking along. Sure, if they're running willy-nilly through a dungeon, then make a trap spring, but if you're just walking around keeping your eyes peeled and suddenly your head is chopped off by a trap, that'd be annoying, especially if it was almost impossible to see the trap.
Maybe the best kinds of traps would be the ones that are slow to actually kill you, like poison gas or crushing walls, so you have to devise some way of escaping the trap before you're dead. those kinds of traps would be good to create panic and such in a player, and a huge relief when (or rather, if) they escape the trap. Of course, that's just my opinion, it might not turn out to be very fun, in reality.

 

[Kaizer0002]

Traps feel artificial in many games where they have complicated mechanisms and exist without any express purpose to the point where I am having trouble thinking of reasonable traps in video games. The first that came to mind was from the Thief series in that there are 'noise traps', which are effectively just a part of the environment that makes noise if you aren't careful and notice them as an issue. Examples are simple things like loose bottles falling over, small animals making noise if you walk on them, etc. A more realistic trap then would be something that was there with an origin in mind, noticeable to the discerning eye and avoidable/disarmable. If I had to think of one off the top of my head, it'd be a flooded room where upon opening the door would sweep the player towards a cliff with side passages to dart into if they were quick. In this way, as long as there was a reason for the room to become flooded and a cliff to be nearby, it seems more like a natural environment hazard instead of something painstakingly set up - a sign of decay instead of very well preserved, infinitely resetable mechanics. Ultimately, the sorts of traps would do a lot to set the tone of the area. There are issues however with having to reuse complicated mechanics to justify development time and traps becoming either too predictable or too unfair.

One semirealistic setup I had for traps in a campaign was a maze where the incorrect paths were trapped so that someone who knew their way through would avoid every one. The players did not catch on this, assuming instead that whoever went through would place all the traps along the path that had to be taken as they would be protecting the route.

The only other thing I prefer with traps is that they affect enemies and allies alike. I enjoy luring enemies into traps meant for me and find it frustrating when they are immune. I don't like the sense that the enemies operate on a separate set of rules than me in general.

 

[BigT2themax]

I don't think enemies will be made immune to traps and such, they'll probably be subject to the same laws of physics as the player.

Having natural traps that come about because of the decay of the environment and flooding, or cave-ins and such is an excellent idea, but there's not really anything wrong with a nice set of spikes or a guillotine in some old tomb that the builders wanted to keep people out of, surely? I don't see the problem with traps like that.

 

[Bibidibop]

The issue I have with traps is they are almost universally a quick drop item with an extremely brief effect. A real trap takes time, has permanent effects, and should be extremely hard to see. Besides which, someone mentioned the game won't have crafting. Dungeon style traps should be extremely dangerous.

 

[BigT2themax]

Keep in mind the game's has an isometric view. I for one, don't like triggering a completely, absolutely, not-at-all-visible trap that kills me instantly whilst just exploring perfectly normally, and I don't think many players would either. It'd just be annoying.

Maybe have a small hint that there might be a trap in the area, like small holes in the wall showing where spikes might come out, or scratches on the floor of a small, enclosed room showing the walls might crush you, or maybe just having an empty room that is suspiciously perfectly normal and boring apart from some rare treasure on the other side, or something.

If not that, make it possible to dodge or avoid the trap or don't make the trap an instant kill. something like the walls or ceiling trying to crush you, or the room slowly flooding with water, or a boulder thundering down the corridor.

Really, a sudden trap that gives you a (fairly small) chance to dodge it, or a slow, inevitable-style trap would be much MUCH better than just step-on-a-tile-and-insta-hurt-by-stuff style traps, as they're better at creating panic or tension in a player. Of course, instant-hurty traps have their uses, but they're better used by making a player think something doesn't seem quite right about the room, causing them to sneak forward with caution and spot the hidden floor switches or trip-wires and carefully go around them, stuff like that.

As for traps you can place, yeah, I find them handy for defending an area, but really they're the last thing on your mind when in the middle of a fight. But yeah, they should take some time to place. hurrah, realism!

 

[TigerBunnyHeart]

One of the things I've yet to see or hear about involves traps. For those unlucky treasure seekers who delve into the unknown to never return to the crafty prankster or intellegent adventurers who can turn the tide of an engagement with some cleaver forethought. The ability to set and use different kinds of traps would definately add some more elements to the already amazing gameplay that I have seen.

I'm sure the developers will include many interesting physics based traps like falling bolders with trip wire and swinging axes or launched arrows and the like we've seen in many a movie or game however I think it would be neat to discuss the idea of them and what kind of traps the players could set up.

Imagine you want to go hunting, with some knowledge you set up a basic snare or bare trap and lay them around the woods, probably near water and go off with your beard and war sheep to punch a bear to death. After a futile day of hunting where you only managed to arrow down a rabbit you check your traps and luckilly you've managed to ensnare another rabbit and a wild boar. Now you'll go home to the ale house with your nights dinner and something to trade for a nice pint.

Another possibility involves a few nice sized spikes, a trip wire, and some very dark stairs. What do the rest of you think about traps both set by the player and by the npcs against the player in Sui Generis?

Well I think they well make many traps but for now they well keeps secrets and stuff like that, as well as treasure and Hiden object. The point of the game is good I like it so far Plus I am still Planing what I can do with my Personily designed in which the game well be interesting indeed as the Traps which we speak of . As alll goo! as well as we hope for and May this game be the best games out of the best .