PYF Trolls From Game Developers

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Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Final Fantasy 2 is a game few people understand.

In the NES version, equipment gave your characters massive penalties to the magic stats, but only for hit chances. Basic things like Fire and Cure would work perfectly, but things that could miss like Sleep or Toad or Life would fail miserably if you had, well, pretty much any equipment on. Even the stuff you'd think you should give your casters, like bows or staves, had like -50 and -70 point penalties on stats that start at 10, and it wasn't until the 4th to last dungeon that you got any armor that didn't wreck your magic stats, and weapons were just straight out. Literally nothing in the game tells you this and it's easy to think that nondamage spells suck. Thankfully, every version since then just excised this system entirely.

Never mind that people still think that they're gaming the system when they have characters hit themselves in an attempt to exploit the game's weird stat increasing system, but that's a problem of people not really knowing how FF2's rules work, and not knowing this won't come back to bite them until the final dungeon.

# ¿ May 4, 2015 21:11

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 17:24

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Section Z posted:

Is there any Pokemon game where a Psychic and/or Ghost loving gym leader isn't bullshit? I've only ever played and beaten the old Red/Blue, with and a dust collecting copy of Platinum I never got around to beating (guess what Gym I left off in )

Olympia in X/Y is comically easy. Liza & Tate are really simple because you have to have Surf to get there, and the Super Rod is in Mossdeep so you can just grab Sharpedos. Morty isn't bad if you have any normal type because his Gengar put all its chips on Shadow Ball (growl 5 times in HG/SS to avoid Sucker Punch btw).

RBY Sabrina is the only really bullshit one because she's using an Alakazam in RBY.

Alouicious posted:

fantina is way easier in platinum than she was in diamond/pearl

Dude, she comes waaaaaay earlier in the game and her Mismagius is only ten levels lower and still has the same ol' Shadow Ball/Magical Leaf/Psybeam/Confuse Ray. Very few things can take that Shadow Ball at that point, and fewer still can take Magical Leaf or Psybeam as well. So... you get a Probopass just for this, you mug Bronzor for weeks to get a Metal Coat, or just have a Staravia and hope Confuse Ray/Psybeam don't ruin it too much as you Wing Attack. It's a lot worse in Plat than D/P because you don't have as many options nor as many raw numbers. And no Murkrows either. IIRC for darks you're stuck with Stunky, and I am pretty sure it gets whooped by Shadow Ball anyway.

# ¿ May 5, 2015 00:53

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Choco1980 posted:

Which are incredibly complicated and long methods that require a lot of outside math, and also do you really want to max out your enemies just to use a single move on them when it'd be easier to just fight them legit?

Yeah but every non-undead boss can still be killed by level 5 death. This is just dodging that point.

And maxing them isn't a problem when they get two turns at most. No, really, Shinryu got two moves: his opening Tidal Wave, and Level 2 Old. He got way more when I fought him legit.

# ¿ May 5, 2015 01:00

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

many johnnys posted:

For an intentional SOTN troll, there's always the Alucart gear. You start the game with overpowered equipment, primarily the Alucard Sword, Alucard Shield and Alucard Mail, and then you lose this equipment a few rooms into the game. The Alucart versions of the gear look identical, except they're garbage. So players will find this equipment, get excited, equip them, and then suck. _{your luck goes up if you wear all of them, but they're still garbage}

The Alucart Sword has the same speed and range as the Alucard Sword, and as early in the game as you can grab the stuff, it outperforms other weapons as the margins in attack between weapons are small and most of your damage comes from Strength anyway, so having a fast sword is better.

# ¿ May 28, 2015 14:17

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Dirty Harry for the NES.

Instead of an exit, this room has "HA HA HA" written on the wall.

There's literally no way out.

# ¿ Aug 16, 2015 18:44

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Nuebot posted:

To get it, you need to raise a specific type of monster called a Hopper, which are basically just lovely lemurs that no one ever uses,

Attacks in MR2 fall into four ranges, and the distance from your enemy determines which attack your guy uses. It varies wildly between monsters.

The Hopper has 13 attacks. 4 in the farthest range, two physical high-hit low-damage moves and its token magical moves, 2 similar high-hit low-damage techs in the 3rd closest, a basic high-hit low-damage tech all by itself in 2, and six techs in the closest range including all its heavy damage and critical hit moves.

Switching moves in the same range is kinda cumbersome, especially when there's so many in one slot since you have to cycle them one at a time.

Basically, they have 3/4 of their slots filled with high-hit low-damage moves and everything else is piled in the close range slot.

Bajarls are awkward about the 2nd range in the same way. Other monsters can get huge tech lists but nothing so centered in one slot like that.

# ¿ Oct 11, 2015 05:51

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Gabriel Pope posted:

The concept of bosses and minibosses is a game dev troll now apparently??

Having them innocuously among the trash mobs, that is. The level 10 Boarthingy is meant to be fought at level 10, but the Elite Boarthingy is far stronger and will kill you and is in the same areas. Even if you do recognize the Elite Boarthingy is far beyond your reach, what are you supposed to do if one appears? Leave and reload the screen? Then the Elite Boarthingy adds a die roll and if you lose, you just take longer to get something done.

And I'm guessing it's not like EO's FOEs where they are clearly separate enemies and avoiding them is part of the map design, but that 1/20 Boarthingies just has inflated stats but otherwise appears and acts like a normal Boarthingy.

The underlying problem being, if you're strong enough to fight the Elite Boarthingy then you have no business lurking around the low-level area except for revenge.

# ¿ Oct 13, 2015 00:52

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Duke of Flies posted:

Too bad some versions have more than one! The hunt is on indefinitely.

In FR/LG Entei knew Roar, and if it Roared you out of the fight instead of fleeing, perhaps if by mean look or arena trap, it went away forever.

That's just one quirk on the great big ball of tedium that is roaming Pokemon. It only accomplishes making Dusk Ball throws happen once every 30 minutes instead of a few a minute.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 01:57

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Bug Bill Murray posted:

Why can't these nerds just have fun playing the game instead of doing all this gay poo poo

Datamining results in learning exactly how the game works. For a game like Binding of Isaac knowing the specific requirements for certain items or whatever is far better than relying on anecdotes. It can also reveal quirks in the system that can be helpful for pulling off tricks.

When it also reveals that apparently the developers delivered only half of what they promised and that stuff is apparently just arbitrarily unavailable despite being functional, it can also leave a sour taste in one's mouth. You don't even have to be one of the dataminers, you just need to read their report to know half of the items are missing.

It's, like, you buy a game saying "200 unique weapons!" and only 100 of the unique weapons are available despite the other 100 working, it's like, what?

Also involved is the project head being pissy about this. A sane response would've been like "we want to roll these items out as bug-free as possible" or something, instead of being really rude, especially since it was all patched in anyway. He could've just, you know, said that.

"Look to la luna bitches!" is a reference to Mortal Kombat.

It's one the hints for fighting Reptile. The player must in single-player get a double-flawless (win both rounds without taking any damage) without blocking on the Pit stage while silhouettes are flying past, which happens only once every six games. In other words, an obtuse hint for a really specific secret. McMillen made a lovely joke about obtuse unlock requirements as though that's why the items are unimplemented despite working.

When people were asking "why the hell is so much stuff missing" he acted like an rear end for no good reason.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2015 04:35

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Posting about Reptile reminded me of how the Mortal Kombat devs responded to rumors.

Here's the audit screen for the first Mortal Kombat on arcades. It's accessible through a button combination on the attract mode.

Right below Reptile fights is Ermacs. What this really means is Error Macros, the game counting how many times its crashed unexpectedly. But being right below the obscure secret fight and its name being not exactly indicative made people think it was an even more obscure secret-er fight.

This was not helped by Electronic Gaming Monthly's April Fools gags.

More background information, the digitized people sprites were shot against a green screen, so guy in the ninja costume wore red to contrast with it. Scorpion, Sub-Zero, and Reptile are all palette swaps of this original red ninja. What EGM did was hack the game to name one Ermac and have him appear red.

Ermac went on to become an actual usable character in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3.

Anyway, back to audit screens.

Shawn Attacks and Watchdogs do absolutely nothing and never go up. The character Tsang Shung can transform into other characters, but Kano isn't a playable character in MK2. He was in 1 and he comes back in 3, but he spends 2 being held captive. So Tsang Shung can't transform into him.

MK3 is missing Johnny Cage because the actor who portrayed him showed up basically in-character to another company's game's ad.

And they cut him.

So there's a Johnny Cage Transformations audit in MK3 in the same place MK2 has Kano Transformations. And stored with the match-end text ["Sub-Zero wins" and all that] is "JOHHNY CAGE TRANSFORMATION ACTIVATED". That's sic by the way.

Basically, the devs noticed players making a rumor about what Ermacs on the audits page meant, and started to intentionally leave strange red herrings in the audits page.

# ¿ Nov 6, 2015 22:02

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Regrettable posted:

It's Shang Tsung, buddy.

The greatest troll along was me, trolling myself.

# ¿ Nov 12, 2015 04:14

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

U.T. Raptor posted:

Mine is that they used Cloud instead of a character from one of the games that was actually on a Nintendo system.

Checkmate, atheist!

# ¿ Nov 14, 2015 05:34

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

ChogsEnhour posted:

Are Bethesda just THAT ham handed?

Yes.

# ¿ Nov 16, 2015 17:20

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Sleeveless posted:

Truly, people liking things is the cancer killing gaming.

It's sequels straight-up reusing content with no changes.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2015 16:03

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Griefor posted:

I posted this a while ago in the griefing thread as well:

http://kotaku.com/the-steam-achievement-that-nobody-unlocked-1610073943

TLDR:
Developer adds unachievable achievement to game, players desperately try anything and everything in order to unlock it.

There's a line in there that made me think a little.

quote:

Sure, there were plenty of websites that debated the veracity of Final Fantasy resurrection rumors but, personally, I hold that the internet has become a more cynical, more skeptical place. Maybe that's just me.

I think it's that datamining has become a thing in a way it wasn't back then, so we know there's a giant Aeris that tells you you're in hell, and unused Sector 7 and Honey Bee Inn lines. It is far easier to prove or disprove these rumors because the secrets don't stay truly secret for long.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2015 02:08

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Schnedwob posted:

I think a good example of how the Paper Mario treadmill thing could've not sucked is in Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts (a game that sucked in a much broader sense). In this bit from the beginning of the game, you're shunted into a parody of N64-era collectathon platformers. The difference here is that you're back to the opening exposition dump after about 10 seconds of the dumb minigame, so it makes it feel like the player is in on the joke rather than the butt of it

It's also your only chance to play with the extremely obese Banjo & Kazooie, isn't it?

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 16:56

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

I left nearly instantly upon discovering this place and I never looked back because I can say gently caress here.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2015 22:47

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

code:

Aire Tam Storm
    Physical Absorb
    Formula: Custom
    Pwr: 1111 * No. of Materia Equipped by Target
    PAt%: 255
    Tar: All Op (NS)
    Elm: Non-Element
    Attr: 100%  Cure 'Haste', 'Slow', 'Stop', 'Regen', 'Barrier', 'MBarrier',
                     'Reflect', 'Shield', 'Death Force', 'Resist'
    Notes: Only used when at least one Eye is alive, or as a C/A under
             certain conditions

Characters can equip up to 16 materia, but nine or more makes Aire Tam Storm instantly fatal. But if a character has the max HP of 9,999 and only two equipped, Aire Tam Storm puts them at 7,777 HP.

code:

If a player or enemy happens to have 7777 HP exactly, then they enter a state
known as All Lucky 7s.  This has the following effects:

  * If any party member enters this state, or begins the battle in this
    state, then they will be forced to use the Attack command continuously
    on the enemy.  This does not take up their current turn, but it takes
    priority over all other moves and has no delay in its use.  If multiple
    party members have 7777 HP, then they will alternate attacks.  This
    continues until 64 forced attacks have been done overall, no matter how
    many party members are in All Lucky 7s.  This chain of 64 attacks can
    only be done once per battle.  It almost guarantees the death of whatever
    you're facing, with only a few exceptions.

497,728, precisely. Emerald WEAPON is one of those exceptions as it has 1,000,000 HP. The HP Plus materia is essential to getting that much HP since only Barret at level 99 and only with incredible luck has 9,999 naturally, so using Aire Tam Storm to trigger All Lucky 7s requires skipping out on a lot of the AP reward for leveling other materia.

Kind of a moot point when Emerald WEAPON is the hardest thing in the game, but still.

Funfact: those conditions listed as cured by Aire Tam Storm are all positive buffs. Besides the massive damage it's also a dispel effect.

# ¿ Jan 15, 2016 04:15

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

im pooping! posted:

it's also required for the oblivion walker achievement(obtain 15 daedric artifacts)

Actually it doesn't count at all, and the other 16 do.

This includes the mutually exclusive ones like the Ring of Hircine and the Savior's Hide.

Obv. there exist glitches to get both because Bethesda.

# ¿ Jan 22, 2016 18:16

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

The Fishing Job once pointed me at a gold diamond necklace. It has a base value of 1,200.

For those who don't know, pickpocket success rates in Skyrim are based on that base value. So a gold ring at 75 gold is harder to steal than an iron sword at 25.

Even with a maxed-out pickpocket skill the task barely reached double-digit success rates.

I have never seen another fishing target get close to that.

# ¿ Jan 24, 2016 06:56

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

im pooping! posted:

*seriously gently caress if im gonna find all the stones of barenziah legit

Initially one was in the Thalmor Embassy and thus missable forever if you don't get it.

Considering how many unnecessary rooms full of shelves and tables and desks are in there, I have no clue where it'd even sit.

Thankfully a patch moved it to the reeking cave, and you can revisit that.

# ¿ Jan 27, 2016 23:08

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Digirat posted:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DarkSouls2/comments/264t6s/the_actual_truth_about_hitboxes

The hitboxes were perfectly functional.

Wow, snapping to grabs, hitboxes far wider than the graphics, and enemies hitting on wind-up. It's a smorgasbord of ways to make a game less fun.

# ¿ Mar 4, 2016 19:04

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Ryoshi posted:

Some of the "do not open" chests are randomly selected in rooms with nearly a dozen chests, so you miss out on more than just four chests worth of stuff.

That's two of them, but most treasure isn't worth poo poo.

The real problem with it is that one is across a hall from Vaan's mentor figure guy that you have to visit a few times, and upon leaving it is directly in view of the camera.

# ¿ Mar 7, 2016 16:57

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

Sage Grimm posted:

The first is there's an alternative method of getting past the snake, just straight up murdering it with a sword which I believe loses you points.

The game becomes unwinnable if you murder it because you need to ride the pegasus to beat the game.

There's also the bridge you can cross only so many times, and you need literally every trip. Make one mistake and the bridge collapses. Save after wasting a trip and the game is unwinnable.

# ¿ Mar 14, 2016 19:58

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 17:24

Orange Fluffy Sheep: Jul 26, 2008; Bad EXP received

graybook posted:

That makes me think of how in some Pokemon games (I believe I'm remembering G/S/C era specifically though) where some trainers would also hide in the forest only to pop out once you walked in front of them.

The trainers would be holding a big tree placard of some sort, but it was easily visible in the world. I'm amused thinking about these folks just standing there for hours on end behind a big obvious fake tree sign. And it's probably gotta have eyeholes cut out too so that they can see when someone passes by.

In game you'd be walking in front of this tree bordered by a rectangle then all of a sudden the ! bubble pops up on it. Worth a sensible chuckle.

e: poo poo, this isn't the little things thread

That would be the Ninja Boy trainer class, in R/S/E. They hide behind screens that look like this:

It is obvious if you take the time to look, but if you're moving through quickly and not scrutinizing trees they can be a real surprise.

They also hide behind screens that look like rocks in the mountain routes, and in the hills of soot in Route 113.

# ¿ Jun 4, 2016 14:02

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