Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Misused
, started by Kayube on Nov 24th 2014 at 8:39:09 AM
Alright - Pokemon Gen IV. Not sure if it's in Platinum only, but the first time you meet Rowan in Sandgem town (The time you get your Pokedex) and your starter has evolved, he makes a comment on it. Something among the lines of "Amazing! Your pokemon has already evolved?" It's not much, but it's there. Does that count as the Dev team thinking of everything?
Anyone think that Pokémon deserves its own page? It seems to have one of the longest entries in this article.
Judging by the most recent examples added to this page, I think Trope Decay is turning this trope into a variant of Crazy-Prepared.
Not sure if this is an example or not, so I thought I'd put it here and see what people think.
In the Flash room-escape game Abacus, many of the puzzles revolve around a calculating engine that works via numbered tumblers (0-9) you get from other puzzles. One of the puzzles is to find the two-digit numbers represented by two mystery tumblers. These numbers change each time you play.
The final puzzle requires you to solve an equation and place three of the tumblers in the lock. The equation has been carefully designed to have only one solution with the numbers 0-9. However, depending on what the random two-digit numbers on the mystery tumblers are, there may be a valid solution involving them. If there is such a solution, using those tumblers works.
I think this counts as the dev team thinking of everything, because the obvious thing to do would be to program the lock to work with the "right" tumblers, and not worry about the maths. But it's a pretty minor thing, so I'm not sure.
Edited by 70.33.253.42
I know this is a wrong place to ask it, but has anybody tried to beat Final Fantasy VI without using magic? What happens then? I mean, you're probably supposed to use magic somewhere between Edgar's joining and arriving at Returners' hideout, right?
The bar seems to be set really low for this trope in interactive fiction (text adventures, Sierra games, etc.)
You communicate with these kinds of games in English, with only a limited number of things the game understands. The player virtually never has a list of words, so everything they try has the potential to be obscure. The nature of the controls makes being on top of the Combinatorial Explosion mandatory, so a well-written piece of interactive fiction will have dozens of these at the "funny response" level.
I removed an instance where the obscure thing the Dev Team thought of was having the solution to a puzzle solve the puzzle. I left the more borderline cases, but I think tightening up is badly necessary — perhaps limiting this to puzzles with multiple solutions or detailed callbacks later in the game.
(This objection does NOT apply to Lucasarts type games with a point-and-click interface. It's the plain-English parser with the hidden word list in a puzzle game that's incompatible with this trope, not merely being an Adventure game.
Does it count if the developers didn't think about something in the original version of a game, but then after hearing about a bug they fix it and put the extra thing in its place? I'm thinking about Creeper World, where the last level is supposed to be beaten using the superweapon. In the original game, beating it without the superweapon would simply delete all your units but not cause you to win, and it's impossible to win after that. In a later patch, this was changed so if you beat it without the superweapon, you get a special congratulation message which includes a lampshade of Story Overwrite, then you get the original ending sequence.
Shouldn't this be Trivia, or do you disagree? Seeing as how in some articles, this is listed in YMMV, and in others, it is listed in Trivia, I've got no stance of my own. Make your descision now!
In the Halo part of the page, it says "In said game, try turning the elephant upside down. When you go to flip it back up, the game says, 'Press L1 to...Wait, WHAT? How did you do that?'". You guys know Halo is Xbox exclusive, right? Therefore the game will use Xbox controls, so L1 would become LB.
I'm the only person who gets weird impression that it is strangely common trope in one-person projects? Most notable examples are ADOM and Dwarf Fortress, but there's more...
Is there an opposite to this trope? A good example of what I'm talking about would be this game on Neopets called Grand Theft Ummagine. Part of the game involves you avoiding capture by guards who will chase after you until you lead them into a foreign object standing in their path (these guards are pretty simple-minded). There are also pits that you have to avoid walking over or else you'll fall in and have to start the level over. I tried to use these pits as a more permanent solution to being chased down by guards by leading one into a pit. However, the guard just walked over the pit like it was solid ground! I saw this and I'm like "... What?!" Also keep in mind that these guards are bigger and heavier than you are.
Edited by CloverGoldngreen Hide/Show Replies
Still no answer? I have a different example: some JRPG create a lot of inventory and tactical options to combat various enemies, but a few hours of simple Level Grinding early in the game make all this unnecessary for the rest of the game. Any specific term for that?
The opposite of this trope is just that the trope doesn't happen, which isn't a trope in itself.
As to the second, not everything is a trope or a specific term.
Why do Animal Crossing, GTA and ADOM have their own pages. They only have 2-4 examples.
Removed the following:
- Doom 3 has tons of person-logs you could find and read and/or playback. Many are used to open weapon lockers including one for the the BFG . One that reads "Hey Frank, You left your lunch on my desk, again. I put it in the storage cabinet, number 112. The combination is 5-3-8.", you open the locker and sure enough you see a lunch labeled "Frank" and also some ammo and health.
While an example of excellent detail, it's not an example of the dev team thinking of everything.
Hide/Show Replies
While an example of excellent detail, it's not an example of the dev team thinking of everything. What's the difference?
The Dev Team Thinks of Everything is when the player finds out they prepared for something that there's little if any reason to suspect. Like, if they had put in random combinations and items for every locker? Yes, that'd be this trope.
But putting in a note saying, "Hey, check this locker, here's the combination" and then having that locker and combination lead to something is not this trope.
Looks like Fast Eddie took out the quote. Meh, it didn't really describe the trope too well anyways. What do we replace it with?
Seven Seals: Took out this:
- If you use a hacking tool to alter a Pokémon ROM, you can go into the tall grass near your home town before you get your first pokemon. If you get attacked by a wild pokemon, a question mark shows up instead of the pokemon you should have. The question mark is at level zero, zero HP, and it can attack. When you white out, you come to in your house and your mom makes you rest and explains how pokemon centers work. How did they plan for this?
They didn't. They just made sure the game wouldn't crash if the Pokemon slots were empty, for whatever reason. I'm pretty sure (but not absolutely) that the dialogue your mom gives you would happen if you lost your first fight with your Pokemon by your side.
Making a game robust against errors (which has the side effect of making it robust against some glitches or hacks) is not quite "thinking of everything". That would have been if the game specifically alluded to the situation being impossible/out of the ordinary.
Perhaps it was originally possible to do that, and it got Dummied Out.
Edited by DanielLC Hide/Show Replies
Ocarina of Time: Goddess of the Sand easter egg? Can anyone link a vid to this action, I can't find one.
Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: reorganize
, started by NerdAtComputer on Dec 2nd 2010 at 5:39:49 AM