- Jul 30, 2021
- 638
- 361
Alright guys, I've come to an insane conclusion that clearly only I am able to figure out why. Destruction gamemodes, like, Robot Destruction... are BORING! Now hear me out hear me out.
Okay you see these little robot dudes?
They're cute right, they do what good robots do: move around n' shit. Why would you wanna hurt these guys? Well they deserve death, obviously!!! After all, they've got some points in then that need to be collected for your team to win the game. So like, fuckin' shoot them already. ...Y'see how you said nothing while you were shooting those robot guys? That's what I'm talking about: the robot dudes aren't fun to kill! They just meander around, going beep boop beep, and... stuff. And the robot destruction guys are unironically probably the best implementation of a destruction mode!
You wanna know how to lose audience engagement? Have someone hold down mouse 1 for 60 seconds. Go ahead, try it yourself! How fun is that, just holding down mouse one? Ooh, maybe throw in a mouse 2 for good measure, that'll really kill 'em. Ya see how it's just like, not very fun to constantly fire? You know like, the main reason heavy is such a linear and oftentimes the least interesting class to play by default? Yeah, well guess what: that's the same damn thing you do to those little robot guys. Now, sure, you're not firing your mouse constantly. But in exchange, aha, in exchange... you've gotta do it a shit-load of times to win the game. Sounds fun, RIGHT!? Let's make it even more fun.
Look at this motherfucker. He is crAMPING THE ROBOT'S STYLE!!!!!! How fucking dare he. He doesn't even move! He has no limbs! You think something without limbs can be awesome!? Well you'd be right because computers exist but FUCK YOU this guy is a monster! He is so utterly boring! He eats your ammo faster than Kirby can eat cake, he's made of glass and yet isn't even fragile, WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS!? ...ahem A bad objective, that's what.
This here is what we'd call a "generator," a more traditional form of destructible objective. Generators like these are static objects in a map that must be destroyed by, you guessed it, getting shot at. They often have a lot of health to offset their immobility... and already I imagine you can see the problem here. Do you remember the example you read roughly 45 to 60 seconds ago? Well guess what, it's not just an example, it's reality! Yes, that's right folks, in order to win this game, you really do just have to hold down mouse one and pray that you kill the generator faster than both your newfound arthritis sets in, as well as the enemy team shows up!
Now a silly apologist for destruction modes may say "Well, just lower the health, stupid." And you know what, you're right! Having low health is a solution... until it's immediately flipped against the mapper because, shockingly, people don't like to lose the game, and will defend their generator even harder if it dies super fast. But y'know what dies faster than my strawman arguments? Player interest in an objective without feedback.
You ever wonder why hitting someone with the Rescue Ranger and hearing that crunch sound effect feels so good? It's because the hitsound is a reward for hitting your shots! I know that's meta as hell, but bear with me. What do gamers like in an FPS? Why, it's killing players, of course! And naturally, you want to be rewarded for killing players, right? Of course! That's where hitsounds come in! Hitsounds are, on a design standpoint, such a fucking cool solution. It tells you you're getting hits in... and they sound cool! And not only do they sound cool, but they sound even cooler when you kill something. This is player feedback, and it's super important in keeping a player engaged in a fight!
Y'know what generators don't really ever have though? Player feedback! Yeah, sure, there's a meter here or there... but it's just not really enough. As it happens though, as I was writing this, someone may have come across literally the most intelligent though related to a destruction mode, ever.
This, put simply, is brilliant. You wanna know why? It's engaging, it's feedback to a player's mind! Do you have any idea how incredibly valuable keeping a player's attention in a match is? If a player is bored... then they're not going to want to do the objective!! They're just gonna want to deathmatch, or brainlessly throw themselves into chokes, or whatever! And that is bad for your map!! If you plan on doing a destruction mode, you've gotta make your objectives engaging. This isn't very easy, obviously, but it's definitely the direction you want to travel in if you want your map to succeed when you choose to go with a destruction mode.
The main problem any destructible object faces in general in TF2 is that, put simply, it's never as interesting as killing players. Players move, think, and they react to you! (Or, well, most of them do) They shoot back at you intelligently, or even try to mess you up by going for an absolutely ridiculous strategy sometimes! Ultimately, this is something a destructible objective cannot be, because a destructible objective... doesn't think. Or... does it?
Yes, we're really going there.
Saxton Hale is the ultimate answer to the destruction mode's woes. He's powerful as fuck, he reacts to players lightning fast, and most importantly, he... IS a real player!? What a twist! I could've never seen this coming! Yes, Saxton Hale really is a "destruction" mode done right. Saxton Hale is so much more engaging to fight than literally any destructible object because he is HUMAN. He can react to what you do! That, in a video game, is so much more engaging that just... a screeching robot. Saxton has his own abilities, his own tactics, he is literally his own class that you have to learn about and react to when fighting him. It sounds stupid, and he's technically not even a destructible object, at least in the normal definition's sense, but Versus Saxton Hale is unironically the best-made Destruction Gamemode ever conceived for TF2.
Congratulations! You have officially learned why Robot Destruction and its fellow destructible objective gamemodes are boring! Or, you've just read an unhinged woman rant and rave about something that like, 99% of the TF2 playerbase doesn't care about. Either way, I hope you enjoyed! (Oh by the way this doesn't include PD. PD is a deathmatch mode. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE other can of worms.)
(ps this is not a personal attack on you if you like RD or stuff like it. Opinions are opinions and this was somewhat of a shitpost anyway. (but not really))
Okay you see these little robot dudes?
They're cute right, they do what good robots do: move around n' shit. Why would you wanna hurt these guys? Well they deserve death, obviously!!! After all, they've got some points in then that need to be collected for your team to win the game. So like, fuckin' shoot them already. ...Y'see how you said nothing while you were shooting those robot guys? That's what I'm talking about: the robot dudes aren't fun to kill! They just meander around, going beep boop beep, and... stuff. And the robot destruction guys are unironically probably the best implementation of a destruction mode!
You wanna know how to lose audience engagement? Have someone hold down mouse 1 for 60 seconds. Go ahead, try it yourself! How fun is that, just holding down mouse one? Ooh, maybe throw in a mouse 2 for good measure, that'll really kill 'em. Ya see how it's just like, not very fun to constantly fire? You know like, the main reason heavy is such a linear and oftentimes the least interesting class to play by default? Yeah, well guess what: that's the same damn thing you do to those little robot guys. Now, sure, you're not firing your mouse constantly. But in exchange, aha, in exchange... you've gotta do it a shit-load of times to win the game. Sounds fun, RIGHT!? Let's make it even more fun.
Look at this motherfucker. He is crAMPING THE ROBOT'S STYLE!!!!!! How fucking dare he. He doesn't even move! He has no limbs! You think something without limbs can be awesome!? Well you'd be right because computers exist but FUCK YOU this guy is a monster! He is so utterly boring! He eats your ammo faster than Kirby can eat cake, he's made of glass and yet isn't even fragile, WHO DOES HE THINK HE IS!? ...ahem A bad objective, that's what.
This here is what we'd call a "generator," a more traditional form of destructible objective. Generators like these are static objects in a map that must be destroyed by, you guessed it, getting shot at. They often have a lot of health to offset their immobility... and already I imagine you can see the problem here. Do you remember the example you read roughly 45 to 60 seconds ago? Well guess what, it's not just an example, it's reality! Yes, that's right folks, in order to win this game, you really do just have to hold down mouse one and pray that you kill the generator faster than both your newfound arthritis sets in, as well as the enemy team shows up!
Now a silly apologist for destruction modes may say "Well, just lower the health, stupid." And you know what, you're right! Having low health is a solution... until it's immediately flipped against the mapper because, shockingly, people don't like to lose the game, and will defend their generator even harder if it dies super fast. But y'know what dies faster than my strawman arguments? Player interest in an objective without feedback.
You ever wonder why hitting someone with the Rescue Ranger and hearing that crunch sound effect feels so good? It's because the hitsound is a reward for hitting your shots! I know that's meta as hell, but bear with me. What do gamers like in an FPS? Why, it's killing players, of course! And naturally, you want to be rewarded for killing players, right? Of course! That's where hitsounds come in! Hitsounds are, on a design standpoint, such a fucking cool solution. It tells you you're getting hits in... and they sound cool! And not only do they sound cool, but they sound even cooler when you kill something. This is player feedback, and it's super important in keeping a player engaged in a fight!
Y'know what generators don't really ever have though? Player feedback! Yeah, sure, there's a meter here or there... but it's just not really enough. As it happens though, as I was writing this, someone may have come across literally the most intelligent though related to a destruction mode, ever.
This, put simply, is brilliant. You wanna know why? It's engaging, it's feedback to a player's mind! Do you have any idea how incredibly valuable keeping a player's attention in a match is? If a player is bored... then they're not going to want to do the objective!! They're just gonna want to deathmatch, or brainlessly throw themselves into chokes, or whatever! And that is bad for your map!! If you plan on doing a destruction mode, you've gotta make your objectives engaging. This isn't very easy, obviously, but it's definitely the direction you want to travel in if you want your map to succeed when you choose to go with a destruction mode.
The main problem any destructible object faces in general in TF2 is that, put simply, it's never as interesting as killing players. Players move, think, and they react to you! (Or, well, most of them do) They shoot back at you intelligently, or even try to mess you up by going for an absolutely ridiculous strategy sometimes! Ultimately, this is something a destructible objective cannot be, because a destructible objective... doesn't think. Or... does it?
Yes, we're really going there.
Saxton Hale is the ultimate answer to the destruction mode's woes. He's powerful as fuck, he reacts to players lightning fast, and most importantly, he... IS a real player!? What a twist! I could've never seen this coming! Yes, Saxton Hale really is a "destruction" mode done right. Saxton Hale is so much more engaging to fight than literally any destructible object because he is HUMAN. He can react to what you do! That, in a video game, is so much more engaging that just... a screeching robot. Saxton has his own abilities, his own tactics, he is literally his own class that you have to learn about and react to when fighting him. It sounds stupid, and he's technically not even a destructible object, at least in the normal definition's sense, but Versus Saxton Hale is unironically the best-made Destruction Gamemode ever conceived for TF2.
Congratulations! You have officially learned why Robot Destruction and its fellow destructible objective gamemodes are boring! Or, you've just read an unhinged woman rant and rave about something that like, 99% of the TF2 playerbase doesn't care about. Either way, I hope you enjoyed! (Oh by the way this doesn't include PD. PD is a deathmatch mode. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE other can of worms.)
(ps this is not a personal attack on you if you like RD or stuff like it. Opinions are opinions and this was somewhat of a shitpost anyway. (but not really))
