I see a lot of people saying that this is an accessibility thing, while also allowing you to not miss anything important
But a well designed, uncluttered environment can do both of these things while giving you a more immersive experience
But we can’t do that, because we’re in an endless chase to get the most realistic graphics, and how else are we going to show that off than overly detailing each pixel of stationary on a worker’s desk?
I also see a lot of people saying “just don’t use the feature if you don’t like it”
There’s a famous quote I like. “Given the opportunity, players will optimise the fun out of a game”. And you can bet your ass I do that. In any game with this “scan” feature, I’ll be tapping that like a relapsing porn addict, looking for any new quest npcs, missed collectables or just to see if I’m on the right path. I have a similar issue with minimaps, as they have a comparable effect on gameplay
It’s because in older games, you could clearly differentiate between the background and the gameplay relevant sprites or models drawn over it. It was a technical necessity but it doubled as communicating to the player what’s important. When technology advanced past that being technically necessary, something needed to take its place. The pulse is just one of many ways to do that and the easiest one to integrate into a realistic artstyle. When you get more stylized, your options open up considerably.
Honestly I would prefer it to just be a highlight, like in CRPGs where either itll highlight the outline of the object or the object itself.
Unpopular opinion maybe, but I LOVE that shit!
If mandatory: meh
Accessability feature for players with impaired vision: great bloody UXt, your local UI/UX guy
Honestly if I could do this in real life for an object I’m looking for, and have the object ping and light up and flash and shit, I would love it.
I use Tile trackers for this. They’re pretty good.
If the game has a lot of stuff but only some of it is actually interactive, there should be a way to disambiguate.
I remember the first time I sent out a ping in the voxel-based action-adventure game Outcast (1999). I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
There are good and bad implementations, but going to have to disagree with op on the whole.
Just make it a toggle to highlight shit. On and off.
I used to play games that permanently highlighted interactive objects. I am playing a game, I don’t need realism.
The only game I’m aware of in my library that has a feature like this is Satisfactory, the “ping” feature to find nodes they tutorialize but you’ll probably quickly stop using because you use an external map for planning/get to know the map.
Witcher series.
Not in my library.
If it’s like a fast fading wave but the highlight stays then thats fine.
If it’s a toggleable mode that shows you only closeby items that you have to pick up and look at in a specific order, then fuck right off. Especially when it’s so fucking obvious that theres a suspicious bloody knife stuck in a tree but I need to follow footprints to it first.
The Batman Arkham games kinda do that right? Except it was more of a toggle when you had it on or not?
That’s different. The detective mode is actually useful for when you have to clear a room. It’s so good that some of the last and hardest enemies in the game are not visible while using it.
Duck Hunt!
The first game I remember doing this is The Witcher 2. Not sure if that’s the first game to come up with the idea, but it’s the earliest example I can remember.
I’m thinking Splinter Cell had this kind of feature.
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