Comments on: Artificial Amunition Scarcity in FPS Games

by: Mackenzie

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 22:43:34 +0000

This is an interesting point, and could easily be placed into the HL universe. Consider: One of the most flaunted and interesting points of the game is it’s physics engine. I’m guessing that all objects are assigned a weight, ie, Barrels, Bricks, crates, etc. Note the stunningly easy to work out seesaw puzzle, or the buoyancy functions with negative weight reading within water.

Surely Ammopacks and Weapons can be assigned weight, and a drop/pickup system in place, so Freeman can select the ammo he wants to fill the X’ amount of weight he can conviently carry?

by: Luke Maciak

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:14:03 +0000

Yeah, that whole 2 gun thing in Halo was a bit lame. I only played 1 but I found it to be silly, especially if I picked up one of those Covenant plasma weapons which could not be reloaded.

Or I would be carrying empty pistol (for it’s sniping ability), hoping there will be some ammo for it around and passing over more useful weapons because I knew there probably won’t be another pistol lying around anywhere close.

Or you are carrying a shotgun, and the assault rifle and you need to drop one of them if you want to pick up the pistol. Silly!

by: jambarama

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 04:55:30 +0000

Good call, that is different. And also quite obnoxious! I found Halo 1/2/3 was full of that - it’s fine to limit the player to 2 guns, but if I’m only carrying a sidearm as my 2nd weapon why the heck can’t I carry a 5th rocket. I don’t know how many times I left behind some ammo because I was (very) temporarily full at the moment, then had to ditch the gun later because no more ammo was forthcoming.

by: Luke Maciak

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 20:21:25 +0000

I think the article is talking about something slightly different. They complain that ammunition in the game is actually very scarce by design. In HL2 games ammo is usually plentiful - all the human enemies drop generous amounts of ammo, and in the monster-centric areas you find tons of abandoned crates, or dead bodies strapped with guns and ammo. The problem is that you can’t carry it all.

So it’s not that the game designer only gave you 4 bullets to kill 8 dogs. They actually give you close to 800 bullets in total, but you can only carry 4 of a kind for each of the 17 big ass guns you are carrying with you.

by: jambarama

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 19:20:42 +0000

I hate to bring up the same article again, but this article brings up the same point as part of creating difficulty in a unfair way.

Ammo starvation. I’m looking at you, Resident Evil for the Gamecube. I have a gun. LET ME USE IT. Don’t pretend your game is “challenging” because you only give me four bullets to kill eight zombie dogs with.