How to avoid making a bandit beater

Help and Feedback Game Design Support
#1

Most RPG games nowadays are “Bandit Beaters” in which players progress by killing enemies, leveling up and getting better loot, then killing stronger enemies and repeat.
These types of games get very repetitive and is likely to make the player feel bored after a while - it takes away motivation to keep coming back because the only type of content is to keep killing enemies.

Good examples of bandit beaters are any One Piece or Demon Slayer games.

What are some good ways/ideas to avoid making a bandit beater?

2 Likes
#2

Its really easy to avoid making a very specific type of game. You don’t have to avoid anything, just don’t make it.

1 Like
#3

You could go with tan Undertale style, Undertale is probably the only RPG where you don’t have to kill anybody (but you can)

Or add something to it, you can have that, but look at Mass Effect, yes, it kind of has that, but it has a bunch of other features that you don’t even mind that part sometimes

#4

One way to avoid making a bandit beater is to incorporate a variety of gameplay mechanics and objectives beyond just combat. Here are a few ideas:

  1. Exploration: Allow players to explore a rich and detailed game world with hidden secrets, treasures, and mysteries to uncover.

  2. Puzzle-solving: Incorporate puzzles that require critical thinking, problem-solving, and strategy to progress through the game.

  3. Storytelling: Integrate a rich and engaging storyline that immerses players in the game world and motivates them to keep playing.

  4. Social Interaction: Allow players to interact with non-playable characters (NPCs) and other players in meaningful ways, such as forming alliances, building relationships, or engaging in political intrigue.

  5. Crafting: Let players collect resources and craft new items, gear, and weapons that are unique and valuable, and can be used to progress through the game.

  6. Base building: Allow players to build and customize their own bases, fortresses, or cities, creating a sense of ownership and investment in the game world.

  7. Mini-games: Incorporate mini-games or side quests that provide a break from combat and offer a unique challenge or reward.

By incorporating these gameplay mechanics and objectives, game developers can create more dynamic and engaging RPGs that offer a wide range of content beyond just killing enemies.

3 Likes
#6

it is not valid to say that something generated by an AI is invalid simply because it was created by an AI. AI is capable of producing useful and valid information, just like humans. The validity of the information generated by an AI should be evaluated based on its accuracy, reliability, and the quality of the data used to train the AI model.

It is true that AI-generated content may have some limitations or biases, depending on the quality of the data used to train the AI model, but these limitations can be addressed by appropriate data preparation, bias detection, and model evaluation techniques. Ultimately, the validity of any information, whether generated by an AI or a human, should be evaluated based on its accuracy, reliability, and the credibility of its source.

#7

AI checkers are fake. They never work. Yes, the arguments given by him look 100% like they are made by chatgpt (Said by a guy that does everything using chatgpt), however AI Checkers even say that old poems are fake, and he may just have a similar writing style.

#8

I do agree with you on some things there, however AI lacks creativity and understanding.
For example, your AI response to this post.
2 and 6. As some of these could work, they wouldn’t really work.

As for why, I will go over it now:

  • 2: Puzzle-solving
    This would work in a more story-based game, but would need to be done properly.
    Portal 2 is a good example of having puzzle-solving mixed with a good story.
    But also, puzzle-solving isn’t something I don’t really see in RPG games.

  • 6: Base building
    As base building is and can be good in RPG games it does heavily rely on execution, but also isn’t a needed thing in RPG games. I certainly wouldn’t care about a base building mechanic in an RPG game, but thats me and not everyone.

But also, adding all of what the AI said is only a band-aid fix to the problem of creating a bandit beater.

What the AI generated is generally how to make an RPG, not how to not make a bandit beater.

As having side quests, crafting and all that is good for an RPG game, that still doesn’t stop the core loop of kill enemy, get better item, kill harder enemy and repeat.

I would say to either not make an RPG game, make the game difficult (So theres like 4 different items per class you can use to kill 1 enemy before moving to the next) or to carefully study RPG games and look what makes them good.

1 Like
#9

A great way to avoid doing the stereotypical bandit beater is making single done quests, like on blox fruits lets say theres a guy saying some bandits robbed his house and go retrieve the stuff and report the bandits location to the sheriff in blox fruits you can do this quest inf+ times but in a non bandit beater u do it once for average xp, avoiding a bandit beater or repetitive gameplay game (if u have minigames that are random gen its still a repetitive beater) your gonna have to do what I measure 100 - 40x the amount of quests done, if you make the bandits a bit different every time and have them say varying things you can make it a better bandit beater

#10

Puzzel solving can be an engaging feature which solely depends on how the developer wants their game to be made. I believe that the use of puzzel solving in videos games could be a unique twist (which is what they asked for) and could be more engaging to the user.

Base building can give players a sense of ownership. While it might not seem like base building is conventional in these games, its a great way to break the bold and create a unique and exciting experience for players.

Overall, whether game mechanics are good or bad is subjective. Instead of going back to the expectations of how a game is “supposed to be,” you should try thinking outside of the box and at unique features which can bring a new level of engagement and fun.

1 Like
#11

As I again do agree with some things there, you seemed to have ignored this:

Again, you can follow all of what the AI said, but that will still result in a bandit beater with a few extra things thrown into it, which doesn’t not make it a bandit beater.

Again, AI lacks understanding and creativity, as well as spitting out old or incorrect information.

1 Like
#12

I think if you want to avoid bandit beaters, you should not make an RPG in the first place. You can substitute “bandit beating” with some other form of grind, hell you could even an entire story if you want, but the game will still be some form of bandit beating.

First of all: why do we have mindless grind in games? Why do MMOs have so much braindead, nonstop grinding? They do this to buy time. MMOs by design are meant to be like a fictional life, you create your character how you want them to be and go on an adventure. You die, you win some, and you learn new abilities. It feels good. It feels nice to see your work pay off. If there were no grind, you would eat through all the content very fast. Not only that, it would take away from the whole progression aspect altogether. It’d suck if everyone could just reach max power in hours.

Yeah, Roblox games typically have really bare-bone bandit grinding but it’s inevitable. It’s hard to keep up with content when you’re a small team. I feel that with the amount of content players expect, developers are forced to push out quantity content over quality content. Quality content does not last. I’d much rather play a game with a dozen new mobs every few weeks over one that has one new mob that’s somehow smarter. They’re both NPCs at the end.

And besides, yea you can totally come up with some alternative kind of grind but it’ll be just that: grind. It doesn’t matter if you hide it behind a mission mechanic or whatever, it’s mindless grind. You can step it up, make the NPCs smarter, and add some flavor text to quests - maybe it’d make the grind a little bit more fun! But doing so will surely lead to less content as content takes more effect/time to make and players will inevitably leave when there is nothing left to do. The average Runescape played their game 100x more than the average Dark Souls player. The content difference is just too different.

Games like League of Legends or Valorant also have their own kind of grind, it’s just more skilled-based. In these kinds of games, you’re not progressing a fictional character but rather your own skills so there should be no difference in power with whatever account you use when playing these games. Note though that in skilled-based games, there isn’t typically content that transfers from game to game. For example, items bought in a League match aren’t going to transfer to your next League match - that wouldn’t be skilled-based. Trying to force a way so that there is permanent progression that can affect a match in a game is detrimental and contradictory to a skilled-based game.

To try to combine a skill-based grinding mechanic and all of the other RPG elements doesn’t seem feasible to me. How is it skilled based if the other player has a better weapon from a previous play? How is it skilled based when the player has more friends to help them out? How is it fair when the player has more robux and could afford a major advantage? All these variables are handled in a controlled skilled-based game, you cannot do the same in an RPG.

Maybe a middle ground would be a roguelike, there’s a grind but not much of it and there’s skill in that the stakes are high. But overall, I think you’re wasting your time trying to make an ‘interesting’ grind. A lot of people are fine with the mindless grind (look at Blox Fruits), don’t let a few loud people make you believe that bandit beating is unpopular. It’s far from it, it works just fine.

9 Likes