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Discussion Hidden gameplay mechanics/systems that you never knew existed?

Yzz

Yzz

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In Roller Coaster Tycoon each guest has a hidden weight variable, which goes from 45 to 76 kg. This variable forms part of the physics system, which explains a lot of the random accidents the players have seen in some of the rides, specially the bobsleigh coaster.




I know BOTW and Dwarf Fortress are very known for this, however I think it would be cool if this thread focused more on less known examples.
 
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Resident Evil 4 had a dynamic difficulty system that I never knew about until pretty recently. Apparently the game will become easier or harder depending on how well you are doing. I played through that game so many times and I had no idea.
 
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Not so much a secret anymore, but when I first learned about EVs and IVs in Pokémon it kind of blew my mind. What a weird obscure mechanic. How did people even discover them?
 
I replayed Sonic Adventure 2 last year and was mindblown to find out that you can alternate between parallel grinding rails with a button tap, rather than manually jumping on and off them. I think I discovered it by accident which was one of those rare moments in games these days.

enempi said:
Not so much a secret anymore, but when I first learned about EVs and IVs in Pokémon it kind of blew my mind. What a weird obscure mechanic. How did people even discover them?
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Datamining, I would think.
 
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enempi said:
Not so much a secret anymore, but when I first learned about EVs and IVs in Pokémon it kind of blew my mind. What a weird obscure mechanic. How did people even discover them?
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Some NPCs make subtle differences to them (Joey). I think magazines and official guides also reported them. A math nerd would also be able to get some approximates.
 
Sorry, but just to clarify - this is a thread about Surprise Mechanics??? I'll see myself out.
 
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Yzz said:
Some NPCs make subtle differences to them (Joey). I think magazines and official guides also reported them. A math nerd would also be able to get some approximates.
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Yeah, I just checked a couple of guides, and both the Nintendo Power one for Emerald and the Prima one for Platinum both mention EVs, with the Platinum one even mentioning them by name.
 
How did people discover Cheat Codes in the past? Stuff like Sonic 3's debug mode need to be input so precisely that I find it hard to believe someone got it by accident.
 
Yzz said:
Some NPCs make subtle differences to them (Joey). I think magazines and official guides also reported them. A math nerd would also be able to get some approximates.
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Robert said:
Yeah, I just checked a couple of guides, and both the Nintendo Power one for Emerald and the Prima one for Platinum both mention EVs, with the Platinum one even mentioning them by name.
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Interesting. I always thought it was like some super esoteric thing people discovered. Might not even count as a hidden mechanic in that case!
 
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I only ran into it when I was looking up mechanics in-depth, so I assume this isn't a thing many people know even of those who have played the game:

In Star Ocean 3, there's an affection system where each party member has a certain level of affection for every other party member, and these can vary based on the choices you make. Specifically, the affection levels between the protagonist and other characters is what determines which endings you get. The others... don't really seem to do much of anything. That's the part most people know.

As it turns out though, the numbers do get used, but only in combat, and it determines 1) the likelihood of a character getting "angered" status, which is when another character they like dies in combat. And 2) their healing priority in the event of both party members being at critical hp at the same time.

I have died SO many times to playing as the character my healer hated the most and I could not figure out why she always healed the other party member first. I thought I was just unlucky, but no, the game literally hated me and did it on purpose and I think that's incredibly funny.
 
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I've known about this for a while, but I think I didn't know it until after I finished it for the first time, so it counts - but BotW's weapon scaling. Basically, the more you engage in combat and break your lower grade weapons, the higher the chances for better weapon drops get. So engaging in combat and shattering your weapons is something the game wants, because it will start giving you better drops from enemies if you do so.

Didn't know about this the first time I played the game, and it's fairly invisible (plus I'm one of those people who never got bothered by durability, so I jumped into each encounter anyway).

Lant_War said:
But how did the Strategy Guides discover them then
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They were told by the game devs/pubs, lol. Most strategy guides were official, after all
 
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Pokemon's EVs and IVs are already mentioned, though the games themselves don't call them by those terms. Even then, the developers did their best to make the extra stats more visible, which makes things easier to identify them. Not only are those hidden, there's also some system with shiny Pokemon encounters that would probably be more useful to those that want to hunt for them.

I used to play Dr. Mario World regularly, but there are some things that I discovered that are intriguing, but I suppose a couple of things would suffice:
  • In the game's Daily Booster (an endless daily challenge where you can win rewards), the level layouts are consistent based on what the next few capsules are, which means that it is possible to learn the next layout. Since there are a few set starting layouts, if somebody records footage, you can follow how they play and get the same results. That's assuming that the player does not use a character whose skill works randomly.
  • If a character has a specialist boost in skill level and they are already at the maximum level, they will have a 20% reduction in the skill meter, which means more frequent uses of the skill. The character that it renders broken is Dr. Piranha Plant (20 SP -> 16 SP), who if you reach level 5 and you carry the Boo assistant at max level (40% further reduction of the skill meter rounded down, so 16 SP -> 9 SP), the player can practically spam the skill and can even clear the field from a full board because Dr. Piranha Plant's skill eliminates 9 objects (so if there are 9+ objects, you can use it to fully fill the skill in most cases).
Thank you for reading.
 
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It was years before I understood any of NiGHTS’ chao like system for changing the music or even some of the scoring like the little guy who gives you a huge bonus at the end of a level
 
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