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Gameplay Derailment: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
When a game is made, it usually undergoes extensive testing, to ensure that the gameplay goes smoothly. Unfortunately, then it goes into the hands of the public, enters what is effectively the largest and longest playtesting period ever. And it usually picks up what the normal testers didn't catch. Any glitches, combinations, or exploits the game testers or programmers missed, you can be sure that the players will find it, sooner or later.
Normally, this is an okay thing, but sometimes, what players find can alter gameplay in ways the developers didn't intend, and change the skill-set needed to succeed. Generally the derailment is less frowned upon when it takes considerable Alternative Skill to pull off, rather than True [[Fake Skill]], but either way it can change a game completely and render most of the game's tactics useless.
When the developers make a sequel, they may choose to [[Ascended Glitch|embrace]] these discoveries, making them part of the gameplay, or they may choose to eliminate these discoveries by instating an [[Obvious Rule Patch]], [[Nerf|Nerfing]] a few effects, or rewriting the rules completely.
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See also [[Game Breaker]], [[AI Breaker]], [[Good Bad Bug]].
{{examples|Examples: }}
* Finding and exploiting [[Gameplay Derailment]] is one of the biggest challenges and debates in competitive speedrunning (trying to beat games in the fastest possible time).
** For example, [[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time]] has been so extensively analyzed and broken that speedrunners have brought down playtime to 56min:54sec. Keep in mind that the layman takes about 20 hours in the game, while somebody returning probably takes around 10-12 hours.
** By exploiting collision mechanics (i.e. going through walls), it is easily possible to beat [[Super Mario 64]] with only 16 stars, with a best time of 17min:31sec.
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** Strafejumping is another one: Diagonal movement was faster than straight movement due to engine limitations and jumping diagonal made it so that people could reach insane speeds and cover great distances whilst jumping. It is part of the skill test present in [[Quake III Arena|Quake Live]] before you go online.
** Funnily enough, bunny hopping is a ''gameplay mechanic'' in ''Warsow''.
* Another famous example is "Wavedashing" in ''[[Super Smash Bros.]] Melee'', which allowed those who mastered it to rapidly change direction, attack while moving as if the character was standing still, and in some cases speed around the playing field much quicker than was otherwise possible. Made possible by air-dodging into the ground at the very start of a jump, thus causing the character to slide across the surface, it was recognized during development, but left in the game because there's nothing bad about it. Wavedashing eventually became essential for and central to tournament gameplay, with many characters eschewing normal movement entirely in favor of wavedashing. It was removed from ''Brawl'' via a reworked air-dodge so that skilled players wouldn't have such a huge advantage over new players.
* Snaking in ''[[Mario Kart]]''
** In the DS version, if someone manages to snake after a rocket boots from the starting light and not mess up, then it's known as the prolonged rocket boost glitch, which lets players keep driving at rocket speeds as long as they kept snaking from the green light. Mario Kart Wii changed the sliding mechanic where now players had to maintain a power slide in order to charge up mini turbos instead of waggling left and right really fast. Mario Kart Wii also introduced bikes, which couldn't charge up mini turbos like karts, but popping wheelies gave a speed boost and players would slow down a lot if bumped into while using a wheelie. However, this mechanic, like snaking, was abused to the point where everyone just chose to use only bikes and would wheelie on every chance they got, generally having the upper hand over kart players.
* Pudding farming in ''[[Nethack]]''. It's simple arithmetic: [[Asteroids Monster]] + [[Randomly Drops]] = infinite items and equipment.
{{quote|"The DevTeam has arranged an automatic and savage punishment for pudding farming. [[Ironic Hell|It's called pudding farming]]." - Jove}}
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*** The Titans' Doomsday Weapons were changed from [[Sphere of Destruction]] mode to be [[Wave Motion Gun|Wave Motion Guns]] instead, because multiple Titans could annihilate entire fleets by firing their Doomsday Weapons at the same time. The [[Obvious Rule Patch]] came after it was demonstrated that a coalition could put [[More Dakka|enough Titans]] to the field to eliminate entire capital ship fleets with one coordinated attack.
*** Ship insurance payouts were initially tied to the static mineral cost of the ship. When mineral prices in the market dropped below these static prices, it became profitable to build ships ''just to commit insurance fraud'' by blowing them up immediately after they rolled off the assembly line. An [[Obvious Rule Patch]] changed the insurance payouts to vary according to market prices.
** ''[[Earth and Beyond]]'' had a bug where buffs which increased weapon speed would stack exponentially. This meant that if you obtained enough buff items your weapon speed would increase toward infinity. This caused you to fire tens of thousands of rounds of ammo in a few seconds. [[More Dakka|It was the equivalent of giving a muzzle loading musket the rate of fire of a modern machine gun.]]
** [[Dynasty Warriors Online]] suffers from a lesser version of this. [[Limit Break|Muosu attacks]] make the user invincible as they unleash a temporary unbreakable combo. While a legitimate, intended attack, depending on who you are playing with this might make up most of their attacks against you. Some people go Munchkin and max out their attack and musou, allowing you to go longer, and, weapon permitting, spam the stronger version version then run away from battle to refill. Given how powerful you can make a weapon this may be an easy way of defeating somebody. This lead to the English version of the game PVP being full mostly of attempted one combo kills in order to win the match, rather than using any other attacks. It's balanced out as time went on, with less people relying on Musou in PVP.
* ''[[Gears of War]]'' is a cover-based shooter, which is pretty clear in the singleplayer. The multiplayer, on the other hand, mostly consisted of players rolling and roadie running with shotguns out and occasionally using the cover for wall bouncing (split instances to move closer to their opponents) if they didn't get any of the powerful weapons, popshotting at each other when not rolling around to avoid getting hit. This was addressed in the sequel with changing the shotgun to have a less effective total range making it impractical to only use but more consistent power in the short range it was meant for, and adding a 'stopping power' mechanic, slowing players greater and greater if they run into the direction gunfire they are currently taking from. [[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|Some people were indignant.]]
* The infamous "Combo Winter" of ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' was born when playtesters didn't exploit a mechanic on [[Game Breaker|several powerful cards]] in the Urza's Saga expansion nearly enough. Similarly, many cards in the ''Mirrodin'' block had to be banned for being way too powerful.
* Air unit stacking in ''[[Starcraft]]''. It turns Mutalisks into truly dangerous clusters of units, since not only can you not consistently target one of them, but they basically all shoot simultaneously at a particular target. Due to general coolness of Muta-micro however, Blizzard has said that they are trying to incorporate that into ''[[Starcraft]] II''. But only for Mutalisks. Arguably, it could be said that certain splash damage-inflicting air units such as the Valkyrie and Devourer were introduced as partial countermeasures.
** This mechanic became such a [[Good Bad Bug]] that competitive Zerg players are ''expected'' to be able to micro Mutalisks in this way.
** There is also an exploit where you can make Lurkers not attack until you tell them to. This allows Zerg players to set up invisible Lurker traps, where the Lurkers don't attack until a bunch of Marines are all standing on top of them. Then they all die. This also works with Terran spider mines. This tactic, is called "Stop Lurker" (now referred to as Hold Lurker) and not banned in most competitive play. The technique for spider mines is banned however, because it involves allying and un-allying your enemy. There is one illegal method for Hold Lurkers, because it involves changing diplomacy settings (similar to the Spider Mines).
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* In [[Tony Hawks Pro Skater|Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2]], there's only really one general approach to racking up high scores: find one of the few locations in each level that will let you get a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9-9PualtSc huge spin] and then [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T51TpynYZiE land in a special grind] on a long rail, keep that grind going as long as possible to increase the base score, then jump off into a manual and keep hopping around like mad to increase the multiplier. Since there are only a few locations in each level that allow you to get that big-spin-into-special grind, and since that special grind must be done quite near the start of your combo (before your special bar runs out), it does place a few limitations on the lines a player can take to get a high score.
* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'', one of the more common complaints from the players was a lack of fresh mission content. In response, the developers created the Architect system, allowing the players to create their own missions. Unfortunately, the greater majority of the missions that were created [[Monty Haul|ended up as XP farms]]. Players can now bring a character from level 1 to level 50 (the level limit) in a day... after which they tend to complain about the lack of things to do.
* [[Rhythm Game|Rhythm Games]] using the Harmonix "score doubler" power-up (''[[Fre Quency]]'', ''[[Video Game/Amplitude|Amplitude]]'', ''[[Guitar Hero]]'', and ''[[Rock Band]]'') have [http://guitarhero.wikia.com/wiki/Squeezing squeezing], a technique where playing ''slightly'' off-beat, but still within the timing window for the notes, can gain you more points. You start the score doubler a hair after a note's normal time and play the note right after activating it, giving one extra note for the score doubler to work. If you want to get to the top of the high score tables, it's practically required.
* If a tie happens in [[Jump Ultimate Stars]], the players who tied are considered both winners. What does this mean? That in online play, what was supposed to be a fast paced fighting game became a borefest of people standing around waiting for the timer to end while going 3-vs-1 on anyone willing to fight, all so they can get the victory.
** This is actually less stupid than it seems, because winning nets you gems, the in-game currency, which the game did not provide you enough; it's actually the easiest money grind.
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