Flavor mechanics that do the opposite of what was intended

[Emphyrio]

I'd like to figure out a catchy name for this. When something has some special trait, so the devs implement something to simulate it while totally missing the point.

One example is machine guns or miniguns in some games that have overheating mechanics when you shoot them too much, but not giving that mechanic to any other kind of gun. So you can shoot the assault rifle all day full auto with no problem but the machine gun will overheat after a couple of belts. Of course this is the opposite of real life, where machine guns are designed to handle heat better than other guns.

Another example is the Orks in the original Dawn of War. They're supposed to be a super-populous race, so the devs implemented a confusing population mechanic that limited their population based on the number of turrets they'd built. The result was that Space Marines or Eldars often outnumbered the orcs in terms of models.

Another bad warhammer population mechanic was the skaven in total warhams 2. To represent how numerous the skaven were and how fast they expanded, the devs made each skaven city and army require food, which no other race had to deal with. The result was that Skaven had to expand very slowly and limit the number of armies they built so that they didn't run out of food (this was later fixed with a significant overhaul of the system).

Other examples?

[WhiteShark]

Maybe something like 'selective simulationism'. I don't know of any preexisting term for it.

[J1M]

The way heavy armor is handled in D&D is another one. They added a variety of drawbacks to wearing it, supposedly to offset the superior protection. However, it is possible to reach similar AC with light and medium armor, making heavy armor objectively worse.

[Norfleet]

I'd like to figure out a catchy name for this. When something has some special trait, so the devs implement something to simulate it while totally missing the point.

I think this is basically a subset of "perverse incentive". It extends to more than just "flavor mechanics", but also actual mechanics: A ****** F2P MMO has players complaining about the difficulty of accessing certain classes of content due to failure to achieve minimum player quorums for said content. They respond by adding a system to "randomly" participate in content by receiving bonus rewards for blindly joining whatever, in exchange for omni-rewards that. Much of the class of content which was difficult to get into is excluded from this system for structural reasons, resulting in the problem actually being worse than before.

[rusty_shackleford]

The way heavy armor is handled in D&D is another one. They added a variety of drawbacks to wearing it, supposedly to offset the superior protection. However, it is possible to reach similar AC with light and medium armor, making heavy armor objectively worse.

dex is just a god stat in 3.5e/pathfinder
it does everything except boost your HP, and there's probably some pathfinder class or feat where it boosts your HP too

[Ratcatcher]

and there's probably some pathfinder class or feat where it boosts your HP too

No there isn't, some special and prestige classes get their HP from CHA (undead). In both systems, DEX is extremely efficient at low level, especially for classes that have trained weapon finesse or with access to loads of feats to pay the price (eg fencing grace feat).

dex is just a god stat in 3.5e/pathfinder

What happens tho is in both systems, action economy dictates that offense > defense, as soon as you have access to level 3-5 buffs. DEX gives you more AC and Accuracy (WITH the correct feats, otherwise just AC) but you need to either be a rogue or have acceess to Mythics to also add your DEX bonus to damage.
STR naturally improves acc and dam with no investments AND is super easy to increase. Bull Strength is accessible to every caster, Cat's Grace isn't for most divines. Size enhancing spells (enlarge person, legendary proportion) naturally increase STR and reduce DEX, adding more synergy to the mix. They also increase your attack range, allowing you to attack from the safety of your group formation and have easier access to potential AOO. Reduce spells are cumbersome to use, if you become too small you need to ENTER the square you wish to attack, which provokes AOO vs you. Less attack range = Bad.

Ofc, nowadays everyone knows about inane 'dips' in weird, rare classes (scaled fist monk, mutation warrior) to further increase unarmored AC bonus, this is a metagaming problem tho. You'd be hard pressed to justify such radical career switches at a proper pnp table and most of the inane crazy AC builds rely on multiple of those dips, to beat a properly armored character (do remember that Magical Armors exist, they can provide additional protection like DR and you can even buff them with spells like magical vestments, for moar AC, it stacks).


tl;dr: true only up until level 7-9 or so, depending on party composition.

[J1M]

The way heavy armor is handled in D&D is another one. They added a variety of drawbacks to wearing it, supposedly to offset the superior protection. However, it is possible to reach similar AC with light and medium armor, making heavy armor objectively worse.

dex is just a god stat in 3.5e/pathfinder
it does everything except boost your HP, and there's probably some pathfinder class or feat where it boosts your HP too

Could be argued that armor class and reflex save are effective HP.

If trends continue, charisma will be at least as powerful in 5.5e, since as far as I know you can't use dexterity as primary stat for spellcasting.

[Tweed]

I'd like to figure out a catchy name for this. When something has some special trait, so the devs implement something to simulate it while totally missing the point.

One example is machine guns or miniguns in some games that have overheating mechanics when you shoot them too much, but not giving that mechanic to any other kind of gun. So you can shoot the assault rifle all day full auto with no problem but the machine gun will overheat after a couple of belts. Of course this is the opposite of real life, where machine guns are designed to handle heat better than other guns.

Another example is the Orks in the original Dawn of War. They're supposed to be a super-populous race, so the devs implemented a confusing population mechanic that limited their population based on the number of turrets they'd built. The result was that Space Marines or Eldars often outnumbered the orcs in terms of models.

Another bad warhammer population mechanic was the skaven in total warhams 2. To represent how numerous the skaven were and how fast they expanded, the devs made each skaven city and army require food, which no other race had to deal with. The result was that Skaven had to expand very slowly and limit the number of armies they built so that they didn't run out of food (this was later fixed with a significant overhaul of the system).

Other examples?

Sound more like "video gamey" solutions to mask bad designs choices.