Hmm. Well I tried to learn C++ as my first programming language when I was 12 so that's probably the reason lol. I was just bad at everything at that time. I moved onto Java next, but maybe I should revisit C++.
But if I had to name specifics these come to mind right now:
Using code across multiple files or libraries is really annoying. The preprocessor directives, I kinda get them but there's always something that breaks and I don't understand why. Also why isn't there a package manager or something like that? Hmm maybe there is nowadays but I don't know if there was back then
Still don't know what a link error is or why it would randomly show up and then disappear if I restart visual studio
I know this is a meme but long hard to understand error messages in the case of C++ and no useful error messages at all in C
In C did you know that the order of items in a struct matters? I didn't until I spent an hour debugging a segfault.
Obviously C doesn't have strings. Accomplishing even the simplest things in C feels really hard. Like you're on your own.
I'm very sure all of these can be summed up as me being bad at the languages. Skill issue etc. and it's true. I am bad at both.
But the point is there's a lot of things I don't understand and that seem unintuitive to me. So it's not fun, so I don't use it. If you gave me a programming problem for fun and told me choose your language I would never choose C++ and certainly not C. I'd use Python, JavaScript or Java because they feel more fun to use and I can see progress faster. Same for my new projects. I've never tried to make anything more complicated than a command line program in C++ or C.
At the same time I understand that higher level languages abstract a lot of things away from you and I really do wanna get better at understanding those concepts.
One more reason I might not have mentioned is that Rust is low level and has a good developer experience. At least I heard. The whole compiler is your best friend thing.
Idk I guess I'm hoping it will teach me those concepts better without making me frustrated in the way C++ and C did. Those feel like they're excellent languages that were no doubt revolutionary in their time but are now lumbered with legacy and unintuitive things. Maybe it's false hope. Rust certainly looks intimidating but everyone says the tools and docs are amazing.
I've decided I'm gonna learn it for sure. Whether I rewrite the project or not I'll decide later.
The code is in Typescript. It's the backend of a web app that's all. Doesn't really need to be in Rust but idk I just want to make something that doesn't use more resources than it needs to. Just to be neat :D
It doesn't really need it. I'm sorry for giving the impression that it's some performance critical application lol.
It's just a simple web app backend with a db. Oh and the front end desktop version I wanna build will use tauri (because I hate the thought of bundling a browser) so that's another reason to learn rust.
I guess I just kinda want to make things minimal in the resources they use. Because that's just neat :D
I used C++ and beriefly C before. I suck at both lol.
I get that manually managing memory can be a mess and easily create big problems. Garbage collectors seem like a cool solution but they need a runtime. Rust has no runtime but somehow forces you to manage memory well. Idk how.
But anyway more important to me is that it's a modern language with good devex and tools and no runtime. So it's like if C++ was remade today. At least that's what I hope.
I agree FF style turn based combat is boring. I mean games that have an auto button that plays it for you are admitting it.
That's why I like games that have more creative combat that blends different genres. Undertale has some turn based, some realtime bullet hell. Battle network has a real time grid based with card game elements.
There's so much you can do but so often devs fall back on choose from menu watch cutscene.
Haha I have thought about that too actually. Mainly because my career path and favorite hobby were both decided by small random moments. It's definitely made me more open to new experiences.
I also hate grinding but sometimes I get addicted to it. Like my lizard brain likes watching the numbers go up. I recently loaded an old save in final fantasy and saw my level at 99, health at 999/999 and gold at 999999 and was like "I don't remember grinding any of this". It happens in a trance.
I agree these games made big improvements but I still see them as bandages to the inevitable problems that came with random encounters. There's no undoing the interruption of flow you know.
I think it's a tradeoff though like I said. Because I don't know how you can have a combat system as cool and creative as say Undertale (blending turn based and realtime bullet hell) or battle network (blending turn based, real time and card game) without it being completely separate from the overworld.
Good point. I guess it is 2 things I'm talking about.
I think battle transitions are a tradeoff. They free combat but at the cost of interrupting flow. If you don't do anything with the freedom they give you and you just make the same tired pokemon style choose from a menu combat it's not worth it.
I haven't played any CRPGs and I'm not familiar with them. Any recommendation of an intro to the genre?
But many of your points are still familiar. Trivial encounters feeling like an annoying waste of time, items or abilities that control the encounter rates, etc.
I think making regions safe is a great idea but I would want it tied to a challenging side quest. Like maybe you can intentionally fight a harder version of an area's enemies to make it safe?
That's a good point. Trivial encounters feel like a grindy and annoying waste of time. I guess it doesn't necessarily have to be that way though.
I also think Final Fantasy falls too much on the old turn based choose from a menu, watch a cut scene system, when there was room for something more interesting. That's just taste though I guess. I haven't even played any other than Final Fantasy I and Tactics Advance maybe they changed.
Hmm. Well I tried to learn C++ as my first programming language when I was 12 so that's probably the reason lol. I was just bad at everything at that time. I moved onto Java next, but maybe I should revisit C++.
But if I had to name specifics these come to mind right now:
I'm very sure all of these can be summed up as me being bad at the languages. Skill issue etc. and it's true. I am bad at both.
But the point is there's a lot of things I don't understand and that seem unintuitive to me. So it's not fun, so I don't use it. If you gave me a programming problem for fun and told me choose your language I would never choose C++ and certainly not C. I'd use Python, JavaScript or Java because they feel more fun to use and I can see progress faster. Same for my new projects. I've never tried to make anything more complicated than a command line program in C++ or C.
At the same time I understand that higher level languages abstract a lot of things away from you and I really do wanna get better at understanding those concepts.
Anyway thanks for attending my therapy session.