What rare game mechanic have you met?

[Jagtiger]

In my gaming history I met a few games that had mechanics rarely present in games of same genre. Let me start...

RTS: Remembers player's actions between missions in campaign.
In Red Alert 1, in allied mission 2 player have to build as usually and in mission 4 returns to that map, but extended, while player's units and buildings stay the way they were left at end of mission 2. Second occurrence I've only found in Warzone 2100, where main base is built and left way it was for duration of entire campaign, including modifications in-between missions.


RTS: Player's units travel for entire duration of campaign, if they survive mission. Any units built are added to travelling army.

This mechanic presents in LOTR: Battle for middle earth and in Warzone 2100.

And you, what mechanics have you encountered that can be added in any game of appropriate genre, but mostly stays either unpopular or rare?

 

[HavocXphere]

Post might be vaguely off-topic - do forgive

I like how some games remind me of playing time.

"Commander you have been here for two hours without rest - perhaps a short break would be beneficial". (vaguely paraphrased) Anno2070 does it...can't remember others.

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The UT3 bots bitch if they are getting owned. They say (voice) "Raise our skill".

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UT bots (not sure which - 2003 / earlier) are programmed to dodge when you fire at them on higher skill levels. i.e. You click, they dodge and by the time the missile hits they dodged it. Sounds contrived but it looks like mad skills when you see it.

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C&C generals AI also occasionally tried something that was a little unexpected. e.g. Attempting to circle around the base & attack from sides.


As for game mechanics - I *loved* the (pre-patch) tranq gun in crysis (farcry?) 1. Unlimited ammo, dead silent and you could reset the cool-down by cycling weapons - but it would attract enemy attention if you missed / didn't headshot (?). With a bit of practice you could drop a group of guys with absolute stealth. It somehow had just the right balance between skill & fun...and then they went and patched it.

 

[Jagtiger]

The other mechanics I remembered:

Any Genre: The game encourages (and sometimes enforces) player to read novel format texts.
Heroes of Might and Magic 4 does that, dropping in few pages worth of text about backstory/storyline after certain amount of turns or just event.
Other example is Planescape: Torment, however it does not not give in novel format, but still a lot of text to convey story.

RTS+RPG elements: The game lets player to choose to end level after victory conditions met or continue to play and finish at any time.
Blitzkrieg 1 allows player to continue destroying remaining enemy units on map to gain XP for promotion (which gives more units under command). (However player can replay random missions to gain XP, but expansions don't give such option).
Allods 1 and 2, it's self explanatory. Map can be cleared to level character and collect gold, which is only way to acquire, otherwise player may struggle towards endgame either financially or performance-wise.
Silent Storm just says that exit button is enabled. Player can level characters, collect loot (not all loot can fit) or just mess around blowing up buildings with remaining PRG charges and so on.