Billy Bissette
6/17/2008 3:08:00 AM
zaimoni@zaimoni.com wrote in news:be4d61d9-b2be-4a57-9493-5783df5104e9
@u36g2000prf.googlegroups.com:
> On Jun 16, 5:08 pm, heckrule...@yahoo.com wrote:
>> On Jun 16, 10:28 am, David Damerell <damer...@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > Quoting <heckrule...@yahoo.com>:
>>
>> > >It's a complicated issue that I haven't seen a solution for. And
I'm
>> > >pretty sure that if you ever developed a realistic set of rules,
it
>> > >would be god-awful boring.
>> > >But for realism, I think we need low hitpoints, damage reduction
for
>> > >armor, area-specific damage, bitchy complicated tohit rules, and
>> > >consequences for being hurt.
>>
>> > All this does is turn combat into a crapshoot.
>
>> > ....
>
>> I'm sorry, but what's the technical definition of "crapshoot"?
>
> It's not a technical definition, but a metaphorical one. The actual
> casino game referenced is craps, but any game of (almost) no skill
> that is (almost) purely chance counts.
>
> Generally, the fun factor in a (roguelike) game is directly related to
> player control and mitigation of foreseeable threats. In particular,
> with correct play the player should *never* be attacked by a
> potentially instadeath attack without the opportunity of actively
> preventing it.
>
> With a minimal-hp system, this translates to "never be attacked with
> inadequate armor" (natural for a stealth game, not so awesome for
> heroic fantasy). When you add in "incomplete information", designing
> a single-character game to be fun becomes *very* difficult.
There is an alternative in having a system where high character
turn-over isn't an issue.
A form of this is Dwarf Fortress, where you are playing an entire
community, and thus injuries to a single character are not game
breaking. (The community itself is effectively a form of HP for
you.)
Alternately, you could make a really quick game, so that a
character being taken out in such a manner is not such a hit when
it comes to time expended. Such a game will still likely be one
where victory is a crapshoot, but the number of chances taken
required to win are reduced and the loss with a game is minimized.
Another possibility is inheriting in some fashion from character
to character. The player isn't playing a community, but is instead
playing something like a family line sequentially. When one
character dies, the next comes into play with some or all the
progress of the previous character still achieved. This could be
in the form of dungeon levels cleared, items retrieved passing
to the next character, key monsters defeated, or whatever else.
Perhaps a storyline excuse that magic can return a deceased
character's possessions. Or perhaps your next character starts
at a higher level, comparable to that of your deceased character.
A variation of the previous idea is the maimed/deceased
character himself can get back into the game.