Re: Design Goals.
- From: penderprime@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 08:35:39 -0800 (PST)
On Jan 22, 11:10 pm, Ray Dillinger <b...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
6) Don't give the players so many choices that they can predetermine
their strategy. Open-ended wishes, infinite item generation, etc,
don't even require the player to consider their existing kit and
abilities; instead they can just get whatever their favorite kit
and abilities happen to be.
7) Avoid thousanduplet syndrome. If all winning characters always
wind up with the same stats, the same resistances, and seven or
eight of the same set of fifteen or so items, I'm doing it wrong!
I really like this list.
6 and 7 work well together, I think. I'm trying to implement a
character class system whereby every character has the same innate
abilities, stats, etc. at the outset, but will periodically find
"scrolls of enchantment." Such a scroll can add a plus to a
character's weapon, armor, ring or staff. There will be many such
scrolls scattered throughout the dungeon, but not as many great
magical items. So if you find a ring of clairvoyance and a staff of
tunneling, you could fashion your character as a nonconfrontationalist
by enchanting up both of these items to the exclusion of your armor
and weapon so that you can see threats ahead of you and if necessary
burrow around them. Or if you find a ring of persuasion, you could
sink your enchantments into it and fashion your character as a
diplomat/bard who progresses primarily by convincing certain creatures
to ally with you and do most of your fighting for you against rival
factions. A ring of stealth and a strong weapon but no armor to speak
of could yield an interesting assassin-type character who prevails by
sneaking up on enemies and taking advantage of a huge attack boost
from catching the enemy unaware to effect one-hit kills on even very
difficult foes. Naturally you could also boost up your weapon and
armor to be a typical fighter character, or a staff of firebolt to be
a pyromancer-type character. Since a character will find only a small
subset of this kind of class-defining item in the dungeon, players
will have to try different playing styles while still having a few
possibilities to choose between. Balancing all of these options will
probably be a very involved process for me, but I hope it won't be
much worse than trying to balance more typical character classes as
found in games like Angband or Nethack.
With respect to mana, the staffs will each have a maximum of three
charges, and they will recover charges over time by themselves.
Enchanting a staff will increase the power of the staff's effects as
well as adding a charge -- but the staff will still take the same
amount of time to charge from empty to full, so this effectively also
increases the charge rate. Staffs will start out pretty weak but will
ultimately end up roughly equivalent in power to melee attacks if
sufficiently enchanted. The kinds of effects that are too powerful to
allow to recharge -- such as polymorph, slow, or confusion -- will be
handed by wands instead of staffs; they will have a finite number of
non-renewable charges as in Rogue.
This is all very much in the conceptual stage -- I'd be interested to
hear people's opinions of it.
.
- References:
- Design Goals.
- From: Ray Dillinger
- Design Goals.
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