Re: Crawl - Flinging spells ?

I am glad that Mark stepped up here. The mechanics _are_ complicated. You
could not phrase them as simply as you did. So, we could either simplify
the mechanics (for the purpose of making it easier to explain -- that
would be pretty sad) or give the full story (see paragraph above about
registers and stacks).

I think it is the job of the underlying algorithm to approximate some
model of reality; through observation, a player is trying to replicate
that model. I agree that having to give out formulae is a sign of
poor
design; but I think we have different reasons for believing so.

My reason is that if we give out formulae, we admit that we're doing a
poor job of modeling. The implementation (I guess you call this the
mechanics) may be complicated, but the model should strive to be
meaningful. One doesn't simplify mechanics to make them easier to
explain;
one tries to create a model which can be inferred through observation
and implements it however possible. For example, you wouldn't give
players tables with moments of inertia and coefficients of
restitution.
You don't even say "The ball is bouncy". They see it bounce and
figure
it out.

One reason players ask for implementation details is that they are
not getting enough information through observation. The solution
depends on why they aren't getting enough: they may not be trying
hard enough (ie, not testing weapons when not in danger). They
may be missing feedback the game gives them (ie, not examining
items). The model may be over-complicated or nonintuitive to the
point where it requires excessive information to figure out
(imagine a weapon whose damage depends on sin(you.turn_count)).
The game may be giving too little feedback (ie, weapon hits should
say "Ouch! That looks like it really hurt him!" instead of "You hit."
or "He easily/barely dodges out of the way" instead of "You miss.").

For some of those reasons, the player is at fault (or maybe the
game; if it's not guiding them towards the proper way to observe).
For others, the design or the UI is at fault.

To paraphrase Jeff Lait (and other designers!): if a mechanic is too
complicated to be intuited by a player, does the model even exist? It
becomes
equivalent to randomness; albeit deterministic randomness that can
be exploited by a source-diver who knows the exact pattern. I posit
that the ideal design is one in which a minmaxer or source diver does
not do any better than an observant player. I am sure this is
impossible, but it is a goal.

p

.

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