"consider" like ability?

[demeisen]

So, one of the things I absolutely love about PoE is that it doesn't auto-scale monsters, and also (ok, two things I absolutely love...) that you can easily get into places where you're gonna get beat down, so maybe you need to come back later when you're more experienced.

 

I'd almost like to see even more of that dynamic in future games on this engine, like way dangerous places even in the early zones, but maybe there's one thing missing.  At least on my first play through, I don't know how tough any of the monsters are.  "OK I scouted and found two Spiders of Whatever".  Are Spiders of Whatever tough?  Dunno.

 

In a way, that's maybe good to a degree, because it adds some sense of risk.  But you could also argue it'd be nice to have at least a very rough idea what you're up against.  Like in real life, I see an ant and I'm pretty sure I can kick its #(@ if i want.  But a tiger can have me for lunch.  I can at least sorta know how tough it might be just by eyeballing it.

 

I wouldn't mind an approximation, tied to some in-game survival or similar ability.  Or maybe even just in-world hints, like villagers you can talk to who might say, "Sure, the woods east of town are a little dangerous, but you look capable of handling the local wolves.  But we sent 5 other guys kinda equipped like you into that cave behind the waterfall last summer, and they never came out.  We don't know what's in there, but I'd stay out if I were you."  If you come back in 5 levels, they might change their tune to, "You look a lot tougher than the last bunch who went in that cave.  Maybe you'll fare better than they did."

 

I'm thinking that'd be a good dynamic combined with ironman mode.

 

What do y'all think?

 

*Edit for typos*

Edited April 1, 2015 by demeisen

[Hogfather]

I'm pretty much against any sort of a true con system. It just feels like its contrary to the IE experience.

 

For me barely surviving a fight or needing to reload works ... I can see why people would like something a little more in-game. Making lots of content changes is probably a big task though.

 

Something I was thinking about was maybe improving the ability to retreat and disengage, that way you can get a beatdown but still have a chance to get out and come back later without ruining the immersion in terms of PC knowledge. At the moment its kind of disjointed - you rely on player knowledge from after your last save point which is certainly OOC. Retreating from combat is a bit of a dubious undertaking with combat the way it is.

 

I don't know how it fits into the design, but a combat only, once-per-rest evacuation skill unique to CHARNAME might work that has a relatively long cast time and sends you back to the level entrance forcing a map reload. That way if you bite off more than you chew, you don't need to reload and break the narrative. Its also a reasonably light idea in terms of implementation - just record the entry location (stairs whatever) and reload the map at that point?

 

Lore-wise I have no idea, I'm sure there's a deux ex machina that could be hand waved in about soul travel or something though o.O

Edited April 1, 2015 by Hogfather

[demeisen]

I'm pretty much against any sort of a true con system. It just feels like its contrary to the IE experience.

 

For me barely surviving a fight or needing to reload works ... I can see why people would like something a little more in-game. Making lots of content changes is probably a big task though.

 

Something I was thinking about was maybe improving the ability to retreat and disengage, that way you can get a beatdown but still have a chance to get out and come back later without ruining the immersion in terms of PC knowledge. At the moment its kind of disjointed - you rely on player knowledge from after your last save point which is certainly OOC. Retreating from combat is a bit of a dubious undertaking with combat the way it is.

 

Agreed with you about the "true con" system.  If it's something that simple and perfect, it doesn't feel right.  I was thinking more abstract and imperfect.

 

Also agreed that it's not practical for PoE at this point, but maybe for future games on the same engine.  I don't like the "reload" option much though, because I like the idea of ironman mode.  I'm not playing ironman now on my first play through, but that's largely because I don't have any way to determine if I'm going to get destroyed by something.