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2170 Posts in 329 Topics by 283 members
10 March 2011 at 5:04pm
I never found the immortal thing that annoying. I used to cheat in the old fighting fantasy books anyway when I died and couldn't be bothered to start over. This is the first gamebook I actually played properly till the end. That's a special achievement for me. At least he makes the effort of explaining it all in the story. Its part of your character.
10 March 2011 at 5:37pm
There are quests where you can "die" and its game over for that quest. Like the counts ball and a couple of the Act 3 ones. They were my favourite ones, incidentally!
16 March 2011 at 4:15pm
This is a great idea. i just wrote in the RuleFaq-Forum that i will play some kind of "advanced" game were i loose items in any way to make the game more exciting - otherwise dying would only be a possiblility to fully heal up during a quest --> no need for healing potions - and i could try a hard monster whose stats are fare better for lets say 20 times as long as i have luck and win - and get good loot very early in the game - but of course that would only be tactic gaming but no fun - i need a bit of a feeling that dying is a bad thing.
I love your Item-Breakage idea but maybe it is really too hard later in the game - depends on how easy you can die - i will see.
bernd
16 March 2011 at 5:38pm
Thanks for the great feedback and ideas. I can see how some of my original suggestions would need tweaking, especially in the later acts which I haven't experienced yet. Much like D&D, I can see that in later levels, the loss of equipment is pretty much a fate as bad as death. Since this game is very much influced by WoW, according to the interview with the author... perhaps another WoW-influenced mechanic may help balance out the proposed equipment breakage rule: Equipment Repair.
Equipment Repair: When your _________ broke, so did your confidence. Time to consult a professional. This is one-of-a-kind equipment that is going to require serious skills and components to repair, so it won't be cheap. Add the sum of numerical values for Speed, Brawn, Magic, and Armor attributes of the equipment you wish to repair. Add an additional value of 10 for each Ability assigned to the equipment. Take this sum and multiply it by 10. The grand total is your repair bill, in Gold Coins, to restore this equipment to working condition.
That means that anything with an ability is going to cost at least 50 gold to repair... expensive in the early game, but probably worth the expense later on. Since I don't yet know what kind of wage a hero is likely to earn later on, the above values may need to be adjusted.
If you are thinking about playing the late game in hardcore mode with Perma-Death instead of (or in addition to) weapon breakage and repair, perhaps another alternate rule would be in order: Orb of Recall. Very Diablo-esque.
Orb of Recall: Once you become a Sthuper Sthpecial Hero wandering in the very dangerous places (at least Chapter 2), considering investing in this staple of professional heroes at your local retailer. 250 gold suggested manufacturer price, comes pre-filled to capacity with 1 charge. Recharges cost 100 gold. Usage: In an emergency, simply touch your Orb of Recall and tap your heels together 3 times (or wish *really* hard, in case you can't move)... you will be immediately transported back to the Map. Your Orb of Recall no longer has a charge and must be refilled before using again. Once used, a personal-use portal will remain open on the Map for your Hero(only) to transport back to the location you recently left. This personal-use portal will close immediately after being used.
Again... any thoughts are welcome. Take it easy ~ Apocryphim
16 March 2011 at 6:21pm
I thought i would add my thoughts to this thread (I'm bored and waiting for my dinner to cook basically). I like the equipment repair idea as the game feels WoW anyway then it wouldn't feel too out of place. Your repair cost calculation isn't bad either. Most weapons in act3 have +2 speed and +4 brawn or magic. That would be 6 + 10 for the ability (16) and then multiply by 10 (160g). Cool. But I can see a couple of problems with this system, coming from having played through it with my rogue.
1) gold is useful later for potions and mushrooms (i didn't use much of the latter, but they seem popular with other builds). In some of the longer quests and boss fights it helps to have some healing. No matter how well equipped you are, death is always a possibility. You can roll poorly and lose an easy fight.
2) if you have problems in act1 and act2 and spend gold on repairs then you won't have gold that you need later. Take pickpocket or alchemist and you'll be richer but they aren't great end game careers. That is my opinion.
3) you will change equipment alot. I could see myself spending 100g on repairing a crucial item and then five minutes later finding a better replacement item. That would be very frustrating.
It would be interesting to know if Michael thought about these kind of ideas when developing the book. I can see problems which probably explain why the system was streamlined into what it is now.
17 March 2011 at 4:16pm
An interesting discussion! I'll be honest and say that, no - there was never really a moment where I thought of introducing a 'death punishment' or durability option. I want the game to be as instantly accessible to as many players of different ages and experience as I could. To add extra rules would have made it too convoluted.
Balancing the game was an incredibly difficult and time-consuming task; to have done that and also allowed for a durability/weapon breakage system would have been almost impossible. In games like World of Warcraft, if an item needs repairing and you can't afford it, you can swap it for another. In DestinyQuest, what you are equipped with is all that you have. As some other players have pointed out, if you were to lose one or two items then the game would quickly become unplayable.
So that is why the death system is what it is. There is a penalty, in that you can't continue the quest you were on and you lose your health potions and other items you used. The bonus is that you learn from your mistakes and get to try again, rather than starting over.
But I am 100% behind players developing and playing with their own rules. I'm flattered that players are passionate enough about the game to want to do that. 
I'd be interested to know how some of these rules pan out through Act 2 and Act 3 of the book.
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