Wednesday, 24th May 2017, 18:02 by Aean
-Relative value/effects of AC and EV. Some enemies/spells/attacks are relatively harmless if you have high AC, some if you have high EV, and an unspoiled player can only guess at which might be which. You can figure it out with trial-and-error, but it's certainly never made clear, especially with regards to things like undodgeable effects.
-What can/can't be blocked/reflected. You can block attacks from any direction equally well, regardless of which way you're moving or attacking. Not to mention it's pretty common to see that utter shock on new players' faces when, say, an orb of destruction is blocked or reflected. How should an unspoiled player know whether or not a given attack is blockable?
-How effects work together. Do these two stack, or does one replace another, or can they be active at the same time without stacking? For example, should an unspoiled player know if quaffing haste before berserking will make them even faster when berserked? If you want to try every permutation and combination of effects yourself, you can technically figure it out, but short of that you're pretty much left guessing.
-Differences in spellpower value. Some spells are valuable at any spellpower, and you can really stop training the skill once you can cast the spell safely; others are only really valuable at high spellpower. Similarly, some spells will remain useful as long as you keep boosting spellpower, while others will rapidly become useless regardless of spellpower.
-Which effects can be resisted, and how. Sure, it's fairly intuitive that you can resist a bolt of fire with fire resistance, but how about things like Pain, or smiting? You can figure it out with enough playtime, but it's not presented clearly to the player.
-In the same vein as the GDR comment, the classic "which weapon is better" question. When faced with a +X spear with Y brand, and a +A trident with B brand, for example, how should an unspoiled player have any idea of which is better? Let alone when you're comparing more disparate items, like, say, a bardiche and a dagger.
-In the same vein as the piety comment, where cutoffs lie (or if they even exist). Ru, for example, will cheerfully allow you to make sacrifices enough to earn more than max piety, despite the fact that this rounds down to max piety. Or ghouls can eat forever without being engorged, with extra food not adding nutrition.
-In the vein of the poison comments...it's not just spells and weapons that become underpowered as you get further in the game, but spell skills, and gods. How should a player know if something they've invested a great deal in throughout the game will eventually become almost useless?
-Noise. Sure, now we have a noise-o-meter, but what do relative levels of noise mean? What does it mean if I was noisy and then I moved?
-Monster precedence and decision-making. Will the monster attack me, or my allies? What if I run away? Will it attack from range, or close the distance? Will it walk through or around shallow water? Can/will it walk through deep water? Will it swap places with another monster in a hallway? Will it walk into clouds/traps/etc? Will it use area-damaging spells with allies within the area of effect?
- For this message the author Aean has received thanks:
- duvessa