Swamp Slogger
Posts: 147
Joined: Sunday, 14th June 2015, 07:19
Early Game Myth
I'm really curious what version of trunk I'm playing that's different than everyone else's, because when I reach Lair I'm not handed a stack of every consumable I need to escape any dangerous situation through the rest of the game, along with all the resists and equipment I need to get through Zot. And the version of Lair I get introduces enemies that can outrun you like Spiny Frogs, Black Mambas and Blink Frog packs that I can't just walk away from. Just as well though, as one-tile wide narrow hallways to funnel enemies are a rarity in Lair, so often I'm going to be facing packs of Blink Frogs, Death Yaks and Elephants that I can't turn into a series of one-on-one fights anyways. Don't forget new threats like basilisk petrification, hydras that will rip me to shreds if I don't have the defenses and offenses to handle them, and poison that I very likely do not have resistance to.
And believe me, I'm not trying to say that Lair is too hard, I'm not even trying to say that it's hard at all. But its silly that 'conventional wisdom' says this is a cakewalk after early Dungeon, where I can close doors, walk away into narrow corridors, and very little can walk faster than me.
And seriously, 'the early game is the hardest part of the game?' For races and backgrounds that lack useful tools at the start, sure. But pick a Minotaur, a Berserker, or Zot forbid, both, and substantiate the claim D1-D9 is the most challenging part for that build.
The main argument that I understand made that the game is 'won' by Lair or that the early game is the most difficult part comes from the fact that situations where the game is 'unwinnable' are only really seen very early (inescapable adders with bad rolls, autoexplore into banishment / multiple orc priests / Grinder paralysis / gnolls with branded polearms), whereas later in the game, if you die its almost always very clearly your fault for mishandling the situation. This ends up getting extrapolated far beyond the scope of that argument into a bizzare hypothetical scenario where every player has perfect knowledge of every situation and makes 'optimal' decisions at all times, when that can only apply to perhaps a handful of players at best, and even they make mistakes, misread the situation, or encounter unexpected situations.
Late game offers players more ways to circumvent trouble, but it throws far, far more trouble at players than the early game does. Pretending that past Lair the game doesn't pose any challenge to me more like a seductive, self-congratulatory elitist claim than a fair evaluation of the game's difficulty.
Feel free to claim that I only hold this opinion because I'm bad at the game. I won't deny that I am!