Temple Termagant
Posts: 5
Joined: Tuesday, 27th September 2016, 23:50
Wednesday, 5th October 2016, 18:00
Suggestion: Add hit damage values to message line
Hey I'm relatively new to dcss first playing in May of this year *nods*. However, I will add that I was born in the 70's, so (like the other "old timers" on here 
), I've been one of the fortunate ones to be able to witness and participate in every era of electronic gaming since its infancy. Having said that, I have a few suggestions for the game, but would like to start with the simplest and easiest suggestion to make. So much so, it's had to have been suggested before; or, was included, then taken out.
The suggestion of course is in the thread title: Let's add the hit damage values per hit to the message line!!! It can even be set off in its own cool, unique color!
Let me list the pros and sell it real quick:
1) Clears up all the confusion in one swoop. I have already seen people sound confused as to how to figure what weapon to go for as to what damage they'll be able to do with it. I myself have found it more than a little frustrating and it reminds me of my beloved old Ultimas of only being able to see vague messages like lightly wounded, heavily wounded etc. to indicate the damage one is doing with a weapon they're wielding. Who else goes to lair and compare/contrasts two weapons on a group of poor plants? lol Getting a steady damage count for every hit would cure all of this without taking a single thing away. I'm talking really being able to fine-tune one's understanding and mastery of their weapons vs the confused, half-assed path.
2) With a steady and sure damage count for hits, players would be encouraged to pick up weapons they'd normally ignore because it will just be another item they won't be totally sure about and remind them of how confused they'll be, since they'd be able to whack a few monsters with it as in "let's see what kind of damage I can do with this" and actually be able to see without any of the confusion mentioned in point 1. Similarly, it would encourage exploring new weapon branches in and of itself that have been previously avoided due to confusion as well.
3) Which brings us to one of the most important points about game design: player reward. There's many games that implement the damage count per hit formula and do so with complete success every time. When I pick up a weapon and I see something like +16 when I hit an enemy I'm like, "mmkay, mmkay". Then, later on when I find something and bash the shit out of it for +58 or +96 I belt out a "Oooooooooo" at the computer monitor lmao. True story! I mean even the grandaddy of adventure gaming, pen and paper D&D, lets you know the dice count of a player's hits. The point is that it STRENGTHENS THE PLAYER'S CONNECTION TO THEIR COMBAT ACTIONS HIT-TO-HIT. I want you to think about this aspect in particular.
4) Implementation of this is completely simple and clutter-free to the message line: just add a + sign to the value offset in its own unique color appending it at the end of all the messages like "you slice so and so like a ham" etc.
So, these are the main pros I can think of offhand and really can't think of any cons. As I said earlier, it's hard to imagine this is the first time this has been suggested, so if somehow there's been some kind of long standing debate with this and it's some kind of sticky issue, then ignore this OP. Otherwise, for a game that touts a hassle-free, streamlined design philosophy, I would think this suggestion should be implemented ASAP and given a playtest.
BTW searched the forum and wiki and couldn't find discussion on this topic.
Cheers
), I've been one of the fortunate ones to be able to witness and participate in every era of electronic gaming since its infancy. Having said that, I have a few suggestions for the game, but would like to start with the simplest and easiest suggestion to make. So much so, it's had to have been suggested before; or, was included, then taken out.The suggestion of course is in the thread title: Let's add the hit damage values per hit to the message line!!! It can even be set off in its own cool, unique color!
Let me list the pros and sell it real quick:
1) Clears up all the confusion in one swoop. I have already seen people sound confused as to how to figure what weapon to go for as to what damage they'll be able to do with it. I myself have found it more than a little frustrating and it reminds me of my beloved old Ultimas of only being able to see vague messages like lightly wounded, heavily wounded etc. to indicate the damage one is doing with a weapon they're wielding. Who else goes to lair and compare/contrasts two weapons on a group of poor plants? lol Getting a steady damage count for every hit would cure all of this without taking a single thing away. I'm talking really being able to fine-tune one's understanding and mastery of their weapons vs the confused, half-assed path.
2) With a steady and sure damage count for hits, players would be encouraged to pick up weapons they'd normally ignore because it will just be another item they won't be totally sure about and remind them of how confused they'll be, since they'd be able to whack a few monsters with it as in "let's see what kind of damage I can do with this" and actually be able to see without any of the confusion mentioned in point 1. Similarly, it would encourage exploring new weapon branches in and of itself that have been previously avoided due to confusion as well.
3) Which brings us to one of the most important points about game design: player reward. There's many games that implement the damage count per hit formula and do so with complete success every time. When I pick up a weapon and I see something like +16 when I hit an enemy I'm like, "mmkay, mmkay". Then, later on when I find something and bash the shit out of it for +58 or +96 I belt out a "Oooooooooo" at the computer monitor lmao. True story! I mean even the grandaddy of adventure gaming, pen and paper D&D, lets you know the dice count of a player's hits. The point is that it STRENGTHENS THE PLAYER'S CONNECTION TO THEIR COMBAT ACTIONS HIT-TO-HIT. I want you to think about this aspect in particular.
4) Implementation of this is completely simple and clutter-free to the message line: just add a + sign to the value offset in its own unique color appending it at the end of all the messages like "you slice so and so like a ham" etc.
So, these are the main pros I can think of offhand and really can't think of any cons. As I said earlier, it's hard to imagine this is the first time this has been suggested, so if somehow there's been some kind of long standing debate with this and it's some kind of sticky issue, then ignore this OP. Otherwise, for a game that touts a hassle-free, streamlined design philosophy, I would think this suggestion should be implemented ASAP and given a playtest.
BTW searched the forum and wiki and couldn't find discussion on this topic.
Cheers
Last edited by How on Wednesday, 5th October 2016, 18:05, edited 1 time in total.
