Swamp Slogger
Posts: 169
Joined: Tuesday, 25th October 2011, 00:06
About species sizes and how it is conveyed to the player
- Halflings are about half the size of Humans.
- Kobolds are small.
- Spriggans are small. Due to their tiny size, they need very little food. (Do Halflings and Kobolds also need very little food?)
- Ogres are huge.
- Trolls are monstrous. (Does this even count as size description?)
- Deep Dwarves are short.
- Nothing mentions size of Centaurs, Nagas, Felids.
- Spriggans, Kobolds and Halflings: You are small and have problems with some larger weapons.
- Ogres and Trolls: You are too large for most types of armour.
I'm all for narrative descriptions in manual, but only if there were also a special section about sizes, like this:
- Code:
Size
Different species have different sizes: Spriggans and Felids ale little,
Halflings and Kobolds are small, Nagas, Centaurs, Ogres and Trolls are large,
all other species are medium-sized. Most transmutations will change your size
too. Size affects your evasion: the smaller the more evasive you are. On the
other hand, medium-sized (and smaller) species have penalties for moving and
fighting in water. Other size-related quirks can be seen on the 'A' screen.
In the dungeon you can also meet tiny, very large and giant creatures.
How does it help? First of all, now player has clear explanation for all this extra EV on some species at start or lack of it on others. Secondly, it doesn't state that size adds damage to attacks, as one could imagine. (Should it mention this explicitly? What do you think?) I wouldn't be surprised when told that many players were still under power of this delusion.
Now, if you are experienced player you could point out upon reading the section that large species get penalty for moving in shallow water too. But not for fighting, right? I think it would be a bit easier for new players to understand if both penalties disappeared beyond medium size. Small buff won't be a problem, will it? (By the way, did you know that large monsters already move in shallow water without penalty? Somewhat unfair :/)
Size also matters when it comes to constriction: you can't constrict monsters that are bigger than you and vice versa. It's probably too small fact to be mentioned in the section.
Next thing that could be done is to add size scale to '%' screen and/or size string to 'A' screen - useful when changing forms.
Thoughts, corrections?
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