Re: Re: Wishlist ....

From: Bryan Thexton <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 10:50:36 -0800 (PST)

I really like the idea of ceratin useful cults that you might have to heroquest to build shrines too. Sort of like the winds from Kero Finn

On the other hand, I agree that dropping sheep would cause no great loss, and might free up some interface area and memory for more exciting things.
> >
> >Am I the only one who things that the Hero Quests
> are too random? Most of
> >the quests I could solve by learning the lore and
> making sure conditions
> >were favourable. But one or two just would not let
> me solve them. No matter
> >what I did I'd fail and I tried everything.
>
> Hmm, I tend to think that they are too predictable,
> in that there is
> a set path.

I find a bit of both. While I do like quests, it is really frustrating when you know you should do fine, and fail, and conversely it seems that often when you most need a quest you are the least likely to succeed at it (i.e. early in the game, your best fighter just got killed, you desperately want to complete the Humakt or Orlanth and Aroka quests, but without a decent fighter, what are the odds?)

Also, although a couple of quests have "buy an edge" options at several points (especially the Ernalda quest), I find that once I've had to buy an edge at one point, the rest of the quest is often a disaster.

Ideally, for game play, not Gloranthan perfection, once you know the quest and make reasonable preparations, you should be able to complete it, if you are willing to pay a high enough price. The price may be terrible sometimes, but if you are desperate enough....and if you aren't that desperate, you can take your chances. There is already a bit of this in whether you owe favors to get support, but more would be nice.
>

> But think of it like soccer. What could be simpler?
> Just kick the
> ball past the goalie and into the net. The net's a
> lot bigger than
> the goalie, after all. How come it only actually
> happens a couple
> times in a game?

The problem, from a game play point of view, is that the downsides can be SO terrible. As prep for this mail, I took a saved game where I was about to try the Ernalda feeds the tribe quest. On the ring I had an Ernaldan with renowned plants and very good magic, but only good leadership. We had another Ernaldan with very good leadership, but only good plants and magic. And we had our clan chief and tribal king, a Vingan with renowned leadership, excellent magic, and very good plants.

I tried the quest with each of the Ernaldans and the Vingan, and each time I had to buy my way through every checkpoint, with Maran Gor killing them at the end. I'd end up down people, magic as low as -22 (+8 going in), and minus a leader. So then, since I did want to carry on the game I ran it again with the Vingan, planning on running away and trying to find Gustbran to weedle that wonderful wheel from him...but I forgot to click run away at the first encounter, and breezed through the entire quest without trouble. This makes it very hard as a player, given that succeeding in quests is a necessity to win the game--playing it safe and avoiding them isn't really an option.

> >Now to get back to working out why my warriors keep
> insisting they want to
> >see the clan split into two...
>
> Don't forget that splitting isn't the end of the
> world, it's actually
> a pretty common thing for an Orlanthi clan.

It is almost inevitable in a long game. It can be avoided, but generally it is easier in the long run just to let it happen.....the art is choosing a time when you can afford to be weakened.

--Bryan



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