A few points to consider
Posted: Mon Dec 27, 2010 10:26 am
So far, I have gone through a few characters and my most successful is my current dwarf fighter, about level 40 or so. I have just completed beating up Tannen, but I have already sense the setting in of the early stage of burning out.So I sat down, thought for a while, and came up with a few points:
1. Tannen: okay, so he is a bad guy, but why? What is his purpose? What is he doing in Last Hope? Surely he could not have known that the player character would come in with the Orb of Many Ways, so what's he doing there? You have to flesh him out and give in a purpose, otherwise he is just yet another random bad guy waiting to be crushed, and there are enough bad guys to crush already. The only thing that came out from this whole thing is the bottom half of Telo's Staff, and this can certainly be placed somewhere else, or have another NPC sending the PC to the tower. If you cannot find a reason why Tannen should be there, remove him.
2. Alternate ways to complete a quest: for some quests/tasks, have multiple ways to complete them, other than the usual "bash the boss over the head" variety. For example, if you bring the crystal to Telo's ghost, that would put him to rest and end that quest.
3. Too many magic items: this world now has way too many magic items, esp after replacing scrolls and potions with runes and infusions. Previously, with scrolls and potions, you could have them consist of 50% or more of magic items, and there wouldn't be all that many of other things. Now there are just huge numbers of magic items, mostly weapons and armor. The thing is most of these look similar ("Ho hum, another radiant hard leather armor of acid resistance"). Magic items should be rare, few and far between, and expensive. The same is particularly true of artifacts. I guess the situation is compounded by the introduction of randarts. My suggestion is randonly choose 1 from each list (i.e. 1 head gear, 1 light source, etc.) at the beginning of each game.
4. Zigur: Now Zigur and the anti-magic quest is just sort of tagged on to the game. I think the integration should be better and the anti-magic talents needed to be broadened. For example, instead of asking the player to come back in ten levels to pass a silly test, ask him to bring back magic items for destruction. Each time he does so he gains some points, and after a while they teach him a skill or give him an item. I would also like to propose that the anti-magic skills cannot be improved in the usual way.
1. Tannen: okay, so he is a bad guy, but why? What is his purpose? What is he doing in Last Hope? Surely he could not have known that the player character would come in with the Orb of Many Ways, so what's he doing there? You have to flesh him out and give in a purpose, otherwise he is just yet another random bad guy waiting to be crushed, and there are enough bad guys to crush already. The only thing that came out from this whole thing is the bottom half of Telo's Staff, and this can certainly be placed somewhere else, or have another NPC sending the PC to the tower. If you cannot find a reason why Tannen should be there, remove him.
2. Alternate ways to complete a quest: for some quests/tasks, have multiple ways to complete them, other than the usual "bash the boss over the head" variety. For example, if you bring the crystal to Telo's ghost, that would put him to rest and end that quest.
3. Too many magic items: this world now has way too many magic items, esp after replacing scrolls and potions with runes and infusions. Previously, with scrolls and potions, you could have them consist of 50% or more of magic items, and there wouldn't be all that many of other things. Now there are just huge numbers of magic items, mostly weapons and armor. The thing is most of these look similar ("Ho hum, another radiant hard leather armor of acid resistance"). Magic items should be rare, few and far between, and expensive. The same is particularly true of artifacts. I guess the situation is compounded by the introduction of randarts. My suggestion is randonly choose 1 from each list (i.e. 1 head gear, 1 light source, etc.) at the beginning of each game.
4. Zigur: Now Zigur and the anti-magic quest is just sort of tagged on to the game. I think the integration should be better and the anti-magic talents needed to be broadened. For example, instead of asking the player to come back in ten levels to pass a silly test, ask him to bring back magic items for destruction. Each time he does so he gains some points, and after a while they teach him a skill or give him an item. I would also like to propose that the anti-magic skills cannot be improved in the usual way.