A6 - Pointless Questions

[Eigenvalue]

I am not expecting serious answers, but anyways:

 

- Why does it cost just 1 action point to pick up, say, an armour of a recently killed enemy - after all, it's not an easy job extracting a dead body out of there?

 

- Where do the characters keep the items they are carrying - I had a character carrying 120 bags of meal, but no wagon...

 

- How can one character carry simultaneously three unconcious allies (one having the aforementioned bags of meal)?

 

- How do the characters know the names of everybody around (the magic "tab" button)? Fine, the monsters might have appeared in the books on nature lore or something, but the names of people around? Or does everybody wear a badge or a nametag?

[Wanderer]

Yeah and why can the enemy conjure up all kinds of monsters but our side can only have two?

[Student of Trinity]

Originally Posted By: Eigenvalue

I am not expecting serious answers, but anyways:

- Why does it cost just 1 action point to pick up, say, an armour of a recently killed enemy - after all, it's not an easy job extracting a dead body out of there?

Velcro.

Quote:

- Where do the characters keep the items they are carrying - I had a character carrying 120 bags of meal, but no wagon...

It's all stored in The Cloud.

Quote:

- How can one character carry simultaneously three unconcious allies (one having the aforementioned bags of meal)?

He ain't heavy, mister.

Quote:

- How do the characters know the names of everybody around (the magic "tab" button)? Fine, the monsters might have appeared in the books on nature lore or something, but the names of people around? Or does everybody wear a badge or a nametag?

Facebook.

Originally Posted By: Wanderer

Yeah and why can the enemy conjure up all kinds of monsters but our side can only have two?

They got 4G.

[Soul of Wit]

I'll bite:

 

1. You lose AP for each item that you pick up, whether it's from a body, box or whatever. That seems reasonable.

 

2. Earlier Avernums had encumbrance triggered by all inventory and not just from the wielded items. They also had limitations on where you could store stuff. This made for tedious trips back to the "storeroom". The way it is now may be unrealistic but makes for much better gameplay. One could assume that pack mules or other conveyances are there but are "transparent" to the player.

 

3. Earlier Avernums had characters die and "drop" their possessions. This made for tough decisions on what the remaining characters should keep (see #2.) You then had the further hassle of resurrecting the character. There weren't dozens of Return Life scrolls scattered about. You often had to hike (shorthanded) to a town with a healer. Again, gameplay is better now.

 

4. This [insert all-name-knowing omni- word here] is handy for figuring out who to talk to in a crowded room. Less of the tedious "...you learn little else from the rude sidekick" is a good thing.

 

@Wanderer: Enemies are ALSO limited to two simultaneous summons. Bad guys with extra monsters either have them around corners (ambush) or have some sort of other aid (the mysterious transporter platforms.) I can't remember if there were any battles where you face multiple enemies with summoning power. That's another possibility.

[jlsgaladriel]

I very much like SoT's answers, but I'll give a bite at what I suspect is the real overarching answer:

 

Users complain about gameplay issues far more than about realism. More happy players = better revenue for Spiderweb, so Jeff will pretty much always decide in favour of playability rather than enforce rules of physics.

 

Early Spiderweb games like Exile* did measure encumbrance by what was carried, rather than just what was worn. It led me to make a lot of strength-heavy characters, thereby limiting my more interesting options, and making the game less fun. I doubt very many of us would really want a return to an old-fashioned encumbrance system.

 

correction: exile 3

[Archaeolagent]

Actually, Exile and Exile II didn't measure carried encumbrance at all; you had 12 or 16 pack slots and that was that. They did, however, measure worn encumbrance, albeit via an encumbrance number rather than weight. It was Exile III that began measuring object weight and limiting carrying capacity by weight, although encumbrance remained as in the earlier games.

[jlsgaladriel]

Ah, I remembered being annoyed by the inventory management in the earlier games, but had forgotten that the encumbrance didn't come in until later.

 

I'm glad Jeff continues to say that he plans to update his earlier games... I haven't played Exile (or for that matter A1) in ages, and would love to go back and do so, but for what now seems like an unfortunate interface.

[Jerakeen]

Originally Posted By: jlsgaladriel

I doubt very many of us would really want a return to an old-fashioned encumbrance system.

Amen. Nothing like spending half an hour sorting through everyone's inventory to kill the flow of the story.

I like to think of the laws of physics as more like guidelines, anyway.

[VCH]

I think death should be permanent.

[*i]

I think we should hear details about the explosive diarrhea that you get when you have the diseased status. I want graphics damn it!

 

Seriously, not all realism is good...

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: *i

I think we should hear details about the explosive diarrhea that you get when you have the diseased status. I want graphics damn it!

Seriously, not all realism is good...

Wait, what?

[Erebus the Black]

your chars don't die they fall unconscious, if they all fall unconscious then they die and the game is over (if you are playing in iron-man mode, where all your saves for the current party are erased immediately with your death)

[Chidar_K_]

I think there should be an additional option for permadeath. Afterall, it doesn't take anything away but instead gives something.

[Alorael at Large]

It does take something away: the ability to renege on your determination not to reload an old save when you ruin your game.

 

—Alorael, who is fine with iron man challenges. He just wants them to require enough iron to go through them without the artificial aid of the game preventing you from giving up your ferrousness.

[Archaeolagent]

Chidar, please remember that this forum is read by people of all ages -- the code of conduct has more details on what that means.