Dev Diary: Mad ramblings

[theTrav]

It doesn't make much sense to make separate combat systems for PvP and PvE, though.

When you take into account that PvE is primarily hunting animals, whereas PvP is primarily dueling then it makes heaps of sense.

When's the last time you saw someone use martial arts to take down a bear? When have you ever heard of people hunting with a broadsword?

Additionally, even when you start to put trolls in for the PvE, they're not going to in any way have the same motivations and therefore make the same decisions as a human opponent, so why would you try to use the same system?

[Potjeh]

And what about PvP archery? Hunting animals should improve one's skill with the bow even when it comes to shooting at people.

[theTrav]

Hunting animals should improve one's skill with the bow even when it comes to shooting at people.

Fair point, that's a similar aspect, I was looking at it from the melee side. I'll have to think some more about archery.

[Chakravanti]

I'm totally on point with archery being cross compatable. But yeah, what theTrav said about ninja & knights killing pigs and deer.

I can see melee skills being a valid defense mechanism for AI initiated PvE but it should be a costly and ineffective enough method to not make it viable for the gather or of large quantities of resources.

[Caradon]

I'm immune to poison ivy and poison oak. Can my characters match?

[Asmodeus]

So, your one of those freaks of nature are you? Watch out because it has been documented that such an immunity can cease to be active without any indication, until you show your friends how immune you are. Then the indication that it is inactive becomes... indicated.

[jorb]

a bear should be roughly equal a wolf pack... and itd be nice if there was some way to keep them challenging no matter your stats

I agree. I haven't been able to think of one. The only games I can think of where you have more or less the same enemies throughout the entire game are games where you really don't level up at all. SMB3 and the like. There are of course level scaling monsters like in oblivion, but I would rather throw myself to the hyenas than implement that kind of level scaling.

also, in terms of danger/strength enemies should probably be tiered more like

• prey < predators < monsters

with the last being maneaters

Yes, obviously so. Their relative danger should reflect RL. Rabbits, for obvious reasons, should be less dangerous than foxes.

[martinuzz]

Maybe you could add a mechanism to bears similar to taming..

Like: You need to 'quell the beast' first, before you can do damage. After doing damage, you need to quell it again, before you can do more damage.
This would represent the natural difficulty of battling a bear, having to confuse it to be able to land a hit

I'd say this quelling shouldn't need a rope, that would look rather silly against a bear. Maybe it should be called something else than quell the beast, 'Feral howl' or something like that, and be an extra combat move.

[Haba]

a bear should be roughly equal a wolf pack... and itd be nice if there was some way to keep them challenging no matter your stats

I agree. I haven't been able to think of one. The only games I can think of where you have more or less the same enemies throughout the entire game are games where you really don't level up at all.

Maybe the animals could behave differently depending on how dangerous they perceive you? Though as long as long as stats have such major influence on character resilience/damage output, there will always be a point where non-scaling enemies will cease to be an issue.

Best way to avoid the problem is to ensure that high level players have something more worthwhile to do... Or that there is a limit on how strong you can become naturally.

also, in terms of danger/strength enemies should probably be tiered more like

• prey < predators < monsters

with the last being maneaters

Yes, obviously so. Their relative danger should reflect RL.

What is your stance on humanoid enemies?

[jorb]

What is your stance on humanoid enemies?

Generally skeptical. It could devolve into a slippery slope towards high-fantasy.