borka wrote:If you choose to be neutral your neutrality exists - while others still might not accept it ... a main flaw of MMO games like HnH: always other-directed
That and the difference stats bring. Even in the worst of times small open towns could exist irl because it took a decent force to subdue them, not just a couple of bandits, even if they had no real organized militia. After all a half dozen guys with bare hands can destroy a knight in full plate with a greatsword if they're willing to eat some losses, much less a dozen or so well armed and trained bandits vs. a couple hundred pissed off peasants with woodaxes and pitchforks. That's completely flipped on its head in a game, because statted and equipped characters are like unto gods compared to newbies, literally impossible to damage if they have decent armour and stats.
Ofc you can't have a more quasi-realistic progression because then all the people who are willing to grind for hundreds of hours or just sick bots on it would bitch and moan endlessly about getting killed by a mob of lowbies when they were trying to punch down all the houses in their village and dump all their items in the river. And so, you can't really have much in the way of villages or trade or commerce on the level you would irl but instead just multi-walled fortress compounds that might make individual trade deals with allies if their alts can't produce absolutely everything they need
It's a shame because with the permadeath nature of this game it's got a better chance for that kind of thing, for limiting the griefers, than most open world no limits mmorpg games do. Even griefers don't want to have to constantly grind up or buy (apparently that's a thing? lol) new characters.