by VDZ » Mon Apr 19, 2021 1:42 pm jorb wrote:From my perspective, wounds are content. I play the game as a survival game, and I enjoy managing a wild wound list. Think of that what you will, but that's how I look at it.
Even as a pure survival game mechanic, what does it add? It's not a punishment for a mistake you've made; you simply need to enter swamps as part of basic gameplay (and the game does not adequately communicate that merely stepping into a swamp will fucking murder you). Even if you were to consider it as a cost, as the 'risk' part of a risk-reward design, the cost is far, far too steep to ever be worth it, the cure is far, far too expensive to ever be worth it, there is zero way to avoid or even reduce the chance of this wound, and worst of all, it can 100% be avoided with alt abuse meaning it only harms those who refuse to cheese the mechanic.
Compare to, say, URW's frostbite mechanic, which is also harsh and will kill you hard. But it's a punishment for neglecting a core survival element (keeping warm), is completely intuitive (of course there'd be negative effects for getting too cold during winter in a game that takes every little thing into account) and 100% avoidable (just keep warm). Contrast Swamp Fever, which happens for doing basic gameplay, seems completely random (you wouldn't know this is a thing until you get hit by it, in a game where you can chug down 20 liters of water while sprinting for absurd distances while carrying a massive amount of heavy items), and there is no way to avoid it other than by completely ignoring a core game element. The former makes sense, fits the game and adds to the gameplay. The latter just seems to punish players for no reason while encouraging behavior that decreases immersion rather than enhancing it.
