[O] Lessons for V from another dead necro

[Nick]

Another one has bitten the dust, and as I was playing it I had several thoughts about current discussion of changes, peeves etc in V.

ID: Lack of *ID* in O is a big issue. I died with a number of randarts (O has randarts alonside the standard ones) in my home which may have been useful if I'd known what they did. Regular ID is not such a problem, but it was still frustrating at times going back to the town and not having any source of ID available. Not necessarily frustrating in a bad way.

Shopping: Selling stuff from the dungeon was critical for money supply. Rather than being an annoyance, I found this led to interesting gameplay decisions - do I carry back this heavy weapon at the cost of being slowed? Is the 3000AU worth the chance of being double-moved? And it was exciting to find an affordable Robe of Permanence in the Armoury - maybe not as exciting as finding it in the dungeon, but the rarity of good armour for a low-STR spellcaster made up for that.
The occasional lack of consumables in the shops also led to interesting challenges. Not having ?Phase meant I had to be careful until they were restocked. I could, of course, have chosen to storescum, but I'm too impatient for that...

Nexus: I got stat-swapped twice - CON/WIS, then STR/CON. This was not game-ending - it was a challenge. It forced gear rearrangement, and (particularly in the low CON period) made me play less riskily.

Combat: Not really a fair point, because Necros don't melee, but I wanted to say that, while I like O-combat, I don't think V combat is broken. Just different.

Conclusions:

• I think V is headed in a direction that makes it less forbidding for the newcomer, and that's a good thing.
• Many gameplay discussions generate a lot of sound and fury on the forums, with forcefully expressed opinions. It's worth remembering that these are opinions rather than inevitabilities, so devs have to make choices and not everyone will like the choices.
• O is hardcore.
• Catering for a broad range of playstyles is a good thing.

[AnonymousHero]

ID: Lack of *ID* in O is a big issue. I died with a number of randarts (O has randarts alonside the standard ones) in my home which may have been useful if I'd known what they did. Regular ID is not such a problem, but it was still frustrating at times going back to the town and not having any source of ID available. Not necessarily frustrating in a bad way.

I just find both hugely annoying. If there was reasonable ID-by-use and curses were less likely it might not be so bad. IIRC a large proportion of the randarts I found in O were cursed.

Nexus: I got stat-swapped twice - CON/WIS, then STR/CON. This was not game-ending - it was a challenge. It forced gear rearrangement, and (particularly in the low CON period) made me play less riskily.

Ugh, Nexus... If I get badly stat-swapped, I usually just quit. Hence, I avoid anything that can breathe Nexus until I have rNexus -- even using ?oTeleportLevel if necessary. It's an absurdly "cause-mild-annoyance-or-ruin-your-game-completely" effect. The add-one-subtract-one-stat way of doing it seems much more reasonable.

Combat: Not really a fair point, because Necros don't melee, but I wanted to say that, while I like O-combat, I don't think V combat is broken. Just different.

FWIW, I mostly feel the same. Light weapons are too effective in V, though.

[Psi]

Whenever I see another Death, I often hop over the O fence and I must admit I spend less time there each time. I really miss ID by use - especially with slow, weak pseudoid. I don't tend to play long enough to hit the *ID* stage these days, but I can imagine the frustration...

[Nick]

Whenever I see another Death, I often hop over the O fence and I must admit I spend less time there each time. I really miss ID by use - especially with slow, weak pseudoid.

Apologies in advance, then