Here's a simple idea for making the game harder: make the carrying capacity limitations more stringent. This has the following main effects:
* Players can't carry as much contingency gear with them (rarely-used staves, extra ammo, 4 copies of each town spellbook, swaps for rare damage sources, etc.)
* Heavy armor becomes more of a tradeoff. Maybe Isildur really isn't worth wearing if it means taking a -2 penalty to speed.
Frankly, the carrying capacity of even midgame characters is insane right now. Carrying over 100 pounds of gear without being slowed down at all (which includes being able to fight at full effectiveness) is beyond the pale. If the player has to prioritize which things they want to be able to deal with, and have to improvise for the rest, then IMO the game would be more interesting; certainly it'd be harder.
I don't think carrying capacity at low strength levels really needs to be touched. As it stands, young mages can barely carry all their gear without being slowed anyway. But I do think it'd be worth trying a big reduction in improvements to capacity improvements past, say, 18/50 strength. It's a simple change, it doesn't really touch the early game, and my guess is it'd have a big effect on difficulty. What's not to like?
* Players can't carry as much contingency gear with them (rarely-used staves, extra ammo, 4 copies of each town spellbook, swaps for rare damage sources, etc.)
* Heavy armor becomes more of a tradeoff. Maybe Isildur really isn't worth wearing if it means taking a -2 penalty to speed.
Frankly, the carrying capacity of even midgame characters is insane right now. Carrying over 100 pounds of gear without being slowed down at all (which includes being able to fight at full effectiveness) is beyond the pale. If the player has to prioritize which things they want to be able to deal with, and have to improvise for the rest, then IMO the game would be more interesting; certainly it'd be harder.
I don't think carrying capacity at low strength levels really needs to be touched. As it stands, young mages can barely carry all their gear without being slowed anyway. But I do think it'd be worth trying a big reduction in improvements to capacity improvements past, say, 18/50 strength. It's a simple change, it doesn't really touch the early game, and my guess is it'd have a big effect on difficulty. What's not to like?
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