05-29-2004, 01:30 AM
First of all, thanks for the replies, it doesn't sound too good.
Lemekin's last paragraph expresses a lot of what I view as strategy vs tactics in a game like this. My only caveat would be that if the skill choice and such is made on the fly (or at least the timing is made on the fly), it does start to fall into the tactics realm. By on the fly, I mean after starting to engage the mob without time to disengage think it over and then start the engagement again. This ususally requires both unique mobs and little time after seeing one to plan and react (bosses in D2 are an example of this). From what I'm reading, though, the only time this might occur, to some extent, is when a second (third) mob shows up to the party. Is this a good assesment?
Skill/equipment/combat pattern selection versus a given mob made in advance of the engagement is a strategic decision, but it seems that this is the same for a given mob every time they're encountered. So once the optimum strategy for a given mob (given the character/party) is figured out, it seems there are no more decisions, its just then a matter of competently executing the strategy when that mob is encountered.
I found that such strategic decisions are few and far between for these type of games compared to a good strategy game (even if one doubled or tirpled the number of such decisions in D2 it would still be low). For example, my favorite part of character development in D2 is levels 1 through 25 or so, no-twink no-trade. This maximizes the number of strategic decisions (but it is still very light in such decisions). I tend to play only a few characters longer, and do so for two reasons 1) boredom with acts 1 & 2 and 2) to see some of the more powerful items once or twice.
The ability of mobs to teleport and/or ignore terrain sounds disasterous from at tactics pov. And the fact that they do it implies the designers are having pathing development problems (I suspect its the same messy thing as in D2 and they can't rely on large numbers of mobs to overcome it). These are not easy problems to solve, so I won't hold out much hope.
I'm sad to hear this is yet another MMO game where they've left out tactics (serious strategy won't be part of such a game--it requires being able to control much larger numbers of creatures/units). I'll have to see how it is when they release it...
Lemekin's last paragraph expresses a lot of what I view as strategy vs tactics in a game like this. My only caveat would be that if the skill choice and such is made on the fly (or at least the timing is made on the fly), it does start to fall into the tactics realm. By on the fly, I mean after starting to engage the mob without time to disengage think it over and then start the engagement again. This ususally requires both unique mobs and little time after seeing one to plan and react (bosses in D2 are an example of this). From what I'm reading, though, the only time this might occur, to some extent, is when a second (third) mob shows up to the party. Is this a good assesment?
Skill/equipment/combat pattern selection versus a given mob made in advance of the engagement is a strategic decision, but it seems that this is the same for a given mob every time they're encountered. So once the optimum strategy for a given mob (given the character/party) is figured out, it seems there are no more decisions, its just then a matter of competently executing the strategy when that mob is encountered.
I found that such strategic decisions are few and far between for these type of games compared to a good strategy game (even if one doubled or tirpled the number of such decisions in D2 it would still be low). For example, my favorite part of character development in D2 is levels 1 through 25 or so, no-twink no-trade. This maximizes the number of strategic decisions (but it is still very light in such decisions). I tend to play only a few characters longer, and do so for two reasons 1) boredom with acts 1 & 2 and 2) to see some of the more powerful items once or twice.
The ability of mobs to teleport and/or ignore terrain sounds disasterous from at tactics pov. And the fact that they do it implies the designers are having pathing development problems (I suspect its the same messy thing as in D2 and they can't rely on large numbers of mobs to overcome it). These are not easy problems to solve, so I won't hold out much hope.
I'm sad to hear this is yet another MMO game where they've left out tactics (serious strategy won't be part of such a game--it requires being able to control much larger numbers of creatures/units). I'll have to see how it is when they release it...
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Ebony Flame
Ebony Flame