Seconded. If $FEAR or $PHOBIA (or maybe $PHILIA too?) can be taken at chargen, fine. If my character has to be afraid of, say, spiders (despite averaging 1.5 hits to kill any of them, and being Poison Resistant) because Teh Devs Said So, then that’s a problem.
Rather than taking damage increasing the fear level, how about dropping an HP category (dark green/light green/yellow/red) increasing it instead? That way fights needn’t be completely one-sided in order to provide a morale boost.
(Simply being at red torso/head HP may or may not be worth assessing morale penalties, in terms of feedback-looping.)
Re LazyCat: Kill-chaining doesn’t seem that feasible unless you’re talking about someplace like a rat cave and mid-to-high melee skills, preferably Martial Arts. [KA101, having achieved HOLY SHIT! a few times in UT2k4, realizes that it’s a rush though.]
I was able to chain up to x4 multiplier with AK-47 in open space. Recoil was screwing me, but when they came close I could possibly get more, it’s just that morale boost is not worth dying for. When I used window tactic I was able to chain x10 without much problem, again with AK-47 and skill levels around 9. With laser gun or other low recoil but powerful enough weapons and with high enough skills I’m afraid it’s actually going to be too easy to chain-kill, and yes, even easier with melee weapons or martial art. I’d rather have it be hard than too easy, although easy is not necessarily a bad thing. Play-testing will tell us more.
A quasigame is when you think of roleplaying in the way of the game (interpreted - the gamemaster) giving you every mean of overcoming the obstacle. So if I pitch you a gun, you’re thinking it’s a gattling rifle for all you’re worth.
Now if you’re a gamewise player, you’ll know what corners are cut in order to achieve a small victory.
Not get a thousand off morale just for setting a small fire that spread eventually. (!)
We aren’t looking so much at “random dev applies numbers so your character is afraid”. More of “spiders have nearly killed your character several times”, so he’s more afraid of them then normal. If he went around massacring spiders then that fear would slowly be removed, however, and eventually he wouldn’t be afraid of them at all. (Similarly if you went around massacring a particular monster then you probably wouldn’t become afraid of them even if they nearly kill you once or twice).
We aren’t looking so much at “random dev applies numbers so your character is afraid”. More of “spiders have nearly killed your character several times”, so he’s more afraid of them then normal. If he went around massacring spiders then that fear would slowly be removed, however, and eventually he wouldn’t be afraid of them at all. (Similarly if you went around massacring a particular monster then you probably wouldn’t become afraid of them even if they nearly kill you once or twice).[/quote]
OK. My concern was starting with some randomly-chosen significant fear. (I think Kevin floated that idea a while back.) Spiders, in fact, don’t pose much threat to my characters, which is why I wouldn’t want to start scared of them. (When you’re actively looking for trap-door spider nests because dammit, you want your Flamethrower back and, apparently, they only spawn in spider nests now?–you ain’t scared of spiders.)
Fears obtained from red-HP experiences? OK, that’s understandable. Not a problem.
Not messing with the reasoning behind fears > if you do that, you WILL eventually have to sum up what damage that, or this one has taken for being alone too long in the desert. It’s a hack, really, to face everything and EVERYONE without confirmation from any end.
The way I see it, a great achievement would go as far as the resource/kill count could be made. If anyone out there finds a way to exclude fires and natural obstacles into count (example-wide) one could have a slight buff to stack onto a present one every time he finds two hundred units of gasoline useful to make a pile of zombies via shelling 'em, so to say.
I remember having my players really work for a +1 against orcs. Common hill orc will prey on the party for as long as possible, and dealing with packs of them is a matter of persistence and bravery - more then a feature to be turned off or on.
I’m pleading NOT to give in to prejudice that creatures in the game line in and go dumber along the time spent facing them. Just because it’s a challenge, doesn’t have to be changed down or up the scale every time you bust a few. (!)
