Here’s the problem as I see it as an occasional player (I play it for a little while, have lots of fun, then put it aside for months):
Most people posting here seem to be long-time players or, at least, very avid players. Like the most active and eager players of every game, pretty much, they always want it harder, harder, harder. Everything is always too easy for these experienced players.
It’s not for me. The game is already plenty hard enough for me, and I get bored to death if I have to keep playing the very beginning of a game over and over again. (And without a save game option, that’s pretty much what you’re forcing us more casual players to do.) I want the game to be fun far more than I want it to be hard (harder, at least).
I have absolutely no problem with OPTIONS which make the game harder (or easier). Indeed, I’m a big fan of options in general. But I know that adds to the programming difficulty. And I certainly don’t want to seem like I’m dictating to anyone else here, not at all.
But I notice this with a lot of games. The people who clamor for changes always seem to be experienced players, or just very avid players, who always want a harder game. Not everyone is like that, though you probably don’t hear as much from casual players.[/quote]
I consider myself a recreational player, who prefers to read the documentation provided prior to investing time in a game. I was lucky to get in whilst the Whales wiki was still fairly accurate–in particular, prior to the new wilderness monsters, child zombies, CBM-splitting, etc. That let me have a fairly good handle on what was going on, and the melee guide was quite adequate to help me get through the initial learning curve. In fact, I’ve not yet discharged a firearm in-game–crossbow & BB gun, but no gunpowder or energy.
WCG hits on a very important point: without having some portions of the game that are straightforward yet rewarding, fresh players don’t stick around. Taking advantage of zeds’ difficulty with confined spaces is fairly straightforward and easy enough to include in a new-player tipsheet. “Find a way to slow and bottleneck your pursuers: dense plant growth, windows, or even a doorway can greatly reduce the amount of attackers on you at any one time. Setting a fire may break the pursuit, but can destroy useful structures and gear, so only do so as a last resort.”
(And there are times I’ve had a zed make it through the window whilst I was elsewhere in the building, or perhaps enough zeds show up that they breach multiple windows; miss once or twice and suddenly you’re getting swamped after all, etc. One game that went 14 days started by my taking too long in the 90-minutes, and getting besieged in the back room of a Bar until nightfall.)
From my perspective, Cata has an inverse difficulty curve: one starts out being depressingly incompetent at everything (can barely ride a bike, for fae’s sake!) and without any significant resources. There’s just barely enough time to get maybe half a decent set of gear–if you know what to look for and where it might be found–then one scrapes & scrounges until, hopefully by mid-spring, one has decent personal kit & at least an idea where one’s going to camp. Once the personal & camp are done, then one gets to have fun picking targets; there’s enough time to develop the character, explore potentially dangerous situations, craft neat things, etc.
Problem is, towns are by far the best place for starting gear. Any change to zeds affects the player’s ability to obtain decent gear, and by extension disproportionately affects the game difficulty.
GlyphGryph, I’ll say this as nicely as I can: so far as I can tell, you’re one of the avid players WCG was talking about. Given the prey-on-sleeping-character monster you got included (to say nothing of the thread generally) and the removal of HP Ignorant, I’m not inclined to believe you when you say that your changes don’t make the game harder, especially since our definitions of “fun” appear to vary.
