From: urbndv8@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (Bleeding Rivets)
Newsgroups: rec.games.hack
Subject: Re: when it's too easy ...
Date: 15 Oct 1992 21:13:02 GMT
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz
NNTP-Posting-Host: ucscb.ucsc.edu


In article <31618@sophia.inria.fr> bazin@carolus.cma.fr (Eric Bazin) writes:
>
>dcb@wdl1.wdl.loral.com (Predecrement David) writes:
>
>> However, I think the greater deed would be for Tom to move on
>> to a different
>> hobby.  *All adventure games get boring when you've utterly
>> mastered them.*
>> 
>> Nethack is already on the verge of being unapproachable
>> to the novice.
>> Nethack is a very frustrating game when you don't know
>> the tricks.  One of the
>> most enjoyable aspects of the game is experimenting and
>> learning new tricks.
>> At the current level of nethack, it is near impossible
>> to the novice, hard and 
>> challenging for the player, and enjoyable/easy for the expert.  
>
>I agree. And I would advise Tom to switch to moria :
>
>I really enjoyed playing nethack, but now it's over : i won't say i
>know of all the tricks (who could !? :-)), but it's too easy.
>
>So I first added new limitations to myself (e.g. : try to play a
>knight in a *real* lawful way : don't hit a non agressive monster,
>prevent your pet to doing so , don't rob shops, and so on. (hard to
>resist to knock thoses tengus down ! :-))
>There used to be in this group a *Vegetarian* Valkirie).
>
>And then I switched to umoria 5.5, *read no spoilers*, but keep reading
>rec.games.hack, waiting for 3.1.

I find that with Nethack the first 1-7 levels are always too hard and the
rest are too easy.  When beginners get discouraged, it's probably because
they get tired of dying on level 3 or so, not realizing that once they got
a 10th or 11th level character, the rest would be a walk.

Look at standard, old fashioned, version 1.0 non-Ultra Rogue for a dungeon
game that has a good steady increment of difficulty.  Each successive dungeon
level is successively more difficult to survive, and it is a f**in miracle 
if you actually get the amulet.  With Nethack, it's often a miracle if you 
get to level 10 (either dungeon or character), and really a miracle of
stupidity if you get killed thereafter.  I've played a lot, and I really enjoy
playing until ~ level 10 ... perhaps we could make both beginners and
advanced players happier by making the beginning easier and the rest harder.

I know it's tough when an advanced character with time invested in it gets
killed, but right now playing a > Lev 10 character mostly feels like using
an editor right now ... delete the 'D' with a few keystrokes ... delete
the 'U' ... delete the 'H' ... and so on.  And then I get bored, and get 
killed by accident because the game isn't keeping you alert.  And I don't 
use teleport, teleport control, or polypiling.  

urbndv8@ucscb.ucsc.edu

-- 
"The possessed's mad speech is the higher wisdom of the world, since it is 
human...Why have we not yet acquired this insight in relation to the world
of the free will?  Because outwardly we are the masters of madness, because
the insane are violated by us, and we hinder them from living according to
their ethical laws...Now we must endeavor to overcome the dead point in our
relationship to insanity."       --Wieland Herzfelde, 1914
Newsgroups: rec.games.hack