From: johnsonchris@bvc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: wishlist for the ultimate role-playing adventure? [poll]
Date: 27 Sep 92 15:35:32 CDT
Organization: Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, IA

In article <1992Sep26.055233.9533@galileo.physics.arizona.edu>, huber@soliton.physics.arizona.edu (Eric Huber) writes:
> The biggest irritation I have found in EOB and DM is the marching order.  
> For some reason, someone decreed that no more than two shall walk abrest.
> Further, people may only shoot straight ahead.  What I would like to see is
> some way to spread out the front to engage more monsters, perhaps enveloping
> them.  I do not like the fact that monsters are able to sideswipe my party
> by engaging the flank while I am countering a frontal assault when I cannot.
> 
  This is one thing I would like to see, too.  It seemed in Dungeon Master, 
EOB, EOBII that you were forced to only fight whatever is in front of you.  
Mercifully, the programs didn't have you get "surrounded" too much, but 
this would be a welcome addition.  Having the ability to surround and be 
surrounded by enemys would make a game much more realistic.  The monsters 
would seem more "intelligent" than just sitting there in front of you going 
"C'mon, Attack me.  I'll attack you.  C'mon, beat me!"

  One way this might be accomplished is a windowing of the screen.  Say, if 
you were only attack one creature, have just one window showing the 
attacks.  But if you were surrounded, you could break your team (of say, 4) 
into two groups of two, and the screen would then show two windows.  The 
view of group #1, and the view of group #2.  This would make it 
interesting, plus make it so the group has to think about their weapons 
more.  Say if group #1 was flanking some monsters from the right, while 
group #2 was doing the same from the left, then missle weapons and spells 
would pretty much be out of the question (unless you want to flambee' your 
group members along with the monsters.)

  Another thing (it has been mentioned before, but I notice it too) I see 
in adventure games is that different areas of these vast continents are 
pretty much the same.  People talk the same, look the same, act the same, 
worship the same gods, build structures the same, etc.  For example, in 
Ultima VII, the continent is HUGE, yet everybody is the same.  There is 
only one area where it is slightly different (Terfin), but otherwise a 
clean mixture.  Have the areas be vastly different (Take Europe for 
example, it's rather small but areas of it are vastly different.)  If part 
of the continent is a desert, have the people be nomadic, look "deserty", 
talk differently.  If part is a forest, have elven people living in the 
trees (whole tree communities with suspended bridges, etc.)  If there is a 
far off area, have the people seem suprised and shocked at the appearance 
of the adventurers.  Maybe they have never seen anything like them before.  
Maybe they think they are gods (People in metal armor are going to seem 
almost godly to primitives with wood spears, etc.)  That is why I kind of 
look forward to Challenge of the Five Kingdoms by Paragon.  It is supposed 
to have five vastly different Kingdoms that seem different.

  Another thing I would like to see in adventure games is a toning down of 
the emphasis on magic.  Sure at one time we were all interested in magic in 
games, but I personally have become bored with it.  The spells just don't 
seem as original anymore.  I'd like to see an adventure game without magic 
or magicians, or a choice to play it without magicians.  Then it could be 
up to the intelligence and/or brawn of the players to solve puzzles.  Say 
if a door is locked; with a magician in the group you could just cast 
Unlock on the door, and blam, your in.  But without that magician, it could 
be up to the thief to pick the door, the ranger to discren the method that 
others got through the door, the barbarian to hack the door in, etc.  It 
would be more fun to physically solve the puzzle rather than mystically.  I 
know most games allow you to not have magicians if you want to, but often 
magicians are needed, or there are magic thingys in the game for people to 
discover.  I want a gameworld where there is no magic.  Think about it.
 
  That brings me to my last gripe about games that I would like to change.  
To me, it seems that in most games, all parts of the gameworld are happy 
and at peace with each other.  Theres not many places in Ultima you can't 
go, etc.  Make part of the world at WAR with another part.  So if you go 
into that part that's at war, they might arrest you (making it so you have 
to escape from prison), or perhaps you have to sneak across the border into 
the other country, etc.  Make one part of the world totally controlled by 
evil forces, where murder and sacrifice, etc. are the norm.  Make it 
shocking to the player, forcing them to want to make these people change.  
In most games it is always the good player in a good world with some little 
areas of evil.  Imagine, instead, it is the good player in an evil world, 
with only little areas of good.  It would be a drastic change, but it might 
be interesting to play the minority part rather than the majority ("Yay! 
The heroes are in town!  Let's pray to them.  Let's give them our gold, 
etc.")  Have a town feel emnity towards the players, make them feel 
unwelcome, etc.
 
  Well, that's some of the things I'd like to see in a game, there are many 
more I'd like to see (less monsters, more evil humans, etc.)  Don't think 
that I'm an evil person just cause I'd like to see an evil gameworld, I 
think it would just be a refreshing change from the modern gameworld where 
everyone is nice to one another, etc.
 
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Chris Johnson                          "Leaves of three, leave them be.
From The Beaver Cave                    Leaves of four, eat some more!"
Buena Vista College VAX LAB                  -- Marge and Homer Simpson
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