An interesting dispute over a minor thing, but perhaps indicative of general problems with Crawl lately. It's possible to over-design your game and forget about simple fun elements like "people want to play dwarves". Developers have to be able to see more than just the numbers.
Darren, its an interesting point, but I was under the impression the reason MD were removed was to make for a tighter/more elegant design. For people who like to play the hardy ones, there are still the deep dwarves I believe. Personally, I would rather see more mechanically different races, then those who are merely thematically different. mechanically similar
Roleplaying games are both games and roleplaying. The "game" part has been focused on in DCSS over the "roleplaying" part lately. Of course most CRPGs are fairly light on the RP part of it, but mountain dwarves were at least familiar. You don't have to look up spoilers to find out what a dwarf does; players can bring that knowledge in with them. Many of Crawl's other races use setting-specific, weird races like "Kenku" and "Felid," which are not as immediately approachable, which can be a turnoff to new players.
The only difference between human-like races(elves,md,human) are just numbers(stats,skill apps,exp rate) and names which is poor.Other races are more varied(including mutations,equip restrictions,abilities,etc- which make them unique in its own way).If All elves and mountain dwarf would change their name to Human B,Human C,Human D-it should make no difference(since the only variables are numbers). Well,if the game would offer more:for example,orcs,elves and dwarves are all pairwise racial enemies or changed prices,extra finds in shops etc. i would change my mind but for me all these races mentioned before belong to one barelly-recognisable set...
An interesting dispute over a minor thing, but perhaps indicative of general problems with Crawl lately. It's possible to over-design your game and forget about simple fun elements like "people want to play dwarves". Developers have to be able to see more than just the numbers.
ReplyDeleteDarren, its an interesting point, but I was under the impression the reason MD were removed was to make for a tighter/more elegant design. For people who like to play the hardy ones, there are still the deep dwarves I believe. Personally, I would rather see more mechanically different races, then those who are merely thematically different. mechanically similar
ReplyDeleteHa Abe totally proved Darren's point
ReplyDeleteRoleplaying games are both games and roleplaying. The "game" part has been focused on in DCSS over the "roleplaying" part lately. Of course most CRPGs are fairly light on the RP part of it, but mountain dwarves were at least familiar. You don't have to look up spoilers to find out what a dwarf does; players can bring that knowledge in with them. Many of Crawl's other races use setting-specific, weird races like "Kenku" and "Felid," which are not as immediately approachable, which can be a turnoff to new players.
ReplyDeleteThe only difference between human-like races(elves,md,human) are just numbers(stats,skill apps,exp rate) and names which is poor.Other races are more varied(including mutations,equip restrictions,abilities,etc- which make them unique in its own way).If All elves and mountain dwarf would change their name to Human B,Human C,Human D-it should make no difference(since the only variables are numbers).
ReplyDeleteWell,if the game would offer more:for example,orcs,elves and dwarves are all pairwise racial enemies or changed prices,extra finds in shops etc. i would change my mind but for me all these races mentioned before belong to one barelly-recognisable set...