Dark,
I guess that pale imitation comment did come off as overly critical.
I have to admit though, that for me, the patterns to Entombed levels
grew monotonous after a while. I would have liked some challenges
such as traps or pits or role playing encounters besides the
inevitable varying of monsters. (Note: I think the farthest I've made
it in the game is maybe level 12. I remember tons of giant spiders
that were horrible to fight). All that said, the game did a lot of
things successfully as you summarized quite nicely. I use Entombed as
a benchmark of a bare minimum I would want from an audio exploration
game.
I will address the mud question privately or not at all. With most
muds it's a frustrating mess, and with the better ones that help to
provide blind support such as Alter_aeon, there are limitations (in
content type) if nothing else.
As to the social aspect, again, I was not connected to the list for
Entombed or any of the forums when they were active. I came to it
through a tight group of mudders on Alter_aeon. Amongst us there was
quite a bit of commentary, swapping of ideas, and competition. My
experience is not universal experience of course.
Finally, your comments about the resource management and tactical
choices of the game though are telling ones. I agree with you that
the more of such options a player is given the more interesting the
game is, assuming that such things are limited to a subset of choices
within a group. I.e. To use your necromancer example from Entombed,
you could aim for head shots and knock them down that way, or just
deal so much raw damage that you took them out quickly. With
fighters, your point about sleep, charm, etc is also apropos.
However, Entombed did one thing very nicely. There are multiple
solutions to all of these issues that involved multiple race/class
combos. Fairy mages cannot fight, but with shrink and fire bolt they
become dangerous opponents in a mixed group. By the same token,
though ogres are limited in their magic powers, their raw fighting
ability levels the playing field to a certain extent. If you have no
characters who charm, perhaps you have a char that can headbutt.
Take care,
Jeremy
--
In the fight between you and the world--back the world! Frank Zapa
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