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 --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
