Quote: Posted 05/21/04 19:34:57 (GMT) by Gromnir
am not privy to testing results... not stood over the shoulders of play testers as they bang their head 'gainst wall over and over, but we does not like to accept the fact that if you gots multiple dialogues that make apparent that you gotta get past The Dragon, but that the Dragon is Immortal and Unkillable, that any but the most inconsequential number of folks will try to kill the dragon. (is probably true, but we not wanna accept.) no matter what you is gonna get savagely beaten or impoverished getting past the Dragon. just no way to get by w/o taking your licks, and success is measured by how little pain you suffer.
Well, now, that's not quite what I said. It IS perfectly acceptable to provide alternate solutions to combat... just like telling the player that they should sneak by the dragon and not try to kill him. And if they do... well, better reload that game, pally.
What I said is that you don't want to present a situation to the player where fleeing is the best or only option... because it will not happen. When presented with a fight (meaning the player is attacked/encounters hostiles) a player simply will not back down.
I remember a plot where a first-level player was put in a single hallway and the door at the far end burst in to admit a large group of monsters. The NPC with the player ran the other way and said "Quick! Run this way!" as the monsters advanced and attacked. The idea was that the player was supposed to retreat down the hall to "fall into" the next part of the plot and not fight the impossible-to-beat monsters.
What do you think happened 9 times out of 10?