Well... I can pop up and say that the PalmOS port is still underway.

It's definetly now going to be a greyscale (4 shades) OS 3.5 version
initially (forget OS 5).

I've been getting some very nice information from Dan Pinal, about the inner
workings, so I don't have to guess as much now. Huge thanks to him!

However, as I mentioned before, it will not be a straight port. Since I
loathe coding, I must get some fun out of it, and that will be by inventing
some of my own stuff. Hopefully, nobody will notice, though... at least not
until after another 10 years.

But, one thing might be very noticable: Combat.

Here is the deal...

My view on combat in AR, is that there is alot of strategy, but no tactics.
Once you've planned your strategy (by equipment, protective spells, proper
gears and weapons and so on) and combat is underway, the only tactics you
can employ, is the rocks, papers, scissors of the attack, charge and aim
commands, which are... mostly random. In other words, to put it bluntly, you
could just as well end the combat in one turn, since the strategy
predetermines the outcome anyway, and the rest is up to the dice.

This, I want to change.

I might end up not changing it, but I want to.

My goal is to involve the player in the combat alot more. I know that
character skill should outweight player skill (and rightfully so).

Another goal is to reduce the importance of random numbers. I've seen two
ways of doing this which interests me: Ultimate Saga by Square has a huge
slot machine thing spinning around with different attacks, bonuses and
misses, and it's up to the player to press at the right time. Then there's
the other end of the spectrum, which is Magic: The Gathering, which doesn't
even involve a dice.

So, does anyone on the list have any suggestions on this subject?

Sincerely, Robert Hagenstrom

Ps. I might also make combat not important at all, with diminishing returns
in experience if you kill alot of monsters of the same type, and instead
pump the game full of hundreds of quests... I am playing with the idea,
anyway.

----- Original Message -----
From: <ar--marktaw.mailshell.com>
To: <<Address Masked>>
Sent: Wednesday, February 26, 2003 8:53 PM
Subject: Re: Admin: Alternate Reality Server Test


> It has been quiet here lately. What we need is Phil Price to pop up and
say he's working on the next AR so we can get the rumour mill going again.
=)
>
> Mark
> --
> www.marktaw.com
> www.markzilla.com/ar
>
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