Rob,

I hope the info you gain from Dan makes it's way to the FAQ... unless, I guess it's some sort of secret.

A CCG style engine would be interesting, as long as it didn't take over the game. In some sense, AR already had some of that in it. Weapons & armor had different ratings for different areas of attack.

I admit, though, that I liked the fact that I didn't really understand how the combat engine worked and the only way to know whether or not something would work in a situation was to use it. And then the numbers were so random that I wasn't sure if a 15 was the upper limit for a weapon, or a low number, even after a couple of attacks. I guess this is similar to The Getaway, which has no online stats whatsoever. All of your clues come from the game - blood on the clothes if you're wounded and they go away if you heal, things like that.

Though I never really did get the difference between attack/charge/aimed attack. I do understand that charge gave you a plus to attack and a minus to defend and an aimed attack did the inverse, but I never really felt I noticed much difference. Perhaps an ADOM-esque multi-level difference would be welcome... Feeling brave, go to beserker mode. Wounded and vulnerable? Go into some super-defensive mode.

One thing I always liked about AR is that no matter how powerful you got, *something* could kick your ass. Usually vampires. Be sure to keep that in...

You do get diminishing returns from combat... It takes as long to go from level 5 to 6 as it does to go from level 1 to 5. 250, 500, 1,000, 2,000 etc. To go from level 1 to 2 required only a dozen or so rats. To go from 6 to 7 would require thousands.

Also, despite the fact that the game kept track of so many things, you were never fully told what it kept track of. I like that "what's on the screen is only the tip of the iceberg" feel to the game. I don't like it that modern games only keep track of what absolutely must be kept track of for gameplay. For example, I have no idea what affect clothing has. So what if I'm cold? But I guess I'd better keep warm because it might affect combat.

I could go on all day.

Regards,
Mark


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