Heresiarch
Prophet
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2008
- Messages
- 1,451
I've been thinking about this: why must a freaking major city like Baldur's Gate, or Athkatla sell only inferior stuff compared to some backwater remote village? Just because the latter must be reached much later in the game?
Games which did well (and realistic) in this regard are Daggerfall, Morrowind, and sandbox games in general - you CAN obtain very powerful items early on if you're willing to grind grind grind, either looking for hidden treasures which can be reached any time, or just buy them if luck makes a vendor sell it. Heck, in Daggerfall you can get Daedric items in random inn closets.
But wouldn't level 1 characters with a randomly obtained Vapour Hammer or Daedric Boots of Ass Kicking overpowered? I think the solution is quite simple (but no game has ever done this): why do YOU, the hero, want to kill goblin kings, dragons and infamous powerful outlaws or anti-heroes? Because you KNOW they have phat lewts on them and you want to rob them. So imagine if you're a chaotic evil (or just about any alignment) character, you've heard some puny level 1 NPC has juicy Adamantine Staff of Elemental Annihilation on him, would you like to seek out and hunt him down for the awesome weapon?
Yes, I think level scaling is not a bad idea, but it should be done scaled to the equipment level, not character level. No sane person (or monster) would be tempted to kill a super powerful character with 99 str 98 con and 99 int (unless eating his corpse would increase its stats), but anyone would want to kill anything - regardless how scary, terrible, dreadful it is - as long as it has the uber equipment which would make him awesum or can be sold for lotsa $$$.
So maybe one day, in a good RPG, you, Kingcomrade the Luckyass, after having picked up the Power Plate of Ubermensch at level 4, has been suffered from repeated attacks from level 10 elite bandits and level 11 senior wizards. You're quite frustrated, then one day at some local bar after asking the bartender "Newest rumor", he replies:"Have you heard about it? Some weakling has gotten some powerful armor of the Ubermensch"...you now understand why all the guys go after you!
Games which did well (and realistic) in this regard are Daggerfall, Morrowind, and sandbox games in general - you CAN obtain very powerful items early on if you're willing to grind grind grind, either looking for hidden treasures which can be reached any time, or just buy them if luck makes a vendor sell it. Heck, in Daggerfall you can get Daedric items in random inn closets.
But wouldn't level 1 characters with a randomly obtained Vapour Hammer or Daedric Boots of Ass Kicking overpowered? I think the solution is quite simple (but no game has ever done this): why do YOU, the hero, want to kill goblin kings, dragons and infamous powerful outlaws or anti-heroes? Because you KNOW they have phat lewts on them and you want to rob them. So imagine if you're a chaotic evil (or just about any alignment) character, you've heard some puny level 1 NPC has juicy Adamantine Staff of Elemental Annihilation on him, would you like to seek out and hunt him down for the awesome weapon?
Yes, I think level scaling is not a bad idea, but it should be done scaled to the equipment level, not character level. No sane person (or monster) would be tempted to kill a super powerful character with 99 str 98 con and 99 int (unless eating his corpse would increase its stats), but anyone would want to kill anything - regardless how scary, terrible, dreadful it is - as long as it has the uber equipment which would make him awesum or can be sold for lotsa $$$.
So maybe one day, in a good RPG, you, Kingcomrade the Luckyass, after having picked up the Power Plate of Ubermensch at level 4, has been suffered from repeated attacks from level 10 elite bandits and level 11 senior wizards. You're quite frustrated, then one day at some local bar after asking the bartender "Newest rumor", he replies:"Have you heard about it? Some weakling has gotten some powerful armor of the Ubermensch"...you now understand why all the guys go after you!