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Curses / Thinking about adding some feedback here and there
« on: August 26, 2008, 07:30:49 pm »
I've been playing LCS for about a week, and I love it. There are a few parts of the game though, where it feels like the player is entitled to more information than is given. Or maybe the penalty for experimentation seems too harsh.
Example 1: stealing a car
If a character with no Security skill tries to steal a car, they are most likely already doomed to be chased by the police before they even start. Unless the player chooses to abort the mission...but pfff -- who does that? :p
Once inside the car, the player has two options for how to go about stealing the car: attempt to hotwire it, or attempt to find the keys. The hotwire check is a random number up to 10, checked against Security. (The player gets a 1 in 20 chance of having a +1 to their Security skill that only lasts for the current round.) If Security is higher, congrats - the car is hotwired. However, if you fail, you keep getting the same message over and over again. "<name> fiddles with ignition, but the car doesn't start." The key check is special -- there's only a 1 in 5 chance that the keys are even in the car at all! When attempting to find the keys, the game checks a random number up to 10 against the character's intelligence. Higher INT than the random number (plus keys in the car) means that you find the keys. However, failing gives you one of five encouraging messages where your character is muttering to himself while searching.
Each round that you spend in the car, there's a 1 in 50 chance that a cop happens by and begins a chase. Unless the alarm is going, in which case the cops get an additional 1 in 5 chance.
My experience was that I was repeatedly sending flunkies out to get cars, and they would search for the keys (maybe with a little trying at the ignition) until a cop started chasing them, usually ending in the death of the flunky.
Example 2: Fruit Stands
This one is probably pretty well-known, but during a car chase you may encounter a fruit stand. The two most appealing options for how to deal with the situation are to try to avoid the stand or to drive through it. As it turns out, going through it requires no skill check, but has a 1 in 5 chance of adding a murder charge to all inside the vehicle. Going around it checks driving skill; fail the check (low or no skill will almost always fail) and everyone in the car is instantly killed and all equipment lost. Succeed and you may lose some folks who are chasing you.
My experience here was to lose a carload of guys that I had carefully built up and that I had poured quite a bit of savings and effort into.
My proposed changes:
1. Car theft
Change A:
After 5 times looking for the keys, have a new message where the muttering questions whether the keys are even in the car.
After 10 times looking for the keys, have a new message where the character declares they he "has looked everywhere".
After 15 times looking for the keys, switch to a message saying "If they were in here, I'd have found them." Further failed attempts would repeat this message.
Change B:
Allow repeated attempts at hotwiring the ignition to have a cumulative effect. I don't want to change the balance here too much -- I'm thinking that (randomly) 1 in 10 times you'd gain a point towards all future attempts at hotwiring for the remainder of the encounter. This would be accompanied by one of several messages indicating progress. "Whoops, that wasn't the right wire...*this* is the right wire." "<name> is starting to figure out how this works." etc.
Since every time you try, you still risk the 1 in 50 shot at police stopping you, this doesn't seem too upsetting, while still offering hope to the player who is sending Security-less goons to try to steal a car.
Change C:
Add "nervous" messages every so often. I'm thinking something along the lines of one randomly getting played every 7-10 turns. Messages where <name> is getting nervous all exposed out here, or thinks that he hears someone calling the cops nearby, etc. Feedback like this would help reinforce the idea that the longer you're in the car, the more likely it is that it will end badly for the player.
2. Fruit Stand:
This is more of an either-or.
Change A: Give feedback in the menu of choices for what to do when encountering the fruit stand. Much like tailoring clothes has difficulties associated with the different pieces of clothing that you can make, add a [Maneuver Difficulty: <x>] after the swerve option, where <x> will be "(red)Impossible!", "Very Difficult", etc.
Change B: Failing the maneuver could give the bad guys not just the normal free turn of attacks against the player, but an extra turn of free attacks. This is still pretty bad, but doesn't instantly kill everyone. And maybe on the free turn, since the player spun out or stopped somehow, take away the defensive bonus that the chasers have had to try to get past the whole time (currently pretty significant).
There are other areas of the game where I've thought about some changes that might be beneficial, but this is already a giant wall of text -- I'll stop here for now. :p
Thoughts?
Example 1: stealing a car
If a character with no Security skill tries to steal a car, they are most likely already doomed to be chased by the police before they even start. Unless the player chooses to abort the mission...but pfff -- who does that? :p
Once inside the car, the player has two options for how to go about stealing the car: attempt to hotwire it, or attempt to find the keys. The hotwire check is a random number up to 10, checked against Security. (The player gets a 1 in 20 chance of having a +1 to their Security skill that only lasts for the current round.) If Security is higher, congrats - the car is hotwired. However, if you fail, you keep getting the same message over and over again. "<name> fiddles with ignition, but the car doesn't start." The key check is special -- there's only a 1 in 5 chance that the keys are even in the car at all! When attempting to find the keys, the game checks a random number up to 10 against the character's intelligence. Higher INT than the random number (plus keys in the car) means that you find the keys. However, failing gives you one of five encouraging messages where your character is muttering to himself while searching.
Each round that you spend in the car, there's a 1 in 50 chance that a cop happens by and begins a chase. Unless the alarm is going, in which case the cops get an additional 1 in 5 chance.
My experience was that I was repeatedly sending flunkies out to get cars, and they would search for the keys (maybe with a little trying at the ignition) until a cop started chasing them, usually ending in the death of the flunky.
Example 2: Fruit Stands
This one is probably pretty well-known, but during a car chase you may encounter a fruit stand. The two most appealing options for how to deal with the situation are to try to avoid the stand or to drive through it. As it turns out, going through it requires no skill check, but has a 1 in 5 chance of adding a murder charge to all inside the vehicle. Going around it checks driving skill; fail the check (low or no skill will almost always fail) and everyone in the car is instantly killed and all equipment lost. Succeed and you may lose some folks who are chasing you.
My experience here was to lose a carload of guys that I had carefully built up and that I had poured quite a bit of savings and effort into.
My proposed changes:
1. Car theft
Change A:
After 5 times looking for the keys, have a new message where the muttering questions whether the keys are even in the car.
After 10 times looking for the keys, have a new message where the character declares they he "has looked everywhere".
After 15 times looking for the keys, switch to a message saying "If they were in here, I'd have found them." Further failed attempts would repeat this message.
Change B:
Allow repeated attempts at hotwiring the ignition to have a cumulative effect. I don't want to change the balance here too much -- I'm thinking that (randomly) 1 in 10 times you'd gain a point towards all future attempts at hotwiring for the remainder of the encounter. This would be accompanied by one of several messages indicating progress. "Whoops, that wasn't the right wire...*this* is the right wire." "<name> is starting to figure out how this works." etc.
Since every time you try, you still risk the 1 in 50 shot at police stopping you, this doesn't seem too upsetting, while still offering hope to the player who is sending Security-less goons to try to steal a car.
Change C:
Add "nervous" messages every so often. I'm thinking something along the lines of one randomly getting played every 7-10 turns. Messages where <name> is getting nervous all exposed out here, or thinks that he hears someone calling the cops nearby, etc. Feedback like this would help reinforce the idea that the longer you're in the car, the more likely it is that it will end badly for the player.
2. Fruit Stand:
This is more of an either-or.
Change A: Give feedback in the menu of choices for what to do when encountering the fruit stand. Much like tailoring clothes has difficulties associated with the different pieces of clothing that you can make, add a [Maneuver Difficulty: <x>] after the swerve option, where <x> will be "(red)Impossible!", "Very Difficult", etc.
Change B: Failing the maneuver could give the bad guys not just the normal free turn of attacks against the player, but an extra turn of free attacks. This is still pretty bad, but doesn't instantly kill everyone. And maybe on the free turn, since the player spun out or stopped somehow, take away the defensive bonus that the chasers have had to try to get past the whole time (currently pretty significant).
There are other areas of the game where I've thought about some changes that might be beneficial, but this is already a giant wall of text -- I'll stop here for now. :p
Thoughts?