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Author Topic: Adventure Mode In V47  (Read 938 times)

Nerserus

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Adventure Mode In V47
« on: January 15, 2024, 03:16:42 am »

I mean, uh. Ever since the introduction of the force and the VERY bias impact on size on combat, it really does feel like if the opponent is bigger than you then they have an extraordinarily high chance of killing you no matter how skilled or geared you are.

Before the introduction of force on combat, it was possible to play pretty much anything, but now it basically just boils down to "Pick Elephant Man into Vampire or savescum" because you could be a legendary +25 Elf but if a Night Creature (Not even a Roc, not even a Giant Wolf, just a regular old night freak) bites you, you cannot break that latch and you're going to die.

It never used to be this way you know.

Every time Toady reworks Combat I find myself less satisfied. Ranged combat has been overpowered since like 2006, whips have been overpowered since 2010, neither have been fixed. Yet because of 'realism' gameplay takes the L every time, Adventure Mode's basically unplayable; and that's a real shame because there's some cool stuff in there like divination and findable artifacts, but I basically have to go back to Masterwork Dwarf Fortress Legacy just so I can have gear that doesn't rip into tiny pieces on my first fight.

I've made countless overpowered adventurers, all the way back to 40d - back when navigating towns wasn't an FPS tank and shopping was super intuitive, to when the disgustingly borked bogeymen were first introduced and with careful gearing I conquered them solo too - to when bogeymen were taken away after many years...

And it's only now, that force impact is in, equipment wear is in, the horribly half baked and obtuse newbie-player-filter conversation system is in that I can safely say -

I'm no longer having fun with Adventure Mode. Like at all.

I feel almost obligated to make the biggest size adventurer I can because if I get unlucky I just die regardless of any armour or dodging I have - there's so many animal people but so few of them actually are even remotely viable, I can make an Elephant Man right now and go to the nearest shrine and roll a dice until I'm a vampire and conquer the world - yet I can put hours upon hours into an Elf Adventurer only to be killed by some mook because size > all if you get a grab of any kind.

And yet paradoxically I go through tons of fights where I break every single limb and spinal cord of my opponent systematically for them only to not die and just roll the dice on whether or not I get tendon maimed or not even though they're crippled (That's always cool - remember 40d when you could heal that without divination RNG? Was good for gameplay me thinks, even though it made no sense realistically)

What do you guys think? I personally think Adventure Mode peaked in V34.
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Enemy post

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Re: Adventure Mode In V47
« Reply #1 on: January 16, 2024, 01:38:39 am »

I have to disagree, I think you can still play almost anything and have it be viable. I usually play humans. I'll admit I'm usually not committed enough to a run to minmax, but when I am, I do the trick where you go out into the wilderness and wrestle birds for a while. The end result quickly develops maxed out physical attributes and combat skills, and then it's easy enough to steal some decent armor. Grappling is still dangerous, but if I can't break the grapple normally, putting a sword through the opponent's head or neck usually kills them or paralyzes them into letting go. If I want even more power after that, I can get vampirism, necromancy, and/or a swarm of followers to soak up hits.

Even after all that, there's still a chance of randomly dying from an unlucky wound, but that's always been true.
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Nerserus

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Re: Adventure Mode In V47
« Reply #2 on: January 16, 2024, 07:02:21 am »

I have been crippled for life off wounds that have bruised me through armour (And indeed, would do only that much in earlier versions) but pulled my torso and broke my spine.

Unlucky wounds killing you? Sure, in 40d, if you lose a limb that was permanent, but you could mangle a limb and be fine after traveling.

Then in V34 if you got a cut that was the most you could heal, any tendon or ligament damage stayed.

And now you can be bruised and still have tendons or ligaments torn which is also permanent.

There's a steady but sure power creep on damage taken, it's not as simple as "An unlucky wound always killed you" - yeah, it always did. But the umbrella of what that encompasses has increased exponentially over time.
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stack of 10 prepared dragonfly brains - I'm trying to imagine what's more funny: a dwarf popping a tiny dragonfly brain into his mouth for a snack, the butcher who actually prepared this feast, or the brave hunter who ventured out into the wilderness and returned with this bounty.