Draven
Count
Hey folks!
I feel that, between the discussions on takeouts and damage and negation and fun, there's an underlying issue that may be contributing.
Simply put, that's NPC populations.
As an NPC former guildie, I've helped organize NPCs over the course of several weekends, and one of the major impacts to an NPC is the amount of OOG walking they have to do. It seems like that PC players want to ensure that their attacks stick so that they have fun, but this means that in order for a fight to be challenging, it would have to be offset with a significant amount of NPCs. Negation abilities for NPCs aren't necessarily meant to make a fight less fun, they're meant to keep an NPC in the fight long enough for the encounter to feel meaningful.
If combat changes to where NPCs spend more time on the ground and less time engaged in the fight;
1) I feel this will deincentivize NPCing in general, at least from a combative aspect of it.
2) I think this will carry over to affecting the game as a whole. I have never had more fun at a game because it had less NPCs; usually, the opposite is true.
I think that when we consider how to make offensive combat fun for PCs, we also consider the impact it will have on NPCs.
Thoughts?
I feel that, between the discussions on takeouts and damage and negation and fun, there's an underlying issue that may be contributing.
Simply put, that's NPC populations.
As an NPC former guildie, I've helped organize NPCs over the course of several weekends, and one of the major impacts to an NPC is the amount of OOG walking they have to do. It seems like that PC players want to ensure that their attacks stick so that they have fun, but this means that in order for a fight to be challenging, it would have to be offset with a significant amount of NPCs. Negation abilities for NPCs aren't necessarily meant to make a fight less fun, they're meant to keep an NPC in the fight long enough for the encounter to feel meaningful.
If combat changes to where NPCs spend more time on the ground and less time engaged in the fight;
1) I feel this will deincentivize NPCing in general, at least from a combative aspect of it.
2) I think this will carry over to affecting the game as a whole. I have never had more fun at a game because it had less NPCs; usually, the opposite is true.
I think that when we consider how to make offensive combat fun for PCs, we also consider the impact it will have on NPCs.
Thoughts?
