The finest example of this for me is Avalon Hill's Advanced Third Reich. Although it does have a lot of options, I never found it totally accessible to the way I wanted to play the game. I mean, who'd really attack Poland in 1939? I certainly wouldn't; I'd wait for the 1944 kick-off as originally planned. Annoying.

yeah the scope your calling for everyone wants but atm its just not possible short of a massive coding team to create a game responding to so many different inputs, going to have to wait till when comp games write themselves so coding is less important and the main design team will be working out what possible options the player can get, and thats not too far away now, games like morrowind are certainly moving along the right lines insofar as you have massive range to do what you want, but you still cant grab a table and smack someone over the head with it, or hire some troops and send them out to go pillage some town just for the helluva it, but oh boy i cant wait till you get almost unlimited options [img]smile.gif[/img]

The REAL reason to develop artificial intelligence: Role Playing Games. I love it.
Hey Grungi. Which combat system was easier to learn: Baldurs Gate or Diablo? I already knew the Baldurs Gate combat system from PnP AD&D.

rofl combat system? in diablo2 you click with a mouse and thats it, not much to learn, keep clicking alot basically [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Yeah.....I have a friend who I wanted to get hooked on BG.....he's played Diablo, but he never seemed to get the hang of BG, probably due to all the complicated rules. He actually got his butt kicked in the Nashkel Mines because he made the common error that Leather Armor is the best, because it grants the highest Armor Class. Now, he didn't do that because he's stupid (he's actually quite smart), it's just that with all the rules thrown at him at once, he was too overwhelmed to think logically. He wasn't having much fun with the game, he was too busy learning the system to get to the point where he could click on things and make them die--which in Diablo, you can do right from the start.

any game i play regardless of what stats it chucks at me i always assume leather isnt as good as metal armour, whether it makes ac go high or low, never found a game yet where basic leather is better than chainmail (though in diablo demonhide leather etc is better by far but not basic)

I find that I like to start all my games running stark naked through the fields playfully dodging arrows and farting fireballs.

and then you wake up? [img]tongue.gif[/img]

I don't know Grungi. Does he look awake to you? :D

I've been thinking about buying Diablo2, but I'm still not sure. To be honest, it's not as if I've got the time, but...it certainly won't go down from the £20 in Blighty for awhile at least. Hmmm, decisions, decisions.

he looks about as awake as rip van winkle [img]smile.gif[/img]

diablo II i think i picked up for less than 20 quid, try EB

diabloII is worth it if a) you liked diablo b) you like nobrainers where you can run around hackin n slashin c) you like random items so can continually work on getting the best set (btw get the expansion as thats the main thing it improves on) just bear in mind you'll probably get bored once into hell level and your taking half an hour to kill something cos its got 100 percent physical resistance, sad thing is in hell level diablo himself is easier than some of the random monsters you encounter [img]tongue.gif[/img]