[Neomi]

One of the key points to come out of this analysis (by the way, nice job SixOfSpades) is probably that as the expertise of the player increases, the easier becomes the original game. Thus, the need to "power up" the enemies. Then the player responds to cheese with cheese, thus developing a way around the new "powered up" fights. Then they want a more difficult challenge, so Tactics+Insane.

It's like an arms buildup. At first you have the player and the computer engaged in a nice duel with swords; then the player gets bored and gives the computer a pistol. Well that's too difficult a fight with just a sword, so I'll use a pistol too. Eventually the computer is playing with nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare, and the player responds with bigger nukes, more chemicals, and more bioweapons.

Which raises the question, would there be a way to create an "unbeatable" game (assuming that the player does not use PowerWord Shadowkeeper to create an invincible character)? Yes, just give every enemy ridiculously high HP, low AC, low THACO, low saves, a killsword, and infinite spells with illegal sequencers (not to mention all the immunities).

Is there a way to create an "unbeatable" game using realistic limits on enemies? I kind of doubt it, just because of the limitations of the game engine. That's why you see the kinds of cheese and cheats used by the Tactics mod.

I suppose that each player has to decide at which point to stop making the game more insanely difficult and just enjoy the challenge, at whatever level they choose.

[ 02-18-2004, 12:54 PM: Message edited by: Neomi ]