[color=#009900]Those of you pointing out the irrigo penalties aren’t that high: design notes time! As with so many of these design issues, I may or may not have made the ‘right’ decision, but there’s quite a lot going on under the surface.[/color]
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[color=#009900]Herein SPOILERS![/color]
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[color=#009900]First of all, they’re a little more severe than you think, because the storylet which ejects you does some extra damage. But there are other considerations.[/color]
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[color=#009900]- The Forgotten Quarter in its new form is designed to cater for players across a very wide range of stats. You could get into the Nadir with Watchful as low as 60 - it would take a lot of persistence and luck, but it’s possible. Down in the 40-70 range, stat damage means a lot more. [/color]
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[color=#009900]- Anywhere that we don’t pad the sharp edges of the game, some players bash their heads on those sharp edges until they’re bloody, and guess who they blame? Even when we’ve put up a warning notice? I still get emails complaining about the penalties on the Mr Eaten storyline, although I could hardly have made the warnings clearer unless I went round and tattooed them on every participating player. I know I will already get emails from players demanding I reset their stats because they didn’t realise what would happen in the Nadir. (For the record my response to that is to send a regretful form reply if they’re polite, and ignore if they’re aggressive, but I don’t like making any player unhappy.)[/color]
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[color=#009900]To put it another, kinder way, FL is unusual in being so resolutely persistent, and we need to be careful about applying big long-term changes based on spur-of-the-moment decisions, because inevitably people click at haste and repent at leisure. It doesn’t mean we never do it: it’s just the kind of thing that gets discussed and playtested. There are nasty surprises out there, but the Nadir is unusual in that it allows you to pay out quite a lot of rope before you find out how severely you might get hung.[/color]
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[color=#009900]- The Nadir works best unspoiled. If I made the penalties more severe, there would be more people over the next two years saying ‘for God’s sake don’t spend more than x actions in there, you’ll suffer y effect’ and fewer people saying ‘ooh you’ve got a treat in store, but go carefully.’[/color]
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[color=#009900]- Compare the skulls, where every click is optional, and where you never build up cumulative effects. You find out what the penalty is the first time you draw it, and if you don’t like the effect, sell the skull when the next card comes up! It’s worth a bit, after all. I appreciate that people have been trained to play pack-rat: the skulls are an early prod in a new direction.[/color]
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[color=#009900]- And the biggest consideration. Broadly speaking, quality effects play two purposes, though those purposes often overlap: (i) they unlock or lock choices (whether that means changing a relationship to an NPC or getting 0.02% closer to an Overgoat); (ii) they provide a sense of substance to the fiction. The Nadir stat change is more (ii) than (i). it provides a rationale for the limit on return, and an indication of what might happen if you hung around. Pearl diving is a good analogy: the intention is to force you return to the surface, not choose between riches and potential dismemberment at every point. (I wanted to add options to make the card drawing more strategic, and I wanted to allow long-shot risks on later, more informed, visits to the Cave, but the FQ is already an enormous content release and we were just out of time. Maybe someday)[/color]
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[color=#009900]- And finally, as ever, I’ll be monitoring, and the mechanics may change.[/color]
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[color=rgb(0, 153, 0)]Thanks for your very enthusiastic response, folks. It’s always nice to see people being properly eeried.[/color]
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edited by Alexis on 7/6/2013