Those are good points, Bret. I too have thought a lot about non-combat activities, but they are rarely fun. I can't think of many examples of non-combat stuff that really was fun. The example that usually gets brought up is fishing in some of the Zelda games. I guess that was moderately enjoyable. The WoW trades aren't much fun at all. How fun is it to have to skin every critter you kill, or hit every ore vein? I guess there's a certain thrill of discovery, but I loathed having to scour the countryside for some herb or vein, and making stuff wasn't fun at all. It would also be very nice if the game responded intelligently to your alchemical knowledge. It seems realistic that if you were really a successful alchemist, people would come from all over to ask you for cures and such; at least they would venerate you. That would be a nice touch to feel that the others in the game (including enemies) were reluctant to injure you since you might prove so vital to them.
Some RPGs have fun trading games tacked on, so you can buy and sell between towns or cities. That makes sense in most contexts, especially when the area between the two towns is dangerous.
You'd think more games would find ways to make alchemy fun, though they almost always seem to ignore what made real-life alchemists enjoy it--all the arcane lore and esoterica (though it was more like chemistry than magic in many cases). Really making a good simulation would be a game itself, with all the equipment, parameters, recipes, etc.
IIRC, Betrayal in Antara (can't recall if Krondor had it too) had a very nice spell-discovery system. It's been a long time, but I remember having a great deal of fun experimenting to find new spells. I also loved how the game Enchanter (a text adventure) had such wacky spells that appeared at first to be totally useless but turned out to have very specific uses. I could see adapting something like this, so that there were a hundred minor spells (cantrips), of which players might randomly discover a dozen or so during any one play-through. These could range from silly things like turning orcs bright pink (which might also enrage them, making them more dangerous) to apparently useless things like making all your gold coins look like copper. That latter might serve you if you were visited by a tax collector. A clever player could figure out that use for it and be really pleased with himself, though it wouldn't bring the game to a screeching halt if he didn't.
Those are good points, Bret. I too have thought a lot about non-combat activities, but they are rarely fun. I can't think of many examples of non-combat stuff that really was fun. The example that usually gets brought up is fishing in some of the Zelda games. I guess that was moderately enjoyable. The WoW trades aren't much fun at all. How fun is it to have to skin every critter you kill, or hit every ore vein? I guess there's a certain thrill of discovery, but I loathed having to scour the countryside for some herb or vein, and making stuff wasn't fun at all. It would also be very nice if the game responded intelligently to your alchemical knowledge. It seems realistic that if you were really a successful alchemist, people would come from all over to ask you for cures and such; at least they would venerate you. That would be a nice touch to feel that the others in the game (including enemies) were reluctant to injure you since you might prove so vital to them.
Some RPGs have fun trading games tacked on, so you can buy and sell between towns or cities. That makes sense in most contexts, especially when the area between the two towns is dangerous.
You'd think more games would find ways to make alchemy fun, though they almost always seem to ignore what made real-life alchemists enjoy it--all the arcane lore and esoterica (though it was more like chemistry than magic in many cases). Really making a good simulation would be a game itself, with all the equipment, parameters, recipes, etc.
IIRC, Betrayal in Antara (can't recall if Krondor had it too) had a very nice spell-discovery system. It's been a long time, but I remember having a great deal of fun experimenting to find new spells. I also loved how the game Enchanter (a text adventure) had such wacky spells that appeared at first to be totally useless but turned out to have very specific uses. I could see adapting something like this, so that there were a hundred minor spells (cantrips), of which players might randomly discover a dozen or so during any one play-through. These could range from silly things like turning orcs bright pink (which might also enrage them, making them more dangerous) to apparently useless things like making all your gold coins look like copper. That latter might serve you if you were visited by a tax collector. A clever player could figure out that use for it and be really pleased with himself, though it wouldn't bring the game to a screeching halt if he didn't.
Matt Barton, Managing Editor
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA
Email: matt@armchairarcade.com