The sense of accomplishment was very keenly felt in Pool of Radiance, mostly because common items were so plentiful. In PoR, when you killed an army of kobolds (or whatever), you had stockpiles and stockpiles of armor and simple weapons you could try to pick up and sell in town. However, it was worth so little, that you soon got over it. Magic items were rare indeed. Just finding a longsword +1 was reason to celebrate.
What was even better was that most of the best items were carefully hidden in secret rooms and the like. But--and here's something that flies right over the heads of modern CPRG devs--these were bonus items. You didn't need them to finish the game. In games like NWN, it soon becomes obvious that you'll need powerful magic items just to survive.
If I were designing a CPRG, I'd make magical items rare and hard-to-find. What ends up happening in a game like NWN is what I call "magic inflation." The level designers are constantly having to provide more and more powerful items. Pretty soon, even plate armor + 5 will seem like junk.
I might add that I never cared for the + 5 business anyway. It seems very lame, and too focused on numbers. I prefer items that grant special abilities or incorporate new tactics. One of the lamest items in most CPRGs is the "Ring of Protection." It's always followed by a number. It's obviously just a stat-raiser. Stuff like that really shows a lack of imagination.
On a positive note, I think it's neat how in NWN you can specialize very heavily in certain weapons. I think they should've extended that to armor and shields as well. It's pretty obvious to me that a highly experienced warrior would know how to use armor more effectively (in real life, just putting the stuff on required hours of work and an assistant).
Of course, the downside to the specialty system is that after you've fully committed and invested in a weapon (I chose a halberd), you suddenly stop finding any magic halberds. You find all kinds of other awesome weapons instead. This is very discouraging.
Probably the lamest of the lame in NWN is in Hordes of the Underdark. There's a smith there that will, for a given amount of cash, basically give you enhancements to a weapon. It's a copout, again focusing too much on numbers rather than on anything fun about the weapon. It doesn't even change in appearance when you go from a +3 to a +10.
One of the M&M games (can't remember right now which one) actually featured item damage and a repair skill. What it amounted to was that your gear was constantly taking damage, and you had to either fix it yourself or pay to have it fixed. Gear that was heavily damaged wouldn't work very well. In practice, it proved mostly tedious, and if a particularly valuable piece of gear was destroyed--time to reload. While this seemed a bit extreme, I think it makes sense to have stuff slowly wearing out. Again, in games where the items aren't so inflated, it's not that big of a deal to replace a helmet and such. I'm still not sure how I feel about the concept.
It's really too bad that more CPRGs can't take the Metroid approach. What I mean is that the items you find there don't just give bigger lasers; they actually change the way you play the game. There are a few instances of that in Hordes. For instance, you can get a grappling hand like thing that can propel you around and scoop up distant treasure--a very cool concept. There's also a few other items that let you change your shape and the like. Mostly, though, the items just raise a few stats here and there. Boring.
Any fan of the M&M series will know how fun it is when your wizard finally learns the "fly" spell and the whole party can now fly around the landscapes, visiting all sorts of places they couldn't reach before (and much faster, too). The same goes for the teleport portals. These seem like easy enough things to implement (Morrowind has some of this, too).
I guess it must be extremely difficult for CRPG designers to offer enhanced weapons and items that aren't just "+5" style. Oh, here's a helmet that offers 20 fire resistance. Uh, okay. Sure. M&M actually let you enchant your own items that way, so that pretty soon every piece of equipment worn by the party had some kind of enchantment on it. Talk about getting carried away!!
You make some good points, Mat and Bill.
The sense of accomplishment was very keenly felt in Pool of Radiance, mostly because common items were so plentiful. In PoR, when you killed an army of kobolds (or whatever), you had stockpiles and stockpiles of armor and simple weapons you could try to pick up and sell in town. However, it was worth so little, that you soon got over it. Magic items were rare indeed. Just finding a longsword +1 was reason to celebrate.
What was even better was that most of the best items were carefully hidden in secret rooms and the like. But--and here's something that flies right over the heads of modern CPRG devs--these were bonus items. You didn't need them to finish the game. In games like NWN, it soon becomes obvious that you'll need powerful magic items just to survive.
If I were designing a CPRG, I'd make magical items rare and hard-to-find. What ends up happening in a game like NWN is what I call "magic inflation." The level designers are constantly having to provide more and more powerful items. Pretty soon, even plate armor + 5 will seem like junk.
I might add that I never cared for the + 5 business anyway. It seems very lame, and too focused on numbers. I prefer items that grant special abilities or incorporate new tactics. One of the lamest items in most CPRGs is the "Ring of Protection." It's always followed by a number. It's obviously just a stat-raiser. Stuff like that really shows a lack of imagination.
On a positive note, I think it's neat how in NWN you can specialize very heavily in certain weapons. I think they should've extended that to armor and shields as well. It's pretty obvious to me that a highly experienced warrior would know how to use armor more effectively (in real life, just putting the stuff on required hours of work and an assistant).
Of course, the downside to the specialty system is that after you've fully committed and invested in a weapon (I chose a halberd), you suddenly stop finding any magic halberds. You find all kinds of other awesome weapons instead. This is very discouraging.
Probably the lamest of the lame in NWN is in Hordes of the Underdark. There's a smith there that will, for a given amount of cash, basically give you enhancements to a weapon. It's a copout, again focusing too much on numbers rather than on anything fun about the weapon. It doesn't even change in appearance when you go from a +3 to a +10.
One of the M&M games (can't remember right now which one) actually featured item damage and a repair skill. What it amounted to was that your gear was constantly taking damage, and you had to either fix it yourself or pay to have it fixed. Gear that was heavily damaged wouldn't work very well. In practice, it proved mostly tedious, and if a particularly valuable piece of gear was destroyed--time to reload. While this seemed a bit extreme, I think it makes sense to have stuff slowly wearing out. Again, in games where the items aren't so inflated, it's not that big of a deal to replace a helmet and such. I'm still not sure how I feel about the concept.
It's really too bad that more CPRGs can't take the Metroid approach. What I mean is that the items you find there don't just give bigger lasers; they actually change the way you play the game. There are a few instances of that in Hordes. For instance, you can get a grappling hand like thing that can propel you around and scoop up distant treasure--a very cool concept. There's also a few other items that let you change your shape and the like. Mostly, though, the items just raise a few stats here and there. Boring.
Any fan of the M&M series will know how fun it is when your wizard finally learns the "fly" spell and the whole party can now fly around the landscapes, visiting all sorts of places they couldn't reach before (and much faster, too). The same goes for the teleport portals. These seem like easy enough things to implement (Morrowind has some of this, too).
I guess it must be extremely difficult for CRPG designers to offer enhanced weapons and items that aren't just "+5" style. Oh, here's a helmet that offers 20 fire resistance. Uh, okay. Sure. M&M actually let you enchant your own items that way, so that pretty soon every piece of equipment worn by the party had some kind of enchantment on it. Talk about getting carried away!!
Matt Barton, Managing Editor
Location: St. Cloud, Minnesota, USA
Email: matt@armchairarcade.com