Posted by The Arcane(VIP) on July 5, 2000 at 12:20:34:
In Reply to: Free your mind, grasshopper posted by Nepenthe(IMM) on July 5, 2000 at 11:15:21:
> Not necessarily so, unless you mean to imply that software development is the last bastion of creative folks who have read Sun Tzu's The Art of War and similar works. . . Well, Imbrogno's point is one that's frequently made. Most of the time, it's done so without foundation, but not always. And this isn't a criticism or accusation... more a matter of simple truth. There is going to be a discrepancy between what the creators of a class/area/quest/etc. think should be apparent to players, and what actually is apparent. Knowing the "answer" in advance colors one's ability to estimate how difficult a given problem will be. Obviously, experience on the part of the designers helps to alleviate this problem, but it does exist. Of course, there are also a couple of instances I can think of, where nuances or hidden variables related to a skill or class are realistically beyond the realm of even educated guesswork on the part of a player who has never been privy to the code. > Actually, I did once take a death to frightful fiend when I decided as a conjurer that damn it yes I could take that rager bard, and no I didn't need transform, servitors, or any spells up. (Look for an upcoming post on how ego screws you in PKs) No kidding. > Still, the main reason I had little problems with frightful fiend is that I didn't let people use it on me -- something which is simple in concept but takes practice to perform in execution. This is, in my opinion, the most important part of this post. There are skills that will seriously screw you if you let people get them off on you in combat, regardless of how badass you are. If you're slept by a necro, for example, now you have to rely on the necro botching the kill moreso than on your own skill, if you want to escape. Almost all of the skills in question are combat-starting only. Keeping alert, not doing things that lag you for more than one round, and spamming murder (or something else) when they're not in the room, and so forth... that's the real key. Over the past two years or so, and a few thousand (ugh) hours of playing, I've never been bard slept. I've never been fiended. I can count the number of times a necro or AP has ever slept me on one hand. I've only been withered twice in my playing career... once due to an error I made, once due to simple lag. And so forth. > Going to nightgaunts as another example: Let's say for the sake of argument that you know you can't beat a conjurer with a strong elemental, prep spells up, and a transplendant archon after being gaunted to him, and you can't get away. I'd take issue with both, but pretend. Why the hell are you giving him that much time? Kill the bastard every ten minutes. It's not polite, but it's simple and it would work. Well, that's not really a valid argument as a tactic. You're assuming an unskilled or simply lobotomized conjurer for the above, and any number of "tactics" work if you assume a dumb opponent, but fail as all-purpose measures. As I've noted in past discussions, nightgaunt gets a bad rap mostly due to idiots who fire them off every other sunset, occasionally getting lucky and having one bring the prey, and even more occasionally, managing to finish them off (c.f. Vaieno logs). If nightgaunts are used properly, with careful preparation and planning, your odds of survival go way, way down. I'll post a couple of examples later.