jdyer wrote:
One of my problems in playing Tower of the Sorceror, was I would hoard locational items for a later benefit. The best illustration I can think of this is the lucky gold, which doubles the amount of money. This led (for me) to the tendancy earlier in the game to try to "save" parts of the map just by the hope of holding out just a little longer and getting to the gold doubling effect. In gameplay terms this can get highly unpleasant.
This is a good question. I wouldn't say that this is
necessarily an unpleasant aspect of this game's play style. I would say that if people need to know unknowable things ahead of time in order to successfully complete future areas (e.g. "
magically"
realizing that saving monsters now is required to net you enough gold later in order to win, then that's unfair. Unless the architect tells the player that this is how their hold is supposed to be played from the outset. I myself have tried to design the official levels so that anyone can finish the game, hopefully with a minimum amount of pain in this area. However, at the same time, I see this type of play as an area ripe for high-scorers and optimizers to relish. To simplify away this aspect of the game's nature would cheat those people out of what can be a satisfying replay experience.
To summarize, it will definitely be less painful to complete this game than TotS due to the level design issues you describe, and at the same time, there is plenty of opportunity for players to enjoy this strategy of play as much as they wish.
Did this effect come up in testing, and what was done to address it?
There were some minor things brought up that were easily addressed. Mostly isolated flaws in level design that could be patched. I haven't heard any complaints along the lines of "
I just don't like that I can't see the entire world from square one!"
This is a game of exploration similar to DROD, and I personally feel it would cheapen the experience to allow the player to view the entire game area at will. I've worked to make exploration in this game lower risk than in TotS.
Have there been any additional measures added to assuage the fears of those like myself who didn't enjoy ToTS that much (due to lack of needed perfect information, RPG decision paralysis, etc.) that haven't been mentioned yet in this thread?
I'd say that's an issue that the level Architect needs to address in their design. People can make holds very complex if they want, but I'd say that makes it up to the players either to rate such holds high with a super high-five, or to say "
This design stinks!"
I've tried to add several areas in the official hold that make play more forgiving than the areas seen in TotS. At this point, I'm fine with testers chiming in here to share their experiences with this.
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