All you've said is "Frustration is good" and "Players should guess". You never explained why players guessing at enemy levels should be considered a good or correct form of frustration.

A true game designer comes up with a solution that can achieve both the frustration while retaining the ability to have educated guesses, and using frustration in a positive way rather than a negative way. That solution is to make very lethal combinations of enemies that are more challenging compared to other monsters of their level. Not just "mage buffs everybody elses damage", but things that need to be actively thought about to avoid. Things that are extremely dangerous if you have no idea that they can happen, and require some prediction and preparation to handle.

Let's say regular level 4 zombies are easy at level 4, but there are level 4 zombies in a poison pool supported by a level 4 mage. If zombies could, for example, spread poison on the ground to heal them as they advance to you while you still take fire from the mages but also have to find a way to deal with both the poison and the regenerating zombies. Then you could combine it with mage AI that, if still alive, will detonate the final zombie corpse to create smoke. Mages could be given the ability to blindfire directly through smoke without a target that would create a potentially deadly blind zone that has magic spewing out of it in random blindfire based on your last known location. A good use for invisibility, as you can move outside of the smoke while visible to give the mage a Last Known Position, then travel to a zone that is not at risk of being hit with blindfire while invisible.

Level 4 zombie? Not too bad. Level 4 mage? Not too bad. Combined? You're going to get some surprises thrown at you and probably die horribly.

Another thing that makes this better is that you aren't just getting slaughtered by huge numbers, you are being shown new ways to fight by the enemies and learning from your battles. You learn new mechanics and start to think of tactical ways to avoid the deadly Zombie + Mage Combo. It would make you think about using environmental spells in battle to clear the smoke. Perhaps there could be a talent that clears the smoke around the character but increases the overall volume of the cloud. You would be thinking about how YOU could use the environmental combinations like poison + fire to your advantage, and thinking about using your enemies or teammates in non-traditional ways to accomplish your goal.

It also accomplishes the goal of making players more aware of their environments before choosing to enter a battle. The current mini oil tutorial is not particularly effective at creating a memorable experience that makes the player excited to use the mechanic. Not only does this simple two enemy combo promote environmental effects, but it also promotes the idea of needing to decide what enemies to deal with first. More enemies added into the mix with really interesting combinations that cannot all be prevented before one of them occurs, you have to start weighing risks of being hit with one of those combinations and how the effects of those may impact future turns. Then even further, more enemies brings in the aspect of learning the enemy AI in regards to which combinations it will prioritize when multiple are available.

You end the battle with "hey that was cool, i should think of ways to avoid it and use my own powerful combo" rather than "I'm not sure if this is the wrong way, if i have to grind, or if i've missed a dungeon".

The frustration generated from things like this encourages the player to overcome the challenge, whereas getting slaughtered by the same attacks with big numbers is just annoying and tedious.

Last edited by Xendran; 16/05/14 01:42 AM.