One of the interesting things about computer adaptations of D&D is that D&D is designed for the tabletop. The math doesn't involve large numbers and the arithmetic is simple to do in your head. It has to be for D&D to work in a social setting because you cannot expect people to do long multiplication of factors on the fly. It would interrupt the flow of the game. Stop! Its calculator time!

Adventure roleplaying has been entrenched in computer gaming for a while now and this allows developers to do things like damage calculation with huge numbers, fractions and long multiplication because human beings no longer need to crunch the numbers. This is good because you don't have to do mental math anymore but in D:OS2, is there any compelling reason why your damage at level 20 is a hundred orders of magnitude more than at level 1? Base dagger damage at level 1 is single digit range. At level 20 its what? 3 digit range?

Then you pump finesse, multiply by crit factor and multiply by warfare factor until you have a humongoid number.

Between level 1 and 20 its not suprising you toss your gear every couple of levels. The math rapidly turns small numbers into huge numbers you can't easily crunch in your head.

This is one of those strange situations where going back to pre-computer basics might be a good idea for future development. Try keeping the numbers small like in D&D and see how that affects power scaling and difficulty. How it affects itemisation. When the numbers don't escalate rapidly, you can keep items for longer, develop attachments to them, build stories and quests around them because you know players will use them for longer.

You don't need to shower random loot with massive stats from every barrel and pile of skulls. Less in this case can be so much more.


Last edited by Hayte; 13/10/17 10:58 AM.