Re: Legends: Game System Problems

From: dani@netcom.com (Dani Zweig)

Date: Thu, 20 May 1993 19:11:08 +0000

I'd offer a slightly different set of worst-problems.

1. Weakness of Defense.  It is simply impractical to defend locations
   in this game.  The initiative lies completely with the attacker,
   who can easily find out how well a location is defended, and wait
   until he is sure to have a strong enough force to conquer it.  It
   is impossible to garrison all your major locations sufficiently to
   prevent this, and if you concentrate your troops in one location,
   instead of using them offensively, you'll lose.  A way to partially
   correct this problem would be to give better bonuses for particularly
   strong fortifications, and to make it harder to get a battle report.
   (I'd change it so that you don't get a battle report if there are
   no survivors.)

2. Poor Game Balance.  The game is poorly balanced at the higher levels.
   Typically during the second year of a game, some players begin
   acquiring occasionally outrageous resources and capabilities.  For
   example, a player whose city produces 20,000 crowns per phase can
   afford things which a 5000-crown-per-phase player can't -- but when
   a player builds his city up to half a *million* crowns per phase,
   money becomes meaningless, beyond the logistical problem of carrying it.
   Similarly, I don't think the "Move Location" spell is, in itself, too
   unreasonable, but when one of the factions acquires the ability to
   cast it with fifty free spell points, it becomes a bit *too* easy.
   There are lots of similar examples.

-----
Dani Zweig
dani@netcom.com

'T is with our judgements as our watches, none
   Go alike, yet each believes his own
		--Alexander Pope

References

Legends: Game System Problems
ddo@wsun2.larc.nasa.gov (Dale Ohmann)
Wed, 19 May 1993 19:24:50 +0000