Suggestion: Scale creature difficulty to user's ability

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It would be nice if the auto-spawned creatures scaled to the user's fighting 
ability appropriately. For example, at level 1, a wild boar is still a wild 
boar. But when you get to level 10, any wild boars are now all anklebiters. 
When you get to level 20 they become rabid anklebiters (or something to that 
effect). 

It makes sense for the fixed levels not to change, since it is a requirement 
for the user to fight creatures in there, but for the forest paths where 
fighting can often be avoided, I think this would be a nice enhancement to keep 
the game more interesting, especially when the user has finished all available 
quests.

I am playing on Samsung Captivate, Android 2.1.
I love the game. Eagerly awaiting the next installment!

Original issue reported on code.google.com by arthurya...@gmail.com on 18 Jan 2011 at 10:27

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I think Oscar has rejected this type of idea earlier by saying later 
maps/quests and multiple monsters in same fight, like at certain chokepoints, 
will be instead.

But some kind of way to increase difficult rate (and hopefully loot too) is 
wanted.

Original comment by kims...@gmail.com on 18 Jan 2011 at 10:44

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i wouldnt wanna make the game any easyer casue than the game would be to easy 
and would be boring cause u would level to quik and be to strong and then what 
do u do after that noting to realy do..u saying just change there names?

Original comment by breid3...@hotmail.com on 19 Jan 2011 at 5:24

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or would be cool maby if beside the attack bar would be a percentage chance 
that u are gonna win or not?

Original comment by breid3...@hotmail.com on 19 Jan 2011 at 5:25

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@c3: yes, maybe even a chance to hit, but this does not seem to have anything 
to do with this particular thread.

As an alternative, a mini calculator could be provided with the game or 
separately. You just type stats there and the chances appear. Enter 
AC/BC/HP/damage (yours + monsters 1-2-3). Optionally, you can enter AC/BC only 
and only chance to hit (no damage estimation) will be displayed.

As poor man's solution, it could be possibly implemented as a plain form 
accessible from the project homepage. All you need to do is push HOME + Browser 
to invoke and HOME + Andor's Trail to get back. ;)

As a minimum-effort integration, a button could be implemented that invokes 
this link (parameters in URL).

As an integrated solution (possibly a PRO version? :) ) the calculator could be 
an Activity where the Intent includes all these data so you don't have to type 
anything.

Original comment by surrano on 24 Jan 2011 at 2:18

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Thanks for the report. 

If you ever played Oblivion, you can get a feel for how it works to have random 
monsters depend on your current level. Personally, I think a system where the 
monsters are a fixed level is more rewarding. To be able to return to some area 
that you found very hard a few levels ago, and now is very easy is at least for 
me a rewarding experience. 

Maybe we will add some difficulty option to the game that changes the monster 
difficulty.

At the moment, you have an indicator on the monster info page (and the confirm 
page when you attack monsters) that calculates your possibility to defeat the 
monster. It is not recommended to try fighting a monster that gets an 
"Impossible" rating :) This calculation takes everything about both the players 
and the monsters stats into account.

Original comment by oskar.wi...@gmail.com on 29 Jan 2011 at 10:36

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I completely agree that it is rewarding to come back to an area that used to be 
difficult and is no longer so. This is why I suggested that the fixed quests 
not change difficulty levels of the monsters, rather just the  random critters 
on the general map that you take between towns. 

I guess the 'problem' that I am trying to solve is the down time in-between map 
releases. Once you reach a certain level and finished the currently available 
quests, there's not much to accomplish to improve your character and/or 
explore. There should be some form of open-ended mission or task that can keep 
the player challenged once they have completed the content of the game. If the 
random monsters become more difficult, then at least the player has something 
to keep him occupied. 

Original comment by arthurya...@gmail.com on 1 Feb 2011 at 7:37

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Original comment by sdeva...@gmail.com on 10 Feb 2011 at 3:16

• Added labels: Type-Enhancement
• Removed labels: Type-Defect

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Maybe this would be solved by the random dungeon generator suggested in issue 
12.

Original comment by oskar.wi...@gmail.com on 10 Feb 2011 at 8:09

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Many players dislike this feature. It means all of the game feels bland and 
average, there's no challenge, no sense of adventuring, and no danger. You can 
walk anywhere as a novice and get through by fighting snails, and if you do 
level up, once you're level 40 you don't feel any stronger because everything 
takes the same amount of work to kill and every random lame thief will come 
equipped in full platinum.

We suffered this in games like Oblivion, and I think gamers, especially more 
traditional games coming from roguelike and dungeon crawler backgrounds, made 
it clear in the Internet that they tended to dislike this kind of thing.

Comment 8 mentions the random dungeon generator; I want to express my opinion 
that creature levels should be chosen according to how deep, high or far you 
are into whatever it's generating (perhaps with a random chance of growing an 
abnormally strong or weak foe every now and then, for extra fun and gotchas), 
but never according to the your level, for the same reasons. A powerful 
character should feel powerful and crush whatever happens to be near the 
entrance, while a lame character should feel lame and threatened right from the 
start.

Original comment by mprz1024@gmail.com on 19 Apr 2011 at 9:12

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IMO this issue should be closed as its not the way we should adjust the 
difficulty.

There is issue 12 for the random dungeon generator:
http://code.google.com/p/andors-trail/issues/detail?id=12

And issue 130 for a difficulty option:
http://code.google.com/p/andors-trail/issues/detail?id=130

Original comment by SamuelPl...@gmail.com on 9 Jul 2011 at 6:37

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Closing wontfix.

Scaling creature difficulty based on player combat proficiency is not something 
we will do.

Original comment by oskar.wi...@gmail.com on 13 Jul 2011 at 8:32

• Changed state: WontFix