Can you name a single other game, anywhere, ever, that has done this?
Diablo II, Jedi Knight. The Speed Burst family from the KotOR games also says hi.
Hell, in most games, some creatures move -faster- than you, to make up for poor AI versus human intelligence, not the other way around.
Indeed, that's why I said relatively (as in average enemy speed).
I think the vast majority of players would disagree that combat balance has been achieved in PS:T. Check out the RPG Codex thread where I discussed the other two fixes. If there's one thing that's pretty much universally agreed upon, it's that combat balance in PS:T is terribly broken.
Considering there's only 4 necessary battles, and the vast majority of your
XP comes from dialogues, I have no qualm thinking that claim that
PS:T's combat system is broken is hazardous, at best.
Incorrect. There are exceptions. About 50% of the Harmonium Guards in the Clerk's Ward run. Harmonium Guards elsewhere do not. Trelons in Curst Underground run. Trelons in Acheron and in UnderSigil cannot. Creatures fleeing during morale break, or under the effect of Litany of Curses can run. That's all I can find. Do those inconsistencies -also- make sense to you?
Put that way, no, but I'm hardly a technical expert. Wether the problem is due to bad scripting, design, mistake, or what.
I don't think the burden of proof rests on me to explain why TNO, Morte, Dak'kon, Ignus, Nordom, Fall-From-Grace and Vhailor, alone out of almost all of Creation, aren't the only ones capable of the physical feat of running when under life-threatening distress.
It is when you're trying to pass it as developer intent. Again, I'm not questioning the logic behind the move itself (it's an understandable modification, wether one agrees or not), but its inclusion in the Fixpack.
I disagree. I think something as utterly unprecedented and inexplicable as "In almost all cases, your opponents will move 60-70% slower than you" would get a mention in the manual, if only to explain why.
See above and earlier posts.
What you're suggesting is that it is common practice in game manuals to say "Your opponents do not move 70% slower than you." Please.
Really, when you rightfully claim the manual to be an accurate source of developer intent, you can't claim the same for the abscence from it.
That makes perfect sense.
I don't suppose the fact that the party is immobilized in that moment is of any relevance?
And if players really don't want to deal with combat at all, they can also of course put the difficulty slider on easy. But IMHO, if you want to play the "avoids combat all the time" type of player, that's a lot more fun to do by having to be sneaky, diplomatic, etc. It shouldn't be because the AI of almost every creature is so dumb that they're actually incapable of -chasing- you. And if you're going to run away from everything, which is perfectly fine, you should at least have to -run-.
That's exactly my point. The game itself doesn't deal with combat at all. Why should that be changed? Because it'd make fights more interesting? Because it has a certain logic to it? Fine, by all means, stick in the tweak pack. But it is not because of clear proof of developer intent, not to me.
I suppose in my mind the single most potent argument against the idea that it was a design decision is, why then has no other game I can think of ever done it this way? I can't think of any other game that makes you even half again as fast as all of your opponents, never mind 5-8 times as fast. Nor can I imagine that any designer, never mind ones as talented as these guys, would say "Yes, let's have the PC able to move five to eight times faster than every enemy, otherwise the game might be too difficult for some people." I mean, c'mon. RPG's are already historically much much easier than every other genre of game out there, but this is just way too much.
TNO can't attack twice as fast as the other creatures if I'm not mistaken. The only difference this makes is for running around, right? Though it could mean reaching spellcasters earlier too...
The fact that everyone seems to agree that PS:T is much too easy -even compared to other RPGs- just confirms that to me. Trust me, I've played through the whole game this way, and it's effect is to raise the combat from "trivial" to "easy". This doesn't suddenly turn it into a hack-and-slash gruelfest, believe me.
I haven't seen it, but I'd probably agree. But not everyone. Or in any case, not for the same reasons.
