Yes!
* Stronger guards. They now more effective than they
used to be years ago, and everyone likes that change.
Make 'em better still.
RD: I agree guards should be more effective than they are, but this is due to some kind of sliding scale in the program. Rumour has it that the revised rules allow a guard to stop a steal or assass twice as powerful as himself. Unfortunately, this only works at the lower end of the scale. In a recent game I had 2 A80s guard each other, and both were slain by enemy agents I KNOW were only in their 70s.
I would like to see the guard have a good chance of stopping ANY agent who is not at least 2x his rank. There should be a random factor, but pretty obviously, the further down the scale the attacking agent is to 2x v the guard, the less chance of success the agent should have.
I would also like to see some response to my idea of a commander being able to issue a one-off "increase security" order in pop centres. Pops are already presumed to be defended and guarded by militia, witness the occasional agent failure due to tight security or even injury by the militia. It is plain stupid that an enemy agent, however good, can raid the state treasury turn after with impunity. After the crown jewels had been stolen once, wouldn't the king demand that security be increased?
I propose that a one-off "increase security" command order be introduced (visualise doubling guards, changing locks, etc). The mere threat of this order would deter thieves from hitting the same pop on consecutive turns. As a point of credibility, how many thieves pull off a major heist and then hit the same target two weeks later? The effectiveness of the "increase security" order would be in direct proportion to the amount of gold spent (new locks, wages for extra and better guards etc). Say 5000 gold (maximum) = A50 guard, so it would take an agent of 100+ (stealth or artifacts) to get past.
* Fewer You're-Dead-Because-You-Landed-in-this-Hex
encounters. If you want to keep some areas risky --
like mountains where dragons roam -- have them end
with little health.
RD: Not sure about this. There aren't actually that many encounters which kill decent characters without any chance of escape. I think there should always be some chance of escape, injured or not, depending on the encounter. What annoys me is when I order Beawyn, Northperson mage with a Locate artifact spell, to 3109 Northperson pop centre, only to find that the program has her wandering about outside, where she is ambushed and eaten by a giant spider.
I know this would add complexity, but I wish we could introduce some means of differentiating between a character INSIDE a pop centre, and a character wandering about OUTSIDE. Characters inside a pop should be immune from monster encounters in the same hex. I doubt this one will ever see the light of day, but I wish it just the same!
* Fewer battle spells, with a couple stronger
offensive spells.
* Increase in mage rank 1-7 pts for successful casting
of any spell in combat and 1 pt for any other spell.
Mages are a huge part of Middle Earth, the literature,
and yet they are the least popular chrs in the game;
they're also the only ones that can't improve rank
while doing anything other than improving rank.
RD: I agree mages are very important, but they are also few and far between. Theirs is the most difficult and complex profession on Middle-earth, so it is quite right that they should be the most difficult characters to advance in rank. Remember, all the best mages - Sauron, Gandalf, Saruman, Elrond, Galadriel etc were immortal, so had plenty of time to advance rank and learn new spells!
I don't think mages are unpopular, quite the opposite. I think you mean that nobody names new mages because they know they aren't going to achieve anything useful before then end of the game. This is quite consistent with Tolkien; no newly named M30 or even M40 should be able to hold a candle to the immortals mentioned above.
* Give players a small discount for paying one turn
ahead and list on the front sheet if teammates have
done so. Drops won't go away, but they're easier to
handle with advance notice, and not all teammates take
the time to advise their allies.
Dan
···
----- Original Message -----
From: D Newman
To: mepbmlist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 3:18 AM
Subject: [mepbmlist] ME Second edition ideas
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