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Discussion on Ideas fromt eh HLI Ideas thread
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Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Oct-27-2009 16:37

TAKE 2:

Anyone who wants to resume discussions on something I've had to clean up on the HLI thread, please feel free to discuss it here or make your own thread about the specific topic.

Anyway please feel free to discuss to your hearts content any particular idea that has been risen on the ideas thread.

PS I really liked Charlie's archnemesis idea.

Replies

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Jan-24-2010 17:14

Reading V Buster's recent musings on the HLI Ideas thread about how tilted Hostage Negotiation seems to be Compared to Trap Detection.

Suggestion were to raise the cost of being Pirated or lower the rate of use of Trap Detection to once a day etc

I think originally Ben changed it to alleviate the burden on those people who had neither skill, or were working their way up the ladder.

So, I suppose, the people affected are those that now have either skill.

Someone in reply said well there are far more people using Hostage Neg than trap detection, so that must mean that it's not that big an issue.

And I realised that the 'probable' reason behind this is that you get pirated at least a few times when you are levelling, right. So your initial response to what skill you'd like is 'Heck I don't want to be pirated any more!'.

AND if you've had someone guide you to the Lamasery via a few of the different maps that float between Sleuths and websites, then you're probably not thinking that Trap Detection is that big of a deal. Pfft who needs it when I get walkthroughs.

UNTIL you have to do a Cairo Catacomb or a Ship Hold, then you're thinking gee I'd much rather have that trap detection skill coz this is a PITA.

SO I think there is some disparity in terms of those people who have one or the other still. ie new content has had trap detection feature, right? Cairo, Ship, even the new books etc to be found for titles.

Hostage Negotiation has one feature, stave off the pirates. (And they don't appear that often - honestly I can't remember the last time I was pirated).

MY Suggestion would be, rather than tinkering with the mechanics of the skill, as I always find that muckign about with content after it's been release causes more hassles than answers, IS for some future content to feature the Hostage Negotiation Skill as a '+'. So that people actually start saying oh I wish I had Hostage Negotiation as often as they say 'Oh I wish I had trap detection!'

:)

Irene
Irene

Jan-25-2010 00:00

I have tried to guide a few people to Shangri La, and through the maze there, and often I do not even tell there are maps out there to get you through, but tell they have to draw map themselves (hey, we are sleuths, and supposed to like challenges), and when it comes to choosing who to side with, I have ALWAYS said that they need to be very careful about what they choose, and tried to hold up Trap Detection as the ultimate skill.
Even so, most of the people I have guided choose to have Hostage Negotiation.
Yes, there is a drawback with not having Trap Detection, but most of the people complaining and want to take from the few who choose Trap Detection, and give to the ones with Hostage Negotiation, seem to forget that they are spared for the drawback of not having Hostage Negotiation.
Often I feel the discussion are some kind of take from the few and make it even worse for them, and give to the many.

What makes people believe that those who choose Trap Detection does not say "Oh I wish I had Hostage Negotiation" when they get pirated? We do, but we also know that a) we made a choice and could not have everything and b) if we were to complain officially, everyone would tell us we had to handle it since we were so stupid we did not choose Hostage Negotiation before Trap Detection.
SO MY suggestion would actually be, make Trap Detection even more attractive, so that some more people actually consider having that skill before Hostage Negotiation.
Perhaps make Shady offer you to walk through a maze for some reason, to give you 5% decount off his fee or, if you don't make it, 5 additional % to his fee for paying off false accusations?
I don't think the pirates appear more often when you level up, so I think we all know about how often they appear? - or, I have a slight idea that the Pirates does not appear that often when you have the Hostage Negotiation skill...

Perhaps we should ask that the Pirates would appear more often when you get the HN skill?

turtledove
turtledove
Gopher to the Sleuth Gods

Jan-25-2010 05:55

Sounds interesting SS. It would be nice if HN was not an almost useless skill. I hope admin hears this :-)

turtledove
turtledove
Gopher to the Sleuth Gods

Jan-25-2010 06:51

^^ Btw, I'd be very curious to know how many traps there are per map besides the three I always manage to stumble onto :-)

Cordelia Falco
Cordelia Falco
Battered Shoe

Jan-25-2010 07:22

Agree totally with SS - the balance needs to be restored by making HN more useful.

I'll confess now that I chose HN (all those years ago...) because it said you couldn't get into Cairo because of the pirate blockade, and I couldn't see how having Trap Detection could get you past them. Not my brightest thinking, possibly!

And Turtledove, yeah, I'd like to know how many there are too.

ctown28
ctown28
Huntsman

Jan-25-2010 08:51

I still stand by my Hostage Negotiation 100% and would take it again if I had to choose over. I have managed to get through the caves succesfully quite a few times.



Jesse Hunter
Jesse Hunter
Bibliophile

Jan-27-2010 19:16


Oh, the Trap Detection vs Hostage Negotiation thing has come up again...

My clearest views on this can be found here:
http://noir.playsleuth.com/map/cityhall/post.spy?id=28454
and haven't changed much since then.

I personally do not think that Trap Detection should have anything taken away from it, or that those with it should have their gaming experiences altered for the worse, or even that Trap Detection be changed in any way.

I *would* like to see Hostage Negotiation made more useful in regards to Cairo. Specifically I would like to be able to somehow negotiate a new map (after failing one) by doing something right there in town, instead of having to travel the globe at a cost far higher than the pirates currently require from their victims. It doesn't have to be a handout, just something a bit cheaper than a fistful of skill points all those cases spent on a round trip to where-ever (not to mention the time consuming quest on the other end).

I don't expect any changes to the Sleuthetania (at least in regards to HN and TD - it'd still be nice to not lose a case in progress when she docks), since it is fully accessible long before one makes the trip to Shangri La. Similarly, most sleuths experience pirates early in the game - no call for change there (even though they're certainly tamer than they were in the days when most of us made the TN/HN choice). However since there is absolutely no way to experience the Cairo quest until after the choice is made, I for one would like a bit of leniency shown there.

Side note: I still see the pirates about as often as I did before I sided with the Steepers.

Joseph Zeo
Joseph Zeo
Tale Spinner

Jan-27-2010 20:11

I agree with ctown 100%. I love my HN skill, given speed and efficiency is what I look for as a villain/treasure hunter. The difficulty of navigating through the mazes without TD skill can be side stepped if we work our grey cells on it. I actually enjoy the challenge of going through the mazes not knowing where the traps could be. Being stopped and unable to proceed with my timed hunts due to pirates, on the other hand, is unforgivable... but then, that's just me :)

Jesse Hunter
Jesse Hunter
Bibliophile

Jan-27-2010 20:30

I don't actually mind the mazes, just the cases and days that I lose when I have to completely redo a university quest from scratch.

V Buster
V Buster
Old Shoe

Jan-28-2010 04:38

I agree with SS that probably the best option re HN and TD is to add some new content that uses HN and makes it more useful/desirable.

The big problem I have with the selection of the two skills, (particularly for those of us who made the choice when the skills were first introduced) is that you have to make the choice before you have any real idea on what TD can help you with.

The sleuthetania helps there in that newer players may now have experienced the maze in the cargo hold before making a choice.

I'd also support a usable once only method of changing sides (Maybe as an optional reward on a featured mystery).

To make sure that only people who really wanted change use it, it would need to have some cost's. ie $500,000 + 1 Million xp.

Of course it would also remove all benefits from having been a member of that faction (Book, Cairo travel and skill etc).

To give an indication of how deeply I feel about what I feel was a bad choice, I recently re-read the retirement rules to see if that would allow a change (nope). (So yes I was considering sacrificing over 2 Million xp to switch.)

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