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[Puzzlemaker]

So, adventure mode is getting cooler.  Especially with the new world generation stuff.  You can really start to do stuff, effect things, etc.  And it's going to get better.

My main gripe is, you die really easily.  Yes, it's realistic, and yeah, losing is fun.  But playing is also fun, and right now that's a little hard to do.

At the start, you tend to die very easily.  Even after you train yourself up for an hour of real time.  The problem is, unlike most games, there really is no difficulty ramp.  AKA, from the start you can end up facing super-strong enemies, and dying.  While it's sometimes cool to be wandering around and suddenly end up fighting an impossible to beat match (THREE ORGES- and one of them is BLINKING).  Or taking a quest and ending up in a cave where you are horribly raped.

So, my suggestion is, Plot Armor.  Plot Armor is an invisible stat, only for player characters.  What it would do is, well, give you extra "Lives".  When you would take a mortal or really bad wound, it lowers the damage (But does not remove the damage), and uses up some of the plot armor.  Plot armor recharges slowly over time, maybe one point a day, to a max of three points?

This wouldn't save you from death, of course.  It would just save you from instadeath, give you a chance to run.  The effects should be very subtle. 

TL;DR Version:

No "beginners" area in adventure mode.  You can end up running into impossible to kill creatures.  Suggested solution is plot armor, which lowers damage from a Mortal Wound to a Bad Wound.  Plot armor is used up, but recharges slowly over time.

[Granite26]

Warning: Post Hijack:

I read the title as a request for a function to Plot what armour you have on and stack layers and etc rather than the haphazard system we've got

[Sean Mirrsen]

It's sometimes referred to as "plot immunity" or "pc armour" - meaning that in films or games, plot-important characters can take a lot more damage (or a hit that would severely injure or kill a similar non-pc character) without dying than unimportant characters. The redshirts from Star Trek are an example - being unimportant to the plot, they usually die, whereas main characters survive through various hazards and escape unscathed.

I'm opposed to this concept in games, except one notable occurence - Fate Points. (cookie to whoever remembers what RPG that is from)

[Align]

I'd rather solve the problem of random encounters ditching you in the middle of a large group of unbeatable enemies.
In a Small world, I encountered a pack of 7+ Beak Dogs. They tore my adventurer to bits with their vicious beaks.
Then I got a quest to avenge myself with the next adventurer. JUSTICE!
(although, the old quest for the cave I was heading for was suddenly gone...)

[Shades]

I'm opposed to this concept in games, except one notable occurence - Fate Points. (cookie to whoever remembers what RPG that is from)

Arcanum, please deliver cookie soon as I'm staving.

[perilisk]

So, adventure mode is getting cooler.  Especially with the new world generation stuff.  You can really start to do stuff, effect things, etc.  And it's going to get better.

My main gripe is, you die really easily.  Yes, it's realistic, and yeah, losing is fun.  But playing is also fun, and right now that's a little hard to do.

At the start, you tend to die very easily.  Even after you train yourself up for an hour of real time.  The problem is, unlike most games, there really is no difficulty ramp.  AKA, from the start you can end up facing super-strong enemies, and dying.  While it's sometimes cool to be wandering around and suddenly end up fighting an impossible to beat match (THREE ORGES- and one of them is BLINKING).  Or taking a quest and ending up in a cave where you are horribly raped.

So, my suggestion is, Plot Armor.  Plot Armor is an invisible stat, only for player characters.  What it would do is, well, give you extra "Lives".  When you would take a mortal or really bad wound, it lowers the damage (But does not remove the damage), and uses up some of the plot armor.  Plot armor recharges slowly over time, maybe one point a day, to a max of three points?

This wouldn't save you from death, of course.  It would just save you from instadeath, give you a chance to run.  The effects should be very subtle. 

TL;DR Version:

No "beginners" area in adventure mode.  You can end up running into impossible to kill creatures.  Suggested solution is plot armor, which lowers damage from a Mortal Wound to a Bad Wound.  Plot armor is used up, but recharges slowly over time.

Personally, I'd rather have a system where you can improve your metagame abilities by your activities in adventure mode. That is, play a character in adventure mode for a while, and if they die or are retired, you can create a new character with more points than the typical starting adventurer. If they're retired, it's point for point (so you can "purchase" your retired character back). If they die, it's some percentage of the character's points.

[Capntastic]

Some sort of heritage metagame system seems to be in the future plans.

But as for "I am the player; make me immune to things for that reason alone"- that seems to go against everything Dwarf Fortress is about.   I mean, this is the game with the catchphrase of "Losing is Fun".

Think of it this way:  You're legendary 'coz you're powerful, not powerful 'coz you're legendary.

[Zemat]

Maybe this plot armor thing could be something that can be tweaked in the init file. So that players can choose whether to use it or not.

My suggestion of letting players choose to play with worldgen characters instead of creating new ones could indirectly solve this by letting players choose powered up heroes that survive anything or wimpy characters that die fighting with babies.

[Puzzlemaker]

Some sort of heritage metagame system seems to be in the future plans.

But as for "I am the player; make me immune to things for that reason alone"- that seems to go against everything Dwarf Fortress is about.   I mean, this is the game with the catchphrase of "Losing is Fun".

Think of it this way:  You're legendary 'coz you're powerful, not powerful 'coz you're legendary.

Like I said, Losing IS fun, but so is playing the game, and right now unless I spend a long time beefing up my guys I can't do anything without a 50% chance of death.

Plot Armor isn't super-powered or anything.  All it would do is make a mortal wound survivable.  It wouldn't remove the damage; you would still get hit, and hit badly, but you wouldn't die instantly.  It doesn't necessarily have to regenerate either; it could be a one time thing for when you start out.

Personally, I have to agree with Align, in that solving the problem of you suddenly facing unbeatable enemies.  But I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon, if only because of the way world generation is.

I think everyone doesn't get how subtle this system should be.

For example, I was killing giants.  I killed two of them, got to a third.  He punched me in the face and I died in one hit.  No other wounds.  Now, I had just started that adventurer.  That isn't really... Fun, that's just annoying.  Getting a bad wound in a goblin tower, then trying to escape killing anything in your way until you die at the doorway from the blood loss and the goblin swarm... That's fun.  The giant would have been fun if he had simply left my head a mess instead of a pancake.  Then I would try to crawl away while he follows me, beating me with his bare fists.  That would have been fun.  As it happened, it was almost like a meteor with the letters RND blazoned upon it smashed into me out of nowhere.

[Torak]

If it's a setting called "I am a little girl: YES/NO" then I guess it could be put in, if not, no.

[Puzzlemaker]

If it's a setting called "I am a little girl: YES/NO" then I guess it could be put in, if not, no.

Or a setting called, "I want to survive my first quest: YES/NO"

Or, "I want to spend an hour training each adventurer to only get ten minutes of play time until he dies: YES/NO"

Or, "I want to be able to play without cheating, like carrying multiple shields and killing people with thrown water: YES/NO"

[Sean Mirrsen]

I really think the only way to have it in DF would be Fate Points. This means that for doing great deeds (good or evil, just great), you are awarded with what other games would call karma, one point for one sufficiently large deed. Using a fate point can have varying effects - from critical success in something you're absolutely improficient in (I always use my first FP in Arcanum on lockpicking to open the ancient safe thing in the museum, that has a plaque reading "Nobody has ever been able to open it"), to instant healing, to making your opponent (though he's a multilegendary megawarrior) trip on his feet, and so on. The player would start with one fate point, and would have to earn the rest.

[Torak]

If it's a setting called "I am a little girl: YES/NO" then I guess it could be put in, if not, no.

Or a setting called, "I want to survive my first quest: YES/NO"

Or, "I want to spend an hour training each adventurer to only get ten minutes of play time until he dies: YES/NO"

Or, "I want to be able to play without cheating, like carrying multiple shields and killing people with thrown water: YES/NO"

It's not the game's fault you spend an hour throwing rocks at the ground just to get killed by a gopher.

[Zemat]

No need for personal attacks.

Losing is fun only when the ride toward death is amusing. Losing in Fortress mode is amusing because death happens slowly and horribly after a chain of comical misshaps.

Most adventure mode deaths aren't slow, heroic, comical or horrible. Most of them are just dull. That doesn't make losing fun. That doesn't mean I don't enjoy it when the occasional puny kobold rips the throat of my legendary hero, then make it go on a killing rage before succumbing to the wound.

[Puzzlemaker]

If it's a setting called "I am a little girl: YES/NO" then I guess it could be put in, if not, no.

Or a setting called, "I want to survive my first quest: YES/NO"

Or, "I want to spend an hour training each adventurer to only get ten minutes of play time until he dies: YES/NO"

Or, "I want to be able to play without cheating, like carrying multiple shields and killing people with thrown water: YES/NO"

It's not the game's fault you spend an hour throwing rocks at the ground just to get killed by a gopher.

I don't, which is why I die so much.

And I agree with the above post, very very very much so.