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+--- Thread: Strength vs Carrying Capacity (/showthread.php?tid=130506)
Strength vs Carrying Capacity - Angerak - 09-20-2016
I've had a few of my Cohorts alpha testers comment on the game's implementation of Strength vs. Carrying Capacity.
In Cohorts, the two items are unrelated. I fully understand the argument as to why they (perhaps) should be related, but keeping them separate helps with the game mechanics.
In Cohorts, units (characters, military units & agents) have both a strength rating and a carrying capacity rating. The strength rating typically affects damage during combat and bonuses to strength related skills. Carrying capacity is a rating that describes how much a character can carry, both in terms of equipment and inventory.
Aside from the fact that strength already has too many associated bonuses, carrying capacity behaves differently (IMO). A human has a carrying capacity of 10. This allows him to carry up to 10 weight-units of gear. A horse has a carrying capacity of 50. This allows him to carry a rider, plus his equipment up to a weight of 50. In the case of a man riding a horse, he can exceed his personal carrying capacity so long as his weight plus the weight of his gear does not exceed the weight of the horse. Now, consider a centaur ... he has the carrying capacity of a horse and the strength of a man, but he can still carry up to 50 units of weight in gear.
In Cohorts, equipment is one size fits all. Giant or pixie, you all wear the same gear. This keeps things a lot simpler for the players because you don't have to worry about 6 different equipment sizes, resulting in getting loot that is useless to you.
If a Giant, which might have a base strength of 25 has the same carrying capacity as a Human. They're both 10. This allows for the magical re-sizing of gear without getting into odd circumstances where fairies can't wear anything and Giants can wear the very heaviest of everything.
Some races might get an advantage or disadvantage on carrying capacity, if the game designer chooses them to be different.
Units can increase their carrying capacity by gaining Talents, Titles, Statuses and/or special gear.
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Do you think this is a broken game mechanic? I personally think it adds a lot of flexibility, but is it worth it?
RE: Strength vs Carrying Capacity - GrimFinger - 09-24-2016
It adheres to the KISS principle - When in doubt, Keep It Simple, Stupid!
RE: Strength vs Carrying Capacity - Angerak - 09-25-2016
(09-24-2016, 06:53 PM)GrimFinger Wrote: It adheres to the KISS principle - When in doubt, Keep It Simple, Stupid!
I'm not sure how to take that. Is using carrying capacity simple or is using strength as carrying capacity simple?
I know I'm simple, but there's no cure for that!
Paul
RE: Strength vs Carrying Capacity - ixnay - 09-28-2016
Back in the day, we played a vastly underrated role-playing game called Chivalry and Sorcery. In it, carrying capacity was calculated as a function of many things, including strength, constitution, body mass, etc. So Strength factored into it, but only partially.
We added a house rule to the combat system. The standard rules had damage multipliers based on strength, and we changed it to use carrying capacity as a base. We reasoned that it was a fuller description of someone's ability to put power behind a sword-stroke. Maybe that was good, maybe not. But we did think about this stuff.
One thing I do know. There is a vast mine of game content sitting out there for intrepid game designers to explore and learn from. Vast archives of games from the ancient days of the 70s and 80s, filled with people confronting many of the same issues we find ourselves facing today. I came across an enormous archive of Avalon Hill's "The General" magazine, scanned to PDF, with tons of articles on game design, theme, tempo, and yes, play-by-mail topics. It's a pool almost too deep to dare dive into!
RE: Strength vs Carrying Capacity - Angerak - 09-28-2016
(09-28-2016, 05:07 PM)ixnay Wrote: One thing I do know. There is a vast mine of game content sitting out there for intrepid game designers to explore and learn from. Vast archives of games from the ancient days of the 70s and 80s, filled with people confronting many of the same issues we find ourselves facing today. I came across an enormous archive of Avalon Hill's "The General" magazine, scanned to PDF, with tons of articles on game design, theme, tempo, and yes, play-by-mail topics. It's a pool almost too deep to dare dive into!
Do you have a link to this PDF? I for one would be very happy to read it.
One of the things I've been trying to do with the design of Cohorts is to make the general math in the reasonably understandable. That way people can understand the cause/effect of what choices they make. Some are technically simple, yet a bit complicated for some people to grasp at game-time. For example, trying to figure out how far a wagon can travel across a grassland roads. Wagons have a speed of 20 but get a 100% bonus when travelling along roads. Grassland costs 5 movement points to move into, but that is reduced by 50% because of the road. Based on these things, the wagon moves at speed 40 on roads across grasslands that effectively cost 2.5 movement points each - allowing for up to 16 provinces (hexes). Whereas the same wagons crossing grassland without roads would only be able to move 4 hexes.