: The problem as I see it is that if we make this the standard method of
: recharge, players may not - will not - realize that it's a limited
: resource until it runs out. Oops - no more recharges for the entire game -
: nothing to do but start the whole friggin game over. I want to maintain
: the overall feel that Ian had intended for his scenario, but I think even
: he would now recognize the difference between making it hard and making it
: frustrating. My preference would be to keep the mace overload mechanism as
: a secret and to add shield power-ups and rechargers. There is already a
: shield recharger in Mosh Pit and in the second part of Liver, and there
: are 1X power-ups in Chaos. To these I would add a 2X power-up just prior
: to the blood run in Liver (as in Tastes Like Evil), scattered 1X power-ups
: in the re- levels and a 2X or 3X recharger in End Game, in that small room
: with the regenerating fusion bobs. Given the regeneration rate, there will
: be a natural check on the frequency and amount to which the player can
: recharge. I would also suggest a 3X power-up that the player would land on
: in the ante-chamber to Can. Mark, perhaps you might want to run this by
: Ian?
I'd say a simpler answer here would be to make it *not* secret- document it somehow. This would make the problem much simpler, as we wouldn't need to have the levels set up for people who don't recharge at all.
Another suggestion, which was considered earlier, discarded, and may actually be "right" given all we've found, is to "reset" the player on every single Reaver level. This would let us take direct control of how many charges remain in the mace- each level gets a very small number (so it can't be abused) and they get refilled on the next level (so it can't run out) along with the player's health (so he doesn't die from lack of recharging).
The reason there is no recharger on Re-Tired is that the PB is present in the original scenario and I felt it was fine the way it was. If you think we should change it to a recharger I will, but there should really be a PB on Re-Tired and there isn't one anywhere on the original level, so something's gotta give...
(I don't think we can run changes by Ian; he made it clear when I met him in person that he doesn't really have the time or interest for working with Marathon any more, but he's fine with the RED 1.1 project and gave me free reign to tweak it.)
