Fat_Hippo said:
DoPo said:
Enemies reacting to the player's reputation is totally something that could be used to great effect in many RPGs as well. Weak enemies scampering away instead of fighting is cool for two reasons: it rewards the player in a tangible way for his previous efforts, and also eliminates the tedium of fighting weak enemies that pose no challenge. That is unless the player wishes to give chase, in which case he gets to experience his empowerment fantasy, which RPGs tend to focus on anyway.
It would also be interesting if it simultaneously led to more powerful enemies intentionally seeking confrontation. Their motivations could take many forms: they wish to see how they match up against this reportedly dangerous foe because they believe they are even more powerful, or they may simply wish to hinder the player character from dealing more damage to their faction. Whatever the case, this kind of mechanic could be used to implement a more elegant form of the level scaling we see e.g. in Bethesda RPGs. Instead of enemies simply leveling up in different areas along with the player character, we have the weaker mobs running away, while the new and stronger foes intentionally seek confrontation. Instead of breaking immersion, it would strengthen it, while still letting the challenge scale with the player's power without hindering freedom of movement throughout the game's world.
That's the theory anyway. Implementing it would probably be a pain. But like you said, Shadows of Mordor already took some steps in that direction. And if someone pulled it off in a more complete way, it could be very badass.
It's not really
that hard to do, though, that's the thing. We have already had games that simulate status/reputation in various ways, so this is an easy extension. In
Fable: The Lost Chapters, for example, the more status you have, the more NPCs in towns will react to you - that includes them turning around when you walk past and shouting things. They will even like you more in general (easier to romance them). Then their reaction will be further shaped depending on whether you are scary or not - an evil ass ************ with horns, eyes glowing red, and a suit of the blackest material will send any NPCs scampering crying and fear and running away. If you are a walking picture of Jesus Christ and you literally leave rainbows and butterflies in your wake, then people will have a different reaction.
That was already there back in...2004, was it? Around there, anyway. But it only affects towns - bandits outside will totally keep attacking you even as you swat them away like flies. There are other games that do stuff with status, as well - often it's just rolled with the karma meter, so NPCs will react differently to good/evil. We've had the
opposite in places where you can have reputation and if you get particularly high one, you may be left alone[footnote]in
Morrowind if you had stupidly high Personality stat then random opponents could be neutral to you because Personality boosts reputation and bandits normally have negative or zero, hence they attack you. Yet with enough of a boost it goes to something like 10 or so, so they won't. It's not REALLY part of the game, though, since you'd mostly get that using cheats and exploits and even if you do it "legit" you can't really converse with bandits or anything. What happens is that bandits aggro and when they get close enough for the Personality modification to kick in, they stop. [/footnote]. It's not a new concept. The
Total War series even has the whole "scare enemies into submitting" mechanic - you can have a general who gains the reputation of being ruthless which will shake the confidence of any who oppose them. It's just something that I've never really seen in other games.
Again, we have the technology - the implementation doesn't even need to be that complex - you have an Intimidation stat of some description and if you hit, say, 60 then low level mobs don't attack you, at 80 slightly higher level mobs will be running away. And so on. Intimidation can probably be gotten from equipment[footnote]an armour made of living flesh, ornamented with skulls and constantly oozing black blood may not protect as much against normal attacks but it would subtly (or not that much) remind enemies that if they lose, they'll be added as further decorations[/footnote] and quests (one a choice may have you earn more Intimidation but less gold) and if you want to be really fancy - actions (murder a group of bandits in cold blood and let the last one run away to spread the word).
This could, of course, be expanded further - like building enemy scaling off, as you suggested, for example. Maybe now more dangerous foes will seek you out. Maybe now you have a bounty on your head, so you have to deal with those who want to claim it. At the same time, it might cause trouble like some characters not wanting to talk to you or perhaps the guards/police/law/whatever following you REALLY CLOSELY just in case you cause trouble (where as a character who lacks fame/infamy may be able to remain under the radar easier).
It would be rather interesting if you could capitalise on your infamy as grim version of a pacifist route. Perhaps you aren't really as ruthless and as evil as the rumours claim, however it's still in your best interest to keep those circulating. So you can take actions that increase your intimidation stat in order to avoid fights.
