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Lazy_Perfectionist said:
Take a look at the Exiles/Avernum series by spiderweb software. They manage to provide quite a lot of replay value without random items or maps. The game world can actually change if you take too long to get something done, for instance, so you can take things in different directons.
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A fixed map, with fixed towns and fixed NPCs mean that by the third time you play the game you know where to find the important quests, where to find the important NPCs/Monsters and best locations for advancing your character. THE MAIN MYSTERIES within the game are gone after a couple games!
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Lazy_Perfectionist said:
There are cases for both situations, and both types of players. But personally, I find games with random items less immersing and decrease the original play value (and hence the replay value) considerably. If they're partially random, like as in Sacred or Divine Divinity, I can live with it. But if they're near completely random, as in Diablo 2, they never manage to hook me.
On the other foot, there's the whole niche of Roguelike games, but I won't get into that right now. I don't have that much to say.
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I'm not saying only random items, I'm advising both for a game. A game with 10,000 items which uses the example formula I provided has greater replay value than a game with 200 fixed items. On a game with only 200 fixed items there's a more likely chance the gamer will find the best weapon and armor which then removes one of the fun features known as treasure/weapon hunting. Not much to chat with family and friends about when you've found XYZ weapon which has also been found several times by 20% of other gamers.
What's great about Dominions_3 is the quantity of the game content and 10,000 items, monsters, maps, npcs, quests is greater than 200 of the same.