DoD Mechanics I like

To take a break from the incessant poking, prodding, and generally negative (but loving!) threads about game mechanics, I thought I'd make a list of the game mechanics in DoD that I adore.

1 - Streamlined Character Creation.

The skill system is just fantastic - but especially because it lets me create a character from scratch in seconds, give her a name, and start. The barrier to entry is nearly 0, which is really important in a game which kills you so often. Also, making the name of your character the LAST thing you do is a great touch - because you build up an idea for the character when you pick skills, and it's easy to give her a name once you have that idea in mind. Naming a character before the skills is much less fluid.

2 - Very clear combat sequencing.

When I attack, I clearly see the animation for it. When I cast a spell, I see my character do it. I also hear clear audio to alert me to each event. The "Block" and "Counter" text stays around long enough for me to read it and realize what is happening. Even if the precise mechanics of block are a bit obtuse, or the armor interaction with damage types is unclear, I had a great idea of what was happening from the first moments of the game. That sort of clarity really draws me in, and lets me dig down to find out the details later.

3 - Crazy labyrinthine dungeons.

The procedural dungeons are just awesome. They are dense, complex, and unpredictable. The "rooms" system is very nicely implemented - because it gives me a sense of the familiar, without actually giving me any clues about where I am. The dungeon layout really draws from the same emotional pillar as the game - it's an exploration, and something amazing might be around any corner.

4 - The humor.

I don't know if the humor in DoD is the best I've ever seen in a video game, or if it just happens to be exactly the right in-jokes to appeal to me specifically. I won't complain either way. For the rare joke I don't get, I don't feel like I'm missing anything critical - so it doesn't get in the way at all.

5 - Community.

The forums here are great fun - and I know that's largely the result of good work from the developers. Kudos.

 

I would second everything on that list, and add to it that I really appreciate the skills that work on two different levels. I'm talking about ones where the flavor-theme and the mechancial-theme are not straight-forward the same thing, and have subtleties you might miss at first glance.

Specifically, I love Golemancy and Necronomiconomics. They are my favorite skills. Not as in "I think they're potent and I use them all the time". Honestly, I tend more towards rogue-y and warrior builds, and don't do wizard as often as I probably should. But those two skills really hit the ball out of the park in terms of a rich depth of experience.

If Necro had just been Combat Necromancy, it would have been something a million other games had done just as well and would absolutely fail to capture the imagination. Instead, it's got this fun tax-and-accounting flavor theme melded onto the lovecraft references. Yeah, that's right, I just referred to tax paperwork as fun. I don't think it is at all in the real world, but somehow DoD manages to make it hilarious.
But where Necro really shines is that it's totally a "noob gate". Your first impression of it is that it sucks. Then, later, if you really look at the numbers or survive long enough to level up, you realize it's super-potent but only if you build for it.
Plus, it totally works best on a build that's not quite what you'd expect... you slap it on top of viking wizardry and astrology and you've got an amazing melee caster that is so much more than the sum of it's parts. I'm a cthulhu-worshiping viking accountant, whose hobbies include horoscopes and beating people up all close and personal. Awesome.

Golemancy isn't quite as humorous nor as clever at first glance, but I really love that the flavor is separate from but complimentary to the mechanical function. Some of the spells are boggling at first... if I'm a golemancer, why am laying traps, making walls, summoning bees and digging tunnels? If this were Diablo, I'd just be summoning progressively larger golems. Once you get past that initial confusion, you find there's a terrain-denial and crowd-control skill there just masquerading as being about golems. The day I figured that out it blew my mind. Golemancy ceased being a random collection of stuff I couldn't quite wrap my head around, and was transformed before my eyes into a really focused tool that does just one thing (control how the monsters move) and does it well.

I understand that not every skill could (or should) be this subtle, as it would make the game's power curve really hard to master and scare off a lot of the potential player base, but I love the handful of skills that work on these multiple levels. Bravo!

 

Pull lever, traps activate, suddenly... Gargoyle heads. Everywhere.

Re: Mr. Strange

Right on. Definitely some of the game's strong(est) points. I'd like to add...

6 - Losing is fun! And it really is. When you take the ease (and diversity) of character creation and the randomized everything, there's tons and tons of incentive to pick yourself up and dust yourself off whenever you die horribly. Props to the game itself for stating up-front that you're going to die... a lot... and that's okay because half the fun is trying new builds out. From little things like the "Last Choice" icon you see when picking skills, to the tombstone with lots of space on it for epitaphs when you first die, there's tons of clues that dying is no big deal and is, in fact, a way to change the way you experience the dungeon. You can take about 30 seconds and BAM - you're back in a new Dungeon with new Skills, or an old build with some new tricks. Most importantly, you retain some knowledge of things that lead to your last downfall, so you can (hopefully) avoid them this time. Because this will be the outing that nets you a Dredmor kill - right?

 

My personal favorite 'pet' mechanic is the stat system. It's so simple, but it's so rich. You don't fully appreciate it until you start looking carefully at the wiki and whatnot, but the whole overlapping-stats thing between the three archetypes is beautiful -- and the fact that the stats are entirely color-coded based on their archetype's primary colors (pun intended) and the substats are color-coded based on what stats they're derived from (look, Armor Absorb is white!) is one of those things that makes you say "Damn, it's complicated and intuitive at the same time! How the hell did they do that?!?"

At least, I did.