Optimization model

[b100d_arrowz]

My last few characters have been concept optimizers. I have had a sorcerer/stormcaster who wanted to be able to cast electricity better then anyone ever, a radiant servant of Pelor (enough said on that), an exalted Druid/Shifter who wanted to become an angel, so she did everything possible to get to that point, and I was going to build a LA Fighter based off Diablo 2, but that campaign went up in flames when the DM got angry at me and another player for not following his NPC blindy  My current character (soon to be) is a TW ranger who is geared towards being the best sunderer.


Most of the people I play with are relatively new to DnD (first year of experience for most of them) and many are stuck in traditional hack and slash RPG logic. I try to show them some of the obscure (and blindingly obvious with the RSoP) ways that you can be awesome without trying to max your strenght and power attack for over 9000

[Kajhera]

Curiously, in Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft I'm more a perfectionist than anything. I discard entire worlds and possibly hours of work because I Did Something Wrong. You may be wondering how it's possible to do something particularly Wrong in Minecraft. Making my house asymmetrical is apparently one example. Making a non-ideal mineshaft is another. Deciding lava towers are tacky may be another, I haven't decided.

[b100d_arrowz]

Curiously, in Dwarf Fortress and Minecraft I'm more a perfectionist than anything. I discard entire worlds and possibly hours of work because I Did Something Wrong. You may be wondering how it's possible to do something particularly Wrong in Minecraft. Making my house asymmetrical is apparently one example. Making a non-ideal mineshaft is another. Deciding lava towers are tacky may be another, I haven't decided.

I personally don't play minecraft, but my current roommate is exactly the same way. His current project (I believe) is to build a cathedral based off the youtube videos, and he has scrapped at least a dozen variations of it.

I'm a perfectionist in many RTS's, especially the mechcommander series. I have played maps dozens of times to get one mech to be salvaged, many a times it ends up being something I only use once but its the principle of the matter

[Whisper]

But this does not excuse the designers. It's not the players' job to fix the design.

Gonna say this nice and loud:

THE DEVELOPERS HAVE NO IDEA HOW THIS SYSTEM WORKS, AND CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO REPAIR IT.

Yep, they're incompetent. I completely agree. In fact, from their website:

Roleplaying Games (RPGs) and Miniatures
For RPG Design, Development, and Editing positions, the qualifications we look for include:

    * College degree, preferably in English, Journalism, or some other related area

Yep, that's right, folks, D&D stuff is developed by... English majors. Those wastes of oxygen who are guaranteed a college degree by virtue of their parents' membership in the middle class, but who cannot find any real or useful field of study that they are capable of mastering.

They are absolutely incapable of fixing their own mess, and if they weren't, they probably wouldn't have made it in the first place (although they did inherent at least some of the mess from that other pack of incompetent clowns, TSR).

But:

I do not think that your description of them as incompetent excuses them of what I have charged them with... to wit, incompetence.

If I were to crash into a busload of schoolchildren in the Porsche I mentioned earlier (assuming I got one with wheels), killing twelve, I could not then excuse myself by saying "It's not my fault, I don't know how to drive".