Originally Posted by
ixi
Well, probably it was really design choice since there is even fortune cookie message about darkness and companions. And there is quite good explanation provided in this thread (and the only one possible and justified IMHO): PC is afraid to move without a weapon or a fist in front of him into / inside such a scary environment?
Ixi, you started this topic, you had the great idea to do this to begin with. What happened? It sounds like you are now changing your mind. You were right.
Look, the point is not that you can't do what this RFE proposes, you already can. The whole point is that there is already a workaround. You can already equip two shields and that 'design choice' is negated (I think maybe you actually already said all this). And that workaround is just silly.
This situation isn't even limited to the dark, what about the animated forest? Is the pc afraid to walk into it without a weapon drawn?
What if some sort of really simple action was only possible through a convoluted workaround? An action like trying to switch places with villagers and dwarves, where every time you attempted to you got a prompt asking if you wanted to attack them?
Oh, yeah, that already happened, and it was fixed. You have the same situation in this case: The player knows exactly what they want to do, and the game obstinately makes this trivially simple situation a real headache.
Originally Posted by
ixi
If PC is brave enough and feels strong enough he should be able possibly at will enter darkness in place where he feels safe enough. Otherwise he shouldn't be allowed to enter there with the message like this "You're too afraid to enter darkness without holding a weapon or a fist ready." This should apply not only to peaceful mode but to "two shields" ugly workaround as well. Don't think it should do anything with usual walking (so you won't hurt invisible creature if you really don't want to) and I don't think this should touch blind PCs as well.
I'd propose the following equation:
If 5 x danger level + 25 < 1 x Courage + 1 x Willpower + 1 x Level PC should be allowed to enter darkness without any worries and without a weapon or at peace of course.
So we have a complicated equation to decide if the pc is scared of the dark. My dark elf is scared of the dark. My *dark* elf is scared of the dark now. Ixi, come on, this is just too much of a hassle to be worth it. And you already solved this problem yourself. We should do what you said to begin with. You were right.
ADOM is about giving players choices. This is the opposite of that.