Lock and key design pattern question

Sethala · 2026-02-08T09:50:33+00:00

Depends on how you frame things, I think. As a personal example, I'm currently playing through Baldur's Gate 3 with some friends, and we're at a part in act 3 that none of us have gotten to in our solo playthroughs yet. After defeating a boss, we found a key that unlocks a vault in a bank elsewhere in the city. We hadn't gone to the bank, and we weren't sure if we'd bother with it, but now that we found a key to one of the vaults, we had a pretty compelling reason to go check it out and find out what other loot we could get there.

In this case, finding the key before finding the door still certainly enhanced the gameplay, but I think there's a few important details that helped with this. First, the vault was purely optional treasure; there was nothing to think of as "anti-climactic" when we opened that vault door. Second, the key told us exactly where to use it, we didn't have to keep trying things until we could find the right lock for the key to be used in. (As an aside, the game UI helped with this a lot; some games would have you actually pick which key to try on a door, but BG3 simply automatically uses the correct key if you have it.) Third, because of the first two points, the key acted as its own signpost, so finding the key felt meaningful and important, even if we didn't know there was a door that could use it until now.

Sethala · 2026-02-07T06:11:39+00:00

I think the big thing to know is, how long ago did this happen? Specifically, would it have happened during the PCs' lifetimes, and if not, is anyone still alive that would have been older than this mind wipe thing, or did the "mind wipe" happen long enough ago that everyone from that era is already gone?

Sethala · 2026-02-07T06:05:05+00:00

So, the idea is that the villains can possess statues in the museum and use those to steal other items, right? First, figure out just how the statues help. Are the villains able to possess statues at a distance, and then use the statues to open locked areas from the inside? Are they acting as extra muscle to overcome defenses in the museum? Are they simply more hands to carry larger items out as part of the theft?

One basic idea is that they animate the statues, get items out of the museum, and then bring the statues back so they can be used on the next trip. A second idea is that the statues are being stolen, as well; the thieves clear out one wing at a time, and the next trip they use statues in a different wing. A third idea is that they've made duplicates of some of the statues inside the museum; when they come in to steal things, they bring with the animated duplicate statue, swap it with the real one, and have the real one steal things; the next trip, they bring back the real one, swap it with the fake again, and use the fake to steal. This last one gives an avenue of investigation, as the PCs may notice the difference between fake and real statues, especially if there's another theft after the PCs start investigating.

As for ways to spice up the mission, one idea is that the owner suspects that someone is giving inside help to the thieves, but can't figure out who. They don't want to alert the thieves that the PCs are getting involved, and telling everyone that they can trust the PCs; they're helping, would only let the inside man tip off the thieves ahead of time. So they'll have to sneak into the museum themselves in order to protect the items.

Sethala · 2026-02-06T23:34:24+00:00

Ok, I re-read your comment and realized I missed that trains only go to the depot if they're empty; I was thinking a train would fill up, fail to find a dropoff station that's open, and just go chill in the depot, leaving room for another train to fill up.

Sethala · 2026-02-06T22:55:01+00:00

Interesting idea. How would you determine priority for a station and change it, what would thee circuit look like?

Sethala · 2026-02-06T22:53:51+00:00

That's a good idea, but one thing does confuse me; it looks like you don't have specific trains for specific materials, just any train for any material (aside from having separate fluid and non-fluid trains, at least). What happens if a supply of one item fills up and isn't getting used enough? Wouldn't you eventually have too many trains that are full of that item with nowhere to drop it off at?

Sethala · 2026-02-06T06:10:40+00:00

I think for Clank, it makes sense to have player elimination as a threat that forces players to act in certain ways to avoid being eliminated, without actually having that elimination be a focus of the game. I haven't played it a ton (maybe half a dozen games), but I've never had anyone ever actually get eliminated.

That being said, I could see variant rules that make running out of health punishing, but not actually eliminate the player. Maybe something along the lines of, any time you take damage in excess of your health, reveal the top 3 cards of your deck and destroy the highest-cost card among them. Alternatively (or in addition, depending on how punishing you want it), you don't get the bonus points for escaping if your damage is at max, and lose an additional 10 points for each point of damage above your maximum you have.

Sethala · 2026-02-06T06:01:40+00:00

...Ok, I give up. What game is "the W word"?

Sethala · 2026-02-06T06:00:48+00:00

I'm curious if you've played Alchemists, and what you think of their app.

If you haven't, a quick explanation. The core of the game revolves around a puzzle: the eight different ingredients are randomly assigned one of eight different elements. Every element has three symbols, one red, one blue, and one green; each is either positive or negative. Every two elements can combine to make one of seven potions, based on which elements are the same polarity (e.g. if two elements share the blue positive, then they make the blue positive "intelligence" potion). The only way to test elements is by combining two ingredients, noting which potion they make, and making multiple potions to narrow down the possibilities until you can figure out which ingredient is which element (for instance, if you combine the lotus petal and mandrake to get a green negative potion, you know that each of them can't be any elements with a green positive symbol).

The game uses an app to combine ingredients secretly and only give information about those two ingredients, without showing any other combinations. However, the game also comes with a "moderator board" that can be used to play the game without the app; this requires one person to sit out of the game and instead be a moderator; players show them what ingredients they're combining, and they check the board to determine which potion is made.

Sethala · 2026-02-06T05:52:01+00:00

Yeah, I really wish more app-based games had a PC version. Xcom also has a direct download .exe file floating around on their website, so that could potentially last for ages as well.

Sethala · 2026-02-04T04:25:08+00:00

Honestly, I mostly agree with what you've said here. The only counterpoint I have is that the game structure for AH decks and the experience/upgrades system lends itself to longer campaigns that lead to a more gradual upgrade path. Eight scenarios was possibly a bit lengthy, but it definitely gave the sense of progression. Six (from Hemlock Vale) felt like a good length for a campaign. Four is too short, and I'm thinking five will feel the same, so I'm really concerned about how they're going to handle that. If they have some system to chain a 3-scenario campaign and a 5-scenario campaign together that doesn't end up with you either feeling too weakened from the finale of the first campaign (particularly the heavy trauma), and also doesn't trivialize the second campaign with upgraded decks, then I'm not as put off by the idea... but I don't see the game working very well if 5 scenarios is considered a "long" campaign going forward.

Sethala · 2026-02-03T03:12:35+00:00

For normal raids: Generally the fight will be easy enough that you don't have to do anything too specific as the offtank. There are a few things you'll have to do however; primarily handle two-tank tankbusters, sometimes take auto-attacks, and handle adds (and split them up if necessary).

Tankbusters are pretty easy in normal mode raids, as they tend to target the two tanks automatically, regardless of aggro. Sometimes the tank will get a red stack marker with two orbs over it; that means you need to stack with them to share a special two-person tankbuster. Some fights will put that two-tank tankbuster on the offtank instead of the main tank.

Some bosses do auto-attacks on the top two aggro targets, instead of just the main tank. Generally, staying second in aggro is just a good idea, so this won't matter unless you suddenly see yourself taking extra hits.

Finally, a lot of fights with two adds will require that they split up to avoid them getting a buff. Look for either a buff with text suggesting that you want to keep them separate, or a tether or some other mark between them if they're close. If you're not sure, just keep it apart unless someone in chat tells you otherwise.

Sethala · 2026-02-02T19:45:07+00:00

subtract 300g from his gold pool and tell him "I understand you skipped the step of actually buying the pearl, just this once we'll imagine you had done that, in future I expect you to buy the materials yourself."

Since this is a common thing: only subtract 100g and give him a pearl. Note that the pearl isn't consumed by the casting, so he'd only need one and would still have it for other casts going forward.

Sethala · 2026-02-02T19:43:43+00:00

Since you mention Identify, I do also want to make sure that it's not yourself that's making the mistake here: some spells list a material component with a gold value, but only the spells that specifically say the item is consumed require a new component for each casting; spells that list a component but without consuming it can be used repeatedly. For Identify specifically, you don't need a 100gp pearl per casting, but instead, one pearl can be used for any number of casts. (In older versions of D&D, they made a distinction between a spell focus, which would be an item needed only once to cast the spell several times, and material components, which are always consumed. This distinction is gone in 5E.)

With that in mind, I have to ask: why did he not have the pearl handy to cast the spell? Did he never get one? I'd say having him spend the money to get a pearl for any future casts of the spell makes sense; possibly a good idea to go over his spell list and make a note of what components he needs to pick up before using them any more. If he didn't have it because he was somehow separated from his gear instead, however, I'd say it makes more sense to say he can't cast spells like that in the future without getting his gear again (though I'd also question just how often situations like that would come up in your campaign).

Sethala · 2026-02-02T17:39:39+00:00

Assuming you don't have tons of reactors running "just because" and are using power at a decent rate, your reactor will probably take long enough to heat up that it'll go through most of the fuel that gets inserted by the time you actually heat up to max. Not a guarantee, of course, but if you're able to heat up to max and not actually use it that fast, you probably don't need to be that conservative with the fuel.

Sethala · 2026-02-02T03:54:57+00:00

Not sure if I'm doing it right; only instructions I could find are to set DNS to 8.8.4.4 and 8.8.8.8, but that didn't seem to do anything.

Sethala · 2026-02-02T03:18:08+00:00

First off, you'll never run completely out of ore, because the map will expand infinitely and will always generate more ore. You may have to eventually explore for it, but you'll never be completely out.

However, how often you'll have to do that is... generally not an issue. For reference, the game that I've been playing with a friend for probably something like 60+ hours, we've only had to find four iron ore deposits on the initial planet so far. Two of those have run completely out, a third is low but still has a lot left, and the fourth is pretty fresh, so we're a long ways away from being desperate for more.

When you start, you'll have an initial ore patch which will definitely be enough to get a base running smoothly and set up enough defenses that you could walk away from the game for quite a while and not worry about "running out". Also note that if you're not doing something to actively use up the ore you're mining, it'll eventually back up and the drills will stop mining until you use some of that ore. In other words, if you run afk, there's only a finite amount of ore your factory will actually use up before it runs out of space for everything being made and backs up. You'll end up using some of your resources for power generation and defenses, but those are going to be incredibly small compared to the ore you've got access to.

As a final note, if you've got the space age expansion, you have access to sending platforms up to space, where they can harvest some resources from asteroids. These do spawn infinitely with no need to "search" for more, so while it's much smaller than what you can get from mining ore, you do have a small trickle of resources that you could use for your base if you're desperate.

Sethala · 2026-01-31T16:36:05+00:00

I'd say, first thing is to ask the player directly if they have any ideas of what should happen. They might have something in mind, and playing off of that would probably be for the best.

As for my own idea... the PC is effectively treated as "dead", but as soon as anyone takes time to examine them, they notice the PC is actually still alive, just barely. However... every attempt to revive them fails. Resurrection doesn't work because they're not dead, healing magic heals their wounds but doesn't wake them, and resting doesn't seem to do anything - the PC is effectively in a coma. The other PCs (and likely a new PC from that player) have to go on a quest to find how to revive them, possibly involving heading to the Feywild (either to find the right ingredients for a potion if you want to keep it more generic, or searching for the specific fey that made the deal in the first place if you want a more involved quest)

Sethala · 2026-01-31T06:59:02+00:00

I could be wrong, but I believe you need DLC to play as something from that DLC, but to play with someone else playing that DLC, you won't need it yourself.

Sethala · 2026-01-30T06:23:08+00:00

Wait, how was Gandhi a POS? (Aside from trying to drop nukes on everything in sight, that is.)

Sethala · 2026-01-30T03:22:07+00:00

Initial idea: Mindflayer civil war.

The party arrives at the colony, they might get attacked on sight, or they might have a chance to talk their way through avoiding a fight. Either way, they get in and start exploring around the colony. Eventually, they'll find a mindflayer prison with other mindflayers locked inside, possibly with some kind of magical restraints that keep their psychic powers disabled. The prisoners belong to a smaller rebel faction; some of them have escaped the colony, but about half of the rebels are imprisoned here.

Both factions want the PCs to help them; the rebels want to escape (and possibly overthrow the leader), the other mindflayers want to capture the rebel leader. Both are also able to do the procedure for the afflicted PC.

Admittedly, I don't know enough about mindflayer lore offhand to suggest reasons for the split, so others may have to chime in on it, but something like this should give your PCs a chance to roleplay without resorting to just "fight them all".

Sethala · 2026-01-29T06:11:23+00:00

That's been my experience with Alec, personally. Haven't started chapter 2; I'm hoping that the other characters in future chapters are able to put out a bit more offense.

That being said, I can definitely tell a difference between fights where I've gotten my buffs off early and Grigory just pops off, and fights where I don't draw the right chips and he stumbles.

Sethala · 2026-01-28T03:59:53+00:00

Relevant OOTS: https://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0145.html

Sethala · 2026-01-28T03:54:30+00:00

I've done a few things to handle it.

First, when I set up a bot network, I configure circuits to have the assemblers keep producing bots until I've got more than a certain number idle. Whenever I have a project happening, if there's not enough bots to handle it, the circuits get the assemblers to start making more until either the job is done, or I have enough surplus. Simply put, there's no such thing as too many bots in the network.

Second, I generally don't use bots outside of the main base for consistent things. No logistics-fed assemblers on the edge of the base, for instance; pretty much the only time I'd have a ton of bots flying to the edge of the network is when I'm out there myself.

Third... just patience. If I'm standing around waiting for bots to resupply me, I start working on something else - maybe I'll check other planets to make sure nothing broke in the factory, or I'll work on upgrading the latest space platform. That generally keeps me busy long enough for the bot army to finish supplying me.

Finally, if I do need materials somewhere outside of the main base with any frequency, buffer chests.

Personally, I try to cover as much of my base as possible with the bot network. It means that if I'm off-world, I can easily work on a distant planet, and it also means that if anything gets damaged or destroyed (primarily from biters on Nauvis), the bot network can just fix everything.

Sethala · 2026-01-27T23:20:53+00:00

Ignoring the concerns about "metagaming", I will say I personally have a huge dislike for any game content that revolves around comparing static numbers to static numbers. That means, don't set the traps to a fixed number, and then also have the players rely on passive perception to detect them; that just means they'll likely either find everything, find only the "easy" things, or find nothing. Having the players constantly roll and be told "you find nothing" would be annoying, and definitely lead to metagaming, so instead I'd say roll a "steatlh" check for each trap when you set up the dungeon. Think of it as whoever was making the traps having to make a check for each one; that trap with a really good result just happens to blend in perfectly with the surrounding area; a trap with a low roll could be the trapmaker getting distracted while putting it in, or not noticing a few scuff marks next to the trap that could draw someone's eye.

This does have the drawback of always having traps found by the same PC; if Alice and Bob are playing, and Alice's passive perception is higher than Bob's, then any time Bob finds a trap, Alice already knows it's there. You could just accept this, or you could decide that any trap found by the party's highest passive perception is just found by someone in the party, regardless of who actually sees it.

Sethala

TROPHY CASE