Bar Tec said:
By the word "environment" I meany something more than physical layout of the game area - NPCs, critters and their AI also fall under this category.
Ok, but how does any of that affect this situation?
You originally said:
Problem lies somewhere else - in the environment - whether a melee fighter is forced to attack archer in open area, or there is a way out etc.
I don't see how that depends on NPCs, critters and their AI, or anything else really - apart from physical layout of the game area.
Presuming that enemies with ranged weapons are not rare, and the player can always have a ranged weapon, the largest factor will be physical layout. (or rather, that will often be the only fixed factor, so will need to work for any combination of combatants possible for that area)
[Actually, I'm assuming a degree of randomness (or at least variation) to NPC position / equipment etc., which might not be present. Presumably there are randomly generated (or randomly equipped) NPCs / critters in some areas, but perhaps not?? If the same NPCs are usually in the same areas, with the same equipment, then there is much more scope to tailor things specifically.]
So long as using a bad physical layout can screw things up, ever area needs to be designed taking that into account - then tested. That's going to be annoying. Also, the fact that the combat system relies on the physical environment in order to work well is probably going to become apparent to the player. If there is always cover for pure melee characters, and always some way to move away for archers, it might seem contrived.
If you go the route of allowing some combats to be unwinnable for pure archers / pure melee characters, you might end up closing off main quest options. Perhaps that's ok if it happens rarely, but not if it happens often. In particular, a heavy melee fighter probably ought not to be railroaded down a path involving not-killing-XYZ, simply because he can't without skill with a bow.
Perhaps this wouldn't be an issue though - if there are many ways to solve quests, most characters should be capable of two or three for any given quest. Presumably any impossible combat would only stop one option (usually).
